“And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:10, ESV)

Now, there’s a model worthy of being made into a maxim: “Paul saw - we sought…”

From he-to-we without even blinking. The problem of sending was resolved before it was even a problem. How? A familial, enlightened excitement about the power of the Gospel and the prospect of preaching it in a new place… Seamlessly, cooperatively, passionately, joyfully—and again—immediately.

That’s not quite how it’s done today. We have allowed tradition and stagnation to be viewed as spiritual strengths… standing so firmly on the truths we embrace that we stand still. Prospective kingdom workers are forced to thread through a maze of inconsistent, idiosyncratic visions of kingdom work. The way things are now, they might raise support in a few years… having spent time, health, and lots of money to raise money to go somewhere—anywhere—besides in circles.

Stripping away all the tradition baked onto precedent, which was also based on tradition: What’s so hard to understand about going and sending?

In 1990, I wrote an article called “Deputation/Furlough: An Indictment.” It opened this way:

Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary:
Deputation: 1. a deputing or being deputed.
Furlough: a leave of absence

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible:
Deputation: no reference
Furlough: no reference

I ended with: “May we confront the work of missions with an ever-increasing spirit of collaboration in the ministry of reconciliation that has been committed to our mutual trust.”

If we loosened our ties and got over ourselves for a bit, I think we could devise some less tedious, more efficient, and blessed ways to get our Pauls to their Macedonias.

Again, the urgency to expand on the concept of a deeper, symbiotic relationship among all parties involved is undeniable. It starts at the foot of the cross and reaches into the hopelessness and suffering in every soul without Christ. What are we not prepared to do to get there and stay there… to facilitate and finance the endeavor… to stay the course alongside our boots-on-the-ground pioneers? Who knows, we may even have to learn to play better with others for the sake of the greater good.

In the opening chapters of The Contemplative Pastor, the author highlights a few characteristics that he deems essential for a shepherd. He calls one of them “subversive.” No, we don’t sneak around and undermine things. But we do embrace an underlying design for where we want people to be, whether it takes a year or a lifetime to see them get there. We lift up the Savior in word and deed. We work at friendship and physical presence in their trials and tragedies. We strive not to lose sight of the big picture in the detritus of our daily walk.

Since we’ve not been granted discretionary powers1 to make things happen when we don’t see the Spirit working our way or according to our timetable, we submit to the limitations we’ve been given. We’re “there.” We can’t create spiritually defining moments for others… but we can be there when those defining moments roll over them. These are the moments when we fulfill our role as mentors. And even that word might be too strong. Maybe we’re just nudgers… I started to say pushers, but that reminds me of something else. Appropriate nudges in timely moments… maybe over a long period of time. The goal never changes. We want to see everyone come to maturity in Christ.

“For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:29, ESV)

But that bleeds into the next post: “Being There.”

Over the years, I’ve called myself a church planter. A better descriptive title might have been “Gospel Planter.” Church planters tend to plant church services and a place to conduct them with all the required paraphernalia and protocols. Signs with adjectives are created to try to get people to come. I guess the adjectives are designed to let people know where we stand. It would be great if our purpose were to attract people who already understand what our adjectives mean and agree with them. For someone like me, before I came to Christ, those signs with adjectives might as well have been written in Sanskrit.

A Gospel planter is someone who thinks the best way to plant the seed of the Gospel is to share it personally with actual people we meet and talk with… get acquainted with… and maybe someday actually become intimate friends with. It can take a long time, so we must be there a long time. Eventually, birds of a feather flock together… as will the sheep of Jesus’ fold. Starting with a person beats starting with a building.

My point: Thinking through what we really want to accomplish by “being there” might free us to consider more straightforward, innovative ways of “getting there.”

It could be as simple as moving into a different neighborhood… something scary like moving into a ghetto… something intimidating like a neighborhood where little English is spoken. Yes, learning a language is a daunting task. But let me tell you how satisfying it is to be involved with people in their native tongue… and how awesome it is to watch the lights come on as the Gospel in their language reaches their heart.

And maybe—just maybe—pioneering with the Gospel will take you to places you haven’t even dreamt of yet. Many people have found novel ways to get into other countries, like finding a job teaching English.

We know a young woman in Mexico. She’s a dedicated believer with a heart for people in the Muslim world. She’s already been to the backside of the desert. She and her team are days away from departing their homeland, heading halfway around the world. They’re going to a place where it wouldn’t be helpful to share specifics here. They’ve devised a project to set up a business focused on women. It’s designed to do what I’m writing about—going somewhere to be there and pray for opportunities to befriend and share the Gospel. We support her and her team’s project. We are so proud and excited!

Where’s “there” for you? Where could you go to meet new people, make friends, and live a Jesus-kind life among them? Being there means your light’s shining there. How far are you willing to go?

Now, back to the symbiotic part: Have you ever heard “You’re either a missionary or a mission field”? The corollary is “You’re either a goer or a sender.”

Genuine senders share the passion and the risks inherent to Gospel Kingdom enterprises. They will look like Luke and company in Acts 16. When God told Paul to go to Macedonia, they immediately figured out how to get him there. Today’s senders need to be proactive… creative… and immediately respond to the needs presented.

Too often, we react to the word “commitment” as if it were a four-letter word. Where the transforming work of the Spirit has been allowed, commitment to Gospel work looks like excitement and adventure.

Ready for the ride?

“My joe’s crossed over.”

In the 1990 movie, The Russia House, when Barley declares his heart for Katya: “You’re my only country now,” his handler is clueless about his deception. He’s about to trade secrets to the other side in order to save Katya and her family. When his handler realizes—too late to repair the damage—what’s really happening, he announces to his team: “My joe’s crossed over.” At the end of the movie, he receives the letter. In it, Barley explains:

It was my first good contract - real people for unreal arguments. I got everything I wanted.

I remember when I crossed over. The mental gymnastics required to get “there” are behind me now. Committing to Gospel kingdom work was not an arbitrary decision… as in “everybody needs to commit to something.” I felt the empty space that’s in every human heart… I became convinced there was only one way to fill it.

“For in him [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10, ESV)

Life’s priorities fell into their proper order. Sabre rattling among nations or arguments over differing sociopolitical visions were unworthy of my highest devotion. I understood Jesus’ marching orders. I embraced the only “something” worthy of living and dying for—knowing Jesus and helping others to experience his redeeming love. Like Barley, I can say:

It was my first good contract - real people for unreal arguments. I got everything I wanted.

Crossing over…

It’s something pioneers share in common. They’ve crossed a line. They’re not coming back. It’s something we see in our heroes down through the ages. When I think about key figures influencing my decisions, I remember why I chose the life I did. I reconnect with the all-consuming joy and passion they exuded in carrying out the Lord’s command.

Jesus was unflinching in his determination to follow through with his own crucifixion. “…I have set my face like a flint,…” (Isaiah 50:7, ESV) It was more than commitment and sense of duty. It was the blazing love of the Creator for his creation… an immeasurable passion to redeem a people for himself. He had crossed over long before he actually came to die for us. Following through was a given. Hear his own words as the hour approached:

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39, ESV)

The Apostle Paul exemplified the mettle of a kingdom pioneer. He knew what “going” meant:

“And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Acts 16:10, ESV)

My Réveille series is intended to be a wake up call.

It’s a plea for volunteers—particularly pioneers with a passion for real life. We’ll be in good company, but it won’t be a center-stage, Superbowl-halftime  experience… more like a back room, behind-the-scenes kind of experience.

God seeks people who won’t settle for cheap substitutes. Only life lived with eternal consequences at stake will do. Anything less dies with us and condemns us to a life of meaningless nothingness.

Much of what we do is in the interest of securing stability, peace and comfort for ourselves and our families. Taming our outsides—even if possible—would not tame our insides. At best, it’s a temporal peace, both fleeting and hollow.  So what will we seek: Peace with ourselves or peace with God… Peace on earth or peace in eternity? Risking our lives and lifestyles for the Gospel may look like the harder road. But, living for self and avoiding God will be harder now and risks missing out on the forever peace he came to provide.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” (John 16:33, ESV)

As I slowly progress through the development of these themes, I grow increasingly aware of no final answers… no new and improved strategies… no miraculous ways to ameliorate attrition rates, derailments, unpreparedness, or damage done to the locals by people who claimed to be sent by God.

I offer a few observations in the spirit of broadening our horizons and embracing our part in the “Great Commission” with renewed passion and forward thinking. These are the thoughts of one person who lived more than four decades in one particular area of the world outside of his country of origin.

Symbiosis - “a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.”

Symbiosis is a good word for what I want to bring to the fore in the next few posts. Being “there” ought to be a settled decision—a commitment set in concrete—apportioned equally among “goers” and “senders.” It should translate into a radical awakening—a breaking free from the sleepy drudgery of life in search of creature comforts and a delusional sense of security.

It’s time to rectify the perennial dilemma of supply and demand. It’s time for everyone to own the Great Commission. We’re praying for people to go. We want to see boots on the ground in new places as quickly and seamlessly as possible. We also pray for people who will be as committed to the “goers” as if they were going themselves… people who will do everything possible to back them and enable them to stay… never letting go nor ceasing to intercede in prayer for them.

One of the first foreign missionaries to set sail from American shores sent a plea back from Burma to his homeland. It was a warning and an urging equally fitting for all of us today. Can you hear the challenge?

Let me beg you, not to rest contented with the commonplace religion that is now so prevalent. —Adoniram Judson 1788–1850

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Recently…my thoughts returned to my sophomore year at Dartmouth, when I went back to my childhood dentist during a school break.

In the chit-chat of the checkup, as I lay back in the chair with the suction tube in my mouth, he asked: “What are you majoring in at college?” When I replied that I was majoring in philosophy, he said: “What are you going to do with that?”

“Think,” I replied.  Dr. David Silbersweig   

Thinking is allowed…

GOD - crystal clear, glorious, attractive, compelling, unfathomable, holy, perfect, loving, accessible,… sovereign, immutable, intransigent. He designed us to think. We should give ourselves permission to think.

“How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!” (Psalms 92:5, ESV)

“Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.” (Psalms 111:2, ESV)

As for the Apostle Paul, converting to Christ means having the scales fall from our eyes. Is that an oppressing experience or a liberating one? Would we intimidate God by questioning and thinking hard?

Some of us may fear thinking for ourselves. We come from a background where we were told what to think… to not question the authority of those telling us what to think: To doubt is to sin, they said. Too many seem fenced in by artificial hierarchies devoid of Biblical precedent for their existence. We have ceded authority over our lives and church families to groups of somebodies other than God and ourselves. What happened to the “priesthood of believers”?

We will be called to give account of ourselves when we die. We can’t afford to swallow what other people tell us. No one else gets to do our thinking and deciding for us. God even warns us about people who will try to manipulate our thinking. Peer pressure must take a back seat to Biblical truth. Self-reinforcing cronyism is a shallow, lazy substitute.

It’s incumbent on us to think… to stretch our minds. Maybe it’s time to read a book above our pay grade… learn a language… practice quietness and reflection.

Forward thinking is required…

As we age, it’s natural to feel like life passes us by and leaves us eating its dust. Just about the time I got a handle on Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS (released 1989 on 5.25” floppy disks), the rest of the world blew by me. I’m further behind now than I was then. But what if I had doubled down on sticking with what I knew? DOS commands and floppy disks don’t sound all that much fun to me anymore. I sort of like my MacBook Air now.

Being a passive timeserver might appear to be the easiest way to live. We could choose to double down on what we think we know and pray for a return to the good old days. However, if we are just marking time and not thinking ahead—dreaming and “what-if-ing” about the future—our status quo will quickly look like stagnation. We will fade to be further out of touch with our world.

Nonetheless, forward-thinking is not freelance, arbitrary, or narcissistic. Otherwise, it turns wondering into wandering.

If there is no accommodation [to culture] Christianity is unintelligible and cannot spread; if there is too much accommodation it will spread, but will no longer be Christianity. The way of Orthodoxy is often the way of recovering equilibrium. 

The Reformers and Their Stepchildren by Leonard Verduin, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1964, Postscript, p. 276.

For starters, we have to recognize the dominion of a sovereign God. His design and purposes for the created universe include us, too. We need to discover his parameters for our brief stay on the planet: What is the kingdom of God? Where is our niche in his kingdom?

Forward-thinking will be most profitable if we begin with some serious backward-thinking. We’ll need to look back to the Gospel and Church in New Testament times… before religious traditions and pagan superstitions attached themselves like barnacles to a ship's hull.

Like barnacles, they don’t just slip off and leave us alone. It takes a lot of hard work to scrape them off—especially without doing more damage. Today, it’s hard to find an un-barnacled Christian witness. It’s one more reason to encourage fresh, church-pioneering endeavors continually. It’s the perfect opportunity to see how much church we can do before the barnacles begin to grow!

A proper view of “kingdom” unleashes us from false, enslaving paradigms about what we should do… and how we should do it. Regarding Gospel activity, the difference between what we think is best and what God thinks is best is more than a minor rift… it’s a yawning chasm. For starters:

Ministry or mayhem…?

Some choose mayhem.

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” (Psalms 2:1, ESV)

I get why the nations rage. Not knowing God, seeking justice from unjust leaders, watching the rich feed their opulence while children starve, being stuck with extra disadvantages because of the color of their skin or tribal roots, letting our greed be our guiding light… the list grows longer every day.

I get why the nations rage… no clue about the good news of eternal salvation, no real hope—for now, or hereafter… yet incurably religious, with a default mindset of “deserving” better… anger against God because it doesn’t get better, rage against politicians and the delusional “if our people took over, things would be better.”

I don’t get why “Christians?” rage. Placards and protests and pigeonholing and shouting down the other side… when has that ever been a proper Christian response to anything? Whose kingdom do we represent… who has our undivided loyalty?

Rage and polarization vs. our God-ordained ministry of reconciliation: We can’t have both! We’d better make an informed choice about which is more important.

Conviction or coercion…?

Repeating from my book: “There’s no such thing as a Christian nation”—never will be—on this side of the Second Coming of Christ. You don’t Christianize a nation by overrunning a territory, making a declaration, or passing a law.

The people of Christ on this side of the cross, unlike Israel in the Old Testament, are not a geopolitical entity. The church is not a nation-state.

The entire history of Christendom-by-force, from Constantine to the Puritans, was misguided. —John Piper

When considering the nature of God’s kingdom work for today or for generations to come, there are two overriding principles to continually guide our passion - Christ’s preeminence always in all things and his work of reconciling all things to himself. (Colossians 1:18-20, ESV)

Such exciting times we live in! Maybe the return of the Lord is soon. But we can’t know if “soon” means before we die of old age. It’s a safer bet to assume we’ll be here for the long haul… and that these are the days God brought us here for. Today—and every day we live—is our “such a time as this.”

Prayer: Lord, help us build everything on a clear sense of the nature of your kingdom and an undying passion for ushering others into it. Amen.

Next: More forward thinking - from principles to particulars.

It’s time to talk about a crucial element in God’s design for extending his kingdom on earth. It’s time to talk about prayer.

Reading about prayer usually makes me feel guilty and lazy. I know that’s not the intended purpose, but it still happens.

Prayer should inspire something better than feelings of inadequacy. Prayer is a privilege of grace, intimate communion with God, and a discipline with refreshing benefits—like a long run in a cold rain. Endorphins kicking in are a good thing.

I’m convinced the right kind of prayer is both powerful and needed. By the right kind of prayer, I mean focused prayer. When Jesus tells us, for example, to “consider the lilies of the field,” we should do it. It might help to get us quiet for a change. Once we get there, we’ll end up contemplating God himself in what the lily reveals about him… “even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28-29, ESV)

And so it might go if we were more intentional about praying to God through his descriptive titles. It would grow our appreciation of who he is, make us more like him, and reflect his heart in our hearts.

So, what would happen if we prayed earnestly to the Lord of the harvest?

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”” (Matthew 9:36-38, ESV)

Everything starts here. We underestimate its power and importance. If we allow our praying to the Lord of the harvest to work in us, we will reap blessings beyond measure.

Deference

Prayer recognizes the sovereignty of God. We defer to it… we rest in it. One of the many ironies of ministry is that we are called to do what we are incapable of doing. We might help a friend harvest a wheat field, but it’s not our wheat… it’s not our field… we don’t own the farm. Just so, we pray for a harvest that isn’t ours. We don’t own a single acre or share. God is the sole owner. He cares more about yield and quality than we do.

The right kind of prayer will help us identify our place in the big picture and what it isn’t. We’re not the movers and shakers here… the Holy Spirit is. If our frame of mind is “we need to make something happen,” ours will not be a spiritual success story.

Our impetuousness about the what and how of extending God’s kingdom will devolve into one more proof of our compulsion to be religious and bureaucratic. We’ll suck the joy right out of the process before we even begin our walk and witness.

Freedom

We work at nailing down the truth so that by the time we think we get it, we’ve masked its indescribable beauty in a shroud of big words in thick books with no pictures.

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”” (John 8:31-32, ESV)

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38, ESV)

The right kind of prayer does not lead to a damp cell in a dark monastery… it leads out to blue skies and sunshine.

Kingdom pioneers have caught a glimpse… albeit “in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV). It has freed us to “be all we can be” for the pleasure of knowing him. Whatever would hold us back from going wherever he leads dissolves in the brightness of his glory.

Transformation

Prayer transforms the prayer. It puts us in tune with the mind of Christ. He has plans for us but needs us to grow up. He means for us to think like him… feel like him… be like him.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,…” (Romans 8:29, ESV)

His compassion for the multitudes… his sacrifice of himself for them—for us—shatters our small-mindedness. Praying earnestly to the Lord of the harvest is the perfect antidote for our provincialism, tribalism, nationalism,  xenophobia, war-mongering, and racism.

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind…” (Acts 17:26, ESV)

We grow into harmony with the totality of humankind. We’re all related since we all come from the first man - Adam. When one bleeds, we all bleed. When one is mistreated, we all feel shame. The field truly is the world. Our praying expands beyond “I, me, mine.”

Woke

Woke carries a connotation of a shift in perspective — of waking up from a comfortable fantasy about the world and realizing that it isn’t what you thought it was…It reflects what we know, how we think, and how we act on it every day… Woke

It’s a good word: It’s what we’ll be if we do the right kind of praying to the Lord of the harvest. We’ll remember to keep complacency and self-centered living at bay. We’ll remember we’re not here to squeeze everything we can out of life for ourselves.

My life is not the point of my life. —Gary Rowe

It’s God’s kingdom—not ours. We are not Masters of the Universe. God’s role is not simply to come when called and do whatever it takes to keep us happy, healthy, and safe.

If he wants to throw me to the wolves, I might say “I’d rather not”, but… I’m his now. And after all he has done for me, I will stand with arms spread and eyes heavenward in gratitude and praise.

Militancy

Not warfare like with rockets and armies and bloodshed… (the weapons of our warfare are not carnal), But there is a proactive insistence—urgency even—in how we stretch ourselves to reach the unreached. It’s still true that dying without Christ is a fate worse than death. It means eternal damnation. It’s still true that people need to hear… it’s still true that without sending people to proclaim and live the message before the multitudes who still know nothing about Jesus Christ, they will not hear the Good News.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”” (Acts 4:12, ESV)

Prayer mobilizes the pray-er… We’re not tip-toeing through the tulips getting in touch with our inner being when we suddenly find ourselves on the front lines of the spiritual battle. We get there because we said “yes” to the Gospel’s call to “go.” We heard the call because we had been quiet enough to hear it… and willing enough to choose harder over softer because of a growing thankfulness for the love of God expressed to us through Calvary’s cross.

The right kind of prayer will compel us to tour towns and villages with the GOOD NEWS.

Ethics

Hudson Taylor: Amazing who we admire but don’t bother to emulate:

How was China ever to be evangelized but by the Chinese Church? And how were the converts ever to know the joy of unpaid, voluntary service, from love to the Lord Jesus Christ, unless the missionaries could be patient and wait for spiritual developments? Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret

An ethical philosophy of ministry will require maturing, sanctified patience increasingly dependent on the right kind of prayer. Its enabling power will grow and sustain ethical integrity throughout a life given to Gospel kingdom work. We will resist the corporate mindset that trickles down to the kingdom worker like a memo: “It’s time to make something happen.”

Forward Thinking

Prayer to the Lord of the harvest generates forward thinking. What will the next harvest season look like? Who will go? Where will they go? How will we send them?

Kingdom work needs dreamers and pioneers—young adults with a whole life to give to spreading the Gospel. Could a more noble, transcending, and eternally consequential career path exist?

FULL DISCLOSURE - Greg wants your children. Actually, God wants them a whole lot more.

It’s one sure way of dragging a church out of bed and shaking it awake: by praying the Lord gets ahold of our own children and young adults.

It jolts parents and grandparents into being “Woke” senders and prayers! Suddenly, they ask the hard questions: Why is there so little interest in helping my kids get to where God has called them? Why does it take so long and so much traveling to raise support? What are churches thinking? It’s easier to feel the need when our children and grandchildren go to the regions beyond.

We could pre-empt the shock by praying proactively to the Lord of the harvest. Let’s release our children into his hands… wholly and now.

Inspiration

Prayer is contagious. Our praying will inspire others to pray for the extension of God’s kingdom… for souls still unprepared for death and eternity. It will inspire other pray-ers to also think about how their going is going.

Prayer to the Lord of the harvest will engender a kind of spiritual socialism - an equal distribution of the wealth available to all. Passionate praying prompts the building of home-based senders as deeply committed as the frontline goers.

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:14-15, ESV)

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Next: More about forward thinking…

Standin' at the crossroad, baby,…, 
risin' sun goin' down
I believe to my soul, now,
poor Bob is sinkin' down 

Cross Road Blues - Robert Johnson (1936)

We could sing the blues all day about our predicament… so many hopeless tales and tragic final chapters… lives of barred windows and dark basements… shriveling pettiness, slavery to self, and assigning blame.

Looking back, the reason for some of my problems has been relatively apparent…

So maybe that’s why I shouldn’t wait too long before I start listening to God…?

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,” (Hebrews 3:7, ESV)

Seeking God early is better than waiting until later. Later, we might feel like it will be harder to untangle the complications we’ve created for ourselves. Later, we might not see the dream as clearly as we do today.

I’m convinced the dream is there whenever we’re ready to grab hold of it and go with it. But life and ministry experience breeds a warning: Too often, we get stuck at a crossroads or take a wrong turn when we get there.

If we’re not paying attention to God now, time is not on our side. Chronic cynicism does to our soul what cataracts do to our eyes. Life is a continuum of unanticipated circumstances, and 90° turns. Later, we will need to hear God’s voice at least as clearly as we do today. If we let the dream die, hope will die with it. And, there we’ll be: “Standin’ at the crossroad…sinkin’ down.”

Kingdom dreaming…

If we dream about an active role in the kingdom of God, it’s not a whim or a mere natural progression in our thinking… it’s Holy Spirit given. It’s not something we conjure up on our own. In our natural state, we were oblivious to our wretchedness, clueless about our inability to find God or even to know for sure he existed. How could we have seen the plight of others or felt the urgency to show them a road to salvation we hadn’t even found for ourselves?

If the dream is there, it came from God. God is talking to us, and we should probably pay attention.

Now is better than later…

We’re careful to urge people to repent and believe before it’s too late. Lots of people die before they get around to it. Plus, “accepting Christ” is not a consumer-friendly proposition. We can pop around the corner for coffee and a biscotti anytime we want… but we won’t find the Holy Spirit anytime we want; he finds us whenever he wants. And we can’t be saved without him. So it’s better to answer his call when we hear it. No one should risk getting stuck at that crossroads.

It’s also the reason we’re careful about how we treat new arrivals to the kingdom. The first weeks and months are critical for a new believer. Healthy patterns are easier to establish early on. Initial enthusiasm matures into a sustaining alignment with the “living hope” into which we were born. It’s a dynamic, interactive, spirit-nourishing intimacy only experienced where the Spirit of God has made it alive and taken up residence.

Childlikeness restored…

Remember the innocent enthusiasm of childhood? Is there a way to bottle it and save some for later? Is it impossible to recover after life has beaten it out of us?

Jesus had an attitude about it.

Once, he was indignant when the disciples tried to keep kids away from him. He immediately embraced the kids and blessed them. Then he finished with a few choice words for anyone who would cause a child to sin… something about millstones and the bottom of the deep blue sea. (Mark 10:13-16, Matthew 18:1-6)

But he wasn’t just talking about letting children come to him: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3, ESV)

It was a warning, but it’s the corollary that counts: Turn and become like children, and you will enter the kingdom of heaven. Even though we think our childlikeness is dead and buried, he knows it can be resurrected and made useful again.

How did we lose it? Was it a catastrophic event or a gradual grinding down of the spirit? Trauma cripples. An abusive, repressive environment crushes a spirit. Ungodliness is contagious. Cynical suffocates hopeful… and fear strangles an inquisitive, adventurous spirit.

In ministry, it’s a perennial cause of sadness. We can almost mark the date on a calendar when the lights go out… attention is diverted from the glories of kingdom living to the hollow thrills of worldly living. Too many end up singing the Cross Road Blues. “I believe to my soul, now, [I’m] sinkin' down.” We missed our window… something got lost…

I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb

Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

It's gut-wrenchingly sad… because it doesn’t have to end that way. Jesus means to instill hope. Lost innocence can be rediscovered. We can start enjoying life in God’s kingdom even before we die.

Childlikeness is an underlying characteristic of life in the kingdom of God. It includes innocence, trust, wonder, faith, eagerness, excitement, and gaiety.

Entering the kingdom like a child has an abundance of blessed outcomes. We enter it humbled, unaware of what to expect, but we love it. This is God’s new adventure for us. Like children, we automatically know we can trust him with our lives. We know he will never abuse our trust. His glory and our eternal well-being predominate in the eternal unfolding of his design.

Recovering our childlike trust will stand us in good stead at whatever crossroads we come to later… especially if the Lord is preparing us for the Roman coliseum… or for pioneering with the Gospel in a strange, new place. When the Spirit starts dealing with us about our going—whether near or far—our wide-eyed, eager childlikeness will respond in one second flat… Yes. I’ll go…!

Next: How should we then PRAY?

The MOVIE TRAILER opens on a bustling Hollywood avenue with a big, booming voice in the background:

Welcome to Hollywood!! Everybody comes to Hollywood got a dream! What’s your dream?

What if your dream today isn’t the biggest and best dream you could have? What if I could get you to dream for more?

The Hollywood spin is an example of the shortsighted dream we usually start with… the overhyped, self-serving pipe dream—the empty, image-seeking kind that ends in a dumpster in a dark alley.

But we caught the bug, didn’t we? It had us searching in the wrong places for what we thought would crank our truck: comfort, bling, gated communities and white picket fences. Jesus has a warning for people like us:

“Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:20-21, ESV)

My grandfather’s life was part of what nudged me to reach higher. I grew up listening to stories about his “Reo Joe” days and strikes like the Lansing Labor Holiday.

His name was Lester Washburn; Nevah was my grandmother. Their names appear above on this registered historical site in Lansing, MI.

It was a pioneering time. It was a turbulent confluence of ideologies and conflicts of interest. The author of “Reo Joe” describes it well.

Grandpa was less than impressed with the Communist rhetoric. He viewed the Socialists’ agenda as manipulative and unnecessary. Toward the end of his 11 year tenure (1943-54), he tried to pull the charters of a few New York chapters because of their mob connections. His executive board refused to back him.

He was all about fairness for the working man… safe working conditions and decent wages.… even autonomy, I think, for the local unions to negotiate with the companies employing them. He was out there for something bigger than himself. Grandpa—the Reo Joe—was the polar opposite of the many “Safety Joe”s I’ve known.

But I was still sheltered… “Clueless in Wisconsin” became “Naive in Utah”. The rapidly evolving late 60’s California scene was a day’s drive from school. It was the “what-if” season that overran my university studies. When we start questioning, there’s not an easy stopping place. Even so, we should all step back at some point and question who we really are and come up with our own answers.

Back then, we called it a crisis of identity. Few today seem to come to a breaking point in order to seek for themselves. Status quo is the default god: Fear of stepping out into the unknown or fear of breaking with tradition freezes most of us in our tracks.

But what if…?

What if there is no God? What if nothing’s real? What if there is nothing—or something worse than nothing—after death? Is my existence today part of some dark, cosmic joke? Is there anything anywhere worth living for? Unsurprisingly, this led to a state of frustration and despair. It left me drained… empty.

It was ok to question and dream. I was just looking in the wrong direction…  and for the wrong reason. I was looking within myself.

Still, I couldn’t stop thinking that somehow there had to be a point to it all. I love to listen to other people talk about what changed after they came to Christ. In my case, I caught myself saying: “Yes! There is something worth living—and dying—for!”

The dream hadn’t died, but it did end up radically altered. Conversion to Christ changed me. From looking inward, I was drawn…

…to look up. Everything I needed could be found in Jesus Christ.

“…you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

…and to look out. Other people besides me needed him, too.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36, ESV)

Here were the makings of bigger dreams. The Lord and Master of the universe rescues us. Now we get to be a part of his plan to rescue others. I thought every Christian would want to be like the Apostle Paul. He “…was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” (Acts 26:19, ESV)

The dream was bigger, but still blurry. I said “yes” to giving my life for the cause without knowing what it would entail. In previous posts, I’ve tried to fill in some of the blanks between coming to Christ and going to Latin America.

The ultimate dream

Paul’s vision was truly the heavenly vision: Carry the news of the crucified and resurrected Son of God to places where he is not known. Watch people embrace Jesus Christ as their own Lord and Savior. Encourage believers to function together to advance the cause. Zero to autonomous—then repeat.

It’s the ultimate dream because it’s the one that matters for eternity.

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide,…” (John 15:16, ESV)

What does abiding fruit look like?

• A lost sheep rescued.

• A wayward wanderer returned.

• A Jesus follower persevering.

• A pioneer risking and trusting.

Recently, a dear friend shared how years ago the Lord had rearranged his dream. As he mapped out his plans to make money, marry, have children, buy a house and a boat, he got stuck on one question: 100 years from now, what difference will it make? The outcome has been a life as a pioneer missionary and a faithful, loving pastor.

What’s your dream?

What if you gave your heart and soul to the frontline work of God’s kingdom? Where would you end up?

You might end up like me—at least I hope you do…! My life was about pioneering something new in a faraway place… ground zero… starting from scratch. I can’t think of anything more difficult. Neither can I think of anything more rewarding… in this life or the next!

You would definitely end up like the Psalmist: all joy, praise, gratitude, humility… and satisfied… OH, SO SATISFIED!

“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” (Psalms 17:15, ESV)

So…

Welcome to the Kingdom!! Everybody comes to the Kingdom got a dream! What’s your dream?

The prospect of starting a new church is an exciting dream—the chance to bless people in a way that counts for eternity!

It’s an excellent opportunity for forward-thinking. It’s a good time to ask some “what if” questions without being trapped by “this is how it’s always been done.”

I pray that young adults will see the multitudes as Jesus saw them… be moved to compassion as Jesus was… be willing to give as much as he did… and dream about being pioneers in the work of God’s kingdom.

The Missing Tree

In 2005, we moved to a piece of jungle south of town. We were blessed with a variety of trees in our yard: alamos, gum trees, avocado, lemon, orange, palms—including the HUANO used for thatching roofs—bananas, coconuts, guanábana, and more. It was just a smattering of what the surrounding jungle held. We can talk later about tucans and snakes.

Amid this abundance and amenable climate, there was one kind of tree we didn’t have. I have not found one anywhere in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula or anywhere else I’ve been.

There is not a single disciple tree anywhere.

Do you have a disciple tree in your yard? I thought not. I'm not greedy: I would never complain if I had just one ripe disciple a year dropping into my arms.

What’s a disciple?

Maybe an adjustment will be necessary in what we think a true disciple should look like. It’s not a complicated concept:

A disciple follows and goes.

Specifically, a disciple is a person who follows Jesus and goes to people who need his saving grace.

“And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach…” (Mark 3:14, ESV)

Defining a goer does not involve measuring in kilometers or miles. A disciple seeks people for whom Jesus died. Through him, they can be saved unconditionally and eternally. We can find people who need Jesus around the world; we can find them where we live and work. We’re all called to go—some around the world, some across the street.

Many people identify as Jesus’ followers, but not many are goers. It’s certainly not for lack of souls to harvest. Mature followers go. We can’t split the package. Jesus expects us to follow… and he expects us to go.

The Achilles Heel

The strategical vulnerability of house churches will be the perennial lack of proven laborers when needed as groups divide with the intent to start something fresh.

We’re not spreading out because we can’t. Even if we had people excited about pioneering something new, they wouldn’t go far without a shared vision, vibrant discipleship, and, especially, tenderhearted shepherding.

When Jesus saw the multitudes and was moved to compassion, he didn’t seek prayer for a bunch of places where people could find friends and have others to commiserate with. He demanded prayer for more laborers to go harvest lost and wandering multitudes of people… and gather them into his flock.

Once again, we’re back to basics—Discipleship 101. Jesus told his disciples to pray. What should they pray for? Laborers for the harvest.

An Artificial Disparity

We embraced the vision to go to another country, make disciples, and plant churches. I’m so glad we did! But nearly all the folks sending us to perform this complex task had never done it themselves. And surprisingly, they weren’t expected to. They were pastors—not missionaries.

It’s perturbing to see such a marked distinction between the role of pastor and the role of missionary. Our calling is the same. We are one group of people, not two. Lines on a map do not alter our essential calling to evangelize, spread out, and effectively pass the baton to the next generation.

Paul’s charge is a privilege and challenge to be equally shared by all of us.

"and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also." (2 Tim 2:2)

We were sent and supported by churches with a burden for missions. They had certain expectations regarding their missionaries. When discussing how to do mission work, they liked using the word "indigenous.” In fact, you’d hear that word a lot.

Indigenous means native to the area and homegrown. It points to a set of principles, a vision, for how the Lord's work should be propagated.

The phrase "indigenous missions" conjures up an image of pioneering… starting from scratch, one-on-one discipleship, a church formed of human building blocks with or without a proper meeting place, and ultimately coming full circle by leaving trustworthy leadership in our wake (the Acts 13 & 14 model).

The indigenous vision prescribed for missions applies to all of us. Our priorities as we approach the home stretch are identical.

The Pastor Disaster

When churches need fresh, dedicated servants, they usually turn to Bible colleges, seminaries, other churches, or men currently shepherding other flocks.

So what’s up with that?

If lots of churches end up searching for their “Timothys” elsewhere, won't we run out? If all we do is trade places or fill vacant pulpits, spreading out to pioneer new works will hardly seem feasible.

What if I had hung on to what I had in Mexico… coasting to the end without being mindful of a Paul-to-Timothy kind of succession? Negligent, some would exclaim. Yet, my negligent behavior on “that” side of the border would be deemed acceptable behavior on “this” side of the border.

It’s not hard to identify a significant cause of the shortage of laborers and the scarcity of pioneering new endeavors in our own country.

My three-fold prayer:

Lord, help us to embrace for ourselves everything we expect from our missionaries.

Lord, raise up and prepare people from within our congregations for whatever the future holds for us… and may there be no lack!

Lord, by your Spirit, give us young adults who will dream big and exercise bold faith. May they experience the sheer joy of pioneering in the work of your kingdom!

Next: More forward-thinking: The next generation of pioneers.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32, ESV)

Reality

Church has never been a popular item. There are many places where we’re not welcome, and we’re often not even legal.

In Mexico, until the mid-1990s, legalizing a church meant nationalizing it. The government could use your building for its own purposes if and when deemed necessary. It was no longer your property. It was theirs. It usually felt less risky to fly under the radar and avoid garnering too much attention. Accommodations for anything non-Catholic were always slow in coming. Ask around, and this is the reaction you might get: “Mexico is a Roman Catholic country. You have no business here.”

Resilience

The book I published in 2020 (Assertively Apolitical, “Resilience”, p. 126) included thoughts on how preparedness for any contingency and resilience have been basic necessities for Jesus followers since not too long after he gathered his first disciples.

To quote a famous philosopher—well, actually, he was the bad guy in a cops-and-robbers movie:

If, before next Sunday, we were stripped of everything we assumed to be needed for church… what would be our next move? How long would it take for us to adjust?

Our gut reaction might be: “But we have the right to assemble and own property and worship in the church of our choice. We’re going to fight this!” We might have to accept a major shift in how we think about such things. It might be time to rip our sense of entitlement off the wall and run it through the shredder.

The Bible doesn’t guarantee any Christian any of those so-called “inalienable rights” we like to talk about. It’s a nice dream—maybe even a worthy goal—but ask a family of believers cowering in a root cellar in the dark, singing hymns and praying they’ll be spared a direct hit from the rockets exploding around them what our inalienable rights are.

Just like any other, God’s army needs to be prepared. We won’t have much time to deal with the mental gymnastics we usually require to get from prosperity-Gospel-ness to survival mode in the rubble… nor the time to grieve our losses. We’re supposed to be ready to make necessary adjustments on the fly.

Here’s another profound statement—I made this one up myself: “The less we have, the less we will lose in an unexpected calamity.” Who had the more challenging time adjusting to the pandemic, a house church family or the larger church-building family?

House churches will be better prepared, more flexible, and more readily adaptable to sudden—even cataclysmic—changes around them.

Remember Samizdat?

Samizdat (Russian: самиздат, lit. 'self-publishing') was a form of dissident activity across the socialist Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat

All kinds of writing were widely disseminated this way. People refused to let the light die… the hell on earth that was Stalin and his concentration camps would not kill truth or artistic creativity.

But wait… Bible translation and Gospel witness have always been carried out in the same spirit. The consequences for getting caught have been equally grim. Yet, nothing has stopped the truth from spreading.

We will always find ways to maintain open communication among ourselves… and to spread the good news of what God the Son accomplished by his crucifixion and resurrection. We will continue kingdom work! Even where it’s illegal… in war zones… without internet… without electricity—sort of like it’s always been done.

It may be the first time for Jesus followers in the US, but it’s not without precedent in Christian history. We should watch and learn from brothers and sisters in Christ who have already been forged in the fires of repression, brutality, persecution, imprisonment, and death. They are way ahead of the curve compared to us.

What will most of us do without an unhindered, unchallenged place to sit in a cozy building with “our people” as we “serve God” by singing and listening to a sermon?

Replicating

“make an exact copy of; reproduce:”

What I’m proposing goes against the church-growing mentality ingrained in US culture. They talk about gathering and consolidating under one central vision and leadership. I’m talking about keeping churches smaller on purpose.

I’m not proposing stagnation. I’m proposing a more effective way to grow. One church of 1,000 people with one set of leaders will not be as effective as 20 churches of 50, each with capable shepherds and teachers.

Does it sound too simplistic to state the dilemma this way: consolidate and stagnate vs. divide and conquer?

An overlooked strategic advantage of the house church is its inbuilt urgency for indigenous leadership. The need for faithful expositors of the Word, genuinely pastoral hearts, and prayer warriors will be in our faces. No one gets to hide in the crowd because there’s no crowd to hide in.

Fresh, new, small church plants feel the need to mature in Christ and face the outside world with the same vision and passion they were exposed to when they found Christ themselves. It’s about survival. The alternative is what we have to live with today: Christianity becomes a spectator sport… couch potatoes at home, pew potatoes on Sunday.

With the right vision, house churches have more potential to nurture and mature the disciple-making and shepherding needed worldwide… regardless of what’s happening around them.

Today, we have the luxury of sending our potential leaders to seminaries and Bible colleges. We assume they will somehow find what they need elsewhere to complete their maturation. I fear we have relinquished the fine art of disciple-making… the kind that should have been an integral part of the local church family… the kind that will be needed in survival mode when “clandestine” will be the new word of the day.

Let's test the waters by the time we get to 100 people. Yes, there will likely be resistance to dividing up. But where’s the militancy with the Gospel?  Where’s the love for a world in flames? It pushes everyone out of pew-potato mode into doing our part to help others find Christ and grow up, too.

Reflection

Genuine growing will more likely happen when we are exposed to the immediate needs of our own little flock. Sadly, my suggested model for advancing God’s kingdom may not spark much interest until it’s the only option available. Urgency and survival are the most potent catalysts for engagement and commitment.

Maybe the remorseless barbarity on display in world affairs today will upend our sheltered existence. Perhaps it’s about time.

_______

Next: The Strategical Vulnerability of House Church

Church was happening in our home. Those early days in our living room with 5-6 people form a fond memory. They refined our focus on what really was the Lord’s work. Those were the best of times!

As our gatherings grew, our Sunday routine began on Saturday. We had to get the living room, kitchen, and tiny bedrooms ready. The back bathroom became the dog’s meditation room; the bedrooms were now classrooms. After morning Bible study and kids’ classes, it took the afternoon to stack chairs outside and cover them, mop floors, move furniture, and make the house our house again.

When we started having a dozen people in, it felt close. We hadn’t yet visualized what 40, 50, or 100 people would feel like. Eventually, we had to talk about “what’s next.”

It was a time frame when friendships grew deeper roots… the kind that are still in place today. We enjoyed “sobremesa” times that went beyond coffee and small talk. I got comfortable with one-on-one opportunities. I began to suspect that less pulpit time and more one-on-one time might be better for everyone.

The list of blessings is long.

Compassionate Generosity

I love telling this part. It flies in the face of the demeaning stereotypes we’ve had to put up with regarding people from south of the border.

A few examples:

One of our men showed up one Sunday morning in tears. His home had been robbed and cleaned out. Within 48 hours, our folks had him up and running again.

Groceries were delivered anonymously where unemployment and hardship had taken a toll.

Christmas turkey dinners (an annual tradition) were prepared and delivered to folks who otherwise would have gone without.

Haircut afternoons after Sunday morning Bible study with the proceeds going for missions projects in disadvantaged areas.

A young mother died of COVID-19, leaving three little ones vulnerable… from diapers to food to cash, our folks stepped in where they could.

Their generosity extended even to us. Linda was born with severe health problems. Week after week, year after year, our house church family was the reason she had good medical care and never went without the expensive meds she always needed.

Focused Prayerfulness

While Linda languished for 11 days in a coronary ICU in Wisconsin in 2010, people everywhere prayed. And in Cancun, people prayed without ceasing. When they unplugged everything on the 11th day, Linda woke up.

I’m thinking of a dear neighbor I was studying the Bible with… out of nowhere, he had a major stroke. We would gather in the ICU waiting area and form a circle with the 20-30 of us who showed up and prayed.

Another church family member went through a cancer journey. He survived major surgeries and rounds of chemo. His story was about how the Alamos family had prayed. That was often his selling point when inviting others to visit us: “These people will pray for you.”

Christian Hospitality

The first church downtown used this to spread missions and preaching points to other neighborhoods and towns, including in the interior among the Mayan people. The humblest of folks are honored to open their home and offer everyone a fresh, cold drink. They are honored that you would visit them.

I never felt like I was leading the way by opening our home as our church. With time, it seemed apparent: our strengths were in our “between Sundays” groups.

Ladies

The earliest evidence was in our Tuesday morning ladies’ gathering around our table. There was a season when we had them take dictation. Their homework was to copy their notes neatly in a notebook, write out the Bible verses we referenced, and jot down any questions or comments for the next time. I think we hear better when we have to listen and write… as if there would be a test later.

There was a season when we used "Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan as a study guide. We found inexpensive paperbacks of an excellent Spanish translation so everyone could have their copy.

This group transitioned to another lady’s home. It continues to this day:

Men

While I did discipleship in a few one-on-one situations and Bible Institute classes with men from the downtown church,  a men’s group emerging from within our house church took a while—and a few failed attempts—before one came together. But when it finally did… wow!

I don’t think there was any particular reason it happened that way. The reasons I came up with had more to do with my own shortcomings. It just was what it was.

My takeaways?

• Forward progress in Gospel work is a bumpy, hilly road with lots of potholes.

• It’s been one more reminder of what Winston Churchill used to say: “KBO!” (Keep buggering on!).

Couples

One couple saw the need to minister to other couples. They stuck with it for years… Friday evenings in their home, usually around a meal. The Lord was using them. Even though no one saw the future in the tea leaves, this couple’s credibility was building. Today, they are the pastors of our original house church family.

The Little Flock Mentality

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32, ESV)

All of this comes together in the context of “Fear not, little flock.” We are a cell—a microcosm—struggling for survival in an ocean of hostility. It’s Jesus’ little flock vs. the world. But it’s not a psychosis-generating mentality where all we do is muster enough cooperation to circle the wagons and try to fight off the enemy.

Instead, this is Jesus’ little flock. And there’s nothing little about it! We’re here on a mission—not merely to hold on faithfully until the end but to do our part in extending the Gospel’s influence into every dark corner of the world.

That means lots of focused prayer, authentic discipleship, and leading by example. Our courageous going will inspire others to go.

Lots of going…! And our going is a yardstick to measure the genuineness of our conversion and humble obeisance at the foot of the cross on which our Master died.

Here’s a link to the whole series:

REVEILLE

My church-planting starter kit…

I can probably get you set up for under $500.00, including shipping and sales tax… and still have a little left for my retirement fund.

You don’t need a large bank account to be a pioneer.

Home is church, church is home…

As I reflect on the advantages of a house church environment, I feel compelled to change the name of the concept to something more descriptive of the why. The decades of church in our house were never about making a statement or proving a point.

Calling it church in our house sounds suspiciously cold… like we were still running something. I know it doesn’t sound bad on the surface. But what if I say, “I run a family in that house you see down the street…”

I run a family? I run a church? It sounds more like they’d have a manager, while they really need a husband, a father, and a shepherd. A scary thought… because running a family or a church sounds suspiciously like trying to herd cats.

We didn’t talk about the church meeting in our house… we talked about our church family gathering in our home. We wanted to be family and learn how to be better at being family.

So… welcome to family. Let’s see if we can figure out how to be a church family together. We’ll have to learn how to interact with one another and how to survive the glitches and pitfalls of imperfect creatures. Everyone in the house will have to learn how to put up with everyone else.

But that’s not nearly good enough.

What were the dreams and hopes swirling in our heads when we got married or when our children were born? “Learning how to put up with each other” falls far short of what we were thinking. We anticipated immeasurable love and camaraderie, maturing together… growing old together… facing life’s ups and downs together. Home would be where glaring shortcomings and unique health challenges would never devalue who we were or how much we were loved. It would be a place where we wouldn’t have to prove ourselves to be accepted… because we were born there.

The challenge of being a healthy spiritual family goes even further. It stretches us beyond our natural abilities. We’ll have to learn how to treat each other like God treats us. When I think about how God loves me, I have to admit that God loves others at least as much as he loves me. I realize I have a lot of work to do. What will it take for me to love others like God loves them?

Basic principles in gospel work include sacrificial love, forgiveness, unconditional acceptance, patience, fairness, compassion, consoling, generosity, transparency, and collaboration.

How often should we remind ourselves: A house does not make a home?

How often should we remind ourselves: A church house does not make a church home?

I’m not suggesting anyone is sinning by having church in a building designated for church use. But, I think everyone would benefit from learning to be and do church without adding physical facilities to the equation.

We’ve fleshed out our lists of how to be faithful servants of God by attributing “serving God” status to the acquisition, construction, and upkeep of physical structures where our spiritual families gather. We even label the facility itself “church” or “temple.” We pour unspeakable amounts of money into physical spaces while an embarrassingly small percentage of God’s money trickles down to its intended purposes.

Those intended purposes begin with the following:

Honorable provision for those in ministry. The tithe for the Levites was intended to give them the freedom to serve God and the people. It’s the precedent even the Apostle Paul established in the New Testament to confirm how Gospel kingdom work should continue.

Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:13-14, ESV)

Honorable provision for those in need. Do we have the means to care for our people when necessary? What comes first on our priority list: places to meet or the people that meet? Unexpected tragedy, health crises, unemployment, loss of a spouse, parentless children, homelessness, or the imminent threat of it… so many are one ER visit or one missed paycheck away from disaster. Some are already neck-deep in disaster.

Proactive vision for the next generation. Why shouldn’t facilitating education and career preparation be part of a church’s vision—and budget? I hope to elaborate on this in a future post where I include the desires of missionaries for their children.

Calle Alce #40…

…our street address. It’s where Greg, Linda, Jeremy, and Rebekah lived.

I’m thinking about the beginnings of one of our churches that stuck and still thrives today. It was the kind of home church we had dreamed and prayed about.

Our beginnings were inauspicious… laughable almost. Our living room was even smaller than the space we had rented on a street corner for our very first church planting effort. We were five or six adults meeting and praying about the same thing. When we got to eight or ten adults, our living room environment felt intimate. With time, our definition of “intimate” was stretched beyond what we thought possible.

Remember how Andrew went and found his brother and took him to meet Jesus? And his brother happened to be Peter? Seeing how the most ordinary things look extraordinary later is always exciting.

A neighbor told a friend about our new effort. The friend showed up one Sunday morning. It was like another first-fruits moment… Things happened around the table at her house. People who would refuse to consider changing religions didn’t mind attending a Bible study in her home. Those Bible studies bore fruit for months and years. They drew people to our church family. She wouldn’t insist anyone come to church with her. She would wait until someone asked, “What do you do on Sunday?” or “Can I go with you on Sunday?”

Once again, I won’t try to whitewash how hard things were sometimes. This was a different group of people… a different mindset. For me, it represented a new challenge… a new learning curve. I made some serious mistakes along the way.

But I’d like to share how God blessed us with and through this church family.

Stay tuned…

In Part 4—Our Commitment—I stated the need for a long term, boots-on-the-ground mentality… and how 8 to 10 years were needed to transition to a new culture and language.

I wasn’t exaggerating. In fact, looking back now, I see several things in play requiring lots of time for learning, breaking, reshaping, and adapting. Today, I’d call 8 to 10 years a good start… a bare minimum.

I’ve changed, albeit slowly. The process isn’t completed yet. I’m not through “becoming” what the Lord wants me to become.

Un-becoming

A big part of my becoming had to do with the struggle to “un-become” what I had become along with becoming a follower of Jesus. I’m the same Christian I had become. But it came with extra baggage… none of which helped convey the essential message of the Gospel to folks who have yet to embrace it. Some of it was even prejudicial to the cause… like creating artificial scenarios of taking a stand for God in ways that would spurn and divide rather than draw and unite at the foot of the cross. I learned to draw lines in the sand and prepare for battle. I didn’t learn much about loving, embracing, building relationships, disciple-making, and authentic mentoring.

The evolving had begun.

Nevertheless, along with the lack of experiential maturing inherent to a vibrant disciple-making environment, we suffered from another untreated malady.

We carried chronic Americanitis with us on our journey south of the border. We didn’t mean to. We would have rejected the idea of being carriers. But ironically, one of its primary symptoms is obliviousness. We said and did things with a certain swagger. We conveyed a self-assurance that looked like we knew what God wanted others to do. Without consulting native-born believers, we arrived on the scene with pretty strong opinions about how kingdom work should be done in their part of the world.

Being in Cancun, we were fascinated by the history of the ancient Mayan civilization… curious about how it had left its mark on the present. Even so, we could have listened better and learned more about the culture and mores of our new neighborhood.

Rebuilding

It's not that we didn’t already care about relationships, but we learned some things in Mexico that we had not learned before we got there.

A few years into life in Cancun, we had the opportunity to meet believers from another part of Mexico. They lived in Mexico City and Toluca, about 1,000 miles away. We connected with them through our friends across the street who were related to them.

I had never seen what I experienced with those wonderful folks. They ministered at every level of the social strata. They were growing quality disciples. Their groups were increasing in number. They didn’t have a single church building to their name… they didn’t want one. They would have said, “No thanks” if you had offered them one for free.

They were serious about investing time in the Word and prayer… real about nurturing new believers… careful to model authentic personal witness with friends and neighbors in a way that shouted, “This is the normal Christian life.” They had families in other countries with the same vision and work ethic.

It was transformative. I regret not staying longer among them. There was more I could have learned… more I needed to learn, and I regretted not having submitted myself to be discipled by them before continuing our work in Cancun.

As a result of their example, our future attempts to start new things in Cancun focused more on people and relationships and less on the spaces to gather them in. One day, I added it up. Linda and I had held church in our home for an unbroken stretch of more than two decades.

Since Jesus is everybody’s creator, might there not be strengths in every culture’s language and customs that could be used to advantage for the Gospel? They might not be readily apparent even to an alert observer. An American arriving on the scene with all the answers in his pocket will remain clueless in la-la land.

Honing

I like the advice “The Patriot” gives his boys as they ambush the British detail carting off their older brother to be hanged: AIM SMALL, MISS SMALL.

Get a grip on the power of one… One potential “Timothy” who will influence and shepherd is more important than filling a building with hundreds of believers who won’t grow much beyond needing to be shepherded. If you had to choose, would you do weekly Sunday crowds or private Timothy sessions in your home? Which will last longer and go further?

Attend to the needs of the one…

“that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” (Colossians 1:28-29, ESV)

Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. (Matthew 13:52, ESV)

The endgame is always the same, but the church isn’t a disciple factory. Discipleship isn’t catechism. It’s a nuanced, Spirit-directed journey, fine-tuned on the fly to address a disciple’s current state of affairs adequately.

Suppress the church-building urge… Do we need a church building to start a church… to be a church? We teach “No,” and we live “Yes.” More about this in the next post.

Use what the new culture already gifts us with… My only direct experience has been in Latin America, fortified by a wonderful trip to Spain a few years ago. There is a built-in cultural strength that becomes a ready-made vehicle for outreach and discipleship. It’s gift-wrapped in a single Spanish word: sobremesa—after-meal table talk. So, why try to reinvent the wheel?

Sobremesa times reveal the strength of The Patriot’s mantra—aim small, miss small.

Hearts open wider, relationships deepen, conversation turns eternally profitable. Prayer becomes more intimate around a table than from behind a pulpit. What better format for meaningful growth… what better path to fruitfulness?

Afterthoughts:

• If you live the life of a church-planting pioneer in a far-off place, you will be changed more profoundly than what you can see in the mirror. You will never again be who you once were. For the rest of your life, you will feel like a stranger in a strange land… not entirely of one place or another. But let me tell you… it’s worth the stretch.

• This is not your normal 9-5 job. People who have given their lives in such thorough and committed ways deserve to be valued… supported… cared for, and, in their latter days… heard.

Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ. (Romans 16:5, KJV)

In calling him the “first fruits of Asia,” Paul indicates that he was the first convert in the Roman province of Asia, whose cultural center was Ephesus…Paul may, then, mention him here because he was brought to faith through the ministry of Prisca and Aquila…1

The very expression “firstfruits” implies that many others were to follow, which was actually what happened.2

Two construction workers

One Sunday morning, we watched a “triciclo" make its way up the street toward the market. A young man was pedaling… his wife, with their baby girl in her arms, was seated in front. When they came to our tiny new church space, they stopped in. We sang together while Linda played a few hymns on her accordion. I don’t remember what I taught, but I’m sure I tried to share the Gospel as clearly as possible: Salvation by faith alone, in Christ alone—the only door to eternal life with God.

The young mother was already a believer. He was a builder—I’d call him a bricklayer, but bricks are rare in Cancun. Nearly everything there is about concrete, rebar, and cement blocks. His brother-in-law, whom we met later, was his helper. They were hardworking young men on a crew building one of the first highrise timeshares in Cancun’s hotel zone.

During the following weeks and months, these two men came to our home and studied at our kitchen table. I did Bible studies to continue showing them salvation through Christ and what it could mean for them. Linda spent equal time teaching them to read and write.

By the way, illiterate is not a synonym for ignorant. We communicated in Spanish, but their native language was Mayan. Mayan is light years away from Spanish (or English). We were continually impressed by their powers of retention. The questions about a previous Sunday’s message could sound like they had taken notes.

Time passed. The bricklayer calmly informed me one day that, a few weeks prior, he had given his heart to Jesus. Sometime later, I asked his helper if he had considered embracing Jesus as his Savior. “Oh, I did that about a month ago after one of your sermons.” More time passed. On the day of their baptisms, they were clear about what they had done. They were equally clear that, while water baptism was the right thing to do, it was an act of obedience and public testimony regarding what had already occurred in their hearts.

It’s not a simple journey for people in a culture steeped in a works-based religion, sacraments, and superstition.

Firstfruits.

One teenage girl

Fast-forward to our new location, after a year in our little storefront. The group was able to borrow enough to purchase their own space on a 25 x 60 ft. lot. It had two tiny rooms at the back. Toward the front was our meeting space… a rectangular structure with a low, slanted roof of corrugated tar paper. At least no one ever complained about not having a sauna or a hot tub.

Parenthesis: Greg’s from Wisconsin… Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Braves… the land of big snows and sub-zero temps by the week. Forty years in the tropics, I never stopped sweating… profusely. In those days, typing a sermon at the kitchen table, I often looked down to see two small puddles of sweat, one under each elbow.

When we met her, she was the oldest of her siblings, 15-16 years old. She would ride with a few other kids in the back of our pickup. Remember the camper shell and rustic benches? She came to Christ through Linda’s Sunday school lessons. She was enthusiastic about her faith. She got her younger siblings to come with her on Sunday mornings. We were excited about her excitement. Then she died in a drowning accident.

The funeral, as was customary, took place in the living room of her family’s humble home. I can still hear the cries and sobs and see the anguish on her parents’ faces, along with many extended family members and friends crowded in for the occasion. We were asked to do the funeral and the burial service at the cemetery. Bodies had to be in the ground within 24 hours of death… so brutal and heartless. It was easy to see the lack of hope in the depths of anguish we witnessed.

Why did she have to die so young… why so suddenly?

No one could have given a good answer then. We always know God does things in ways we don’t understand. We may never fully understand until we are on the other side ourselves. However, all these years later,  we have been able to flesh out a more complete response. Her two younger sisters came to Christ as a result of the tragedy. Their younger brother, who had no memory of the occasion, came to Christ years later. The youngest sister, not even born yet, came to Christ when it was her time. Their mother came to Christ and gave testimony as to how it was the oldest daughter’s testimony that drew her. We prayed for decades for their father. He came to Christ about 6 years ago. Parents, kids, and spouses all profess to belong to Jesus. All are active in one of our churches.

Firstfruits.

I feel sad…

I feel sad for people who have never known the thrill of pioneering a new church endeavor. This is an important factor in the inertia and lack of excitement for new church planting efforts today. How do you get people excited about something when they don’t even know what you’re talking about? They’ve never experienced it… never even gotten a whiff of its sweet savor.

I hope you take my challenge at face value. New church planting endeavors are exciting…, and each step forward is a thrill. The world needs so much more of them.

But you should know I’m also setting you up. I want to write about some really hard stuff that comes attached to the thrill. I think there’s a lot that can be done way beyond what’s being done to motivate, prepare, and sustain families we’ve let go to faraway places to plant themselves and wait patiently to see what God might do through them. They deserve more attention and hands-on support than you have yet to imagine.

Firstfruits are everything… Let’s bless the folks God has used to harvest them!

If you need status quo, humdrum, routine, feeling safe, creature comforts, staying close to mommy and daddy, a roadmap for your next 5-year plan… you’re not thinking like a pioneer… a new church project in a strange place might not be a good fit for you.

Truth be known, in our natural state, it’s never a good fit for any of us. By default, we think first of ourselves… protect our interests, resist anything that would undermine the safety net we believe we have created, and prefer not even to consider jeopardizing it. We might as well tack the lyrics to this song on our fridge and have them engraved on our gravestone!

Therefore his life never got much richer
Than the day they took that picture
In his birthday suit on the day that he was born. Safety Joe 

SAFETY JOE by John Prine

The reasons for the shortage of pioneers are not pretty… neither are the outcomes. Do we want to live and die without ever discovering the very best and first things God prepared for us long before we were even born?

Second best and humdrum will be our fate… unless we face our real reality head-on.

The degree and length of our commitment to Gospel kingdom work are directly related to the clarity of our conversion… and the quality of our surrender to Christ's Lordship.

You don’t become a missionary by crossing the sea; you become a missionary by seeing the cross. -A.W. Tozer

Dying for us on the cross… a vicarious sacrifice for our sin… conquering death and the grave... preparing a place for us in his presence for all eternity… We can say “Thank you” and “God be praised”, but it’s not enough. What he did obligates us. Surrender of our wills to his and implicit obedience to his words are expected… …and deserved.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

…You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ESV)

Without getting too theological here, it’s still healthy for Jesus-followers to remember: Assessing risk, while prudent, should never be allowed to undermine how we face up to our real reality. So, please… re-read Galatians 2:20 above and answer the following questions:

• Since we’re already dead… should we be afraid of dying?

• Since we’re already dead… should we care what happens to us next?

All we really need to know is that our paths are synchronized with God's perfect will. “It is no longer I who live.”

and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:18, ESV)

We’re slaves now… slaves of righteousness… slaves assigned tasks in his kingdom. It doesn’t matter where he sends us or what tasks he assigns us. We’re not our own anymore… we’ve been bought with a price. The one who bought us decides for us.

…If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23, ESV)

These principles are foundational. I mention them first because they are the only context in which choosing hardship and uncertainty makes sense. Without taking up this cross daily, God’s call to be pioneers will go unheeded… our sense of commitment will be ground to dust.

It’s the only way to explain why Linda and I kept on keeping on… even at the end of dead-end streets… even with an empty bank account… even in seasons of unmitigated pain… . even without outside encouragement or anyone saying, “We’ve got your back.”

One mile into Mexico after my first border crossing, I wanted to turn around and go home. Everything smelled different, felt different, sounded different…everyone talked differently. The first meal served to me on the road south was almost a deal breaker. I couldn’t eat it. I returned to the truck to munch on saltine crackers and drink a Coke.

We thought we would spend the rest of our lives in Central America. A brutal civil war had a hand in ending that dream. Under pressure to declare where we would go next—“So your supporting churches don’t start dropping you”—we accepted an invitation to help a struggling mission near Veracruz, Mexico. That was the dead-end street. Overwhelmed and broke, with no affordable housing and no options… it was the only season in which we vocalized, “Maybe we should quit and go home.”

Back to our street corner on Sunday mornings near a market in Cancun. By now, we had a place to live… a place to serve in a new town… and we could even afford the rent on our new church space. We were happy as larks… and we were so glad and relieved we hadn’t quit. So strong was this gladness and relief that it stayed with us for the rest of Linda’s life. Her funeral with our Alamos church family, brothers and sisters from our other congregations in the area, family, and friends… was a sight to see. The video of the event speaks for itself.

What does the commitment to pioneering work look like? I think it starts with a long-term, boots-on-the-ground mentality. What I’ve read on the subject jives with our own experience. It probably takes 8 to 10 years to blend in, to attain a general sense of the lay of the land, to feel comfortable in the community…, and for neighbors to take us seriously and not like one more outsider passing through.

Speaking the language as comfortably as your own is a huge factor.

How do I know I made a successful transition? I love hot sauces now. I even use them in my oatmeal.

Our Modus Operandi: Full-Circle Discipleship

Acts 14:21-23 (ESV)

21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,

22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

But I’m telling the end of the story before its beginning. It begins in Acts 13:1.

The church in Antioch became part of a pivotal moment in early church history. They were pioneers…, and the Holy Spirit directed them in this unprecedented, organized evangelistic endeavor, which became known as the first of Paul’s three missionary journeys.

It’s a church planter’s manual… a living example of evangelism, discipleship, and leadership training integrated into one seamless package, lived out in flesh and blood, in living color. It opens with a gathering of believers—i.e., the church at Antioch— “ministering to the Lord” (there’s a sermon title). It closes with local assemblies of believers pressing on with the same passion and vision Paul and company had left them with.

I’ve called it full-circle discipleship… going from zero to autonomous. You arrive in a new place with nothing except Jesus and his message in your heart. You leave behind a church—probably small by American standards today—comprised of people who love Jesus and who risk their all to share his message with others.

Just as it’s supposed to be… just as they had seen in their mentor, the Apostle Paul.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8, ESV)

Without this vision and activity, kingdom work will stagnate and whither from within. Without new pioneers, there will be no new churches. Without leading by example and challenging the next generation to live for the kingdom of God, the dearth of new pioneers will persist.

I can’t think of any place, near or far, that would not benefit from a new, fresh start popping up in their neighborhood… a Bible study and prayer group with a twist—a commonly held dream and conviction… “We want to grow up to be a church.” That one little twist radically alters the dynamic.

May, 1982

We ended up in Cancun by a circuitous route. That’s a story of its own. Cancun was a sleepy tourist town of 70,000 people on the Mexican Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula… a 1,500-mile drive from the US border town of McAllen, TX. It’s called the “turquoise coast” today. If you’ve ever seen it, you understand. It’s beautiful.

We’ve long since grown tired of jokes like, “Wow if you live in Cancun, where do you go for a vacation?” My answer would usually be, “Somewhere where I can see snow and stop sweating for a few minutes.”

Like most places, it was a tale of two cities. Our daughter was about 9 years old when she observed one day, “It’s organized. The poor people live on one side and the rich people on the other.” Sadly, it was easy to see how she came to that conclusion.

Interacting with people felt like living in a port where sailors and shipping crews came through. It was an environment where “anything goes.” I met people with their own families left back home. We knew people on the run from the law in other parts of the country. We knew a few who were growing dope a couple of hours south of town. There is nothing idyllic about any place full of people without Jesus in their lives.

We also knew lots of honorable, hardworking people trying to make a living for themselves and their families. In other words, it was like most anywhere else in the world.

Our first attempt at starting a church was done in what I would call a traditional manner… at least in our American way of thinking. We rented a 15 x 15 ft. space on a street corner for $100.00 US per month. We discovered that our street was used on Sunday mornings by people walking or biking up to the open market a few blocks east of us.

The four of us showed up on Sunday mornings in our Chevy pickup with a camper shell. We rolled up the metal curtain on each side of our new meeting place and set up some rustic benches—if you know me, you understand “rustic” was already stretching my abilities for such things. Linda would start playing hymns on her accordion, and our two kids would hand out a flyer or a tract to people passing by.

We never had a Sunday with just the four of us. Sometimes, a neighborhood kid or two… sometimes, a curious adult stopping in on their way to or from the market. On the Sundays we had people and rain, Linda and the kids would pile into the back of the pickup—more rustic benches there, too—for their Bible class.

I won’t try to whitewash how hard it was. That zero-to-autonomous thing took 12 years to happen. But when it did… what a victory! The downtown Cancun church was our first. It’s still pastored by the man who stepped in as pastor behind me. Let me tell you how much I love him, his wife, and his precious daughter.

I wouldn’t trade being a full-circle kind of kingdom worker for anything in the world.

I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. (Acts 26:19, ESV)

We owe so much to the Apostle Paul for being obedient and for being a true pioneer. In his letter to the believers in Rome, he shares his dream… something we should pay closer attention to today.

…I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. (Romans 15:20, ESV)

I initially took this declaration as a reaffirmation of the Great Commission, which it is.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)

In a book worthy of our time, the author shares an anecdote about being in a Somali camp helping distribute basic goods to meet desperate needs. One day, amid the crowd and commotion, he dared to ask his local guide,

Do you know my friend Jesus Christ?1

After some tense moments—he didn’t know the language—of animated shouting and agitated pointing back and forth, his friend turned to him and explained:

Mahmoud thinks that he might have heard of him and that he may live in the other refugee camp down the road. So go back out the gate, turn left, go to the next camp, ask for Jesus Christ there, and you might find him.2

Remember playing MUSICAL CHAIRS? It’s a foretaste of how churches and pastors interact in the United States. Enough already with the musical churches game and ladder climbing. So many people have little or no access to the Gospel. If we bother to prepare for ministry, then it seems logical the first order of business should be to find a place to do ministry where the Gospel will be new news.

After some time in ministry, I also began to see Romans 15:20 as the basis for a proper work ethic. Plenty of secondary auxiliary ministries are trying to sell themselves to existing churches. Some have dared view a prospering congregation as simply a target-rich environment, a potential source of income… an opportunity to siphon people off to enhance their own enterprises. Where are the frontline laborers attempting to start new churches without borrowing or stealing sheep from other flocks?

An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. (2 Timothy 2:5, ESV)

If the Gospel is everything it claims to be, we do not need to tarnish it with cheap tactics to introduce it to more people. Starting from scratch, along with being the best way to spread out, may also be the most ethical way to go about our business. Integrity means everything when representing our Savior. We should not underestimate the power of the Gospel… even in brand-new, unplowed fields.

Jesus pleads with us to pray for more laborers. That’s because foundational principles like boots-on-the-ground and long-term commitment cannot be sidestepped. Not nearly enough laborers are on the front lines—out in the fields—to deal with the harvest.

So… in Romans 15:20, we have…

• A reaffirmation of the Great Commission

• A foundation for a proper work ethic

• A challenge to test our faith

The apostle’s challenge is very much in the spirit of God’s challenge regarding tithes and offerings in the Old Testament book of Malachi.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. (Malachi 3:10, ESV)

Paul is saying… go ahead… be a pioneer… put all your eggs in one basket… be out on a limb for the Gospel…! Do it in a manner that reflects integrity and confidence in the God of the Gospel. Grow roots somewhere new, sow the Word, be patient, and watch what happens!

Writing these words revives memories of things you can’t put a price tag on. I’m thinking now of a man at my kitchen table for weeks and months, describing his life as a millionaire, hitting rock bottom, and then beginning to find Christ. To be able to have an intelligent conversation about how to get from dead, works-based religion to simple faith in Christ… to still see his smile the day he came to tell me he had given his heart to Jesus… it doesn’t get any better than that!

So…

Dear Apostle Paul, Thank you. You were right. Nothing is quite as satisfying as starting from scratch, waiting on the Lord to bless as he chooses, and being allowed to hang around long enough to see some of the results.

Linda and I came to the same conclusion: We wanted to be pioneers. What made us different? I think part of it was because both of us had run the gauntlet of seeking and had run out of dead-end streets to try. We came to Christ within weeks of each other, before our first child was a year old. It was new to us… upending and revolutionary… finally something to latch on to… something worth living for!

Like other people who make the kind of commitment we did, we took God’s Word literally… and personally. He commands us to go… so Greg and Linda should go, too. We didn’t have a clue about what was next, where we would go, or what we would do, but we were ready to be pioneers.

Being a pioneer is almost like daring God not to bless you. It’s like looking up prayerfully and saying, “But you promised!”

Being a pioneer is like being the first one to walk out on a shaky rope bridge over a deep canyon to see if it’s safe. Scary stuff… but let me tell you how satisfying it is to have crossed over safely. A new believer… a disciple… the new disciple’s family… a group… and the crowning moment—leadership emerging from within.

The need for pioneers in God’s kingdom is acute. If you’re not one, I hope you’ll pray about being one.

What do you say?

My passion in a nutshell:

• Advocate for global kingdom workers.

• Advocate for taking the Gospel mandate as literally as the Apostle Paul did.

• Advocate for long-term, full-circle disciple-making and church planting in the United States and abroad.

• Advocate for a commitment in sending and supporting churches that at least approximates the commitment being lived out by the people who represent them around the globe.

Our mandate comes from above… and it is clear:

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.” (Acts 13:47, ESV)

Do you not say, “There are yet four months, then comes the harvest”? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. (John 4:35, ESV)

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2, ESV)

and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation. (Romans 15:20, ESV)

And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”(Acts 14:23, ESV)

William Carey is known as the father of modern missions. Born in England, born in poverty, the son of a cobbler, he spent his life as a missionary in India. His team’s work on Bible translations, printing, and dissemination of the Gospel is a story worth retelling.

Reflecting on our attempts to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), he summed it up this way:

They are inconsiderable in comparison of what might be done if the whole body of Christians entered heartily into the spirit of the divine command on this subject. Some think little about it, others are unacquainted with the state of the world, and others love their wealth better than the souls of their fellow-creatures. 

An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians. William Carey.

Timely words… Actually, they were penned in 1792. I wonder what he would say today?

Adoniram Judson traveled a different road through intellectual skepticism and atheism before surrendering to Christ. In February 1812, he and his wife, along with three others, were the first foreign missionaries to set sail from American shores. They spent a little time with William Carey and his team in India before the British-ruled territory forced them to move on. They ended up on the shores of Burma (today it’s called Myanmar)

In order to become an acceptable and eloquent preacher in a foreign language, I deliberately abjured my own. When I crossed the river, I burnt my ships.

https://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bjudson32.html

The Burmese language wasn’t written. It was more than a challenge to find tutors to help him learn. Can you imagine what it took to start from scratch, work out an alphabet, compile a lexicon, and begin translating parts of the Bible?

People said his writing in English was always crisp, but after several years, he struggled to put more than a couple of sentences together for English conversation.

“When I crossed the river, I burnt my ships.” Where is that spirit today?

Some might say, “Well, not everyone is meant to go far away.” Agreed. But some are. My gut tells me that with the present state of affairs in the world… with as enormous as the need is for the Gospel… a lot of people who should be going have decided to stay home.

Some might say, ”Well, going is not my gifting.” Agreed. Going isn’t a gifting. It’s a command. You respond to a command by obeying it. You respond to the command to go by going.

How far have you gone to share the Gospel with someone who didn’t know what you were talking about?

Prelude to the Prelude: Here is the link to a recent blog about how the Lord found us: OUR CONVERSION STORY

What follows will be the rest of our story:

• What made us tick?

• Our vision and philosophy of ministry.

• What real life in the thick of it looked and felt like.

• Our challenge to the next generation: Be a Pioneer!

I’ve prepared a few installments, and I’m working on more. Even if I end up including them in a book, it might be better to start posting them on my blog now. Two reasons:

• A book published by an unknown author (me) is like publishing in a barrel—maybe only a handful of people will see it. Posting installments on my blog might gain a little more exposure.

• As I write this, I’m three days shy of my 72nd birthday. If I have something to say, sooner is better than later… in case there’s no later.

Prelude:

These thoughts have congealed over nearly 50 years as a believer in Jesus Christ, more than 40 of which were spent in full-time ministry outside the United States (Central America and Mexico).

February, 2015… My first wife, Linda, went to heaven from Cancun, Mexico, where we lived the last 33 years of her life. From time to time during her last years—even with her struggle with dementia—she would get that gleam in her eye and say, “You know…”—and I knew some variation of the following was coming—“You know… we did it. Lots of people didn’t. We wanted to live for something bigger than ourselves. We followed our dream of serving the Lord.” To which I would eloquently respond, “Yes, we did.”

No regrets.

Also, during the same time frame… usually, when getting tucked into bed at night, she would occasionally say, “When I go, please carry on with our ministry… find someone to marry… and be happy.” I would respond, “And if I go first, you do the same!”

October, 2018… Carol and I married. Linda would have been pleased, but I don’t think she made it happen. I certainly didn’t. So, it must have been providential. Our love for Jesus and our lives as missionaries in other countries (Mexico and Japan) brought Carol and me together.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8, ESV)

Because Jesus saved us… and because we had lived out the Gospel mandate, we were ready for this intersection when we came to it.

Still no regrets.

All that to say, I’m thankful for the trajectory of my life, past and present. I marvel at the grace of God. We started so green… so set in ways that needed to be broken and rebuilt from scratch… so many mistakes and inadequacies. But I try to remember: the Gospel is perfect, while its human messengers never are. God knew this long before he entrusted us with his “ministry of reconciliation.” (2Corinthians 5:18)

In other words, my thoughts here do not come from regret over wishing things had been different. I write from a heart of passion and love for the Lord’s work… and for precious laborers in his vineyard. I write as a voice of experience in the limited areas where I accumulated experience.

The word “missionary” is not my favorite word to describe who I am. Its usage today points to many things I’ve never been and never done. It’s used by many who haven’t tried to do what I tried to do. I would rather people know me more specifically as a Gospel planter who took his vision and calling into another country and language. The vision and calling would not have been different had I stayed in the United States my whole life.

We left the United States unseasoned for what lay ahead. We started from scratch in ministry and attempted to start a church in new, unfamiliar territory.

One principle we learned slowly in our early years was what we defined as: See a need—meet a need. Perceiving a genuine need in the Lord’s work requires more than a call to a church’s complaint hotline or a rant in a deacons’ meeting. If the perception of a deficiency is legitimate, it comes with a call to serve in that area. It’s a package deal.

My quandary at this juncture is finding fruitful ways to contribute where the need is alarming.

Missions is not the priority it should be. It looks like something tacked on… an afterthought…  a token gesture, a feel-good hobby. The contrast between what churches usually do for missionaries and what missionaries are expected to do for churches is criminal.

There is a lack of vision regarding our children. Seldom—if ever—do they see one of their own break out of the mold and walk far away with Jesus… with only lost souls and building God’s kingdom on their hearts. Seldom do they receive encouragement from Mom and Dad beyond, “Don’t leave us!”

Recently, I wrote a blog called “Glue Factory Near Me”. A little sarcastic, I know, but older folks like me tend to feel put out to pasture—or sold to the glue factory—long before we’re ready for it. And as for veteran missionaries… well…

For a while, I dreamt about conducting workshops to encourage a sharper vision and discuss the many weak spots in how most of us do missions. Since it would require a network of pastors/churches predisposed to the idea—and since my networking skills are nil—it is probably not a realistic dream. Plus, when I think about itinerating, it feels more like an introvert’s nightmare… like a walking tour of Purgatory.

I started to write what I thought would be a book about it. But the breadth of such a project was overwhelming… and honestly, I couldn’t see how it would distinguish itself from bunches of excellent books already written on the subject.

So here goes… my attempt to put into words what I dedicated my entire adult life to… the things I am still the most passionate about. I stopped caring about building a platform or developing marketing skills. I’m not selling anything.

Simply put, here is my story… here is my heart. If it nudges someone toward a sharper vision and deeper engagement with God’s kingdom work… if it kindles a pioneering passion in another heart… I will consider my time invested in this a small price to pay.