February 5, 2012

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pray:Mongolia Podcast for February

February 3, 2012 By 2 Comments
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Here is a podcast with updated prayer requests for February 2012.  This is made exclusively for those who are committed to praying for Mongolia for one hour every month.  However, this is a tool that could be used for anyone who prays.

 

All prayer requests for the field can be found at the CAMA Mongolia website. Let me know if you need the secret password.

 

Summary: Pray for missionaries and Mongolians during the winter months and the Tsagaan Sar celebration!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for praying!

Frozen Sidewalks

pray:Mongolia Podcast for February 2012 [ 5:58 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (31)
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Of Stalin, Church Leaders and Revolution

December 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Liberation Movement of Mongolia.  This was the revolution which took place prior to the Socialist Revolution of 1921, in which the Mongolian people became Independent of the Qing Empire of China. It was actually an odd and sort of “in-between” time in Mongolian history, which makes it somewhat controversial. So much so that this year’s  Parliament made it  a “one-time” holiday (to celebrate the 100 year anniversary).  Whatever the politics behind it, I’m grateful for a day, and with the Christmas parties over and the New Year’s Holiday upon us, even a week of slow and loose schedules.  This is a good week (and a good time of the year!) to think, write and plan.

Since leadership training is now one of my main tasks, the “why”, “how”, “what” of leadership, and more particularly church leadership, has been large on my personal radar. Article reading, journal writing, teaching weekly classes with our own leadership training program and some recent life encounters has afforded opportunity for this important subject to be at the top of all my lists.

The men behind the 1911 National Liberation Movement ended up failing in their attempts to lead Mongolia (as evidenced by reverting back to Chinese rule and the subsequent Socialist revolution a little over a decade later).  While movements and parties and revolutions can not be simplified to one hinge on which success and failure turn, I am fairly sure that revolutionary failure has much to do with a leadership gap.  I’m relatively certain (this is a blog and not a research dissertation – so, again, things are much more complicated. However…) that many, if not most, if not all movements, revolutions and organizations only rise to the level of the type of leadership they contain. I will leave the defense or rebuttal of that statement to someone who has done the research on the subject.  However, in light of this, I would like to make one simple observation.

John Maxwell defines leadership as “influence. Nothing more. Nothing less.” While I’m not a Maxwell fanboy, I do agree with that definition.  The real question is what kind of influence is being exerted on people? I haven’t finalized my thinking on this yet, but I’m beginning to come to a conclusion that there are essentially two kinds of influence (leadership).  One is that of power and control.  The second is that of example and service.  Revolutions and Liberation Movements tend to have “for the people” rhetoric, but inevitably leadership practice is still more about influence by control than influence by example and service.

I’m fairly certain that influence by service and example was first introduced by Jesus, which is why it’s truly unique and revolutionary.

“But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

(Matthew 20:25-28 ESV)

This kind of leadership is flat out weird.  Who does this? Some Mongolian friends told me one time that the leader of their “Christian” organization once boasted that he “leads like Stalin”, as if this is a good thing.  Stalin was a power/control influencer, not a servant/example influencer. Yet, this naive leader believed this to be the “right way” to lead. The problem is that he is not alone in his leadership opinions. While not every one would put it into such crass terms, the fact is that the world still leads with power and control and the church has embraced this worldly leadership style of “lording it over”.  I believe this is a huge issue for the church around the world and it needs to face with courage and a heart of repentance.

Westerners are often culturally more subtle than my Mongolian friends.  We tend to be less straightforward with our declarations.  However, we’ve all seen it for sure in others.  If we’re honest, we’ve seen it in ourselves. Oh, we have the civility to not say “I will lead like Stalin” – but the “Stalin-like” tendencies come out when those we influence don’t respond to us the way we like.  When the church board or business partners or employees or our children don’t do or act the way we think they should, the human bent is to “lead like Stalin”. It’s so easy to resort to power, control and manipulation rather than seeking to understand, serve, shepherd and influence by example.

In 1911, Mongolia moved from one form of “Stalin-like” leadership to another form of “Stalin-like” leadership to actually being led by Stalin (at least in a vicarious sense – if not directly).  Today it’s still the leadership model of this country and in the Mongolian church.  Obedience. Control. Power. They learned the model from Stalin. They continue to practice this model because of what they learn from the church of the West. From us. From me.

I repent.

In 2012, I dream that there will be another revolution in Mongolia (and in my own heart and lifestyle).  I dream there will be a leadership revolution.  I pray that the leaders of the Church in Mongolia will learn to shepherd like Jesus.  Serve like Jesus. Lay down their lives like Jesus.

I pray they will learn this not merely from words and teaching.  I pray they will learn this from the example they see in me.

So for 2012, may God give grace, not to lead … but to serve and to lay down my life.  I am convinced that’s the kind of influence which will lead to a revolution of which there will be no controversy celebrating in about a million years.

And I look forward to that more than this week’s days of relative leisure.

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The Discipline of Death

November 2, 2011 By 2 Comments
Cross

Yesterday I turned 44.  I informed Renee’ that I’m currently half way to 88 (as if she’s not way better at math than I am).  It’s an odd way to view age, I suppose, but now as a true “middle-aged” man, it’s just a realistic way of facing truth.  I’m not at all under the delusion that my “best years are behind me,” nor do I have any desire to “return to my youth.”  I’m quite content to be where I am. However, nearly every year, my birthday tends to begin a season of personal reflection that lasts until January. My wife told me I could probably blame my Dad for that.  She may be right.  I learned a lot about personal introspection from him.

I read these words this morning:

“Sometimes violent, sometimes gradual, paradigm crashes create an opportunity for God to take me off road, awakening me to mission by crucifying aspects of my culture, leadership and spirituality that, unbeknownst to me, need to die”

From “Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders” by Earl Creps

Mission is about following Jesus into the world, and this act of following is ultimately about death. The Bonhoefferian word regarding Jesus’ invitation to come and die is indeed the reality of taking the Cross to the unreached, the least reached and the unengaged peoples of the earth. Out of death comes life. But only out of death. Missional leaders through out the ages (circa: Augustine, Martin Luther, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, CT Studd, and the list goes on) make the same appeal.

This sort of apparently morose spirituality is generally unpopular.  It’s not happy-sounding or optimistic at all.  It’s not befitting to our American sense of well being and fairness.  Death is not really a part of our everyday experience.  When we face death, the corpse is dressed up in his best suit, has her hair done and is wearing makeup.  “Doesn’t she look beautiful?”  “It looks just like him.”  Really now?

I’d never seen dead people outside of a funeral home until moving to Ulaanbaatar. Since being here, we (and our children) have seen corpses several times.  A man coming out of a store just falling over like a cold stone. Maybe he had a heart attack? I never really knew for sure. His heart was no longer beating.  We’ve seen several instances of people lying dead in the street after being hit by a car.  Mongolian tradition (I don’t know if this comes from Shamanism or Buddhism) requires that a corpse lay where it fell for a certain period of time. Uncovered. Bare. Dead and exposed to the elements and available for all to see. It has something to do with giving the spirit time to properly depart from the body. It’s just one more evidence of death’s cruel reality.

There are other places in the world where death is even more in your face and life has even less value than here.  Places where open mass graves are not an unusual thing and where guns and bombs and disease are as everyday as a loaf of bread or a carton of milk, and death is a part of life.  Children of the world are generally not protected from it’s harsh reality in the same way suburban American children tend to be.

The Cross of Jesus makes more sense when it is considered in the matter-of-fact way most of the world views death. The Cross takes on more meaning than a gold chain or an ornamental stone in a graveyard.  It was a very tangible instrument of torture and death that Jesus demanded we take up in order to follow him.

Here’s what I’m rediscovering that this means as an overseas worker.

Unless there is a personal laying aside of my preferences and my opinions and my will for my sake, this thing called “mission” is never going to work.  Team will not work, mission will not work.  Nothing will work. Mission cannot be just be me trying to accomplish my vision and my plans and my goals and my direction for the sake of my own glory.  So this is why Creps book starts with the “Off-road” “discipline of death.”  It’s why Jesus said no one who comes after Him will be able to come after him without a Cross. His Cross. Jesus bids us come and die. Its’s the reality. It’s the way … and there’s no other way.  Death can be violent and death can be gradual. Either way, the paradigm shifts which must take place in our lives will equate to death of a way of life. Or a Dream. Or a goal.  Or an agenda. The death of these kinds of things is not easy.  It’s painful.  It’s agonizingly painful, because it’s personal. But that’s the call to “come and die.”

Mission and the cross are inseparable and not to be ignored.  Too much of our “mission talk” in America is about glory.  It’s about making sure that our prayer letters are full of glowing stories of all the Saints from all the world marching into the glorious Kingdom of God because you gave and I went. That’s mostly rubbish. It doesn’t look like that right now. It will. But it’s all quite messy at the moment. Frankly, if you hear so much “glory talk” from most fields, you can be fairly certain that the truth is being stretched – at least a little.  Personal pain and death to self has to take place before anything “glorious” is going to happen.  Young dreamy-eyed grad students want to work overseas in the world of “missions” … raise the Banner,“for the Kingdom” … and little do they know what they’re heading into. I was there once. That was the triumphalistic closing of all my correspondence. At 44 years old the greeting “for the Kingdom” has changed simply to “Grace.” Please don’t get upset. I’m still very much about the kingdom of Jesus. I am. It’s my highest value and what I aim live the next 44 years for, whether in Mongolia or anywhere else in the world our Commander asks me to go.  However, it’s not going to happen without an enormous amount of grace. Overflowing, burgeoning floods of grace … because fruit will only be born when the seed goes into the ground and dies. (John 12:24.  Always John 12:24.)

There’s not another option.

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Painting Smoke: The Cross-Cultural Learning Curve

October 16, 2011 By 3 Comments
Train

I have the following conversation with random Mongolians at least once a day:

Random Mongolian: “How long have you been in Mongolia?”

Me: “Working on five years now”

RM: “Oh really? You speak Mongolian so well”

Me: “Thanks … some days are better than others”

The “Me” inside of my head: “I hope I properly understood that conversation”

Most Mongolians are very gracious to foreigners when it comes to language learning.  A haltering, poorly accented “Sain bain uu” (the basic greeting here) will warrant lavish praise for great efforts at language study, at least from most Mongolians.  I think this is because in the past, others have come into Mongolia and never bothered to learn their language. On the other hand, maybe it’s because Mongolians know exactly how difficult their language is to master (at least for English-speaking Americans over the age of 35).  Either way, I take all encouragement for what it’s worth, and just know in my heart I really don’t speak that well, at all.

I say this, not because of a small vocabulary or a lack of understanding on how to properly put together complex sentences.  Although, I still do need to work on those complex sentences, it’s a much deeper issue than vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

The greatest need, culturally speaking, for the worker in Mongolia is to understand the Mongolian heart.  Language learning is only a very small part of a process that is much longer and deeper than two years of study (which happened three years ago) could ever accomplish.  Having started a second term here, I can say it definitely takes more than a term. I’m fairly certain it’ll take more than two terms. It’s perhaps a lifetime of work. This is a perspective of culture learning I’m choosing to take, and would encourage anyone in ministry to take a similar approach, as well.

All ministry deals with culture in some way, shape or form.  There’s always a need for something more than a superficial understanding of the culture in which we serve, where ever that may be.  When pastoring in the US, I had a huge advantage. I understood how Americans work and think, because I was one of them. I had some learning to do to understand the culture of Franklin, TN, but the learning curve was a natural, easy bend in the road.  I’m writing this from a train in the middle of the Gobi desert.  I can look out my window and see the train engine taking the slow, gentle curve that will eventually take me home to Ulaanbaatar. You have to go with the curve or you derail, but it’s doable and doesn’t take a terrible amount of effort. Some work. Some study. But not a lot. Not really.

The learning curve when crossing a culture, particularly one that’s as different from my own as Mongolian culture happens to be, is nothing like this train ride through the gentle curves of the Gobi Desert.  It’s be more like a crazy winding road through the Alps.

I’ve talked about this before, but I’ve found it critical to embrace the fact that I may not and often times will not understand what’s going on around me here.  This has reached something of a crisis point for me.  Misunderstandings abound and I must be the first one to admit the hard reality: I may very well be the one who is missing the point. I need to learn more. I need to find a way to understand better. This involves way more than verb endings and complex sentences. This is about the enormous complexity of working with people who will never think in the same ways that I think.  Their culture is vastly different from my own.

I’ve heard “cross-cultural ministry experts” (many of whom are better classified “short-term missions experts” who have never really lived in a culture outside of their own for more than two weeks) quote the overused adage “It’s not right. It’s not wrong. It’s just different,” as if that’s all it takes to understand cultural differences. The fact is, it’s an incredibly simplistic and trivial way to look at things.  There are many issues which are “wrong” in every culture. Some things that are right. There are many occasions for an appropriate value judgement. However, value judgement is not possible after only a few hours or a few days. Sometimes it’s years and decades. Cultural evaluation and understanding is so much more complex than a cliche.

I’ve taken this perspective for two reasons:

1. It has everything to do with my own arrogance. I must die daily. I’m typically able to hide pride from folks well enough to not seem like a tool. Usually. However, I also know that my fallen flesh will sometimes rise up and say, “I know this language.  I understand what’s going on here.  I mean, when teams form the States come to visit they think I’m a fluent, buutz-eating, airag-drinking Mongolian.  And besides … random-monoglian-on-the-train just told me how awesome I am at speaking the language. There’s absolutely no way I could be the one not understanding what’s happening here. The Mongolian worker who is now offended by me is the one who misunderstood. It’s not my issue.”

I might be able to get away with that attitude in Franklin, TN (but arrogance is arrogance, no matter where you work – so I don’t recommend it). A different approach is required here.  My assumption from now on is that I am the one who is misunderstanding.  I am the one who will take the position of learner, and thus make my way a little further up this narrow curve.  It’s my issue, not theirs. I’m the outsider, not them.  They will forever know WAY more about themselves than I ever can.

I need this perspective to stay in a place humility.  My language will never be that awesome.

2. Most importantly, I need this attitude for the sake of the Gospel.  The Gospel is paramount.  There is nothing more important.  To keep the Gospel pure and contextual, nothing can be assumed, other than the reality that there’s a high likelihood I’m being misunderstood. This requires me to work even harder at making sure I am communicating the truths of God, Man, Sin, Christ, Repentance and Faith in ways that are clear, simple, Biblical and meaningful.  Words are important. When crossing a culture words and meanings can sometimes be as elusive as the smoke coming from the engine of this train … and as difficult understand as it would be to paint the smoke on a canvas. Understanding shifts, and what I thought to be the appropriate meaning for one word, ends up being quite inappropriate.

One of our Mongolian friends is trying to teach me to say, “It would be cool to ___.”  The issue is that what I fill in for ___ is not the same thing she fills in for ___ .  8 out of 10 times, I say the wrong thing and sound silly.  She told me, “Until you learn this better, only use this phrase with us. Please don’t say it to other people.” I appreciate my friend’s kindness in saving me from grave embarrassment and deep humiliation.

Grace, God, man, sin, repentance and faith are infinitely more important than “It would be cool to ___.”  For the Gospel to be rightly explained, we have to use vocabulary that is both true to the Bible and understandable to the hearers. Words must have meaning. There’s no “balance” to strike here. Both of these things must be true. We have to get it right.

My deep concern when it comes to cross-cultural work is that in our sanctimonious rush to “get results,” we’re not getting it right. We’re not taking the time to navigate the learning curve, and assume far too much.

How can you pray for those working in cross-cultural ministry? Pray that we are patient enough to navigate the treacherous, yet necessary, learning curves required to walk in Jesus-like humility and to communicate the Gospel with cultural and Biblical clarity.

Some assistance when it comes to making complex sentences would not be refused.

 

The train which goes from Zamyn-Uud to Ulaanbaatar on which this article was written…
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Teaching Parrots to Talk (Thoughts on Cross-Cultural Discipleship)

August 29, 2011 By 4 Comments
parrot

We’re now entering our third month back from Home Assignment. I’m grateful the field has allowed us to settle in slowly. Our apartment is finally painted and mostly decorated. We’re liking the 11th floor and getting used to the noise. Today the weather is cooling and hopefully our hot water will return sometime this week.  We are now preparing for full ministry months ahead. I’m eager to get started with leaderhsip training and college student discipleship.

In preparation for resuming the challenging schedule of cross-cultural ministry (and in preparing the proposal for my Masters thesis at UNISA), I am re-reading what I would consider to be two of the most important books I’ve read on the subject of spirituality and cross-cultural work. Duane Elmer’s Cross-Cultural Servanthood is one of the most convicting and challanging books, I’ve read on the issues of serving (I mean really serving … like Jesus … not just patronizing) another culture. The other book, I finished just this morning. It’s a small volume by a South African missiology scholar named David J. Bosch entitled  A Spirituality of the Road. It’s also a challenging little book on maintaining a Biblical spirituality in the heat of cross cultural work. Yesterday, I read something from chapter 4 that brought me to a screeching squealing stop.

We so easily see our responsibility as disposed of when we have imparted the gospel to a people, established a younger church with it’s own indigenous ministry, and taught them some Western administrative machinery. In all this, the emphasis is almost entirely on one-way communication … We prescribe carefully prepared Gospel recipes. But – and this is the core of the problem – only rarely do we allow them to experience all this together with us.

The result, more often than not, is that we train parrots instead of building up people

Jesus commanded us to make disciples. Making disciples is not teaching parrots to speak or (to use a different metaphore) learning to be a puppeteer. This is true when it come to disciple-making and leadership training in any context and in any culture, but become especially vital when working cross-culturally. I still feel very much at the bottom end of the learning curve, when it comes to cross-cultural work. But this, I know … my attitude must be that of a learner. A student. A neophyte in Monoglian culture and understanding. A question asker, rather than being “the answer”.  Bosch tells of an educated and respected worker who was leaving a particular African field for Home Assignment. One of the national church leaders made this statement about him:

What a pity. He’s learned nothing while he’s been with us. He always knew.

I don’t want to always know. Particularly when it comes to leadership training, pastoral skills and the application of the Bible in Mongolia. If I “always know”, my work becomes the mere impartation of knowledge, rather than the living out of Biblical grace and community with my Mongolian brothers and sisters in Christ. A fully trained disciple or leader must be able to do more than repeat words. The Gospel has no affect until it has been internalized, contextualized and lived. Together. Love and grace must be experienced along the road together, rather than through dispassionate classroom rhetoric that’s copied and pasted into another life. Jesus is life and freedom and joy. Those are things are not understood in a classroom.  It’s on the road, together – and the proverbial “classroom” becomes daily life. Eating and drinking and laughing and crying. I suppose that’s exactly what Jesus did with His “twelve”.  It’s the pattern I’d also like to follow.

So, I am looking forward to working with Mongolian leaders and students this year. It will be a new year of challange and grace. However, my main objective is not to train parrots. I want to live and walk in grace and the Truth, and discover how to do that here with those God has called me to serve.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord; with ourselves as your servants, for Jesus sake

2 Corinthians 4:5

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The Real Meaning of “Cosmic Powers”: Thoughts from Leadership Camp

August 5, 2011 By 7 Comments
fenceline

It was a meeting that almost didn’t happen. The entire group of church leaders wanted to do the morning session outside, which was fine when the decision was made. It was warm and the sun was shining.  But this is Mongolia. The session began, the wind turned cold and, while everyone insisted they were “okay” it was clear that at least most were more than a tad uncomfortable.

Every year the C&MA church leaders in Mongolia gather at beautiful location high in the mountains between the northern city of Darhan and the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.  In Mongolian it’s considered a resort or a “vacation spot”.  To the outside eye, it’s rustic campground in a village with more cows than people. The village doesn’t even have what most would consider a proper name.  It’s simply known as “84”.  However, no one is coming to that village to visit the gift shops and tourists traps (in fact there are no stores there), but to get away from the busy-ness of the city and enjoy the most beautiful thing Mongolia has to offer anyone: her countryside. The beauty of the countryside was the primary reason the group elected to hold this session out doors. The view was breathtaking. As was the relentless wind that sprung up from the north.

The outside session was finishing up.  Our team leader and field director Dennis Maves was teaching on a Biblical understanding of healing.  We had big plans for this session.  A specific time of prayer for healing was the intent.  We were to practice the James 5 command.  The oil was ready.  But it had turned cold enough that our hosts felt sorry for us sitting outside and brought everyone hot water and instant “3 in 1” coffee. While the attendees were happy to warm up, we thought we’d lost the meeting, as people began to disperse seeking warmer shelter, coffee in hand.

The Mongolian church is twenty years old this year.  The Mongolian C&MA is just shy of the double decade mark. I think of her as an adolescent church.  I suppose in the grand scheme of history she’s really still a toddler.  I Corinthians comes to mind, a lot.  When Paul wrote his first letter to the church at Corinth, that church had just risen out of paganism approximately twenty years before.  The issues in the church at Corinth and the church in Mongolia have an uncanny similarity.  Division, a shallow understanding of Biblical application, struggles with impurity, the need for a deeper understanding of doctrine.  I am personally convinced that the greatest need of the church in Mongolia is Biblically trained servant leaders who will lead the church in power, grace and humility.  That’s why we have camps like this. Of course, one camp isn’t the solution.  But it’s a step in the right direction.  And what happened after coffee was served on this day, was a profound step, indeed.

Everyone reconvened.  It was almost lunch. It would be easy to call it a morning. But it’s one thing to teach the Bible.  It’s another to teach the Bible and put teaching immediately into practice. This is a value and a practice in our training philosophy.  So, with under an hour to lunch, everyone gathered back inside, where the bodily comfort level increased a small amount, and we invited the group to come forward for prayer.  We specifically wanted to make the application of prayer for healing, but we did open the door for general prayer, and (what proved to be the key for the morning) prayer for healing in the churches.

The Spirit moved. One after another came forward.  By far, the most common prayer request went something like this:

 “There is a powerful Shaman in my family (near my church, in my building, etc.). He (or she) is causing trouble in my life (or in my church life). Please pray for us”

Shamanism has had an influential resurgence in post-Soviet Mongolia.  It’s a very tangible force that keeps many in a place of fear and bondage.

The meeting took a turn when one church leader from a new church recently started in a mining community in the Gobi Dessert came forward and asked the group to pray for the healing of her church, and against the very powerful Shaman who had been working against the planting of a church there. We invited the other leaders to gather around her, and at that moment the entire room came forward, laid hands on the dear woman and prayed.  I don’t believe I’ve ever a group of leaders pray like this before, in Mongolia or anywhere else.  They prayed fervently. As fervently as I’ve ever heard. They worked hard at prayer. They prayed against the powers of darkness that work against God’s Kingdom and the reign of Christ. It was moving. It was powerful. Most importantly, it was real.

They prayed like this for almost two hours. It was alive. It was real, spiritual work.

And we were late for lunch.

Through this, I’m reminded again of the true identity of the real enemy of the church. The enemy is not a particular Shaman. It’s not a Government. It’s not unbelievers. It’s not (contrary to the belief and practice of some) another brother in Christ. It’s not any man.

 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”    Ephesians 5:12

The Mongolian church understood something that morning which many of us from the  “mature” and sophisticated world of the West forget (or refuse to believe). The real world is not the things we can touch and taste.  It doesn’t consist of money or possessions.  It definitely isn’t about the banality of an MTV “reality” show.  We hear words like “cosmic powers” and immediately jump to science fiction and nerdy 35 year old boys dressed up like Stormtroopers playing in a World of Warcraft tournament at ComicCon.

Spiritual darkness is real. Spiritual light is real. The warfare which exists between the two is real. Those of you who support our work in Mongolia, or any Kingdom venture anywhere, should remember that giving money is not enough. While appreciated, being on the ground and helping to construct a building is not going to prove all that helpful in the long run. The building will fall. The money will run out. I hope and pray some of you will join these emerging church leaders in Mongolia in real Kingdom work. In the spiritual realm, authentic work and warfare take place when God’s people pray. These Mongolians leaders taught me that lesson again … in a meeting that almost wasn’t. I’m very happy we were late for lunch.

 I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working. 

 James Hudson Taylor


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Podcast 5
pray:Mongolia

July 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Sky

Presenting Remember Mongolia podcast #5!

Take 15 minutes to hear three key things that you can pray for this month.  This is media geared for those groups committed to to praying for Mongolia for one hour every month.  I sincerely hope and pray that you find this useful.  If you want to know more about pray:Mongolia, please contact us for more info.

Some links from the podcast:

I mention an article in which there are 19,000 sex workers in Mongolia. It’s worth reading. Then praying.

I don’t mention this in the podcast, but please pray for and support Remember Nhu.  This wonderful organization is seeking to place a home in Ulaanbaatar.

The final quotation is from Michael Card’s book “The Hidden Face of God”. If you have not read this, order it today through the link below:

The Hidden Face of God: Finding the Missing Door to the Father Through Lament

The RememberMongolia Podcast is on iTunes.  Search iTunes for Remember Mongolia or go here.

Again, we thank you for your support and your partnership. Listen. Connect. Pray.

 

And again … thank you.

Remember Mongolia Podcast 5 [ 14:39 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (492)
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pray:Mongolia

June 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We have one week of home assignment remaining. My main observation is the fact that a year is not a very long time.

As we return, the foreboding words of Galadriel in “The Fellowship of the Ring” sound truth to me:

“Your Quest stands upon the edge of the knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the Company is true.”

The procurement of a church in Mongolia that will prevail in the darkest and most difficult of times; a church that is able to support herself, theologize herself, train her own leaders, evangelize her own people and send her own missionaries.  There is no smaller goal.  It’s not possible through human means alone. We need Sovereign help, grace and power.

This is why our final words from home assignment are extremely practical. Pray. Please pray.  Our family is not going to make it … and the Quest will fail if we are not praying together.

It’s from this conviction that the idea of pray:Mongolia is birthed.

The vision is simple: we are trusting God to raise up a minimum of fifty groups of two or more who will commit to praying for Mongolia for one hour per month. Every month on around the 15th (beginning in July 2011) we will send to these groups fresh media (video, audio podcast) from the field with the most current prayer needs.  In this way, we can partner together for the good of the Mongolian people and the Glory of Jesus.

Would you consider it? Will you join us in this life or death Quest? I’d love it if you would.

Contact us and let us know how many are in your group and when and where you’ll pray every month.  We’ll add you to the resource distribution list. It will be great to work together.

Your partnership and prayers are appreciated.  It was great to connect with so many of you over the past year.

“The power of prayer has never been tried to its full capacity in any church. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine grace and power wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let the whole Church answer God’s standing challenged; “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knows not.”

J.Hudson Taylor

 

 

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Work. Fight. Sacrifice.

March 25, 2011 By 2 Comments
WFS

We are finished with a four-week tour of the C&MA churches in the Hawaiian Islands. It’s been a beautiful month of connecting with the great folks in the churches here, as well as getting to see some of the beauty of this place. Now we’re off to hit several churches in the southeastern US. However, Hawaii will be remembered with fondness.

We didn’t get a huge opportunity to do everything there is to do there. No surf lessons. No snorkeling. I didn’t get to fly over the volcano on the “Big Island”. My wife did get to see the Robin Masters Estate (of Magnum PI fame). She was happy about that.

One of the highlights of “playing tourist” was visiting Pearl Harbor. My expectations were that of a tourist-driven war memorial and while I was sure that being on “that particular spot” would be interesting and maybe even kind of cool, I was not prepared for my real reaction.

“December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy”

The Arizona Memorial

As we moved through the queue for the movie and the short boat trip aboard a US Naval vessel to the resting place of the USS Arizona, there was something about being there that I found inexplicably moving. I had been looking forward to this trip. Renee’ had told be about the beauty of the blue water in the harbor – and I don’t doubt her assessment. However, the day we visited it was appropriately choppy and gunmetal gray. As we looked over the edge, oil continues to leak into the water.

There's still oil in the water around the wreckage

Knowing that the rusting hull beneath us serves as a tomb for 1,177 soldiers made me feel small, weak and cowardly. Some tourists (many of whom, interestingly, were Japanese) gazed thoughtfully over the now peaceful waters. Some took pictures with thousand dollar cameras and tripods. I felt it to be a place of mourning and deep sorrow and, even though I too took pictures, I wondered if cameras should be banned or banished to the sea with the dead.

In Memory

Questions came with the unexpected emotion of the day. Questions like, could America ever win a war again? Could the civilian population (and the news media) lay aside comfort for something that will be for the proverbial “greater good”? There was something about the WW2 generation, for good or for ill, in that they were willing to lay down their comforts and their rights for something bigger than themselves. In my generation the cynicism is too great. We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust the military. We don’t trust anyone who might tell us what to do. We don’t trust ourselves.

The dock in the rain

The more profound questions are in the placards on the shore which surround the memorial. Why does God’s grace allow for some to live and some to die? Perhaps better asked, why are we all not dead?

I don't know how to answer this...

This bit of American war-time propaganda caught my attention.

Work.Fight.Sacrifice. As a nation, could we really ever do this again?

Work. Fight. Sacrifice.

I was immediately drawn to this. Those three little words. I find them inspiring, noble words. Words I would like to be characterized by. Words that I know very little about.

They are Gospel words, really. At least if taken in the proper perspective.

Jesus worked on our behalf. That work was completed. “It is finished.” He obeyed the Law, thus completing the Law. He did it all. (Romans 10:4, Matthew 5:17)

Jesus fought for us … and won. He made a public spectacle of his defeated foes. Principalities and powers are no longer principle and no longer powerful. They’re disarmed and shamed. (Colossians 2:15)

He sacrificed everything, because we had nothing to sacrifice but life itself. The cross means a sacrifice I could never make. Jesus made it. For me. Forever. (Philippians 2:8, Hebrews 10:4-14)

Work, fight, sacrifice are Gospel words because Jesus did all of this for those who believe on his name. And we’re changed. And thus we do the things he did, for the benefit of others (Ephesians 2:10). We, too, work, fight and sacrifice.

This is where the bite and the challenge lies for me. I completely rest in the work Christ did for me. I’m shielded by his victory. I’m secure in his sacrifice. There’s nothing I can add. Yet, where does my very real working, fighting and sacrificing come to play?

I don’t believe the Bible teaches a pacifist spirituality, where all is rest and peace on every side and the Christian just floats to heaven “happy all the day.”

There’s more to it than this. I am pretty convinced that at least one job I have in the working out of God’s epic and historical masterpiece is that of prayer. Doing the work of prayer. Fighting the fight of prayer. Making the sacrifice of prayer.

Here’s the beef. Ministry, whether in Mongolia or in America, is about seeing the spiritually dead come alive (Ephesians 2:1) and hoping that the spiritually blind will actually begin to see (2 Corinthians 4:4). No mortal can make that happen. We say in the Alliance “prayer is the primary work of the people of God.” Theologically speaking, this is why I believe it’s true: prayer’s work in mission is essential, because God’s work in mission is indisputable.

I’m thankful for Pearl Harbor memorial. I’m thankful for those who gave their lives and I mourn their loss. I’m thankful those lives were not wasted and that the United States is still free. I’m thankful for that memorial, and for my visit there. It helped me to see something essential. Something I can’t loose sight of, lest I sink and drown. My first job is to work, fight and sacrifice in the arena of prayer, even though when it comes down to it, I’m pretty much a wimp when it comes to the fight of prayer. I’m a disciple who sleeps while the son of God sweats blood.

But Paul told the Colossians to “continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2). Pay careful attention to it. Be courageously perseverant in it. That’s the kind of working, fighting, sacrificing and praying that needs to happen for the nations, for communities, for my family.

“Remember Pearl Harbor” was the rallying cry in the days following December 7, 1941. I don’t know if it’s quite “a rallying cry” for me. But my day in those warm, gray choppy waters changed me. In the end, i hope it will remind me to work, fight and sacrifice in order to pray for and with my wife and my children, friends, family, neighbors. I hope it helps some to “Remember Mongolia,” as well.

“Prayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work” A.B. Simpson.

Filed Under: Bernie's Blog, Blog

The Mongolia-Hawaii Connection

March 1, 2011 By 1 Comment
Hawaii Blog1

“Oh, how you must suffer for Jesus”.

That’s the typical initial sarcastic response I get when I tell people that we are doing Missions conferences for the churches in Hawaii. In February. And it’s true, we’re not suffering here, too much. Warm air, sea breezes, awesome sunsets and breathtaking vistas add to the inherent pleasantness of what is already a truly beautiful place. Perhaps the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited. And the food … well, I won’t even get started with the food.

However, our time here has not been spent drinking piña coladas on the beach (believe it or not).

The conversations we’ve had with church leaders in Hawaii have been enlightening and stimulating. I have come to the conclusion that Hawaii is a strategic launching point for the Great Commission, particularly in reaching Asian lands. I was speaking with a young associate pastor of a church here about the possibilities of Hawaii becoming a center for Missions and Leadership training, as this is his vision. It is exciting to see what may take place.

I’m also thrilled to see what may happen with several partnerships that are developing and may be developing here with Mongolia. A Hawaii-Mongolia connection is happening. There is already one church on it’s way to an official strategic partnership with the field. (Shout out to Leeward!) There are others who expressed serious interest in this, as well. Mongolia needs partners. It’s a privilege to see God making a way for more partners to form from these beautiful islands as we travel from church to church.

I am praying that the Hawaiian churches will continue to mobilize for mission, and that the saints here will lay down their lives so the Nations will achieve their purpose.

“I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth” Psalm 46:10

And He will be exalted in Mongolia, as we work together for the beauty and glory of Jesus.

So, please pray for the churches of Hawaii. There are struggles they face which are unique to these islands. The Lord has His people here. It’s been a privilege to connect with them.

And I’ll just say that our suffering here has been minimal. Especially at meal times…

Filed Under: Bernie's Blog, Blog
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