Blog

SEND CONFERENCE 2012

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Alvin Reid in Blog | Leave a comment

I rarely write about conferences here. I get asked a ton to promote this or that or the other, but sometimes something comes along I think is worth your while, and the SEND Conference this July is one of those.

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!

Ready. Set. READ (Or at least here are some I have read lately)

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Alvin Reid in Blog | 4 Comments

This morning I find myself sitting in the Atlanta airport with a medium sized city’s worth of people. One of my former students (shout out to Lonnie!) tweeted me asking what are the best 10-12 books I have read recently. I thought I would comment on that here since 140 characters is useless for that.

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?

GET OUT (i.e. get outside)

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Alvin Reid in Blog, FItness, Vision | Leave a comment

Spring has to be one of the most glorious things God ever made. This weekend I rode through western Tennessee with my parents in their Ford Crown Vic, or what their grandchildren call the classic old person’s car. We observed how pretty the countryside was, how nice the yards appeared, and how this seemed to be such an idyllic area. Well, my parents never use the term idyllic, but you get what I am saying.

“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.

And, spending time there may help you change the world as well.

(note: I got the info on gall bladders and the Japanese study from A.J. Jacobs’ hilarious new book Drop Dead Healthy).

The Potency of Proximity

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Alvin Reid in Blog | 1 Comment

During my recent visit to Kiev I had a conversation with one of our team named Evan. We talked about strategy in mission trips. When you go to a land for a brief time you want to make the maximum impact possible. But sometimes how we value that impact can be less than precise. For instance, a major part of this trip involved the encouragement of believers and young churches. We ministered with four churches, all less than ten years of age. Some had begun in only the last year or so, while the “oldest” had the ripe age of six years.

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.

Why Mission Trips? To Serve Those Who Stay

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Alvin Reid in Blog | Leave a comment

I had an interesting conversation this week with a young pastor here in Kiev. He told me of a church from America who came to “help” them for a week. This church seemed convinced of the power of puppetry as the key to all things Christian. Rather than helping the church called by God to reach their community in their own context there in Kiev, this group seemed to know the perfect tool for gospel proclamation globally was the proper use of felt, stuffing, and a screen.

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.