Cultural Opposites and How We Perceive the World.

Cultivating Life in the Dessert

It was a scorching afternoon, but as they say in Arizona it was a dry heat. That did not stop the sunshine from feeling like a cosmic laser beam that was attempting to burn your skin right off your body. The day before I had been invited as part of a small group to see a local pastor's field. Coming from Ohio where large swaths of land are covered by corn, wheat and soybean I had been trying to imagine what this field might look like in the Arizona dessert in the middle of the Hopi and Navajo reservation. I had seen no sign of vegetation and each time the pastor said he went to his field, I imagined that he would go to a small piece of Ohio-like farm land hidden somewhere nearby near an oasis behind a barrier of trees.

The small group of us piled into the white rental van and passed through one of two stoplights that Tuba City has. We drove to the edge of town and our guide took us on a driving tour of the new and the old Hopi villages. The older village looked like it could have been a small pueblo straight out of Galicia, Spain except that it was in the middle dessert land and over looked a small (small by Arizona standards) canyon.

As we drove out of the village the road began to descend slowly into the small canyon. Along the way we passed by a spring where some people were filling of large plastic containers with water (many of the homes on the reservation have no running water). The pastor explained that the Mormons helped the Hopi's find this spring several generations ago. As the road brought us down between the canyon walls we could see the land divided into small fields before us. We parked the van in a space that entirely shaded by a fruit tree and as we got out we heard the distinct sound of rushing water. Beside the parking spot was a ditch with clean, potable water rushing through it. The ditch made it's way down into the canyon, bisecting the fields.

A Communal Culture- According to Hopi culture and law, the land is not owned by individuals but it is owned by the tribe. If you want to farm a piece of the land you can petition the tribal counsel. Our guide said that if you let your farm land lie fallow for two complete seasons then someone else could bring a petition to the counsel asking to take over the field. Since our guide was also a pastor he said he personally observed the Old Testament practice of working the land for six years and then letting it rest on the seventh year. The first time he did this his Father thought he was crazy, but on the eighth year his crop was significantly more robust than the other nearby fields and now his Father lets his own field rest on occasion.

The water that comes down the ditch in the middle of the field can be hooked up to pipes that will divert some of it to the fields. Our friend comes to his field every morning at 5am. In the dessert the air is crisp and cool and refreshing in the early morning. He said he will spend about two hours taking care of the plants in the field. He waters the crops and hoes the weeds so they can't take root. Sometimes he said that coyotes or foxes will come at night and gobble up the water melons. He also pointed out that some of the other farmers had over-watered their crops (this was evident by leaves that were yellowing).

The pastor grew peppers, melons, squash and a lot of corn. He said that the Hopis use corn for a lot of different dishes and so they plant several different kinds and colors of corn. In his larger of the two fields that he works, it was entirely planted with corn. At the end of the season he said it would produce multiple barrels of corn that could be dried and stored. Whenever some was needed for a meal it would be boiled in water and was ready to eat. He said that of all the barrels of corn that this one field would make he would keep one and then deliver the rest to cousins, aunts and relatives around the reservation. At this point in out tour one of the visiting group members asked, "Do your relatives come and help you plant, cultivate, or Harvest the fields?" The Pastor thought for a moment and said, "No, not really." Our group member said, "Well, it seems strange that they get to benefit from the harvest even though they did not participate at all in the work." The pastor smiled and nodded in a knowing way and said, "This is just the Hopi way. The one who has takes care of those who do not."

I was totally impressed by the richness of Hopi culture and the way it was displayed even through such a small task as having a small field of crops in the middle of such and arid landscape. I also had the sense that this field was a living, tangible illustration of the spiritual work that good pastors are engaged in every day. Watering, cultivating, protecting from weeds and pests that would devour the crop, it reminded me that there is someone working hard on our behalf to help us bear fruit, even in the worst of soils and conditions. Not only that, but like this pastor's relatives, I know I receive far more of the blessings then I ever deserve or worked for. It is my prayer that I can be more like this Hopi Pastor in the way I think about and care for those around me.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

See the rest of my Saint Patrick's Day album here.

A look at Indonesia

I have some friends who are working cross-culturally in Indonesia. When I saw these photos at The Big Picture it made me think of them.

Re:mix Young Adult Conference

I have been asked to facilitate a workshop entitled Ministry Across Cultures at this year's Re:mix conference. The conference will be held at the Lutheridge Conference Center in Ashville, NC March 27-29, 2009.

Re:mix is a Young Adult Conference whose vision is to engage young adults in worshiping Christ and equiping them to follow Him-
whatever the cost, wherever the place, and whenever the call.

Re:mix is open to anyone age 14-30,
and features Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil as the keynote speaker.
Also, Shane & Shane will be leading worship during the weekend.

If you are interested in finding out more for yourself or your youth visit the Re:mix site.

What is Necessary in Order to be the/a Church?

This question echoed around in my head for several years while I lived overseas. As I prayerfully thought through this, layer upon layer of American cultural church baggage was stripped away for me. I began to think of the Presbyterian Church that I was part of prior to going to the field. Obviously certain physical structures began to fall away immediately. Most Christians would agree that while they like their church building you don't have to have a steeple, pews, red carpet or an organ to effectively be the church.

Then I started thinking about the life of a church in a typical week. You don't necessarily need a Sunday school, a youth group, or a benevolence committee to be a church. Those are all great things, but are not absolutely necessary to be the church. Then I started thinking about the way we met on Sundays. Do you have to meet on Sundays? Do you have to have a time of singing together? As someone who was a worship leader for many years I sure do like it, but is it necessary? Must you have a sermon preached every Sunday? This question makes many people very uncomfortable. In our very small body of believers in Spain we went for a long time with out any official sermon, but we always dedicated ourselves to meeting together and to studying the scripture. This study took on various forms, but it did not require that one person study the scripture and spoon feed the rest. Instead, being a small group of believers everyone was responsible to participate and bring something to the spiritual table. We fed, challenged and discipled one another. Were we the church or were we something else?

In my mind I began to compare the church to a house and this mental exercise caused me to do a spring cleaning. I took all of the furniture of this house out into the front lawn along with a bunch of trash that had accumulated in my mental understanding of what it meant to be a church. There are certain things for every house that are absolutely essential for it to be a house. It needs a foundation and walls and a roof. After that, there are some essential pieces of furniture which we tend to place in the house to make it more livable. After we have the structure and the furniture, then we get into the decorations. These are the individual aspects of each house which make it a home. Each house is decorated in a different way, and this may make a house more beautiful (or ugly depending on your taste), but not every house will choose the same decorations.

As we look at the church we must realize what the true foundation of this structure is. After that we should move on to some of the essential pieces of furniture. Then we can move on to decorating, but let us be cautious not to confuse the decorations with the foundation. Also, once we take out the garbage we should resist the urge to bring it back inside and throw it in the closet. That will just make our Church an unhealthy place.

So what do you think? What is absolutely necessary in order to be the/a church? What are some great pieces of furniture that every church should strive for? What are some things that are nice, but merely decorations? And finally, are your answers Biblically or culturally based?

One Man's Delicacy

The Great Giveaway

I just finished reading David Fitch's book The Great Giveaway. This book describes how the church has given away much of it's mission to the culture around us. If you are in vocational ministry I believe that this book brings much insight and asks some good questions about how we do ministry today. Also, it does not stop at questions as so many books that take a critical look at the church tend to do, but instead Fitch offers constructive ideas and concrete insights as to where he believes the church can reclaim the mission.

I want to leave you with some of the quotes that stood out to me:

On our Definition of Success

"Let us turn from only measuring church attendance to measuring the life being lived in Christ. Are we seeing evidence of his salvation in our midst? How many marriages have been saved? How much sexual abuse has been ended? What is the number of times people have come to another's aid in the congregation financially, how many people in the church have invited a stranger to the gospel over for dinner, how many people in the church have reached out to a poor person with the gospel." -pg 45

On Leadership

"We should counter the proclivity in evangelical churches to pay and isolate specialists over and against equipping the laity to do the work of the ministry by encouraging the rise of multiple leaders and respective tasks within the church."
-pg. 93

On the Production of Experience

"Today, the typical American under thirty-five doesn't learn simply through isolated, rationally delivered propositions via the lecture hall. In fact, they are even suspicious of it. They react with questions such as, "Why are you so interested in convincing me of this?" -pg. 99

"But by the time the person makes it to the pew, a post-Christian culture already forms him or her six days a week, and so that person has already been formed to hear what he or she will hear" -pg. 101

The Story of Stuff

"Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption...we need things consumed up, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate."

-Retailing analyst Victor Lebow, shortly after WWII

I just watched The Story of Stuff (Thanks to Franco who pointed to it on his blog). After you watch it I would be interested to hear some of your first impressions.

What the World Eats

During the past two years I have been thinking quite a bit about food and culture and how the two are interlaced. I just read a very interesting interview on the Feakonomics blog by some journalists who went around the world taking a look at the different kins of foods people eat and how different societies interact with food. It was an insightful article.

Speaking on Reaching Out

I am in the midst of a sermon series at Harvest Community Church on the topic of Reaching Out. This is a series that is near and dear to my heart after spending so much time seeking God and praying about reaching out to those who are not yet followers of Christ.

I have already given the first two sermons. The first one is "God is a Missionary God" and the second one is titled "Life is Ministry"(Hmmmm, sounds familiar). Anyway, the first one speaks about God's identity throughout history and his desire to reach all of the nations. The second one speaks about the identity of those who claim to be followers of Christ and what God's dream for us is. If you are interested in listening you will find the podcasts here.

Pursuing God in a Technological Age

I have been reading AW Tozer's The Pursuit of God this week. I have been on more than one occasion impressed by the depth with which he writes and even though this book was first published in 1949 I am totally amazed at it's relevance for today. I want to share a quote:

"The idea of cultivation and excercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul." (p. 65)

Universal Healthcare???

So I just watched Sicko last weekend. Yeah, I know, I know. It's been out for a long time. Anyway, I watched it my first thought is that it is unfortunate that such am important topic was taken on by such a controversial person (Michael Moore). I watched his Bowling for Columbine and he was definitely suspect in the way that he manipulates the viewer and spliced the clips together in a questionable way. I chose not to watch Fahrenheit 911, but when Sicko came out I knew that I wanted to see it in spite of the fact that Moore was behind it. Why?

Well, during our 6 and 1/2 years living in Spain many of my preconceptions of socialized health care were challenged. Lori and I were highly skeptical of the socialized system in Spain and purchased our own private insurance through a Spanish insurance company. Since the private system was competing with a free system, not only were our insurance premiums affordable, but when we went to the doctor or the hospital, they would swipe our insurance card and that was it. No forms, no bills, no co-pays if we stayed in our network (it covered 90% outside of the network). Medicines were significantly cheaper than in the states and cheaper still if you were in the Spanish social-security system. During our time there we saw many positive ways in which the socialized health care system was a benefit to the whole of Spanish society. While not perfect, it made the American system seem both bizarre and expensive.

That said I don't think that everything in the socialized medical system was great. While they were reputed to have better technology they were also known for being less personal. We had some very dear friends who experienced the impersonal part of that health care system.

In Sicko, Moore brings up some great questions.

• How come we believe that universal education (public school), universal fire protection (firefighters),or universal police protection, but we freak out at the thought of universal health care?
  
• How can the richest country on earth rank 37th in world-wide health care?
  
• Why are our medical costs spiraling out of control and what, if anything can be done to make sure that the working poor are receiving the care that they need?

So, first I would like to hear from those of you who live outside the USA. My first question is:
1) What are the benefits and the pitfalls of a socialized or universal health care system?

My second question is for all of us:
2) What is the role of the church in the USA in regards to health care? What are some practical ways that the church is already helping people who lack the care they need and what are somethings that we can do that are not being done?

New Documentary

The Mission Field: Coming to a City Near You

One of the most well know and quoted verses by those going into going into foreign missions is "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." (Matthew 28:19) One interesting thing about this verse is that it can also be read, "Therefore as you are going, make disciples of all nations..."

We live in a unique time in history. There is a large influx of immigrants into our country from all over the world. Often the best and brightest from other countries are sent here to study at our universities before returning back to their home culture to lead their country in business or politics. Sometimes, people come here out of desperation hearing about the "American Dream" and hoping that they can work hard and improve their situation, if not for themselves then for their children. How will both of these groups be received by the church?

No longer do we have to think of foreign missions solely in the traditional paradigm of sending families or individuals to far off lands to share the gospel (This is important, but not the only doorway to missions). The mission field is here in our own towns, cities and suburbs.

I am not advocating huge programs or campaigns in this post. What am I am hoping is that we will open our eyes and look around to see ways that we can be loving neighbors to the foreigners and aliens in our own proximity. We never know what far reaching effects our obedient actions may have. I would like to leave you with some statements that I recently read about some of the people that World Relief works with:

Some observations about these newcomers:
• Fewer than 10% will be befriended by an American—let alone a Christian
• They are truly hidden from the life and ministry of most believers
• They come believing the United States to be a “Christian” country
• From their heritage, many have no concept of the separation of religion and government
• Many are perplexed by the lifestyle displayed by the “Christians” around them
• Unless pressured, most are quite open to discussing spiritual things
• The Christian faith tends to be defined by the media, our schools and the general population

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10)

World Insight: Lagos, Nigeria

I was captivated by this brief look at life in Lagos.

Is Santa Claus Real???

"In his most famous exploit however, a poor man had three daughters but could not afford a proper dowry for them. This meant that they would remain unmarried and probably, in absence of any other possible employment would have to become prostitutes. Hearing of the poor man's plight, Nicholas decided to help him but being too modest (or too shy) to help the man in public, (or knowing the man too proud to accept charity), he went to his house under the cover of night and threw three purses filled with gold coins through the window opening onto the man's floor. One version has him throwing one purse for three consecutive nights. Another has him throw the purses over a period of three years, each time the night before one of the daughters comes "of age". Invariably the third time the father lies in waiting, trying to discover their benefactor. In one version the father confronts the saint, only to have Saint Nicholas say it is not him he should thank, but God alone. In another version, Nicholas learns of the poor man's plan and drops the third bag down the chimney instead; a variant holds that the daughter had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell into the stocking. For his help to the poor, Nicholas is the patron saint of pawnbrokers; the three gold balls traditionally hung outside a pawnshop symbolize the three sacks of gold. People then began to suspect that he was behind a large number of other anonymous gifts to the poor, using the inheritance from his wealthy parents. After he died, people in the region continued to give to the poor anonymously, and such gifts were still often attributed to St. Nicholas." (Excerpt from Wikipedia)

Is Santa Real?
I knew that one day this question would come. Last week as I was driving Abi to kindergarten she asked me point blank. Lori and I talked about his years ago. We decided that we would not actively encourage nor discourage Santa Claus's existence, but if asked we would never lie. When Abi asked me I replied that St. Nicholas was a real person who lived a long time ago. Not only that, but he was a very generous person and he loved Jesus. Through his gifts he helped lots of people and Santa Claus helps us remember the real person of St. Nicolas and is an example for us to be generous to others. She seemed to understand and enjoy that simple explanation as she smiled and said, "Thanks Dad."

Advent Conspiracy

International Teams Muslim Ministries

International Teams has a beautiful new Muslim Ministry web site.

God Grew Tired of Us

This weekend I watched the documentary God Grew Tired of Us. It is the amazing story of the "lost boys" in Sudan who fled their country because of civil war and systematic killings and follows the story of a handful that made it to the USA. It was very well done and shows not only their struggle to live in a foreign culture (the USA), but is inspiring to see them live their lives with a passionate and untiring desire to serve others. This is definitely a must see.