I’m as shocked and confused about the congressional hearings on IRS persecution of Christians as everyone else in the country is. Who would have ever thought—even in our era of political polarization—that there were governmental employees and whole agencies in our own nation that would single out followers of Jesus for harassment and, yes, persecution? If we’re learning anything from the hearings, it’s that such persecution is indeed happening. I know that “persecution” is a strong word. And by using it, I’m not suggesting that the persecution Christians are facing in our nation is the same as that of those heroic martyrs of the faith dying even today in Muslim […]
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“Worship Wars” is an awful term—but an accurate one. On the one hand, it’s painful to describe anything that goes on in a congregation as war. Church is, after all, a place where there should be peace. On the other hand, congregational conflict erupting over musical styles has been so intense in some places that “war” is the only word that fits. I’ve heard about the worship wars for years. Most often the war breaks out between those who prefer what they call “traditional” music and those who prefer what they call “contemporary” music. Many a pastor and worship leader knows first-hand how painful the conflict can be. Inevitably, each […]
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Pam and I are at Myrtle Beach for a few days. I know this place has a bad rap. I’ve heard it called lots of things, from the Redneck Riviera to the Tackiest Resort on the East Coast. But we like it. There’s lots of stuff to do, and when you don’t want to do anything (or run out of money), you can just sit on the beach and look at the ocean. Today’s agenda is to ride go-carts then—you guessed it—sit on the beach and look at the ocean. We’re in our thirty-third year of being together and times like this are growing more and more precious. Just […]
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The latest stage in our public universities’ rapid descent into anti-Christian bigotry was reached recently at Florida Atlantic University. Professor Deandre Poole, teaching a course called “Intercultural Communications” instructed his students to write the name of Jesus on a piece of paper, put it on the floor then step on it. All the class jumped right in except for Ryan Rotela, a Mormon who was offended and refused to cooperate. He later claimed he was suspended from the school for his action. The resulting scandal quickly went viral under the name Stomp on Jesus. Not a bad title when you think about it because it so perfectly captures the spirit […]
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This city is a cross roads for many nations, and one of the tragic consequences of the many conflicts throughout the region is that tens of thousands refugees end up here. Pam saw this situation close up yesterday. She worked much of the day in a refugee center that deals with people from as far away as Afghanistan. Mainly women and small children stay there; the husbands are trying desperately to find enough work to support them. An older couple—in their sixties—run the place. They came over from our nation without a clear idea of what they’d do here, only that they wanted to do something to make a difference […]
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I didn’t get the chance to write yesterday—a long day. But some really cool stuff the Lord keeps throwing our way. This morning I had the chance to speak to a larger gathering of workers in the area that included some of our partners but also workers from other groups. We sang together and hung out for a while. I was the speaker for the morning. Afterwards, I had lunch and a long theological discussion with a young, single man from Canada who arrived here after he graduated from college last fall and is now planning on making this work his life vocation. Jake and I then travelled across town […]
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A great day today, our fourth day here. Meetings this morning with our partners, dreaming together about future directions for our work. Then a wonderful time with some nationals, who have a group that gets together a couple of times a week for encouragement and inspiration. Almost all of them are new to this, so it was really exciting to be able to speak to them. They were so hungry to learn! We’ll be working with them next week, distributing the material you guys so generally provided for. Also met up today with a new friend doing work in the same area as us. It’s always an unexpected blessing to […]
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Ok. A fun moment. This is three members of our team—minus me because I’m taking the picture from the front seat where I get to ride because I’m the senior member of this group—packed into the back seat of a taxi. One other member of our entourage tonight we can’t show. More on that in a minute. So anyway, in the pic we’re on our way to dinner then to a filming session. The meal was excellent. But afterwards the real treat was to sit down with the leader of the entire Central Asian region and his wife in a local coffee shop on a busy street, and talk with […]
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Ministry in this area of the world is like ministry in any other part of the world, only more so. What I mean is that we and our partners here face the same cross-cultural challenges we would face in, say, Honduras, the Philippines, Germany or even India. Things like a different language, culture, lifestyle, education and social environment. It’s just that in this part of the world, those things are magnified by a uniquely pervasive involvement with a singular religion. Every facet of life is colored by this religion. Which means that figuring out a way to effectively communicate our message in this environment presents an unusually difficult challenge. Our […]
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Our team arrived in this amazing city a couple of hours ago. There’s an energy here that lets you know right away this is a place on the move. People everywhere and all of them rushing to get somewhere. New buildings going up as far as you can see. Two-thousand-year-old ruins resting next to modern apartments. Mosques with their distinctive minarets dot the skyline and calls to prayer echo through the streets throughout the day. And perhaps most critically, expressways crammed from curb to curb with traffic with our host careening through it like Danica Patrick at the Daytona 500 as he took us from the airport to our home for […]
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