Giving Culture Its Proper Weight

One of the interesting roles that God has given me is being the Reformed guy who tries to convince other Reformed guys that culture really does matter.

I cannot say how grateful I am for the Bible-loving, church-centered, missions-minded, theologically-robust Reformed circles that I have been a part of since college. The pushback that these circles have offered against the errors of popular missiology has been both courageous and necessary. That same pastoral and theological pushback has exposed my own missionary blindspots again and again, driving me back to the Word when I might have otherwise been swept along by the popular current.

When it comes to culture, for example, missionaries have all too often taken things too far. For example, they have taken something observably true like the homogenous unit principle – that the gospel naturally spreads along preexisting lines of culture and relationship – and made it into a prescriptive law: Serious missionaries should only share the gospel and plant churches in groups that share the same culture or are part of the same “household.” Or, popular missiology has elevated culture to such heights that it would rather missionaries disobey clear commands of scripture than risk “contaminating” the culture of the local believers with that of the missionary. In areas such as these, my Reformed, church-centered brethren have been absolutely right to sound the alarm. And I praise God that they were able to see these errors and speak up even if it meant upsetting the majority of their missionary friends.

However, the fact that culture’s role has been abused in missions often means that culture’s role now gets dismissed and discounted by those advocating for right and biblical priorities. It’s the classic pendulum swing, the baby getting tossed out with the bathwater. Or, as our Central Asian friends put it, the wet wood being burned with the dry.

Yet instead of being reactionary, we should seek to ask what kind of importance the Bible gives to culture – and to ourselves reflect that proper emphasis. If we study God’s book of creation, we will absolutely see that cultural differences exist and are very important. Indeed, entire disciplines (e.g. cultural anthropology) have arisen from studying this fact of creation. But what about God’s book of revelation?

One passage that helps us understand the weight the Bible gives to culture is 1st Corinthians 9:19-23, the classic passage on contextualization. Though even as I mention these verses I am aware that some may be tempted to tune out because this passage has been discussed in missions conversations ad nauseam. However, let me point out what a strange thing it is that we would effectively discount certain passages of the Bible because we’ve heard them referenced a lot. Regardless of whether passage feels novel or not, it’s the Word of God, and it still tells us about the nature of true reality. We must be on guard for the ways we are tempted to dismiss passages that have grown very familiar.

19] For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. [20] To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. [21] To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. [22] To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. [23] I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (ESV)

In this passage, Paul tells us of his posture when it comes to the differences between himself and those he is trying to reach. It is the posture of a servant (v. 19). The differences specifically referenced here include belief, ethnicity, and conscience (Jew, under/outside the law, weak, etc). All three of these areas overlap significantly with our modern category of culture – essentially, that individuals and groups of people are significantly different from one another because of their underlying beliefs and external practices. But Paul even goes beyond these three specifics and lays out his broader application of this principle with his language of “all things to all people.” This means that if there is a difference that is a potential barrier between Paul and his hearer, and Paul can do so while still following the law of Christ, then he is going to bend to the preference and practice of the other. In this way, he serves others by removing unnecessary barriers. And he thereby gains a better hearing for the gospel message.

From this passage, we learn that cross-cultural interactions are opportunities for service. Biblically, the one who bends to the preference and practice of the other – when permissible and for the sake of the gospel – is taking the role of a servant.

Cultures are different. They do not come together and cooperate seamlessly. There is a necessary series of adjustments that must and will take place when someone from one culture is interacting with someone from another culture. This is happening whether we acknowledge it or not.

Especially when it comes to mutually exclusive areas of culture, you must choose one or the other. We cannot run a meeting that is time-oriented and relationship-oriented at the same time. Either we begin the meeting when we said we would or we begin the meeting when everyone has arrived. We must choose. We cannot be night-oriented and morning-oriented at the same time. Bible studies that don’t kick off until 11 pm are not compatible with a church service that begins at 8 am. We must choose one or the other. If the Westerners serve the Central Asians, our church become more relationship and night-oriented. If the Central Asians serve the Westerners, our church becomes more time and morning-oriented. Both can be good options for serving one another, depending on the way in which they take place.

If we are to be like Paul, then this act of service should be chosen, intentional, and taken on by the stronger as a way to serve those who are weaker. Too often, this fact that one must serve the other in a cross-cultural interaction goes unrecognized. What results is one party becoming the servant of the other without having chosen this. It just kind of happens. And this often means the weaker are made to serve the preferences of the stronger, simply because this is how power dynamics work in the natural world. So often it’s not even intentional on the part of the majority or dominant culture.

But Paul has his eyes open for these differences, these barriers. He knows that they can make a difference in his ability to win and save others, in his chance of sharing in the gospel’s blessings with new brothers and sisters. So Paul, doing ministry in a multicultural world and planting multicultural churches, chooses the posture of a servant. Whenever possible, he will bend towards the culture of the other. While Paul will never compromise the Word of God and the scandalous gospel message, he can bend in this way because he recognizes that not every difference in belief, custom, and conscience is a gospel issue. Jews are different from Greeks. And they can be built up into one new man even while they preserve their distinctiveness.

My contention is that in this area, as in so many others, we should seek to be like Paul. We should also recognize the cultural differences among those we minister to. And recognizing these differences, we should give them their proper weight and choose the posture of a servant as often as we can. This is especially true for those who are leaders in the church.

Now for the denials. By calling for us to give proper weight to culture, here’s what I’m not saying:

I am not saying that this means that culture is more important than simple and clear gospel proclamation.

I am not saying that cultural differences alone are sufficient for planting separate churches (though language differences are).

I am not saying that we shouldn’t try in each and every local church to show that the gospel overcomes natural human divisions.

I am not saying that you must become an expert in each subculture of your very diverse congregation in order to truly serve them.

I am not saying that it’s wrong for you to live in, appreciate, and value your own culture.

I am not saying that you must always be the one to serve others in this area. It can go both ways.

As in so many areas, to give culture its proper weight we must hold this principle in tension with other truths. I have often summarized this tension like this: The gospel serves every culture. And the gospel rules over and transcends all cultures. Both of these truths are wonderful and true and belong together. A Pauline worker is therefore one who seeks to serve others in their cultures while also planting and leading churches that create new hybrid gospel cultures.

My Central Asian friends need to glory in the fact that Jesus has entered into their minority language and culture for the sake of redeeming a remnant from it for all eternity. And they need to glory in the fact that the gospel is not just for their people, but for all the peoples of the world, even their oppressors. As they grow in maturity, they too need to learn how to bend toward the preferences and customs of others that they are seeking to reach and serve.

Now, some of us are called to study and put on another culture to a deeper extent than others. Cross-cultural church planters, I’m looking at you. But most are not called to this. Most Christians would simply be served to learn the biblical principle that they should strive to serve those who are different from them. And they can do this by learning about the cultural differences that exist and seeking to accommodate them as often as is loving. This is a very practical way to love others and small gestures in this direction often pay much bigger dividends than we’d ever expect.

“Is there anything about the way we do things around here that is difficult or strange for you?”

“How can we demonstrate respect and care for you according to the culture you grew up in?”

“What’s hard for you about being a minority in our church? What makes you feel like you don’t fit here?”

Basic questions like these allow us to become the servants of others in the practical, day-to-day love that really counts. Rather than pretending that cultural differences don’t really matter because cultural differences have been abused, we should seek to be like Paul. We should seek to be a servant of others, “for the sake of the gospel.” Yes, it takes some work to do this. But there is great joy to be experienced if we will take this posture. Like Paul says, when others are saved we’ll get to share with them in the blessings of the gospel.

So, Reformed friends, culture is not everything, but neither is it nothing. It really does matter. Let’s put it in its proper place and then take our proper place – the place of a servant.

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The First and Worst and Best Sermon I Ever Preached

The first sermon I ever preached was to a bunch of Melanesian inmates serving time for murder.

Uncle Mike, a missionary friend from a charismatic evangelical background, had a ministry at a nearby prison, the one the provincial government designated for hardened killers. Although, you’d never know this from visiting these prisoners and worshipping alongside them at the services that Uncle Mike conducted. On the contrary, in spite of their hardened muscles and cut jawlines, the inmates seemed kind and respectful and even humble. Yet each person there who wore the faded blue and red uniform had murdered other human beings – crimes that were most often carried out with machetes, homemade shotguns, or more powerful weapons smuggled in from neighboring countries.

However, I learned from Uncle Mike that a small group of these prisoners had professed faith and a new church of sorts was forming within the prison. In addition, many others were also willing to gather for a service. This was prison in Melanesia, after all, so there wasn’t that much to do anyway.

I visited this prison with Uncle Mike and his family several times during my senior year of high school. I was glad to tag along, to observe the ministry, and to try to get into gospel conversations with the inmates who were willing to talk. But I never expected to preach. So Uncle Mike’s request came as quite a surprise.

“Hey, A.W.! Would you like to preach when we visit the prison on Easter Sunday?”

“Um… preach?”

“Yes! Preach. Preach a short sermon. I think you’d do great.”

“Uh… okay. But I’ve never preached before.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s Easter! Just preach the gospel.”

And just like that, I had accepted my very first preaching engagement. I decided on 1st Corinthians 15, verses 12-28 if I remember correctly. Uncle Mike had told me to preach the gospel, and it was Easter Sunday, so I thought a straightforward text on the reality and importance of Jesus’ resurrection would be a good way to go.

I remember very little about the content of the sermon itself. I know that at that point I hadn’t received any training yet on how to study for, organize, and then actually preach a sermon. But I took to my task with all the gusto of a confident 18-year-old who has been filling his head with Passion sermons and missionary biographies.

I do remember including a bizarre illustration that I had recently read in the local newspaper. Some farmer in our region had successfully performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a chicken (so, technically mouth-to-beak?) and the chicken had – amazingly – come back to life. I included this illustration in an attempt to contrast near-death experiences and resuscitations with the resurrection of Jesus. “The resurrection of Jesus is categorically different from what happened to this chicken!”

Needless to say, the lackluster response from my audience of convicts did leave me wondering if perhaps they didn’t find the story about the chicken CPR quite as funny as I did.

As I wrapped up my sermon in the local trade language, I leaned on my Baptist upbringing to transition to an altar call of sorts.

“With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want you to think about the good news you heard today about the death and resurrection of Jesus. And if anyone here wants to believe and be born again (literally “to turn your soul/stomach” in the local language), then just raise your hand. No one is watching you, every head bowed and every eye closed, just raise your hand.”

At this point, Uncle Mike thought it best to intervene. With all the fire of a veteran charismatic preacher, he cued the worship leader to begin banging the guitar, strode up next to me, and proceeded to bellow to the crowd,

“Jesus didn’t suffer and die in private! Jesus suffered and died in public! So, if you want to repent and follow Jesus, you need to do so publicly! Don’t be ashamed of Jesus! No! You stand up in front of everyone and give your life to Jesus! Open your eyes and come up here and follow Jesus!”

As the believers began singing and Uncle Mike kept hollering, I just stood there, a bit taken aback, though not at all upset that Uncle Mike had deemed it best to take over the invitation part of the service. In fact, at that point a full dozen men suddenly stood up, came to the front, and were now being prayed for by Uncle Mike as he laid hands on their heads, shouting out his confident prayers. He motioned for me to do something similar with a couple of the other men who were now kneeling on the packed dirt floor in front of me. I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but if these men wanted to pray to follow Jesus, then I was all in to try and help them do so. I kneeled down next to them, walked them through a basic gospel outline, and prayed with them.

Afterward, the inmate who was the leader of the prison believers came up and thanked me publicly for preaching.

“And I think,” he continued, “this was maybe the first time Brother A.W. has ever preached.” He said this last part with a hint of a smile, just enough for me to pick up on the fact that it was probably a pretty rough sermon to listen to, all things considered.

I left the prison that day very encouraged. Not necessarily that my sermon had been good or powerful, but that God had used it in spite of it all. How had it happened that after a haltering, first-time, chicken-CPR, second-language sermon from a scrawny white kid, twelve hardened murderers had wanted to give their lives to Jesus? The answer, I realized, must be in the gospel itself, in the power of the Word of God.

After lunch at Uncle Mike’s that day, I picked up a missions magazine from his coffee table. There was an advertisement inside it for Christians to spend six months to a year in an Islamic Central Asian country, sharing the gospel.

“Huh,” I thought to myself, “Now that sounds really radical. Maybe someday I could share the gospel somewhere like that. Although, Muslims kind of freak me out.”

Little did I know that two years after that sermon, I would be in that very Central Asian country, taking part in the same program I saw advertised in the magazine that day. And just like in the prison, I would see God take some very imperfect evangelism and do something with it that was downright astonishing.

I’m so thankful Uncle Mike gave me a chance to preach in the prison that Easter. That first sermon may have been the worst one I’ve ever preached. But it’s the only one where I’ve seen a dozen men stand up and want to give their lives to Jesus.

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Define: Hermeneutics

This video from the Great Commission Council seeks to define hermeneutics, the study of how to rightly interpret the Bible. Proper hermeneutics is vital for faithful missions, not least because the way we use our Bibles is how the local believers will come to use their Bibles. However, many of the most popular missions methods out there model a sloppy use of the text, seeking to ground methods in the Bible in ways that just don’t fit with the genre or intent of the passage. Therefore, one of the most important things we can do to see sound missions methods on the field is to train missionaries in how they should and should not get their methods from the Bible – to train them in sound hermeneutics.

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 33 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

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Why Does Jesus Say No One Is Good but God Alone?

“But Jesus himself says he is not God!” In Mark 10 and Luke 18, he says, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.'”

This is one of the more common arguments from the Bible that Muslims will try to use to disprove the divinity of Jesus. Not too long ago, a Muslim commenter on this blog said this very thing. If you spend any time at all doing evangelism with Muslims you are bound to hear this claim. So, how should a Christian respond?

I actually like it when my Muslim friends bring up this passage. This is because instead of Jesus denying his divinity here, I think there’s a case to be made that this passage is an example of the direct opposite – of Jesus in fact claiming to be God.

First, the context. Jesus is here responding to the rich young ruler who asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. But this young man has begun his question by addressing Jesus as, “Good Teacher.” So, Jesus’ response to him is in two parts. First, he calls into question the way in which he addressed him. Then, he goes on to answer what is required for this man to inherit eternal life. Those of us familiar with this passage know that the young man goes on to claim that he’s kept all of the commandments that Jesus draws out of him. But then, when Jesus tells him to sell everything that he has, to give the funds to the poor, and to follow him, the young man goes away sad because he cannot bring himself to part with his wealth. You can read the passage for yourself here and here.

When I’m talking with my Central Asian friends about this, I will often respond first by saying. “Well, what’s going on here is that Jesus is a good teacher, and you of all people should know that the best teachers teach not only direct lessons, but also indirect lessons.”

Usually, this response is met with some level of furrowed brows. So, I’ll go on to explain.

“Here, in Central Asia, you use indirect communication all the time. In little things like saying yes to an offer of tea, you actually don’t say ‘Yes.’ Instead, you say, ‘No,’ then, ‘Don’t trouble yourself.’ Even more, you greatly value the ability of indirect communication to teach profound lessons. So, you should be able to appreciate when Jesus is using indirect communication to make a point – and not all of a sudden become like Westerners who insist something be communicated simply and directly in order to be understood.”

Here, I might remind them of a folk story of their people where a father has seven sons who are always fighting. Fed up, one day he lines his sons up and hands six of them a single stick. Then, one by one, he commands them to break the stick. Each of the six sons breaks his stick easily. But on the seventh son, the father hands him the bundle of broken sticks and commands him to break them. The seventh son cannot break the sticks, even though he tries with all his might. “Do you understand?” The father asks. Eventually, one son speaks up. “Yes, father. When we are divided and fighting amongst ourselves we will always be weak, easily broken. But if we will only be united, together, then no one will ever be able to break us.”

None of my Central Asian friends balk at this father’s indirect object lesson. Instead, if anything, they find the lesson to be even more profound given the subtlety and the indirect buildup. The point is to remind them that they have a category already for indirect teaching, they really respect it, and therefore it doesn’t follow that they should deny Jesus the right to teach in this way also.

Indeed, when it comes to Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler, this is exactly the kind of teaching method Jesus is employing in both parts of his responses. He is being an excellent Middle Eastern teacher, leveraging the subtlety, the double meanings, and the buildup for the lesson to have its maximum payoff.

First, he asks the young man why he calls him good, since “no one is good but God alone.” Notice here especially what Jesus does not say. Jesus does not say that he is not God. He simply asks the young man why he called him good. Then, he makes a theological statement. Only God is good. The direct, simplistic way to understand what Jesus is saying here would be that this young man made a mistake by calling him “Good Teacher.” But Jesus does not say that. He leaves it open – open to another possible meaning. That meaning is this – that Jesus in fact is good and, therefore, that he is God. The logic at play here goes like this: 1) Only God is good, 2) Jesus is clearly good, 3) Jesus is God.

In this way, Jesus is here once again teaching wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove in the midst of wolves. For those who don’t have ears to hear, he is merely saying what every 1st-century Jewish person believed – that only God is good. For those with ears to hear, he is affirming that he is good and therefore he is God. And for those who would accuse him of blasphemy before his time has come, Jesus has subtly claimed divinity in a way that does not yet give them something solid to grab hold of.

The rest of Jesus’ response to the rich young ruler continues to be a masterclass in indirect teaching. Even though Jesus knows that no one can be saved by keeping the commandments, Jesus tells the young man to list out the commandments and then tells him to keep them. When the young man affirms that he has indeed kept them all his life, then Jesus gives him a final command, one that exposes his idolatry. Tragically, money is his god, more important to him than YHWH and more important than following YHWH’s messiah. In this way, Jesus indirectly demonstrates that the young man had not in fact been keeping the commandments at all. He was an idolater. He was not good, because no one is good but God alone.

The subtle and indirect nature of this second part of the response strengthens the case that the first part of the response – Jesus’ question – should be understood in the same way. When Jesus says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone,” he is really saying that he is indeed good, and therefore he is God. The rich young ruler, merely intending to be respectful, was speaking more truly than he knew. His standard of goodness was woefully insufficient, as proved by his assessment of his own life. But God allowed him to address Jesus in a way that was utterly and ironically spot on. Jesus is a good teacher; in fact, the only good teacher.

Our Muslim friends need to understand that the case for Jesus’ divinity is built by dozens and dozens of indirect logic passages just like this one. No one forgives sin except God, Jesus forgives sin, Jesus is God. No one is good except God, Jesus is good, Jesus is God. The examples go on and on. We need to help our friends understand the type of logic and the type of lessons used by Jesus and his Apostles to establish Jesus’ divinity. And yes, they even have an advantage over us in understanding these lessons and logic, which are, after all, very Middle Eastern and Central Asian in their character.

Jesus is an incredible teacher, the very best. And good teachers don’t just teach directly. They teach indirectly also. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 34 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

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The Healed Will Heal Others Also

“Workman!!!”

I turned around, knowing exactly whose voice and contagious laugh that was.

It was Adam*, my very first believing friend in Central Asia, plaster wall visionary, goofball, and dear brother embattled with mental illness. We gave one another a big laughing bear hug in the middle of all the other arriving campers.

This past week I was on a short setup trip to Central Asia and towards the end of the trip I left my apartment-hunting to join a bunch of the local believers for one night in an ancient valley in between our two cities. This came about because my trip had just happened to coincide with the annual camping trip that one of my former teammates leads for a sports outreach he conducts. A good number of the local believers in our previous city, like Darius*, have also been regularly involved with this sports group from the beginning. It’s been a great opportunity for them to do relational evangelism with the unbelieving participants – as well as a chance to learn about mortifying anger when it gets stirred up by the fierce combat otherwise known as ultimate frisbee.

“A.W., what should I do? The other player I’ve been struggling with said ‘Good job’ to me when I scored. Outwardly, I said, ‘Thanks,’ but in my heart, I said, ‘You father of a dog!’ …Do you think I need to repent?'”

Out of the twenty or so men who ended up coming on this camping trip, I was glad to see it was about half believers and half not. In the midst of a trip focused on logistics, I was hopeful that this night would make for some encouraging conversations. I was not to be disappointed. Most of us were up past 3 am. And the conversations ranged all over the place – apologetics, philosophy, linguistics, as well as just catching up and cutting up. Needless to say, my rusty local language skills got put to work. At one point, I wondered what in the world my jet-lagged self was doing trying to discuss Hegelian philosophy in another language at 2 am with a new believer.

Perhaps the most encouraging conversation of the night was with Adam and his friend, Dr. Troy*. I had heard recently that Adam, my dear friend who for the last couple of years has been on the mend from paranoid schizophrenia, had led one of his friends to faith. This friend was Dr. Troy. And this is how it happened.

Dr. Troy had grown up in a family that taught him the way to get ahead was to appear outwardly unimpressive and foolish, but to secretly work harder than all your peers, resulting in the end in a great upset when you came out ahead of all of them. Needless to say, this approach to life did not win Dr. Troy many friends. He grew up isolated, angry, and hating most others around him.

“I was like this all the time,” he said, pulling up a picture of a hissing cobra which was for some reason wearing a seat belt.

But though he was isolated and angry, he succeeded in getting high marks in school, was accepted to medical college, and eventually became a new doctor. One day, a trip to the bathroom at the hospital where he was doing his residency meant that he missed the person who came by to mark down employee attendance. So, Dr. Troy went down to the first floor to find him. Notice here how eternity can sometimes hinge on such seemingly mundane events.

While downstairs, Dr. Troy was approached by a bearded man in his late 30s who wore a mischievous grin and looked at him with bright eyes that carried a hint of either brilliance or insanity – or perhaps both. This was, of course, Adam. Dr. Troy was somewhat confused and offended that this obviously local man began the conversation in English, rather than in their native tongue. Nevertheless, he heard him out and answered his questions about a friend that he was there to see. When asked about his good English and strange insistence on using it, Adam replied by telling Dr. Troy that he was an English tutor and handing him his business card. If the good doctor was interested in IELTS tutoring, then Adam told him he could contact him.

A little while later, Dr. Troy did just that. For quite some time, Dr. Troy had been struggling with major depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. All of his meds only seemed to be making things worse. He wanted to do something that might boost his self-esteem, and so he thought passing the IELTS English test might be just the thing. In the beginning, their relationship was purely focused on English. But one day something shifted. Dr. Troy broke down and told Adam about his deep despair. He told him that things had gotten so bad that he had even become suicidal.

Adam proceeded to share his own story with Dr. Troy, how he had grown up in a deeply dysfunctional local family, how he had found Jesus as a young man, how he had then wandered from Jesus during his sojourn in Europe, falling into drugs and mental illness. He then described how his friends had helped him get back to Central Asia, how that had failed to bring any improvement, but how one day God had unexpectedly freed him from so much of his mental suffering. In the days since, Adam told him about his steady trajectory of healing that included regular church attendance, serving others, cutting way back on meds and stimulants, and seeking to deal honestly with the costs of his unhealthy upbringing.

Dr. Troy was compelled by the testimony of his quirky English tutor and decided to see if a similar path might help him as well. He decided to trust Adam and follow his advice. And Adam provided Dr. Troy with that ingredient of healing so transformative for the human heart and mind – a loyal Christian friend who will simply stick with you, even in the blackest night.

But I was curious as I listened to this tale. Was Dr. Troy really now a believer? It’s one thing to identify with a new group of friends because they’ve shown you kindness in your suffering. It’s another thing to believe in Jesus and apostatize from everything you were taught growing up in an Islamic society.

“Jesus is all about love,” Dr. Troy said to me, “This was remarkable to me. He’s so different from Muhammad.”

Okay, I thought to myself, getting a bit closer…

“The thing is,” Dr. Troy continued, “He’s the only one without our human failures. The only one. Everyone else is so broken, so messed up, does so many wrong things… like me. He’s the only one without… without…”

“Without sin?”

“Yes, that’s the word, without sin. The only one. That’s how it’s so clear that he must be the Son of God. Not like all the other prophets. All of them sin. But not Jesus.”

Dr. Troy shook his head and stared at the tea kettle, now steaming on top of a bed of coals.

“A.W.,” my former teammate said, joining the conversation, “Have you heard the good news? Dr. Troy is going to get dunked soon,” he said with a smile and a cautious look at the other campers milling around.

“Wow, may you be holy!” I said to the good doctor, which is the local language equivalent of ‘congratulations.’ That phrase always feels extra appropriate for occasions such as this. I knew that if things had reached this point, then Dr. Troy must be showing strong signs of the new birth. My former teammates and the mature local brothers are trustworthy soul doctors.

“I don’t know what I would have done had I not randomly met Adam that day,” Dr. Troy said, “I mean, yes, he’s a very strange man, you know how he does the — and the —-”

Here, Dr. Troy, with a clear gift for imitation, made several of the bizarre expressions and body movements that Adam tends to make. This, of course, set Adam laughing like the good sport he is, so I felt free to chuckle as well. The impressions were spot on.

“But my life has changed so much since I’ve been following his advice. I took him to visit my family and my parents and sisters thanked him over and over for all the ways they’ve seen my life change because of his influence.”

Adam beamed awkwardly as Dr. Troy said this latter part. I looked at him and remembered what a hard road he’s had. Back in 2008, he was the most gifted evangelist I had ever seen. But then he had wandered for a very long time. In fact, Dr. Troy was the first person he had led to faith in fifteen years. It seemed that perhaps the gift he had been given as a new believer, the gift of evangelism, was at last being fanned into flame again. What an answer to prayer. I had so long hoped that Adam’s mind would turn away from fixation on the shadowy figures he thought were drugging and tracking him, and turn back to Jesus and to telling others about him. Now I was staring at evidence that it was actually happening.

Later that night Adam and I had more heartfelt conversation together. I told him how proud I was of him, and how thankful I was to see him continuing to gather with believers and now even serving others as well. I reminded him that God has made us to heal in community, that God himself gives us a relationship of complete safety and acceptance through Christ, and thus we can invite others into the community of the church where they can find true healing now – and complete healing in the resurrection.

“Adam, Jesus has granted you a measure of healing in this life. I’m so glad to see it. But don’t forget that this is just a taste. In the coming resurrection, you won’t just have a mind partially restored, but a mind and a whole body perfected and healed, forever.”

“Thank goodness for that!” Adam said, laughing and running a hand over his tired face and through his rapidly graying hair.

Adam went on to humbly ask forgiveness for all the trouble he had put my family through during his darker years. And to ask me to please buy some flowers for my wife on his behalf – since she was the only woman who still showed him kindness and hospitality during that time. He wanted to know what he could do for me, anything at all.

“Adam, you know we will always be brothers and friends, no matter what. Just don’t forget that. But you also know we’ll need to live in another city when we come back in a couple months. So I would ask that you keep on serving this young church that we love so much – and keep on sharing the gospel with others, just like you did with Dr. Troy.”

“You got it, bro,” Adam said, giving me a fist bump. And I knew he meant it.

At that point, Darius snuck up behind me and gave me a big strangling bear hug. And from there, the night continued on with more rich conversations with believers, challenging questions from unbelievers, games, and ultimately a few hours of very uncomfortable sleep.

I have so missed this kind of setting. This past year and a half in the States has been good in so many ways. God has provided rest, refreshment, healing, and help above and beyond what we could have asked for.

But I have to be honest. I can’t wait to be living in Central Asia again. And I can’t believe we’ll actually get to do so.

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 35 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

For my list of recommended books and travel gear, click here.

*Names changed for security

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A Mass of Perceptions, Clichés, Judgements, and Inspirations

But we can expect the language history of the world to be revealing in another way. A language community is not just a group marked out by its use of a particular language: it is an evolving communion in its own right, whose particular view of the world is informed by a common language tradition. A language brings with it a mass of perceptions, clichés, judgements, and inspirations. In some sense, then, when one language replaces another, a people’s view of the world must also be changing.

– Ostler, Empires of the Word, p.13

The languages we speak greatly affect our worldviews. This is humbling because we often cannot even see the ways our languages have influenced the way we think until we learn another language, another ‘lens’ for interpreting life with its own unique take on things.

I never knew that English was limiting me to one word for ‘uncle’ until I learned our Central Asian language, which uses different terms for an uncle on the mother’s side vs. an uncle on the father’s side. This distinction led to my friend Adam* recently asking my kids, who call him Uncle Adam in English, whether he was an uncle on my side or on my wife’s side. The unanimous vote among the offspring was that he was an uncle on my wife’s side, which my kids probably chose for reasons of their own. However, if they were from our Central Asian people group, they would know that this means that Adam would be less important when it came to legal and identity matters, yet because of that viewed as the more affectionate, relational type of uncle. Dad’s side is for the official stuff. Mom’s side for the relational.

Here, the local language reinforces the local worldview that there are major distinctions to be made between the father’s side of the family vs. the mother’s side. Were our locals to get so good at English that they eventually stop using their own language, this distinction in the culture may also eventually fade away.

Ostler is right. You can never change languages without also experiencing worldview change. This interplay is something worth keeping an eye out for.

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 38 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

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From Leprous Plaster to Gleaming Stone

The wall of what would become the homeschool room, nearing completion

Our previous home in Central Asia was an old stone house right on the edge of the bazaar. It was very beat up when we agreed to rent it. Much of the wiring and light fixtures were still from the 1950s. The garden courtyard was an overrun mess of brambles and dust. All the water tanks were rusted out and useless. And two internal walls showed extensive water damage.

At the time, there were only two of us who really believed in the potential of this run-down, dusty old house. Me – and Adam*, my good friend who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Most of my local friends and colleagues understandably said I was crazy for taking on a project like this. But Adam, my one believing friend who technically was crazy, was adamant that we had to get this place. That in itself probably confirmed that the others were right. Nevertheless, I sided with my schizophrenic friend and went for it. My wife (who was nervous about the whole thing, yet bravely willing to follow her husband) and I had always wanted to live within walking distance of the bazaar and here was our chance. Surely, bringing a house back from the dead couldn’t be that hard.

In particular, Adam was captivated by the potential of the thick stone walls of this house, and especially the two internal water-damaged walls. Because of what to me looked like leprous wall spots of Levitical proportions, we would definitely have to replace the plaster, as well as patch the roof cracks. But, instead of then simply replastering the walls, Adam wanted me to let him get rid of all the plaster, polish and varnish the stones, and then put fresh white plaster in the seams of the rocks. The finishing touch would be framing the whole wall with a sharp plaster border. This labor would draw out the natural colors of the large stones, contrasting richly against the white of the plaster.

In this season, Adam wasn’t doing so well and wasn’t yet willing to gather with other believers again. He also needed work. And work, creative work, in particular, seemed to ground his mind and make him less prone to believe that the spy agencies of various Western nations were after him and trying to turn me against him. I thought a big project like this might be a chance for us to spend some time together as friends – and also get him around other local believers like Frank*, who was responsible for the painting and replacing the old wiring.

Some of these hopes turned out better than others. Adam’s enthusiastic work stripping the plaster off the walls filled the entire house with clouds of plaster dust for weeks on end. This meant that Frank was often kept from doing his electrical and painting work because of the conditions inside the house. I would be working on some ministry email or something, barricaded in one of the only rooms safe from the dust when Frank would walk in, fresh from an encounter with Adam.

“How you doing, Frank?” I would ask.

“Great!” he would say with an exaggerated smile, right before silently giving me an “I’m losing my mind and can’t possibly go on like this” face.

So much for the work building camaraderie. Even worse, the dust was covering the floors so thick that to get it out we had to bust holes in some of the walls so that we could use a hose to flush it all out. We’re supposed to be fixing this place up, I thought to myself as we drilled a fist-sized hole at the base of the homeschool room wall, not punching more holes in it. Maybe my bleeding-heart, idealistic, risk-prone tendencies had gotten the better of me in agreeing to let Adam do it in the first place. In the end, the work took three times longer than we thought it would.

But the walls. The stones. They came to life.

The two ugly bubbling and disintegrating plaster walls had been transformed into the most beautiful parts of the entire house. They were now two accent walls consisting of stones that shone in grays, rusty reds, pale oranges, and slate blues. The larger of them graced one side of our homeschool room, a perfect addition to a space that was soon to be overflowing with kids, books, Legos, and artwork. Adam and I loved that my kids would get to learn math and reading and Bible around that big, solid, colorful, stone wall.

When it was finished, everyone loved the end result. Even those who thought the whole project was crazy, even those who couldn’t bear to work with Adam and made fun of him because of his quirks and crazy ideas. You couldn’t deny it. The walls were stunning. Each of us had to admit that the one with the mind that wasn’t completely working correctly had been the only one able to look at something so ugly and see its true potential. And not only see its potential, but also realize its potential with long, sweaty, dusty hours chipping, grinding, and polishing.

I enjoy reflecting on what Adam did with those walls. Even when his mind was in a dark and confused place, the possibility of bringing beauty out of brokenness brought him to life and gave him purpose and focus. It brought him back to his friends for a short time. It even got him some money so he could do the honorable Central Asian adult son thing and help his parents (whom he lives with) pay some bills. In that dusty project, the image of God in a very broken believer shone briefly but powerfully, like a shaft of light unexpectedly breaking through a towering Kentucky storm front.

And it’s no overstatement to say that Adam’s work on the walls reflected the image of God. God is, after all, in the process of resurrecting – not broken down and decrepit walls and houses, but a whole world in this condition. His mind sees what the rest of us so often fail to see, how sinners can be transformed into saints through the mess of sanctification, how the beauty of the coming resurrection will make all of the suffering and sweat required to get there worth it. In our lives, he’s chipping off the old, leprous plaster, restoring a beauty in us that we lost long ago – and making it even more stunning than it was in the beginning.

I’m so glad I took the risk and let my friend tear up those walls. He claimed he could see something in them, what they could become. He was right. I’m so glad that God sees something in us, in me, what we can become. And that he relentlessly keeps up his transforming work.

p.s. Adam is doing great these days. After the initial breakthrough a couple years ago, God mercifully continues to give him a measure of healing from his paranoid schizophrenia. Adam has recently led a doctor friend of his to the Lord and has been bringing him to church with him regularly. Keep praying for him.

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 40 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

For my list of recommended books and travel gear, click here.

*names changed for security

Not Ashamed of His Nomads

At first glance, the argument of Hebrews 11:16 might cause some to scratch their heads.

“But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

This passage seems to say that the people of faith mentioned in Hebrews chapter eleven long for a superior eternal home. Because of this, God is not embarrassed to be associated with them. Why? Because he has indeed prepared that kind of city for them, that kind of homeland.

It’s not so much that the logical connections are hard to see in this verse, but that the assumptions behind the argument seem strange. Why does this passage imply that God might be ashamed of those who desire a better and heavenly country? What is so embarrassing or shameful about that?

Is it that these people of faith are messy sinners saved by grace? That their sin is the reason some might feel that God is ashamed to be associated with them? That conclusion, that God is indeed not embarrassed to be identified with sinners, is correct in a biblical-theological sense (Mark 2:16). But it does not actually fit with the context of this passage.

No, here it’s not their sin that leads to the sense that God might be ashamed of them. It is the seemingly-foolish lifestyle choices they are making, based on seemingly-foolish promises.

Noah invests in building an ark because he believes God’s word about a coming flood (Heb 11:7). Abraham leaves his influential city and lives in tents because he believes he is to inherit the land of Canaan (11:8-9). Barren Sarah believes she can give birth as a ninety-year-old woman because the angel of the LORD tells her so (11:11). Childless and elderly Abraham believes his descendants will be like the stars of the sky, like the sands of the seashore (11:12).

Contemporaries would say these people are not living in the real world. Global floods of extinction don’t happen. A family of tent-dwelling nomads doesn’t dispossess nations living in fortified cities. Old and barren men and women don’t produce offspring. They absolutely do not produce millions of them.

In the eyes of their contemporaries, these people are living foolish, even irresponsible, lifestyles. And why? Because of their faith in foolish-seeming promises. “You are living like that because God told you what now? What a waste! What a joke. What a shame.” This is how the wisdom of the world views the costly lifestyles of God’s people of faith.

But not so with God. This text says that God is not ashamed to be called their God. To be not ashamed means that he is honored to be known as their God, he is proud to be associated with them. What a humbling – and frankly shocking – idea. But this is God’s posture because the foolish-seeming faith and lifestyles of these men and women align so well with his character, his eternal plan, and even his past actions. As it turns out, God has already prepared a place for them, an eternal home – though this homeland is invisible now, the kind of place you can only hear about and cannot yet see.

When these foolish-seeming people live not for this temporary world, but for the one that’s coming, God delights in them, even as the world scoffs. God delights because they trust his promises. They trust his character. They risk based on the fact that he is a rewarder. And the heart of God rejoices when his people believe and live in keeping with these realities (11:6).

This truth matters to all believers, since all of us are sojourners and strangers in this age, awaiting our final inheritance (1 Pet 2:11, Rom 8:23). But it especially hits home for those engaged in gospel ministry. Those who decide to pastor, to church plant, to be foreign missionaries, these all embrace seemingly-extra-foolish lifestyles in the eyes of the world – and even in the eyes of many Christians.

For starters, the economic choices of a ministry lifestyle can seem downright disastrous. Pastors might live in a parsonage that doesn’t belong to them, labor in bivocational roles, or struggle with lower-than-average salaries. Church planters take huge risks to see a church birthed that may or may not survive, much less be able to support their family’s needs. Missionaries liquidate their households over and over again during their many transitions, each time incurring significant loss. Over time, these cumulative costs don’t compare very well to peers who have been busy investing in marketplace careers and appreciating assets.

The chances of seeing success and gaining influence also seem disastrous. These ministry Christians tend to choose difficult places to work – thorny church revitalizations, unchurched urban areas, remote agricultural communities, unreached people groups. It’s like they want to fail. As with the figures in Hebrews 11, this quixotic work is all driven by faith in foolish-seeming promises. You cannot truly live unless you first die (John 12:25). The meek will inherit the earth (Matt 5:5). The church will storm the gates of hell (Matt 16:18). Every nation and tongue will one day contain believers (Rev 7:9). Weakness is actually strength (2 Cor 12:9). Suffering is actually meant for good (Rom 8:28).

Yet as year by year the costs mount for minds, bodies, and bank accounts, it’s not only the world or worldly Christians who might say of these kinds of lives “What a waste, what a joke, what a shame.” Even gospel laborers themselves can sometimes look at the material fruit of their lives and feel the same way. “After all the costs, what do I have to show for it? The world is ashamed of my life. I feel ashamed of my life. Perhaps even God is ashamed of my life.”

These gospel laborers – and all Christians – need to remember the truth of Hebrews 11:16. God is not ashamed to be called their God. He has already built the city, the eternal inheritance, that awaits his foolish-seeming tent-dwellers. The world cannot see it, but a new heavens and new earth are coming, more certain than the sunrise. And when it is revealed, when the foundations are exposed by the final storm, the seemingly foolish will suddenly be seen as the truly wise, and the worldly-wise and wealthy will mourn at all that they have wasted. These latter await the terrible prospect of the God of the universe seeing the fruit of their lives and turning away from them, ashamed of them.

A great reversal is coming. The nomads will inherit the earth. And like the saints of Hebrews 11, happy is the Christian whose costly investments reflect the reality of that day. And happy is the God whose name they are given.

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 42 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

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Another Song on Hiraeth

“it is difficult to define hiraeth, but to me it means the consciousness of man being out of his home area and that which is dear to him. That is why it can be felt even among a host of peoples amidst nature’s beauty; like a Christian yearning for heaven.”

–D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

There is no other band that I know of that captures the Christian’s sense of spiritual homesickness so well as The Gray Havens. In this song they express how even from childhood we can experience these mysterious pangs of longing. For many of us, this leads to a lifelong desire to stay wide awake so that we just might one day find the source of that joyous ache.

Do you know that sense that both Eden lost and the coming resurrection are even now bleeding through into this age? Have you ever caught a glimpse of them on a summer’s evening or an afternoon stroll through the bazaar? For me, these experiences are one means of grace that keep me a Christian, that guard my faith. I have tasted and seen something that is stunning and eternal. And when I have, I have been more alive than I could ever be with any pleasure this world offers.

“You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (Psalm 4:7).

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 42 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

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24 Lessons From Our First Term

This week I came across an old note from the end of our first term recording lessons we had learned and were learning when it came to church planting among our Central Asian people group. It’s been six years since I wrote this note, but these takeaways hold up pretty well. For context, see where I’ve written elsewhere about lessons learned from a wolf attack and why it took 7.5 years to raise up our first local elder.

1. Leaders MUST present a united front when dealing with a divisive man, guard against him dividing them.

2. Some believers feel entitled to rent money if meeting is in their house and church salaries. We need to address this upfront.

3. Dig much much deeper before committing to a believer with a really bad reputation.

4. Speak openly about how giving money is and is not used, reinforce regularly that we do not believe in Jesus in order to get money.

5. Be much slower with traditional locals to brainstorm about starting businesses, etc., due to patron/client entitlement issues.

6. Local believers will go to their leaders first when they see a problem with another believer rather than address it directly. This is what they know to do. How to navigate this?

7. Men are tested both by how they use money and what they do when they are not given money. Same thing with power.

8. Meeting in someone’s house gives them a certain measure of power. It is then very hard to discipline them because of that power.

9. Believers bitter about money can very easily twist the truth about our financial situation as missionaries and use it effectively to destroy trust.

10. We should look for trustworthy locals who can interpret indirect communication that is happening around us.

11. Locals will gather semi-publicly if they see a vibrant body of believers, will invite others.

12. Locals will grow in a simple meeting with worship, prayer, and biblical teaching – even if led by foreigners.

13. Some local believers are too quick to do the sinner’s prayer and pronounce someone a believer.

14. House church meetings could use a clear, visible, executive leader to call the shots publicly, but we should guard against the cultural strong man inclinations.

15. We may be somehow able to ask for proof to back up believers stories about persecution, theft, etc. But not yet clear how.

16. It is very tricky to navigate more than two cultures at a time. Multicultural teams have their pluses as well as their minuses.

17. Beware of the Facebook Christian industrial complex that can be predatory. We are not working in a vacuum. Prep believers for when they are approached by outsiders with promises of money, cooperation, or traditions that we have not introduced.

18. Watch out for believers who are super judgmental of small things and other believers. They might be in hidden sin.

19. Mutual clarity on next steps every single week is crucial to avoid misunderstandings as a team.

20. The level of duplicity practiced by some locals is far beyond what we have experienced elsewhere. Pray for supernatural discernment.

21. Locals are not passive regarding leadership. Some will seize it if they see an opportunity. Firm biblical plural leadership is needed, without giving up the temporary apostolic leadership model.

22. Locals tend to idolize then demonize their leaders.

23. Locals in meetings are helped by a clear program and clear boundaries. They are drawn to structure, plans, organization, and institution while we are heading in the opposite direction because of our own Western culture. Our orientations toward institutions are very different. We are skeptical while they are enamored. Seeing a certain amount of organization and program may be part of the threshold which makes locals feel free to gather with others.

24. Our joy must not be rooted in our friends’ performance or in the status of the work!

We will be fully funded and headed back to the field when 42 more friends become monthly or annual supporters. If you would like to join our support team, reach out here. Many thanks!

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