GlocalNet

Hey guys - this is what’s up the next few days at NorthWood. It’s neat to be a part of making the world a better place. Who wudda thot?

I’m pretty wasted tonight - started early this morning to get to Decatur, Illinois and got stuck on the tarmac at LaGuardia for a few hours - I made it, spoke. I wanted to write now because tomorrow will be a zoo and I don’t want to forget last night.

Richard Haas spoke and I can see why he is where he is. The guy is brilliant. I’d already read “The Opportunity” a while back and read his articles in Foreign Affairs, but after hearing him - I had a lot of things stirring inside of me. Some key things he said about people of faith and global issues:

—Timing is everything in global affairs - and the timing is now for the discussion of faith and foreign affairs.

—People and ideas matter - they always have.

—Current world described not so much by great powers of of a diminished order.

Each one of these you could talk all day on. I would have liked a day with him to probe him on these issues - and a lot more.

The thing that stuck in my mind the most though - was the question of how to do foreign policy for America. Is the starting point the world, or is the starting point America. Not sure where he comes out on that one. But it sure reminded me of our current “debate” of the church. Our starting point is not the church - but the world. Our seed - the Gospel of the Kingdom. I hope to get to know this guy a lot better.

I fly early this morning to Manhattan for a workshop Richard Haas is leading with other speakers on religion and foreign policy. There is no such thing as a secular world. The old days of diplomats trying to develop foreign and public policy apart from faith is over. There was the idea that faith was a private matter. Does anyone believe that anymore? When you see our current world situation and the future prosepects only dialogue and new ways of thinking about faith in the public sector can save us from all out destruction. I still believe what Jefferson wrote is our best hope of learning to live together. In his “wall of separation” between the church and the government - it was never a denial of faith or a minimalization of it - only a way to allow people of different faiths to communicate without making it public policy. I’m excited about some of the people who will be there and the presenters. At a time globally when we need “religious” statesmen the most - who is there? Why are they not there?

For the past 100 years the charismatic movement has swept the church and the world. Something specific in history happened at Azusa Street, but I also believe many of those same things were happening prior to that, there just wasn’t a vocabulary. There are many things that can be debated about it - but as I was running yesterday I was thinking to myself there are two incredible gifts the charismatic movement has blessed the entire church with. I think it goes beyond the supernatural expression of the miraculous.

First, because of the emphasis on the Holy Spirit I believe there came a strong passion for worship. The charismatic movement has taught the church to worship in ways that are profound and deep that impact mainline churches today. The freedom of the Spirit afforded by the charismatic church spread in music, expression, and a desire for spontaniety that even mainline churches emulate in many ways. I’m so so grateful for that. I can go in most churches and sing worship songs, lift my hands, and worship regardless of the denomination. I would also be quick to say, that as one who discovered the joy worship, when we discover the object of worship - we can “worship” in the highest of the high or the lowest of the low.

Second, because of the emphasis on the Holy Spirit - anything is possible - even outside the realm of human engineering. I am very grateful the charismatic movement has impacted the world as it has. We’ve all heard the stats that 75% of the church globally is charismatic. There are reasons for that - yes sociologically, culturally, identification - but you cannot minimize the belief in the power of the Holy Spirit that makes anything possible - even taking the Gospel to the most difficult places on the earth.

The lines between “charismatic” and “non-charismatic” have blurred dramatically since the 70’s and they will continue to. So, how do you reconcile some of the differences? I don’t - they’re there. Like the debate about free will and human responsibility - it’s a tension that will exist. But I woudn’t want to do away with a God that is in total control - neither would I want to follow a God that made me a robot. Excesses? Yes. Need for more excesses out of some who never get enough steam up to even …

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There have been several articles in the past year from many mission organization publications dealing with laymen, churches, and even other ngo’s (non-governmental humanitarian organizations) that are working around the world and and their impact on missions. At heart, I believe the real question that we struggle with is when the world is won for Christ, who will win it? Who will lead it? Who will be up on the front edge? My response is two-fold. First, we all will. Second, typical, normal, everyday national and international laymen will be up on the front edges—not religious professionals. Why? Theologically, the Great Commission was given to the whole church, not religious professionals like me. It is my job not because I’m a religious professional but because I’m a follower of Christ. Those of us that are religious professionals are to be more than anything equippers for the entire body—not the superstars. Biblically, you cannot ignore Antioch. It wasn’t the Apostles. It wasn’t the missionaries sent there (there weren’t any—it was these two lay guys who are on fire and a church emerges out of what they are doing.) Practically, we will never be able to fund enough missionaries, institutions, and organizations to do what God has called and commissioned the entire church to do. The Great Commission is great because it will take all of us. It’s too great a thing for a handful of people or institutions to accomplish.

Why do we segment everything all the time? Haven’t we learned there is no break between the sacred and secular? Now we want that division between the “vocational” and the “avocational”? What a stupid debate. Who is most important the vocational missionary (Paul) or the laymen (Antioch businessman) who owns the Great Commission and does business globally in secular non-Christian societies to bless those societies and model what faith looks like? You have to have both and trying to implement a pecking order is arrogant, prideful, flesh filled, and self-centered. Kind of reminds me of Jesus dealing with the apostles when they were arguing over who is the greatest. We now have over 15 couples out of NorthWood working world-wide as vocational missionaries. We have others in the pipeline. I do believe we are in need of radical redefinition of missionaries almost to the extent of the radicalness of what Carey did in his day. I also believe we are in …

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The power to transform a person, a family, a tribe, a nation, and the world doesn’t lie in the engineering of the perfect church - but lies in the planting the the seed of the perfect Gospel in the dirt of humanity. There, left to dirt and rain - the Gospel grows and works to a point that the church emerges. Form follows function. We think function happens if we get the right form. We may never which comes first, the chicken or the egg - but we know the Gospel before the Church.

I’m involved in a project that is bringing together some pastors from all over the world. We are learning from one another and trying to partner to see this world transformed. The group is small by design and to be involved it has little to do with your vision but your fruit. I had the opportunity to visit with both Ralph Neighbour, Jr. and Ralph Neighbour, Sr. today. I’ve known Jr. since I met him almost 20 years ago in the LA area. He’s always reminded me of Martin Luther for some reason. Sr., I met years ago and went to one of his cell church conferences. He had a significant impact on how I would develop in my views of ministry and the world. I was sharing with them some of the things that we’re doing globally and some dreams as well as some of the partnerships. Sr. called me up and gave me some profound advice. “All of the kind of men you want to work with will be inovators. But I’ve discovered there are two kinds of men. One is a castle builder and the other is a kingdom builder. A castle builder has his own agenda to build his castle. He wants notoriety and recognition. A kingdom builder wants God’s kingdom established. Be discerning of castle builders!”

How do you look in a man’s heart and know what is there? Texans are a lot like Asians. We smile and nod our heads, are warm, start in politeness, but want to get to know someone before going deep. In working globally, and in the US, one of the lessons I had to learn was that just because someone smiled at you didn’t mean they liked you or shared your values. How do you distinguish the two? Can you distinguish the two? At first, everyone and everything looks as it should. Time and conflict expose it for what it is. That’s easy and obvious. My question is, how do you see it before you go deep with someone so it doesn’t sidetrack what God’s call is. Maybe you can’t avoid it. Paul dealt with it, Peter did—everyone does. Maybe the point is, don’t freak out when it happens—it’s just part of the deck of cards.

Recently, I’ve been recieving a lot of “unsolicited prophecy” and I feel it has been from God. Some of it has been …

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Because we work around the world we have tons of partners—you have, too. One of the big lessons for the American church yet to learn is that no one church, network, denomination, person, organization has the whole picture and can get it all done. God has raised up people all across society and the church so that when we come together we can make massive differences. Outside of NorthWood and Glocal.net there are only two groups that I serve on the board or give a lot of time to. With both of those boards, I do so because we’re headed in the same direction and we can accomplish a lot more together than separate. One of those groups is the Institute for Global Engagement  that Chis Seiple heads up. I encourage you to go to their website and check them out. Chris is a “get er done” kind of guys. It isn’t a think tank that merely does white papers, but one that literally produces results. I’ve partnered with them up close in Vietnam and met others they’ve worked with around the world. Their focus and best known result is engaging governments at high levels to deal with issues of religious freedom. Many people talk about religious freedom and have “watcdog” groups. What I like about IGE is that they do something about it—they’re engaging governments and communities. HOWEVER, they do more than that. They are fast becoming a place for a new global conversation where people can connect, talk, and engage a new emerging world. Check ‘em out! Get involved!

As I was preaching in 1 Timothy this week, I reflected on Paul a good bit. He was complex, brilliant, difficult—to be taken sometimes only in small doses. But it took a “Paul” for the church to emerge as it did. What was Paul’s greatest contribution? His writings in Romans and Ephesians? His leader as the early missionary for the church? His church leadership abilities? I believe all of these were great, but had he not raised up Timothy and Titus, we may have never seen his books, seen the church move from leader of a movement to leaders of a movement or anything else. I rarely do this, but go listen to my sermon from Sunday on our church website northwoodchurch.org.  If you’re a young person, or someone going into ministry there’s a lot of good stuff in 1 Timothy 4:11-16 that can give you some good direction.

I’m proud to be celtic. The anglo-saxons didn’t conquer us unlike others on the British Isles! The Romans didn’t know what to do with us. Erwin McManus has written a book called the “Barbarian Way” in which writes about how we fought painted blue and white and naked. But that’s only part of the story - what made us so inconquerable was that when we fought our wives and children fought beside us. No one else did that. Most movies showed the women and children running and the men fighting when invaders would come. That’s not how the celts did it - their wives and children fought beside them. Do you have any idea how much harder that made the men fight? They would fight to the death knowing if they died their wife would and then their children. When a man started looking for a woman, he didn’t look for some petite little dainty, cute, skinny, pretty thang like a Paris Hilton - no, he wanted a honkin, tough, meat-on-the-bone, sword-weilding kind of mama - like a Queen Latifa! Something about seeing her painted blue and white running naked with a sword - I think I’d get out of her way! What about you?

Now for the spiritual application of this metaphor and mental image - missional families serve together. They are the building block of “spiritual communities” - so whatever you do, don’t separate ministry from the family - it should be done as family.

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