350 Pounds of Books

Here is a statement just released from Union University's Ryan Center for Biblical Studies about a wonderful opportunity:

The Ryan Center has an exciting opportunity to partner with Indigenous Outreach International in their ministry in Ethiopia. IOI, founded and led by Union alum Patrick Beard, has been working in Ethiopia for years. This April they will launch a library/reading room with English language materials. The library will have two primary purposes. First, it will provide resources for area pastors. In this way it is practically a sister institution to the Ryan Center. Secondly, it will have an evangelistic purpose. The public schools in Ethiopia teach English as a required subject and the students are eager for anything to read in English. This library will give them the opportunity to read English Bibles and Bible material. I think this is a wonderful project.


The Ryan Center is helping to gather books. We are accepting donations of books to place on the shelves there in Addis Ababa. When Patrick and his team go to launch the library in April they have room in their luggage for 350 pounds of books.

Will you help us collect 350 pounds of useful books to help pastors and to proclaim the gospel in Ethiopia? A wide variety of Christian literature is needed. In addition to a case of Bibles that has already been donated we hope to add Bible study materials, books on theology, Christian living, church life, etc. Many Ethiopians have an excellent ability to read English but since it is not their first language they would benefit most from books which are easy to understand, perhaps on a school age level.

Book donations can be sent/brought to the Ryan Center. We will screen the books before sending them on. Any that are not best suited for the library will be used in other ways here. Also, since the airlines now charge for extra baggage you can help pay this cost, if you are able, by placing a dollar in books you donate.

If you have any questions about this project feel free to contact Brian Denker (bdenker@uu.edu) or Ray Van Neste (rvanneste@uu.edu).

The King of Glory

This past Sunday I benefitted greatly from a powerful sermon on Psalm 24 by Tom Fox, former IMB missionary and fellow member at Cornerstone. Tom particularly emphasized the point from verses 1-2 that God is not a tribal deity- His concerns embrace the whole world. Tom’s applications on world mission were compelling. He mentioned reading that a missionary was among those dug out of the rubble in Haiti and said, “Praise God! Missionaries ought to be dug out of rubble where rubble is to be found.”

The whole thing is well worth a listen.

God Deserving of Universal Praise

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!" (Psalm 100:1)

“What the singers undertake has to do with the world, and should their horizon be at all foreshortened, the happening would immediately decay into something else. Against all practicality or human expectation of being heard, they summon mankind. … nor do they measure their words against their only resources and possibilities. No, they look to him who is he focus of what they undertake and shout “all the earth” because no lesser assembly can be contemplated where he is concerned. What they gather to do must always be set in the midst of the world, or it is surrender of truth ad future from the start.”
-James L. Mays, “Worship, World, and Power: An Interpretation of Psalm 100”, Interpretation 23.3 (July 1969): 320.

Ministry in Zimbabwe

One of the young men at our church, Mike Evans, is serving as an intern this summer at Central Baptist Church in Harare, Zimbabwe and is chronicling his experience at a blog, “Entrusted With the Gospel.” I am finding his reflections encouraging and challenging so I wanted to pass it along. The following is from a recent report about his labors in pastoral work:

Day by day, the Lord provides me with the graces I need to go on, but I will be honest that I am tired. As I write this, my eyes are filled with tears by the things that I have seen and the pain that I am surrounded by. HIV/AIDS is rampant, and the needs are great, even among our church family here. My eyes are being opened to what it means to oversee the flock, to meet one another's needs (even as I have sat here, a family has come in to give me some money as a gift), to care for widows and orphans and the fatherless, to see each of these to maturity in Christ, to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, to read the Bible together and to eagerly long for the return of Christ. More and more, my heart is being turned toward the needs of God's people as they cry out for relief, and they gather as a church body to lean on one another, hoping that they will have the faith to persevere tomorrow.

Horror in Zimbabwe

This recent post at the EPI Blog was moving and helpful to me to be more aware of what our brothers and sisters are going through around the world.

Horror in Zimbabwe - Warning - Graphic

I received the following letter from Pastor Tatenda Gunguwo, our EPI Partner in Zimbabwe. He has given me permission to post this. Please read it and pray for them. If you would like to help them out with a donation, please go to our site and designate your donation for the Zimbabwe Ministry.

Thank you for your prayers for us here in Zimbabwe. Last year was such a difficult year for my family and I. We were under constant threat from the government. I had to escape the country twice, because government agents were after me. We lost a lot of our pastors who were killed by the government militias because they were caring for orphans. Others lost their homes and all their belongings. Others have been maimed for life; hands and feet chopped off. Women were raped and now have AIDS. Children were left without fathers or mothers.

In addition, our orphans have been traumatized. Our Mt. Darwin orphanage was invaded. They raped our female orphans and care givers. They would bring people from the opposition party and beat them in front of our orphans; chanting slogans and revolutionary songs. We are now helping some of the people who survived to rebuild their homes and lives.

After the election violence, cholera came and claimed even more lives. One of our orphans died and five were admitted to the hospital. The hospitals have almost all closed now. Many women are dying giving birth. My wife Lucia gave birth to our fourth child on December 23rd. The private clinics are charging $650 for a normal delivery and $2000 for Caesarian. This is a sum that is out of the reach of 99% of the population. They are then forced to give birth at home and many of the women and the babies die. In our church, we have started a program to train midwives.

Schools have now been closed since October. There are a few private schools open, but the cost is incredible. We are now looking for land to start our own school.

There is an acute food shortage throughout the country. Food is only available in the large towns. It is VERY expensive and only sold in US Dollars. In fact, everything in Zimbabwe is now being sold in US Dollars, however, the rural people do not have access to foreign currency, so people are forced to use counterfeit money and to sell their cattle for a pittance for a sack of grain. They are literally being robbed. Some are even forcing their young daughters into marriage for the dowry money so they can buy food. It is heartbreaking to see. Orphans are being abused for food and prostitution.

Despite all of this, we planted churches in the most dangerous areas. Our goal is to plant 90 more churches in 2009. Please pray for us and help us if you can.

It was a joy to have the EPI team with us in December. Thank you so much for sending them and for the financial support that they brought to us. God Bless You, Tatenda Gunguwo

New Church Building in Kenya

My friend Phil Eyster has just returned from Kenya today. I posted a few days ago about part of his work there. In the photo gallery from his trip I noticed this photo of the first church building for a new church plant there.

It is good for us to be aware of the work of our brothers and sisters around the world for various reasons. It may remind us to keep focused on what really matters and not worry so much about our comforts.

If you are on Facebook you can keep up with the work of EPI here.

Mission in Kenya

My good friend Phil Eyster, of Eagle Projects International, is in Kenya preaching the gospel and providing theological training for local pastors. He has no internet access but with a cell signal he has been able to send out updates. It was amazing to me to receive a note and this photo from him just as he was about to preach the gospel in a poor open air market.
Here is one of his recent updates describing the gospel work in the area- encouraging and convicting!

I preached a message about the gospel being true, powerful, and simple. In Kenya there are some preachers who preach a message designed to make them rich and powerful. Since Pastor Daniel is not one of these preachers, his church is not wealthy or prominent. He proclaims the simple, powerful, true message of Christ and then demonstrates that message by caring for the poorest of the poor. Among other things, he feeds people and rescues street kids; two very difficult jobs.

Following church in Kisii, we drove for 45 minutes along a washboard dirt road lined with tea farms to the little town of Sombogo. Here we found one of the daughter churches meeting in a tin hut. There were 80 people crammed into the structure. Daniel actually spent two weeks on a mission here recently from the 22nd of December to the 4th of January. They held an open-air meeting every night at the crossroads of town and everyday followed up on people in their homes. This is how he spent his Christmas holiday.

Daniel is typical of the kind of person that God has given us to work with around the world - a man of integrity, honesty, diligence, excellence, and dedication. A man whose character was forged from the furnace of trials and God's faithfulness. As a boy he had to defend his mother from his drunken father on a daily basis. He endured teachers who would beat him and send him away from class for not showing up with a notebook and pen. He would work odd jobs to earn a few shillings to purchase school supplies so he could get an education. Finally, as a young man after coming to Christ, he did not operate from a platform of bitterness, but instead was fueled by gratefulness to God for His salvation. Men like this are not easy to find, but when you do you know what a blessing it is to partner with them.

The rest of the day until 7pm was taken up visiting two more churches. I think I lost both kidneys somewhere along one of the dirt roads between churches. These churches were all started as a result of field evangelism. They meet wherever they can. Some meet in dirt-floor huts, and others out in fields under a canvas tarp. But in all cases, they are the only real Bible teaching churches available to the people.

All the updates can be seen at the epi site by clicking on “Kenya Plog.”

Christmas and Missions

My friend Phil Eyster at Eagle Projects International just posted this photo sent to him from a friend in a Muslim country (you can see his comments at the blog). You can see the blood covering the streets after the Festival of Sacrifice last week. As we approach Christmas it is good to be reminded that we are celebrating the coming of the One who takes away sin, the one “who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." (Hebrews 9:14).
Christmas is the great missions story as God the Son crosses cultural barriers to redeem for Himself a people. May our celebrations indicate this truth.

Persecution and Slavery in Asia

My friend Phil Eyster, of Eagle Projects International, has just returned from a mission trip to Asia and has reported on it in his mission ‘plogs’ (follow the link and click on ‘plogs’). The photo shown here is of some girls they have helped rescue from the child slavery market. Phil wrote:

I wanted to relate one story from our last night in Nepal. We had the privilege of meeting with 4 of the 24 young girls that we have rescued from the child slavery market. The statistic is that each year over 15,000 young girls are taken, from Nepal and sold on the worldwide market. In the last few months we were able to rescue 4 more. Their stories are too graphic and terrible to share here. It will take them many years to heal, but they are on their way. When they first came to us, they would not smile at all.

In the previous ‘plog’ Phil commented on their work in a very sensitive area, where they were monitored closely even having police watching them as they “shared” with 300 people gathered in the area. They were able to meet one of the first believers in this tribe and to hear his story of persecution and perseverance. Phil commented:

There are some extremely dedicated people here who are working under very difficult conditions. They are front line messengers who are plowing virgin territory for Christ. They are the real heroes of the faith.

These posts can help us in praying specifically for brothers and sisters who suffer for the faith in other parts of the world. You can also learn about, support and participate in the worthwhile work of EPI.

Persecution in Kenya

My Friend Phil Eyster, at the mission organization EPI, has just posted portions of communication he has had with a believer who is working with Muslims in northern Kenya.
Here is a brief excerpt from the note from Kenya:

On Friday 11th July 2008, Moslems invaded our training center in Kenya. The Moslems attacked the team while they are having meeting in preparation for one month August Missions.

The Moslems claimed that the Christians abused their Koran, but we know it was just a plot, since nobody did that. The truth is that the Moslem are furious about the number of the Moslems who were converts to the Lord this year.

In the last two months through the initiatives of our missionaries about 24 Moslems have ACCEPTED THE Lord Jesus Christ in spite of all the persecution. Moslems felt that the best way to stop all these conversions was to burn the Church and kill key leaders and missionaries.

This is a word from the front lines of reaching the unreached and is a sobering reminder of what our brothers and sisters in other areas face. It is also a strong reminder of the blessings we have and our responsibility to stand with our brothers and sisters in some way. As pastors we need to keep this reality in front of us and our congregation.

This is an appropriate follow up to the previous post. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing sometimes comes only through suffering. These brothers and sisters are not simply deciding to “think more positively” about the unevangelized, but are giving their lives so that these people might be evangelized.

Faith Comes by Hearing

Faith Comes by Hearing: A Response to Inclusivism, ed. C. Morgan and R. Peterson (IVP; pb., 256 pp.)

I have begun looking over this book and am quite impressed with it. It must be pretty good if D. A. Carson says about it:

For those who are more interested in faithful alignment with what Scripture says than in sentimentality on this extraordinarily challenging subject, this is now the book to read.

Morgan and Peterson (both faithful scholars and committed churchmen) have compiled quite a list of contributors. Here is the table of contents:

1 Introduction by Robert A. Peterson
2 Inclusivisms and Exclusivisms by Christopher W. Morgan
3 General Revelation: Sufficient or Insufficient? by Daniel Strange
4 Exclusivism: Unjust or Just? by William Edgar
5 Other Religions: Saving or Secular? by Eckhard J. Schnabel
6 Holy Pagans: Reality or Myth? by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.
7 Saving Faith: Implicit or Explicit? by Stephen J. Wellum
8 Inclusivism versus Exclusivism on Key Biblical Texts by Robert A. Peterson
9 The Gospel for All Nations by Andreas J. Köstenberger
10 God’s Zeal for His World by J. Nelson Jennings
11 Answers to Notable Questions by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson

I have only dipped in various chapters so far, but the summary chapter addressing key common questions is itself a great resource for pastors since we commonly are asked the questions listed here. I close with a quote from this chapter which demonstrates the heart of the book:

The best way to help the unevangelized is not to become more optimistic about their eternal destiny apart from the gospel. Rather, it is to allow our understanding of God and his Word to generate a greater burden for the unevangelized and to pray, give and go to make sure that they hear the gospel.

Amen!

Praying Evangelistically

I have been out of blogging for sometime due to a number of things including a sickness which has kept me down now nine days. I am hoping I am on my way out of the sickness now, and I have quite a back log of items to post- items which backed up during our ‘different’ Spring semester.

For now, I will simply point to an item of mine which Baptist Press ran this week. My aim was to share one way I try to think when I hear of terrible disasters in other countries like what has occurred in Myanmar and China and to call us to evangelistic prayer (1 Tim 2:1-6).

Eagle Projects International

Let me take the opportunity to let you know about an excellent ministry known as Eagle Projects International. My good friend Phil Eyster is the founder and president, and I have had opportunity to travel with EPI to Ghana and Nepal. This is a thoughtful, intentional ministry which takes the gospel to difficult places seeing people converted, churches planted, pastors trained, and the kingdom advanced.

The latest two blog posts are a good introduction to the places they minister. I especially encourage you to read the entry titled “Because He Knows We Will Go.”

Success

There is a flood of things I want to comment on here, but I have not been able to give much time to it recently. I will begin briefly here by touching on one thing which ties together three recent things that have been on my mind:

· Kent and Barbara Hughes’ book, Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome
· D. A. Carson’s book, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor
· And a visit from a pastor friend from Nepal

I have benefitted from each of these in numerous ways, but together they have served as a strong word to me concerning my own ambitions and my view of success. I hope to comment on each of these further, but here I will make some basic points.

The Hugheses and Carson directly challenge the common ideas of what constitutes pastoral success today and call us to faithfulness before God and among His people. Both point out how little God is impressed with our accolades and the difference between the praise of man and the favor of God. These are not new points, but important and helpful ones. I stress these points with my students but can so easily be drawn into pursuing success in worldly terms (praise of man, accumulation of accolades, notoriety and publications). This way of thinking leads us to pursuing our own glory under the guise of pursuing God’s glory- a despicable thing! This way of thinking weighs us down with demands and tasks that may not be God’s calling for us, leading to unnecessary exhaustion and weariness. This way of thinking sets us up to envy other believers when they are blessed rather than rejoicing- precisely because our true interest is the advancement of ourselves rather than the advancement of the Kingdom.

My friend from Nepal then served as an embodied example of this selfless, joyful service as he related quite matter-of-factly accounts of the suffering he and others endure, their deprivation all the while exhibiting a deep and winning thankfulness and contentment. He is not known here in the West. He has no books in the works. But he is pouring out his life in preaching the gospel, leading people to faith, discipling them, mentoring pastors, overseeing the establishment of churches and quite literally seeing the gospel impact his country. He would remind me that we each have our calling and that his work is no greater than mine. I find my self humbled and exposed.

Lord, let me daily live in such a way as to hear you on the last day say, “Well done.” And let that vision free me from the allure of the praise of man and self-glory. Then I will know the pleasure and freedom in walking in the calling you have given me.

Back from Nepal

I am back from Nepal and right into the flurry of the beginning of term with a backlog of things to post about.

Special thanks to those who prayed for me and this trip. It was a great trip and so much could be said about it. Various things cannot be commented on for security reasons and a basic overview was provided on the trip ‘plog’ at the website of Eagle Projects International, who organized the trip.

I had the opportunity to teach verse-by-verse through 2 Timothy, Titus, and Romans (which was interrupted by our need to leave early the last day) as well as a few other topics. I hope it was beneficial to the pastors, students and other leaders. After commenting on false teachers in Titus, one of the leaders told me this was an increasing problem in their area as more Jehovah’s Witness and Mormons come in from other countries. In the next session I took some more time to discuss dealing with false teachers pointing especially to Paul’s comments in 2 Timothy that Timothy knew from whom he had learned his doctrine (3:14). It is always important for people to receive teaching from trusted sources and when something ‘new’ comes along to search the scriptures themselves and look to their pastors (whose life and ministry they have seen and verified) for discerning help.

I was impacted in numerous ways by my time with these brothers and sisters. It is always encouraging to me to see the body of Christ in other cultures- a visible reminder that God is indeed at work in every tribe and language. These people have little, suffer much, but have real power- power persevering in trials, being joyful with little, evidences of lives radically transformed, and evangelistic passion pushing back the kingdom of darkness. It was a privilege to ask them their stories and hear them- with no melodrama whatsoever- tell of how the gospel came to their family or village, how they were persecuted for believing and how grateful they are to have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ. I was humbled by watching these brothers and sisters.

There is much more to tell. In the coming days I will hope to do so.

(The two photos at the top are from one morning watching the sun rise over the Himalayas. It was spectacular)

Mission Trip to Nepal

I leave in the morning for a mission trip to Nepal. I’ll be gone for about 10 days, and since I am not likely to have internet access I don’t expect to be posting.
I along with some others will be providing biblical and theological instruction for about 60 local pastors. These men will be travelling to our city from outlying areas. I am told that a number of them will travel for two weeks by foot and bus to get there. Many of these men have been imprisoned for their faith. They do not have much access to training, so they are eager. I expect, however, that I will learn even more from them- men who have labored in overseeing the flock and preaching the gospel in spite of persecution. Hopefully I can benefit them as I glean from their faithfulness.
You can read more about the trip here. This site will also provide updated information on the trip as often as possible. Click on “plogs” on the left side and then choose “2008 Nepal.”

Reformation Day 2007

It is Reformation Day once again! There is much to celebrate and remember on this day commemorating the recovery of the gospel. This year I want to highlight two related points that I don’t think are thought of enough in connection with the Reformation. They are: suffering and missions.

The Reformation had a missionary impulse from the beginning. As people understood the gospel for the first time they instinctively sought ways to take this gospel to their neighbors and other countries around them. As they went with the gospel, then, many of these individuals were killed for their allegiance to this gospel. Through the years many have criticized the Reformation for not being missionary enough because there were no mission ‘boards’ and little was done outside of Europe. However, this criticism of people who gave their lives for the gospel by people who suffer little for the gospel rings hollow. Europe it self was a dangerous mission field in the 16th century, and Calvin did support the first mission endeavor to the Americas. I have written elsewhere on Calvin’s missionary concern and a recent significant book has detailed Luther’s concern for missions.

At this time preaching the gospel of grace almost certainly brought persecution. So, I want to post here a hymn Luther wrote in response to the first martyrs for the evangelical cause. The background of the hymn is given by cyberhymnal:

On June 23, 1523, two young Augustinian monks, Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch, from Antwerp, had been, after examination by the Cologne Inquisitor, Jacob von Hogstraten, and at the instigation of the Louvain professors, condemned to death and burnt at the stake in Brussels. On receipt of the news of this first martyrdom for the Evangelical cause Luther’s spirit was fired, and he wrote this spirited narrative, ending with the prophetic words [translated by Richard Massie, 1854]:
Summer is even at our door,
The winter now hath vanished,
The tender flowerets spring once more,
And He, Who winter banished,
Will send a happy Summer.

Here is the hymn:

Flung to the heedless winds,
Or on the waters cast,
The martyrs’ ashes, watched,
Shall gathered be at last.

And from that scattered dust,
Around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed,
Of witnesses for God.

The Father hath received,
Their latest living breath,
And vain is Satan’s boast,
Of victory in their death.

Still, still, though dead, they speak,
And, trumpet tongued, proclaim,
To many a wakening land,
The one availing Name.

[Words: Martin Luther, 1523 (Ein neues Lied wir heben an); translated from German to English by John A. Messenger.]

May we be so faithful with this glorious gospel.

James Stewart and the Missionary Church

Those who have read this blog for some time will know of my appreciation of James S. Stewart, the prominent Scottish preacher and New Testament scholar (previous posts). I am currently working on an encyclopedia entry on Stewart, and have come across another great quote. In his book on preaching, Heralds of God, Stewart stated:

“no church is anything more than a pathetic pietistic backwater unless it is first and fundamentally and all the time a world missionary church.”

Well put! As pastors we must see to it that the task of world evangelization stays front and center in our churches.

Missionary Determination

Here are two other related quotes from The Greatest Century of Missions.

“Missionary service demands dedication, determination and discipline – and these qualities are basically rejected by the television generation.” (p. 127)

“CMS Missionary at Uganda, Alexander Macay, when 27 years old, expressed the singleminded determination common to 19th century volunteers: ‘I want to remind the committee that within six months they will probably hear that one of us is dead. But . . . when that news comes, do not be cast down, but send someone else immediately to take the vacant place.’” (p. 128)

Brothers, we must teach, commend, and exemplify this spirit.

Paton and the Cannibals

As promised, here is a quote from The Greatest Century of Missions.
In describing the determination of the 19th century missionaries, Hammond relates this great exchange from John Paton.

“Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument was, ‘The Cannibals! You will be eaten by Cannibals!’ At last I replied, ‘Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms’.” (133)

Yes! I find myself wishing to have such quick wit, and then more importantly yearning to be marked by such clarity of purpose.