I’ve found my thinking often lands on the issue of community. Community, not in the sense of development or “centers”, but community in the sense of “living life together”.

Last week I went to a “Hutchmoot”. “Hutch” as in a cage for rabbits. “Moot” as in an old English word for meeting, used specifically with regards to the meeting of large tree-shepherds called “Ents” in the writings of JRR Tolkien. Strange name. Spectacular gathering (I almost wrote “meeting” but “meeting” could bring thoughts of board rooms and power lunches. This was more a gathering: dispersed people wandering to one place for an informal but glorious “moot”. Check out the web page and the Rabbit Room for more info and true etymology.) Weekend discussion focused on Gospel centered story telling through music, literature and other artistic expression. Lot’s of talk about books and music – which was fun. However, the core and essential matters, and the moments which moved me most were conversations which ended up centering on Christian community in relationship to Gospel storytelling. I came away with the seed of an idea that I am not sure I will ever move away from. The best ministry and creativity in a Christian and Biblical context will always sprout and grow to fruition in an environment of community. I am still playing with that sentence. I don’t know for sure. But I have this deep suspicion that it’s true. Truer than I know.

M. Night Shaymalan had a couple of decent films early in his career. The Sixth Sense and Signs were examples of good film-making; surprising, redemptive, even beautiful in their message and tone. That said, all of his films since those two have taken a serious turn for the worst. He’s become a “one-trick pony” and his recent films have been good examples of the uncreative and banal. In a recent conversation, we were discussing how someone could go from “Sixth Sense” to “Last Airbender” and I found out, interestingly enough, that Shaymalan works in alone. He writes alone. He has complete creative control of all his films, and does very little collaborating with others. He does not work in community. This answered many questions for me.

Community and creativity must walk together. Without community, creativity becomes a one-dimensional effort; limited; dull and what once was original becomes secondhand and worn out.

Contextual theology is creative work in much the same way writing a song or a novel is creative work. This is particularly true in a young church that doesn’t have 2000 years of church history to stand on. The Church in Mongolia is in the process of becoming “self-theologizing.” This is a critical and oft neglected aspect of mission. Right now Mongolian Christian theology has been nearly 100% imported. Some is fine. There are aspects of theology that are universal and timeless and cross all cultures. However, there is s great need pastors and teachers and thinkers and writers in Mongolia to learn how to theologize in way that is both Biblical and contextual. There is much more to be said about contextual theology than what can be put into a blog post, but I will say that this task of learning and doing will take a great amount of creative energy, much of which was sapped in Mongolia by seventy years of socialism. My Mongolian sisters and brothers will have to open new channels of thinking and creating in order to do the creative work of contextual theology. This is not a mere academic venture. It is as much artistic.

At the very center of this creative contextual theologizing, is a community of believers united by the Cross, the Blood, their faith and their story. Learning to live and work together, “striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3) A group who is called “the Body of Christ” (I Corinthians 12:27) and “the Bride of Christ” (Revelation 19:7), and even “brothers” of Jesus (Hebrews 2:11). A group that Jesus has prayed for very specifically. “…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21) This group is called to tell the unique story of Mongolian Jesus followers to this generation and to the next. No one else can tell their story. The story must be told. Together.

I have to confess that this kind of community is something I’ve only tasted a few times in my life. I’ve written about it before, and, in recent days, have had so many good discussions with good friends on this topic. However, it is something that I dream for the emerging church in Mongolia. We return in 10 months. My hope and prayer is that next term we will have the opportunity to begin walking with the Mongolian church to a new age: Community-based, Biblical, creative, contextual theology propelled through the culture in the conduit of proclamation, story and song.

My hope is that if we work together with Mongolian brethren, and the church works together in community, we will see stories and films and songs in the Mongolian language that will rival the works of Lewis or Tolkien or Chesterton in the English language (and perhaps very little of everything “The Last Airbender” represents).

Now back to the library. I have a paper to finish.

* For those who are not aware, I am doing graduate work through the University of South Africa. I hope to finish phase one of this work the first week of February. More on this in another post…

I’ve figured something else out (I’m slow and incredibly egocentric when it comes to these things). The same is true when it comes to living in America. There are no ticker-tape parades celebrating the fact that a former pastor, missionary (err… International Worker) family is now living Stateside. There may have been a day when that would have been different. Possibly. Frankly, I am happy there were no parades and I despise the celebrity making of Christian workers who are supposed to be servants. So it’s all good.

As we reconnect with Southern US, Franklin, TN culture, I am seeing the obvious: things have changed and are changing. I am not an anthropologist or a sociologist or an any-kind-of-ologist. I have learned over the years that Christian ministry requires skills in exegeting the Word as well as exegeting the culture. The Word and culture must connect in a way that both heaven-reaching meaning and oak-rooted truth live peaceably with each other. This is contextualization, and is necessary work in both Franklin and Ulaanbaatar.

American culture has shifted in the past four years. It’s not really even that subtle. People are generally satisfied with their lives. There is little “need” at a conscious level. We are a truly post-Christian age. Albert Mohler makes this observation in a Newsweek article that was published last year:

“The post-Christian narrative is radically different; it offers spirituality, however defined, without binding authority,” he told me. “It is based on an understanding of history that presumes a less tolerant past and a more tolerant future, with the present as an important transitional step.” The present, in this sense, is less about the death of God and more about the birth of many gods. The rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans are people more apt to call themselves “spiritual” rather than “religious.”

There are interesting similarities between post-Christian American spirituality and the potpourri of spiritualities present in post-socialist Mongolia. For the most part, anything goes and tolerance reigns supreme. (Sidebar: Please don’t misunderstand. I am not for intolerance in the unloving, graceless, bitter way that the “God hates fags” crowd is intolerant. I am for finding the Biblical balance of grace and discernment). We need to seek how we are to engage a culture that is as interested in hearing about Jesus as they are about inner workings of the government in the Czech Republic. I once asked a woman in an Outer Mongolian countryside ger if she had ever heard about Jesus. She said she had heard of Jesus, but he “wasn’t interesting”. She followed the “yellow religion” (that is Tibetan Buddhism). I have a friend who works at a cafe’ in Franklin, TN. She has tried to share Christ with her coworkers, and they are no more interested in Jesus than the Yellow-Religion following Mongolian. One guy at the cafe’ believes in Kharma. Another believes all roads lead to heaven. There is a satisfaction in being a good heathen. Hardworking. Tolerant. Not a bitter anti-Christian. Simply satisfied to include Jesus as nothing more than another totem on the pole. People here and there will not be characterized by banging down the doors of our churches any time soon.

That’s what I see, culturally speaking. However, I am also wondering what the answer might be. How do we bring attention to need without carrying signs and yelling at people on street corners? I am pretty sure that Jesus will not generally be received this way. Nor will we. On the other hand, we must engage people in the conversation. People are not going to hear about Christ nor receive His grace because we simply exist.

I told a story at our church’s VBS last week. It was a story Jesus told about two men, a religious-worker-pastor-missionary-type who thought he had it all together and a worldly-wise thieving tax collector who had clearly blown it with his life. One prayed extensively with extreme gratitude that he was better than everyone else and one wouldn’t lift his eyes to heaven for the shame of what he’d done with his life. One was ignored by God and one “went away justified.” It’s a potent story for those who trust “in themselves that they are righteous and treat others with contempt.” It was powerful when I told it to church children. It had to be powerful when Jesus told it to religious Jews. (See more at Luke 18:9-14)

I don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that current cultural shifts are making way for the rediscovery of the power of story. Perhaps this is the day for artists and poets and photographers and moviemakers and singers in the church to use their gifts alongside the preachers and philosophers to tell the Gospel story to this generation in a way that is subtle, surprising and powerful. It seems to be true in Mongolia as well as in America. What would it look like if the church became something of a community of story tellers, missionally proclaiming the Gospel in Christlike humility? I’m convinced this a conversation we should be having in the world-wide Christian church of 2010. What will this kind of community look like in Mongolia and Franklin and the million other communities around the world where the church currently exits, and is disturbingly absent? Grace is much more subversive than we would have ever expected and the story must be told. Will we be bold enough to tell it?

July 16-18 EAC Family Camp Evanston, Wyoming
July 26 Crossroads Fellowship Clarksville, TN
July 27-30 Faith Community Church VBS Franklin, TN
August 27-30 Missions Weekend@Crossroads Los Alamos, NM

Fall Tour Dates in Western Great Lakes District of the C&MA
September 12-15 Orchard View Alliance Janesville, WI
September 16-19 Alliance Community Bible Church Belgium, WI
Septmeber 22-26 Faith Chapel Green Bay, WI
Sept. 29 – Oct. 3 Hill Point Church River Hills, WI
October 17-20 Campbellsport Alliance Church Campbellsport, WI
October 21-24 Crosswalk Church Waukesha, WI
October 27-30 Faith Bible Alliance Church Neosho, WI
November 3-7 Plymouth Alliance Church Plymouth, WI
November 10-14 Trinity Alliance Church Manitowoc, WI

January 14-17 Winter Youth Retreat Poplar Point Camp, AL

We don’t have our winter/spring dates set yet. I will either add those here, or make a new post for these.

We look forward to connectint with as many of our supporters as possible during this year! If you are not located anywhere near the places on this list, please let me know and perhaps we can arrange a time to connect – whether that be speaking in your church or simply having a cup of coffee together.

Thank you so much for partnering with us for His renown in Mongolia!

“Well, I’m back”
Sam Gamgee

We’re happy to be back in our home country – and our home town. A variety of berries, light bulbs that do not explode all over the floor when they blow out, a dryer, a dishwasher, smooth traffic flow, customer service in stores, the familiar – these are blessings we will not take for granted.

It was also good to be back in our home church last Sunday and to fellowship with friends, old and new. All the “weirdness” I thought might be present when coming back to the church I had pastored for 13 years, now as a congregant, was not there at all. We have enjoyed worshipping in that familiar, yet slightly new context. There was a phrase our pastor used in his message that has gripped me all week. He spoke of American society, and particularly the environment we are now living in (Franklin, TN) as being “safe … perhaps even dangerously safe.” We talked about the phrase in his home later in the week.

After this, I was sitting in one of my favorite old haunts, working on a paper for a class I am taking. I was listening to conversations around me which included discussions about new books, new records, “following your dream” and very loud laughter (I am finding that Americans are typically much louder in public than Asians). At the table next to me, a local pastor and his wife were meeting with a young couple who, it seems, had just started coming to their church. They were having a discussion that I know I’ve had with other young couples in the past. Maybe in the same coffee shop. Perhaps at the same table. There was nothing “wrong” with the interview, other than the fact that I was rudely eavesdropping in on the conversation. The pastor and his wife were asking about all the right stuff. The linchpin question was asked by the pastor’s wife. “What are you passionate about?”. I have asked this question of others before – or at least something similar. I am sure of it. The conversation went on about music and art and drama and software development and even missions. Good things to be passionate about. Very safe things to be passionate about, in the church anyway. Franklin, Tennessee is a town full of music and art and drama and software development – and, to a certain extent, even missions. It’s the place to be if any of these areas are personal “passions.”

Passion is one of those new century words which has become very familiar in almost every circle. In the church, businesses, schools, career counseling – common wisdom now instructs us, “Figure out what you’re passionate about, and spend your life doing it.”

I will be spending this next year speaking in churches and (I hope) calling believers to awaken their passion for missions and the work of God among the unreached and least-reached peoples of the world. I deeply desire that people in the US church give their lives away for that cause. I want people to spend their gifts and talents and resources for this cause. However, this also misses the mark. Even a call to missions is a call that is too safe. Dangerously safe. For the Christian, “passion” is too powerful of a word to be used for everything from art to missions to stamp collecting.

Paul made it clear what his passion was. In a word, Christ. He put it this way in his letter to the Philippians:

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Philippians 3:7-11

It’s relatively safe to be passionate about lessor things. Good things. Even Biblical things. But it’s dangerous safety because it’s a passion that is not ultimate. However, pursuing Christ is safely dangerous. Knowing Christ – His ressurection power, His righteousness and fellowship with Him in suffering – is to be the Christian’s passion. I suppose it’s the fellowship in suffering part which kicks this one into the realms of “dangerous.” It’s not going to be easy. It will require laying down treasures, pleasures and personal preferences. But this pursuit is the only safe pursuit. This passion is the only safe passion. It’s eternal. It’s ultimate. It satisfies in this life and in the life to come.

Being in the US is dangerous. Being in Franklin, TN is particularly dangerous. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. It’s safe. I have much here that is to be counted as loss for the sake of knowing Christ. It all must be held loosely.

“Well, I’m Back”.

But I am realizing it isn’t really as safe as it seems. I will proceed with caution.

It is with that reality in front of me that I realize in slightly over one week from now, we are getting on an airplane to fly back to the US for one year. Many people have asked me if we’re looking forward to our Home assignment. Some have asked if we’re ready to go back and “recharge”. I admit, there is a part of me that is looking forward to going back. It will be good to reunite with family and with old friends. It will be good to get a medium-rare hamburger and to have simplified shopping options (at least simplified in the sense of one-stop shopping, versus having to go to multiple stores to get a days worth of groceries). On the other hand, I love what I do here. I love the people I work with. Deeply. I will distinctly miss our staff at the Grain of Wheat. I feel a little like Dorothy … leaving Oz and heading back to Kansas and having to say goodbye to people whom I deeply care about. I’ll miss the people and to a certain extent this place. And It will be good to go home. It’s definitely a mixed bag of jelly beans. Bittersweet.

In a sermon I recently preached at the International Church, I was reminded of an old illustration I used years ago for a sermon preached at our church in Franklin. It’s even more relevant in my life today on multiple levels.

In a word: trollycars.

The trolly buses here in Mongolia predominately come from Russia, with love. They are gifts, albeit I do wonder at times if they more represent the proverbial “white elephant” rather than Russian good will. In any case, the trollycars in Ulaanbaatar are electric and run on mid-20th century technology. They are attached to wires which run over the roads. They have one pedal to make them stop and go. Maybe there is a brake. But I am not sure there is even that. They remind me of kiddie-cars at amusement parks, only bigger and a lot more crowded. And much colder in the winter time.

I was riding one of these fantastic machines home a few years ago. When our apartment was at the city center, it was always very easy to find public transportation that would take me at least close to home. Trollies are easy because all the trolly lines stop at the bus stop close to our apartment. On this particular day, as I was cruising along, the trolly made an unexpected and rather sudden stop. None of us were too surprised when this happened. It’s a common occurrence here. The rods connecting the trolly to the power source had popped off the wire, and the trolly came to a complete stop. When this happens, usually the driver himself gets out of the trolly and tries to maneuver the arms back onto the wires. Sometimes he will need to climb up and stand on top of the trolly to do this. This particular trolly must have been going fast enough that we coasted to a place that the driver was unable to get the rods to reach the wires. So I entered into another level of cross-cultural learning. All the men were asked to get off and push the trollycar to a place where the conductor could get the poles to connect with the wires. So with a fair amount of huffing and puffing we managed it, the poles were popped back into place and I finally made it home that day.

I realize I am sounding more and more like an old guy. Maybe it’s because I am quickly becoming an old guy, I don’t know. But this I do know – from 17 years of ministry. The Christian life and the Christian ministry is a lot more like 1950-styled trollycars than it is like computer batteries. I am writing this on a new MacBook with crazy-long battery life. My 15” will run for 5-8 hours on one charge, depending on what I am doing. I hear that the 13” models will go from 8 to 10 hours. That’s great. However, the battery will eventually need to be charged. No battery lasts forever. Not even on a Mac.

I am dependent on the Holy Spirit in a way that is similar to how the trolly car is dependent on those wires. Less in the way my MacBook is dependent on it’s battery. If I am connected to Christ, walking in the Spirit, I move forward. If I am not I stop. There’s no battery. There’s no lengthy coasting. It’s complete dependence on a power source that is outside of myself. That’s what I understand Jesus to mean when he said, “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). I’ve been in the place where I am pushing and shoving ministry along in my own strength. When I’ve realized I can’t do it myself, I get others to come along side to help me push. It’s ineffective. Exhausting. Fruitless.

Someone has told me that Home Assignment is about “getting your battery recharged”. While I would agree to a point, in that we need the rest and we all need the break. I still insist that my Christian walk doesn’t have a battery. We’re either connected to Christ, or we’re not connected to Christ. So my Home Assignment aim is not to recharge, but rather to connect. To connect with family. To connect with friends. To connect with churches who have so graciously and lovingly supported us. And most of all, to connect with Jesus, without whom there is no fruit and there is no life.

]]> http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/05/24/the-nature-of-an-electric-mongolian-trolly-car/feed/ 2 http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/05/10/only-visiting-this-planet-part-3-jesus-like-contextualization/ http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/05/10/only-visiting-this-planet-part-3-jesus-like-contextualization/#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 00:57:57 +0000 bernie http://www.remembermongolia.org/?p=782 This was never intended to be a series. Nevertheless, here is part three. Part 1 and Part 2 were personal illustrations of how incarnational ministry is more about learning than teaching. As I reflect more on this, it occurs to me that this is exactly how Jesus lived his life and conducted his ministry among us.

We are quickly coming to the end of our first term serving in Mongolia. The perspectives I had four years ago are very different from my current ones. The first four years are more for learning than they are for actually doing anything. It’s not that we didn’t “do anything”. This past year has been one of the busiest years of my life. However, all of our actions have been in the context of learning. Learning about people. Learning about culture. Learning about what makes Mongolian students happy or sad or angry or fearful. My intentions were to come and teach (after all, that is what I do. I teach.) But the reality is that I have done way more learning than teaching over these past four years.

This is a good thing. And a fundamental thing. There is an indelible humility attached to being a student. A good student is teachable. A good student asks questions. A good student seeks understanding over the attainment of facts. We spent two years in class learning Mongolian grammar and syntax (not entirely sure I have that down yet). But the lessons continued long after the certificate of completion was received. The only way to learn what it is like to be a student living in the Ulaanbaatar is to live and work among the students in Ulaanbaatar. Time. Listening. Asking questions. And, as much as possible, learning to fell the emotion and the joy and the heartache of those we’re called to serve.

I am proceeding at the risk of sounding heretical. But when Jesus came to earth, he had to learn from us. When he left his place in heaven and was born here as a baby, he had to learn everything we have to learn. He had to learn the language and the culture and human pain. He had to learn to read and write Hebrew (and I thought Mongolian was difficult). He had to learn what it is like to be human. He had to learn our culture, our language, our food, our way of doing things, and our way of thinking. I believe this is clearly Biblical (not heretical). When Luke stated that he “grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God an men”, he is referring to this fact. An aspect of Jesus’ humility is the fact that he learned from us. He had to figure us out from birth to death. That is the real nature of incarnation. This is part of the “He humbled himself” process of Philippians chapter 2. He was a learner. A student. He had to listen, ask questions and seek to understand (more than fact find). Jesus became one of us.

From that perspective one of the greatest compliments that could possibly be paid to me is for one of our students to say, “You’re one of us. You understand us”. It’s not about trying to act 20 years younger than I actually am. That’s not it at all. It’s about learning from them. Being with them. Loving and caring about them enough to sit at their feet, rather than insisting that they sit at mine.

In three weeks we fly to Atlanta. When that plane is airborne over the skies of Ulaanbaatar and I am anticipating a happy reunion with my family and friends, I will also deeply miss those from whom I’ve learned so much.



]]> http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/05/10/only-visiting-this-planet-part-3-jesus-like-contextualization/feed/ 1 http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/04/16/lessons-while-only-visiting-this-planet-part-2/ http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/04/16/lessons-while-only-visiting-this-planet-part-2/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 02:40:46 +0000 bernie http://www.remembermongolia.org/?p=772 As our home assignment date approaches ever so quickly, I am finding my self torn. There is a part of me that is ready to leave the battle today. I’m tired. I’m thirsty and sore. More than a little weary. Maybe somewhat bloodied. I know there are personal wounds which have scarred over. However, on some days those scars can still feel fresh and raw. It will be good to step out of the particular warfare we face here, at least for a little while, and find some rest and solace in the familiar (or at least what used to be familiar) and the somewhat comfortable.

On the other hand, we have so enjoyed seeing the grace of God and more importantly have enjoyed seeing His grace in the people given to us to work with – namely our Grain of Wheat staff. Zolo and Onon have been significant blessings to me in recent weeks.

Last week we finalized the purchase of a building located in the 13th District of Ulaanbaatar. This building is going to be the main Community Center for the work of the C&MA in the city of UB. Our team has great plans for this space, including English and music classes, training for leaders in the church and the community, seminars and vocational training, family ministry, counseling and more. We are excited about what God might do through this center.

However, there was one question which most heavily weighed on my mind. What will happen to the Grain of Wheat? This has the been the primary ministry Renee’ and I have been involved with over the past two years. The Student Center and cafe is close to our hearts and through this ministry we want to continue to effectively reach the student population in the city. Currently we are located in a seemingly perfect spot, right in the heart of a heavily populated university district. I frankly had become concerned about our future. It looks as though we are going to have to close the Grain of Wheat for a time this summer while the city works on the road in front of the center, and as it doesn’t make financial sense to pay rent in one center while owning a building which could also easily house the ministry.

I was in a quandary. It makes sense in every way to move the Grain of Wheat to the new building in the 13th district … except for the fact that I wasn’t convinced of the effectiveness of the new location. Would we still get students? Would we have to eventually shut it down? I didn’t know.

After chatting to Zolo and Onon about my concerns, my mind was changed, however. They gave me a great word which brought me back on track. I shared my worries with them (in Mongolian) and Onon looked at me and said (in English):

“Don’t worry. If we are here students will come. But maybe it is also more important that we go to students.”

Duh.
(It’s my blog. I can use trite and juvenile words if I want to.)

They reminded me of two truths which I have based ministry on my whole life. But in my worry about the physical location of the center and what might happen to it, I’d lost sight of stabilizing truth. I needed the Grain of Wheat staff to bring me back again.

1. Jesus said “go” … Onon’s second point is critical. Having a student center or a community center or a church or any other kind of ministry does not exempt us from the “go” factor of the Great Commission. We get it wrong if we think it’s possible to simply “hang up a shingle” and hope to get customers. “Build it and they will come” is a mantra for strange sci-fi baseball fields and not for the Church. Onon and Zolo reminded me of that truth. Again.

2. It’s about our relationships with people, not about our walk-in traffic. “If we are here people will come.” Granted, this could be read as a contradiction. However, I don’t see it as a contradiction at all. Jesus invited those to whom he went “come to me … and I will give you rest.” So there are two sides: a “Gospel going” and a “Gospel coming”. A primary value and strategy of the Grain of Wheat is building intentional relationships. There is power in that. It’s not about a great location. At least not entirely. Location helps … and honestly I now see enormous potential for the location of the new Community Center. But in the end it’s not really about that. It’s really about the kind of eternally meaningful relationships we can and should establish where ever God has placed us.

Zolo and Onon have reminded me that this ministry will continue because it belongs to Jesus. The foundation is right. As we go out and intentionally develop Gospel centered relationships, the Grain of Wheat will flourish, where ever it is located.

I am so glad to be reminded of truth like this again. And not by some great and famous preacher or teacher, but by two not-so-famous but very great friends. As we prepare for home assignment, I am going to miss them both very much indeed.





]]> http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/04/16/lessons-while-only-visiting-this-planet-part-2/feed/ 2 http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/03/14/lessons-while-only-visiting-this-planet/ http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/03/14/lessons-while-only-visiting-this-planet/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:58:01 +0000 bernie http://www.remembermongolia.org/?p=761 In twelve weeks, after four years in Mongolia, we’re going on home assignment to the US. That seems so incredibly strange to me. I just reviewed an electronic stack of photos and I cant believe how much has changed in this short time that we’ve been away. My kids have changed. Perspectives have changed. This website has changed. My computer preferences have changed. It’s a lot to review … and I might write up a blog on that soon.

However, I have to confess that I did not even begin considering our Home Assignment until sometime after the beginning of January. Things here have just been too busy to give it much thought. Finally, it struck me sometime after the beginning of the new year – we’re going to the States in less than six months and I have no idea where we’ll live, what we’ll drive, how we’ll wash our clothes or where we’ll store our food. It was a bit disconcerting, actually. I may not be the greatest “planning guy” on the planet, but I do at least like to have a road map so I know where we may be heading. We knew that we very much wanted to live near our old stomping grounds of Franklin, TN. So, my ever resourceful wife, looked up housing prices on the Internet. She shared them with me. We then shared a joint groan. There’s not any way we were going to receive enough in our Stateside housing allowance to even come close to being able to live where we wanted to. One bedroom apartments located in areas controlled by street gangs were still pushing the upper echelons of our price range. I was worried. I know better than to be worried. But that was the reality. Worry.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Mongolian Church that we attend each Saturday night. “Church” for us consists of a small group gathered at the student center for some simple worship songs and an inductive Bible study that is led by Onon and Zolo. I used to walk through preparation with them each week, but now my team mate Erik does that, so here lately I just go to listen and provide input later during our training class (that’s on Wednesday mornings). Since we had just returned from our vacation in Thailand, this particular week I showed up without even really knowing what passage we were covering. We sang and I listened to Onon and Zolo ask questions and begin explaining the meaning of Matthew 6:25-34. It was there that God spoke to me. “… do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “ … or life more than having a place to live? This word, as so accurately and keenly explained by my Mongolian friends convicted me of my sin and caused me to repent of it. I was so grateful to God for that gift … and I am even more grateful to God for the bearers of that gift. My friends Onon and Zolo had no idea that what they were saying had a serious affect on my thinking at that moment. God profoundly used them in my life. I think it is truly a good thing when the teacher is taught by the students. This means we begin to lose the whole “student/teacher” dichotomy and we begin to actually work together for the Kingdom of God. It’s not us/them, foreigner/National or Mongolian/Westerner. It’s us together – believers living for the glory and fame of Jesus. That’s the way it ought to be. I so appreciate my Mongolian friends and will miss them while we are reuniting with old friends and family from the US … whom I also miss. I am ever increasingly finding that this life is truly a life where we are really never home. And I am okay with that … because home shouldn’t be on this earth anyway. As one who is now really Home once said, “We’re only visiting this planet” anyway.

What’s the rest of the story? On that Monday we had a Skype call with some dear friends in Franklin who are offering to let us stay in their fully furnished three bedroom home in the heart of Franklin, TN for the entire year we will be Stateside for essentially the cost of our housing allotment. God’s Word is true … just like Onon and Zolo explained to the Mongolian church, and to me … the Father cares for birds and flowers, and His children.

]]> http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/03/14/lessons-while-only-visiting-this-planet/feed/ 4 http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/02/22/lessons-from-pandora/ http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/02/22/lessons-from-pandora/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:29:52 +0000 bernie http://www.remembermongolia.org/?p=752 Update 02/23/2010: Okay, just to be clear. I’ve received several comments “informing” me of the fact that the movie Avatar is indeed playing in UB at the Urgoo Cinema. I am well aware of that fact. What made the Thailand viewing different was the fact that it was on a 3D Imax screen. That is NOT in UB. However, I will say that I highly recommend the Urgoo theatre. It has large screens and comfortable seats. It’s spacious, clean and has good popcorn … and I may yet go see Avatar again while it’s still here, albeit on a screen that is indeed smaller than a three story building…

One of the enjoyable things we had the opportunity to do on this recent vacation was to see several new movies in the theaters of Bangkok. It was fun to see several films that have not and will not ever make it to Ulaanbaatar. One of the treats was to see James Cameron’s mega-blockbuster film “Avatar” in 3-D Imax. I know that there are lots of opinions about this movie. Some good. Some not so good. I went forewarned by many of it’s “pagan and environmentalist” themes. It may be because I tend to look for it, but I actually found a lot of Gospel in that film. However, that’s a write up for another day. I thought it was a beautiful, well-crafted movie. I’m not sure that I follow the complaints of “no plot” that some have made – again I thought the plot had Biblical undertones, which is actually true of every story worth telling. Again, probably controversial to some, but for another blog on another day (probably by a different writer on a different website). However, I did find this movie to be very helpful for anyone working in a cross-cultural situation. In fact, if I were a professor of missiology at a Bible school or seminary someplace, this film would be required viewing.

For those who haven’t seen it, Avatar is a futuristic tale of how us earth-folk are trying to explore, settle and tame the planet Pandora. The main reason for their interest in Pandora is a precious metal which can be found there, and the humans are wanting to mine the alien ground for it’s resources. There is a humanoid race of people who happen to live on this planet (called the Na’vi), and of course they tend to get in the way of the human mining interests. The corporate mining folks took a two fold approach to “controlling” the native population: penetrate the culture with humans taking on the form of the creatures on the planet, if that fails the old standby of military bombs and guns. The corporate guys tried cultural contextualization first. If that didn’t work effectively enough (read: quickly enough), bombs and guns would do the trick. It is actually a beautiful film to watch. The world that was created is a masterpiece. There are very few plot holes and visually it’s a truly stunning film.

I understand that a lot of Evangelicals are saying that James Cameron and company had some kind of “environmentalist, pagan, anti-American, anti-Christian, unbiblical” agenda with this film. I somewhat disagree, I think James Cameron was given a lot of money to tell a story that’s been told thousands of ways over thousands of years – through which he has once again struck pay dirt to direct the largest box-office grossing movie in history. I personally don’t think there was any intentional agenda, at all. But what do I know? He told the story from his world-view (which is probably not Biblical), but every good story that’s worth telling has Avatar’s Biblical elements of good, evil, incarnation and redemption. But again, my point is this: For the person working in a cross-cultural environment, there is much to learn here.

In summary form here’s what I observed:

1. Understanding a culture must come before serving a culture.
Jesus said I did not come to be served, but to serve. That was his incarnational MO. He washed feet and fed people and healed people and laid down His life. However, I think it significant that Jesus didn’t just appear on earth as a fully grown human. Jesus was born into our earthly culture. He grew up in our earthly context and knew first hand the difficulties of living on this planet. Long before he washed the disciples feet, he understood what it meant to actually have dirty feet and skinned knees and hurt feelings. The film Avatar showed that it takes a lot more involvement than coming into an alien culture with a readiness to serve. It is incredible arrogance that says we will come here and teach you our language and build you our schools so that you can be educated in our system, without ever taking the time and effort required to understand and to learn about them. We then hold up our supposed ‘good deeds’ as service. Jake Sully’s (the main character in the film) line to the Na’vi “I am here to learn” should be the attitude of anyone seeking to work and serve in a culture that is not their own.

2. Learning the language is not the equivalent to understanding the culture.
While this understanding involves language learning, it does not equate to language learning. It’s possible to learn the host cultures language and still have absolutely no clue as far as cultural understanding is concerned. Grammar and syntax may say a lot about a people, but real understanding comes with eating their food and singing their songs and understanding what they laugh at and what they cry over – with them. You can’t read those things on a book or learn them from a distance. The Avatar film reveals quite clearly the fact that Jake was well ahead of his other “avatar” co-workers – not because he learned the language better (in fact, in the film he didn’t know it at all at first), but because he was willing to become one of them in the ways that are most important.

3. The host culture’s perception of the outsider could be very surprising and is also critical to understand.
In the film, the people who were on the planet Pandora for pure militant capitalism didn’t really care what the native population thought about the humans. However, later even the research folks were surprised at what the Na’vi really thought about the invading “sky people”. They thought they were doing good. However, because of their lack of understanding, even their perceived good was doing harm to relationships. They had no idea what the Na’vi really thought about them. I have asked of our Mongolian staff and Mongolian friends this question: What are your perceptions of us and the other foreigners in our organization? What do you think of us? After a few minutes of getting past the “polite” answers, it was enlightening to hear what their real thoughts and perceptions were. Some things were good. Some were not so good. However, knowing what the host culture thinks about us and understanding why they think this is incredibly valuable information when trying to work effectively in a cross-cultural situation. How we’re perceived may be very different from what we actually are or what our motives may be. However, effective cross-cultural understanding requires that we listen to perceptions. Another persons perception of me is actually their reality.

4. Incarnation is indispensable to effectiveness.
Watching this film once again confirmed my personal conviction that Jesus-shaped incarnational ministry is really going to be the only effective ministry in the end. I don’t want to be overly critical of “big-bang” ministry. But I am highly suspicious of any ministry that has the pattern of coming into a new location with lights, cameras, action and eye-candy, draws a huge crowd and gets that crowd to respond positively, then packs up the road show to head back home with glowing reports of all the work that God did – leaving behind a crowd of people whom they never took the time to know or understand. We get this kind of thing in Mongolia a lot. Frankly, I wish a lot of these groups would either stay home or begin to really work with those of us who are trying to incarnationally live here. Their coming and going does do more harm than good. The Avatar film reveals this in a very graphic way.

5. Incarnational contextualization takes time and patience.
I am becoming an outspoken believer in this. Cross-cultural ministry is not going to be effectively accomplished with a “hurry-it-up” microwave mindset. The mining/military folks at the Pandora outpost did not have the patience to wait for it. Of course, since their motive was less than pure, no amount patient waiting would have accomplished what they purposed. However, it serves as a reminder to me that the same holds true in mission and missional church planting. If we come in with a perceived sense of sanctified imperialism, I believe we’re missing the missiological mark. We have had individuals and organizations who have come into Mongolia and in less than two years have claimed church planting victory. The country is evangelized. The church is established. We can go to America and teach seminars now. Entire organizations are founded on the premise of “planting the church as quickly as possible” and “rapid reproduction”. Good has come from these groups and the folks in these groups. However, I wonder if our general Western impatience has done more harm the good in the long run. And while I believe that Jesus can build his church with asses of every kind (myself included), the greatest need I see in Mongolia is for teachers and trainers who are willing to do what it takes, however long it takes, to work, teach and train Biblical understanding in the local context, culture and language. In my particular organization we have a stated purpose of “planting prevailing churches”. I think the key word is prevailing. Prevailing requires more than a flash in the pan ministry stint.

6. The Gospel transcends everything – but will be ineffective apart from contextualization and cultural understanding.
I love any movie, book or other pop culture item that is a window to the Gospel, because I love the Gospel. I don’t think you have to look hard at the Avatar film to see that window. Granted world views will have different ‘takes’, and I am sure someone with a pagan world view could see and relate to as much, if not more, than I have as a Christian. However, the Gospel of incarnation and laying down rights and life for the sake of others is crystal clear in this film. The movie shows that there must be a motive which transcends greed and profit when entering into a new culture – genuine love and compassion for people, salvation, service. However, contextualization and cultural understanding MUST accompany our preaching of the Gospel. Gospel preaching and Gospel living in a cross -cultural context will be totally ineffective if we move forward with our western assumptions, mindset and worldview. People will feel used, not loved. If we are entering ministry with a mere “get the church planted” agenda, and we only discuss the issue of “how” while merely assuming the issue of “why”, I am not convinced there will be much long-term good. The 2/3 world spiritual landscape today is a wasteland of “church planting movements”. I know that’s true for where I live. The “flash in the pan” has created spiritual burn out. The greatest need of the hour is long-term, contextual, Biblical discipleship which produces genuine, prevailing Jesus followers.

That is, after all, the heart of the “Great Commission” to begin with (Matthew 28:18-20)

]]> http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/02/22/lessons-from-pandora/feed/ 0 http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/01/26/the-relentless-creep-of-interior-ice/ http://www.remembermongolia.org/2010/01/26/the-relentless-creep-of-interior-ice/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:30:30 +0000 bernie http://www.remembermongolia.org/?p=745 This winter in Mongolia has been the coldest in 10 years. Some say 20 years. Others say 30 years. I’ve heard Mongolians give all of those figures. None of the folks I’ve talked to about it are meteorologists, of course. But professional weather forecasting aside, it has indeed been cold this year. Temperatures have stayed consistently below zero for over a month, with some nights dropping down to -40F or -45F.

I don’t know if it’s the cold or if it’s the humidifiers we’re running in our home or some odd combination of both, but this year we’re finding that the outside windows and doors are consistently getting a build up ice. It freezes and melts and expands and is causing the concrete around the windows to deteriorate. We’ve had to put towels in the window sills to keep the melt off from running onto the floor. It’s kind of fun to watch the dog go to the door leading out to our balcony and chisel the ice off with her teeth in some bizarre attempt to get a drink or chew on something or … actually who knows what she’s thinking. It’s entertaining, nonetheless. There have been some days where it feels that our home is being invaded by the outside ice and cold, like it’s alive trying desperately to come in rule on the inside in the tyrannical way it’s ruling outside right now. We have to keep things warm enough on the inside to fend it off. Defeat the ice.

For me personally this is not a new problem at all. I’ve had to fend off ice ever since we started living here in 2006 (we’re pushing the four year mark). No, we don’t have the ice in the window phenomenon all year round. But I do find that there is a similar thing that happens to my heart … all year round. There is a creeping iciness, coldness of heart that I feel I am constantly having to battle. I am thinking there is a sense in which we all fight the fight of the ice. Contexts change but spiritual ice is the same wherever you are. It’s always there waiting for you to turn the heat down just enough to creep into the interior of our hearts.

In Mongolia interior ice can have an abundance of catalysts. Bad driving, constant begging, pushing and shoving, cutting in line, isolation, spiritual oppression and depression, constant busyness, outward demands, inward stress and pressure, language (or lack thereof), weariness. They’re all factors. Some of these factors will be the same where you live. Some different. Maybe you have more. But the truth is that it’s incredibly easy for my heart can get hard. Cold. Frosty. Like my window. I’m seeing that there’s a sense in which I’ve had to wage the battle of the ice ever since I started to follow Jesus over twenty years ago. I am thinking that this battle becomes more intense with time. Harder, not easier.

This year’s ice serves as a not so subtle reminder that I am in constant need the Word to keep me soft; His Spirit to keep me warm and make me compassionate. Jesus lived in a world that was way different from His familiar, comfortable and happy home of heaven. I am thinking that He had run into irritations that were real issues, versus my irritations that are in reality quite petty. The incarnation never ceases to humble and amaze me.

I must say that our impending vacation is something I am very much looking forward to. (We have the opportunity to go to Thailand and hit the beach and hang out with some friends up in Chaing Mai.) It’s not so much a way to escape the literal ice in my window. Renee’ and I really don’t mind the meteorological climate here so much. We rather enjoy it. However, the spiritual iciness that ever so slowly creeps in and takes over needs some thawing in me. I am hopeful and glad for that opportunity to get away, reflect, pray, write and rewarm. I need the Word and the Spirit to do His thawing, softening and warming so the relentless creeping of the ice will again be thwarted and Jesus reign supreme.



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