• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

the Sword

Posted on September 24, 2012 by wtdavid

Today’s post comes from Chris in France about chapter 16: The Sword

When it comes to robbing little old ladies, both my wife and I found we gave the “wrong” answer to Keller’s question.  That’s not to say we agree with robbing little old ladies.  Rather, the reason is honour.  Australian culture is very clear on the subject.  You don’t do it because it is dishonourable.  So, I would feel shame if I did it.  In my opinion, the argument about identification with the victim and her dependents is secondary not alternative.  I also feel that it is just as based on self-regard as the honour position.  I think that this position really translates to: I would feel bad because I know how bad she would feel.  I suspect this is a cross cultural misunderstanding related to the relative power of appeals to emotion.  Emotional arguments in my culture seem to be much less powerful than in north American culture.

Keller has prompted me to ask: “Is my culture self-regarding rather than other regarding?”  My culture esteems generosity and voluntary service and requires self-effacing modesty – I mean it seriously requires this.  Anyone who has an inflated (or even high) opinion of themselves is cut down mercilessly.  We are aggressively egalitarian and obvious self-regard is socially punishable.  But, self-sacrifice, particularly in conflict is perhaps our most revered virtue.  Unlike other countries which commemorate great victories, our national day of remembrance commemorates a military defeat.  Every year, we celebrate sacrifice but also contemplate the cost and frequent futility of conflict.  Is it self-regarding to take up arms, and sacrifice your life, particularly when the no victory was gained for your country or even any victory at all?  I think it is the ultimate in self-disregard, but it is definitely motivated by honour.

First Question: Do you agree that self-sacrifice is self-disregard, even if it is based on an honour code?

Keller then goes on to talk about two administrations – the world system and the Kingdom of God.  We are all familiar with the world system: “might is right” and “he who has the gold makes the rules”.  In my mind the world system is godless evolution.  The world believes in survival of the fittest and the fittest have very big swords.  The swords may be made of steel or writs or shares but you would do well to be cautious around the people who strut about wearing them.

The Kingdom of God however speaks about survival of the meek.  It is not based on might or gold but on love.  But this is also love with justice.  The miracle of the cross is that Love used justice and self-sacrifice to reverse the fate of sinners.  We may be weak but our God is mighty.  God and me, is an overwhelming force in any struggle.  When God wields the sword, empires fall.

In Romans 13 we see that the world administration has been given the right to use the sword to punish evil.  How much more will God, in the fullness of time, deal justice to those who said there is no Creator, we evolved – and acted accordingly.  The world system despises the meek, the Kingdom of God promises them the earth.

Second question: Evolution defines survival as fitness and non-survival as weakness.  Were all those martyrs weak?

 

Next installment of the King’s Cross blog post will be October , looking at Ch 17 “the End”

 

Filed under: King's Cross, Reflection | Leave a comment »

World Team Global Alliance (WTGA)

Posted on September 18, 2012 by wtdavid

The first meeting of the new World Team Global Alliance will take place this week in Hong Kong. Several WT leaders and the WT-International board have been working diligently in preparation for this change. What will WT look like when WT-Hong Kong, WT-Philippines, and others eventually join as sending countries? How will we navigate the cultural, worldview and possibly even linguistic differences? Difficult questions, but necessary to answer if we are to truly become a global ministry with global perspective committed to a central focus and vision.

Recently the Toronto Star published an article about a petition that started in Bellingham, Washington, to have the local Costco store give specific shopping hours “for American citizens only”. There was much complaining about the number of Canadians crossing the border to shop at the local Costco, not leaving any parking spaces, or bargains for that matter, for Americans. Many international organizations and agencies are grappling with effects of a growing globalization. Becoming a “global” agency is not without some hiccups and bumps in the road.

As we move forward in developing as a global agency, country-of-origin issues will need to take a secondary role as we covenant together to move as one towards fulfilling our calling. Our unique cultural makeup will need to be exploited in a positive way that enables greater flexibility in recognizing and utilizing gifts and abilities, resources and experiences, which further our vision of multiplying communities of disciples among least evangelized people groups.  Learning from others will have a high value. We may do things differently than we did in the past and this is okay, even necessary.

Please be in prayer for several meetings in Hong Kong, September 18-26; Sending Country Directors meet Sept.19-20, WTGA launches Sept. 22-23,  Area Directors & Sending Country Directors meet Sept. 21-25.  Please pray specifically for three things:

 

1.     Pray for unity. Pray that each participant, regardless of country of origin or nationality, would see others as brothers and sisters in Christ, – family. 

2.     Pray for vision to see the road ahead. The World Team Global Alliance is a radically new way of doing missions and in leading. Pray for boldness to move forward and humbleness to seek God’s face at all times. 

3.     Pray for the “hiccups”. Remember, our enemy does not want unity, peace and mutual respect. Pray for God’s protection from our adversary and from our own selfishness.

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Collaboration, Prayer | 3 Comments »

The Cup

Posted on September 17, 2012 by wtdavid

Today’s post comes from Mark in Hong Kong about chapter 15: The Cup

Well, here we go right into the stretch run of Keller’s book, the heart of Mark, and most importantly into the center of a crucial experience in the life of Jesus. This is the place in Mark’s Gospel where Jesus internalizes the full blow of what he will encounter in sacrificing his life for ours. “Something happened in the garden – Jesus saw, felt, sensed something – and it shocked the unshockable Son of God…now he is beginning to taste what he will experience on the cross.”

I am grateful for Keller’s choice of words. The words “saw,” “felt,” “sensed,” and most poignantly “taste” are instructive for us. These words illuminate the reality of who God is. As reflected in his Son Jesus, in the face of sin God is not stoic, staid, and steely.  God looks on the sin of his people and he is affected. He is moved to act, to intervene, and to rescue and that must mean that his Son whom he loves will suffer. And so in the intimacy of this prayer, the Father and the Son feel the import of what they are – mutually and together – to do for us. And it is not so much in what is said, but in what Jesus feels that tells us the cup will indeed not pass from him.

Keller uses the right word: taste. The cup, of course, always produces a taste. On many occasions Jesus has drank and reveled in the sweet taste of what his cup has produced. But not from this point forward. What he swallows is more than just a bad taste. It is the cup of death. And here in the garden, alone and fallen to the ground, he feels it.

Suffering has a feel. It’s palpable. For Jesus it produces feelings of being “deeply distressed and troubled…‘my soul is overwhelmed.’” And in his prayer he doesn’t repress or deny his emotion. Instead he channels it to God and allows his Father to transform his grief into gravely resolve. Jesus will go to the cross and die. But he will not do so in a cold and calculated tenor. Instead, he will invite his followers into his emotional landscape to show us that to be emotive is to be human and to lift up our feelings to the living God is to be like Christ.

Think about a season in your life when you have suffered. What did it feel like?

What do you do with the emotions of pain, grief, heartache, or sadness?

How do your prayers for yourself and for others who are suffering change because of what you have read in Mark 14.32-36?

 

Next installment of the King’s Cross blog post will be September 24th, looking at Ch 16 “the Sword”

 

Filed under: King's Cross, Reflection | 5 Comments »

“Independent Subcontractors”

Posted on September 11, 2012 by wtdavid

So have we really drifted into becoming more like “independent contractors” than a “bonded fellowship”?   Why would this be case?  How did this come about?

One reason would be that certain concerns take precedence over others.  For the most part, those concerns are right in front of us: just to live and to work.  Those concerns, though certainly legitimate, can push us away from others who are not right here with us.  A common definition of an independent subcontractor is “a person or business which has a contract to provide some portion of the work or services on a project agreed to by a contractor.”  A subcontractor sets his/her own hours and work schedule.  A subcontractor has his/her own small team and doesn’t necessarily work in tandem with other workers outside of his/her local context.  Their chief concern is to make sure they get paid for the work they do.

Another reason would be that we only apply the value at a local level.  WT has a strong aspirational value for community, though its application can be limited.  We have done a good job building local communities, but struggle to have any sense of connection to the larger WT community

A final reason would be the lack of trust that quickly sets in between people.  I have heard one writer say that it takes ten positive comments to offset one critical one.  Could it be that we too quickly find ourselves thinking less of a member within the WT community because of one misplaced comment?  The longer that comment is not dealt with, the harder it is to maintain a bonded fellowship.

The WT community is a unique group of cross cultural workers, passionate about one thing: the multiplication of disciples and communities of believers around the globe.  Many communities of workers work towards this end.  Maybe I’m not seeing things correctly, but it seems like we act more like a group of “independent subcontractors” sometimes than a community pulling together with and for one another.

 

Filed under: Community, Partnership | 4 Comments »

the Feast

Posted on September 10, 2012 by wtdavid

Today’s post comes from Jan in France about chapter 14: The Feast

Have you ever had a defining meal? This is one that commemorated or celebrated a defining moment in your life or that of someone special to you.  What comes to mind?  Most likely the reason, the person or people commemorated, the venue, the food.  You might even remember what you wore.  And sometimes it will be a quirky thing that occurred which will stand out, because it was so unlikely.  We could probably all share some great stories… ʽand then the Prime Minister turned up’… ʽand then the waiter gobbled the after dinner mints’ (both true).

Defining meals often have special food and drink.  The central feature of the original Passover meal for the Israelites was a whole unblemished male lamb which was to be eaten in haste.  By killing a lamb and using its blood to mark the doors as a sign of their faith and then taking the lamb into themselves during the meal, the plague of death passed over them.  Keller says that in every home that night there was either a dead child or a dead lamb, and the Israelites needed to accept the shelter of the substitute – this blood of the lamb.  Therefore, no mention was made of wine.

Coming forward to the time of Jesus, the final meal our Lord ate before he died was the Passover meal.  The Passover took a distinct form and included four cups of wine representing the four promises made by God in Exodus 6:6-7: rescue, freedom from slavery, redemption and a renewed relationship with God.  Jesus departed from the usual script, telling his disciples that the bread was His body.  “Take it,” He said, because it needed to be received actively and incorporated into themselves.  He planned to rescue them from the way of the world, free them from slavery to sin, redeem them fully, thus paving the way for a renewed relationship with God.

The cup of wine, from which they all drank, was the Lamb’s blood of the covenant – a new covenant of Jesus’ unconditional commitment to us, pointing us to the kingdom of God.  Keller says Jesus often compared God’s kingdom to sitting at a big feast and that this Passover meal makes the ultimate feast possible.

Isaiah 25:6 describes an endtime feast being prepared by the Lord of hosts:  a lavish banquet with refined aged wine and choice pieces with marrow.  This is when He swallows up death for all time (v.8).

However, in the gospel accounts of the Last Supper, there is no mention of eating meat.  Instead, the Lamb of God was at the table, and Keller says Jesus was the main course.

My question is:  What does “Jesus, the main course” mean for you?

 

Next installment of the King’s Cross blog post will be September 17th, looking at Ch 15 “the Cup”

 

Filed under: Cross of Christ, King's Cross, Reflection | Leave a comment »

One little phrase

Posted on September 5, 2012 by wtdavid

Sometimes when you’re reading an article, one little phrase seems to jump off the page at you. Such was the case when I read this little phrase recently in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (Vol. 28, No. 3):  “I realized how few “traditional missionaries” are sent there by mission “agencies” (a horrible word, representing the disastrous shift from a closely bonded fellowship of fund-sharing teams to groups of independently-funded individuals for whom “agencies” are merely temporary flags of convenience.””  I felt the ‘sting’ of that comment and that criticism.

However, every criticism has elements of truth in it; otherwise it wouldn’t hurt so much.  That’s when I began to wonder how we as workers may have drifted from that ‘closely bonded fellowship’ to ‘independent subcontractors’, if you will.  In other words, have we become less of a ‘network of like-minded individuals’ and more of ‘convenient groups’ of workers who enjoy being with each other from time to time?

Kind of sobering to think that we may drifted more than we realize.  Let’s talk more in the coming days about why this might be the case, how it may have come about, and what we might do to restore an attitude of ‘bonded fellowship’.

 

Filed under: Collaboration, Community | 8 Comments »

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