DashHouse.com

I've already had a great comment suggesting that the question of forgiveness is largely determined by how we define forgiveness. I think that's exactly right. Before we can know whether we are to forgive conditionally or unconditionally, it's important to know what forgiveness is.

The online Oxford dictionary defines forgiveness this way:

forgive

verb (past forgave; past part. forgiven) 1 stop feeling angry or resentful towards (someone) for an offence or mistake. 2 excuse (an offence, flaw, or mistake).

Some things that forgiveness is:

• Interpersonal - As Lewis Smedes said, there are many things that can hurt us - nature, circumstances, unjust systems - but we can only forgive people.
• About our response - The definition above deals with our response to an offense, not to the offense itself. In other words, the question is not an objective evaluation of the offense. It is about how we choose to respond to that offense.

According to this definition, forgiveness isn't some things:

• It's not understanding - We may be called to forgive some things we will never understand. We may also understand what has prompted some behavior, but not be ready to forgive. Forgiveness and understanding are two different things.
• It's not downplaying the offense - Forgiveness does not mean that we minimize what has happened or downplay it. It doesn't mean avoiding the issue. You can forgive someone and still allow the authorities to deal with the offense, for instance, in a legal matter.
• It's not forgetting - We will never forget some of the things we have to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean pushing something out of our minds; it means that we deal with our response in a certain way as we remember.
• It's not the same as restoration or reconciliation - Forgiveness may lead to restoration. You can forgive someone for stealing money from you, for instance, but you may not choose to keep them as your accountant anymore. It also is not the same as reconciliation. Two friends may forgive each other, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will continue as best friends.

My main beef with this definition is that it is feelings based: to "stop feeling angry or resentful..." Forgiveness may lead to a change of feelings, but it doesn't begin there.

Maybe Wikipedia's definition is better:

Forgiveness is the mental, and/or spiritual process of ceasing to feel resentment, indignation or anger against another person for a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution.

We'll look at some Scripture in upcoming posts on the topic.

What do you think? How would you define forgiveness?

The topic of forgiveness keeps coming up. Is forgiveness conditional? In other words, should we wait for someone to confess before we forgive them? Or should we forgiven another person even if they don't repent?

In the next few days I'll list some arguments on both sides, suggest a definition of forgiveness, and then try to argue for the position I think makes the most sense. Feedback welcome.

From Lark News, a satirical site:

U.S. kids jealous of sponsored children

ANNAPOLIS — Hanging on the fridge in the Dillinger home are photographs of three sponsored children from Honduras, while photos of the "real" Dillinger children are consigned to the guest bedroom.

"That's how unfair it's gotten," says Herbert Dillinger, 15. "Everything's, 'Oh, look! We got another letter from Juana!'"

Herbert is among a growing number of American children feeling emotionally neglected as parents dote on sponsored children...

The Dillinger kids broke into open revolt when their parents PhotoShopped the sponsored children into the family Christmas card portrait. On Christmas morning, their mother set out framed photos of all seven sponsored children so it would be "like having the whole family here."

Herb boycotted the morning and threatened to "move into a shack in the back yard" to see if that re-captured his parents' attention. His sister Emily threatened to seek wealthy sponsor parents to help her buy an iPod and flip phone. She even created a profile sheet of herself, with a photograph.

Their parents dismissed the children's outbursts, then talked of inviting the sponsored children to the next family reunion.

"I hope the Hondurans make it," says Herb. "Then our relatives can see how crazy things have gotten around here."

Thanks to Brian for the link.

Pictures are now posted - more at Flickr

Fresh off the plane from Honduras, Charlene and I took advantage of Winterlicious and ate at Canoe yesterday. Canoe is one of Toronto's top restaurants and not a place that we normally belong. The price was affordable with Winterlicious but the contrast from last week felt very strange.

I just got a phone call that I need to be at the Granite Club for a noon meeting. The Granite Club is also a place I'm not accustomed to visiting.

This culture shock has to end now or I'm getting back on a plane.

D.A. Carson is in town this week for the Toronto Spiritual Life Convention. He's also speaking at other events. Thanks, by the way, to Ken Davis for chairing the Convention and bringing Carson to town.

On Sunday night Carson spoke tangentially about leadership from Matthew 20:25-28, a passage that's often quoted on the subject. In this passage Jesus says:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I've often heard these verses used to argue against all hierarchy in Christian leadership. It's tempting to accept this interpretation. If we believe this it has all kinds of implications. Churches must be flat. Leadership is arrogance. I've heard these arguments made.

Carson argues that Jesus is not arguing against leadership, nor is he saying that Christian leadership means being told what to do by everyone.

What Jesus is tackling here, Carson says, what generally happens to leaders. In this fallen, broken world, people love power for selfish motives. After some time, they give the impression that they are serving only themselves. Christian leadership cannot be like this. Jesus exercised his authority in service all the way to the cross. It was a revolutionary idea of kingship. "All Christian leadership," Carson said, "must follow down this road."

I think Carson is right. This passage isn't about abolishing leadership or hierarchy. Instead, Jesus is speaking of a kind of leadership that is not motivated by self-interest, that exercises itself in service, even to the point of death.

I've been thinking: how many structures have been completely dismantled by a wrong interpretation of this passage? But more importantly - what an amazingly high bar and example to set for leadership.

(Still waiting for a good Christian theology of leadership - it may be out there, but I still haven't found one that's as comprehensive as I'd like.)

My friend LT reviews Pagan Christianity:

I thought the book was beneficial in that it provided some history and context for much of what happens in church these days. It raises the issue of the relevance of the New Testament on ecclesiology. It also puts some fire underneath church leadership which should feel the urgency of our present situation far more than they seem to...

I give the authors strong marks on the research on the history of church practices but lower marks on their summary conclusions and their arguments against specific church practices. I think the book would have been stronger if they spent more time proving their assertions about the negative impact of things such as clergy, buildings, and sermons. In some places The authors make allusions to “organic” Christianity as the solution without even attempting to make that case which legitimately annoys some...

I found that many of the footnotes I looked up were to Viola’s other books. In building their case for certain points they didn’t always deal with all the evidence that isn’t in harmony with their point.

more

On a related note, a review should be appearing in the next few months by a very capable church historian. I'll let you know when it's printed.

I visited three churches in Honduras last week.

The first church had a building with a second floor for kids that had been brought in off the street. We went into a room and saw a very young child sleeping in a crib. The pastor was out for a walk one day and saw a box moving in the rain. He went over and found a baby in the box. The church is now raising this child, along with other kids in the transition center and in the orphanage about an hour away.

The second church had a beautiful building relatively speaking. They had just bought a building across the road to accommodate even more children in the project. The church has 297 children attending the project and is going to expand to have another 30. The project director has had his life threatened by thugs in the community. As we walked through the community he stopped to talk to every person he met. He even peeked in a few windows to smile and to say hi.

The third church's building was literally a shack, but it was a much more beautiful shack than existed there a year ago. That church has plans to continue to expand its building to provide better facilities for the children who attend the program. It was started when the pastor began preaching under a tree in that area. This area is the most run down to look at it, but it seemed safer, and the people much friendlier.

This is one of the beauties of Compassion: it works through churches within a community. Their website says:

Every child development project is connected to a local church staffed by members of that community. Compassion's child ministry strengthens local churches through partnerships that provide resources to reach out to children and families. The church is the God-given institution meant to be salt and light in a hurting world. Enabling the church to minister holistically to children and their families is at the heart of Compassion's strategy.

After seeing hundreds of kids in churches that have almost nothing, I can't help but think, "What is my church doing?" Not picking on my own church in particular, but it did strike me that we have some pretty severe needs within our local community. It is humbling to see churches do so much with so little, when we have so much and do relatively little in comparison. It certainly raised the bar for me.

Besides becoming a big fan of Compassion, I've also been challenged to practice the power of investing in a child's life even here in Canada. I've also been thinking a lot about how a church in Canada can move toward serving the local community a fraction as much as what I saw last week.

A feature I wrote for the Ontario edition of Christian Week last December:

"I heard all the warnings from my friends," says Bruxy Cavey, teaching pastor at The Meeting House, a large church in Oakville. "I was told it's a time waster." But Cavey signed up for Facebook anyway, in part to promote his book The End of Religion. Now, Cavey has over 1,500 Facebook friends. One of his Facebook groups has become too successful. "I have a plan," he writes, "which involves shrinking this group to less than 1,000 people," which will remove restrictions placed on larger groups.

This is Facebook, one of many social network utilities. Others include MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, and even MyChurch. They are online communities for people who share interests or activities, allowing them to interact with friends. They are becoming popular, and not only with younger people. They are also being used within churches and Christian ministries.

"It's an extra option," Cavey explains. "It is another way to connect." Through Facebook, people can ask questions, express opinions, share media, and invite others to events. "There are people who are struggling, who may lack community," says Cavey. "It may serve a purpose for them."

Bound copies of my thesis finally arrived. Looks official. It's always nice to see the finished product.

If anyone needs a doorstop, let me know!

Last Saturday night we sat by the pool in a nice hotel in an impoverished country. Compassion Canada had paid our costs to be there. We had just been on a plane full of other Christians visiting Honduras. I tried to capture some of the reservations and concerns we felt as we wrestled with being there and how we got there:

Is this just Christian tourism? Is this a sales pitch, like a glorified timeshare presentation? Are we coming here with all of the answers? We got knowing nods from some who've been here before. They've heard the objections; they felt the same the first time they came. They didn't say much, except to wait and observe.

I remember how one member of the group put it: are we being set up to drink the "Compassion Kool-Aid"?

It turns out that we Canadians are a cynical bunch, but these are all valid questions. It's impossible to go on a trip like this without wrestling with all the contradictions and realizing that a lot of things just shouldn't be the way that they are.

It will be something that we continue to wrestled through. I was thinking of this as I read some of Bene's questions about our trip this morning (in the comments of this post). I don't know if I have all of the answers but I will give it a try.

Brrrrrrrr it's cold!

Time to go home. As I write this it's 18 degrees Celsius here and -10 degrees Celsius in Toronto. Time to get out the long sleeve shirt again.

Some random reflections from this past week:

• Despite the extreme poverty, we witnessed a lot of joy here. We saw huge smiles on kids despite their living conditions. In the middle of suffering I witnessed a joy and strength I wasn't expecting.
• Compassion will only ever reach about 2% of the massive need within this relatively small country. They're doing great work, but the need is huge. Last night one of the staff said that he goes to bed a lot of nights wishing he could do more.
• Years ago I read the book Bias to the Poor. The thesis of this book is that God is on the side of the poor and against them that oppress them. I never heard that before, but I believe it. This is about the only thing that gives me any hope about the 98% who aren't receiving the help they need.
• Solutions are complex. I witnessed the North American obsession with fixing things this week. The reality is that we can do some things, but we cannot fix what's wrong. That shouldn't stop us from advocacy and compassion, but it should keep us from glib answers.
• We were boggled by the extremes we saw this week. Decrepit shacks about to fall down one day; well-built stables for eighty-thousand dollar horses the next. Watching kids eat simple meals of rice and beans; stopping at a mall or eating at a restaurant later in the day. The most shocking example for me was as I was looking at pictures on my camera, sitting in a project, and came across a picture of our hotel room. It seemed very wrong.
• There are way too many American chain restaurants here. Tony Romas, Quiznos, TGI Friday, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and more.
• I wouldn't wish our North American lifestyle on the people we met. David Fitch touches on this in The Great Giveaway. Offering the poor a middle-class consumptive lifestyle is far from the solution to anything.
• I expected to have some criticisms of Compassion after I spent a week here. When you spend a week observing a ministry up close, you begin to see the real deal despite the ministry's efforts to present their best face. Compassion was very open and didn't try to give a sales job. We could talk to anybody and ask any question with Compassion staff gone, and we did. We met most of the staff in the national office, and it is the most capable group of people I have seen working anywhere. Every time we raised an issue, they had already thought through it and could tell you why they do things the way that they do. This is normal with the top leader, but every staff person could do this. I don't want to pretend that they are perfect, but I walk away with absolutely no reservations about Compassion's ministry. It's unbelievable. In fact, they've raised the bar for me.
• I think I now understand some of the differences between Compassion and World Vision. Both are amazing ministries. Compassion's focus is on child development; World Vision's is on community development. Both are needed; both have strengths; both have limitations. The one thing I really like about Compassion is that it is holistic and includes a strong spiritual emphasis. With Compassion you know that every child learns of Jesus' love for them.
• I walk away having to process a lot of things in my life. One middle-class family radically changed their lifestyle so that they could sponsor 30 children. They're not well-off; they've just decided it's what they have to do. The wife quit her job and spends time writing to each of the kids. We still have to process a lot, but it's hard to walk away from here without thinking that something has to change about the way that we spend our money.
• By the way, if you ever sponsor a child, choose one from a country that you think you might visit one day. If you have a sponsored child, please write. It means more to them than I could have imagined.

We're going home having to process a lot. The scary thing is that normal life resumes tomorrow and a lot of this will get quickly lost if we let it. We have a lot of thinking and praying to do.

I wish I could bring a ton of people down here. There's a lot of stuff you really have to see firsthand. If you ever get a chance to come, please grab it.

If you are sponsoring a child or thinking of it (you can sign up online at Compassion), you should know that it's a very good investment in the life of a child. The $35 a month is only a start. I've seen the finances, and the kids get over $40 of ministry every month for every $35 we donate in sponsorship, and every penny is spent wisely. And that's just the money. It really does make a difference.

Got to go to pack. We'll keep thinking.

I was thinking about what's surprised me on this trip. A lot hasn't surprised me: seeing poverty; witnessing the joy among those who are very poor; seeing God very present among people who have very little. All of this is humbling and overwhelming, but not really surprising. I expected that.

What's surprised me most is the role that sponsors pay with these children. Initially I thought that the main role they played is money: providing $35 a month that allows a child to be part of a project. Turns out that's not it at all. The money is important, but from the perspective of the kids it is far from the most important thing about having a sponsor. It's knowing that somebody far away cares about them, writes to them, prays for them, and encourages them. They take this really seriously.

A couple of nights ago, the graduates of the sponsorship program spoke about their relationships with their sponsors. Almost all of them wished their sponsor had written more. It was tough when other kids got letters and they didn't. Ouch. But when the sponsors wrote or sent stickers, it was a huge deal.

One young man spoke of the barriers he faced in finishing high school, and how the encouragement from his sponsor played a huge role. They also talked about really hoping that their sponsor would come to visit them some day.

The boy we sponsor, Saúl, was dropped by his sponsor a few months ago. That happens sometimes. But it's clear that it's really hard for a child over here when that happens. They wonder if they did something wrong. The kids here know if they have a sponsor or not, and they really want a relationship with their sponsor if they do.

All of this makes sense, but I think I've been surprised by how strongly the kids here feel about it, and how they have latched on to some of the sponsors who are here on this trip. The money is important, but just like all of us when we were kids, having an adult who really takes an interest in us and encourages us - that is what matters. And all of us can do this with one child.

We woke up this morning and didn't really feel like going to another project. We've taken in so much that it's very hard to absorb it all. So much of what you see breaks your heart. Then we also have to wrestle with how all of this changes our lives.

But, on the other hand, we knew that another part of us wanted to go to the project, even if it is overwhelming.

Today's project was in an area that's much friendlier in some ways, but the buildings there are in rougher condition. The pastor started a church there by preaching under a tree. They've bought some land and have begun to develop the site. The shack that was there a year ago has now developed into a much bigger building, and you can see the start of further building. It's not at all polished, but it's more than adequate.

We helped serve the kids meals. They were attracted to another member of our group who has red hair. When we started moving toward homes for some visits, an entourage followed her.

The two homes we visited today are children who are sponsored by members of our group. It was good to see where they live after spending the day with them yesterday. In the first home, the mother spends the day making tortilla shells, cooking them over a wood fire. A member of the family takes the bus into town and tries to sell them on the street.

The second home was immaculate. The home is run by an 18-year-old girl, who cares for her 11-year-old brother. The men in the family are generally in trouble with the law or AWOL. Six out of ten of the Compassion children in Honduras are from homes in which the father is not present. The mother of this particular family lives a four hour drive away working, sending money back when she can. This 18-year-old big sister does an amazing job with her brother, and so far it looks like he will not follow the path taken by the other male members of the family. Please pray for him, and his sister.

We are completely overwhelmed. Over lunch we asked many more questions about how Compassion operates. I was prepared to be critical of some aspects of their operation before I came, but I have been completely impressed by how well they implement their projects. Their books are open; the training is thorough; the projects are impressive in all the right ways - not the buildings, but the staff and they way the kids are cared for.

Because of a traffic accident, we had to drive through a part of town that's not really safe for tourists. Got to see part of Tegus that we wouldn't ordinarily get to see. Up until now we've said that our driver handles his bus like a bike. Not true. I don't think I could handle my bike as well as he handles that bus.

We got back to the hotel to learn that our daughter fainted on the subway on her way to school today. She even made the news. Not what you want to hear when you're thousands of miles away. She's fine, but it's a extra we weren't planning on. Let's hope the rest of the week settles down for her.

Tonight: some debriefing. Tomorrow: a trip to the country office. This trip is coming to an end. I think it will change us in some pretty significant ways.

A picture of our sponsored child, Saúl, from yesterday. (picture taken by Tim Bailey)

We had a bit of a lighter day today, although maybe one of the more emotional ones.

It was "Fun Day." We got to meet our sponsored child. We were a little nervous, and he was a little late. When he arrived he was understandably shy. He relaxed as the day went on and we had fun. He is very well behaved and incredibly thoughtful towards his mother. It was hard to say goodbye at the end, but we have tons of good pictures and we'll be writing him lots.

Tonight we had dinner with graduates of the sponsorship program who are now in the Leadership Development Program. It was really cool to see and hear people who had been sponsored for years and who are now moving on to become leaders within the country.

Tomorrow we are back to another project, and more home visits.

"Sibbes never wastes the student's time," wrote 19th century preacher C.H. Spurgeon, "he scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands." The Bruised Reed, written by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) in 1630, lives up to Spurgeon's words. I can tell a lot about a book by how many pages I've dog-eared. In this 128-page book, I found it hard to go more than a few pages without marking a page for future reference.

more

I tend to be a little cautious when it comes to ministries like Compassion. I don't doubt their motives, but I've sometimes had questions about effectiveness. Many organizations have lofty goals, but reality is never simple, especially in dealing with huge issues like poverty.

The brochure we got says that they're Christ-centered, child-focused, and church-based. From what I've seen and heard this week, every one of those actually turns out to be true.

Christ-centered - Some other Christian ministries are very good, but they can't always find Christian workers on the ground. The help they provide is still good, but there's an element of the faith component that is lost. Compassion does more than evangelism, but they see Christ's gospel as a crucial part of what they have to offer the children. I've been looking for ministries that integrate social action and evangelism, because the two aren't always found together. These guys do it.

Child-focused - The kids here have a different life. When they are accepted in the program, they're asked what they would like to do with their lives. For some of the kids it's the first time they've thought that they have options. We read one child's booklet today. He wants to become a firefighter or an accountant. Compassion reads that, and then looks for ways to, for instance, take the child to a fire hall. They make home visits when a child is absent from the program. It would be easy to lose track of the individuals among the 200-some kids at every project, but the children really do get individual attention and love here. The child you sponsor actually is the child that benefits from the projects on the ground.

Church-based - This is the real genius of what Compassion does. They take existing churches that already serve their communities. They hire from within the churches, which provides some economic help for that community. The churches are resourced to serve the area they already know the best. Compassion partners with the church, but it is ultimately the local church that loves these kids and works to improve the community. It's not the experts imported in from elsewhere. This gives the church huge ownership over what they're doing.

Whew, sounds like an infomercial. It's not meant to be. It's just refreshing to come and see stuff that they can't orchestrate and to discover that the marketing material is right. Hard to be cynical once you've been here.

There are other child sponsorship programs out there that are also good, but there are some distinctives to Compassion's approach. I like it. There is a genius behind what they're doing, and it clearly is making a difference. You can check them out at their website.

Since I can't show you my own pictures yet, here's one Tim Bailey took. It's the second house we visited today.

We traveled across town this morning to a project called Beth Shalom (House of Peace). The neighborhood is located on the side of a hill and is a rougher one. One of the Compassion staff, an ex-military man, said he wouldn't come here by himself later in the day. A man stood outside the project sniffing glue; another drank rubbing alcohol mixed with a bit of water and sugar. At night kids come down from the hill with guns.

Compassion works through local churches, who partner with Compassion to run individual projects. This particular one has 297 children, which is on the high end. Because of demand and the job that they're doing, this is going up by another 30 in March. We got to see some of the administration: they keep files on each of the children with correspondence to their sponsor, a list of each child's dreams and hobbies, etc. I'm impressed with how well they manage these projects, especially considering how they are growing. They're opening 60 new projects in Honduras. They usually take in 10,000 new children every year; this year they think it will be 14,000. They interview each child, provide medical exams, and love them. We were told to look into the children's faces to see what they thought of the project, and it was clear that kids enjoyed being there.

We toured the project. The kids were making pizza and playing. They love to have their picture taken, and want to see what it looks like on the back of the digital cameras. One girl sang for Charlene. We watched them eat rice and beans, and heard that for some this would be the only meal they had today. Boys were acting like boys, hanging off the balconies and throwing rocks in the gutters. We tried to discreetly hand candies to a couple of kids, but anyone who tried this got mobbed with kids, some unsuccessfully hiding the candies they already had. Charlene was eventually reduced to handing out Altoids, eventually giving away an empty tin. We saw the kids dance, ate the homemade pizza, and then got to the toughest part of the day: four home visits.

Nothing can prepare you for the home visits. I wish I could show you the pictures. Greg, from the Compassion office in Canada, says that if he could show people these homes, they would never cancel a child sponsorship. There is no equivalent in Canada. The families seemed happy to have us. We felt humbled to be there. At one point I was viewing the pictures I had taken and came to some that I had taken of our hotel room. The contrast between what we visited and where we were staying was startling. I won't forget those homes or families for a long time.

Standing in one family's home, the mother asked us to pray for a Bible study she was helping to lead. It hit Charlene that one day we will be co-residents in the new creation. Our living circumstances couldn't be more different now, but it won't always be that way.

Poverty is complex. I remember hearing a Harvard professor speak of how our efforts to help often make the problems worse. In the middle of the complexity, and all of the questions we have in developed countries of how to help, it's clear that Compassion is actually doing something. What we saw today was real need, and the church helping to meet those real needs in a very relational and material way. Our small bungalow back home suddenly seems like a mansion. My pride was humbled today. I was not worthy to see what I witnessed. It's going to take some time to absorb it all.

This morning we travelled to church about half an hour away from our hotel. We had heard that our driver drives the bus like some people drive a bike, and he lived up to that. I can't believe some of the tight spots he can get through - narrow roads, sharp turns, steep roads. Driving is a whole different thing here. Lots more honking. I could grow to like it. I think my brother David could move here for that reason alone.

Church was good. What we call evangelical, they seem to call evangelistic. The service is similar to what you could find in Toronto in a Spanish church.

What really struck us is going upstairs after the service. The church runs a transitional center for younger children who have been given up by their parents or rescued off the streets. We saw a couple of very young children who had been abandoned. One of them had been found in a box in the rain when he was about a year old at the time. Some kids are abandoned due to poverty. Some of the older kids are delinquints. The kids live there until they're old enough to go to the orphanage outside the city. Besides the kids who live here, Compassion serves 210 kids in that one project alone.

One of our guides, Oscar, told us the big difference between Catholics and evangelicals. Catholics have big buildings and expect people to come into them. Evangelical go into every neighborhood and don't wait for the people to come to them. They seem to be everywhere, and also very engaged with the community. He said it about Catholics here but I know I felt a bit convicted on this - not a Catholic problem at all.

After lunch we did some site-seeing, then stopped at a mall. They have every American chain you can think of here, both in stores and in restaurants. The prices are similar to what we'd have at home, but the income here is a lot lower. Also a lot of cell phones around, with people texting and taking pictures all over the place. We stopped in a small pharmacy, and staff were in every aisle to make sure nobody was stealing stuff.

I asked about Christmas presents. Few presents, because there's little money. Same for vacations - they're rare. I asked about credit cards. They're easy to get, and people get in over their heads just like at home. There is a middle class here, but the economics of their lives don't make sense to me given what I know. Money is tight.

Tomorrow we visit a project and make a couple of home visits. We even have lunch at the project, which will be nice. We're already getting a sense of what Compassion is able to do through local churches here, and we've been hearing some stories. It will be nice to see for ourselves.

P.S. Forgot the cable to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer. Drats. Pictures will have to wait until we get back.

Our first full day here. On the itinerary:

• Church service
• Visit to "El Picacho" lookout

Not really a heavy day.

The plane was full of Christians coming down here. It was a funny feeling. There's a sense of tension in being here. We're staying at a Marriott in the nicer part of town for security, across the road from McDonalds, driving around in an air conditioned bus. We're not really doing anything, except meeting people and observing.

Some of us last night expressed our reservations. Is this just Christian tourism? Is this a sales pitch, like a glorified timeshare presentation? Are we coming here with all of the answers? We got knowing nods from some who've been here before. They've heard the objections; they felt the same the first time they came. They didn't say much, except to wait and observe. I have a feeling that we'll learn, and that we won't have much of a choice. From seeing Tim and the others, a trip like this can change you.

We're in a hotel in Tegus, Honduras, having safely made the journey from Toronto early this morning, connecting through Houston. The landing here was fun but not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. I've had more exciting landings at Pearson in Toronto.

I'm with a small group on what they call an exposure tour. It's designed so that we get to see what Compassion is doing. I came because I saw the influence that this has had on a friend of mine, Tim Bailey. I don't know what to expect, but I'm sure I'm about to find out.

We've sponsored a child down here and we'll also get to meet him this week.

Going to go unpack and head to bed. More to come.

From David Hansen's book The Art of Pastoring:

The Holy Spirit carries out the will of God to build the church. This is the objective truth of the pastoral ministry: the church is the work of the Holy Spirit...

My ministry isn't work, really. The Spirit lifts, gives vision, direction and power...

Pastoral ministry is not work. Pastoral ministry is riding on the free winds of the Spirit. It is catching winds that lift us to heights we cannot climb on our own. We can't stay in the air very long on our own strength, but we can seek thermals. Our soul-wings are made large that we might catch the Spirit.

We are incompetent to be ministers of the gospel. It is implicit in the call to ministry: what we attempt is impossible. We are not competent to carry out the task of gospel ministry. We are made competent by the Holy Spirit of God.

I'm thinking about how much would change if we really believed this.

It's a slightly busier week than normal. Charlene and I are getting ready for a trip to Honduras with Compassion Canada, leaving Saturday morning and returning next Friday. Compassion helps over 2,700 children in 13 projects, providing "them with the opportunity to rise above their circumstances and become all that God has created them to be."

We'll be based in Tegucigalpa (Tegus for short). We're supposed to have internet access, so I'll be blogging about our trip when we're down there.

Just read this about the airport where we're landing: "This airport is frequently criticized for being one of the most dangerous in the world (due to its location next to a sierra, its short runway, and difficult approach...)" Should be fun.

"I began this book with a preface which acknowledged that many people today are looking for a 'fresh expression' of the church," writes evangelical statesman John Stott. "My concern has been that in this legitimate process of exploration they will not forget, let alone abandon, certain biblical and history-proven marks of a living church."

John Stott, now in his eighties, has had a worldwide influence on evangelicalism through his writing and ministry at All Souls Church, Langham Place. Time magazine has recognized him as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." He has had a massive impact on evangelicalism. When I heard that Stott had recently written a book articulating his vision for the global church today, I knew I would have to read it.

more

I feel the pull to read a lot of dead people this year. Here's a list of books I've got lined up to read:

• Puritan Reading Challenge
• George Whitefield Volumes I and II by Arnold Dallimore
• The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions
• Body of Divinity by Thomas Watson
• Ancient Christian Devotional
• The Works of Jonathan Edwards
• The Christian Ministry by Charles Bridges
• Revival by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Repentance and the 21st Century Man by Jack Miller
• Letters of Samuel Rutherford
• Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin
• The Works of Andrew Fuller

Should keep me busy for a while. I have a few books by living people I'll throw in as well. Let me know if you have read any of these books and have any advice to offer.

Bill Kinnon is in New York and attended a service of Redeemer Presbyterian last night, the lucky dog. Hope to get there myself later this year.

Bill writes:

I may struggle with this model of church - but let me positively acknowledge that Redeemer exists for the city of New York - with their focus on preaching a holistic gospel that can transform the city. Some of that "preaching" takes place on Sundays. Much of happens in the warp and woof of peoples lives lived out in the city...

Redeemer is in the process of purchasing a parking garage on the Upper West Side that will be converted into a 900 seat auditorium, offices and community space. They eventually hope to have three church facilities in Manhattan.

Bill links to the Vision Campaign website. I thought this 1-minute video was a good contribution to my question from the Viola and Barna book: "Is there a way to use buildings missionally and in a way that expresses the true nature of the church?"

more videos here

Update: Tim Keller comments at Bill's blog:

Bill--So glad you could drop in. I think I know almost exactly how you feel about the consumer/traditional/institutional church. Twenty years ago I started a church out of frustration with the church, but it got big, and that was never my intention or expectation when it started. Size brings a certain amount of institutionalization, unavoidably. But I didn't think I had the right to forcibly keep the ministry very small. It's a trade off, a very hard one. Glad you came by.

Prayer is one of the themes that keeps coming up in Jack Miller's book The Heart of a Servant Leader. The weapons of spiritual warfare, he writes, are humility and prayer.

Make the whole ministry center on private and corporate prayer. Do not expect bigger victories in tough areas until corporate praying becomes the complete center of the ministry. The reason? It is in prayer together that we find grace to give up control to the Father, rely exclusively on the Spirit, and see the demons subdued. It is here we get our life, vigor, zest, and authority for the battle...Without constant adoration, thanksgiving, intercession, and confession together, we are going to teach people to rely on our traditions, plans, technologies, and methods rather than on grace. Such converts will simply be switching their idols from the witchcraft stuff to the tools of modernism.

Typical Miller: You could spend months unpacking, and living, this single paragraph.

I saw an example of this a couple of weeks ago. I asked someone a question, which I'll admit was a bit of a tough one to answer, one that required a fair bit of spiritual insight. The person I asked turned slightly away from me and seemed lost in thought. For a minute I thought I confused him, so I rephrased the question. He told me that he was just taking a moment to ask his Father for direction. That's stuck with me for the past couple of weeks. It's brought Paul's instruction, "Pray without ceasing," to life for me.

I have a long way to go in my life in this area of switching away from what Miller calls the idolatry of what I can do, turning instead to exclusive reliance on God and to grace.

P.S. I think I mentioned that Miller reminds me of Tim Keller. Keller says, "I knew Jack pretty well." Seems like Miller was Keller's pastor for a while. Keller has other influences of course: Lloyd-Jones, Stott, the puritans, etc. Both Miller and Keller are worth listening to.

One other Miller resource: Gospel Transformation, put out by World Harvest Mission.

I had lunch with Bill Kinnon yesterday. He's an amazing guy and I feel blessed to be able to enjoy a bite on the Danforth with him. Bill has finally reviewed (sort of) Pagan Christianity, but his comments apply to much more than this book:

I'm not the most gracious person on the block. It's not my strong suit - and perhaps I respond to the lack of graciousness in Viola's writings because of my own failings in that area. But I strongly believe that had an irenic spirit infused PC - starting perhaps with its title - then the many important points the book makes and the questions it asks about the present shape of the church as we know it may have been more easily received.

We are at a liminal point in the life of the church. I strongly believe that profound change is taking place. There are those folk who want to hang on to the post-war CEO-driven church model, others who firmly have their feet planted in Calvin's Geneva, others who think the only truth can be found in the magisterium and are madly swimming the Tiber and still others who want to throw it all away and return to the glorious church of the 1st Century. (Corinth? Galatia? Ephesus?)

It is a time when we need to be infused with the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ for each other and for the broken world around us.

more

Len also has a good post, and a comment worth reading at Bill's: "I think at times we make a list of the ideal presentation of ekklesial reality. If you only had these things, and not those things, WOW.. we would really see the kingdom of God take shape. But it just don't work that way. God remains sovereign and free..."

I've removed the captchas (the illegible text you're supposed to type to prove you're not a computer spammer). You can now register to comment; sign in using Typekey, Google, etc.; or comment anonymously. If you choose the latter your comments will be moderated for now, until I see how bad the comment spam gets without the captchas.

Jack Miller was a pastor of a small church and a professor at a seminary. When he was in his early 40s he became frustrated with ministry. Neither the church members nor the seminary students were changing in the way that they should, and he didn't know how to help them. He resigned from both positions and spent the next weeks feeling very depressed.

Gradually, Miller began to realize that he had been serving for the wrong purpose: personal glory and approval, rather than God's glory. He also realized that he had been trying to minister out of his own strength. That's why he had seen so few tangible results. He had been relying on the wrong person to do ministry: himself.

His daughter writes:

After studying the promises of God on his sabbatical, he understood more clearly that the work of Christ was too big for him to accomplish in his own strength. As he reflected on his own ministry, he came to understand that it was his pride and self-reliance that kept him from having a significant part of this great work of Christ.

As he studied the fulfillment of God's promises in the gospel, he noticed that he had missed the most important qualification for entrance into the kingdom of God - being poor in spirit. He saw that doing Christ's work in Christ's way meant giving up all dependence on himself, acknowledging how poor in spirit he was, and then relying exclusively on Jesus and the gift of His Spirit.

Humility, repentance, constant faith, and prayer became themes of his life.

This section of one of his letters illustrates the change in his life:

I guess my prevailing thought is that God's work begins when ours comes to its end. Sometimes His presence is not felt with power through our methods however useful they may be, especially when we are confident we have the right approach and insights. God has a way of wanting to be God and refusing to get too involved where we have our own wisdom and strength. Then when we run out of wisdom and strength, He is suddenly present, a lesson I find myself relearning practically every day that I am in my right mind...

I think He wants our confidence to be exclusively in Him, and when we lose our self-confidence then He moves in to show what He can do. Perhaps self-dependence - and forgetting the strength to be found in Christ-dependence - is always our biggest blind spot. There is also the presumption and pride that go with self-reliance. So let's not lost our trust in God and the power of His gospel and the spirit of praise which goes with its proclamation.

Powerful stuff.

I got an invitation to a birthday party in the mail this week. Here's the date:

I was a little confused, so I checked the postmark:

September 12, 1994. 43¢ stamp! Not every day that a letter arrives that was mailed before your teenage daughter was born. A little late to RSVP I think.

Charlene figured out what happened. The sender had the wrong address, and it was delivered a few doors down from us. Looks like this letter sat in his house for years. Last Fall, the senior man living there died. His family has been there lately cleaning up the place. They likely found this letter and dropped it in the mail. The post office figured out the right address, and we got it 13 years late.

Weird.

Bob Hyatt is blogging through Pagan Christianity. Here's part one and part two. I promise not to post much more on this book. What I've done has been enough. But you may appreciate his posts. I like his spunk.

As things go this is pretty minor, but it's still big for us, and I'm grateful.

The last Sunday of December I found a container from our car on the sidewalk next door to our house. I went back to my car and realized that we forgot to lock it overnight. Someone opened the unlocked car and took what they wanted, which obviously wasn't much. We could only find one other thing missing - Charlene's keys.

Charlene's keys have a dongle to pay for gas, as well as keys to our cars and our house and lots of other things. We don't normally leave them in the car, but it was one of those weeks. We've spent the last week looking for them, hoping they weren't in the car, but it didn't look good.

Yesterday a neighbor down the road found them in the melting snow in a lane at the end of our street. She went up the street looking for car makes that matched the keys and came to our house.

We can't figure out if the person who took them couldn't drive standard or didn't think our cars were worth stealing, or why they just dumped the keys. They didn't buy anything at the gas station with the dongle. They also didn't come back when we were out to clear out our house.

Anyway, I'm grateful to have them back. Now go pray for more important things.

I stumbled across a comment thread this morning that disappointed me. Then I remembered last night when I got tired and disappointed myself. That brought to mind again the concept of continual, joyful repentance - a theme (along with humility) that runs all through Jack Miller's book The Heart of a Servant Leader.

Miller echoes something that Ken said about pride in a recent comment. Miller writes, "Do pray for me to grow in humility. I think most human problems stem from pride as do mine."

Some other highlights I've cherry picked the past couple of days:

When someone told him, "I'm sorry, but your preaching doesn't edify me." Every preacher has been here, but Miller responded better than I have in the past:

I remember how crushed I felt...But God made this comment into a great blessing. I asked the brother to pray for me. He later came and said, "Your preaching has really helped me." God used his words to shock me awake, to cause me to simplify my messages, to recruit people to pray for me, and to make my preaching more Christ-centered.

To a young man anxious to get to the mission field, on behalf of elders who want him to wait another six months before leaving. Miller blends grace and truth very well in a moving letter.

It does not seem to me that you have the calling of an elder - or a team leader. Perhaps in the future, but not now. You asked me not to hesitate even if it meant rebuking you. Well, I don't see this as a rebuke, but a leader must have more evidence of a broken will and the humility that has gone deep into the soul with it. I don't mean you have no humility, but there is a need for growth in this matter in your life...

I do believe you will find a very special blessing coming on you and the team as you submit to what may appear to be different from your own hopes for going right away. How you submit now will have much to do with the unleashing of the Spirit in your lives together later on.

I'm loving this book. Got to run to a wedding - more quotes sure to come later.

Frank Viola responds to questions and objections to Pagan Christianity. Worth reading.

It includes this note: "We also let readers know that there would be a second book coming out in the Summer of ’08 which would present a positive case for what church could really be like in our time."

Drats! Captcha is down which means you won't be able to comment here unless you're already registered here or with Typekey etc.. I hope to have this fixed in a day or two.

I come from a family of firefighters, which means it's always a challenge to find a date to be together with their conflicting shifts. Today is our annual Dash family Christmas gathering. Should be lots of fun.

Before I go to get ready, just a few thoughts banging around my head:

• I really liked what Alan Roxburgh said earlier this year in Toronto. "God is up to something in ordinary local churches. It's important for me to say that." Alan repeated what we know: many are saying that institutional churches have had it. But there is a movement of churches that is discovering gospel and missional life. "The God who encounters us in Jesus always turns up in the most God-forsaken places."
• As I commented this morning to Brian, I think we forget that the biggest problem is not institutions but people. No offense to people - I am one. I have the possibility to mess up a house church just as quickly as I do an institution. I'm surprised by Barna and Viola's optimistic view of the early church, actually. (Update: I should make it clear that they do recognize problems in the early church and in organic churches.) There are things to admire, but if you get to Revelation 2 and 3 you see that five out of the seven of these organic churches in a real mess. Is the problem, or the solution, really structural? Or does it go much deeper? I don't want to dismiss every institutional concern, but I believe the real problem goes much deeper, and it's a problem that exists also in organic churches.
• That being said, organic churches have one major thing going for them. When they die, they die. Institutional churches have a way of going on long after the life and energy of that church is over. Perhaps the problem isn't the institution in these cases; it's that the institution is all that's left. But that's like blaming the corpse for death. The body is fine as long as there's life inside. But when the life has ended, it's not fault of the now lifeless body. It's just time for a burial.

Jordon also has some interesting thoughts:

I think that any church that is living out the Gospel is the church. I think most churches (or at least their leadership) knows when they are just going through the motions whether because they are more interested in institutional survival or are more interested in being cool, we know we are faking it. It may not be apparent right away but eventually the truth comes out and it is either a vibrant community or just another social organization.

A few of my recent posts have been surrounding Barna and Viola's book Pagan Christianity. Even though I don't agree with the conclusion of this book, I think it raises some important issues about the life that is often missing in what we call the church.

I want to reflect, though, on some of what I've experienced over the past couple of weeks within an institutional church. It's been a good time to read this book, because I've been encountering some of the dynamics that churches long for. Don't get me wrong: I don't want to paint an unrealistic picture. The church I'm part of is full of messy people and if you were with us five minutes you would realize we don't have it all together. But...

Last month we finished looking at Judges, which (among other things) points out that the problems of God's people go far beyond structural or leadership change right to the heart and to the gospel. It was a good reminder of where to look for the ultimate solution. But it's hard to walk away from Judges feeling good about our ability to do anything to pull ourselves together in whatever structure we choose - institutional, house, or otherwise.

Last Sunday I preached on Ruth, a story that took place at the time of the Judges. There are no miracles or dreams in Ruth, no angelic visitations. Just ordinary people going through hard times showing loyal love (hesed - I love that word). It hit me as I reflected on Ruth that this is exactly what I'm surrounded with: ordinary people, many of them going through incredibly hard times, showing loyal love to others. It is through this very dynamic that God preserved a royal blood line in the time of the Judges that eventually brought the Savior of this world to earth.

I've been seeing this kind of love everywhere I look lately.

Today I took part of the funeral of a man. I won't get into all the circumstances here but I got to see the church really being the church. What I have seen in the past couple of weeks is such a profound statement of love by ordinary people that I hardly have the words.

There's more. On Christmas Eve, our service was mainly a time for people to come to the microphone and share what Christ coming to earth means to them. I'm always scared people will get up and talk about memories of backing shortbread with Mom, which is fine - but I wanted it to be about what Christ's coming meant, not just happy Christmas memories. The first person who got up talked about being clean from cocaine for a month. There were other stories like this. Broken, ordinary people, and God doing something in the middle of the mess.

We have lots of challenges. We're not a glitzy church. We do need to wrestle with many of the issues that Barna and Viola raise.

But I'm also glad that we are more than just a preaching center in which people come and passively listen. In small and big ways we are the Body, and it is surprising how God shows up in the middle of the mess when his people go looking for him. This is not the most logical response to Barna and Viola - that's in a different post. It is, though, a recognition that for all kinds of reasons, a big one being grace, God still shows up in the middle of all kinds of churches. And I'm profoundly grateful and more than a little bit in awe that he does.

I'm really enjoying The Heart of a Servant Leader by Jack Miller. Lots of stuff that's not the standard fare for pastors today, like this brutally honest quote about pastors, repentance, and humility. It's from a letter that he wrote to a missionary/church planter:

My own conviction is that the flesh is still so strong in the Christian leader that each of us needs a healthy fear of our own capacity for ruining the work of God with our unconscious pride. Dear Chris, I am very, very much afraid of myself, and I think that is a good place to be - provided I take my fears to Jesus and ask Him to cleanse me of my "will to power." Indeed, a pastor really needs to be broken before God every day, or he will break up the church of God with his willfulness or let it slip into spiritual death through his sloth.

I am horrified, no, terrified, by what I saw happen between the pastor of [a local church that split] and the other leaders and members of the congregation. It was awful and could have been prevented by humility, by listening, gentleness, and mutual teachability. I am convinced that I could do the same, and you could too...

In honesty I can learn to hate my egocentricity and its many manifestations, and when I do that I can really cry out with sincerity for grace. Jesus always helps me when I humble myself in this way. May He grant us both grace to humble ourselves so that we can do all things for His glory and not our own.

You don't always hear this from pastors. Miller had a genuine humility and a corresponding grip on grace. I'm loving this book.

I've been blogging about Viola and Barna's new book Pagan Christianity. So far we've covered the first two what I've listed as the four assertions of the book:

• The origin of many of our church practices (examples: church buildings, orders of worship, sermons, pastors, tithing, clergy salaries) is non-biblical, and these practices are inconsistent with those of the early church. "Almost everything that is done in our contemporary churches has no basis in the Bible." (p. 4) Much of it was lifted from pagan culture.
• Just because something does not appear in the Bible does not mean it is wrong. However, our non-biblical church practices often hinder the development of our faith and keep us from encountering the living God.

I'm pretty much prepared to accept the core of these points with some reservations. They don't always get the history right, and they overstate the case. I accept that many of our practices are non-biblical but "inconsistent with those of the early church" is another matter. But still - they do have a point that some of our practices today can be held sacrosanct when they can and do get in the way.

But it's when you get to today's assertion that, in my view, the wheels fall off. Viola and Barna argue:

• "The church in its contemporary, institutional form neither has a biblical nor a historical right to exist." (p. xx)

Wow! There's a bit of a jump to get to this point, and I'm not sure if I missed a step somewhere. It could be that Viola and Barna are correct, but I don't think they've proved their case. Pointing out problems with a model means that the problems need addressing. It doesn't necessarily mean that the entire model must be scrapped.

It's one thing to argue that there are problems with our existing ways of doing church. I'm fully prepared to accept this. It's also okay to argue that models of church sidesteps these issues, but it could be that they end up encountering a whole set of other issues - as is the case. But is it possible for institutional models to be redeemed? Viola and Barna say no. I'm not so sure.

I'd much prefer to ask questions like these:

• Is there a way to use buildings missionally and in a way that expresses the true nature of the church?
• Can orders of service be structured so that the corporate nature of worship is emphasized, and performance is minimized?
• How can preaching and teaching promote spiritual growth and emphasize the giftedness of the body?
• How can churches move beyond being pastor-driven?
• How can our giving be channeled beyond maintenance to mission and care for the poor?
• How can we recover the biblical emphasis on baptism as initiation into discipleship, and communion as a robust communal celebration?
• How can Christian formation take place that his holistic?

These are excellent questions, and they may or may not lead to shutting down institutional churches. I don't think they have to. This book, I think, gets at the right questions, but ends up presenting the wrong (or at least insufficient) solution.

By the way, it's theoretically possible to have discovered that pretty much everyone from the church fathers on got it wrong, and that you are right - but it's highly unlikely. This is especially true in this case, because Scripture is largely descriptive (not prescriptive) in how churches can be shaped. Barna and Viola don't make a sufficient case for anyone to say that almost everyone has got it wrong until now.

Boars Head Tavern has posted a great quote from Eugene Peterson:

What other church is there besides institutional? There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian except the church. There’s sin in the local bank. There’s sin in the grocery stores. I really don’t understand this naïve criticism of the institution. I really don’t get it. Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There’s no life in the bark. It’s dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it’s prone to disease, dehydration, death. So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn’t last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it’s prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism. (Eugene Peterson)

They also have