ECHO 2/3/09

PR Highlights

• Notice: a lot of pregnancies
• A praise to highlight: Whitney Stire’s sight is preserved.
• Russian men: received visas, God has provided abundantly. These are hard to get.
• Matt & Rachel Floreen: please pray for their support levels as they share their vision with churches in the States

 

Alan Luciano (Philippines)

• John 4:35 – the fields are white for harvest!
• We took a trip to the Philippines for teaching
• Indeed there’s a harvest!
• We worked with TMS grads to conduct a weeklong hermeneutics seminar. Attended by 80 people. 50 men, 30 women.
  • There were a lot of Compassion Int’l people
  • Pastors, children’s ministry workers
  • And a few pastors from White Fields
  • We had Bible workshops
  • Also on the last day, we had separate mens/womens sessions.
• The Body of Christ in the Philippines is VERY hungry.
  • A lot of evangelical witness here BUT the depth of knowledge there is very shallow.
    • On par with an FoF class at GCC
  • There’s a real need & hunger for training here.
  • Pastors are very ill-equipped
  • The physical poverty here is a picture of the spiritual poverty
  • The Catholic church is very prevalent here
  • The pastors here are well-connected with each other. We train one pastor, and he refers us to 20 more! Opportunities abound.
  • Sean and Mark, two of our missionaries over there, are likely to overstretch themselves. So many opportunities!
  • There’s a huge need for more expo preaching. There’s really no local church in the Philippines that demonstrate expo preaching

 

The Future Faces of Missions – GCC Missionary Candidates (Kevin Edwards)

• There are many in the pipeline! Clearly we need to beg the Lord to provide support for these precious families.
• Welcome, UCLA. It’s our hope that God would really use many of you for the cause of missions.
• The people I’m about to present, not all of them will be sent. And some we’ll send aren’t here on this list
• Latin America
  • Mexico: 1
  • Brazil: 2
  • Argentina: 2
• Asia
  • Lebanon: 2. There’s big opportunities here, because it’s one of few Muslim countries that isn’t closed in the sense that a Muslim can become a Christian without it being a crime
  • China: we got 2 missionaries over there. 3 more coming!
  • Philippines: the national church there is good at spreading and planting, but definitely there’s a huge thirst for more solid teaching. 1 more coming!
• Africa
  • Malawi: 1
  • South Africa: 1
• Europe
  • Spain: 1
  • Germany: 2
  • Italy: 2
• And 6 more undecided.
• Money has never been a show-stopper for missionaries at GCC. We trust God to continue to provide that

 

STM Update

• Often a heart for missions begins with an STM
• Applications still open for a few weeks
• A great opp here!
• If you’re thinking about missions long term, an STM is a great start. You get to see missionaries in their native environment
• France, Czech Repub STMs still need team leaders. If you wanna lead, please come talk to the coordinator.
• Sign up on the web (gracechurch.org/stm) if you’re interested
• Please consider an STM at least once. You’ll not come back the same! Guaranteed.

 

John Snyder (Samara, Russia)

• IMO Samara is one of the great stories in modern missions
• SAMARA acrostic. What’s Samara all about?
• S – Spiritual leaders (2Cor 5:9)
  • 1998 – Victor Ragusov
  • Was a pastor for 20 years.
  • Came to a preacher’s conference a few years back, and therefore wanted to make many changes, because he wants to please God!
  • Made the pulpit in the center of the church
  • Made verse-by-verse exposition a priority
  • Sent a request to GCC: “come and help us!”
  • PRAY that you’ll serve with the kind of leader who’ll make serious changes if he realizes it Biblically.
• A – Answered prayers (Phil 4:4-7)
  • 1999 – short-term trip
  • Pastor Victor’s request was heard. GCC sent an STM
  • And I (John) was totally captured. Beware the STM
  • And since then, it’s been 8 of the most blessed years of my life!
  • A room jam-packed with men who were hungry to learn. Come and help us!
  • I came back to the States and I told my wife… apprehensive if my wife would agree to moving to Russia
  • I came back, and she was more than ready!
  • Praise the Lord, He richly provided
• M – Missions-minded churches (Phil 4:18)
  • 2000 – support raising
  • Golden piece of advice, if you want success in your ministry: find a church with a mindset for missions
  • A church with fervent fanatics for prayer! Beg them to pray for you! The Apostle Paul did it in all his epistles!
  • THAT’s the kind of church you want to be sent out by!
• A – Amazing Grace (2Tim 2:1-2)
  • Samara Preacher’s Institute!
  • 285+ grads! Faithful 2Tim 2:2 men!
• R – The Russian brethren (1Cor 16:20)
  • They are so precious
  • They are such an encouragement
  • They love us here at GCC, and pray for us as well
  • Be sure you go love the people you serve once you get there!
• A – All of you (Eph 6:18-20)
  • God has answered your prayers here! It’s been amazing!
  • People are getting saved, the workers are going out to the white harvest.
  • PLEASE keep praying!!!

 

GCC Missionary Conference – Israel 2008 (Brad Armstrong, Shannon’s dad!)

• Every 2 years, there’s a GCC Missionaries Conference. All the GCC missionaries worldwide gather together.
• Hard to come up with new superlatives for this trip. Just amazing
• Missionary fellowship
  • They all get to interact with each other and feed each others’ flames J Iron sharpening iron. Stories shared.
  • The Believers’ Foundation: they provide a lot of funding for our GCC missionaries.
  • The kids got a good time to play and have fun too
• Worship
  • Mike Mahoney got to lead us. It was totally wonderful
  • We got to experience really rich, full Body life
• Teaching
  • Mark Borisuk, Irv Busenitz and Rick Holland came and taught
  • Got to sit in the stadium where Paul almost converted Herod (Acts)
• Prayer
  • These missionaries are so fervent and strong in praying for us at GCC and for each other
  • Lots and lots of passionate and very encouraging prayer times.
  • A really special time
• Updates from GCC
  • They were SO encouraged to hear about Commitment To The Commission. A lot of them were having financial troubles lately.
• Ministry to Missionaries
  • ECHO meetings with missionary teams
  • ECHO elders – 1 on 1 meetings with missionaries. Encourage and keep up on them. How can we as GCC help you?
  • Financial meetings with Brian Milam
• Women’s Ministry
  • Really encouraging, since missionary wives can feel isolated sometimes
• Children’s Ministry
  • Very encouraging: the leaders of the time, the wife found out she had thyroid cancer right before the conference, but they still came because they really thought the children’s ministry mattered
• Biblical Understanding Enhanced
  • We got to see a lot of rich history
  • Where Jesus walked…
  • Where Peter preached in Acts…
  • Where some future events in Revelation speak of…
• The sun never sets on Grace Church missions overseas… J
  • It’s mind-boggling and so wonderful
• The next one will be back here at GCC!

 

Next month is Shepherd’s Conference.

We meet as a missionary family at the Dining Commons at the Master’s College for ECHO. Not here at GCC.

Missionaries and nationals from the countries

Marvelous, helpful realizations. And a jarring, helpful quote.

One thing I do during my commute (besides sing ) is ponder the things of the Lord, that He might use that thinking to bring me closer to Him. And many times He’s gracious to coalesce those thoughts into stateable sentences. Here’s two that have been tremendously helpful for my worship and walking with Him in faith.

First: Before you can properly ascribe glory to God, you have to see, savor, and marvel at His glory such that it completely blows your mind.
If you understood that, no need to read the following paragraph. What in the world does all that mean? Recall the difference between God’s intrinsic and ascribed glory. Intrinsic is the glory He’s got that never changes, and that’s what should completely wow us, and that’s what we spend our entire lives acquiring further tastes for. Ascribed glory is praise that Creation brings Him; we ascribe Him glory. Ascribed glory is what most people think of when we say “the chief end of man is the glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” But remember, ascribed glory is rooted in recognition of God’s intrinsic glory.

Second: If Jesus loves you so much to die for you, and He holds the entire universe in His sovereign hands, isn’t it completely natural to trust Him in all your everyday happenings?
I’m going to credit this realization as the fruit of Jerry Bridges’ Trusting God. Go read it. The whole book is an unpacking of three great, foundational, simple truths: God is completely sovereign, completely loving, and completely wise. Therefore trust Him. Solid.

And I close this post with a quote from John Piper’s Brother’s, We Are Not Professionals. Many people I know can benefit from these  implications of justification by faith that Piper unpacks for us. I know I’ve benefited from these implications immeasurably. I commend these to you.

Christ offers you [justification by faith alone] today as a gift. If you see Him as true and precious, if you receive the gift as your greatest treasure in life and trust in it, you will have a peace with God that passes all understanding. You will be a secure person. You will not need the approval of others. You will not need the ego-supports of wealth or power or revenge. You will be free. You will overflow with love. You will lay down your life in the cause of Christ for the joy that is set before you. Look to Christ and trust Him for your righteousness.

Increasing Prayerfulness

Dependence Day (Friday) was really good. So refreshing to pray to God with my bro’s and sis’ in Christ.

Praying with others in Saturday morning discipleship group is so refreshing.

The past few days have led to the crystalization (i.e. intuitively understood, but hard to state truth transitioning into a truth clearly stateable in words) of a very important reality: The most productive time in your day is the time spent praying. Realizing that has been so helpful to increase my prayerfulness.

 

On a personal note: started work this past Monday. Yay. Transitions!

Beware, beware.

Beware of making cultural sensitivity greater than God. Unless you want to strip God of His divine rights to be the captain of the human soul, of course. There are no Invictuses.

ECHO 1/13/08

Wow. Just wow. It’s honestly hard to describe with words how inspiring it is to hear missionaries talk about their ministries, how crazily God is working, and how much they seriously love it. It’s like Let the Nations Be Glad Living Edition. “I never made a sacrifice.”

I was going to send these notes to the people who went to the meeting, but I figure pasting it here into the blog would make it more profitable for whoever wants to read it. Skim it, read it in full, whatever you like. Be blessed by what God’s doing around the world. Better yet, check out an ECHO meeting for yourself!

ECHO Meeting 1-13-08

• Matt & Rachel Floreen will leave in March for Malawi. Right now, raising support across the US.
• Kevin Edwards leaving Friday morning for Manila & Singapore to meet with Ray Choy, Sean Random, and Roger Ng. Pray for all these men, and for Kevin Edwards traveling mercies.
• Todd Dick: Croatia since 1998
  • God has really blessed language acquisition abilities. Has been very fruitful as a result.
  • Kids all go to Croatian public schools. Useful for language acquisition since the kids have no accent
  • Objectives
    • Leadership development: training future pastors in Croatia
      • 4 year Bible school. Men from many countries (Bosnia, Slovenia, Hungary, etc). 14 graduates so far.
      • Expositor’s Conference. 3-4 day conference. Challenge, encourage, equip current preachers. Incite hunger for expository preaching amongst Croatians
    • Church planting
      • Croatia is 98% Roman Catholic
      • There are about 40 Baptist churches in Croatia. The pastors are basically just the 1^st converts in their villages. Very poorly equipped.
      • The situation’s even worse in neighboring countries.
      • Honestly, our goal here is for the next generation. Let the next generation hunger for the Word of God. Realistically, it’ll take an entire generation to undo much of the damage of false teaching.
      • Slovenia has very little evangelical churches. This is a very frontier type of work we’re doing
  • Many believers in Slovenia/Croatia are pretty lonely, since they get forsaken by their Catholic families once they come to Christ. The church is pretty family here.
  • Croatia is a VERY young country. Things are SO VERY ripe. Peoples’ faces absolutely LIGHT UP when the Word of God is unfolded for (sometimes) for the first time!
  • I do weddings and funerals for free. That makes me in pretty high demand. SO MANY opportunities for the Gospel. It’s positively crazy.
  • This has been the greatest, greatest thrill in my entire life. I wouldn’t trade it for ANYTHING else. It’s absolutely mind-blowing. There’s nothing better.
  • Gypsy village ministry
    • Around 100 kids come every week.
    • A lot of time spent talking to parents. A lot of evangelizing going on.
  • God has been VERY gracious. Permanent visa granted by the government. Croatia wants to be in the EU, so there’s not much pressure from the government.
• Lance Roberts: Kromeriz, Czech Republic since 2001
  • 70% atheist, 0.25% evangelical
  • Just like Croatia, it’s a desert land spiritually. Hardly any witness for Christ. 500 years ago was the last time the Word was faithfully preached.
  • There’s one young pastor, who’s one of the only that I know who street EVs.
  • Church planting is so very necessary. Training centers don’t have many students because the churches don’t raise up anybody who cares! The churches are dead.
  • The Czech Republic is very frontier.
    • Our generation isn’t going to see much. It’ll be the next gen. One generation plants the tree, the next enjoys the shade.
    • There are no recommendable churches in Prague! The capital! The land is very dry.
  • There are 3 towns nearby. Our prayer is that men in our church would rise up and plant churches in those towns.
  • Andre is our church’s pastoral intern. I don’t have a seminary. I have one student. It’s pure joy! Pray for this brother.
  • There’s quite a lot of charismatic/liberal opposition from other Christians. We’d like translate the Mac Study Bible, but these present roadblocks.
• Tim Cantrell: Johannesburg, SA
  • We’re not officially enrolled missionaries at GCC. Because we are being supported by the national church. It’s enabled more strategic opps.
  • Some of the spiritual opposition in Africa, go read the article in the London Times: “An Atheist believes that what Africa needs most is Christian missionaries”
    • The crushing passivity of the peoples’ mindset. That’s tremendously oppressing to Africans.
    • Tribal belief suppresses individuality. It feeds into the big-man and gangster politics of big African cities. The inability to oppose a big swaggering leader
    • Removing Christian evangelism will leave Africa to the mercy of the malign fusion of Nike, witch doctor, the mobile phone, the machete, and the machine gun.
  • Grace Church indeed holds to this vision. To bring the transforming message of Jesus Christ to Africa.
  • Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep in Africa
  • My dad closed shop at his midlife and took his vet skills to Africa. That’s how God captured my heart, through my dad’s ministry
  • There’s a huge need for model churches in SA.
  • We’re part of Honeyridge Baptist Church. We want to be an Antioch for Africa.
  • We’re having the time of our lives.
  • There’s a huge need for model black Bible-preaching churches. Letting the locals minister is very strategic.
  • Resolved Africa 2010! Pray for an intern to come and prepare R:Africa.
  • 1Cor 16:9 – the Lord has opened a door to a great effective ministry. “Suffering and success” often come together.

Preparing for the future

Been reading several books in the past two months which often contain expositions of Scripture, guidelines, principles, and godly advice for things in the future that don’t apply to me yet. Stuff like dating, what to do with your regular income, raising kids, raising teenagers. It’s humbling to realize how much of this doesn’t come naturally, and also how much of this is either clearly implied or explicitly commanded by Scripture. Thanks Piper (Let the Nations be Glad, Desiring God, Future Grace), Alcorn (Purity Principle), and Harris (Sex Is Not the Problem).

A lot of this stuff isn’t new to me. I’ve read some of those books before in the past, some multiple times. What strikes me is that in the past, when it comes to stuff that doesn’t apply to me yet, I’ve often thought to myself “I’ll kinda skim this and store it in the back of my head. I’m sure I’ll be able to call on it when it’s time.” Wrong! Oh how wrong.

Looking back at my life and walk with the Lord thus far, I see now the utter necessity of preparing myself for the future. Guidelines for couples, parents, people with established incomes? Sure, I’m not in those categories right now, but I will be sooner than I think (ever heard your parents say “I swear, just yesterday you were 15 years old?” You’ll be saying the same thing before you know it!). So I’d better digest, prepare, and anticipate it NOW. It might be too late when I really need it if I’m not prepared ahead of time.

But of course. But sometimes it doesn’t dawn on you in the form of writeable words until much later. But then it’s all the clearer once it has. Nice.

Ack!

Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.
- Mrs Wesley to her son John (read in Not Even a Hint by Josh Harris)

That’s one crazy high standard. But if I honestly think about it, wholly Biblical.

3-for-1 deal on 1/1

Three posts for today.

Wow, holding a baby is profound
Spent New Year’s Eve at the Ding home. Really good time fellowshipping with some very encouraging brothers and sisters. GBFSV is a blessed church indeed. But one big highlight of the evening was holding little Bethany, 5 weeks old. It was simple, but it was a profound experience holding such a tiny little infant in my arms (had never done that before). I could quote stuff from Psalm 139. I could go into how children are a gift from the Lord. But  that’s for another post, another time. Quite simply, there’s nothing quite like it. If you haven’t done it before, you should try it. It’s unspeakably precious and heart-warming.

Resolutions
I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolutions kinda guy. No need to be original, no need to create new ones. Instead, it’s better to revisit some oldies but goodies, easily forgotten that need to be refreshed. They’re not even mine; they’re written by someone far more godly, far more eloquent. Here are my favorite JEdwards resolutions:

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.

22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.

63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. 

Settling the matter Scripturally: discretionary spending and stewardship
This one’s a little heavier (mentally) than the other posts. It’s about wartime living and spending. Was really sitting on my mind during my quiet times today and has been the topic of many conversations in the past month or two. Have been bothered by the responses of many, as I smelled rationalization more than anything else. Not a surprise though, because this intrudes on a very sensitive topic, because I feel like the Grace Community Church pulpit doesn’t do a very good job of addressing this (Yes! You read that right!), and because our culture here in America is one of rampant consumerism.

Before really getting into things, it’s worth mentioning that we want to distinguish between being frugal and viewing all spending through the lens of warfare. The latter certainly includes the former, but the reverse is often very untrue.  To illustrate the difference: viewing all spending through the lens of warfare would mean you’d easily see the necessity of spending millions on an F-22 fighter jet to help win a war, whereas simply being frugal would balk at any kind of spending at all. Another illustration: the RMS Queen Mary was a luxury liner during peacetime, but during WW2 it was retrofitted to have anti-aircraft guns on deck and to fit many times more people in far more spartan conditions. A frugal perspective would’ve simply put the ship away entirely.

The thesis statement of this third post is very simple and straightforward: we need to give far more serious thought to wartime living than we currently do. And let us be done with using phrases like “at the same time,” “but,” and “however in reality” before we even give wartime living serious thought. I submit to you that “practical realities” are not immovable barriers that hinder us from being radical for God, but rather just very steep walls that we can and must climb over if we are to truly enjoy the Prize. The Scriptures first, then experience, remember? Enough waxing, let’s survey the Scriptures. By no means a complete survey, but hopefully it’s thorough enough and accurate.

First, Scriptures that encourage us to enjoy what God’s given to us with thankfulness.
These you should use so that you don’t feel (as) guilty when you use your blow money. Ecc 2:24, Ecc 3:12-13, Ecc 3:22, Ecc 5:18-20, Ecc 8:15, Ecc 9:7, Ecc 11:9; Romans 14; 1Tim 4:4-5. Now, a word of caution concerning all the Ecclesiastes passages: remember that Israel was a come-and-see people. Come and see how much God has blessed a chosen people that didn’t deserve it. Come and worship this God. The language of peacetime is justified in this setting. The church, on the other hand, is a go-and-tell people. Our mission and approach is very different from Israel. The language of warfare is to be far more prevalent amongst God’s spiritual chosen people. THEREFORE we must be very careful with how we apply verses and passages that, in their original context, were written to Israel and not us. Put it more bluntly (and perhaps a little too broadly), we need to give the NT more weight than the OT when it comes to money matters.

Second, Scriptures that encourage us to view our money and all our resources through the lens of warfare.
Take a deep breath, strap on your scuba gear, because there’s a deep ocean of passages to dive into regarding this topic. Mt 6:19-20, 6:33-34, 19:16-30; Mk 10:17-31; Lk 6:38, 12:31, 16:1-13, 18:18-30; Jn 6:27, 12:6; 2Cor 8-9 (yes, an entire 2 chapters!); Phil 3:8, 4; 1Tim 3:3, 6:7-17; 2Tim 2:4, 3:2; 1Th 2:9. I’m just getting warmed up too. 2Pet 3:10-14; Heb 13:5; Jam 2:5, 5:1-7; Rev 3:15-18. Yes, I’ll admit I’m better versed in these type of Scriptures than the former. But could that be because that is also the louder emphasis of the Scriptures, not because I’m being unfair or biased? In fact, I’d love some help bringing in more Scriptures on the first, since I really do want to be fair to this. But at the moment, I see a far greater emphasis on living a wartime lifestyle than one of enjoyment of what God’s given to us. They are obviously not mutually exclusive (and shouldn’t be!).

I will be first to admit that I am weak, easily influenced by worldliness, and thus need TONS of help to grow in this area. Oh for a more eternal perspective! God help us live as He’s called us to live. For our greatest satisfaction, for maximizing praise to His matchless name. The evidence is compiled. There’s more that can be added, but what we have is sufficient to get to the point. If we take a look at the direction in which the Word points us, there’s an inescapable conclusion. We need to give far more serious thought to wartime living than we currently do.

Swimming upstream

In a wartime lifestyle you always ask yourself, How can my life count to advance the cause of Christ? And if it means buying a computer to keep in touch with your missionaries through email, then you’re going to invest several thousand dollars into a computer and software. That’s a wartime lifestyle. But you might not eat out as often, or you might buy a used car so that you can buy that computer. That’s what I mean by wartime lifestyle. The alternative is to just go with the flow. Everybody gets his toys: bigger house and car, more clothing, more fine food, etc., without even thinking about how the war effort is advancing.

Personally, I must battle everyday against drifting. It isn’t about making choices so much. The battle is primarily against becoming comfortable with things that aren’t essential to the war effort. So you have to check yourself. Sit down with your wife and ask, How are we doing with our spending? How are we doing with the use of our discretionary money for leisure?, etc.

I admit that this is difficult. I don’t have any laws to lay down about what specific things you should be doing either once a week or never or whatever. It’s just tough…

- John Piper, “What’s the difference between living for the Kingdom and living for the American dream?”

I think it’s no coincidence I was born into a first-generation Chinese family headed by a father who always said things like “20% coupon, huh? Well, it’s 100% off if you just stay home” and “do we really need to buy that?” A wartime lifestyle is first being frugal, and then taking the savings and directing it towards eternally fruitful things. If your upbringing has preloaded you to be very frugal, you’re halfway there and far ahead of those who first need to learn frugality.  To whom much is given, much is required, Steve. If you were given a head start, that’s not license to slow down, but to run all the harder. Because the name of God and the condition of lost souls matters too greatly to do otherwise. 

Like a Jackhammer to my Heart

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 10:34-39

But an oh-so-necessary jackhammer.