GlocalNet

Wherever I’ve spoken the past couple of months, I’ve been asked a lot about where to begin to understand diplomacy, foreign relations, and global engagement for people just starting out. Believe it or not, the Bible isn’t a bad place! Read Daniel, Genesis, Esther, Ruth, Jonah, Nehemiah, and the list goes on.  Have a tablet and write down lessons on diplomacy from the Bible. You can gleen a lot of principles just from those books.

For magazines, I read Foreign Affairs put out by the Center for Foreign Relations and The National Interest along with some that may catch my eye when I’m in Barnes and Nobles--depending on the authors. BUT, for Christians and non-Christians, the best magazine, hands down, that deals with faith and foreign affairs is Faith and International Affairs put out by the Council on Faith and International Affairs at www.cfia.org. Dennis Hoover is a passionate follower of Jesus.  He was educated at Messiah University and Oxford University in England. In other words, he’s smart, very smart! He is also a part of the Institute for Global Engagement. His background and education make him uniquely qualified to write, as well as pull writers with differing view points together to write on specific subjects.

For books, here are three I just finished that are just incredible. I recommend them to you. The Home We Build Together - Jonathan Sacks, Founding Faith - Steven Waldman, and The Case for Civility - Os Guiness. All 3 deal with faith and civil society and implications for us today.

One thing, though, is very interesting to me--there are those who talk and those who do. When you start reading all this stuff it’s fascinating and you can wind up having conferences on this and that and yak and yak and yak and never do anything. As the Grand Mufti of Bosnia told me, “After 60 years of talking, it leads to little, it’s time to do!”

I just spent 3 days with the Institute for Global Engagement Board, on which I serve. Chris Seiple is the President of the organization. Its stated mission is “To make Christ visible, Christians relevant on the cruel edges of the world.” I love that. And it’s doing just that. Learning to speak to different cultures and people of different faiths all over the world. Chris and I have traveled all over the world together on different occasions--from the Middle-East to Asia. We were at Osprey Point on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland where the staff and board met. The staff are all very young and incredibly sharp. Not a single dud in the group. Right now, the opportunities that are flooding this “engagement and religious freedom” organization are more than it can handle. God has allowed Chris a place at the table of world leaders and influencers and he’s using it to make a difference. We’re having to decide which opportunities to seize and which not to--sounds familiar! Having to decide how to staff and how to fund--sounds familiar! Everyone should read about them at their website. Chris, you’re doing an awesome job. The best thing you’ve done however is assembling an incredibly gifted team. Megan, we couldn’t make it without you holding it all together. Your no-nonsense focus on details is what we need. Lucy, thanks for getting Chris and those programs organized, keep finding us sharp young people who want to change the world, since you’re real old yourself--22! Jared, you’re one of the smartest people I know--keep working hard in the place you are. Hen, Nikki and I are so proud of you--who would have thought when we met you a decade ago you’d be doing what you are. Josh, a brain and an adventurer, finish that PhD--a Father for a prayer warrior, a diplomat for a son--good combo! Except for Chris, you’re all in your 20’s. You’re the best generation I’ve seen so far for global engagement. If you are any example of those coming up behind you, this is going to be an awesome generation and century. I speak to pastors all over the US and try to help them understand how globalization is affecting them for good and bad in their lives and ministries--it’s hard. It’s fun and so refreshing to sit down with a group of people …

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Pastor Ha started the Onnuri Church in Seoul, South Korea 22 years ago. When he started it, he had a vision to start a church to produce the kind of disciple that would change the world. He wanted the entire church to be the missionary. The initial years of the church grew rather slow. It was difficult to even join. You either had to be a new Christian or related to someone who was already there. The whole point of the church was to start a church like the one in the book of ACTS. That vision has guided him the past few years.

I visited with him some about what it meant for the church in the East to lead. Today, some 60,000 attenders (at least), 1,000 full-time missionaries around the world, and over 20% of their budget goes towards missions. It’s just simply hard to find another church like it in the world. There are only a handful. Daniel Lee’s Church in Seoul, Global Mission Church, is the same, as well. I love these men--their humility, their heart for God, their intellect, they embody so much. Everything from churches in buildings, to churches in houses, to 3am and 5am prayer meetings simply blow me away, humble me, and make me wonder why we don’t implement here more of what they have done.

So, this Wednesday morning, 7:00a.m. Korea time--14 hours ahead of us, Pastor Ha will have a kidney and liver transplant.  It will be Tuesday at 5:00pm Texas time. It’s very serious. His entire church is praying for him. He’s 60 and sees no end in sight. For Asian culture, he’s young and in his prime. Let’s lift him up.

Omar Reyes is our Glocal Impact Director.  He oversees our Missions Department Directors for Community Development, Vietnam, Church Planting, and is, himself, the Director for our work in Mexico.  Bob has asked us all to give an update of what is happening in our areas and what God is teaching us.  Here is what Omar has to say:

Losing Our Center of Gravity

GO! And make disciples is the simple, clear and emphatic command given to
us from our Lord Jesus Christ. His last words to us in Matthew 28:29 is to
make disciples and His promise that He will be with us always even unto
the ends of the earth was conditional based upon our obedience to the this
specific task called “Making Disciples ”
“When dealing with discipleship and the related capacity to generate
authentic followers of Jesus, we are dealing with that single most crucial
factor that will in the end determine the quality of the whole, if we fail
at this point we fail in all others ”-Alan Hirsch, ‘The Forgotten Ways’.  If this is true then
Satan’s supreme effort is not to destroy the church but to pervert it’s
divine purpose, if he can very slowly shift our focus to other things,
good things then he will have gained the church. This subtle shift is very
insidious and hard to detect, but it is there in the middle of this
movement like a cancerous cell. We are now busy breaking missional codes,
dissecting this new wave of paradigm busting new thinking, moving into
this new externally focused missional approach, devising new methods of
church planting, rediscovering out Latin radix, liturgy, candles, jeans
t-shirts. We are changing and adapting at break neck speed trying to keep
up or be the first with the next new idea.  In the midst of this I believe
if we are not careful we will lose our center of gravity, making disciples
and find ourselves wandering behind some desert because we lost our way
again! Like the Israelites, just looping around and around and around and
never entering into the promise …

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After I spoke yesterday I spent the majority of the day with Daniel Lee of Global Harvest Mission Church.  It was a great day of seeing a traditional Korean villiage.  We talked a lot while we walked.  I so desperately want to learn from these guys.  Both Daniel and Pastor Ha started their churches to reach the world.  Daniel has 300 full-time missionaries pastor Ha has 1,000.  They didn’t start with the typical American mega-church church story for starting their church.  They both believe this has uniquely positioned them.  One has around 25,000 in attendance and the other has over 50,000.  They are humble unassuming men.  They are very smart.  They are prayerful.  They started small and didn’t anticipate they would be among the top 5 largest churches in Korea let alone the top 10 to 20 in the world.

I asked Daniel what he attributed his growth to.  He said, preaching, cell groups, and an educational process that grew people.  Obviously, I asked what about prayer, that’s what I hear about Korean churches?  His response was, prayer is not unique about us - all Korean churches pray!  That’s just being a Korean church.  So yes, we pray, but not unique to us.  What an answer. 

I asked Daniel about all their missions and church planting.  “That doesn’t make us grow - it’s just what we do.” So what they value the most - spreading God’s name - isn’t what grows their church.  It’s how they disciple and train people to engage the world. 

These churches see the church from so many angles - how do we reach the lost, build community, disciple, grow the church, and engage the world.  These men have inspired me the past few days.  I simply don’t feel worthy to be here speaking they are so far ahead of us.  Why in God’s name they want to hear from us - I’ll never understand.  These men are the real hero’s of the modern church.

Chris Shabay is our Director of Community Development here at NorthWood.  Our work in Haltom City has exploded over the past year and is only getting bigger!  Here’s what Chris has to say about it…

I cannot believe it’s already mid-April and the summer is quickly approaching.  That means I am way behind in sharing with you the unbelievable things NorthWood is doing in Haltom City.

For starters, we just finished our second full year of mobilizing church members to serve the children of The Academy at West Birdville at our Kid’s Café.  On average, we feed over 50 children daily, three nights each week.  Our tutoring program, led by Jane Mayeux, has really taken off.  We have doubled in number of volunteers from 12 to 25 this year.  Our goal is to double that number once again and have 50 volunteers tutoring and mentoring these children by the Spring of 2008.  Home Makeover is just around the corner.  We will be selecting our recipient families early next week. 

There are many more projects and programs worth mentioning, however, one in particular will serve as a cornerstone for seeing true transformation in Haltom City.  Our JPS medical and dental clinic will begin serving the community within the next few weeks.  The clinic will allow families, that otherwise could not afford medical care, to receive treatment and medications.  The clinic will serve 14 schools within the Birdville and Fort Worth School Districts.  I am thankful for men like Peter Paulsen and Rusty Mayeux that are willing to persevere through all of the red tape and doubt that came with the completion of this project.  Their determination and sacrifice will be a blessing to many in the years to come.

On a side note, I want to share with you what I’ve learned in my first year as director of community development in Haltom City.  Quite simply, I’ve seen a side of myself in which I am not very proud.  So often, I have served others from a comfortable place in my heart, at a distance from the real pain that others experience.  So often, we pray for those in need, and then immediately turn our hearts attention to the tasks for the day.  We serve in a food line, sometimes …

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This morning I went to the conference and pastor Ha introduced me and the other speakers to several thousand people in a packed house.  I was with Daniel Lee again whose church and conference I spoke at in February.  It was awe-inspiring just being in the room with all of them.  Pastor Ha is very ill. He left as soon as the speakers were introduced to go to the hospital. He will have a liver and kidney transplant next week.  Meeting with his staff and other pastors here is incredible.  God has done great things here.  I’m convinced prayer is why.  They say that!

This morning I got up at 4am. Nikki, David Grubbs, and I headed for the Onnuri Community Church prayer meeting where I spoke.  It was really good.  To have heard about that and then to have experienced it was powerful.  I spoke On Acts 10-11.  Think about it--a lost man’s prayer started the direction of the church against the preferred will of the Jewish believers into going “Gentile.” Been reflecting on this.  It all started with the covenant with Abraham to be the Father of Nations--that changed everything.  It all pointed to what the Messiah would do on the cross for all humanity.  It developed into the church which was primarily exclusively Jewish until Corneilius, now God goes global like never before driven by disciples.  Now, we find ourselves in an incredibly connected age with the real potential of fulfilling the Great Commission.

In a few hours I head to Seoul, South Korea. I’m ready. This has been a near perfect week. Spent a lot of time with staff the past two weeks narrowing down directions. NorthWood has grown substantially the past few weeks. The ministries of NorthWood are growing even faster. Our staff is called on frequently for counsel, advise, direction not just from our members but from outside NorthWood. My role as pastor/ambassador/mobilizer continues to grow, as well.  So many young pastors are wanting their churches to engage glocally like we teach. Many have come asking for help. This is a wonderful thing.  We just have to always be adjusting to be able to get it all done--and we are. This is proving to be the most exciting, thrilling, growing time in the history of our church and I would have to say mine and Nikki’s lives, as well.

I would say to you young pastors, “God put those dreams in your heart for a reason, don’t give up on them.” The question is not are we going to grow a church or change our communities and the world. It isn’t an “either or” question--it’s a “both and.” Any church that is growing numerically has a higher standard and expectation of engagement than a church that isn’t. Any church that is engaging should be reaching lost people at a higher rate and more intensive rate than one that is merely a Sunday event. How can you have one without the other. When we split the two, we either have a Sunday event which allows people to deny and ignore God in comfort while absolving guilt because the sacrifice of church attendance was laid down, or a humanitarian organization which feeds the stomach but not the soul.

So, the books I’m taking are organized. My fourth book should have its outline completed on the flight over the Pacific sometime in the next 15 hours. My five sets of papers are organized to study and work on the plane. My lectures are organized. My IPOD is loaded. Nikki is going with me - YYYEEEAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!! David Grubbs is going with us - our techno-guru-brilliant-web-master-to-change-the-world guy that I’ve known since he was a snotty nose little squirt in the nursery area of our church--not anymore--he’s a grown man.

One regret - Nick Boring from Kensington had this “cleansing” thing …

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