Recently I recalled one of the reasons I love being a Baptist. Of course, at the heart of it is the centrality of the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without a common faith we would not long stand. But we also have the power of many coming together across our differences, whether they be geographical, economical, ethnic, or educational.

This summer we will elect Fred Luter as our first African-American president. I spoke at a Baptist Church in Cary yesterday where I had a conversation with an African-American leader in that church who was not aware of this fact. This election is not a small thing, and is for me more vital than the election of a U.S. president in the fall. Fred Luter is a man of God and I am grateful for our convention making progress here.

It is all too easy to focus on our flaws, our failures, and our fractions. Sometimes we should stop and thank God for His faithfulness.

Two weeks ago I taught a class at the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary in Alberta. What a glorious view of the Rockies from the classroom!  What a wonderful faculty and such hungry students. This seminary shows the wonder of God working through many.  Southern Baptists in the U.S. built most of their excellent facilities, many of them Texas Baptists. What the seminary could not do alone it could do with many others. This is a beautiful picture of what we can be when we focus together on our common faith and spend less time fussing with each other. No, this school is not the size of our massive seminaries in the States. But it is of no less value to the Kingdom of God!

Spiritual Awakenings Class at Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary

Tonight I speak at a Baptist Association, a part of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. These gatherings matter, for leaders can be encouraged and be shown ways at a more local level to encourage one another in the Gospel. I thank God for the massive urban churches that can impact a city; God also uses small rural churches to reach a community. And, through the beauty of the Cooperative Program and the way we connect as a convention, a small rural church can help plant a young urban church which can plant others, and one day you can see where a congregation in the country played a part in a movement in the city.

God can do this, when He uses us for His glory — together. In Kiev Ukraine, our IMB missionaries equip a new generation of church planters there. In Thessaloniki Greece, a team of IMBers are led by a man who was led to Christ by an evangelism team from our local church in Wake Forest. This never gets old.

We need to be reminded regularly that we are part of a great work of God much bigger than us. God does not need any of us. We are all replaceable, and we are not the point. But God uses His children together to do for His glory what we could never accomplish on our own. Across the world and down the street, we have much more impact for the Gospel when we serve Christ together. Throw in our recent graduates at Southeastern and you can get just a snapshot of the wonderful epic God is writing through the people called Southern Baptists. We are not perfect, but when we are focused, we can change the world for the glory of God and the sake of the Gospel.

In Banff National Park with Elk in the background…and the Canadian Rockies

Nathan and Michelle Schneider. Nathan just graduated. Love them!

Our Young Pros Group at Richland Creek

Second, setting margins in one’s life cannot become an excuse for laziness.

Most ministers I know (as well as most believers) have a deep hunger for God. Our combination of wanting our lives to matter and our conviction about the mission of God drives us, sometimes to the point of marginless lives. I know several outstanding ministers who lately had to get off the Ferris wheel of daily ministry for a season. I am confident part of the reason had to do with the need for margin. But there are ministers whose lives sadly reflect sloth more than industry, lethargy more than vitality. They gradually slide into unhealthy patterns: from disciplined bodies to no exercise and bad dietary practices, to only studying the Bible to prepare the next sermon, which then leads some to download other people’s sermons and preach them.

But for the majority who have the greater danger of burning out than rusting out — to paraphrase George Whitefield — I want to remind us that margin does not mean avoiding all stress and activity. It means to focus on removing the DISTRESS and increasing the EUSTRESS in our lives.

Distress refers to the things in our lives that cause destructive responses in a person. This is what we normally think of when we consider the subject, and too much of this demonstrates why we need margins. Swenson observes that too much distress brings us harm:

“An excessive volume of stress is called hyperstress. The volume is important because how we deal with stress depends on how much of it we are confronted with. If the amounts are manageable, we can learn to avoid distress and possibly turn it into eustress. If, however, the amounts are at hyperstress levels, then stress reduction is more important than stress management. If the stress reaction is resolved successfully, no apparent damage is noticed. If, however, the result is failure or frustration, multiple pathologies may ensue: tissue aging occurs at the cellular level; the immune system may malfunction; cardiovascular catastrophes, such as stroke or heart attack, may occur.”*

I have too often been too stressed. Have you?  But note the other kind of stress Swenson mentions: EUSTRESS.  From the Greek prefix “eu” meaning “good” (i.e. euangelion or Good News, Gospel; eulogy or a “good word”), eustress refers to the kind of stress that helps us. Lifting weights provides healthy stress for muscles that helps them to grow. Rigorous study helps to stretch the mind. Healthy emotional stress is what athletes call “psyching up” for the big game. We need this kind of stress.

I get eustress when I travel to preach at a DNow or speak to leaders, and when I teach my students. The traveling, the new audience, the desire to see God move, all provide stress. But for me this is a wonderful stress, pushing me to pray, to seek God, to want to be used by Him. But for some people the idea of traveling somewhere and speaking to a bunch of strangers provides nothing but distress leading to hyperstress. For me, detailed work, like grading and scheduling and similar tasks stress me out in a bad way.

Teaching: eustress.

Paperwork: distress.

Each of us has been hardwired by our Lord with certain passions and interests, and focusing on the things that give us good stress while minimizing the things that cause bad stress can help us to create margin in our lives. The things that bring me eustress may bring you distress and vice versa. If I were forced to be an accountant my whole life I think I would go mad.

For me it means this practically: I am giving all my scheduling to Mrs. Peggy, my secretary. I have always managed my calendar, which is not helpful. The Greek word for that is dumb. The traveling does not stress me; I have traveled and preached all my adult life. It is an essential part of my calling. The detailed work that goes with it is what stresses me out.  In other ways I am moving to delegate to others things that I should not be doing because 1) others can do them better, and 2) they stress me out.

Dawson Trotman founded the Navigators. This quote by Daws at first convicted me. Now it is liberating me: “Never do anything that someone else can and will do when there is so much of importance to be done which others cannot or will not do.”

We need margin. But margin does not mean sleeping in till 10 every day and doing the minimum for our Lord Who gave His all for us. But margin recognizes that as our great God rested, we need rest. We need less stress that distracts us — or that will ultimately destroy us. We need to be pushed to things that matter, to live our lives large for the glory of God. But we must do so in such a way that we reflect our Lord, who constantly slipped away for time with His Father. We need to evaluate what we are doing that does not help to fulfill our calling and delegate or say no to such things.

*Swenson MD, Richard A. (2012-01-05). Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives with Bonus Content (p. 45). Navpress. Kindle Edition.

A life without margins would be a frenzied life. But that is the world we find ourselves in, and it is a world we have helped to create and continue to perpetuate. In his convicting yet helpful book entitled Margin, author and physician Richard Swenson describes our world:

“THE CONDITIONS OF modern-day living devour margin. If you are homeless, we send you to a shelter. If you are penniless, we offer you food stamps. If you are breathless, we connect you to oxygen. But if you are marginless, we give you yet one more thing to do.

Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the bank because you were ten minutes late dropping the kids off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station—and you forgot your wallet. Margin, on the other hand, is having breath left at the top of the staircase, money left at the end of the month, and sanity left at the end of adolescence.

Marginless is the baby crying and the phone ringing at the same time; margin is Grandma taking the baby for the afternoon. Marginless is being asked to carry a load five pounds heavier than you can lift; margin is a friend to carry half the burden. Marginless is not having time to finish the book you’re reading on stress; margin is having the time to read it twice.

Marginless is fatigue; margin is energy.

Marginless is red ink; margin is black ink.

Marginless is hurry; margin is calm.

Marginless is anxiety; margin is security.

Marginless is culture; margin is counterculture.

Marginless is the disease of the new millennium; margin is its cure.”*

Just reading that stresses me out.

He argues our obsession with progress has created a world with too little margin in our lives emotionally, physically, spiritually, and in how we spend our time and our money:

“There can be little doubt that the contemporary absence of margin is linked to the march of progress. In a general sense, those cultures with the most progress are the same as those with the least margin. If you were wondering why there is a chapter on progress in a book on margin, this is the reason. Margin has been stolen away, and progress was the thief. If we want margin back, we will first have to do something about progress.”**

Dr. Swenson is not anti-progress. He simply recognizes the obvious, that our obsession with progress creates a lack of balance. In ministry, we see it in how we keep score. Numbers matter: how many attend, how many are reached for Christ, etc. But when our scorecard obsesses with these numbers and ignores other aspects of healthy Christianity, we can become consumed with the immediate and ignore long-term growth and health. This happens in ministry as sometimes we allow the pressure of “effective ministry” to eliminate margin, leading to long term ineffectiveness, ironically.

Here is one example: time management. Most of us (I am in the “us”) think of time management as figuring out how to cram more stuff into already busy lives. No, time management, or time stewardship, should help us cut out things in our lives that in the greater scheme of things do not have to be given as much attention.

Time killers like social media and email, both of which can be vital tools in ministry, must be given margin. I for one will start checking and answering email two times a day. The idea that a smart phone which allows constant contact with email and social media may seem to be a sign of progress, but the marginless way it creeps into one’s life adds stress more than calm in my opinion. And in my experience.

Here is one final quote by Dr. Swenson, whose book I encourage you to buy:

“We must have some room to breathe. We need freedom to think and permission to heal. Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. No one has the time to listen, let alone love. . . . Is God now pro-exhaustion?

. . . Certainly one cannot blame all the pains of the world on lack of margin. But it is fair to say that the lack of margin is a much greater component of our pain than most realize.”
***

As I move to the end of my sabbatical I want to stay active. I do want to remove a lot of distress, but I realize the importance of eustress. More of that in my next post. . .

*Quote from Richard A.
Swenson MD (2012-01-05). Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives with Bonus Content (p. 13). Navpress. Kindle Edition.

**Swenson, (p. 25).

***Swenson, (p. 27).

Our home is heaven. We are aliens here. We sometimes forget this as some of us  seem determined to fight culture wars with more passion than living as the evangelists Christ has saved us to be. I wanted to write some profound thoughts about all things political, denominational, and cultural, but I found someone who can help us far more.

The Letter to Diognetus in the Second Century describes a kind of Christianity I pray we could come to embrace almost two millennia later. As you read, think about the Christian subculture we have created and go to great lengths to defend. Think about how we typically relate to culture and to those who do not embrace our Christ. Read just a portion of what he said. I have italicized a few comments I find to be particularly insightful:

“Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. 

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.

They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.

To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body’s hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.” * 

May we seek power less and God’s glory more. May we our love for Christ be seen in how we relate to each other and to those not like us more than the T shirts we wear or the radio station we hear. And may no one confuse our allegiance to Christ with anything this world offers.

*From the Letter to Diognetus (Nn. 5-6; Funk, 397-401)

I’m no expert on student ministry,  but I have given my life to the study of movements. I met Christ during the Jesus movement in the 1970s  where I saw hippie freaks become Jesus freaks. Historical Movements of God like great awakenings involve young people and focus on the gospel. Millennials represent the largest group of students in US history and a great opportunity for a movement of God.

This generation wants truth, they want real, and they want a cause. They wear TOMs shoes and they want to fight human trafficking. They do not want to check into a factory version of Christianity where they show up at church and do the minimum. They want a Gospel as big as God.

Many debate the percentage of students who drop out after high school. I am concerned about those who don’t drop out but never who stay in church while never getting the point of their faith.

Recently I have had the honor of speaking to students at some of the churches represented at Metro, including Idlewild, Long Hollow, Christ Fellowship Miami, and FBC Jonesboro, Arkansas. In your churches and others I have tried to show your students how the Gospel applies to all of life. In various settings I have used movie plotlines to make a point: the Bible is not primarily about morality, it is about reality.

Some of my buddies at Youth Metro

We can take storylines, like a man falling in a hole (action movies), boy meets girl (romantic comedies), or rags to riches (cinderella), and show the Gospel storyline of creation – fall – rescue – restoration. We can show how the shopping mall is built like european cathedrals to inspire worship as we bow to the idol of materialism and show students someone greater is worthy of worship. We can show them the imago dei in sports, business and in art.

The Christian subculture often takes something in culture, sticks a cross in it, adds a layer of cheese, and uses it. The Gospel finds truth in culture and reveals God’s truth in that culture. There is a fundamental difference, and theology helps to see it. This is why I teach.

There is a movement of Gospel recovery happening just now. I want to be a part of this movement. I just sent a manuscript to NavPress for a forthcoming book that deals with this. About 50 years ago we lived in Jerusalem in America. We were like Acts 2, and sharing the gospel involved a common viewpoint with most we met. But we now live in Athens, and the way Paul shared Christ in Acts 17, beginning at Creation, makes more sense. We need to start our gospel conversations not with Romans 3:23 but with Romans 1-3. This is why I am working with the folks who brought us The Story to create DiscipleNow and camp materials for small groups that you can use.

At SEBTS we don’t have a huge number of various student ministry degrees. We have a minor in our college and an MDiv, because I think Greek and Hebrew and theology are student ministry courses. More than that, we have a culture here, a Gospel-consumed culture with a global focus. We have great teachers who come to help me including Jimmy Scroggins and Jeff Lovingood.

We would love the most radical ten percent of your students thinking of ministry and missions to come to Southeastern. Jesus didn’t change the world with thousands; He changed it with a dozen. Bin laden started a terrorist movement with a couple dozen. I am giving my life to invest in leaders of the coming generation who will change the world for the Gospel. And I would love the honor of investing in you and your students.

Come see us at Southeastern. Let’s be about something as big as the heart of God. And let’s bring a generation of students with us.
 

Did you know:

In 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10,000 people and in 2000 only 11.

In 1900 there was a Southern Baptist congregation for every 3,800 people; today the number is one for every 6,092.

The SEND conference  (link is here) will help leaders see the need and opportunity before us in North America for the gospel. I love the diversity of speakers and conference leaders, as many conferences while outstanding often tend to be one dimensional. I will be doing a breakout on reaching the Millennial generation, something I care a lot about.

If you want to come I have a special offer for you: you can receive 20.00 off the registration by using my code SNAREID20 when you sign up. See you there!

I am en route to Youth Metro, the annual gathering of the student pastors of the largest churches in the SBC. I love these men. I taught many of them and have invested in many others, not to mention all they have taught me. Usually in a setting like this when I speak to such a fine group (I will be representing SEBTS here, something I truly enjoy) I ask them to give me the last 2-3 books they have read. I like to see where people are in their growth.

Here are the last 12 books I have read in no particular order. I try to read about 50 books a year on a lot of topics. As I am on sabbatical this will not be a typical list. For instance, while early in the year I read a ton on student ministry, missional Christianity, etc, the last part I have read more non-theological works as well, as you will see.

1. Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians. Fantastic book that offers realistic yet hopeful info on the coming generation. Gabe gets, for instance, that this gen needs the whole gospel in the whole Bible, not just tidbits and moralisms. Must reading for all church leaders.

2. The Best American Sampler. Kindle collection of the best short stories of 2011. Interesting articles by a variety of people on a variety of subjects, none of which are intentionally evangelical. I read a truly fascinating story about a surfer named Marzo, for instance.

3. The Hunger Games trilogy. I will count these as one book since I read them all at once and they tell one large narrative. Collins is a great writer in my opinion, and this book is the anti-Lord of the Flies.  Very easy to see why this series is a hit with the Millennials and their penchant for social justice.

4. D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation. I re-read this fine book on prayer by D. A. Carson for a course I taught in Kiev. This look at the prayers of Paul should be read by all. And I even rhymed telling you this.

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Okay, I saw the movie on the airplane from Kiev (and was told it was better that I saw the airplane version). So I got the book. But I doubt I will finish it. I already saw the movie!

6. Ken Ham, Already Gone. A book about how we are losing or have lost so many young people. Honestly I did not finish it but have scanned it for some helpful info.

7. Andy Crouch, Culture Making. I like books like this and I like how Crouch thinks, and it is fine that I do not always agree with him. He makes me think, and helps me lead, or so I think.

8. Knowing God by J. I. Packer. This classic was the biggest thing going when I was in college. I am rereading it and being reminded how genuinely theological this book is. This is not to be confused with The Shack, or Wild at Heart for that matter.

9. Michael Goheen, Light to the Nations. I am honestly just starting this one but cannot wait to read it. Must reading also for pastors who are discovering (or need to find) the importance of teaching the gospel in the whole story of the Bible.

10. Greg Gibson, Reformational Manhood. This one is yet to be released but was read to write an endorsement. Those who agree with me that we must mentor young men today in a way to help them be men and not boys will want to read this helpful book when released.

11. Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods. I am thinking you should read a book by Keller annually. That would be a good thing.

12. I also read a book for my own personal growth that I will not give the title because it is none of your stinking business. Smile. Seriously, Like you I have areas where I constantly need to grow, be pushed, and stretched.  There will always be something, some area where we need to grow and change. So I will leave this one intentionally nebulous as where you need to let the Spirit probe you may well be some area other than mine.

There you have it. More non-theological or at least more fiction books than I normally read in a list of twelve, but otherwise pretty typical. If you substitue a couple of books on leadership or missional Christianity for these you would have a more typical list, at least for me. What are you reading?

“Of course all the homes look pretty with their yards all green,” I observed in one of my great Captain Obvious moments. “It is springtime. Everything looks good in springtime.”

This statement I take to  be almost axiomatic. Other than the fact that our mild winter seems not to ever want to end and temps continue to plunge into frigid digits this late in the year, everything is beautiful, just like the old Ray Stevens song declared.

But there is more to it than this. Studies show taking time to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors in times like the spring actually make an impact on our lives. One 1984 University of Delaware study placed patients recovering from gall bladder surgery in two types of rooms: some had a view of a green field, the others of a brick wall. Those gazing at the field recovered faster.

If I were in the group staring at the brick wall I would want a refund from that hospital.

A 2010 study in Japan studied 280 people to take strolls in the park and in the city. The walks in the park among trees and vegetation showed lower blood pressure, pulse rates, and stress levels.

We could all use less stress levels.

I think there is yet a more vital, theological role in all this. There is a reason when we want to get away —  like Southwest Airlines asks in their interrogative advertisements — we prefer getting to the beach, the mountains, or the woods.  God created us and put us in His wonderful, awe-inspiring creation, and their is something about being in the natural world that brings a sense of awe and spiritual proximity to our Creator.

In his City of God Augustine observed:

“Some people, in order to discover God, read books.
But there is a great book:
the very appearance of created things.
Look above you! Look below you!
Note it. Read it.
God, whom you want to discover,
never wrote that book with ink.
Instead He set before your eyes
the things that He had made.
Can you ask for a louder voice than that?
Why, heaven and earth shout to you:
‘God made me!’”

Aquinas argued we have two sacred texts, the Bible and God’s Creation.

Luther observed:  ”God’s entire divine nature is wholly and entirely in all creatures, more deeply, more inwardly, more present than the creature is to itself.” He added, “Animals are footprints of God.” He saw the importance of Creation:

“God writes the Gospel,
not in the Bible alone,
but also on trees,
and in the flowers and clouds and stars.”

Neither my point nor Luther’s is to say we have all we need to know God in Creation. No, we must have the written Word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, as Paul clearly stated in Romans. But Paul also said in Creation we see His invisible attributes (Romans 1:20).

Here is my simple point: get out. Get out of the house, away from the apartment, push away from your desk. Take a walk in the park. Sit outside and watch the birds. Observe the wonder and harmony and beauty of God’s world. It is His, you know. But it is also for us to enjoy.

I am discovering how obsessed I can become with “changing the world” and “making an impact” and “reaching the nations,” all which matter and all which I believe in. But I am also realizing how much I need to stop obsessing, go lay in a hammock or fill up a bird feeder, or just pet our cat’s neck. Jonathan Edwards spent huge amounts of time in creation soaking up the wonder of God. And he led a great awakening. Maybe we can find our souls restored and our ministries better formed by spending a bit more time observing God’s presence all around us in the world He made.

Try making time in creation a regular part of your life for just a month and see if your perspective is not changed just a bit.

I talked to Evan about the power of proximity. One of the less measurable goals of the trip had to do with simply being with these young pastors and their fledgling congregations doing ministry as a team. Yes, we want the measuarables: the attendance, the conversions, the obvious factors we can see to indicate success. But what one cannot place on a ledger one can see in faces, hear in voices, and celebrate personally.

If we applied only statistical measurables to the three-year ministry of Jesus we might be tempted to miss the  impact of the less measurable matters. Of course, measurables matter: witness the numerous accounts of numbers of new believers in the Acts for instance. But how can we adequately measure the impact of the nearness of Jesus to Pater and John as it helped their long term ministry?

We do have one example. In Acts 4:13, facing the first persecution as believers, Peter and John have this said about them: “When they saw their boldness, and perceived they were untrained and ignorant, they marveled, and the realized they had been with Jesus.”  The most remarkable description of these two had everything to do with their proximity to Jesus.

There is potency in proximity.

In Kiev I spent two weeks with a young man named Sergey Bochko, a remarkable young pastor in Kiev. He served as my interpreter, thus we spent around 4 hours a day in class. He also interpreted for me and led worship for a conference we conducted. I ministered with our team at his church. We spent many, many hours together, maybe more than 80 total.

Never once did I sit down with him to drop some dogma or to go over eight essential principles for leadership. But it was one of the greatest two-week times of mentoring I have ever enjoyed. You could more easily measure the impact I made in Kiev through the formal class I taught at the seminary, but I would argue my time with Sergey was the most valuable thing I did.

In addition, I mentored by spending time with he and his wife, and with young people from his church.  I had other opportunities with Oleg, Tanya and Luyda in my class and at the church, and another interpreter named Sveta.

But my time with Sergey was most valuable.  We talked about life and godliness, about family and ministry. But all as we traveled in cabs and on buses and as we shared Christ in the community and in breaks during class.

Do not underestimate the importance of breaks.

I want to spend time teaching overseas. But I realize this need not be in a seminary or in a formal way. I will always seek out a young pastor or other young leader in whom to invest. And I will continue to invest in Sergey.

Do those things in ministry that can be measured. Keep attendance, track baptisms, chart other numbers. But do not miss the simple power of proximity.

I told them I thought the best use for puppets was at a rifle range to help sight in a new scope. Okay, before you send me that email excoriating me for picking on helpless puppets, my point is not that puppets are inherently evil. But the notion that we American believers can take what we use in the States — with perhaps a rose colored view of their effectiveness — and automatically project it onto another context is foolish at best and arrogant at worst. Please do go on mission trips overseas, but as you go, stop and think what you are really trying to accomplish when you go.

At a dinner the night before I headed to Kiev I told the team to remember we were going to Ukraine not to do our thing, but to help those God had called to live among the lost where we were going. We had done the preliminary work to put us with churches that made for a good fit for our team of mostly young professionals. In our case this meant younger churches with pastors eager to make an impact. But beyond that we came to serve. We asked what the churches were doing and how we could help them. So we have done everything from ESL classes to sports ministry, and from ministry to children to connecting with young Christian entrepreneurs.

We have heard the stories of numerous young adults as to how they came to Christ. Most come from unbelieving homes; several are the only Christians in their family. The vast majority came to Christ through camps. In this context, camps offer a huge opportunity to take young people out of their context and help them to see the Christian worldview over a period of days, ask questions, and in many cases, make lasting decisions. One night some of us were at an ESL club where many unchurched young adults came to practice English and hear conversations about the gospel. These methods are effective here.

Whether you are a guest speaker visiting another church in the states or a mission team going around the world, your primary goal should be to help those who remain after you and I pack up and go. We want the pastors and leaders who invited us to think about us in the days to come as the team who came to bless them in the work of the gospel. That is no doubt the primary goal of most mission teams. But it does not hurt to be reminded of this from time to time.

We go on mission trips not because we are the American heroes who come to rescue poor folks in other lands, but because Jesus is the hero, period; we simply want to join other believers in making Him famous.
Plan your trip, raise the funds, gather the people, and bring along young people. As you go, go to serve in the partnership we share in the gospel. And if they say it is effective, bring those puppets.