I experienced a truly amazing spiritual moment while teaching here in Indonesia. While talking about the teachings of Jesus, I asked the class to turn to Matt. 16:24-28, in which Jesus began, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." The interpreter, who usually asked one of the class members to read the passage we were discussing, asked the entire class to read aloud the five verses calling for believers to forsake everything to follow Jesus. The students read in unison of speech and also unison of heart. They are joined in a sweet and glorious fellowship around the Gospel of Jesus; a Gospel that will inevitably bring some suffering for these particular students.
As I listened to these students read these verses, I began looking around the room at those who were reading. In the room were students who truly understand the implications of these verses. They are young men and women who in some cases have been rejected by their own families and ostracized by their communities. They are future ministers completely aware of the truth that they will most assuredly face some sort of persecution in their future ministries. They are students who have left their families and friends in some cases never to return. They will go and plant churches somewhere else in Indonesia, which is the world's fourth largest country, consisting of 232.5 million people, and the largest country of Muslims, who make up 80% of the country with only 5% Evangelicals.
As I listened to these students read these verses with sincerity, passion, and enthusiasm, I realized that they truly get the essence of these verses. I have read and quoted these verses many times, have heard them read and quoted many times, and have preached on these verses. However, when I heard these Indonesian believers reciting them, I truly heard the verses and better understood them.
I could not help but cry.
BN
Monday, February 6, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Ministry in the Truly Hard Places
"This is where the terrorists hide." A statement I had never heard nor ever cared to hear while being guided on a tour. However, that was what our guide said as we made our way into a specific part of a town in Indonesia. It was a location in which some terrorists recently had been discovered by the police.
While the statement was certainly strange, perhaps what was even stranger was the fact that we were going toward the supposed place of terrorists, and we were going toward this place to check out a church plant. For a Western-minded person, the idea of planting a church in the reasonable vicinity of terrorist cells was as foreign a concept as eating rodents (which incidentally also happens to be a custom around these parts which I am not particularly fond of either), but apparently in this country planting churches near danger is merely a way of life.
Sadly, for some churches in Indonesia, persecution is a way of life. Today, I talked with a pastor whose church was persecuted to the point that they had to begin meeting in a house. Nearby was a banner stating the rejection of Christian churches in the community. The pastor, although facing these circumstances, was astoundingly joyful, and I do not think he stopped smiling for the entirety of the time I was around him. We were privileged to pray for him and his congregation and to enjoy some sweet fellowship with a brother whose life and church might never know the security found in the churches I have taken for granted all my life.
Here in Indonesia, tomorrow is Sunday. As I reflect on my typical Sunday morning experiences in our safe and comfortable church buildings, I cannot help but recognize how ungrateful I am for the fact that we have security to worship. Also, I cannot help but recognize how much and often I take for granted the privilege of worshiping and fellowshiping with other believers in the context of the local church without an eminent threat of danger.
Finally, I cannot help but compare the mindset of the church in Indonesia with the mindset I am accustomed to within the church back home(and I am not excluding myself but am shining the light very brightly on my own heart and life regarding this matter). Typically, our believers and churches in the States do not desire to move toward danger or possible threats but toward the easier and more comfortable places to live and do ministry.
What a stark contrast! While we typically pray against danger and plead for ministry assignments with safe and comfortable conditions, assuming all along that God would never lead us into the dangerous or difficult places of life or ministry, the churches here look for the nearest terrorist cell and set up shop.
BN
While the statement was certainly strange, perhaps what was even stranger was the fact that we were going toward the supposed place of terrorists, and we were going toward this place to check out a church plant. For a Western-minded person, the idea of planting a church in the reasonable vicinity of terrorist cells was as foreign a concept as eating rodents (which incidentally also happens to be a custom around these parts which I am not particularly fond of either), but apparently in this country planting churches near danger is merely a way of life.
Sadly, for some churches in Indonesia, persecution is a way of life. Today, I talked with a pastor whose church was persecuted to the point that they had to begin meeting in a house. Nearby was a banner stating the rejection of Christian churches in the community. The pastor, although facing these circumstances, was astoundingly joyful, and I do not think he stopped smiling for the entirety of the time I was around him. We were privileged to pray for him and his congregation and to enjoy some sweet fellowship with a brother whose life and church might never know the security found in the churches I have taken for granted all my life.
Here in Indonesia, tomorrow is Sunday. As I reflect on my typical Sunday morning experiences in our safe and comfortable church buildings, I cannot help but recognize how ungrateful I am for the fact that we have security to worship. Also, I cannot help but recognize how much and often I take for granted the privilege of worshiping and fellowshiping with other believers in the context of the local church without an eminent threat of danger.
Finally, I cannot help but compare the mindset of the church in Indonesia with the mindset I am accustomed to within the church back home(and I am not excluding myself but am shining the light very brightly on my own heart and life regarding this matter). Typically, our believers and churches in the States do not desire to move toward danger or possible threats but toward the easier and more comfortable places to live and do ministry.
What a stark contrast! While we typically pray against danger and plead for ministry assignments with safe and comfortable conditions, assuming all along that God would never lead us into the dangerous or difficult places of life or ministry, the churches here look for the nearest terrorist cell and set up shop.
BN
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Committed?
As another day in Jakarta comes to a close, I am struck by the differences in the Indonesian believers and American believers, a category in which I am included. While in Jakarta I am teaching two classes: one on the New Testament and one on the ministry of the local church. I am teaching a diverse group of students most of which are in their twenties and are poor. They come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds: some Catholic, some Protestant, some Muslim, and others. What is striking is their focus on the work of the Gospel! As someone who has been around students preparing for the ministry for the past several years, while I am no expert I certainly have some experience with students called to the Gospel ministry. However, I have yet to encounter students like these.
For the most part, they have nothing compared to us. Most of the students live in a cramped dormitory on the grounds of the seminary, which is very small. Their life consists of preparing for the ministry. They begin morning devotionals at 5:30 am, followed by chapel, followed by classes all day, followed by another chapel at night. Their day is filled not with distractions but with Jesus and preparation to serve Him. They have truly given up their lives, some in much more of a literal sense, for the sake of the Gospel.
One of the students is an older lady who shared how her husband converted to Christianity as a young man and was warned by his family not to come home. As she was communicating this story to the interpreter who in turn was communicating it to me, she explained the consequences of her husband's going home by placing her thumb to her neck and bringing it across her neck from one ear to the other in the motion of cutting one's throat. I told the interpreter that he need not translate that. I got the message. Her husband did not go home, and I'm not sure if he ever has or will. Another student explained--as we were talking about the need for new believers to remain in their social context so that they could influence those around them for Christ--how he was ostracized by his family and could not return under threat of extreme punishment. He was in his early twenties, and I don't know if he has or ever will return home.
These students have given their lives Jesus and are so eager to see God work through them and in their country. Nothing else seems to matter to them. This was illustrated so clearly to me by a young lady who came from a village opposed to Christianity. She was ostracized and not welcome home because of her faith. As I told them about how Hurricane Katrina and the work of Christians afterwards helped receptivity of the Gospel in New Orleans, she blurted out, "We need to pray that God would send a hurricane to my village." In the U.S. I would assume she was kidding. It is clear that I am not in the U.S.
While we certainly have our problems in the Western Church, I don't want to fall into the trap of bashing contemporary Western Christianity as this corrupt, quasi Medieval Catholic Church that doesn't care anything about following Jesus. I think it is always easy to perceive other cultures as the ideal setting for Christianity to flourish and the Church in that culture as the model New Testament example. The Church here is not perfect, and these students are not perfect (I plan on discussing that in a later blog). But, they are committed to Jesus and the message of the Gospel like not many I have seen. The majority of them plan on planting churches, and I am so excited about seeing what happens in this nation through a group of young people who have given up everything for the sake of the Gospel and truly made Jesus the everything of their life.
I can't conclude without expressing my sincere frustration at the lack of commitment in my own life while also acknowledging that I want to begin to live out the same commitment as these students in my ministry context. What would happen across my nation if a group of people would truly leverage everything for the sake of the message of Jesus Christ, making Jesus our everything of life?!
BN
For the most part, they have nothing compared to us. Most of the students live in a cramped dormitory on the grounds of the seminary, which is very small. Their life consists of preparing for the ministry. They begin morning devotionals at 5:30 am, followed by chapel, followed by classes all day, followed by another chapel at night. Their day is filled not with distractions but with Jesus and preparation to serve Him. They have truly given up their lives, some in much more of a literal sense, for the sake of the Gospel.
One of the students is an older lady who shared how her husband converted to Christianity as a young man and was warned by his family not to come home. As she was communicating this story to the interpreter who in turn was communicating it to me, she explained the consequences of her husband's going home by placing her thumb to her neck and bringing it across her neck from one ear to the other in the motion of cutting one's throat. I told the interpreter that he need not translate that. I got the message. Her husband did not go home, and I'm not sure if he ever has or will. Another student explained--as we were talking about the need for new believers to remain in their social context so that they could influence those around them for Christ--how he was ostracized by his family and could not return under threat of extreme punishment. He was in his early twenties, and I don't know if he has or ever will return home.
These students have given their lives Jesus and are so eager to see God work through them and in their country. Nothing else seems to matter to them. This was illustrated so clearly to me by a young lady who came from a village opposed to Christianity. She was ostracized and not welcome home because of her faith. As I told them about how Hurricane Katrina and the work of Christians afterwards helped receptivity of the Gospel in New Orleans, she blurted out, "We need to pray that God would send a hurricane to my village." In the U.S. I would assume she was kidding. It is clear that I am not in the U.S.
While we certainly have our problems in the Western Church, I don't want to fall into the trap of bashing contemporary Western Christianity as this corrupt, quasi Medieval Catholic Church that doesn't care anything about following Jesus. I think it is always easy to perceive other cultures as the ideal setting for Christianity to flourish and the Church in that culture as the model New Testament example. The Church here is not perfect, and these students are not perfect (I plan on discussing that in a later blog). But, they are committed to Jesus and the message of the Gospel like not many I have seen. The majority of them plan on planting churches, and I am so excited about seeing what happens in this nation through a group of young people who have given up everything for the sake of the Gospel and truly made Jesus the everything of their life.
I can't conclude without expressing my sincere frustration at the lack of commitment in my own life while also acknowledging that I want to begin to live out the same commitment as these students in my ministry context. What would happen across my nation if a group of people would truly leverage everything for the sake of the message of Jesus Christ, making Jesus our everything of life?!
BN
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The Tale of Two Cities
Dickens began his famous work: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." From the best of times to the worst of times is a sense of what it felt like leaving the city of New Orleans to come to the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. These feelings were no reflection of the cities themselves but the comfort found in the city of New Orleans compared to the discomfort found in the the city of Jakarta.
Leaving New Orleans for ten days was not easy by any sense of the imagination. Waking early in the morning in an apartment filled with comfortable amenities, beside the love of my life who is the mother of my precious six-month old baby girl--who already has her daddy wrapped around her finger--and getting on a twenty-something hour flight that took me around the world away from these two precious girls should not be and was not easy. I praise God that He has blessed me with a wonderful wife and precious daughter who were difficult to leave. Even though our seminary apartment is small and not our dream home by any stretch of the imagination, I praise God that He has given us a place to live. I praise God for the school that I have been attending and the work that He has given me to do. God has blessed us tremendously.
However, I have noticed that it is easy to dismiss the call of God and work of God, excusing away His call with the very blessings He has bestowed. How many of His followers, including me, use His blessings (e.g. family, jobs, friends, finances, leisure activities, and many other good things that are His gifts) as excuses not to go and to serve? I know that I have been guilty of neglecting the work of God, citing His own blessings as excuses.
God has called me this next week to be out of my comfort zone. I am in a strange, foreign land, and it is noticeably uncomfortable in an incredibly tangible way. It is obvious to myself and everyone I come into contact with that I am a stranger. Moreover, I am supposed to serve and make an impact on this foreign land with the Gospel of Jesus, an incredibly difficult task given the disconnections I have with this country.
As I have been considering this, I have come to an eye-opening question: Isn't this how it is supposed to be for me anyway? Am I not, as a follower of Christ, supposed to be completely out of my comfort zone every day? Am I not to feel noticeably uncomfortable and out of place as a stranger in a foreign land opposed to Christ and His work? Am I not called to serve and make an impact in this foreign land with the Gospel of Jesus, which is an incredibly difficult task given the supposed disconnections I have with this foreign land?
The truth is I have been a little too comfortable lately in this world which is not my home. The comforts of this world have crowded out God too consistently, and this must not continue. We have been called by God and given a mission, to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to change the world. Not to grow comfortable in the world, but to change the world. This is a reality which we believers must remember. We must reclaim our God-called discomfort with the world. God has helped me to see that worldly comfort is a faith crippler and detriment to the work of the Great Commission.
Change must take place. What this change looks like remains to be seen. I think it looks different for different people. Brooke and I are excited about what it will look like for us in the coming weeks and months. What I know is that we must get serious about being strangers in a land not our own. We must get serious about the Great Commission and how we are to leverage all that we are and all that God has blessed us with in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
Leaving New Orleans for ten days was not easy by any sense of the imagination. Waking early in the morning in an apartment filled with comfortable amenities, beside the love of my life who is the mother of my precious six-month old baby girl--who already has her daddy wrapped around her finger--and getting on a twenty-something hour flight that took me around the world away from these two precious girls should not be and was not easy. I praise God that He has blessed me with a wonderful wife and precious daughter who were difficult to leave. Even though our seminary apartment is small and not our dream home by any stretch of the imagination, I praise God that He has given us a place to live. I praise God for the school that I have been attending and the work that He has given me to do. God has blessed us tremendously.
However, I have noticed that it is easy to dismiss the call of God and work of God, excusing away His call with the very blessings He has bestowed. How many of His followers, including me, use His blessings (e.g. family, jobs, friends, finances, leisure activities, and many other good things that are His gifts) as excuses not to go and to serve? I know that I have been guilty of neglecting the work of God, citing His own blessings as excuses.
God has called me this next week to be out of my comfort zone. I am in a strange, foreign land, and it is noticeably uncomfortable in an incredibly tangible way. It is obvious to myself and everyone I come into contact with that I am a stranger. Moreover, I am supposed to serve and make an impact on this foreign land with the Gospel of Jesus, an incredibly difficult task given the disconnections I have with this country.
As I have been considering this, I have come to an eye-opening question: Isn't this how it is supposed to be for me anyway? Am I not, as a follower of Christ, supposed to be completely out of my comfort zone every day? Am I not to feel noticeably uncomfortable and out of place as a stranger in a foreign land opposed to Christ and His work? Am I not called to serve and make an impact in this foreign land with the Gospel of Jesus, which is an incredibly difficult task given the supposed disconnections I have with this foreign land?
The truth is I have been a little too comfortable lately in this world which is not my home. The comforts of this world have crowded out God too consistently, and this must not continue. We have been called by God and given a mission, to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to change the world. Not to grow comfortable in the world, but to change the world. This is a reality which we believers must remember. We must reclaim our God-called discomfort with the world. God has helped me to see that worldly comfort is a faith crippler and detriment to the work of the Great Commission.
Change must take place. What this change looks like remains to be seen. I think it looks different for different people. Brooke and I are excited about what it will look like for us in the coming weeks and months. What I know is that we must get serious about being strangers in a land not our own. We must get serious about the Great Commission and how we are to leverage all that we are and all that God has blessed us with in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
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