Priorities for Growing Leadership

We're walking through the book of Acts. The church is on a roll. Despite the Ananias and Sapphira scandal, the growth of this Jesus movement continued! Acts 5: ¹⁴And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. Next, the apostles were jailed and beaten by the Jewish religious elite. But they rejoiced they were counted worthy to suffer for Jesus. They didn’t shrink away or retreat, they kept the foot on the gas. Chapter 5 ends, ⁴²And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. Which resulted in growth. Chapter 6 begins: ¹Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, That’s a good thing! Notice Luke did NOT say “converts” or “attendees" were increasing. He said “disciples.” What’s a disciple? Someone who has followed Jesus, who is being changed by Jesus, and is on mission with Jesus. By use of the term disciple, Luke is making clear that their primary concern is not the quantity of followers, it is the quality. But it's obvious they do want to increase in number! 

I want to clarify something. At Providence, we have said our goal is not to be a megachurch. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want to increase in number! We do! We are actually going for world conquest! If we are the kind of church God wants us to be, we WILL grow. The question is HOW do we want to grow? Our strategy is to make disciples and plant churches that make disciples. We just planted Bridge Church, we are already looking to plant another. We’re praying for a planter and for God to show us where the next plant will be. 

As we pick up in Acts, there is only ONE church, and it’s in Jerusalem. They will be planting churches soon, but God has to push them out of the nest with persecution as we shall see. But for now there is only one huge megachurch. And with size comes problems! Look: "...a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution (Luke 6:1b)." Here’s what’s happening: Widows in that patriarchal culture were in a vulnerable place. Without a husband they often couldn’t get a decent job, had very few rights, and many times they suffered. There was no government welfare and as Jesus pointed out, those in the religious establishment took advantage of them. So, as has almost always been the case, the church stepped in to meet the need—it was a great way to be the hands and feet of Jesus. But by addressing this need a faction that had formed in the church was revealed: the Greek-speaking, popular-culture-embracing “worldly” Jews who are now Christians (the Hellenists), are feeling like the more traditional, Hebrew speaking, Bible-thumping Jews are apparently getting more of the benevolence help! What is it about money and stuff?! I’ll say it again, money is a great tool for God, but it is such a temptation for problems. And fallen human beings are as they always have been: given to envy and jealousy, tempted to team up and divide, tend to get their feelings hurt—especially when stuff is being given away. Suddenly there’s a problem that could really divide the church. It’s a terrible thing when a church—a family of believers—choose sides and stop trusting each other. It’s hard to recover. It’s important for the leadership to deal with it openly and swiftly, and that’s exactly what they do:  ²And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve [where we get the word “deacon”] tables." The apostles, who were essentially the elders of this first church, were wise in seeing the temptation of being distracted from their primary responsibility—proclaiming God’s Word. I must say, the Devil works really hard to get pastors to do just that—be distracted by doing everything else! Is there any wonder why there is such a lack of transformational preaching today and why so many Christians and churches are so weak? Hear what Paul said to the young pastor, Timothy:

2 Timothy 4:1-5 

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (Note: I don’t think there has ever been a generation that better fit this description than ours!) 
As for you, always be sober-minded, (note: that means to be aware of what’s going on, but be steady and not sucked in to fads and trends. The NIV renders it, “Keep your head,” and the HCSB, “be serious.” Be disciplined.) endure suffering, (note: because there is suffering involved, trust me!) do the work of an evangelist, (note: that means share the gospel and plead for people to believe and surrender to Christ) fulfill your ministry.”

As awkward as it is for me to say it, my job is important! It must be fought for. For me, proclaiming his Word to the folks at Providence accurately, transformationally, evangelistically, and contagiously is at the top of the list. I admit there have been times when other things have taken precedent—good things—and God was not pleased. At risk of sounding self-serving, I make an appeal to any church members (at Providence or any other): allow your teaching pastor to do what God has called him to do for the church and to keep the priority high. Help him by hiring staff that can do other duties that are also important and allow them to do that. Help him by not having unreasonable expectations. Help him by also sharing with him the ministry needs of people in your church. That’s what the first church did. 

The apostles continued: Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty (Acts 6:3). That is a great description of what is required for leadership in ministry. Notice it’s all character-related, not skill-, experience-, personality-, or knowledge-related. We MUST select leaders—particularly elders and deacons—with the same criteria. Other criteria might be helpful, but these are essential: 

1. They must have a good reputation. Their past—their good name—matters. 

2. They must be full of the Holy Spirit. Their spirituality—their daily walk with the Lord and the visibility of the fruit of the Spirit—matters. 

3. They must be wise. The practical outworking of their faith in wise living matters. You can have knowledge and intelligence without having wisdom. 

These things matter most. The apostles continued: But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). They said this because it takes time to pray. And it takes time to preach. I speak from experience. I know some aren’t going to understand and it sounds self-serving for me to say it, but it’s important that the primary teacher/preacher of any church dedicate much time for prayer and preparation for preaching. I am thankful that I had a pastor that took these priorities seriously, and I am here because of him. I have seen many pastors who didn’t take ample time for these most important duties and their churches suffered: they were weakened and sometimes divided as the Gospel was not pre-eminent. I have also seen churches drift away from sound doctrine when the Word was not central. It is a shame, and both the pastors and their churches are to blame. My doctoral dissertation makes the case that sincere and relevant biblical proclamation is the hope for the church in postmodern America. All churches need praying, Word-preaching pastors.

So the Jerusalem church affirmed the idea, and chose seven men who all had Greek (rather than Hebrew) names, indicating they were probably Hellenists, and Luke wants us to know that one of them was not even racially Jewish! That brought some diversity to the leadership. What was the result of this organizational move? "And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7). Wow! We've seen "added," and "multiplied," and now "multiplied greatly!" Christ’s church just keeps reaching more people—including some Jewish priests! God’s Word is powerful! Don’t you want to be a part of a church like that? 

I think we can if our churches recognize three priorities:

1. The ministry of the Word is important. 

For my part (and any pastors who preach), it takes dedicated prayer and preparation. This takes time (and discipline to set aside ample time) for these purposes. I have seen various surveys that show that the average pastor spends as little as 6 minutes a week in prayer. There’s your answer to the question, “Why are so many churches dying?” A prayerless pastor is powerless. I have also known pastors who brag that they need only two or three hours to prepare a sermon. I had a pastor friend who told me proudly that he only needed to prepare for 30 minutes! I would rue the day I stood to proclaim God's Word so unprepared. I actually have nightmares of standing up and not being prepared! Seriously, I ask the people of Providence to hold me accountable to do my job well. I ask them to pray for me, and to never let me (or anyone else who may have my job) take this lightly by cutting corners, compromising doctrinally, diminishing the Gospel, or being out-of-touch. If I do, they should replace me. 

For your part, make hearing the Word a priority, hear with your heart what God is saying to you (not some preacher), and apply what you hear (James 1:22). Even if the sermon isn't as polished or interesting or inspiring or in-depth or even accurate as you would like, God can still speak. I visited about 10 churches this past summer and got something out of every sermon I heard. Sometimes the problem is the receiver not the quarterback.

2. Choosing good leaders is important. Five tips from the passage we just read: 

• We must organize to meet people’s needs and ministry priorities. 
• We must insist on character qualifications first. 
• We should choose leaders with a process that includes every member’s voice. 
• We must encourage diversity in leadership (e.g. race, age, and religious background).
• We must intentionally grow disciples to lead God’s growing church.

3. Quantitative growth is important, but quality is more! 

In fact, quantitative growth won’t happen (or happen sustainably) if we are not growing people spiritually. Yes, quality is more important than quantity BECAUSE QUALITY (making disciples) RESULTS IN QUANTITY. A church might be able to grow numerically for a while, but without quality, it will not last. That’s the main reason the bigger-is-better, numerical-growth-at-all-costs, mega-church model often fails. The charismatic lead pastor will leave or die or fail morally. The big show on Sunday services will eventually lose it’s wow factor. Eventually the breadth will require depth. So let’s make disciples. That starts with you. Are you a disciple? Have you followed Jesus? Are you being changed by Jesus (that means growing—are you closer to Jesus—more like Jesus than you were a year ago)? Are you on mission with Jesus? That means you’re praying and seeking to be used by God to influence others. IS THAT YOU? If that’s not you, it can be. I pray it will be. Will you ask God to make you a disciple? See, Disciples make disciples. Disciple-making churches plant churches. Don’t be an attender. Don’t be a fan. Be a DISCIPLE. World conquest will be the result!

2016: Worst Year Ever!?

Whew, what a year. While we can probably say that about any year, this one was one for the books. Of course I am specifically thinking about the unsavory presidential campaign that commandeered the headlines all year, but that's not all. The economy has continued to struggle—for the eighth straight year. It seems culture continues to lurch toward negativity and licentiousness. Many notable people died. Racial tension seemed to creep near to a boiling point. International tragedies and natural disasters were not uncommon: Isis, Syria, refugees, terrorism attempts (and incidents), severe drought and fires, Zika...I could go on.
But was it that much worse than other years? I'm old enough now to remember many bad years that contained terrible events and trying times. My grandparents told me of the Great Depression and the years of World War II. Those seem much worse by comparison! As I think about it, I'd trade 2016 for many others in memory. In fact, 2016 was quite good for me in many ways! Health-wise, financially (despite giving more than ever and having two kids in college), family life, experiences, good movies and sports events, lessons learned, relationships with others, spiritual growth, progress regarding our church's mission...there are so many ways 2016 was quite good!
Let me take our church's mission for example. This time last year we were over 1.7 million dollars in debt (which has been an albatross hanging around our collective necks). We don't have the final tally, but in our year of "decrease to increase" (d2i) we have paid more than 1 million dollars toward that debt ALL WHILE giving 100% of what was needed for our budget! Pretty great. Meanwhile, two of our church plants became official, independent churches during 2016! What's more, some of the churches we planted in previous years planted churches this year! That's cool!
So, we should be careful about joining the chorus of negativity. Remember, celebrities (and others) will die every year, disasters will happen, there will be wars and rumors of wars, there will be other election years. I think we would be wise to focus on victories rather than losses, feel determined rather than defeated! God is still in charge! In this I take much comfort!

Disciple-Makers or Demon Deacons?

I'm writing this post knowing that it's not an exciting issue for most people. But it actually is, if you love God's church, think it should be conformed to the instructions God gave us for church in the New Testament, and love seeing more people leading in his church (which equals growth of his church). 

First, it is not the goal of Providence Church to be a megachurch or to have bragging rights because we are the largest church in town. That's just vain. Our goal is to utilize our time and resources in order that through us God will make disciples of as many people as possible and have the largest impact on this world. That means it's more about quality (disciple-making) than quantity (converts or attendees). That's because real disciples are on mission and reproduce themselves. That said, we have for 10 years struggled to break the 1000-attendee barrier. It's not an uncommon thing, and it's not necessarily a bad thing (if we are planting churches and making, growing, and unleashing disciples). I am convinced that there is a correlation between the size of a disciple-making church and the impact it can have in this world. For many reasons (that I will not expound upon here) and in our context, I think that the "sweet spot" number is 1500 to 2000 people. There are some practical factors that can determine whether we grow that large, like: our building's size, our lack of parking space, our leadership structure, as well as our culture of inviting and welcoming and encouraging new people, and caring for those already in the family. These factors, and to a greater degree our struggle to grow, has caused our elders to pray and think and read and discuss solutions. 

Several things are obvious: 

1. We need more space. This can be accomplished in several ways: multiple services, different campuses, larger facilities (either by constructing more or moving to another location), or getting rid of people by planting new churches. NONE of these are easy. 

2. We need more, capable leaders. After all, we are in the people business. An essential ingredient to making disciples is disciple-makers. These should be raised up IN THE CHURCH, or we are not accomplishing our mission.

3. We need more resources. Specifically, money. Because there are many practical necessities for disciple-making and church planting. 

Let me deal with the first and last of these quickly: 

1) The space problem is real, especially regarding parking and children's ministry space. Yes, the auditorium is tight at times, but that's not our primary problem. We have and are trying to accommodate for this until we're able to plant a church and build more space.

3) As people grow more mature spiritually, they are obedient to God and give more. We have started classes to help people manage their money better, and we have significantly paid down our debt (I have not given up hope that we will retire it). This frees up significant amounts of money each month.

Also, growth in members also results in more giving.

That leaves number 2. How do we raise up leaders who are capable and accountable to, and passionate about making disciples and planting churches? We must be intentional about this. We recognized (again) the need for our current staff and leaders to raise up "replacements" for themselves and recruit and train more who will "own" the ministries of Providence. These leaders must be identified as equals to the staff (much the same way as our non-staff elders are equals to Jesse and me).

About a year ago, I read a book entitled, RetroChristianity: Reclaiming the Forgotten Faith by Michael J. Svigel. Unbeknownst to me, Jesse was reading it for a class about the same time. In the book, Svigel accurately describes the simple structure of the early church, consisting of elders AND deacons, that remained basically the same and allowed the church to grow exponentially for the first few centuries. That is, until the Roman Emperor became a Christian and the church exchanged the simple structure it began with for a much more complex structure that more resembled Roman society. Corruption and stunted growth followed, ushering in the dark ages.

Jesse wrote me an email early in 2016 dropping the idea of calling this new categorization of leaders, deacons. My first reaction to this suggestion was not positive. I've dealt with "demon" deacons before (and not the Wake Forest University variety)! It usually wasn't pleasant. Deacons tend to be winners of a church popularity contest vote who, instead of serving, become the Mayberry town council-type complainers and troublemakers—dividers, not disciple-makers. I re-read the scriptural passages about deacons, and read germane sections of RetroChristianity again. I realized that what Jesse had said was true: the only biblical name for the type of leaders we were wanting to establish is "deacon." 

After much discussion, Jesse and I made the case to the elders so that we could all pray together about this. After much more deliberation, we decided to put it before the church. Here is the white paper we wrote about the new (to us) office.

After much prayer, we presented to the church that we wanted to establish the office of deacon at Providence. Of course there was some pushback. We totally expected it. In fact, it was not as much or as fierce as we expected. And all was lovingly delivered. All those who struggled with establishing deacons at Providence had churched backgrounds where deacons were not defined and determined biblically. This had resulted in problems for the church. 

In addition to the white paper (which answers most questions), I answered a few emails and had additional conversations with people. For example, here is part of one email reply to a member who is (like me and many others in our church and area) from a Baptist background (I've hidden the name of the recipient). In addition to having some bad personal experiences with deacons in a traditional church, he was struggling with the idea of women deacons.

Hey brother,
I appreciate your email so much. I love you and I LOVE your commitment to the Bible. I assure you there will never be a day while our current elders are alive where we compromise the clear teaching of Scripture, and I hope we put measures in place for the future leaders of Providence to have the same commitment. I am thankful for you for lots of reasons, including because you are a convicted conservative, evangelical, protestant, Christian. SO AM I. Even though we are not affiliated with a denomination, we are certainly "baptistic" regarding doctrine. I'm proud of my Baptist heritage (well, most of it anyway :) )! Truth is, we from Baptist backgrounds must forget some of what we have been taught about deacons, and look to the Scriptures alone for the definition. While baptists get most things right, many of them miss the biblical role for deacons. That has everything to do with Baptist history in the United States.
In Baptist churches, deacons have over the centuries become "rulers" rather than "servants" as they were intended to be in the New Testament. Baptist churches in the USA usually began in small communities, in rural areas, or on the frontier, and hardly EVER had a full-time pastor when they began. Most of them had itinerate or "circuit" preachers who would alternate between 2 to 4 different small churches! Because there was a shortage of pastors/preachers/elders (they considered these terms to be synonymous) and didn't have a plurality of elders, the deacons operated as the ruling "board" of the church. If a church was able to grow enough, they would eventually celebrate the day that they could hire a full-time pastor. But the power vested in the deacon board never changed. That's why virtually all Baptist pastors have stories of having trouble with "the Deacon board" of their churches (I know you have experienced this!). The deacons had become a ruling board, rather than what the NT intended: a group of leading servants who served under the authority of the elders. Most conservative scholars agree that the word sometimes translated "wives" in 1Tim.3:11 should be translated "women" and refers to women deacons. I quoted John MacArthur in the "white paper" and I could bore you to tears with the many conservative commentaries and early church fathers who were convinced of this interpretation. Here's just one more from the great conservative Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon's favorite scholarly resource: Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible:"their wives" — rather, “the women,” that is, the deaconesses. For there is no reason that special rules should be laid down as to the wives of the deacons, and not also as to the wives of the bishops or overseers. Moreover, if the wives of the deacons were meant, there seems no reason for the omission of “their” (not in the Greek). Also the Greek for “even so” (the same as for “likewise,” 1 Timothy 3:8, and “in like manner,” 1 Timothy 2:9), denotes a transition to another class of persons. Further, there were doubtless deaconesses at Ephesus, such as Phoebe was at Cenchrea (Romans 16:1, “servant,” Greek, “deaconess”), yet no mention is made of them in this Epistle if not here; whereas, supposing them to be meant here, the third chapter embraces in due proportion all the persons in the service of the Church. Naturally after specifying the qualifications of the deacon, Paul passes to those of the kindred office, the deaconess. 

Trust me, there is not a single early church father of the first five centuries that disagrees with this interpretation. It was not until much later when it was translated or interpreted "wives of deacons." I know what you're thinking. "No conservative believes women can be deacons." I know! I have felt the same way! And I still do regarding churches where deacons [unbiblically] are rulers! Again, we want the office of deacon to be what the New Testament intends: servants. I think it is more important to bring our church in line with what the Bible really teaches than to hold to man-made tradition. Please know that there is no biblical case for women elders (who ARE the ruling body of the church) and that Providence will not compromise regarding the Bible's teaching. I give you my word on this. So unless we see something in the Bible that suggests that we should change our practice to conform better to the Bible, we will not change it. I am thankful that we have a men-led church. In most churches I know, most volunteer and leadership positions are filled by women. However, we actually have more men involved in all aspects of leadership (including traditionally woman-dominated positions, like children's ministry and worship) than any other church I know percentage-wise. That's due in part to our focus on men being the leaders God has called them to be. This is in no wise a put-down for women! God loves strong women and we want them to serve in the church in myriad ways.
Brother, the decision is not made yet. The elders are presenting the idea to the whole church so that we can all pray about it, study what God's Word says, and then vote on it. 
Sincerely,
Chad

There it is. Exciting stuff, right? I actually think so. We MUST raise up new leaders if we want to make more disciples and plant churches. I think God is trustworthy to build HIS church. As we conform it to the description given in the New Testament, we are trusting HIM to do so.

St. Patrick's Day. Don't Miss It!

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I've always liked it. It officially marks the end of winter and the coming of spring. As a kid, I loved that it was two days before my birthday (so I was already excited). It's also one of those fun little holidays with it's own little quirks (like, wear green or get pinched) and legends! But if we're not careful, we'll miss the great message about the real St. Patrick.

In short, the guy was a sincere and passionate Christian who allowed God to turn the tragic events of his teen years into an outpouring of the Gospel in a virtually unreached part of the world.

I've blogged about him before. There are other great articles about him. To state it briefly, here are just five quick lessons from his life:

1. God uses evils and hardship in our lives for his glory and our good. It happened with Joseph in the Bible. It happened with me. It happens with you. Patrick was kidnapped and enslaved in a hostile foreign country during what should have been the happiest years of his life. He was mistreated and he suffered. His trial made him earnestly seek the Christ he had exposure to in his childhood and he surrendered to Jesus. He finally escaped and found his way home. That much alone is a testimony of God's grace! But the story wasn't over. He refused to be a victim.

2. Courage is a great gift. There are so many ways Patrick was courageous. Besides enduring slavery and escaping home. He sensed God calling him BACK to that wretched, pagan island of Ireland. He took the initiative to train for ministry—and he WENT and boldly proclaimed the truth. He faced impossible odds, dangers, and death frequently, yet was never ashamed of the gospel.

3. Creativity is a powerful tool. Patrick may not have been a scholar, but he was creative in accomplishing the Great Commission. From using the simple, ubiquitous shamrock to make the Trinity understandable, to shifting tactics and going after the Irish chiefs in order to reach the masses, he was a strategic mastermind.

4. Persistence pays off. Patrick was no quitter. He just kept sharing, baptizing, and planting churches. Truth is, he proclaimed Christ in Ireland for about 30 years, saw over 100,000 conversions, and planted over 200 churches. Thousands of leaders were trained and sent into ministry. Many institutions he founded still exist today, almost 16 centuries later!

5. Social justice and the gospel are great partners. For understandable reasons, Patrick hated the institution of slavery. He fought against it and found success. But by no means did this fight deter him from communicating the good news—it propelled him in it. The two were symbiotic in making him such an influence whose legendary status is renown. It saddens me today that many champions of social justice have compromised the gospel, and many gospel-centered churches have ignored the poor and abused. Did not Jesus come to set captives free (both spiritually and temporally)? Of course the spiritual must take precedent. The truth is the gospel IS THE ANSWER to the problems that most plague mankind.

So don't buy the made up lore of ridding Ireland of snakes, green beer, and leprechauns. Know the real Patrick and ask God to make you more like him. Then you will be remembered for the right reasons and find great joy.

Providence Church and The Bible

Our church began 22 years ago because Knoxville needed a church that was committed to the Bible AND committed to engaging the culture. That was it! That’s what Lance Robinson and I discussed in the early 90s while we were attending Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. In fact, our friendship began a few years earlier because we attended a college with religion professors who taught that the Bible had errors. This was shocking to us! Struggling against the indoctrination of these professors caused us to search out the truth regarding the Bible's claims. Was it really reliable? We both came to the conclusion that it was. Thankfully, seminary was a different kind of experience. We had professors who had a high regard for the Scriptures. Lance graduated before I did and had the courage to risk everything to start a church with that two-fold dream (I, on the other hand, briefly pastored two established churches before taking the risk). It's important to understand that Providence began before church planting was cool! Lance was able to gather together a small group committed to the idea and a support church, and through a providential series of events (pun intended), the church had to launch out on its own, really before it was ready. Three years in, when the church was a little larger (about 25 adults) I came (not the best career move) because of that original vision. I wanted to be a part of a church committed to the Bible AND engaging the culture to make disciples of people who are not yet Christians. I believed a church like that could change the world. I still do.

A young Lance & Chad
circa 1999. 

After a sluggish start, Providence shifted strategy to do both better. We all-but-abandoned the popular “topical” or “felt needs” style teaching to go verse-by-verse through whole books of the Bible. We also stopped advertising on Christian radio and made other changes (dropped denominational affiliation, changed music, dress, language, etc.) in order to form the culture of the church to truly reach those who had never been in church. This is harder than you might think! Churched people are generally better givers and aren't as messy! This, too, was a risk. There were times when we had to say "goodbye" to people who wanted us to cater to the churched. 

You may be asking, "Aren't there a lot of churches that do both of these things (high regard for the Bible AND engage the culture to reach unbelievers)?" Unfortunately, not as many as you might think. There is always a strong gravitational pull to move toward one or the other. There are many churches (at least, in Knoxville) that are strong on Scripture. Most struggle to have a culture-engaging culture. There are also those who are culturally engaging. But many of these tend to compromise regarding doctrine and strong Bible teaching. There are some besides us who do both, of course. But not enough! And there were even fewer then!

By insisting on both and making these adjustments early on (and because of God's grace), we grew, and through a providential set of circumstances (yes, pun), when we moved into our current building in 2002, we suddenly grew from 180 to 500 people. This was alarming! We were worried that we were becoming a "the place to be" kind of church where people came for perhaps the wrong reasons. So the elders spent about 6 months to determine our Core Values. As we prayed and discussed, the conviction that the Bible is our absolute authority was most obviously our primary value. All our doctrines come from the Bible, our mission, our discipleship process, our teaching strategy, and the rest of our values spring from this. There was an elder that disagreed, who ended up leaving Providence. This was difficult, but looking back it was a formative test of our commitment to God's Word. We presented these Core Values to the congregation, which unanimously approved them.

In 2010 the Elders carefully considered and revised our statement of belief on the Bible. The church voted unanimously on this: The Bible, comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is God’s very Word to us. It was written by human authors under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth and authority for Christian beliefs and living. Because it is inspired by God, it is inerrant in the original writings and is the infallible truth in all matters it touches. The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.

There’s a lot there. And it’s going to take us 7 weeks to unpack it and more!

Finally in Nepal!

We made it to Kathmandu. And we made it in style (or at least, first class). We were upgraded at the gate as we were boarding,  and let me tell you, it was, in the words of uncle Eddie in Christmas Vacation, "Real nice, Clark."

Wide, reclining, leather, massage seats; equipped with a personal TV screen with a vast database of movies, games,  and TV shows. All the oppulent comforts, luxury service, and great food that you would expect from an airline that flies gazillionaire oil sheiks around the world.  I don't want to tell too much or some may think we're doing this for the wrong reasons! It was a small gift of God after a 13-hour layover.
All was peachy until we got to Kathmandu and discovered that Madison's and my luggage didn't make it. Not cool. Here's the mystery: Jesse's luggage was waiting for us. After going to the authorities with our tracking tabs and tickets, we found out that Madison's bag is evidently still in Chicago. Mine, on the other hand, is not even showing up in the system! What?! "No problem," the Nepali baggage claims guys told us, "They will probably be here tomorrow." I really hope so.

Kathmandu is an incredible city! As always I was expecting something much different. This is a sprawling, buzzing metropolis that feels (in many ways) like going 100 years back in time. Some parts of it remind me of other third-world areas of the world where I have been. But it is more exotic and strange. Hinduism and (especially) Buddhism is everywhere. The lostness of the majority of people is evident. There is sooo much to do. This is just the starting point for us. We're going to make contacts with people who have contacts among some of out target people groups and go from there.
Please keep praying!

Packing for the Unknown

As I wrote on the previous post, I am going on a trip to the Himalayan region.
Before big events the adrenaline flows. I'm always nervous as I pack. This time there are so so many questions and variables. And we're going to stay wet. Packing is not easy, because I need to travel light.

Besides the usual stuff, I need plenty of protein bars and beef jerky (don't know what we'll be eating), underwear and socks (I'm fine being wet and nasty everywhere else but not there), water filter, sleeping stuff (including measures to keep bedbugs at bay), all in a waterproof pack.
The most important way to prepare is spiritually. That's something that you can't do last minute.
Thanks to all for your prayers on our behalf.

Getting Ready to "Go."

Jesus commanded his followers to "Go...make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).

Beautiful Himalayan children. 

I'm not really sure if this it is a good idea to post about this or not... but here goes. I'm about to go on a very important trip. For years our church has been wanting to take the gospel and plant a church in a truly unreached people group. There are, according to estimations, about 1000 people groups (Greek: ethne = usually translated, "nations") in the world that are yet untouched by the Gospel. That means there are "nations" that must be reached before Jesus will return (Matthew 24:14). If every American evangelical church our size and larger would just take responsibility to reach one of these groups, we could easily cover them all in our lifetimes. We (our elders and our church) have prayed, researched, talked, talked, talked. How do we determine where God wants us to go? How do you prepare? What about the many risks? What will it cost? When do we pull the trigger? Truth is, (in my opinion) those questions can't be answered with absolute certainty (barring supernatural communication from God). As I read the New Testament, having answers to these questions is not a prerequisite or even the priority. We are called to go. Christians in the New Testament just went. No culture-training, no plan for when things go wrong, no classes, no fundraising campaign. They just went.
We Americans tend to over-think things. We set our objectives, prepare, train, and execute. We attempt to do it all in a timely fashion. Some of us (me in times past) set unreasonably ambitious goals. The rest of the world--or most of it anyway--doesn't roll like that. Their days creep by. Change comes slowly. Something different (like say, following a God about whom they have never heard, whom they can't see, yet who desires the total surrender of their lives) takes time to sink in.
I'm not advocating recklessness or ignorance or arrogance in proceeding. I'm advocating proceeding. Wisely, carefully, lovingly, with determination and intentionality. Is it dangerous? Maybe. But Christians must be willing to face danger. Dying is gain. We are called to give our lives for this gospel. We do it with joy, knowing that there is incomprehensible joy that awaits us and all those who receive Christ because we told them. Additionally, this is how we change this world. We can be dismayed at the state of the world, vote for politicians who have a plan to help, and even pray for world peace. But going gives the world the Prince of Peace.

This is a church planter in the region near where we are going.
God is moving among some of the people groups in the
Himalayan area, but there are many more yet unreached.

God is at work in the region where we are going. But we are going to some of the spiritual frontiers, where he has not yet been known. This is a pioneering, "first contact" reconnaissance trip. God willing, there will be many more intentional trips to the area in the future. I know many of you (especially among our Providence men) are biting at the bit to take part. I love our church.
Want to help us? Yes, pray for smooth travel (it's monsoon season there) and health so that we can accomplish our mission. But even more, pray that God will open doors and prearrange the right contacts. Pray that we will be wise listeners and learners. Pray that we will have opportunities to share the good news, that God will raise up new disciples, and perhaps even a future indigenous church planter (that would be a huge miracle). Pray that we will come back with a God-inspired strategy for reaching one of the many truly unreached groups in the area (Himalayan Asia) where we (Jesse, Madison, and I) are going.

God’s Glory in Brazil

I am just now able to sit down long enough to write some reflections on this trip I’ve been on.

The last week-and-a-half has been life-changing for me and a few people and (I pray) world-changing for others. God has just blessed this time, effort, and money.

Last week I went with some in our church (including my family) to work with the church we planted in Barra (Rio de Janeiro) Brazil. They are doing an amazing work. God is blessing them with much growth and increasing influence, both in the Christian circles of Brazil as well as cultural change in Rio. Last Sunday, they had about 2600 people in their worship services. 47 people joined their church Sunday, making the total number of members 1745. That’s amazing when you remember they had a small handful of people when the church began 9 years ago. But to simply state numbers does not give an adequate picture. The church is unique in Brazil. In it are both rich and poor. Worshiping, serving, and learning together. And loving one another. Examples abound.

One of the two poor communities we worked in is called Tijuquinha (ti-ju-KEEN-ya). When I went there with a group five years ago, it was much worse. It felt extremely dangerous. Open sewage. Strong bad smell. The people we met there seemed much poorer. Lice-infested kids wore rags and scraggly animals walked the dirt alleys. Homes were dirty. It truly was a favela (Portuguese for “slum”). The church had just started reaching into the area, and we met with a small group of about 6 people, and went to the homes of several others who were new Christians. This time I noticed a remarkable change in Tijuquinha. Kids seemed healthy. I did not notice a smell. Dirt streets had been paved with cobblestones and had sidewalks. Many neat little stores and services (like hairdressers) were doing business. Homes were much neater. It seemed much safer. It’s not even accurate to call Tijuquinha a favela anymore. We were told that it is now called a comunidade (pronounced “communi-dodge,” meaning “community”)! What happened?

Darla and I after our first day at Tijuquinha watching our
group interact with the people (and watching Dara,
Addy, and Allie show Brazilian boys how American
girls play soccer. They were quite impressed!).
We were sporting our tie dye shirts. We made
hundreds of these for the kids there! An awesome day.

I think I know. There are now dozens of small groups from Central Church Barra there. I walked the streets and met many people inviting them to our program there and giving out Bibles and lists of the small groups in the community. Almost everyone knew of Central Church Barra and had favorable things to say. The church has literally transformed the community. Many of the residents I met 5 years ago who were new Christians are now leaders in the church and/or community. You can just tell they are happy and growing. They are seeing their community changed. This time I met with a small group (a couple of other groups met with us, so it was not really “small”). Four men received Christ that very night. UNBELIEVABLE!

The rest of the week we worked in a new favela that the church has targeted to transform. It has already begun. They had events designed for the purpose of showing love to those people whom the government had forgotten. It reminded me of the Tijuquinha I visited five years ago. But we (the group from Providence and Central Barra) played with kids, prayed with the people, presented the Gospel, and invited the whole community to a big event there on Saturday. At that event lawyers, doctors, professional counselors, veterinarians, physical therapists, and other professionals from the church set up stations to give free help to the people. The church went all out and we were right there with them. We made salvation bracelets (I’ll try to blog later about them) that told the story of the Gospel, and (with translators from Central Barra) told hundreds about Jesus’ love. Then some famous Brazilian musicians gave a mini concert for the people and Pastor Josué spoke of God’s love and told the people that Central Barra was just starting to show his love and would be in this community from now on. At least 47 people received Christ. I am tearing up as I recount this even now.

This week I’m in São Paulo, the third largest city in the world (according to some reports). There are many places here where wealthy and poor neighborhoods live virtually side-by-side, oblivious to one another, and oblivious to the Good News. We’re wanting to start another church like Central Barra. Please pray for us. Jesse Cragwall of GPI is assisting, Tim & Polly Sumner are translating, and John Barber is getting it all on video. More later, just please pray as we meet with pastors, denominational leaders, seminary professors, and potential church planters. Many thanks to those who are helping us make connections and getting the word out. Great things are happening.

Back in Brazil

Finally here in Brazil. I thought I'd write a few reports as I get the chance. Travel went pretty well (minus a delayed flight from Knoxville to Atlanta which caused Jesse, John, and I to have to run like maniacs OJ style through a couple of concourses. We almost didn't catch the flight to Brazil! We were sweating and wheezing when we sat down on the plane!). My first surprise was the way the church has grown! They have made use of every inch of the property that they bought and have bought more. The auditorium that had low ceilings and held about 200 people has been expanded to a capacity of 800 people with a high ceiling. They have 3 services each Sunday averaging 2400 per week! Wow!
Josue is still the humble and godly man that he was. I am almost brought to tears as I see how much God has used them.
More later. Gotta go to sleep.

Memories from my first missionary journey

Sunday I told of my first international mission trip. It was to the country of Kenya in Africa.

At the time I was a 21-year-old pre-med major who had just surrendered to God’s calling on my life to serve him professionally in ministry. Problem: I didn’t know how or where! I was stressing myself out and driving my pastor and spiritual mentors crazy with questions! One of them, Alan Duncan, a missionary’s son, advised me to go and see for myself if God wanted me to be a missionary. So I saved and raised some money and went--by myself--to Africa. It was the most significant and life-altering summer of my life.

A few people wanted to know more about my trip so I thought I’d take a short walk down memory lane and dig up a few old pictures. I pulled out the journal I wrote while on my journey. It was the summer of 1988. My football coaches were less-than-enthusiastic about me going; they were afraid I’d get sick or at least not do the summer workouts like I should and report back to fall practice out of shape.


I had been in the air about 24 hours (not counting layovers) by the time I got to Nairobi. Marshall Duncan (Alan’s dad) had traveled monsoon-beaten mud roads to get there to pick me up. We stayed in Nairobi at a missionary conference center for a few days before going to the Duncan’s home in Kericho.

This part of Africa was not the arid, dry place I was expecting. It was green and wet. My first impression of the people was not really positive. We were in a big city. People were staring and some would boldly ask me for money! I learned quickly how to say, “No” forcefully in Swahili so that they would not think I was a naïve American tourist (read: “target”). We went west across the Great Rift Valley to Kericho, a small town in tea growing country.

For the following days, Mr. Duncan showed me the real Kenya. The people were for the most part wonderful, genuine, and hard-working. My primary job was to help build churches.

Some didn’t have buildings and met under a tree or in an empty lot. Others were barely planted, having only a new, young pastor.
I spoke a lot. Schools, church groups, people curious about the mzungu (white man) who was digging a foundation for a church building, I would speak to any group of people who would listen.

It was cool that some of the people heard about Jesus for the very first time from me (through a translator)!
I also helped out at the Duncans' place doing chores and tending their garden. They had Indian neighbors who invited us to dinner. Strange but good!
Mr. Duncan liked good food. And eating was always an experience!

Then Mr. Duncan took me to stay for two or three weeks with the Bass family who lived on the east coast. Missionary Dwight Bass really made a lasting impact on me. He was a tireless and positive man with an indomitable spirit. We went everywhere from small villages in thick cashew jungles, to the Muslim inner city of Mombasa.
One thing we did was to teach a few dozen young Christians how to share their faith in Christ with others. Amazingly, those people led over 1000 individuals to Christ by that fall! In meeting Christians in some of the villages I experienced some of the most incredible worship and loving hospitality of my life. People who were much more committed Christians than me would give me the place of honor in their homes and feed me the only chicken they had (which they killed just for me). It was humbling. On the long drives between villages I learned SO much from Dwight about missions. I also had several opportunities to speak and share my faith.

It wasn’t all work. Mrs. Bass took their kids and I to the beach to blow off some steam!
While at the beach my wallet was stolen (along with hundreds of dollars), which was another valuable lesson learned.

One of the most significant moments of my life happened one evening when Dwight and I were standing outside a school full of students singing beautifully in worship while the sun set and the stars were coming out. Dwight became emotional and said, “This...this is what I live for! It doesn’t get any better! In times like these God reminds me that I am doing exactly what he wants!” I shared the emotion and breathed in the moment contemplatively. It was at that instance that God “spoke” to my heart and confirmed my call. He clearly conveyed to me that he wanted me to be a pastor...at home in the U.S. “Thank you, Lord.” I prayed out loud with gratitude.

After my stay with the Basses, I went back to the Duncan’s home. Mr. Duncan (who wasn’t feeling well) took me to a village called Londiani and introduced me to an African pastor with whom I would be staying for the next several days. I will never forget that town.

We were threatened and cursed by a witchdoctor (who Mr. Duncan demonstrably put in his place just before he left town), I was the center of the biggest “mzungu parade” of my whole stay, I was arrested and taken to jail, I attended a church with topless women, and slept on the dirt floor of a cardboard hut! I ate goat, banana, and root stew, cooked by my host the pastor (who knew almost as much English as I knew Swahili)! Talk about culture shock! I can’t even begin to describe it!

The jail story always gets questions and demands some explanation. After the “mzungu parade” I was the talk of the town. Two policemen came that afternoon to question me. They looked through my bag (I had a tape player, camera, notebook, Bible, clothes, etc.) and acted really suspicious. What I didn’t know is that there had been a recent communist uprising in a neighboring town. The police believed I was a communist organizer! They arrested me and the pastor panicked! He just took off! Feeling abandoned and that things were out of control, they led me across town to the jail through the muddy streets in a torrential downpour. They put me in an 8’x8’ cell that had a hole in the corner (the toilet) and a broken metal chair. The head policeman (who knew a little English) interrogated me. “So, you no like our country?” and “What do you think of our president?” were the kinds of questions he asked. Realizing what was going on, I assured him that I loved Kenya very much, supported their political system, and was enjoying my visit!

While sitting in my cell, I made note of who was in the other cells. An old man who seemed to be drunk, and a young teen who looked like he had been beaten were also behind bars. There was also a young woman there who the policemen ordered around like a slave. I picked up by their actions and words that she must have been a prostitute who was working off her sentence (this was confirmed later when I got the rest of the story). She came and offered me chai (hot tea with milk). I gladly accepted. Using some of the few Swahili words I had learned, I tried my best to share the good news of Jesus with her. I kept saying, “God loves you,” “Jesus is God’s Son.” and “Jesus died for you.” She listened intently, then smiled and tears ran from her eyes down her face.

The police made her leave my presence and I prayed that she understood. While sitting there in the dark (there was one light on in another room) I went from being scared, thinking, “My family will never see me again or know what happened to me!” to thinking of Paul and Silas in Phillipi. I almost started singing around midnight! What dawned on me is that God was totally in control. I can trust him. Later that night a car pulled up to the jail. I heard some people come in the front office and begin speaking sharply to the head policeman. Through the door I could see the other two stand at attention with fearful looks on their faces. A light came on and into the hallway walked Marshall Duncan with a distinguished older African who turned out to be a tribal chief! The pastor, who I thought had abandoned me, had gotten a ride to Kericho and found Mr. Duncan, who had previously led the tribal chief to faith in Jesus! Those poor policemen were wishing they had never arrested me!

Of course there is much, much more that happened. Reading my journal brought back so many memories! I saw (and ate!) many wild animals, and even had some close calls. I slept on the banks of a crocodile-infested river and had hippos walk all around my tent during the night. Look carefully at the below picture and see the hippos at the top right, next to the river.
This picture was actually taken right behind my tent.
While traveling with Jim, a missionary’s son who was about my age, our convertible Land Cruiser broke down (a common occurrence) in the Masai Mara, many miles from the nearest sign of civilization. Our African driver got out to try to fix the problem. He suddenly bounded back in the vehicle shrieking, “Simba, simba, simba!” I knew that word. It means, “lion”! I grabbed my camera and started looking toward the horizon, hoping to get a good picture. The panicked driver pointed down toward the front, left tire (in Kenya, that’s the passenger side of the vehicle). There was a huge female lion concealed in the tall grass, about 15 feet from us!! I snapped a couple of pictures before I felt “that awkward moment when you realize you’re not in a zoo and could become lunch to a wild lion.” I looked around and realized we were in the middle of a pride of lions—six of them were within 35-40 feet of the vehicle! Long story short, we did a lot of sweating and praying. We hadn’t even seen another vehicle for hours. We finally noticed on the horizon a tiny cloud of dust. It grew. I (perhaps unwisely) took off my orange shirt, stood on the top of the Land Cruiser and frantically waved and screamed. Miraculously, they saw us. It was an African wildlife tour guide taking a vacationing American out on safari to photograph animals! They chased off the lions and the two drivers fixed our old Toyota.

Who was the vacationing American in the other vehicle, you ask?
(This is where you are going to think I’m lying...but God knows it is the truth.)
Jeopardy! game show host, Alex Trebec!
He was ticked-off, by the way, acting smug and annoyed at us since we had disturbed his private safari. After we recognized who he was and saw his attitude, I asked Jim, the missionary’s son, “How can we make sure he never forgets us?” We considered several things. Finally, while the drivers worked, I stood up in my seat and yelled (with an unbridled east Tennessee accent), “Hey! I know you! You’re Bob Barker! He’s Bob Barker! Go-lly, imagine that, we come all the way to Africa and see Bob Barker!” Trebec just shook his head in disgust. Jim and I laughed all the way to where we were staying. I’d love if someone would ask him if he remembers us! It makes me want to tryout to become a contestant on Jeopardy! just to ask him!

It seemed every missionary I was around was sick or had the runs or something. Amazingly, I never did. I didn't have the time or opportunity to work out while there, but I did a lot of physical labor, and tried to run at least once a week. Nevertheless, I wasn't in great shape when I got home. Spiritually, however, I returned in the best place so far in my life. My perspective had changed.
God taught me so much that summer! There are so many things that will never leave me. Here are a few:
• God is 100% trustworthy. 100%.
• God is doing amazing things around the world.
• There are good and bad ways to do missions.
I learned first-hand the great challenge of international missions. I saw HOW to DO missions & how NOT to do missions. In our desire to do good, American Christians have made a lot of mistakes, too. Finding indigenous people/leaders/pastors and planting churches are the keys to reaching the nations. I saw examples of great people of God who he used tremendously. I also saw shams and “missions” that did more harm than good.
• Christians are a family no matter their language, color, or nationality.
• Most American Christians are minor-leaguers by comparison to most Christians in the world. But there are some American missionaries who are fearless, humble, spiritual giants.
• Personal: God clearly spoke to my heart that he wanted me to be a pastor in the USA. I think I needed to get away from all the distractions and focus on him. Interestingly, I began dating Darla the fall after I returned. It was like God was preparing me for many things.
I came home CHANGED...in many good ways. That’s what happens when we get out of our comfort zone and go on a Journey!