All team members met on a street called Empire Street.  We worked like mad cutting trees off of a house, cutting down trees that were nothing but bare trunks, and raked debris from the yards.  Half of the team members spent most the day on Empire street focusing on about 4 homes.  Kenny’s house was worked on a lot.  All the remaining siding was torn off his house and we had several guys go to Lowes to purchase plywood so we could board up windows that were broken.  Kenny has been getting cold at night since his house is somewhat exposed to the elements.  He should find out from FEMA, within a week, what type of financial aid they will be able to provide him.

The other half of our team, including myself, went to the opposite end of town to work with a man named Chuck.  Chuck is the father of Collette, a friend of Jessica’s at GPC.  Chuck was in great spirits, and was happy to share his tornado survival experience with us, and soon got very emotional.  He allowed me to pray over him and we briefly talked about the fact that his closet being literally the ONLY thing left on his structure wasn’t luck or chance.  Chuck said that he and his wife don’t pray, but his wife began praying when they heard the sound of a freight train coming at their house.  I can honestly say I feel like God has clearly revealed his power and himself to Chuck, and Chuck is searching and thinking through some things.  But there is a lot more to it.  Chuck said he’s moving to Bentonville and because of God’s protection and our willingness to come help him, he may even come to our church.  We spent at least 4 hours salvaging their things.  Digging through piles upon piles of just chaos to find tools, pictures, etc.  We also spent a long time burning all their paperwork and documents since Chuck has been fearfully guarding his house with worries of looting and people stealing important documents and such…which sadly has been happening.

We walked throughout the remains of a huge neighborhood and met a husband and wife, Mike and Joan.  We spent a lot of time salvaging their things and praying with them.  They are extremely emotional and greatly acknowledge God as the only reason they’re alive.  Mike shared their experience and it brought me to tears.  They thought the tornado was over, but the reality is that they were in the eye of the tornado and Joan began to get out of the tub when Mike grabbed her and jerked her back down as he held on to her with every bit of strength he had while the rear of the tornado finished the destruction that the front of the tornado had already started.  Their bathtub they were in, was all that remained of the home.

We all finished the day clearing trees off of a mans house.  His name was Jim Glass, he was 82.  When I walked up to find someone home, he was on the porch around back.  I introduced myself, as well as Stephen and he asked us to pull up a chair.  Jim desperately wanted to just talk and honestly I could hear him tell stories all day long.  He’s a really really neat man.  We will follow up with him tomorrow as well.  Turns out he personally knew my great uncle from Sarcoxie, MO who was a congressman.  We talked a lot, and he was so grateful that we came from Bentonville to help him.

I can’t begin to explain how happy these people are that we are there.  But these days of work look different than one might expect.  Its very emotional rummaging through absolute piles of crap in front of the person those piles of crap belong to while we look for memorable pictures and anything of value.  Its a very sensitive job and process that requires a person that is willing to LISTEN to stories and emotions.  God is working up there, and he’s doing it through people who are relational more than the folks who are jumping from one tree trimming job to the next.  The value of spending time with these people is very much appreciated, and I believe more so than the physical part.

We are praying over people with their permission, we are offering ourselves and our resources, and we are showing the Love of God.

It is clear that the work each team is doing is more than manual labor, it is also heart labor.  Stephen F, worship pastor from our Rogers campus spent most of the day praying and counseling with grieving and hurting families.

Please consider…GOING, GIVING and PRAYING.  Recovery and Compassion trips are leaving daily at 6:30 from GPC.  Please sign up in advance so we can have the necessary supplies.  To GO, GIVE and PRAY, visit our site by clicking here

6. Learn a foreign language.  I don’t have this mastered.  In fact, I am not close to considering myself bilingual; however, there is tremendous value in working on learning another language.  The reason is worldviews are manifested in languages.  As I learn multiple languages, I am gaining an understanding of the diversity of worldviews.  If it does nothing but help me see that my way of thinking isn’t the only way to think and see the world, it will accomplish much.  For example, when I learned the Bambara word for bike, I learned it actually translates “iron horse.”

7. Find a local community care outreach and serve your community. Just like learning a language gives you different perspectives on life, so does serving in a different socioeconomic environment give you a greater perspective on people.  Sit in their home (if they even have a home), eat a meal in their context.  We had some college students that traveled the States on a month long journey; stopping, staying,a and eating in soup kitchens. Obviously, this wasn’t a typical college vacation to Cancun.

8. Host an exchange student. I have seen families open their homes to high school students from Turkey, Germany, China, and others.  Amazing cultural exchanges take place that will broaden your global understanding, enlarge your heart for the nation of your student at lea, connect you with people around the world, and the list goes on.   In two of the three scenario’s the students went back to their home country followers of JC.

9. Adopt an international student into your home and family life. I love seeing what God has done in a family in our church that has taken on connecting and periodically hosting about 10-15 college African college students from the UofA.  They love on them, serve them, share life together over the holiday’s and throughout the year.  One of the Nigerian students is working on his PhD and has the vision to go back to Nigeria and become the President.  Can you imagine if his vision becomes true. To  think that along this young man’s spiritual pilgrimage he points back to his faith growing through this family and his time spent in their lives.

10. Walk through a different neighborhood or apartment complex. Whether the neighborhood is socio-economically different than your “normal” or it’s an area a different ethnic group tends to congregate and live, walk through those sidewalks or streets.  Relocate your exercise routine there.  Drive through there.  But, on your journey, open your eyes.  Instead of seeing them or “not” seeing them at all, ask God to open your heart to see them how He sees them.  Pray as you walk, run, drive, and GO!

I am privileged to pastor the most amazing church in the world (at least from my perspective:).  This has been a 10 year journey for all of us.  The church launched in 2001.  It has been a journey to raise up believers that are world-class Christians.  World-class Christians are what we are striving to raise up at GPC.   How does a church raise up World-class Christians? How can I be a world-class Christian? Here are a few of the things that has helped me in my journey.

1. Read your Bible looking at for the “nations”- Here is a good exercise for you.  Read your Bible and start circling every time it speaks of the nations worshiping Him, going to the nations, that God wanted to bless the nations and then compare it to the amount of time you focus on one nation, the USA.  I am currently circling every time I see the “nations,”  “peoples of the earth,” or like phrases in the Scriptures.  I want the scope of my life to be measured by the scope of God’s heart.

2. Watch the BBC news- I don’t know how to say this, but frankly,  America is absorbed with itself.  American media, either by cause or effect, is absorbed with American life more than any other.  You watch any of the news channels (CNN or Fox) or any of the nightly news and 90% of what they cover is about what happens in our 50 states.  If I want to know what is happening in the world, I watch the BBC.  I watched  BBC World News this morning before having my quiet time to get a thorough overview of what was happening in the Arab world since there is so much turmoil right now.  I use what I learn to guide my prayers.  I wouldn’t have gotten 1/2 the coverage of the world in the same amount of time had I watched an American news outlet.

3. Keep an up-to-date Passport- I heard Henry Blackby speak to a congregation once and he asked for a show of hands of those who had a passport versus those who didn’t have a valid passport.  He in very convicting and passionate with what he said next.  He called out those who didn’t have a passport as not being ready to go to the nations and that they must not believe in the Great Commission.  With a passport you stand ready to go, where ever, and whenever.  There have been times that I have had opportunities to go to the nations quickly and had I not had a valid passport, I couldn’t have gone.

4. Pray through the global news- As I mentioned in the before regarding the BBC.  I use the media outlets of newspapers, websites, to keep me fresh in my prayer life.  We must all pray for the Arab nations currently.  The changes that are taking place internally in these nations could be huge for the spread of the gospel or devastating.

5. Don’t have a “missions department” Move from missions to mission.  Missions is something we do and a department we staff.  Mission is who we are.  We are on God’s mission. Mission is what we are throughout the church in every single department, in every single staff, and single dollar spent is about mission. That means that we don’t have compartmentalized missions departments.   We expect our Preschool departments to  mobilize and educate even our 4 and 5 year olds.  Our student pastor has forgone taking our students to a camp, and instead the students will feed  orphans of Peru.  Every department, person, and dollar are to be on mission.

When someone wants to leave and go for 2 weeks to 2 years, we don’t simply send the people to an agency to do our preparing, sending, supporting, and doing our missions for us.  We go with every member, supporting them in every way possible.

To be continued…

His wisdom, correction and encouragement would not change.  His miracle healings might include AIDS (today is national AIDS awareness day), breast cancer and malaria.  Instead of walking on water, he might helped the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl (that would be a miracle of biblical proportion). Being a contextual follower of Christ is a matter of becoming one with your culture without giving up the heart gripping convictions that shape you.

Tim Keller spoke at the Lausanne Conference in Cape Town, South Africa recently and gave 10 marks of a contextual church that help believers get a grasp of  what contextualization can look like.   The video is worth watching. Copy and paste the link below and think deep.

http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11512

I was intrigued by San Fran’s closer Brian Wilson.  Every time I have seen him close a game out he quickly turns faces center field, with his eyes to the sky, he goes through some quick hand motions and finishes with a clenched fist and pointed finger.   I knew it had to mean something, but what?  So my lovely wife and eye turned to where any good investigator or inquirer turns: Google.  This is what we uncovered.  Here is portion of the article that is in the words of Brian Wilson himself when asked by a reported what he was doing with the gesture…

“… I also give respect to Christ, the audience of one that I play for. I don’t play for anything else. I play to impress Him and only Him and I must honor Him through defeat and also successes because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the strength that He gives me. Talent only goes so far. But faith gets you a little farther. So that’s what it is. It just represents my faith and trust in him, and letting him know and the world know that any believer that walks with Christ, or any walk of life you have, no matter where you are, I’m showing respect to you for your hard work, too. Because it’s not easy living in this world.”

“I just thought it would be a good time. It shows no disrespect toward anybody. It’s all positive praise. It’s not for showboating. It’s not to start an epidemic. It’s just me getting a quick message out to the world and to Christ and that’s it. I just thought, `What more perfect time to display my faith than at the end of a game?’”

[The reported said] I knew that Wilson came to Christianity later in life. His father died of kidney cancer when he was 17, and for a long time, he was disillusioned.

“I had to go through my struggles in life. My alienation towards Christianity was very prominent through my adolescence. One day it hit me. I felt I needed to start correcting my life. This happened when I was 23 years old. I was in Augusta, Ga. (playing for the Giants’ low-A club), and I was just playing cards, going about my business, and every Sunday a group of guys would go with the team chaplain. I didn’t even know what `chaplain’ meant.

“Well, my father passed away when I was 17 and you know, I was praying he wouldn’t die. And he was taken away from me. I didn’t understand. It had nothing to do with your prayers not being answered. It was just his time to go. But me being 17 years old, not a very mature kid, I just took that as Him turning his back on me, so I turned my back on Him. When I put my cards down and went in the dugout to speak to the team chaplain, I soon learned that wasn’t the way it worked. No matter how many times I turn my back on God, He’ll always be in front of me. I could stray away from Him for 90 years but as long as I know Him for one day, He’ll honor me in heaven. So I thought that would be one heck of a life-altering change that I should make.”

I asked him about teammates dropping the X, including Omar Vizquel who does it every time. (Omar doesn’t know what it means. “I just like him because he’s crazy,” Vizquel said.)

“Yeah, we’ve got the first baseman doing it, too. Usually you cross your arms when you’re playing behind the runner, every once in awhile they’ll throw it up for me just to ease my mind. (Rich) Aurilia does it jokingly, but I take it as a reminder of why I’m out here. It’s, `Remember what kind of gift you have, and most of all, don’t let your team down.’”

Brian Wilson is a world champion in my mind and in the rest of Baseball too. The full article and interview can be read online.

Click here to view the embedded video.

GPC is in the midst of a series of messages called Radical.  We bought a copy of David’s book Radical for all our members and are using it as curriculum for our small groups.  Take the next 35 minutes and spend it in front of your monitor with David’s message, drop to your knees and surrender to God’s mission, then get up and go for it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is an article that is worth reading if you are a Beyond Borders thinker like myself.  Eric Swanson, of Leadership Network (and outstanding para-church thinking, equipping and catalyst organization) had this article in their recent Network Advance. It is a great help for seeing the mission effects of when churches become missional.  When churches go on mission with God, the way we look at the world, the mission of God, and our mission in life is effected.  Read and be blessed.

1) Mutuality- The future of missions will be shaped by mutuality between East and West, North and South, sending and receiving nations. Because there are now vibrant believers and thriving churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eurasia, and even the Middle East, we in the West shouldn’t think of ourselves as the saving force in world missions. Churches worldwide are learning to come together.

3) Investing in leaders -Leadership is everything. Wherever good things are happening, a capable and passionate man or woman will be leading the way. Churches that are effective overseas have learned to leverage the passion of local leaders. How do you recognize good leaders who will make great partners? The most obvious sign is they are already engaged in effective ministry without any outside help.

says that even in the toughest of countries they don’t leave Jesus at the immigration booth. Jonathan told me, “When we are asked if we intend to proselytize people through our service we tell them, ‘We’re here to make Jesus known and Jesus gets known through his followers doing good’–as opposed to, ‘We are not here to get followers of Jesus.’ So far, that has worked for us.”

5) Greater financial accountability-Churches that effectively engage in global ministry are thinking differently about who, what and how they support missional engagement. The days of cutting a check and hoping for the best are rapidly disappearing. With all the needs and opportunities in the world, global missions leaders of the future are working to maximize every dollar expended on global outreach. Effective missional churches of the future support mission-critical projects that their global partners deem important. This type of giving can only come from a trusted relationship. Churches are learning never to start initiatives that will require western dollars to continue.

6) Business as mission-An emerging funding model ties business and mission together. This is more than missionaries posing as businesspeople but rather missional entrepreneurs who are starting businesses and creating jobs in the countries in which they serve.

7) Focus-There is a power in focus. On the flipside, the most frustrated pastors I interviewed were those whose churches supported scores of scattered legacy missionaries who were serving all over the map. Much of the time, these missionaries were not home-grown but rather nephews of former staff, or friends of friends, or a missionary tied to a designated gift. The often unstated missions goal was to place representatives from the church on every continent of the globe. Churches today are learning to do better by focusing on fewer places of engagement.

Technology -With every breakthrough in communication technology, there have been innovators who have exploited that technology to advance the gospel. The printing press, radio, TV, and the Internet have allowed the church to increasingly enter a world without boundaries. All around us are glimpses of churches that are discovering the power of today’s newest technology–to impact a country without ever physically visiting that country. Tech-savvy mission leaders are shrinking the world with technology.

i. William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003 Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson. Accessed June 20, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a one family that is demonstrating what crazy love looks like.  Everyone has to reevaluate life regularly and make sure their life is on the trajectory they want it to be on in the end.  Or, even more important, they are on the trejectory  God designed them for.