2012 Seminars: A Summary

Another month remains in the 2012 calendar year, but my schedule of seminars, campaigns, and workshops for the year is over. There are many ways to summarize what occurred during the year in the Bible teaching seminars, campaigns, and workshops I presented. I found the following interesting. (This is a summary only of my work, and does not include U.S. English-speaking churches.)

    I did seminars, workshops, and retreats in 8 countries
    I preached and taught in 33 different churches
    Those in attendance at these presentations represented about 83 churches
    Approximately 1350 different people attended a seminar during the year, receiving Bible teaching and training for greater service in the church
    There were 16 baptisms on the mission trips I was involved in

The 2013 schedule is even busier. Continue to pray for this work that God might be glorified and the churches might be strengthened with biblical leadership and increased evangelistic focus.

Reflections: Adult Bible Class at Park Plaza

The Wednesday night adult Bible class I have been teaching this fall at Park Plaza concluded last night. The study and discussion of Paul’s first letters was stimulating. This would be a good time to reflect one more time on the content of the class, thinking about the challenges faced by the Gospel in the first century. Galatians shows the struggle to understand how the Gospel connects to the past and its roots in Judaism and the Old Testament. The Thessalonian correspondence shows the struggle to understand the message of the Gospel with regard to the future, especially the coming of Jesus.

Instead of reflecting on and summarizing the class, I want to reflect on the class itself: the dynamics of the class, members, involvement, attendance, interest, and comments.

    Attendance was consistent and excellent with the chairs filled almost every week, and often the need to set up more chairs.
    The members of the class were involved in the study with excellent comments, penetrating questions, and numerous after class off-line disucssions.
    The size of the class made discussion difficult, but together we overcame that hurdle and the discussion was often lively.
    The class members are encouragers of one another. What a delight to observe the love expressed as we lingered afterward to share various aspects of our lives.
    The class seemed to relish the opportunity to dig a little deeper, but also enjoyed thinking about how the text applies to our lives today.

The class members blessed me by their participation, comments, and encouragement. What a blessing to get to spend time regularly with the greatest people on earth–God’s people.

Baxter Institute: A Special Weekend Ahead

This weekend is graduation at Baxter Institute in Teguigalpa, Honduras–the last official event of the 49th year of Baxter’s existence. It is also the weekend of the annual board meeting in Honduras. For me as chairman of the board, that always means a lot of time spent in preparing documents, reports, agendas, and for various activities.
The weekend is always special: a committed group of Christians whose hearts are set on mission work and the advancement of the Kingdom of God in Latin America assemble, the fellowship is sweet, the conversations stimulating, and new graduates are sent forth with prayers and celebration.
This year’s graduation celebrations and events will be special in other ways. The amphitheater, now covered with a permanent roof, will be dedicated in honor of Armando Pacheco. The Baxter family will say good-bye to Howard and Jane Norton as they complete three years of service as President and First Lady. The Baxter family will welcome Steve and Dianna Teel to the family as they begin the transition to being the next President and First Lady.
Finally, the entire Baxter family–board, administration, faculty, employees, and students–will celebrate God’s goodness as we share together the continuing journey. Next year will mark Baxter’s 50th year. Baxter has more than 500 graduates of the residential program, several thousand more from the weekend and extension programs. Baxter has made and is making a difference in the growth and leadership of the church across Latin America, and also among Spanish-speaking churches in the U.S. What will the next 50 years hold? Only God knows, but the weekend ahead will be an opportunity to celebrate the God who will make incredible and marvelous things possible.
“There are no impossibilities–only people who believe that they have limitations.”

It’s Sunday Again: Waiting for God

During my years of preaching ministry, I usually awoke early on Sunday mornings. I remember that often I wondered what God would do among his people on that day. That attitude of anticipation blessed my preaching ministry across more than four decades. As I thought about what God would do, I considered that he might do something through me his servant as I shared his Word with his people. I learned to wait patiently because not all Sundays were equal. Some Sundays, what God was doing was all but invisible. Other Sundays, God’s work was apparent and the church was blessed by his overwhelming presence and power.

The question still comes on some Sunday mornings: “What will God do today?” But as my ministry and mission efforts have expanded beyond a single local congregation, the question has been joined by more questions. What will God show me today? What does God want me to learn today? Whom can I touch and encourage today? Who will reach out to me today? To whom can I reach out? Who will I meet who is in need of Jesus? These questions have something in common. They represent God’s people waiting for God, depending on God, anticipating God’s presence and action in their lives.

It’s Sunday again: a day when we sharpen our God-awareness, attempting to see what God is doing and where he is doing it so that we might join him in his work as faithful disciples. The inactivity of waiting is not all bad. Like the runner waiting for the starting gun to sound, sometimes we wait in the blocks, poised and ready to act immediately when God’s will and way is clear.

It’s Sunday again. May your God-awareness grow today, patiently waiting for just the right moment when God breaks forth and acts in your life and in the lives of others, to work his will and way in this world. May we be alert and ready!

Lessons from Another Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. My birthday folder (electronic) has 128 items in it. Facebook says 106 friends sent birthday greetings. I received a few cards by snail mail, and a few more by email. I received a number of personal greetings–real words spoken by a real person, either in person or by telephone (no greetings via Skype this year, but just wait). The first electronic greeting came on Monday. (Those who waited until 12:01 A.M. yesterday had no chance of being first.) With the exception of the first little church I preached in over 40 years ago, I received greetings from persons representing every phase of my adult life and ministry. Greetings came from at least 10 different countries.

Birthday reflections–things I learned or was reminded of yesterday, and things I thought about yesterday, in no particular order.

    We live in a rapidly changing world
    I am loved
    Birthdays are a good time to look forward (a lesson gleaned from the greeting that wished me the best in the coming year)
    My life has made some difference to a few folks in a few places across the years
    Getting older is not all bad
    Getting older is natural
    Getting older is an evidence of God’s blessings
    My friends write some really neat greetings
    My friends write in English and in Spanish
    God is not just good–he is really, really good
    Life is to be lived in the present, not in the past nor in the future
    Families are a special blessing from God

God Sightings: Another of God’s Marvelous Days

About three millennia ago, the Psalmist wrote words that are today well known and often quoted: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (118:24)
Today is another of God’s marvelous days. I have seen over 23000 of them–every sunrise and every sunset different, evidence of God’s creative genius. Days of hope and difficult days. Each one a gift from God.

Lord, help us relish our days as we seek your wisdom. May we know that you are the provider of all, and that you richly bless us for our enjoyment. We praise and bless your name because you have blessed us beyond measure with blessings both physical and spiritual. May we be a blessing to others as you have blessed us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is for me a favorite holiday. As a holiday, it is still relatively pure. It has largely retained its original intent–gratitude. Many of us still remember the story of the Pilgrims and we talk about our blessings with an attitude of gratitude, recognizing God is the giver and sustainer of life. Not that there are not challenges. The celebration of our bounty leads many of us to eat too much. And football and early Christmas shopping threaten to redefine the holiday.

A quote from Wilbur Nesbit reflects an often overlooked beauty of the holiday: “Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home.” Thanksgiving is as much a family holiday as Christmas. Families eat together and celebrate a shared history of mixed blessings that somehow translates to an awareness that life is good even in the midst of difficulties.

Throughout history, the shared meal has meant love and acceptance, common hopes and mutual support. Writer and simple food guru Laurie Colwin says it well: “The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: Even the simplest food is a gift.”

May the food you share on this day, whether elaborate or simple, be a reminder that we are in this life together. May you relish with gratitude the presence of friends and family, and those you love and care for. May you honor God’s goodness and bounty, and may we be humbly grateful!

God is at work

I was out of town Sunday. I spent Friday through Monday in Houston, working on the Latin American Leadership Training project and attending various meetings. How exciting to return home to the news that there were 96 present Sunday at the Iglesia de Cristo-Park Plaza. I believe this is (or very near) a new record attendance.
Several encouraging ‘markers’ within the work suggest that this is part of a long-term pattern of growth that will bear even more fruit in coming months. I encourage you to join me in prayer today for the work God is doing, for the souls yet to be touched, and for the maturity of this church as it seeks to do God’s will and reach out to the Hispanic community of Tulsa.

It’s Sunday Again: Remembering Forward

Sometimes we remember our past and relish the experiences, relationships, and emotions as they were–a part of the fabric of our lives, but something locked in the past. Sometimes we remember and celebrate the past because of its continuing impact in the present and future. These two kinds of remembering, remembering back and remembering forward, we do almost automatically based on the life situation.

On Thursday, I was in a meeting where we reviewed (remembered) the history of the work at the Baxter clinic over the past several years. Some of what we remembered is forever in the past and is only interesting history. But we also remembered so we could understand various dynamics and bring the helpful aspects of the past work foward into the future in a new agreement.
On Friday, Jan and I spent several hours with friends from Michigan. As we had lunch together, we remembered a shared history. Part of the time we remembered back and relished the past. More often we remembered forward with the goal of sharpening our faith and becoming better servants of God in the present and future.

These two options also exist for Christians today in the remembering of the Supper. Will we remember back or will we remember forward? Or can we do both?
Sometimes I hear the phrase, “Let our minds go back….to the cross.” Nothing wrong with remembering backward. It is healthy to try to grasp the pain and suffering Jesus endured on the cross. It is helpful to try to understand the impact on the disciples–the hesitancy, doubt, distancing following by joy and commitment. But let us not forget the other possibility.
As we surround the Table this day we should also be aware of remembering forward. To avoid crucifying the Son of God afresh in my life in the coming week, I bring the cross forward. It is ‘my’ cross in that it will make a difference in how I live my life this coming week.

With these two possibilities in mind, I pray that your worship in surrounding the Table this day will be especially meaningful. Nothing wrong with recognizing the cross as an event of 2000 years ago and “letting our minds go back.” May we also be aware that the cross event extends forward 2000 years into these last two months of 2012 and that it intersects our minds in the present time and in our future hopes and dreams.

A Good Day

I often evaluate the days of my life with the phrase, “It was a good day.”

Yesterday was a good day. What makes a good day? Each day is different, unique, with new challenges and new opportunities. The newness of each day reflects God’s creative genius as we experience the world; newness also describes the reality of our spiritual lives.
Describing yesterday is not difficult: 9-10 hours of driving for a round-trip to the Dallas area, plus about 6 hours of meeting. Add a little rev-up time in the very early morning hours and a little wind-down in the evening. On the surface, it sounds like a pretty ho-hum day, long and tiring.

The purpose of the meeting was to work through the details of a new accord between the Association Amicus clinic in Honduras and VCOM, a private College of Medicine based in Blacksburg, Virginia on and near the campus of Virginia Tech. I attended the meeting as chairman of the board of Amicus, along with the chairman of the clinic operations committee and the Associate Vice-President of International Operations from VCOM. In six hours, we succeeded in working through the details of a new agreement. That might be enough to deserve the “good day” label.

But good days are much more than external, superficial successes or failures. Good days include God’s presence and power in our lives, his protection, his provision, his gracious desire to include us in the work of the kingdom. We are blessed to be included in something that is much bigger than we are. In Christ, God makes us a kingdom of his sons and daughters. While God provides for us here on this earth, this is not the ultimate goal of our existence. As sons and daughters of God, we will one day go to live where royalty lives.

As you live this day, I pray for you the kind of spiritual sensitivity that will let you pillow your head tonight and conclude, “This has been a good day.”