International student ministry…is a ministry!

I have a ministry…that I’ve had for 15 years…but somehow didn’t quite realize it until recently. Several years ago in a class we had to share a little about ourselves and what ministry we were involved in, and I remember saying “uh, well, I’m not involved in any ministry right now.” – Gee, I felt lame and useless for the Lord. Yet, since 1997, my spouse and I have had over a dozen international students live with us from the countries of Germany, Austria, Finland, France, Estonia, Australia, Taiwan, India, Saudi Arabia and soon we will welcome our first students from Latvia. So…how is it that I have never quite seen this as a ministry?

One reason: Having a guest in our home has become so normal for us, that we just see it as, well, normal! We just do it…it is everyday life. Secondly, and I don’t want this to come across as too negative or critical, but we have never really been made to feel like we have a ministry by the church or fellow Christians. I feel that hosting international students in your home (or reaching out to them in other ways) is an undervalued and under-promoted ministry option by the church.

Please don’t misunderstand…I’m not insinuating that working with international students is the “best” ministry and you are un-spiritual if you are not doing it! The body of Christ needs people with a wide variety of gifts and ministry passions. Over the years in church, I’ve seen so many types of ministries promoted…prison ministry, working with the homeless, adoption/foster care, short term mission trips, sex slave trade awareness, crisis pregnancy centers, sponsoring low income neighborhood schools, etc. It is good when the church highlights different ministries as someone may become familiar with a new way to serve, and find their ministry niche. Yet, I don’t think I have ever seen foreign student outreach promoted as a ministry. Memories can be selective, so I asked my spouse to think back also, and he could not remember foreign student ministry being promoted either.

We’ve also generally not felt encouragement or support from fellow believers, with a couple of  exceptions. Years ago at the church we were then attending, a young couple took a real interest in us and our students. They reached out to the students in a genuine way, and this helped us too. Having students live with you is indeed a responsibility! The support from this couple, and feeling that the “load” was being shared was such an encouragement. (This young couple went to the mission field, and not surprisingly, have been involved in successful church planting ministry in South America.)

Last year a ESL student was living with us, and she became frustrated that her english was not improving faster. Part of the problem was she was isolating herself at our house and seemed intimidated by American culture. She needed to be in more situations where she could listen to english being spoken, and practice her english too. We thought it would be helpful if someone might invite her to dinner, invite her to join them on a family outing, or meet her for coffee/tea to chat so she could practice her english. We put out the word, and not a single person responded. I decided to specifically ask a local young woman I knew who was a similar age and also had an interest in overseas missionary work – surely she would be interested in reaching out to our student! But, no, she gave me some vague excuses and declined. Sigh.

With a handful of exceptions, we have just felt like “lone rangers” in our ministry of hosting international students. Not even feeling like we had a ministry because it just wasn’t acknowledged as such…

Since outreach to international students seems to be undervalued and under-promoted, I am brainstorming ways to highlight this ministry option. (Note the word option. Again, this ministry is not for everyone.)

I suppose there are other ministries that also go unacknowledged or undervalued by the church! Or maybe you are involved in an unusual ministry of some type? Would love to hear about it! Please share, and how could fellow believers encourage you?  Thanks for listening…

Woe is me, the church is a mess?

Do you ever get really discouraged about the state of the modern church? I sure do. I think it is partly my personality type, as I can be a rather melancholy soul. Recently I was catching up on my reading of the magazine Christianity Today, and some thoughts in an article gave me a new perspective.

In an article entitled “The Future of Today’s Christianity” (by Mark Galli and Andy Crouch, March 2013 issue), they review some of the good and bad about the North American evangelical church. Then, comes this paragraph:

As Fuller seminary’s Richard Mouw likes to say “The church is in really bad shape today. It’s almost as bad as it was in the first century.” The church that Christ promised to build survived the license of Corinth, the legalism of Galatia, and the lukewarmness of Laodicia. It will survive, and more than survive, in our time, because it is not built by human hands but by Christ himself. He constantly renews and reforms his people. He breathes new life and new forms into being in response to institutional decay. And every day he calls sinners from every nation to himself, transforming them into sons and daughters in a new family.

Somehow I’d never really thought of it that way before! It can be easy to have an idealized view of the past, forgetting the problems, but the church throughout time has had problems.  Yet, it has prevailed, and this can point us to the supernatural nature of the church and Christ’s work in it. This can give us hope for the future, instead of sending us into a “woe is me” mentality. Right?

What’s so Amazing about Grace?

The video I shared on Friday reminded me of the opening page of Philip Yancey’s book What’s so Amazing about Grace?.  Here it is:

I told a story in my book The Jesus I Never Knew, a true story that long afterward continued to haunt me. I heard it from a friend who works with the down-and-out in Chicago:

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter—two years old!—to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable—I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman. At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

What struck me about my friend’s story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?

- I highly recommend the book What’s so Amazing about Grace? and hope this opening page excerpt might encourage you to get a copy and read it. Heather’s ministry (highlighted in the video) is one of grace as they want the women they reach out to to feel welcomed by the church and sense the grace of God through Christ.

We love you just the way you are? Throwing a party for sex workers.

I was deeply touched by this 5 minute video. Heather reaches out to women in the adult entertainment industry. She has a lot of wisdom. I wept at the Christians who sadly passed her over. But this reminded me of God’s sovereignty and His ability to reach people even when we fail to witness or fail to share Christ’s love as we should.

It might be easy to judge the Christian women in the coffee shop that overlooked Heather. Yet, we have all likely been guilty of something similar. It may sadly be prejudice or a holier-than-thou attitude, but it may be honest discomfort or fear of the unknown. We’ve never interacted with “someone like that” and we fear saying or doing the wrong thing. Somehow we’ve got to get better at looking at people, and seeing only their humanity. Don’t look at someone and see “a label” (an addict, a prostitute, an exotic dancer, a gay person…) but look at them and see a person! A person just like you. 

I was also challenged by Heather’s thoughts at the end which I summarize here:

“The challenge has never been the sex industry…the challenge is to have the church open their heart…to let people come as they are…not to pick them apart…to not transform them faster than God…to give them the time to change.”

The gifts Heather’s ministry give out carry the simple statement “We love you just the way you are.”  I suppose some Christians might not like this, as they might fear it indicates we are condoning sinful behavior. Yet, Christ clearly loved us just the way we were! Consider Ephesians 2:1-10 and Romans 5: 6-8. Christ loved us and died for us even though we were ungodly, sinful, and dead in our trespasses. God reached out to us, and His love and grace transformed us. Lets get better at showing that love and grace to others. Jesus met people where they were. Why can’t we?

Enough commentary from me! I hope you are as moved by this video as I was…

More signs of hope from the complementarian camp…

In regards to my recent post entitled Women in ministry…lip service vs reality where I share some signs of hope from the complementarian camp…I see more glimmers of hope in this recent post by Trevin Wax of The Gospel Coalition: The Crazy Culture of Complementarianism. I appreciate his “bad crazy” section where he states:

In some churches that affirm a complementarian view of manhood and womanhood, a culture develops that goes beyond the complementarian beliefs into a skewed version of manhood and womanhood that we did not discern from the Scriptures…

He goes on to admit some problems within complementarianism, and I share some below:

a reticence or hesitance to affirm and celebrate women’s contributions in local church ministry, particularly contributions that are more up-front and visible.

a warped vision of manhood that focuses on calloused hands and physical labor and ignores other kinds of work.

the assumption that marriage is always better than singleness, so that singles feel like their identity is wrapped up in not having a spouse.

unwillingness to celebrate any evidence of gospel ministry or fruit among those with a more egalitarian viewpoint.

an unexpressed expectation that the godliest women have quiet and introverted personality types, and cannot be assertive and outgoing.

Thanks Trevin! Your post is refreshing and encouraging to me. I get tired of the divisiveness and extremism that too often exists on both sides of this issue. Egalitarians can also be guilty of overemphasizing certain things or losing focus. More humility is needed by all of us…

A fear of questions and doubt…

I came across this post by another wordpress blogger: Our Greatest Fears: Questions and Doubt, and here is the opening paragraph. I hope you’ll read his further thoughts.

One thing that I have noticed since I began my journey of following Christ is that there seems to be certain questions that should never be asked in a church setting or when you are with your Christian friends. If you ask these questions, people seem to look at you like your faith is weak. Or they give you the look of, “Why are you even here?” So we learn to hold in these questions. We hold them in and never address them…

Preparing your kids for times of doubt

Michael Patton of Credo House just had a worthwhile post entitled: Twelve Ways to Prepare Your Children for Times of Doubt in which I think he shares some exceptional advice.

Too often Christian parents can be guilty of indoctrinating rather than educating their kids when it comes to matters of faith. (This may be unintentional.) Yet kids that have been indoctrinated are more likely to walk away from faith as adults. This second link references a study which revealed that young people who are allowed to express and explore doubt are more likely to keep the faith as adults.

Perhaps to Michael Patton’s honor, infamous Richard Dawkins has taken notice of his post and called it a “twisted and tragic way to parent.” 

By the way, I need to update my “about me” as I am no longer a seminary student but a seminary graduate – as I graduated on May 11th! I took my classes at an extension site for my seminary, and was pleased to go to the main campus in Dallas, Texas for the graduation and related activities.

Doctrine and discipleship

Well, I suppose the exciting title “doctrine and discipleship” won’t create much interest. But I came across this recent study by LifeWay that shows a strong link between doctrine and discipleship.

The study linked the holding of traditional Christian doctrinal points regarding salvation/personal eschatology and the nature of God to Christians who were “progressing toward spiritual maturity.” In other words, growing disciples are more orthodox and developed in their Christian doctrine than those Christians who are not growing “transformationally” in their faith.

These results didn’t surprise me. Who’d have thought that a deeper understanding of your beliefs would impact your living of the Christian life? (I’m being a little sarcastic there!) Yet, it sometimes seems difficult to get Christians to delve deeper into the doctrines of the faith. If you offer two adult sunday school class options on “handling stress” or “the attributes of God”, the former will be overflowing with attendees and only a handful will attend the later. Some pastors even avoid preaching on doctrine, and prefer “how to” sermons.

It is true that doctrine or theology can unfortunately be presented in a dry or overly academic fashion, and this can turn people off. But the teaching of doctrine can (and should) be done in a relevant way. Doctrine at its core is practical to life. What you believe affects and influences how you live!

For example, a proper understanding of the attributes of God can help you get through a stressful time in life, as you can rest in the nature of who God is, realizing that he is in control even though it might not seem like it. When the storms of life are raging, it can be too late to talk about the anchor that should have already been put down. We should think clearly before disaster comes, so we have a philosophy of life and an understanding of God to hold us steady.

Worship at some churches is really…hmm…not very worshipful! It can be weak or lack depth. Perhaps this is because we unknowingly have a low view of God. We’ve forgotten about the greatness of God and aren’t even familiar with his attributes. How can we worship God rightly unless we know and understand him well?

On the other hand, we don’t want to be so simplistic as to think that if we get people studying doctrine that this will automatically lead to spiritual growth and transformation. It is possible to get so caught up in studying theology that we miss the point. It can become nothing but an academic endeavor, and this needs to be guarded against. The Holy Spirit is critical in this process.

Yet, I think Christians (in the USA at least) are very weak in knowing what they believe and many churches could benefit from some more challenging, in-depth teaching on doctrine. Lets not forget that one imperative of the Great Commission is to teach people…to obey. (Reminding us of the connection between belief and action.) The apostle Paul in several of his epistles emphasizes the importance of our mind and knowing what we believe…lest we be tossed to and fro by every cultural or religious fad or false teaching that comes along. Yet, in these same epistles Paul also encourages us to live what we believe and put our faith into action.

I guess my point is: Both knowing our beliefs and living our beliefs are important. But we can’t properly live what we believe if we don’t properly know what we believe. Right?

Maybe we need to trick some congregants by offering a class on “handling stress” and then have it actually be on the attributes of God…of course, explaining that a better understanding of God will help them in all areas of their life. ☺

Quote Monday – cautions about intimacy with God

I used to share a quote every Monday, but stopped the routine. I may try to make it an every Monday thing again. We’ll see. Generally, I don’t go searching for a quote but share something I stumble upon while reading books, blogs, magazines, etc.

I have concerns about the evangelical terminology “relationship with God” – Don’t get me wrong, I do believe we can have a relationship with God but it seems that evangelicalism can tip this too far in one direction. A post where I elaborate is here: Problems with saying you have a “relationship with God”…maybe we need new terminology?

The quote below has a similar theme:

It is possible, in our pursuit of intimacy with God, to:
1.   Allow our familiarity to degenerate into flippancy.
2.   Fail to remember His transcendence by placing extreme emphasis on His immanence.
3.   Lose sight of His holiness.
4.   Overemphasize the subjective fruit to the exclusion of the objective foundation.
5.   Fail to come to Him on His terms.
6.   Lose sight of the distinction between Creator and creature.
Sam Storms
www.enjoyinggodministries.com.

** While I have written some things to automatically post, I won’t be checking into my blog this week – so I will not be able to “approve” any comments left until I return. Have a good week and thanks for following my blog!

Links…on a variety of issues!

A number of articles/posts interested me over the last couple weeks, and I’ll share them with some brief thoughts. Maybe one will catch your eye.

• Modern hymn writers revive lost art of Christian music. I was pleasantly surprised to see this article on Keith and Kristyn Getty on the USA Today site. If you don’t know the Getty’s – you should! They are an Irish couple living in the USA who write and sing modern hymns. I was also surprised to see critique of some modern Christian music and the benefits of hymns – and I completely related to it.

• A Progressive’s Confessional Journey to Focus on the Family.  Wow. I was so touched by this article by a liberal secular man. While he disagrees with Focus on gay rights, he admits Focus does a great deal of good and has changed its approach. He is trying to break down unfair stereotypes about Focus and evangelicals. He emphasizes that the bulk of Focus’s time and energy is devoted to the non-controversial task of helping people. Clearly, Focus does not deserve hate group status.

• The most oppressive Bible verse that never was.  If you’ve been evangelical for any length of time, you’ve probably at some point in the past (perhaps reaching back to your youth group years) heard it emphasized that we should avoid even the appearance of evil (based on I Thess 5:22). Picture it being said or shouted in a threatening tone! (haha) A few years ago I remember looking for this verse to double check it, and was surprised when it wasn’t actually worded that way! This article explains it, and a how a false theology of separatism was built from it.

• Cultivate Gospel Conversations by Listening.  I think the author’s critique is right on – evangelicals are good at one-way communication, but are not strong with dialogue. We don’t always listen carefully. We can be too verbose. We offer unsolicited opinions. We fail to notice. An appeal to be more observant and listen carefully.