Sunday Morning

One of the many things we're praying about in this transition to Louisville is church. This morning, we loaded up and visited Highview Baptist Church's East Campus. Their facility is beautiful -- one of Highview's six locations. Pretty impressive. Bible study was good, music was good (even if a little polished for me), message was good (the youth pastor from the original Fegenbush campus preached today).

One thing you ought to check out is Highview's new website. I think they've done a great job providing an entry for visitors and one for members. The visitors site -- the one I checked out -- answers the questions we were asking.

More later about our praying -- do we attend a strong established church or a smaller struggling church? Do we try to start a new church, a simple church, or a network? Oh la la...

Missing folks

My daughter, Rachel, reminded me yesterday was the fourth anniversary of our arrival in France. It seemed especially appropriate to both of us to think about that HUGE change in our lives even as we are in the process of adjusting to life back in the States. Today is the first day of school in the Metro Nashville system, so Rachel starts at her fifth new school. I am amazed at the way God has blessed all three of our kids with adaptability, grace, and patience. Jeffrey and Daniel have never been to an American school. It will be different.

When we first arrived in France four years ago, we immediately began to miss certain things. The most obvious were various conveniences, habits, and brands. We missed Kraft mac and cheese, Lysol, Chevrolet, etc. Those things stood out to us because we were frantically trying to figure out how to live in a place we didn't know. We got used to French brands and habits, though. Then, we really started missing people. After the hectic first days, we started missing family and friends and church. As we started to enjoy BN, Dannon, Perrier, and Smart, the absence of grandparents, cousins, prayer partners, and buddies stood out.

Today, I'm noticing the same thing. It's great to be back with family. We missed them terribly and are enjoying every minute we can with them. We have been surprised at how much we miss certain elements of our French life, but are getting used to American things again.

But I'm missing people. I miss our pastor and his family. I miss Sébastien, Jacqueline, Nicole, Emmanuel, Joelle, and the folks at the marché. I miss the people I worked with.

Just like four years ago, it's not the "stuff" that shows itself to be important. It's the people. That's how God intended it -- made for Him and one another. Relationships.

Today, my kids launch a new round of teachers and friends. So do we. And it will be good.

Taking Home Questions

I've still got internet, so I'll write some more...

Our gathering last night was fantastic. We missed a few of the folks that couldn't be there, but enjoyed meeting some new friends. Our four hours together affirmed my belief that our partage will be what I miss the most this year (though even now I'm dreaming of the feel of a warm baguette in my hand...). We ate, we sang, we prayed, we talked about the gospel, and I even cried a little.

I am also reminded of something I'll take home with me next week: questions.

If our group is not yet a church, what could I have done differently? What could I have said or prayed? I know I could have worked harder, hit the streets more, been more bold in my witness, spent more time with people.

Why didn't I say more to L. or S. or S. or M.? Why wasn't I more patient with C. or F.? What if I had been more forceful with another? If only I had gone to coffee with G. or had lunch with L.

I appreciated the encouragement from our friends - those who believe and those who don't - who said they were thankful for the way God has used us in their lives. I kept thinking about how much more He wanted to use.

I guess I've got two options (aside from using the week we have left to answer some of the questions above). I can let the doubts and regrets darken my future, or I can trust my Father to do His work. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." About that, I have no questions.

What I'll Miss the Most

I was going to wait a couple of days to write this entry, but the impending termination of our internet service dictates otherwise. Tomorrow night is the last meeting of our partage biblique (Bible study) for the year, and our last before our long stateside assignment. This group, this gathering, is what I will miss the most while we are in the U.S.

For 1 1/2 years, this group of 17-22 adults and children have gathered once a month for fellowship in the classic French fashion. Everyone brings one or two or three dishes, puts them in the middle of a table, and we pass them around and eat for three hours. This group is where I really learned the bisou, and where I really learned what it means to love French people. And to be loved by them. I will miss this fellowship of young and old, American and French.

For 1 1/2 years, this group has gathered for worship. One of our men -- a true Frenchman from a Catholic background he can't quite part with -- plays the piano while we sing songs from old French hymnbooks and new translated choruses. Some raise their hands and sing, some just listen. Either way, it's worship, and I love it. I will miss Robert singing and playing the guitar, seeing N. raise her aged hands in praise, and French songs that now mean as much to me as "Amazing Grace" and "Victory in Jesus."

For 1 1/2 years, this group has gathered to read and share from God's Word. Most of the group are non-believers. Some got their first Bible at this study and started reading it as a result of hearing their friends share the power of the Scripture. They found that the Bible was much more than an antique book of stories, but is rather a powerful and applicable source of Truth. We go around the circle every month (again, in classic French fashion) and everyone shares their insights or thoughts on the passage we studied. Sometimes, it's some strange stuff, but most of the time I am touched by the way the Holy Spirit teaches from inspired Scripture. I will miss the way the Bible (especially Acts!) comes alive every month when we gather.

For 1 1/2 years, this group has grown together. J. and G. and E. are all closer to recognizing Christ than they were a year ago. Every month, we see them draw nearer to the cross. L. has all kinds of philosophical arguments, but he also has found the comfort of the Scriptures and the Body in the midst of troubles. I have grown, too. God has humbled me over and over, reminding me that it's probably not the missionary who has the most to say. The Father has taught me what the church really is. I am going to miss seeing the Holy Spirit gather the Father's sheep into His fold.

I have shared in other places how hard it has been to plant a church in France. This group is not yet a church, but it's close. As close as any of us has been to starting a church in a long time. Now, we're headed back for the States for a season, leaving them to continue without us. Continue they will, because the group is not us. We are part of the group, the group is part of us, but it will go on without us. These folks laugh and cry, they are patient with my terrible French mistakes and still care about what I have to say.

I've been studying 1 Thessalonians for a message I'll preach this Sunday. Paul loved that church. In chapter 2, he says, "having been taken away from you for a short while -- in person, not in spirit -- were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to be with you..." (v. 17-18, NASB). He missed that church.

I think I'm getting ready to know how he felt.

When the body hurts

From time to time on this so-called blog I have reflected on the church. I have lived the last four years of my life trying to figure out what the church is, what part I have in it, and how to plant one in a culture that doesn't really want me to do that. I've started several "series" of posts on the church and managed to finish zero. Oh well.

This weekend, I learned something important about the church as "the body." In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says that "if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it (26-27). We are parts of a body, the church. And when one part hurts, all of it hurts. It doesn't matter whether I'm a foot or a finger, when I hurt, all the body hurts.

Friday night, my buddy Jeff Mathews died. Jeff and his wife, Sylvia, and their little boy, Levi, are part of Smyrna Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, where I was a deacon, a youth worker, a music minister, and then pastor. Jeff and I were ordained together as deacons, sang in the choir together, and even played a little music as part of the much-celebrated "Four Amigos" of Annual Church Picnic fame. He was only a couple of years older than me, but was full of joy and wisdom and kindness and all the things you want as a member of the body. When this young buck pastor stepped over his bounds, Jeff had the amazing gift of bringing together older deacons and younger members. His smile and easy manner could bring peace to a tense situation. Everybody loved Jeff Mathews.

Then, four years ago, we left Smyrna Baptist Church of Chapel Hill, Tennessee, to come to France. Jeff and I have probably talked a couple of times since then for maybe half an hour total. But when we got the news about him Saturday morning, our hearts broke. Even after four years away, we hurt like we were there, and because we weren't there. Right now, as I'm writing this, they're having Jeff's funeral near Smyrna Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, then he'll be buried in the cemetery right out the front driveway, down the road to the right, and down about a quarter mile from Smyrna Baptist Church of Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Many of my friends are gathered together, probably pretty crowded in the chapel, where they're singing and remembering.

And I'm thousands of miles away. When one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

Here in Paris, France, I got out my Ivan Parker southern gospel CD and listened to "Gone" and "Beulah Land" and "Because He Lives." I read 1 Corinthians 12 and Psalm 23 and some other passages that comfort me. And I remembered, too.

Because the body is the body, and we are its members. That's the church.

The Praise on our Lips

My Jesus, My Savior,

Lord, there is none like You...

It seems like years ago (in fact, it has been almost ten). We were at Ridgecrest Conference Center, worshiping alongside others who had taken part in a week of conferences and studies during the Jericho missions week. The invitation had begun...

All of my days, I want to praise,
the wonders of Your mighty love...

I will never forget how it felt to stand with Randy Sprinkle, then director of prayer ministries for our organization, who had just prayed with and for us. All around us were people who had given their lives to spread the gospel to the nations. Their hands and their eyes and their voices were raised toward the Father. I thought I would never again hear anything so beautiful.

My comfort, my shelter,
Tower of refuge and strength...

A few years later, I was standing with our church's choir during the closing worship service of our missions emphasis week. We had just sung the same song, this time with lyrics in the languages where our church had worked. I thought I would never again hear anything so beautiful.

Let every breath, all that I am,
Never cease to worship You.

This morning, we were at a church in Paris, worshiping the Father. We sang. I'm not sure I'll ever hear anything more beautiful...

O Jésus, mon Sauveur,
Seigneur, nul n'est comme toi.
Jour après jour, je louerai,
car ton amour est merveilleux...


Through him then let us continually offer up
a sacrifice of praise to God,
that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Hebrews 13:15

Contextualized Strategy

In his latest post over at Crushed Leviathan, Pêcheur comments on the "visible church." Though it's not the overall intent of his writing, he raises an interesting issue concerning our "strategy" for planting churches in Western Europe. Pêcheur writes,

In the Western world (Europe and America), to ask some to stop going to church (building) on Sunday is asking too much from them and they can turn you off. What you have is not "church" to them, no matter how innovative you believe yourself to be. On the other hand, there are some who are wanting some freedom from, what they perceive as restrictions (or even negative experiences) that come from a church structure (i.e. building, clergy, etc), that they will embrace a non-traditional understanding of "church."

I agree completely with his thoughts that we cannot forsake the "traditional church" in the name of innovation or creativity. Neither can we condemn the "contemporary" (or whatever you might call that which is not "traditional") for its leaders' efforts to engage culture. It takes both. Determining what "type" of church to plant is part of the hard work of missions, whether in the US or overseas.

Ten years ago, our organization adopted a worldwide strategy called "New Directions." You can read about it in Jerry Rankin's book, To the Ends of the Earth, so I won't go into great detail about it here. Part of that strategy is the concept of "church planting movements." We as workers in our agency, are to be about facilitating CPMs. I'm fine with that. I think it's a great general strategy for our organization. But it's just that: a general, worldwide strategy. It is our guide, our goal, and it provides some parameters for our work.

Here's the issue: its application in the context of Western Europe. The number one task of what we do is contextualization. We work hard to understand the culture where we live and to contextualize our communication of the gospel. We try every day to shed our own cultural baggage and biases in order to be a light to the world. New Directions, with its emphasis on church planting movements, is great. But it has been poorly applied in our context. We have neglected the first rule of missions and applied techniques and practices from another culture to another without considering how it fits.

In the far east, where CPMs were first identified, they were based on house churches. Men and women much smarter than me analyzed and determined some of the characteristics of these movements, and those characteristics were embodied perfectly in the house church movement. Someone decided that we ought to plant house churches in France and Western Europe just like they plant them in China. We were told to read books about house churches (even some books by Europeans and Westerners), we were taught about house churches in our orientation, and we practiced house church meetings. We were told not to go to an established church because it would confuse those who were watching.

The problem (for me, at least) is not house church. I agree with many of the fundamental principles and consider them biblical (simplicity, community, lay leadership, relationship, etc.). The problem is applying the form in this context. Small groups meeting in homes work here because people are committed to relationships and are perfectly willing to have people into their homes. As Pêcheur points out, however, it is a tremendous cultural hurdle when you call your house a church. The small home groups work alongside the larger corporate worship. They provide the community and the relationship. So, what do we do? We apply the principles in the culture and that's contextualization. That's what we ought to be doing, but infatuation with the latest fads of church planting or evangelism or whatever have distracted us. I'll be the first to admit that the difficulty of living and working here, the lack of visible fruit, can easily cause one to grasp anything that might "work," but we often pay by making our task even more difficult.

When I was in Tennessee, I saw churches split because preachers applied the model of Saddleback or Willow Creek indiscriminately and uncritically to their location. They did not take just the principles of purpose-driven, they tried to be a little Rick and do California music and wear Hawaiian shirts (that's an exaggeration to make the point). In Western Europe, we can start reproducing "traditional churches" that reach people, and we can start reproducing "simple" or "organic" or "contemporary" churches that reach people. Whatever we do, we've got to contextualize strategy and do something.

To my knowledge, there has not been a church started in France by our organization since New Directions (though I'd be ecstatic to be proved wrong on that). Other organizations have started churches, in some cases many churches. Could it be that we have cared more about implementing strategy than about fulfilling our commission?

Together

A long time ago, I promised some of my thoughts on the church. I mentioned that during our time in France, God had stripped away many of the things I saw as important. I still want to keep that promise, but it's a big task that I want to do right.

Until then, here's the last paragraph of a paper I just submitted for a seminar at Southern (edited a little for this blog). I had to write a description of the characteristics of the early church as recorded in Acts. Maybe this paragraph will give you something of an idea of what God has taught me. Just in case, the key word is together...

"The twenty-first century church has much to learn from the first-century church, and the book of Acts is rich with characteristics of the first believers who carried out the Great Commission. The earliest churches were made up of baptized believers from every walk of life who worshiped and prayed together, broke bread together, shared of all things together, learned together from the teaching and preaching of the apostles, and sent out missionaries together from among their own, all in the power of the Holy Spirit. Their life as a community identified by their devotion to Christ and to one another became the mark that set them apart from the world around them."