Papa, Why Are You So Silent?

Papa, why are you so silent? I have heard over and over again, through messenger, Whatsapp, and emails, and I have not answered until now. I should probably stay silent a bit longer. I know that Jimmy would, but he is always silent unless there is something deep and profound that needs to be said. The thing is most people know I am usually anything but silent, but one of the boys in Africa asked me Saturday if I still loved them, and so here I am confessing, "Yes, I still love you." The reason for my silence is simple - the men and women who associate themselves with the IMFC are running with the Gospel so fast that we have to change things on our end in order to keep up.

Our organization is plenty sufficient to do nothing more than what we are doing right now.  Uganda is very well covered, and we are a legal NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in Kenya now, with amazing indigenous leadership, but with the Gospel spreading to Tanzania, the Congo, South Sudan, Barundi, and other places - internally we must change.  The guys and gals are planting churches and making disciples by the thousands, and there are needs. Kenya needs the Manna Ministry. Pregnant women need MAMA kits. Some of the guys need cell phones and motorcycles - maybe a couple of vehicles. Therefore the US administration side will be making changes. Our board of directors needs to increase. We have many volunteers throughout Africa and the US, who need to be unleashed to do what they need and want to do. They have been asking for years, "Can we do more?"  The answer is yes, so we need to get out of their way, so they can change the world.

Soon, my silence will be exchanged for something loud and clear, but the organization is not quite ready for the voices to be unleashed. Right now Jimmy and I are consulting with accountants and attorneys and consultants - the paperwork is mind numbing. A new interactive website is in the works.  The IMFC has done amazing things in Eastern Central Africa, but what about home here in the USA?  A plan for helping US churches reach their community is in the making. I am not promising anything, but don't be surprised if there is a short book that you can read on how to make disciples who make disciples. For the first time in the history of the IMFC we are going to launch a major Campaign. We are keeping it simple though - Launch Kenya! Be ready for it in mid-November. A peak into the future will come out shortly after the reveal of Launch Kenya! Currently it's being called Vision 20/20. Could the IMFC become a mission "sending" agency?  Shh. I've said too much.

So long for now. . .

Blessings,
Steve

PRINCIPLES FOR MISSIONAL LIVING

1. Pray
2. Be a blessing (always - even when you don’t feel like it)
3. Ethics and morals matter
4. Kindness wins
5. Sin kills
6. Show up
7. Always be training - don’t go alone 
8. Always move with certainty 
9. It’s alright not to know
10. If you don’t know what to do, just pray, and leave it at that
11. Very few problems need “your” solution
12. Not every problem needs a solution
13. Do not make promises you cannot keep.  This includes prayer.  If you promise to pray, do it right then in their presence
14. Do what you say you will do
15. If someone else is doing something - let them
16. If someone else “can” do something - encourage them
17. Start slow
18. Always think - better, faster, cheaper
19. Simple is always best
20. With Jesus in your heart you have all you need to reach that person in front of you
21. Share always - their choice is your responsibility 
22. Their decision is not your responsibility 
23. Leave well

Suspicion of Fraud

I was trying to purchase online a travel VISA for Uganda. Simple task really. Uganda has a very user friendly website. Actually I enjoy using it, because whoever created it was a genius - he/she was no average government employee. Just fill in a few blanks, upload a .jpg of your passport, yellow fever docs, and a passport size recent photo, put in your credit card numbers, and voila - VISA application completed. Then 24 hours later a VISA is issued. The system functions beautifully. But wait. . . My credit card company denied the charge as being potentially fraudulent. Apparently, purchasing airfare on the same credit card to Uganda is not necessarily a good indicator of needing a VISA to the same country. I'm not sure why. Immediately after the Card's rejection, I receive a phone call from the fraudulent department asking if I made that purchase.  After proving that I did, they said I should contact the merchant and resubmit. I did, and this was when I first learned that Uganda doesn't let you resubmit, nor let you redo your entire application in order to resubmit. Oh, no. . .

Well, after several weeks of long distance phone calls to an office building somewhere in Jinja, Uganda, emails to the embassy in Washington, and prayers I finally could resubmit. The IT worker's beautiful handiwork caused me to pause just a brief moment before hitting the payment submit button, and during this short pause I decided I would call the Credit Card company first just to let them know that I am about to make this purchase by pushing this button. A very nice lady with an accent that I couldn't quite place answered the call, and she made notes on my account to that effect. Here is the rest of the conversation:

   Nice Bank lady: "Go ahead and make your purchase."

   Me: "Great." [Push submit button]

   Web Bill Pay: "DENIED SUSPICION OF FRAUD"

   Me: [Throws my baseball cap across the room while a deep guttural "AARRRGGG" emanates from somewhere deep inside. The cap hits my guitar. The guitar is ok.] 

   Nice Bank Lady: "Expect to receive a phone call from the fraudulent department verifying your purchase in just a few moments, and then you can resubmit your purchase with the merchant."  

   Me: "There is no merchant.  It's a foreign government.  There is no resubmitting or reapplying."

   Nice Bank Lady: "Well then, if I can be of further service please let me know."

   Me: "No, you've done quite enough."

Two days to go before leaving on a jet plane, so, I think I'll take a few new and crisp $50 bills and hope for the best with the guy at immigration control. I suspect this whole episode will soon become a sermon illustration, what do you think?

No Small Thought this Morning

I was studying along with some anonymous worldwide friends in a Social Media Group to which I belong.   The question was raised by one, why is the cross the symbol of the faith rather than the empty tomb.  The responses were amazing.  Many were well thought out.  People referenced articles that they had read.  A couple of the guys theological explanations were way above my pay grade in being able to understand them.  One of the guys, tongue in cheek said, "The cross looks better on a necklace than a rock with a hole in it."   Well there is that, but as I was reflecting on all the answers I read - especially those that were well thought out, I remembered a professor telling us in class in one simple phrase all that I think we ever need to know about the most powerful symbol of Christianity.  He said, "On the cross grace was given.   In the empty tomb hope was given."    It's not one symbol over the other - its all of it.  The only way to get to the empty tomb is by way of the cross.   We so often believe there are other paths, good works, donations to worthy causes, socio-economic station in life, but there is only one path.   Asking the only Savior to forgive your sins, and knowing that it is Jesus alone who holds securely to your soul, this is the path.   That's my thought.  Have a great day. 

Is an International Mission Trip for You?

I don’t know.   It all depends upon what you want.   For instance in my life I want a comfortable safe home with some sort of a view for me and my family.   In order to achieve my “want” I must do what is necessary to obtain it.   In my case this means I need a job that will allow me to purchase the want, so I am working hard at a job that should lead to fulfilling my "want".    So what do you want?      

Do you want to be challenged in your faith?    Do you want to see Jesus working miracles before your very own eyes?   Do you want to know for a fact that Jesus is doing something far greater than anything you could do on your own?   Do you want to walk alongside modern saints willing to die for the cause of Christ?   Do you want to have your Spiritual vision broadened?   Do you want to get way outside your comfort zone and test God’s faithfulness?   Do you want to see a culture that only a few have ever experienced before? Or are you satisfied with the status quo? Is your Christian life just fine, and you don’t want to challenge it in any way? Is your church reaching all it needs to reach?      

Is a mission trip for you?   I don’t know.  What is it that you want? 

If you want the answer to any of the above questions, follow this link.      

When the Students Teach. . .

Jose Manuel Rojas Sosa sat in front of three missionaries.   One of whom he knew very well - me.   The others were a first and only time meeting for him, but they had sure heard of him.   You see Jose was a church planter.   He couldn't read or write, but he had started seven churches and was reaching for Christ those who most of the world would never see, and if they did then they would ignore.   Jose's name had been featured prominently in several of my reports, and some of his stories were being shared far and wide, so the International Mission Board sent a couple of researchers to interview him in order to gleam some insights into what made him so special and successful in the eyes of those who read the monthly reports.    They asked him question after question, and I sat there, a little too proudly, because every answer he gave was word for word what I had taught him, and then Jose began to teach me. . .

• Lesson 1: The researchers asked a simple question, "How many members do you have in your church?"    Jose responded by giving the testimony of his members one by one.    After listening to a couple of testimonies, the researchers stopped him and asked again.   "No. Thank you for stories.   They are very interesting, but we just need a number for our report." Jose again started telling the testimonies of those he had reached and baptized.   I could see that the researchers were smiling, but anxious to get off the mountain before dark, so I said to Jose, "Jose, they have this little box to fill in with just the number of people that are members of your church.   Can you just estimate the number of how many people you have reached and are worshipping in your churches?"   I could see the wheels turning in Jose's mind, and after a little while he said, "Why is that important?"  I said, "Yes, you're right numbers are not important, and I turned to the researchers and said, let's listen to a few more stories and then we'll just guess."

Yes, I know numbers are important.   The fourth book of the Bible is called numbers for goodness sakes, but I think Jose was completely right that day.   It's not about the numbers -- IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHANGE.   It's about the relationship between God and His children.   Every individual who is searching for Jesus' story is what's important.   It's the story that changes the world. It's the story that heals a broken heart and finds a lost soul.  

• Lesson 2: The researchers continued with their questions, and again I was a little too prideful, because Jose was repeating everything I had taught word for word.   Then they asked this question, "What are the requirements of being a member of this church?"   Jose responded quickly, "I won't let anyone come who isn't willing  and doesn't share their testimony with others."    Wow, where did that come from?   It certainly didn't come from me.    As they continued with their questions, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where that thought came from, because it certainly must not have come from me. I began thinking, "How do I fix that?"   "Where do I even begin?"   Then it dawned on me.  I remembered back to when Jose and I were drinking coffee and eating a cracker with butter on it and just chatting. I thought my teaching time was over, so I was just spouting random thoughts.  We talked about soccer.   We talked about dengue fever, and which mountain produced the best coffee beans.   Then I remembered mentioning right off the top of my head as a stray thought passed through the following, "I wonder what a church would look like if every member shared with everyone else what Jesus has done for them."   I smiled inwardly, you see I decided I wasn't going to fix Jose's thinking. He had it right.

Yes, I know our churches are filled with people who are completely content sitting in a pew.   We even count our success by the numbers of people who fill the empty spaces on a Sunday morning.   I believe Jose has it right.   If all the seats are taken and no one shares their testimony then who will fill those seats tomorrow?   I wonder what would a church look like who had only members who actively share their faith no matter the cost?   

• Lesson 3: Most of you know that I am no longer an IMB church planting missionary.   I serve Christ as a discipler with the IMFC - International Missionaries for Christ.    Discipling others is what we do. We do nothing without sharing our testimony and tying it together with the story of Nicodemus.   Our mission agency is not about starting churches, it's purpose is to facilitate and encourage a disciple making movement, and disciples we make.   A disciple is someone who has been changed by Jesus and is actively encouraging others to follow Jesus also.  As I was walking the streets with our guys and some of their guys in Kampala, I asked a man named Josef - I think it was his name, "Do you ever wish to see walls and roof around and over those that you meet with regularly?"   He asked me to clarify, so I asked, "Do you ever want to build a church building?"   Josef said, "Why would I want to limit what God can do?"   

It all became crystal clear.   You see, it's all about Jesus and our relationship to Him.   It's all about us sharing the Good News that Jesus did for us, when He changed our lives.   It's all about leaving the results completely up to HIM!   When we live as a disciple who disciples others, then church is the inevitable result.   Jesus' plan is just that simple, but it took three serious yet simple men to teach me those concepts.   

Enough said,

Steve D

It's Not About Me!

It's about Him!  And him.  And her.   And that person standing over there and the one sitting on the bus.  And that person right there - the one you can't see because of that house standing in the way.  When I think about it a little bit more, I guess it is also a little bit about me, but its not ALL about me - definitely not ALL about me.   I have heard it preached, said, read and I have even preached it myself that everyone has a hole in their soul that only Jesus can fill.   Nothing else will fit.   After almost 25 years of preaching that message, I still think that is very true.    Almost all of us at one time or another has tried to fill that void with something other than what really fits - Jesus.   On another but very related matter, our churches are even struggling right now with empty spaces, because many of those who are in my line of business see nothing but empty seats where younger faces ought to be.    We understand that if we don't fill those seats with younger faces then at some point in the future our church ceases to be.    It's simple math, and those empty seats are a weekly visual reminder of our church's lifespan, and it seems right now to us to be in serious jeopardy.    As we wonder what we did wrong, some of us do everything we can to make our churches attractional to the younger crowd, because we know of the dire consequences that face our churches if we do not do something.   I can recite a litany of the steps that many of us have taken, but I won't here and now - maybe later.    In some places the steps seem to be working.   Crowds - younger crowds - gather.   We see this and we scramble to do what looks to be working over there, but honestly, in most places though it doesn't work.

I read an article the other day, that said 82% of millennials don't attend church (Relevant Magazine).   I kind of figured it would be higher, because I don't see 18 percent of them in the chairs or standing around in the halls, and I'm in a lot of different churches.   I have also read maybe a hundred articles about why many don't attend.   To me, it really boils down to just a couple or three reasons.  In no particular order those reasons are:

    1) They are disgusted with church.
    2) They have no idea what Jesus through His church has to offer.
    3) They just don't want to!

I get that.   I understand that.   1. Honestly, I too am often disgusted with church.  No not really the church so much, it's the people in the church that bother me.    You see in my position I often see how "good" people treat each other, and my heart breaks for all involved.  That's not Jesus; it's never Jesus; it's just selfishness couched in righteousness.   2. Even though I do have a great idea of what Jesus offers through His church, it still often surprises me as to what extent and length that the church does for good in the world.   Just look at the church's response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas and now as it is getting geared up to tackle the consequences of Irma and the next one coming in called Maria. This response is nothing short of amazing.   In my position I am privileged to hear the stories of actual people giving up their comforts and sometimes their lives so that others may live and find Jesus.   This is just incredible.   But if you don't happen to be in the KNOW about what Jesus accomplishes through His church, it's incredibly hard to find out, so people - especially millennials don't know, and they are steamrolled with tons of information, disinformation, false information or just the lack of it.   3. Don't get me wrong here, because I love the church; I serve Jesus through the church, but sometimes I just don't feel like going to church - my warm cozy king sized bed and a cup of coffee is something hard to get away from on a brisk fall morning.   And if a church goer is reading this and gets upset with me for saying this truth, you can't lie to me, because I know that sometimes you too feel this way.   It's normal.   We're human.

So with all that said, what is the church going to do about "attracting" millennials to itself - to fill those empty spaces with smiling young faces?   My recommendation is - stop trying.    Instead of trying to attract millennials to something they don't deem important - invite them to Jesus.   In the church business we've been trying to sell an address for a very long time, when we are supposed to be giving away a person - Jesus.   Once someone understands that Jesus is the only thing that fills that void in their souls then the church may very well become important to them, but even if that bridge isn't quickly crossed then JESUS is important to them.   Instead of asking a millennial to come hear our band or see our show, invite them with you as you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and love the unloveable.   Because it's about HIM.   It's about them; it's about me, and how all three interact.   You see what's really important are the real people with warm red blood and not brick and mortar or galvanized steel and glass.

Good day,
Steve