Schedule two days off during the week instead of one.
Seriously.
For I don’t know how many years, I’ve only taken one day off a week. After all, didn’t God say, ‘Six days you shall work …’? Saturday has been my day off for the past few years, and it’s taught me that taking a Sabbath rest is an act of faith. As important as I may think I am, God really doesn’t need me seven days a week. Six is more than enough.
But maybe He doesn’t even need me six days. Maybe He’d prefer to only have me on the job five days a week.
How do I know that? Because I’m getting too tired, which is a clear sign that I’m doing too much. In other words, I’m doing more than God expects of me, which means that at at least some of my activities are being done in the flesh. What do I cut out? I’m not sure.
But starting this week I’m going to take Friday and Saturday off. I really don’t know any other way to start doing less.
No doubt I’ll end up letting some people down. If you’re one of those people, please accept my apology in advance. But in the end I think we’ll all be better off – and probably happier – if I’m doing less of what I think needs to be done and more of what God wants done.
With that said, I’m going to bed.
Good night all!
… when I get some time (currently on a whirl wind trip through Europe).
But recently I had two significant conversations on this important topic that can serve as an introduction. One was with my two younger sons, age 14 and 11. The question was ‘Who can teach you about God and life with God?’
‘Believers’ was their quick reply.
‘I mean specifically. Give me names.’
They mentioned three. (BTW, I’m going to let these guys know that my boys identified them as spiritual teachers. They may not be aware of how much impact they have. Is there someone who would call you their spiritual teacher?)
And then there was the conversation with a friend who also happens to be a Greek Orthodox priest. How does spiritual education differ from conventional Christian education and why do more and more people not see the Church as a source for spiritual knowledge? What exactly is spiritual education?
It’s much easier to post the questions than the answers. With God’s help, a little time and energy, I’ll jot down some of the ideas that we explored in the next few days. But maybe the questions are just as important as the answers – maybe more so. With all the talk of being attractional and/or missional, can we say that we’re spiritual? What does it mean to be spiritual?
Sunday I was convinced things weren’t going to go well. It was the first Sunday after New Year’s and with a church full of college students, I expected it to be harder than normal for them to get out of bed. The service schedule was crowded with testimonies, a baby dedication, and communion. And then news came that two of the instrumentalists in our worship team wouldn’t be able to play.
But in spite of my doubts and with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and some willing voices, the Spirit showed up with power.
As I try to describe it, I keep hitting the delete button. Should I try to describe it at all? It was dramatic service including spiritual gifts, passionate worship, repentance, and prayer ministry for healing and deliverance.
I am grateful the Lord chose to minister to us in such a real way. A precious gift like this should be received with responsibility and stewardship. Four things I would urge us to keep in mind.
- Humility: ’ Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’ (Luke 18:14) The Spirit did not come as a ‘reward’ for our good works, our faith, or our prayers. It’s not because of us that He was here. It was His gracious choice to come and bless us. It was about His love, not our worthiness. It is tempting to view the Spirit’s outpouring as a sign of God’s favor on us over and against other churches. But the fact is, the Spirit is working all over our city and in many churches. We must never claim some special status or favor because the Spirit has chosen to work in our midst.
- Love: ‘The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.’ (Romans 5:5) The outpouring of God’s Spirit must not be limited to the four walls of the church or the community of believers. Rather, when He works among us on Sunday morning, it is so that we can love God and neighbor Monday through Saturday. If the Spirit doesn’t lead us to become more loving, more generous, more sacrificial, more passionate about winning the lost for Christ, and more servant oriented, then we have not been faithful with the gift.
- Power: The Kingdom of God is present even when there isn’t all the drama. Dallas Willard points out that at the time of Jesus people kept expecting the Kingdom of God to be associated with a big event. Even today we often assume that the coming of the Spirit is accompanied with spectacular manifestations, large crowds, and lots of drama. But the answer to the question ‘Where is the Kingdom? Where is the Spirit?’ is ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, “See here!” or “See there!” For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.’ (Luke 17:20-21 – See also Deuteronomy 30:9-14.) It’s possible – even likely – that we won’t witness the same dramatic events this next Sunday. But that’s ok. The kingdom is here.
- Control: ‘Do not quench the Spirit.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Dramatic manifestations of the Spirit can scare some people. What if things get out of control? Well, it is out of control and has been for the past 2,000 years. Rather than making sure nothing bad happens, we will give the Spirit freedom to work among us. If we respond excessively, without love, or with neglect for the order that God desires, then we will use God’s word to take measures to bring us back into God’s will. We will not risk quenching the Spirit by trying to control. Likewise, we will not try to make this happen again and again. We will not stop it, but we cannot start it. There is no ‘heavenly portal’ open over Nicosia International Church that we need to keep open. We will continue to gather regularly to worship, pray, and align ourselves with God’s word and will. The Holy Spirit will be present. What He chooses to do is entirely up to Him.
May the Lord continue to love and bless His people with the manifested presence of His Spirit, and may his love refresh us again and again!
For what it’s worth, here are the four most visited posts of 2009. This probably says more about Google searches than anything else, but it’s interesting to look at. 
Leadership Secrets of Mother Teresa
From the NIC theme verse for 2010 … and the subject of tomorrow’s message.
Hmmm…. woke up this morning wondering if I should follow the lead of a few of my friends to be more faithful in blogging. My own frequency in posting has dropped in recent months. After spending a number of years posting regularly, not posting as often feels somewhat sinful. Ok, maybe that’s a bit too strong, but there is a sense of guilt like cheating on a diet or skipping an exercise routine for a day. I’m a fairly disciplined person, so why have I cut back? Here are some reasons:
- Conversations are shifting from blogs to social media like Facebook. According to this, while engagement in social media has increased by 30% in the past two years, less than half of that is taking place on blogs. Twitter, Facebook, etc. have risen from 1% of the social web media to nearly 30%. Internet community is shifting away from blogs unless your blog delivers real content that people need.
- I’m busy. Local ministry is expanding and it leaves less time for reflection. There are lots of ideas in my head, but it takes time to transfer them to a blog. I’ve never been one for working on drafts for a time before publishing, but maybe it’s time for to try it.
- Our church finally has an internet home, and though I don’t manage the site, I do have to think about content. This takes time, which means the amount of time I give to other social media outlets is reduced. Like you, I’ve only got 24 hours in my day.
I’ll continue to post here at St. George because it continues to be a good place to process and discuss issues and ideas that emerge from Nicosia, but I’m not going to make it a resolution. There are plenty of things I can feel guilty about, but blogging doesn’t need to be one of them.
Happy New Year!
Last week controversy broke out after the Christmas Party for international students due to 15 minutes of dancing prior to a short presentation of the gospel. It’s a long story and an ongoing discussion (argument) among both students and leaders.
- Some say there’s no problem with occasionally doing something fun that students relate to – dancing included.
- Some say that dancing is fine as long as the music is Christian.
- Some say that dancing is fine as long as the music is Christian and the lights are on.
- Some say there shouldn’t be any dancing at all.
- Some think the whole discussion is pretty silly.
How do we resolve the issue? I’ll tell you once its resolved.
It seemed that most of the students enjoyed the dancing, though at least one protested because we turned the lights down. According to him, the dancing wasn’t wrong, but making the room look more like a club (by dimming the lights) we had crossed the line.
It’s dangerous to assume that these are simply cultural issues. Paul says that whatever is not of faith is sin implying that even violating a cultural taboo can be sin for a less mature believer. In addition, by arguing that dancing, clubbing, or the level of the lights is nothing more than cultural, we run the risk of communicating that morality is relative and contextual and that there is no such thing as objective moral knowledge.
As one African student once told me, ‘We know it’s ok for Americans to smoke, drink, and have sex. But it’s a sin for Africans.’ Initially what I noticed was the three things that he linked together as being ‘ok’ for Americans. But on deeper reflection, I realized that he had fallen victim to the same thinking that plagues so many westerners. Namely, that what’s a ’sin’ for people in one culture may not be for people in another. In other words, right and wrong are relative and cultural rather than grounded in something objective.
Another danger, though, is that a specific rule that is culturally based is enforced in such a way that it actually suppresses a greater moral good. In the case of dancing with dim lights, this may make sense in one culture. Yet if the same rule applied in another culture unintentionally excludes people who might have an opportunity to hear the gospel, then the rule – good in one culture – has done harm in another.
At issue here is whether or not there is such a thing as moral knowledge. Is morality something that can be known in the same way that the laws of physics can be known? Or is morality nothing more than tradition and culturally grounded sentiments?
Jesus said that all the laws can be summed up in two: love God and love your neighbor. In other words, morality is known through the prism of love, but this love must have both a horizontal and vertical dimension. The Bible also tells us that God is love.
So how do we move forward when issues such as dancing, dancing with dim lights, dancing in church, dancing in clubs, dancing with secular music, etc. surface?
- Recognize that there’s more at stake than simply dancing. This is about how we determine what’s right and what’s wrong. Important lessons.
- I ask everyone involved to back up their position with scripture. When the student said that dancing is ok but dancing with dim lights is wrong I asked him to defend his position using the Bible. ‘What fellowship has light with darkness’ was his response. Is there a discipling opportunity here?
- In light of the love revealed on the cross, what is the loving thing to do in this situation? How can we get beyond strategy to love? After all, we can mimic the music and lights of the club, but ultimate it’s the love of Christ that will transform hearts.
This was written on the fly, but I hope you get the idea.
Cultural differences often arise in a multi-cultural church such as the Nicosia International Church. As we worship, learn, obey, and fellowship together as one community from many nations, we’ve noticed significant differences between the ‘global north’ (Europe and North America) and the ‘global south’ (pretty much everyone else). Obviously, these are gross generalities with many exceptions, but we have noticed them as general trends.
- Worship in the global south often begins with a shout of victory. Worship in the global north begins with a cry for forgiveness.
- Prayer in the global south petitions God and expects intervention and deliverance. Prayer in the global north asks for strength to endure.
- Leaders in the global south are expected to have spiritual power. Leaders in the global north are expected to have spiritual wisdom.
- Jesus in the global south is seen as a reigning King. Jesus in the global north is viewed as a suffering servant.
I’m not sure how to articulate them, but I suspect there are differences in community, mission, and the Bible as well.
For those of you with cross-cultural experience, can you offer any help here?
Imagine you’re a leader in a church that is growing monthly by hundreds, has an overwhelming number of poor and needy people, whose leaders (that’s you) are being persecuted by local authorities, is recovering from moral scandal, and is on the brink of division.
As a leader, what would you tackle first? Well, that’s the situation the leaders of the Jerusalem Church found themselves in at the point of time recorded in Acts 6:1.
Though the issues of our lives may be different, all of us are faced with decisions about where we’ll give our time, attention, and resources. Maybe we can learn something from the early church leaders.
When overwhelmed with all the challenges and opportunities, they decided that the ministry of God’s word and prayer needed to be their priority. At least one commentator disagrees: it’s a crime, she believes, for church leaders to spend their time praying and teaching the Bible when there are hungry people in the community. But were the apostles neglecting the hungry in favor of small group Bible studies?
Here’s what I see: Central to the life of the church and the function of leadership were the spiritual ministries of prayer and communicating God’s truth. The fruit that grew from this prioritizing included caring for the hungry (6:5-6), building community (6:2, 5), multiplying leaders (6:5-6), evangelism (6:7), and miraculous signs and wonders (6:8).
I have a hunch that when we make feeding the hungry, building community, multiplying leaders, evangelism, or signs and wonders central we eventually lose the plot. But when we make God’s word and prayer central functions of leadership, these other things happen in increasing measure. Of course the book of Acts is descriptive rather than prescriptive, but I think they were on to something.
If this is true, why is it so?
In what is normally a food and travel show, Anthony Bourdain recounts his experience in Beirut when he and his crew got stuck in the violence between Hezballah and Israel that forced thousands – including Bourdain – to evacuate by ship. It’s not often you hear a food host talking philosophically and theologically about the human condition and the meaning of life. He says,
I’d begun to think that no matter where I went and who I sat down with that food and few drinks always seemed to bring people together, that this planet was basically filled with good and decent people doing the best they could, if frequently under difficult circumstances; that the human animal was perhaps a better and kinder species than I once thought. I’d begun to believe that the dinner table was the great leveler where people from opposite sides of the world could always sit down to eat, drink, and talk, and if not solve all of the world’s problems, at least for a time find common ground.
Now, I’m not so sure.
Maybe the world’s not like that at all. Maybe in the real world, the one without cameras and happy food and travel shows, everybody – the good and the bad together – are all crushed under the same terrible wheel.
I hope, I really hope, I’m wrong about that.
Three things came to mind watching this:
- Interesting that when describing the good in the world it is personal and relational, but he depersonalizes the evil (we’re ‘crushed under the same wheel’).
- Yesterday in church we mentioned the postmodern rejection of meta narratives, though if the world comes to an end we’ll discover that our various stories all end up with the same ending. ‘The good and the bad together’ end up crushed by the same wheel.
- I can relate to his experience of changing when he was forced to see the world outside the limited prism of the restaurant windows. After spending so many years living outside my home country, I find it hard to relate to the culture wars going on in America.
You can watch all 5 parts of the episode on YouTube, but here’s the final segment quoted above.
