GlocalNet

This morning about 50 of us from NorthWood gathered at our new worship center and went in and prayed over the building and facility that is about to open.  We wanted our first service in the new building to be a prayer meeting.  Tonight and this weekend - unknown to most unless you read my blog - we are going to have our worship services in the new facility - but keep old times and do it with a couple of guitars and very simple audio, etc. - there is still much to be done.  But we want to give our people a week before our “grand” opening to find things.  From reading my blog and other things - people sometimes think I’m a house church leader because I challenge the established church so much or Asian because I speak of Vietnam so much - I am neither.  I am a white mega-church pastor! 

Most new churches want a big auditorium like this first - it’s what they live for.  In the early days it’s what I dreamed about.  Instead of being first - its perhaps one of the last “big ticket” dreams of a new church to have - 23 years after starting!  Many of you know the story how God broke me and in that breaking we began to discover the Kingdom of God - what it meant to live it practically and as a church.  This was when we began to start churches here in America and engage in society in Vietnam.  This is what has made NorthWood what she is - not any building or location we’ve ever had, not the preachers or staff - but the people and the mission.  The mission isn’t a building or a Sunday event - it’s much more than that.

So here we are this morning - 50 of us praying and sensing God’s presence.  We’re kneeling, walking, sitting, talking, sobbing, praying out loud, praying in groups - all of it.  I’m up in the highest section of seats praying down over the seats that will be filled and I notice a sticker on a piece of the furniture “Made in Vietnam” - I couldn’t believe my eyes. 

No statement could be truer of any church in America - I began to pray out loud and thank God for what he had done in our church as a result of us working in Vietnam.  As churches we go to places to “change” them - for us just the opposite has happened - they changed us.  Hopefully, we too have helped bring good changes to them. 

Communist, Atheist, Bhuddist, and Animist have taught me more about loving God and serving others than any book, save the Bible, any speaker, save Jesus, has ever done in my life.  Engaging a culture completely opposite mine - different philosophy, different values, different everything.  How can I say something as wild as this? 

You were more willing to be my friend than I was willing to be your friend in the early days.  That meant you treated me with respect and listened to me - not that you always agreed with me - or I with you.  You accepted me as a Christian - but was I willing to accept you as an atheist?  Ultimately I did - but what you did was to push me out of the box of relating to those most like me. 

It was you - who helped me understand that whether you every accept my view of God or not, accept my Savior Jesus or not - I should love you the same regardless.  This has changed everything about how I read the words of Jesus and what he expects of me.  You are now some of my closest friends.  I now consider you my second home.  I also realized I accept the truths of the Middle-Eastern faith that Jesus my founder brought - but each culture must contextualize how that is lived out.  I had mixed orthodoxy with orthopraxy.  Please forgive me - after all I am from East Texas.

You let me serve in your country and partner with you to help your poor.  It opened my eyes to poverty, suffering, and how as an American and more importantly a Christian - I could not ignore people who need help.  To do so for me would be a denial of Jesus Christ.  This is where I began to understand the Kingdom of God was much more than just praying the sinners prayer - it was about the reconciliation of all things.  It was here you moved me from salvation to transformation.  It was difficult - salvation is much easier - transformation requires much more effort, commitment, time and love.  Just send a revival God - that’s always much easier than sweating and it absolves me from any responsibility!

It was at this point, that we began to engage the society through the domains of education, art, communication, health, agriculture, governance, etc. through the vocations of our members.  You caused me to redefine what a pastor is and what my job is with reference to the people that I lead as a pastor.  My job was not just to educate on Sundays but to mobilize and engage people and society.  I moved from “seeker” church to “seeker” world which made our church into something I still don’t know what to call it.  You made me see my own blindness.  It is amazing to me how so many pastors can contemporize a worship service, yet really not the church - how they can learn to communicate with unchurched Americans yet be so old school - or even drop-outs when it comes to redefining the church beyond Sunday or their own members.  I realized my job was not to do religious work at all - but to make disciples who engaged society through their jobs.  This is much more viral and much more transformational and has a better chance of becoming a movement than tying Christian work to preachers and religious vocations.

It made people to people diplomacy take on a whole new meaning.  At the same time, as I went, not expecting anything in return - I received much.  You value friendship more than we in the West.  You understand “global” far more than we do in the West.  You taught me much - and loved me more - something I didn’t expect. 

As I began to understand the world - it made me read the Bible in a different way - it made me preach in a different way - it made me appreciate you in so many unexpected ways.  Then, you began to send us your children - around 50 now - that have lived with our members - come to our church - and become part of our families.  Even our family accepted one of your sons - Ti - and we love him deeply, he is a part of our family.  However, I have learned Vietnamese kids don’t like to be hugged as much as American kids or told they are loved as much (they like the love - just cultural differences).  A big bowl of Pho is the best way to say you love a Vietnamese kid here in the States! 

So, Vietnam, because we came to know you - much of our time and money and relationships went to you.  It meant that we wouldn’t build a building nearly as fast or have some things - they went to you - but we are today what we are - with a strong DNA and different perspective that is now shaping churches all across America - because of you.  Buildings have never defined our church - and neither will this one. 

Mr. General Secretary, Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Ambassador, businessmen there, educators there, and other leaders - most of whom I’ve met and some of you I know closely - thank you for all you have done for our church and what you have taught us.  Thank you for your kind notes and words during this time in the history of our church.  We would not be who we are today - were it not for you.  You are shaping the American church!  Thank you for the new freedoms you are granting to Protestants in Vietnam.  We are here for you - and we know you are there for us.  I pray, one day, when this life is over - that all of you are in heaven with me and God lets me live in the “Vietnamese” section of heaven - and we drink green tea early in the mornings on the street talking about the love of God and how marvelous our Savior Jesus is.  I will love you regardless.  Of coarse for this to happen we all have to believe in Jesus and we all have to die!  Jesus is optional - death is not. 

So, though many of you have not accepted our Savior, you have accepted us.  The foundation of our church is built upon Jesus Christ - the practice of our church because of you and Jesus - has been forged in Vietnam!