MIB - Missing in Baby-land

If you follow this blog, you know I haven't been posting much lately.  Here are a few of the happy reasons why.

-- Just before we left for the hospital --

 -- Just before I entered the operating room.  They took Sarah in 20 minutes before me, so I had a long time of nervous pacing and strained Korean dialog with the staff.  --

 -- This is the normal way for parents to view their new babies in Korea.  One of our church members just had a baby and still hasn't held him after 3 days (because she had a C-section and they don't expect C-section moms to nurse until 5-6 days after).  However, our hospital was more flexible, and though we had to push, Sarah was able to nurse about an hour after delivery.  Also, we could get our baby pretty much any time. --

 -- I'm one proud papa.  He even opened his eyes for the camera. --

 -- Sarah's first time seeing him outside the operation room --

 -- My mom and Emma visiting the hospital on Day 1. Sarah's mom is also here, and her dad is coming tomorrow, but I don't have any other good family pics on my computer yet. --

 -- Emma's first time holding John David --

-- He started fussing a little, and happy changed to: "Uh oh, now what?" --

As I get adjusted to life in Baby-Land, I'll try to get back to more regular posts, but this will have to do for now.

Scripture and Preaching

2 Questions for Discussion
When have you really felt God speaking to you through a sermon? 
What were the main points of the last 5 sermons you heard?

    Raise your hand if you could remember at least one of the last five sermon topics?  Keep your hand up if you could remember two?  Three?  Four?  Five? 
    But I expect that almost all of us could point to at least one sermon that was a powerful spiritual event for us.  Somehow, sometimes, sermons become miracles.  Reading the Bible and talking about it becomes a transcendent event when the words on the page become the Word of God for us in our hearts. 
    This is our topic today - the role of scripture and preaching in the worship service.  You can read the Bible at home.  You can listen to sermon podcasts or read them online, but something special happens when we gather to hear from God together.  What is that?  How does that work?  How can we have more of those special, supernatural, God-filled moments when we gather on Sundays? 

    Our primary text for today is in 2 Timothy.  Timothy is Paul’s ministry student.  Paul has been training Timothy for years.  In our series on 1 Thessalonians, we saw part of this training period with Timothy serving as Paul’s assistant.  Timothy is out on his own now, in Ephesus.  Timothy is the Christian leader of the island, kind of like a bishop or lead pastor for a network of house churches.  Paul is giving his final advice to Timothy, charging him with his most important tasks as a minister.  Again and again, Paul comes back to one fundamental task: “Preach the Word of God.”  Let’s read part of Paul’s advice starting in 3:14.

Chapter 3: 14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.  ...



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(If necessary, scroll to Friday Sept. 16, 2011.)

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God Is Not a White Man

Check out this awesome, quirky, theologically astute music video by the band Gungor:

Life's Fast Moving Opportunity - 1 Thessalonians 5

    First of all, I want to thank you for all of your care and support for our family over the past week and a half.  Many of you came to visit us.  Several offered to help or brought us meals.  John David is a blessing, but you have also been a blessing and an encouragement to us.
    Second, I want to let you show you some pictures of the newest member of our family, and this is not John David.  Let me introduce you to Elliana Renae Palmer, or Ella for short.  Ella was born on Tuesday - three weeks early.  Michael and Elizabeth went to our hospital for a check up and were holding her in their arms three hours later.   John David and Ella were born 4 days and 32 minutes apart.  Sarah and Elizabeth were in the same hospital, on the same floor, just across the hall from each other.
    These are special times - full times - full of love and meaning and opportunity.  We couldn’t have planned it like this if we tried.  This was a beautiful, serendipitous blessing.  
    But these days will not last forever.  These moments are passing.  We can only experience them now.  You know what parents say to each other: Cherish these moments.  Before you know it, he’ll be riding a bike.  Blink twice, and she’ll be entering college.  They grow up so fast. 

    This is not far from our text today.  This week, we are finishing our study on 1 Thessalonians, so we’ll read all of chapter 5.  It’s pretty long, so we’ll take it in sections.  Let’s start with just verse 1.

1 Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you.

    You can’t catch it very well in English, but Paul actually uses two different Greek words for time here: chronos and chairos.  Chronos is for the simple progression of time - tick, tock, tick, tock.  One second after another, one hour, one day.  Chronos is the kind of time when you say, “Their plane arrives Friday September 2 at 1:05 pm.” 
    But Chairos is a different kind of time.  Chairos is focused on the quality of time rather than the quantity of time.  Chairos is closer to the idea of an opportunity or when we look back on a particular period in our life and say, “Those were good times.”  Chairos is like that moment of opportunity when there is an opening in a horse race, and the rider has to go fast before it closes.
    To help explain the nature of Chairos, the ancient Greeks depicted Chairos as a young man moving fast, with wings on both his back and feet. He is tipping the scales in one direction for now, right now only.  One scholar explains, “His hair is long in front and bald behind; he must be grasped, if at all, by the fore-lock.”  If you want to catch Chairos, you have to get ahead of it, or it will get away.  ...

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Korea Tip 114: Crazy May Have a Cause

Be careful what you call crazy.  When you enter a very different culture, some things will seem very strange - even senseless.  Korea is definitely not an exception in this category - at least not for Westerners.  I can't count the number of times I've said or heard someone else say, "That's just crazy."  Not to mention the thousand other variants.
However, one thing that dawned on me this week (once again) is that most of the unusual practices in Korea that seem crazy to me at first actually have a pretty good cause in reality.  Here are a few examples.

• Brushing teeth after every meal.  I was shocked to meet several of the professors in my office building every day around 1:15 - brushing their teeth in the bathroom.  That seemed a little excessive to me.  That is until, I started eating in the faculty dining room.  The kimchi, onions, and garlic had me reaching for a toothbrush, too.  On occasion, I even stoop to an afternoon flossing to get those little bits of green stuff out of my teeth.
• Last minute planning.  This is one that really drives most westerners crazy.  The plans change 3 times before the event, and then 5 more times during the event.  You can't figure out what classes you're actually teaching until the week before the classes start, and even that might not be the final say.  But, this one is kind of a vicious cycle.  It's hard to make and keep plans when everyone else is changing their plans because other people are changing their plans, too.  After reformatting the event 7 times, some people decide that the simplest thing to do is to wait until the last day - after it's almost impossible for any more notices of change to come in - and then work super hard to plan the whole event.  For Westerners, this seems terribly inefficient and stressful, but it actually kind of works in Korean culture - and may even work a little better, given the structural limitations.
• Opening the windows in the winter.  So the heat's on full blast, and icicles are forming outside (or inside), and the windows are open - all of them.  This leaves lots of Westerners scratching their heads or angry.  Or, the first student to walk into the classroom and turns heat up to full blast.  Then, 20 minutes into class, it's crazy hot, and all the students have their coats on, so one of the students opens the window instead of turning down the heat.  Lots of cultural reasons here.  (A) The primary traditional heat sources (stoves or propane heaters) gave off noxious fumes, so fresh air was very important for health.  (B) Airing out a house is important in Confucian philosophy.  (C) With the class room scenario, the students may think the teacher turned on the heat.  Therefore, they don't have the authority to override the teacher's decision there.  However, they are sitting next to the window, so no problem with opening it to get a little more comfortable - especially considering A and B.  (D) Also, many Koreans will keep their coats on inside for lots of reasons.  Schools weren't traditionally heated well, so coats were necessary.  Taking it off just seems like too much trouble - or possibly an insult to the person who sets the classroom environment.  

I could go on and on and on and on.  The point is that there are usually good reasons for most of the things we don't understand.
What are some things you don't understand about Korea?
What are some things you have learned that have helped you understand Korea?

A Village for Widows

Our mission is to be a loving community that changes our world.  We say it every week, and we mean it.  Our church, KNU International English Church (at Korea Nazarene University), is passionately living out our calling to change our world. 

However, we understand that we can’t change the whole world all at once.  A key plank of our vision is “global change through local action.”  We serve our local community in a variety of ways, and we are partnering with Nazarenes in Bangladesh to help build a village for widows and orphans.  What follows is the story of how this partnership developed.

Missions in our DNA
As a multicultural church founded by missionaries, our church has always had missions in our DNA.  ...


READ THE REST AT: www.engagemagazine.com.

Memories, Hopes, and Conversations - Review

Whatever image enters into a church's corporate imagination, that picture will have shaping power concerning structures, goals, schedules, finances, and practices (38).
Appreciative inquiry is built on theories that move a congregation away from deficit-based models toward the images and forces that are most life giving (39).

Memories, Hopes, and Conversations explains how to apply the process of Appreciative Inquiry to church life.  Embedded in the change process of a Japanese-American church, Mark Lau Branson uses this extended case study to walk us through the process of helping a church imagine a new future by taking an appreciative look at their past.
One of the common problems of organizational life is that we focus our attention on the negative.  As we engage in "problem-solving," we inadvertently focus our attention on the weakest and most draining parts of our systems.  This negative focus pulls us into its own vortex of negativity and often prevents any real solutions or growth from emerging.
On the other hand, Appreciative Inquiry, which has been used with great success by businesses and NGOs, uses intentional questions and interviews to focus our attention on our greatest strengths and assets.  We ask questions about the best parts of our past, our most enriching experiences then and now.  Then, we also ask questions about our desires and hopes for the future.  After we collect all the information from a broad-based interview process, we begin imagining together how we could grow into our strengths and expand them to enrich our church more fully.
Built on the basic philosophy of gratitude, Appreciate Inquiry is both hopeful and realistic.  This approach acknowledges that how we frame our questions and discussions impacts our energy and our outcomes.
 After struggling many times to address our churches blessings and challenges with multiculturalism, we are starting to try an appreciative inquiry approach.  I'm asking our leaders to interview people with basic questions about their positive experiences with multiculturalism.  My hope is that this will point us in the direction of the things we do best and how to do more of them.
This is a good book, a needed book.  However, there was something lacking which I can't quite identify.  The Josh rating: JJJJ.

The Last Juror - Review

Grisham veers a little from his traditional courtroom style, but not too far.  A legal drama is still a major factor in the story, but the lead character in this story is a kid fresh out of college (without graduating) who stumbles into the ownership of a small town newspaper.  His paper reports mercilessly on a hideous murder by a member of the county's most notorious criminal family, and he is wrapped up into the drama.
Outside the courtroom, we see a young man struggling to come into his manhood. We also get a fresh look at the racial tensions of the deep south in the 1970s.  However, this is refreshingly rendered through the lens of a hyper successful black family with eight kids and seven PhD's.
The Last Juror walks a fine line between gentle story telling and compelling suspense, and that seems to be exactly what Grisham is aiming for - just enough suspense to keep us interested in the main story: a positive image of small town America - even with its weaknesses and faux paus.  As Willie Traynor, a yankee at heart, adapts to life in rural Mississippi, the readers kind of get the feel that they too could make a home there.
Good, enjoyable reading, but not ground breaking or can't-put-it-down.  The Josh rating: JJJ.

Stronger through Sharing (1 Thessalonians 3)

       Tomorrow is 광복절 (Korea’s Liberation Day).  For more than forty years, the Korean people resisted Japanese colonization.  Sometimes, this resistance was public as in the March 1st, Declaration of Independence in 1919.  More often though, the resistance was through guerilla warfare, covert meetings, secret newspapers delivered at night, and hidden educational gatherings.  

Throughout the resistance movement, one thing remained constant.  The resistance became stronger when people bound together.  Isolation led to weakness, but communal sharing led to strength.  As long as people felt that they were alone in their desire to be free and alone in their faith that freedom is possible, then their courage to resist grew weak.  But when people realized that they are not alone, that others stand together with them, that others also share the faith that freedom is possible, then their courage to resist became stronger.  

Isolation leads to weakness.  Communal sharing leads to strength.  This is the message under the text of 1 Thessalonians 3.  Let’s read it now.

 ¹ Finally, when we could stand it no longer, we decided to stay alone in Athens, ² and we sent Timothy to visit you. He is our brother and God’s co-worker in proclaiming the Good News of Christ. We sent him to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, ³ and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. ...




To continue reading this post, click here.  (If necessary, scroll to the post on August 12, 2011.)


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Preaching Naked

Preaching naked
I bare my soul
No hidden motives
Nothing in reserve
My heart on my sleeve
My insides spilling out
Through my open mouth
Preaching naked
I bare my soul
Like me
Love me
Hate me
Don't ignore me
Preaching naked

A Life Inside

A life inside a life
Mysterious, profound, surreal
Microscopic beginnings
Splitting, expanding, complexifying
A life inside a life
Swelling, nudging, protruding
Making its presence known
Listening, stretching, responding
Demanding care and preparation
A life inside a life
Unsettling, disruptive, life-altering
Joy-giving, enriching, heart-expanding
While still
A life inside a life.

Aim Lower, Think Smaller

Check out this simple but profound video.

Questioning Our Leaders - 1 Thessalonians 2

My ministry here is not a failure.  You know that I have not been wasting my time and yours.  You may or may not know that sometimes I have been misunderstood, criticized, and treated unfairly.  Yet God has given me the strength to continue preaching God’s Good News boldly, in spite of those who may object.  

My teaching is not in error.  My motives are pure.  I’m not doing a bait-and-switch to catch people with a feel-good gospel.

I am called by God to be his messenger, his prophet.  God has entrusted me with his message, and you can be sure that I’m trying to please God not people.  God knows my heart.  God knows why I do this.

I’m not the kind of guy who flatters others or soft-pedals the truth or just says what you want to hear.  You certainly know that I haven’t taken it easy on you.  I’ve given you the truth even when the truth is difficult and unpopular.  Clearly, I’m not in this for the money or the glory.

As a pastor called and ordained by God and the Church, I could push my way.  I have that right, but I always try to side with gentleness.  I’ve cared for you like a mother nursing her own children.  And the truth is I haven’t just shared God’s Gospel, but I’ve been sharing my heart and soul with you.

Don’t you remember how I was bivocational - holding down two jobs so as not to be a burden to you?  Don’t you remember how I turned down pay raises to make room for more missional ministry?  You yourselves stand as witnesses - along with God - that I’ve been honest and faithful and above reproach here.

Like a father guiding the growth of his children ...



To continue reading this sermon, click here.  (If necessary, scroll to post on August 4, 2011.)


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Turning the World Upside Down (1 Thessalonians 1)

For the next five week’s we’ll be walking through a little New Testament book called 1 Thessalonians.  It’s pretty small - just five chapters and only about two pages in my Bible, but it was actually written to a really important city.

Thessalonica (now Thessaloniki) is still the second largest city in Greece, but it is some 2,300 years old.  Around the New Testament times, it was the capital of Macedonia - the northern half of Greece.  And it was rich, very rich.  It had an excellent port, comfortably nestled into the northernmost port of a gulf.  It was also centrally located on the major Roman highway running east and west through the empire.  All of this led to lots of importing and exporting.  They worked hard, and they had lots of cash.

Thessalonians were also very religious.  Like most ancient Greeks and Romans, they worshiped a wide variety of gods.

• Of course, there were the traditional gods of Greek mythology, but the most prominent in Thessalonica were Dionysius and Artemis.  

• Dionysius was the god of wine and ecstasy.  His followers were famous for wild drunken party-parades which “freed” everyone from all their social inhibitions.
• Artemis was worshiped both as goddess of wild animals and goddess of fertility.  

• Thessalonians also adopted two Egyptian gods: Isis and Osiris.

• Isis was the goddess of motherhood, fertility, and magic.  Her statues often showed her nursing a son.  Also known as the Queen of Heaven, she offered salvation and eternal life to all in exchange for humility, confession, and repentance.
• Osiris was Isis’s brother and husband, and he was supposed to be the god of the afterlife and underworld.  Osiris was believed to die every year and be raised from the dead by Isis’s tears.

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Double Indemnity - AFI Greatest Movie #29

"Straight down the line, Baby.  Straight down the line."  Perfect plan.  Perfect execution.  Perfect murder.  Except that nothing is ever perfect.
In Double Indemnity, AFI's 29th greatest film of all time, Fred MacMurray (the star from "My Three Sons") is swept into a murder plot by a beautiful woman who wants to be free from her overbearing husband.  As an insurance guy, he ought to know how to work the system, and he almost does - until his intuitive and nosy friend spots the one hole in their case.  From that point on, MacMurray begins to unravel in the style of Crime and Punishment.
All in all the point seems to be rather simple, crime (and selfishness) doesn't pay.  Theologically, you can almost see sin's creeping tentacles slowly wrap around MacMurray and pull him foot by foot into his own pit.
The closing scene is artistically brilliant in its reverse foil.  MacMurray's friend, who was always in need of a match, suddenly has one on hand and lights one last cigaret for MacMurray as he waits dying for both the ambulance and the police.
A classic crime and suspense tale, but not incredible.  The Josh rating: JJJ.

Dragon Seed - Review

"The woman had hair as yellow as cat's fur, and it did not lie smooth about her head as hair does, but it stood out like lamb's wool."  These were the thoughts of Ling Sao as she came face to face with her first white woman.
Pearl Buck's Dragon Seed is set in northeastern China during Japan's invasion between 1937-1941.  It tells the story in all its brutal details through the lens of a single farming family living on the outskirts of a large city - possibly Nanjing or Shanghai.  This simple, hardy family suffers all the ravages of war and being conquered - flight, rape, murder, oppression, irrational injustice, heavy taxation, poverty, hunger, disease, and extreme instability.  In the midst of this single family, we all the options of resistance - flight, subversive fighting from the hills, compromise with the enemy, sabotage from within the enemy's camp, passive endurance, and sly evasion of taxes and oppression.
In addition to telling a riveting story, Pearl Buck has also revealed the difficulties of isolated people coming into contact with outsiders for the first time.  As one living in Korea, where contact with foreigners is still somewhat new.  These little bits of insight from the perspective of the indigenous people shed light on many of my experiences.  On more than one occasion, we have caused a baby to cry simply by entering an elevator with our white faces.  But even more common is a deep reticence to talk with us simply because we are different.  When one has been exposed to only one type of people for many generations, the sudden advent of diversity is radically disconcerting.
I recommend this book, not only because it's a great novel, but also because it can help expats living in Asia to understand a little bit more about how we are often experienced by many in our host nation.  The Josh rating: JJJJ.

Love in a Fearful Land - Review

Here's another Nouwen book.   It's fairly short with a generous dose of photographs, so I finished it on the bus ride before the retreat officially began.
Love in a Fearful Land is the story of two Catholic priests in Guatemala.  Father Stanley Rother a missionary priest from Oklahoma City was assigned to a poor Mayan village in the mountains of Guatemala.  He learned their language and served with steady integrity and compassion for 12 years.  He invested his life in helping the people understand God and become more self-reliant and healthy.  Eventually, this nonpolitical commitment to serve his community was viewed as political resistance to the corrupt and oppressive Guatemalan military regime.  (For more on the political situation in Latin America in the 1970's and 1980's see yesterday's post.)  After being threatened in a variety of ways, he was finally killed in his bedroom in 1981.
Three years later Father John Vesey felt called to replace Stan as the priest of this little town - despite all the risks.  Vesey asked his good friend Henri Nouwen to come and pray for him as he adapted to his new assignment.  When Nouwen was leaving, he asked how he could help.  This book is the result.
What I learned from this book is pretty similar to what I learned from Gracias!.  Sometimes doing even simple and obviously good things leads to conflict and persecution.  Once again, I felt grateful to be in a place where there is no threat of physical persecution.  And once again, I felt encouraged to persevere with humility and patience.
In this book, Nouwen is not at his best, but as he explains, he is coming off a drought of a year and a half of writers' block.  Also, this is not his standard topic.  However, even in the midst of the martyrdom and difficulty, this book is a glowing depiction of simple love in Jesus' way.  By telling the story, Nouwen calls us to the same simple and persistent love for all - no matter the cost.
The Josh rating: JJJ.

Gracias! - Review

Last week I took a spiritual retreat up to the mountains of northeastern South Korea (just below the border).  While there, I picked up a Nouwen book out of the monastery library.  Nouwen has been my most common spiritual director on retreats down through the years.
Gracias! did not disappoint.  It was full of profound cultural and spiritual insights which I needed to hear.
Gracias! tells the story of Nouwen's six month sojourn in Bolivia and Peru in the early 1980s while he was attempting to discern whether he was called to serve in Latin America.  If you think back about your world history, Latin America was a mess in the 70s and 80s.  For hundreds of years Latin America was ruled by European colonialists and their grandchildren.  Native Americans and people of mixed ethnicity were poor, uneducated, and deeply oppressed.  The fair skinned ruling class wanted to keep them that way, but around mid-century, the poor slowly decided that they didn't want to stay poor.
The Catholic Church - by far the largest religious group in Latin America - took a "preferential option for the poor" and assisted them in developing their lives through education, health care, better farming, better saving, social organization, healthier diets, etc.  Gustavo Guiterrez was developing and teaching his now famous - Liberation Theology - at this time.  As the poor gained knowledge of their human rights and hope that enabled them to shed fatalism, they began to push for reforms.  As the reformers were first ignored, then punished, then brutally persecuted, reform slowly merged into revolution.
And - given the power dynamics of wealthy nations, USA vs USSR, democracy vs communism - all of these issues in Latin America were set in the light of communism versus everything else.  80-90% of Latin America was poor at that time, and anyone who sided with them or helped them risked being labeled as communist, leftist, destabilizing, disruptive problem-makers.  The result was mass persecution of the Catholic Church whenever and wherever it openly assisted the poor.  People began to disappear.  The martyrs began to be counted by the dozens, then hundreds, then thousands and tens of thousands.
It is in this milieu, Nouwen was considering a life among the poor in Latin America.  A brave question and a brave sojourn.
I learned or relearned three important lessons through Nouwen's reflections.  Some of the most meaningful parts of the book came in his reflections of Gustavo Guitierrez's lectures which Nouwen attended several times.
1. Reform takes time.  I consider myself a reformer, a progressive, someone who is participating in the larger reform of the Church of our time.  I deeply want us to return to our Biblical and Christlike roots as a church, which will - yes - include much more service to the poor, but also much more love for all our neighbors and much more intense commitment to understanding and following Jesus in every possible way and reform in our structures and styles of doing church.  I have struggled with others' resistance, apathy, and lip-service to this reform.  However, observing the Latin American struggle from the distance of space and time encouraged me - oddly.  Their struggle - far more painful than ours - persevered as was largely successful, though it is still incomplete and ongoing.  If they can persevere in the face of persecution and death, I can persevere in the face of complaints or walk-outs.  Also, some of the people in the liberation theology group advised Nouwen that this all takes a great deal of time, that progress is slow, and that it must be done at the pace of the people not the pace of the reformers.  I felt a strong call to perseverance and patience.
2. True reform is deeply spiritual.  Gutierrez lectured on the spirituality of liberation and explained that without maintaining a deep connection with God, we lose the both the heart of love and the will to persevere.  Gutierrez advocated spending time in the "useless" work of prayer and meditation.   Nouwen observed that many of the reformers around him were hostile, angry, and militaristic (at least in words and mindset if not in action).  But the "old fighters" called these young bucks to peace, to patience, to connecting deeply with the Spirit of God, and to working patiently with the people even if that means suffering with the people as the people develop their own desire to further the reformation.  I felt a call to go deeper in my own spiritual life - even if that means less time for "tasks" and "productive" things.
3. Gratitude is central.  Nouwen was deeply struck by the inherent gratitude of the Latin American people.  They view everything as the gift that it is.  Life is a gift.  Food is a gift.  Work is a gift.  Home and family are gifts.  Every good thing we have is a gift from a gracious God.  As a reformer, as someone who deeply wants our world to be better, often I can focus on what is lacking the good that we need but is not yet.  Often I can look at our world as one large bundled collection of problems and deficiencies.  This is an extremely distorted view.  Yes, our world is broken and needs healing.  But even amid our brokenness, God is at work, and God has blessed us with innumerable good gifts.  Despite the dents and the dust, these gifts retain their glorious goodness, and I am - we are - called to celebrate these many gifts at all times and in all places.

The Josh rating: JJJJ.

Conversion (Tough Theology - Week 6)

When I was a university student, I did a one semester exchange program at European Nazarene College - a beautiful little campus on the Rhine river at the border of Germany and Switzerland.  That spring, we had lots of holidays.  Germans take almost as many holidays as Koreans.  One of the holidays was Ascension Day, to which I said, “Thanks for the day off and everything, but what’s that?”
Ascension Day is the day when Jesus ascended into heaven - exactly 40 days after his resurrection.  We had a special Ascension Day worship service, and the guest speaker was none other than Hermann Gschwandtner, the German missionary who is now the South Asia Field Director and was here in May.
I honestly don’t remember anything Hermann said, but I do remember the text: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
That day, that verse, that sermon - they changed me.  I felt God clearly calling me to give my life for evangelism.  Sitting in that little European chapel, I knew that the highest purpose for the rest of my life was to help people become authentic Christians.
About a year later, I began working on an MDiv degree in a special program focusing on evangelism.  The English word “evangelism” comes from the Greek word euangelion or “Good News” or “Gospel.”  Evangelism is Gospel-ism.  Evangelism is to do the Gospel, to proclaim Good News, to bring Good News, to be the living presence Gospel.  I am here standing before you today because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have given my life to transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So today, in our last week on the Tough Theology series, we pick up a topic that is very dear to my heart: Conversion.  What does it mean to become a Christian?  When we talk about the gospel and evangelism and all of that, what are we really aiming at, and how do we get there?
Three people have shaped the way I view conversion.  Three key thinkers have radically altered the way I think about what it means to become a Christian.  Today, I want to walk you through each of these key thinkers, and I hope they will shape your thoughts on conversion as well.

 The first thinker who has changed my thinking is James Engel.  He developed something known as the Engel Scale of Evangelism.  It looks like this.  This chart may look complex, but it has a simple movement.  Everyone in the world is somewhere on this chart.  As people’s thoughts and actions become more in line with the gospel, they move up the chart.  Anything that helps someone move up - even just one step - is a form of evangelism.  ....

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Mist

Squinting through a mist

I navigate by the tip of my boat

My ears my only guide

Whispers of the wind float

Quietly gently to my side

A sixth sense sweeps them in

Interpreting soundless sounds

Directing my oars - now out - now in

Am I lost?  Or am I found?

Moving through a mist

Doubt and Faith about Heaven and Hell - Tough Theology Week 6

(First read Matthew 25.)

After today, I hope you have two things: more doubt and more faith.
I hope you have more doubt about that are not true, more doubt about issues on which the Bible is not clear. More doubt about things you SHOULD doubt.
And I hope you have more faith in things you SHOULD have faith in. I hope you have more faith in a few things the Bible is very clear about. But most importantly, I hope you have more faith in God.

Next, let’s start with a few surprising truths.

• There is no required belief about hell to be a Christian.
• God is not going to say, Because you didn’t believe in hell, you’re going to hell.
• God is not going to say, Because you didn’t believe the right things about hell, you’re going to hell.
• God is not going to say, I won’t forgive you if unless you believe in hell.
• God is not going to say, You can’t get into heaven unless you believe in hell.

Let me say it again. Believing in hell is not a requirement to go to heaven or to be a Christian. It’s important that we say that because a lot of people have walked away from Jesus simply because they cannot believe in hell.
Don’t get me wrong. The Bible does talk about hell, and if we are loyal to the Bible, we will have some concept of hell. BUT - and this is the important part - we don’t all have to have the same concept of hell. ...

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The First Crack in the DMZ?

Coca-cola and KFC have recently signed deals to establish operations in North Korea.  (Short article ... slightly longer article).  So far, they will be limited to hotels and tourist locations serving foreigners.  However, make no mistake about it, this is a step into the future. 
Communism can only survive within a closed system.  Dictators maintain power by limiting information.  (And yes, all communist leaders are dictators of one variety or another.)  With external contact comes information.  With information comes power.  With power for the people comes the fall (slow or fast) of all dictatorships.  Once people know there is an outside world where life is far better, they demand to participate in that better-ness, and they rid themselves of their ineffective leaders.
This is how it went in Eastern Europe.  This is how it happened in Africa and Latin America.  This is how communism has slowly been transitioning to capitalistic democracy in China.  And this is the beginning of the end for North Korea.
Actually, this is not the first crack.  Mass starvation, mass illegal immigration, and mass corruption were the first real cracks.  Porous borders with China brought black market capitalism and information (in the form of cell phones and DVDs).  International aid workers were a steady drip, drip, drip of outside influence.
But now, now, after these subterranean foundation shifts, we see the crack going up the wall, and it looks like the Coca-cola trademark wave. 

The Maltese Falcon - #31 Greatest American Movie

Sarah and I chipped away at our goal of seeing all of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time.  It's not exactly comprehensive because they have to be American movies, but it's a good place to start to find some great movies.  This weekend, we hit another Bogart classic, The Maltese Falcon.
This is a pretty simple movie with a classic mystery plot.  A tangled web of characters are trying to lay claim to a mysterious missing treasure - the Maltese Falcon - a gem, encrusted gold bird from ancient Malta.  Humphrey Bogart is a private detective who gets wrangled into the search for the bird by a beautiful woman.  There is the expected romantic drama between the two as each tries to use the other and considers the possibility that despite their better judgement they might be falling for each other. 
[Spoiler Alert] Revealing the point of the movie, at the very end, after the bird is discovered and revealed to be a fake, after most of the characters are either captured or have escaped, Bogart lovingly cradles the falcon as he walks out the door.  A cop asks, "What is that thing anyway?"  In Bogart's deep, wry voice, he answers, "The stuff dreams are made of."  Leaving the audience to wonder if all our dreams are farces or if only our quixotic, get-rich-quick dreams suffer Bogart's judgment.  Either way, it pushes us toward a critical evaluation of our own dreams - something that's always healthy.
Although there is an element of mystery and suspense, in the end, I felt like the plot was basically predictable.  You just kind of get the feeling that it will work out this way.  Still a good movie.
The Josh rating: JJJ.

Love Wins - Review

I read Rob Bell's controversial Love Wins yesterday - as in I started at 8:30 and was done by 3:30.  Granted, I'm preaching on heaven and hell this week, so I figured I should at least read the most debated book on the topic in recent memory.
If you missed the controversy, let me just say it was messy and ugly, and I was only viewing the remnants and echos from the other side of the world.  For a not-so-brief summary of the controversy, check out this article.  For a beautiful interview with Rob Bell about how he has handled all this controversy, click here.  For a look at what this conversation means for the current state of North American Christianity - especially evangelicalism, read this excellent article by theologian Scott McKnight. 
Essentially, the controversy is all about two long debated points within Christian theology.
1. What does it take to be saved (to go to heaven and to avoid hell)?  (Specifically, can people who have never heard about Jesus be saved?)
2. Is hell a place of eternal, conscious punishment from which there is no escape - ever?
Both of these questions have been asked by theologians almost since the time of Christ, and for almost that long, our best Christian thinkers have come up with a variety of answers.  There is no Christian consensus on these two points.  Neither of these two points are critical questions of Christian orthodoxy.  Therefore, throughout history, most Christians have afforded each other the freedom to disagree.  Rob Bell's answers to both questions fall well within the scope of the varied Christian opinion throughout history.
So what does Bell actually say?  Although he says it very well, in his wonderful way of putting very complex ideas in simple and beautiful words, he actually only makes a few specific points.

Regarding heaven, Bell clarifies the use of the word heaven in the Bible.  In the New Testament, the word "heaven" is used in three different ways: (a) as a reference to God (e.g. "Kingdom of Heaven"), (b) the place/time of total restoration in the future, (c) the invasion of that future reality into our present reality ("Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" - type of thinking).  Basically, heaven is something we can experience in part now. (Remember all your pastors talking about starting the "eternal life" now.  This is what Bell is talking about.)  But one day, this foretaste will become the real deal, explosively joyful, unfiltered presence of God among the loving community of God's people.  So far, Bell is right in line with all good theologians.

Regarding hell, Bell unpacks almost every Biblical reference to hell.  And then he slowly works to prove that it is at least possible that a person's experience of hell might not be forever.  The fires of hell might be for the sake of purification rather than eternal punishment.  There might be a second (or third) opportunity to repent and to return to God's grace even after death.  It is possible that God might eventually empty hell and reclaim every lost child.  This may sound strange to people who have grown up with the concept of hell as a place of eternal, conscious, permanent punishment.  However, as Bell points out, good Christian theologians ranging from Justin Martyr to Origen to Luther have said exactly this.

Regarding salvation, Bell makes three basic points.  (1) God is everywhere.  (2) God is always trying to woo people to him and his ways of love.  (3) We will be judged on how we respond to God's wooing - however or wherever we find it.  Although he puts the argument in more beautiful and more controversial tones, this is the essential point, and this is nothing new to Christianity.  Everywhere there have been Christian missionaries and thinkers, people have wondered about this, and many of them have said exactly the same thing.

So here's my conclusion.  Rob Bell didn't say anything new or unorthodox or unChristian, but he said it really, really well.  Honestly, I'm not sure he's right, but I think it's possible.  And I think it's important that we talk about hell and who may or may not go there with a little more humility and uncertainty.  (The Bible seems to be intentionally unclear on that point.)  And I am sure that Bell (or anyone else) can believe everything in this book and be authentically Christian.

The Josh rating: JJJJ.

(Coming soon, my sermon on Heaven and Hell.)

Change and Continuity

I stumbled onto this video today.  This girl, Amanda, has taken a photo of herself every day for three years (ages 14-17) and compiled them into a continuous video showing her changes.  This struck me as a metaphor of life and the gospel.  A few observations.
1. It is clear that she is the same person throughout.  She changes.  She grows.  Her hair gets longer and shorter.  The backdrop changes.  The clothes change.  But she is the same.  This is how it goes with us throughout life.  Things change.  We change, but we're still the same - in this case - Amanda.  Also, this is how Jesus (and the church and the gospel) works.  The cultural backdrop changes.  The style changes.  The decorations change.  For the church and our understanding of the gospel, there may be changes and growth.  But the Jesus remains the same.
2. I was strangely encouraged by the fact that she had zits and that they went away and came back and went away and came back.  On the day that she had some of those big zits, they must have felt like horrible problems - remember she's a teenage girl!  But problems that seem monumental today will pass.  New problems will come, sure, but these will go the way of zits in puberty.  They will fade.
OK, that's all for the thought of the day.  If you have other observations, please share.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - #38 Greatest American Movie of All Time

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the best Humphrey Bogart film I've seen.  His character is a down-and-out American in a Mexican city.  After getting some cash, he takes up gold prospecting - together with a friend and an experienced prospector.
The story itself has lots of twists and turns.  It leaves you guessing right up to the very end. 
However, the essence of the story is his transformation after they find gold.  He moves from a trusting, stand-up guy to ... well I won't ruin the story.  Gold changes people - a maxim often repeated by the old prospector (who seems to be the type-model for the old man prospector in Toy Story).  They old guy himself claims to have made and lost many a fortune hunting for gold.  Once you strike it rich, you just can't stop, he says.
In the end, this movie is a story about the foolishness of chasing wealth.  A side plot basically reveals the point of the movie.  Another gold prospector tries to force his way into their prospecting team.  He is killed during an attack by bandits, and they discover that this guy has a wife and kids, who are longing for him to come home and to give up his pursuit of gold.  Family, home, and loving relationships are the real treasure - not gold.
The Josh rating: JJJJ.

Eschatology: Rapture or Restoration?

    We humans have a love-hate relationship with eschatology.  Eschatology is the study of the end.  What will happen at the end of the world?  What comes next? 
    On one hand, we seem to be irrevocably drawn to the apocalyptic, end-of-the-world stuff, especially in movies.  apocalypticmovies.com lists 61 apocalyptic movies since the year 2000.  In his article, “It’s the End of the World, and We Love It,” Mark Moring says, “We are divinely wired to wonder what comes next.”1
    Every now and then, this deep hunger for knowing the future leads people to make some outrageous claims.  Just a few months ago, an 89 year old American radio guy named Harold Camping hosted a huge campaign - with public billboards, radio slots, news footage, and mobile bus advertisements - saying Jesus was coming back at exactly 6 p.m. on May 21, 2011.  Obviously, that didn’t happen.
    That kind of error-based fear-building has given many people a distaste for eschatology.  Many of us would rather just put our heads down and live today, one day at a time.  Some folks just want to forget the future.
    But eschatology is still really important.  It’s the closing chapter of our human story.  In fact, nearly all of the New Testament - and really the whole Bible - is forward looking.  From the Biblical perspective, the future is holding our hand and pulling us into its reality.  
    The problem with understanding the future is that it isn’t here yet.  As much as the Bible is forward-leaning, as much as Christianity views us as being pulled into the future, there aren’t many details. 
   
    Christians are deeply committed to the future, though.  We have a few absolute beliefs about the future.  ...

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Korea Tip 113: Naver's Dictionary

Don't waste your money on an electronic dictionary - much less the neolithic paper versions.  Naver (Korea's #1 search engine) has a top notch English/Korean dictionary.  You can initiate your search in either Korean or English, and it will provide you with (1) a definition of the word or phrase and (2) examples of actual uses of that word or phrase on the net. 
For example, today I looked up: 혹시 (hokshi), and I got the following results:

1. (만일)      

혹시 이쪽에 오게 되면 꼭 연락해라

If you're ever in this area, be sure to give me a call.

혹시 저 없을 때 전화 오면 받아 주세요

Please answer the phone for me while[if] I'm out.

2. (행여나, 어쩌면)      

혹시 내일 떠나게 될지도 모르겠습니다

I may have to leave tomorrow.

혹시나 했던 일이 현실로 나타났다

My fear has come true.

혹시나 했던 일이 현실로 나타났다

What I feared has come to pass.

혹시 그녀가 아픈 건 아닌지 모르겠다

I'm not sure, but she might be sick.

혹시 그녀가 아픈 건 아닌지 모르겠다

I'm not sure if she's sick (or not).

3. (확실한 건 아니지만) by any chance, (just) in case      

혹시 우리 만난 적 있나요?

Have we met by any chance?

혹시 모르니까 우산을 가져가라

Take an umbrella just in case.

혹시라도 제가 못 가게 되면 혼자 가세요

Go alone if by any chance I cannot go.

큰 병은 아니겠지만 혹시 모르니까 병원에 가 봐야겠다

I'm sure it's nothing serious, but I should go see a doctor just in case.

혹시 그가 집에 있나 하고 전화를 걸어 보았다

I called him to see if he was home.

This is far more comprehensive than any other dictionary I've seen, and this is only about half of the results.  I use this at least a few times a week when I'm trying to understand exactly what my Korean text book is saying.

Walking Through Jello

Through Jello
I sit up and reach for the clock
Through Jello
I find my way to the coffee pot
Through Jello
I eat my cereal and brush my teeth
Through Jello
I stumble down the hill
Through Jello
I stare at my computer screen
Through Jello
I try to make sense of today
Through Jello
I wander home again
Through Jello
I lay my head on my pillow
And snore
Through Jello

A Time to Kill - Book Review

A Time to Kill is John Grisham's first novel.  It was rejected by 28 publishers before a small pub-house agreed to print a meager 5,000 copies.  (Grisham's second book, The Firm, was the best selling book of 1991, and was on the best seller's list for 47 weeks.) 
Grisham is a Southern boy, and most of his books are based in the deep South - especially Mississippi.  A Time to Kill began this odyssey into rural, southern USA.  It is replete with racial tension and insider looks at traditional stereotypes.  Grisham writes as one who loves the South - and at the same time, as one who sees through its facade of overdrawn strengths and weaknesses, to the soul of the people.
A Time to Kill is built around a simple, heart-wrenching story.  A young black girl is brutally raped by two white "rednecks."  (Grisham freely uses inflammatory stereotyped words - which are also freely used by most folks in the South.)  The girl's father guns down the two offenders as they are leaving their preliminary hearing at the courthouse.  The rest of the book is about two points: (1) Was the father justified? (2) What are the racial implications and ramifications of this trial? 
I wonder if Grisham's stereotypes are exaggerated, and I surely hope some of them are.  But as a Southern boy myself, I know that many of his driving insights (into both the white and the black communities) are uncomfortably close to home.
This is my tenth Grisham book.  He's one of my favorite fiction authors, hands down.  Although the conclusion was a bit disappointing, I would say that A Time to Kill is one of Grisham's best.  The Josh rating: JJJJ.

Denominations: What Happened & What Now?

There are almost 7,000 languages currently spoken on earth.

  We started with one.  Then came the tower of Babel - when God confused our languages and sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together.

There are some 33,800 different Christian denominations around the world.

  We started with one.  Then came a host of historical events, which sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together.

What happened?  I feel like Rodney King, after the Los Angeles race riots, “People, I just want to say, can we all just get along?  Can we all just get along?”

  Apparently not.  No, we can’t just all get along.  

Today, we’re talking about denominations (교단) - all 33,800 of them, and we’re going to do this with a few different basic questions.

• What happened?  
• Why?  
• What now?  

What Happened?  The History.

 1. The Early Breaks -  The first major breaks within the Church - kind of like denominations - happened in the 5th century.  Both splits were about one issue: How is Jesus both divine and human?   In 431 the Assyrian Church of the East, centered in ancient Iraq, split away because they insisted on the separation and clear distinction of Jesus’ divine and human natures.  20 years later, the Oriental Orthodox Church, split away for the exact opposite reason.   

Interestingly, in 1984, the Pope and the Syriac Patriarch issued a joint statement about these divisions: “The confusions and schisms that ... arose only because of differences in terminology and culture and in the various formulae ... express the same matter.  Accordingly, we find today no real basis for the sad divisions and schisms that ... arose between us ...”

...

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Samson and the Pirate Monks - Review

This is one of the most important books I've read in a long time.  I read it in two days, which is extremely rare.  I highly recommend it for all men who want to live faithfully, but struggle.
The first half of the book tells the story of the author, Nate Larkin's, downward spiral with sexual addiction.  He starts out as a pastor's kid, with a dark secret, pornography.  Despite countless prayers and promises, his attachment to pornography deepens all the way through college, seminary, and his first few years of marriage.  After seminary (before he began pastoring), he was exposed to strip clubs, and that poured gasoline on his sex addiction.
He stumbled into a role as a lead pastor and stayed clean under the weight of this new authority ... for a few months.  Then, it was back to the old problems again.  Eventually, he picked up a prostitute, and that brought him into a decade or more of that.  After a few years, he quit pastoring.
But the addiction continued ... even though they continued going to church ... even though he prayed for deliverance many times ... even though he went to Promise Keepers ... even though he got an accountability partner ... even though it cost him lots and lots of money ... even though his job suffered ... even though he even received prayers to have the "demons of sexual temptation" removed ... even though he tried hard to maintain daily disciplines of prayer and Bible study ... even though he went to counseling ... even though he cried and prayed and tried really hard and tried to really, really believe this time ... even though he did everything that most people in the church say you're supposed to do ... his addiction continued.
Finally, he bottomed out and went to a 12-step group called Sex Addicts Anonymous.  Slowly, slowly, slowly, he got help and started to recover.  There were two missing pieces in his life that SAA provided for him.
First was the awareness that he was powerless to overcome his addiction.  He had to let God do it.  Up until this time, despite all the religious lingo, he was really trying to just screw up his courage and determination and beat this thing.  SAA helped him to rely on God everyday - sometimes every minute of every day, instead of just trying harder - which wasn't working anyway.
Second, SAA provided him with a community of support.  He said that he learned how to trust Christ by trusting the body of Christ.  The deep, honest community of a 12 step group was a means of grace for him that was not available in any other way.  And it was just the grace that he needed.
Well on the road of recovery, Nate and some men at his church, who had also been in and around various 12-step groups, decided to bring that kind of deep community into the church setting.  They formed the Samson Society, based on the Biblical character of Samson whose amazing strength was defeated by his isolation and sexual addiction.  The Samson Society is a brotherhood of mutual aid.  They meet once a week, and it is open to anyone who wants brotherhood and support - not just people with obvious addictions.  They have some of the same kind of steps and rituals as 12 step groups.  The basic premise is that we really, really, really need each other if we are going to live faithfully in God's grace.  The weekly meeting and the relationships formed out of it provide us a means of accessing that grace deep within our hearts.
This is one of the best books for Christian men that I've seen in many years.  Our world desperately needs Samson Societies.  One of my friends is starting one here in Cheonan, currently scheduled to meet on Saturday mornings near Yawoori.  Contact me if you're interested.

So obviously, the Josh rating on this book is the max: JJJJJ.  Read it.  Give it to people.  Start a brotherhood of mutual aid.