The first 2+ months of 2013 have begun with a blur–filled with almost non-stop ministry and mission opportunities. I have not been home for more than a few days at a time. A quick look at my day planner reveals that I have been on the road 47 days of the first 70 days of 2013–including a month of international travel.
I am grateful to be home with some unscheduled days that will give me the opportunity to spend time in study and preparation for future presentations. The focus of our contemporary society on relationships and time spent with others has all but eliminated the concept of the ministry of study. Nonetheless, reading and studying God’s word to hear and apply God’s will in our lives is an essential part of ministry. I am grateful that I have been able to talk to many church leaders and preachers across Latin America about the most pressing needs of the churches. Now the challenge is to connect solid Bible teaching and the identified needs.
Preachers, seek to develop and maintain the ministry of study. In our day of rapid information access via Internet and other technology, it is easy to simply “borrow” what others have done. Learn to prepare spiritual food that is not merely warmed over from someone else’s table.
Church leaders, insist on and protect the time needed for preachers to honor the ministry of study.
Members, appreciate the ministry of study and encourage the preacher when he spends time to bring fresh ideas and honestly and openly share his heart and his own personal struggles with the Word.
Baxter Graduates: Jacobo Chalco and Jorge Suarez
During the past few days, I had the opportunity to interview two graduates of Baxter Institute. Here are brief summaries of their stories.
Jacobo Chalco, from Lima, Peru, came to Baxter in the late 1960s when the school was still in Mexico. He graduated in 1971 and spent a short time working with Jerry Hill in southeast Mexico before returning to Peru. He began a church in the house of his parents. He married Marcela in August 1973. Although he was very active in ministry, he supported himself and his family with a small hardware store. He was instrumental in the beginning of the Panamericana Norte congregation, working with Evert Pickartz in obtaining the meeting place, and the church which was meeting in his parents’ house moved to Panamericana Norte.
Evert Pickartz was a pioneer in the mission effort of churches of Christ in Peru. He distributed tracts in Lima and other parts of Peru in the late 1950s and sent Oscar Aquilar to establish a church in Lima in the early 1960s. In 1962 Glenn and Janice Kramar became the first full-time missionaries from the North American Churches of Christ to work in Peru. They were followed by Bert Perry, Carrol Robertson, Hans Dederscheck and other full-time missionaries. When Jacobo returned to Peru after graduating from Baxter, he worked with the aforenamed missionaries. Jacobo told me that Pickartz was not keen on contact with others and that he was strong on the authority of the evangelist, not encouraging the rapid development of local church leaders such as elders and deacons.
In 2002, Jacobo and Marcela moved to the U.S. to work with the Crieve Hall church in Nashville to establish a Hispanic ministry where they continue to minister.
Jorge Suarez graduated from Baxter in 1984 and returned to his native Colombia where he worked to establish the church in the Cauca Valley north of Cali. He established two congregations in Tuluá and was instrumental in the conversion of some of the workers who continue to provide leadership in that city. After about a decade in Tuluá, he worked 10 years in the establishment of the church in Armenia. In 2004, he agreed to work with the church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee to establish a work among the Hispanics, beginning with no members and today having a congregation of 60-70 members.
Jorge told me that one of the great joys of his life has been the opportunity to share the gospel with and to baptize a number of the members of his physical family.
Reporting: Two Seminars
Today is a travel day–Jan and I will be home this afternoon after eleven days on the road. Eight of those days were spent in seminars with two Hispanic churches. First, we spent four days with the Iglesia de Cristo–Southside in Lexington, Kentucky. The next four days we spent with the Iglesia de Cristo–Crieve Hall in Nashville, Tennessee.
The seminars strengthen and encourage the churches, building personal faith and commitment and laying foundations for the development of future leaders. The seminars also build healthy relationships between area congregations, because in most cases Christians from multiple congregations come together to study and share fellowship. A personal goal in the seminars I present is to model methods of Bible study as we analyze texts and set them in their biblical and historical contexts. This provides a useful corrective to Bible studies and teaching that simply strings together loosely related texts that seem to speak to a certain subject. I nearly always spend extended time in specific texts as we seek to build faith and committed Christian lives.
On this trip, I taught for 20+ hours with an average attendance of 20-25 in each session, totaling about 500 student hours.
It’s Sunday Again: Iglesia de Cristo–Crieve Hall
The last three days have been delightful. The seminar focused on building stronger Christian marriages and families, with participants present from several area congregations. With 10 hours teaching hours scheduled in the seminar, we covered a lot of ground, and continued the discussion during refreshments and shared meals.
Today we shift gears to think about the importance of the church, focusing especially on the shared times of worship and study. God’s wisdom and glory are seen in the church, his dwelling place and the central masterpiece of his saving work, a work which he accomplishes in the world through the church.
For me, sharing time with God’s spiritual family on the Lord’s Day is always special–God blesses his people as they live committed lives, actively engaging in his work to his glory. As we worship together we look upward to God in praise and worship, we look within ourselves and grow spiritually through study and learning, we look around to others in the family of God as we share time around the Table in the Supper and as we exhort and encourage one another, we look to the future as we declare afresh the commitments of our life and our priorities and loyalties.
It’s Sunday Again: Iglesia de Cristo-Lexington
Another Sunday, another part of God’s great spiritual family! Today I will be with Iglesia de Cristo at Southside in Lexington for the beginning of a four-day seminar. God is at work among his people around the world. May this be a day to his glory as we surround the Table to remember that God has saved us through the blood of Jesus and has bound us together as part of his special spiritual people.
I look forward to renewing friendship and fellowship in Christ with brothers and sisters we first met about a year ago. Today we celebrate God’s goodness toward us as his people, and we rejoice that he has placed us in his family. May we, as John, be “in the Spirit” on this Lord’s Day.
Our Big God
Yesterday I met with two Hispanic ministers from Tulsa churches. We are planning a spring campaign and regional gathering. Jose observed, “Our people struggle with faithful service because they do not understand how big our God is.” He suggested the theme for the campaign and regional event: “The Great ‘I Am’.”
My experience is that people have a lot of questions about God, and a lot of questions for God. When we have questions about God, we can study God’s Word (which is the revelation of God) to learn more about God and appreciate his work in this world. When it comes to questions we would like to ask God, we are too often clueless. God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55). Sometimes the only response we can give is that of the Psalmist, “God is God, and God is good” (Psalm 100). But I realize how empty that response can seem. It is not very satisfying to hear, “You just have to trust God” or “God works everything for good.”
If our God is big enough to orchestrate the events of our world, he is certainly big enough to handle our questions. As our questions about God are answered and we come to understand God better, our questions for God also come into focus. May God bless our efforts to know him.
It’s Sunday Again: God among his people
One lesson to be derived from the letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3 is that God walks among his people, even in the midst of the persecutions, challenges, and failures of this world. Living in this fallen world, we easily forget that God is among us. One reason we assemble is to share our faith stories and be reminded that God is among us.
Today is the sixth Sunday of 2013. So far this year, I have assembled with God’s people in six different congregations. Today I am glad to be home at Park Plaza because this spiritual family provides the springboard from which my faith story is being written. Around the world each Sunday, God’s people assemble to be reminded that God has penetrated human experience, intervening on our behalf through Jesus Christ, and binding us together as a habitation of God through the Spirit. God’s faithful people come together to hear and celebrate and be encouraged by the faith stories of others–especially important during those times when God’s presence is our own lives is more difficult to discern.
Today we are reminded that God walks among his people in good times and bad, in trouble and triumph. Each has a different story as the journey unfolds. God, please remind us today that you are faithfully present among your people, regardless of what the circumstances of life might suggest.
God is good!
We tend to define God in our own terms. The attitude is common–God is good because we receive blessings, or because prayers are answered, or because something happens that strengthens our faith. Jesus’ words to Thomas come to mind: Blessed are those who believe having seen, more blessed are those who believe not having seen.
We must learn that God is good because God is God. God orchestrates the affairs of this world for our good whether we understand it or not, whether at the moment it seems good to us or not. Much of God´s goodness is not visible in our livers until after the fact. Joseph’s words to his brother reflect great biblical theology. The world seems to work against us, but later it becomes apparent that God is working on a much grander and more expansive scale than we imagine or envision.
It is said that every person is a theologian because every person thinks about God, even those who decide there is no God. We Christians must spend more time exploring the depths of spiritual realities. The biblical descriptions of God are true whether we can fully comprehend them or not. Sometimes we are blessed to be able to catch a glimpse of God based on the results of his work in our lives. Let us not forget that God is good–even when we cannot see him at work in the midst of the darkness of this world.
Nos Vemos–We’ll see one another!
Brother Florecio Molina is blind. Now in his mid-60s, he lost his sight about nine years ago due to an infection. Despite his blindness, he has a jovial spirit. Last night as we left the church building after Wednesday night Bible study, he laughed as he said to me, “Nos vemos.” We’ll see you! He added, “If not here on earth, then in heaven for sure.” He went on to say that he really would be able to see in heaven.
I laughed with him. Indeed, one day the disabilities of this life will be no more.
It is a blessing to have the opportunity to encourage the churches, help develop effective preachers and leaders, and train and lead others in outreach and evangelism. People like Brother Florencio make the time invested to encourage and strengthen the churches worthwhile. The phrase “nos vemos” is heard frequently in Latin America, but for Christians, it has a special meaning. Nos vemos. We’ll see you–if not here on earth, then in heaven!
Finishing up the Honduras trip
Greetings from San Pedro Sula, Honduras! All the talk on the streets this morning is about the US-Honduras soccer game to be played here in San Pedro Sula this afternoon. It promises to be a hot day–it was about 33 degrees yesterday (92 Fahrenheit).
On this last day in Honduras, I will meet with various members and leaders of the local church. Tonight is the normal midweek Bible study. Here in SPS, we had three persons saved and added to the church by baptism. During barely two days in Omoa, we met with the church with one reconciliation and one baptism, along with numerous visits and contacts.
I spent a couple of days at Baxter Institute in Tegucigalpa before the trip to SPS. It was good to get to know Steve and Dianna Teel better, and it was a joy to participate in the inauguration of the fifth president of Baxter.
Before that, I spent about a week in Catacamas, Olancho. There I met with preachers from eight congregations for three days of seminars focused on teaching and preaching God’s word. I preached in five churches. The schedule averaged about four hours of teaching and preaching each day, plus numerous visits and contacts to encourage and strengthen the churches.