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McClaren on church

Interesting comments from Brian McClaren in Christianity Today. This breathes wind into our sails right now as we seek to equip, empower and engage Christians to BE the church in the city and beyond instead of focusing on trying to get the city to come into our churches.

I took this summary from Submerge.com

"The gospel is not primarily informational but relational/missional. That is, imparting information about how to be individually saved is secondary to inviting people into relationship with a king and with members of a kingdom whose foremost concern is wholeness for a broken world, rather than an insurance policy for eternal destiny.

The gospel, McLaren said, starts "with God's concern for the world, in which God creates a community called the church, comprised of persons who stop (or repent of) being 'part of the problem' and choose instead to join God as 'part of the solution'—thus simultaneously entering a mission and a community in which one is accepted by grace, through faith in Jesus."

Making absolute truth claims—so important to evangelism in the modern era—becomes problematic in the postmodern context. Instead, he said, we can focus on recruiting people who follow Jesus by faith (without claims of certainty or absolute knowledge) with the goal of being transformed and participating in the transformation of the world. "Our lack of example in speech, behavior, love, faith, and purity may also explain why we must rely so heavily on arguments, many of them making claims that appear to postmodern people to be coercive and colonial, and therefore immoral, heavily laced with adjectives like absolute and objective to modify the noun truth," McLaren said.

Tragedy

Please send some prayers this way.

While teaching English class from the school across the street from our apartment, Jenny and her class witnessed a suicide attempt.

A teenage girl jumped from the 6th floor of the building across from the classroom Jen was teaching in. It was just outside their window.

We're not sure if the girl died or not, but it was of course pretty shocking. Please pray for the family and for the students.

When the girl fell, Jen gasped and ran to the window. The students followed suit.

Some of the students responded to the shock by giggling, which compounded the shock for Jen. Still in a daze, she reprimanded them and reminded them that no matter what their religion -- most of the kids are Muslim -- they should respect the fact that a soul might be leaving this world and that someone might be losing a loved one.

Later, of course, she realized that kids handle shock differently. For some, it was probably like a scene from a film. Jen felt bad for getting on them, but who can be prepared for such a thing? How do you prepare for how to respond to a suicide when you're in front of a class of 25 10-year-olds?

Someone quickly put a blanket over the girl. Later, the emergency people were using oxygen, so we're not sure whether she survived or not.

Perhaps the worst part for Jen, she said, was the indifference among some of her colleagues when she shared with them what happened. It was a tough day.

Thanks for your prayers.

Church or not

A friend recently told me that while he understands where we're coming from in our approach to sharing our lives with people, he is not so sure that he agrees with calling it church when we get together with those who have not trusted in Christ.

He pointed out that the word church used in the Bible -- Ekklesia -- literally means "those who are called out" and so perhaps it is not accurate to use this term equally for those who are and who are not following Christ.

This is a good matter for discussion. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I'd like to suggest, though, that I am currently thinking of disciple making as a process of inviting people to follow Christ along with us. In a sense, I am seeing people as called out when they start walking with me, in whatever sense they do.

In some ways, I believe they have been called out by God to walk with me, whether they recognize it or not. I'm discovering people as we go who I believe are being called, even though I never would have thought so.

We're seeing this process taking place dramatically with one of our disciples who is walking with men who are in prostitution, some of them transvestites.

As this sister has started walking with them, she has, in effect, called them out. She has entered into their world and summoned them to walk with her. And, several of them are doing so.

One has started going to church. Another has started praying with her and even prayed that God would come into his life and transform it.

Several others are not going that far, but they are still walking with this sister. I feel like some of them, perhaps not all, are being called out. I feel like church is happening around this sister. She has taken church to these men who would have a hard time coming into most of our churches.

Am I just trying to find a way to be able to use the word church? Not really. Just thinking this through out loud. I'm more than willing to drop the word if needed. But I think it deserves some thought first.

On our side

I woke up thinking about Olivia. She's working so hard to do her school work. Things that don't come easy for her. Memorizing poems, and stuff like that. Anyway, I was thinking about how much love I feel for her when I think of her trying hard to do what doesn't come easy.

And with Ben and Maddie, too. I was helping Maddie with math last night. Poor thing isn't used to having to struggle. And I realized I feel so much more for her when she's struggling than I do even when she's shining in dance or in singing.

Ben asked me to pray for him the other day because he was afraid he wouldn't do well at his assigned task on the student council. I feel so much for all of my kids when I see them trying hard and struggling. ...

All these thoughts came to me this morning as I woke up and God impressed upon me the idea that that's how he is with me. He feels so much for me - even more, perhaps - when he sees me struggle.

I was thinking about why it is that I feel compassion for my kids and I thought that it's because I know what it is to struggle and be insecure, etc. I've been there, and I feel compassion for them because I know how I feel.

At that moment, I thought of the verses that say that Jesus was tempted in every way as we were. That he suffered and experienced life like us. And I realized that he knows how we feel. He knows our struggles. He even sees why we struggle better than we do.

He understands our handicaps like I understand Livvie's concentration and attention problems. She can't understand that yet, but I do. I understand.

He isn't looking at me with disgust and frustration when I struggle. He's pulling for me. He's on my side and hoping for my best. He's not putting the pressure on for us to stay on fire and stay on top and to keep doing better all the time, or else. ...

He's there for us, especially when we struggle and slip and fall. He's on our side. And always will be.

Papers

Good news and bad news on the residency thing.

The good news is they gave me full residency status.

The bad news it is only for one year, and not 10.

In April, though, I am eligible to ask for the 10-year card and should have no problem getting it.

The rules are simply much tougher now, apperently. We are not doing this in the best of political climates.

At any rate, you can still pray that what we have will be enough to unlock our financial rights and get some of the government aid we should have been getting for the past nine years like everyone else here who pays taxes (lots of taxes!).

We'll keep you posted on that process.

Alien games again

Please pray for my trip to the Prefecture Tuesday morning.

If all things work as I think they should, I might walk out of this immigration visit with my 10-year residency card.

I'll keep you posted.

just yucky fish soup in Marseille

This is Jenny.

We got back yesterday from our four-day International Teams European conference on a beach near Marseille in the south of France. It was fabulous. The weather wasn’t all that great. We had one nice day when the kids could actually swim in the Mediterranean. Just one. The other days the wind and rain were pretty wicked. The “mistral” wind, as it’s called down there, is amazingly strong!! I often wonder why they don’t try to power the whole region with electricity from wind power.

The rest, teaching, and worship was awesome. We got to meet a lot of the new faces at International Teams, a lot of new people taking jobs that directly affect who we answer to, new leaders in Europe and such. It was very useful and well done. The food wasn’t all that great though. I was discouraged for those who were discovering French cuisine for the first time, who had to go to the neighborhood pizza place because the bouillabaisse (fish soup – very yucky) left much to be desired!!! Not very kid friendly. Maddie was the only one who moaned and was dramatic about her general unhappiness at several of the meals. Ben and Livvie were real troopers.

The worst was the bouillabaisse. Maddie said it looked like someone was actually trying to make it look nasty. She said it looked like something cooked up for ogres. ... Chunks of ripped fish and sandy mussels, broken shrimps, just floating aimlessly in a glutinous mass.

She was careful to dirty her bowl with a spoonful of the mixture so as not to offend. She asked, “does it look like I ate some?” Yes, Maddie, it looks like you ate some. .....

The kids were constantly being watched in amazement by the other leaders, and I had tons of people come up to me and tell me how amazing and fascinating my children were. One colleague, Julie Soltis, a 60-something serving on a refugee team in Austria, took my hands, and looked deep into my eyes and said, “I want to tell you that you’ve done a great job. You’re raising up missionaries. You’re multiplying in ways you don’t realize. Your children are sisters and brothers and friends. You have something that’s very rare, and as a mother, I want to tell you that I’m proud of you. It hasn’t been easy for you, to be far from your own mother, and you’ve done a great job…”

I felt like she was speaking prophetically to me, and with the tears rolling down my cheeks, I let her speak to me. I let her minister to me. We cried for awhile and I thanked her for her gift to me.