"The World has come to us"

I have heard the phrase "we no longer need to go into the world because the world has come to us" thrown around a lot as of late. The context of this statement is always to emphasize the point that our culture here in America is becoming vastly cross cultural. We can no longer assume that people know how to do things because they simply live in America. The world definitely has come to us and it didn't take me but a ride on the SEPTA (southeast pennsylvania transit authority) a couple mornings ago to be confronted with that realization, as if I didn't already no that. I boarded the #13 trolley at about 6:19 a.m. headed toward Center City. As I approached my normal seat (the single seat near the rear door) I noticed that the lady sitting in front of me was completely covered in the traditional Muslim dress. She had the long black dress to her feet, the headdress, and the covering for her face (forgive me for my lack of knowledge about the actual vocabulary for this outfit). This sort of caught me by surprise because you normally don't see this everyday. It put a smile to my face to some degree just thinking about the true diversity of southwest philly. On our block alone we have about 5 families who are west african refugees, 2 chinese families, 3 caucasian families (us included) and 10 african-american families. This truly is a blessing to Rachel and I because it really feels like we can minister cross-culturally without even leaving our country. As true as the statement "the world has come to us" might be, I still feel like we, as believers, need to have a heart for the nations. Not only for the nations, but to go to the nations. I'm not one of those people who feels like everybody needs to be a missionary but I do feel like everyone (believers) need to be globally minded. I must confess that it is extremely hard in America because while there is great strife and protests in Burma this week, signifying the mere sanctity of life and living freely, all we hear about on our news networks is the latest fashion of Brittany and how her baby is doing. It truly saddens me to know that very often I fall right into that trap. The NL wildcard race is so important right now, I mean, there are only 3 games left and the Mets are choking....God have mercy on me. Many times I am thankful for friends and family who divert my attention to things globally.

My sister-in-law is serving in Odessa, Ukraine in an orphanage. She first travelled to the Ukraine while in college and ever since has had a deep passion for the people, especially children of Ukraine. She just goes over to Odessa, lives, and works in the orphanage loving on these children. Her main passion, which is so exciting and challenging to hear, is for adoption. She returns to the States every summer and speaks in churches and groups about the possibility of adopting a Ukrainian boy or girl. Hearing the stories of the number of children that she has had the opportunity of seeing adopted to loving, Christian homes in America is utterly amazing and often times makes me think what the purpose is of sitting in a seminary class. God does bring all things together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Hallelujah!!) but still....wow!!

I am thankful for people like my sister-in-law who constantly challenge me to think and pray globally. There are many others in my life who have shared their passion for a particular part of the world and I am truly thankful for them as well.

Though the world may have truly come to us, our response to the wonderful grace of Jesus and the work of the Gospel should be to take that message to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8) for our God is indeed zealous that "they will declare My glory among the nations." (Isaiah 66:19)

For HIS name and fame.............

Practicing spiritual disciplines on the Interstate, perhaps

In my Formation and Mission class we have formed small groups to be apart of to complete 4 projects throughout the semester. This is something completely different than anything I've been involved in before as far as group work in a class setting is concerned. It is very refreshing to be involved in this kind of context with my classmates. This is what community is all about and it is so important, even the field of seminary study. It is so encouraging to know that we will be praying for one another and checking in on eachothers lives throughout the semester. We are all coming from various backgrounds and stages in life and ministry so we all come with a different perspective. One of my groupmates, who is a youth pastor at a Korean church, his wife just had a baby last Monday night so he wasn't in class. He shared the excitement that he is feeling at this time but I was just amazed at the things that are on his plate outside of the classroom.

Our first project that our small group is to work on is that of Spiritual Disciplines. We had to come up with 2 disciplines that we as a group could work on to implement in our lives and practice them for 4 weeks and then come together to debrief our experience. The disciplines that we chose to practice are: simplicity and solitude. Fleshing out our disciplines are going to look a little different for each person but we basically are focusing on using money that we would spend to rent a movie, or a coffee at Starbucks, or whatever, and using that to bless or give to somebody else who is of need. We also are going to go through our closests to basically clean house of those nice shirts and slacks that we wear but once or twice a year, and then give away to somebody else. Solitude is going to look a little different as well but the purpose of it is to connect and listen to the heart of God, which then will spring up in us a compassion and desire to serve in the area of simplicity. I can already see my time sitting in traffic on I-76 or I-476 as a great way to sit quietly and focus on the Lord!!!! (Lord, I need your grace).

Though these disciplines are being done for an assignment, it is my prayer that the Lord will use this to instill these disciplines in my life as a daily adventure. I would invoke your prayers in this endeavor and maybe you can take on a discipline or two also.

Mice, toilets, and brew

Rachel and I really love our apartment. It is bigger than our apartment in Chicago, it's right across the street from a park, it's only 5-7 blocks from Cornerstone Christian Academy (school that Rachel teaches at) but since living here for a month we have now been getting acquainted with what are apartment really has to offer. Mice, toilet leakage, and the inconvenience of not being able to get a simple beer or wine from the grocery store. Let me start with that. There is a law in Pennsylvania that forbids any grocery store, drug store, etc. from selling any kind of alcohol. You can only get beer at a beer depot that are located throughout the city but are very inconvenient to get to. If you want to get wine for say, a special occasian to share with your wife, you have to go to a different depot. This one not only carries wine but also the hard liquor. This is even more uncomfortable because the alcohol content in these bottles have a higher percentage that the Cubs winning percentage.

I came home from class last Thursday to find Rachel sitting out on the front step with a book. I thought it was cute that she was waiting for me to get home. Without even greeting me with a holy kiss, she proceeded to mention that there WAS A MOUSE IN OUR KITCHEN. So I did what any husband would do...I went in the kitchen and calmly coaxed the mouse to enter a box and then set it free outside. Well, he wasn't the only one in our home. We have others and Rachel is freaking out that I am not her only roommate. Our toilet has also began to leak from the bottom. It doesn't overflow or anything but there is a gradual leak everytime you flush so that the next time you go to 'use it' you get a little foot washing too. Don't worry, the water is clean so I guess that is good.

Maybe in more ways than what we intended God is preparing us for the mission field this year. and we embrace it with open, willing hearts!

Ministry is.............?

In my Monday evening class "Formation & Mission" my professor posed this question to us. For this class we have formed small groups that we will be in for the duration of the semester so in our groups we were to describe or define ministry in one sentence as if it were the first line in a magazine. This led us into a group discussion on what we think ministry is. It was a real interesting activity and was even more interesting hearing the response of each group. So, what is ministry?

According to the groups in my class it is: "Incarnating the gospel in your world/context" was one response. Another response was, "Ministry is God's calling of His people to further develop and grow His Kingdom", and another was "Ministry is our response to the Great Commission through service and discipleship empowered by the Holy Spirit". If you know me well you can probably figure out which group I was in but that is beside the point. So far in my seminary classes and the reading for them, I have really been challenged to rethink or come to a decision on where I stand with this whole emerging church movement. Reading books like "a new kind of Christian" and "character of theology" have led me down a path of underlining certain points that stuck out and questioning others. I know that I shouldn't expect to come to a strong position right now but it is definitely valuable to look into.

It's quite obvious to me that we can no longer expect that the tactics that were used in Christian ministry back in the 60's 70's 80' 90's will still be relevant to our culture. The message of the Gospel is one that is never changing or wavering, but we minister in a context and culture that is ever changing and the question becomes: how do we minister the Gospel in this day and age? Many tend to believe that you cannot be in tune with the culture and the scripture at the same time because you will then have elevated culture above the word of God, and others say that you cannot put all the focus on the Word of God because then you will have no relevancy to your world. This can't be right. What's the balance? There has to be one right? Well, that is something that I haven't quite figured out and I'm quite sure that I won't really mind if I don't figure it out. All I know is that my heart's desire is to live a life that is reflected of Jesus Christ. To see the world the way He sees it, to love the world the way He loves it, to show compassion the way He shows compassion, and to surrender to the will of the Father the way He did.

My desire is to live authentically the Gospel message of Jesus Christ in the context that I am in and then just pray that the Lord would use my humble, feeble efforts.

Letdown in Lincoln

I don't want to bore you with analysis of the letdown last night that the Huskers put on but I do want to make a few comments. First off, Nebraska just didn't capitalize on any of the breaks that were given to them. It was obvious that USC was a much better team but the game would've been completely different if they would've simply capitalized in the first half. When they were up 10-7 and on the assuing kickoff the return man fumbles and a USC guy scoops it up and goes 55 yards down field, that just took the momentum away and boosted the Trojans offense. If Nebraska pounces on that ball and scores the game is completely different. But that didn't happen and the Trojans took over the game from there. Second, Bill Callahan seemed to get away from the passing game that was carving up and through the USC defense. They went to the run and weren't getting anywhere. Third, the blackshirt defense did not know how to stop any of the freshman tailbacks that USC threw out. The holes were huge and these guys went running threw them untouched the whole game.

Another note, late in the second half after the game was out of reach and the announcers began talking about things other than the game, Kirk Herbstreit showed his top 5 college football teams. His list included USC, LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, and Penn State......PENN STATE?.! Where did these guys come from? Sure they are #12 at weeks end but better than West Virginia or Wisconsin? Come on Kirk.

Showdown in Lincoln

Nebraska has the privelege of hosting the #1 team in the nation this evening on primetime ABC. It seems kind of silly that USC is ranked #1 after only two weeks of the seaon and they've only played 1 game. I still will never really understand the purpose of preseason rankings. I don't think that the rankings should start until the 3rd or 4th week at least. It gives teams an unfair advantage when they are preseason ranked in the top 5 because if they lose early, they don't drop very far i.e. Notre Dame the past two seasons. Teams like Wisconsin, who last year started unranked worked their way up to finishing #7 but were left out of a BCS game because a crappy Notre Dame team started really high and never dropped far after their losses. (anyway, that was for my Bucky friend)

But tonight in Lincoln should be a good game and matchup. Nebraska must play well on both sides of the ball if they want to pull out a win. In Lincoln, the crowd should be rowdy and I'm sure USC is going to be sick of seeing the color red after this weekend. If Nebraska wants to establish themselves as a powerhouse like past years, they must win this game...otherwise it's going to be like recent seasons and they will have to settle for another New Year's Day bowl that won't mean anything.

Let's go HUSKERS!!!! Knock the stupid Trojans off of this ridiculous pedestal that people put them on because they are USC.

So since moving to Philly Rachel and I have discovered that Southwest Philly (the community that we live in) is one of the most violent, crime ridden areas of Philadelphia. It sure was fun telling family and friends about the area that we live in. Just down the street from us at a church gym on 70th St. (we live off of 65th St.) there is a small basketball league that plays on Wednesday nights. Last night was my second outing as apart of the "white" team. This league was started by a guy named "Earthquake" Moore who's claim to fame was that he appeared in one of the Rocky movies (sorry for those Rocky fans but I do not know which one it was). He always has some sort of a program or reason for gathering to play basketball and he pumps it up as such. I'm not sure if it is anything more than just trying to get the news crew out there (which the Fox News network in Philly has come out the past two weeks) but nevertheless it is a good idea because there are just tons of youth that pack the gym. The first week's theme was called "Start Snitchin". His whole message was about encouraging these young guys on the street to tell the police when they see a crime happen or any gang activity instead of 'keepin it real' and letting criminals go unpunished. Last nights theme was all about going back to school and working hard for your education. The news crew had good footage of Earthquake given the message and even stayed around to video some of the game. I'm sure they got my dunk on video but I wasn't able to see it on the news.... Most of these kids are high school or above but what a great way to get them all together in a positive environment.

Anyway, the "white team", not because we were wearing white jerseys, always seem to hold our own for the first half but get run around the second. I think it's because we only have 5 guys and are constantly battling fatigue. Plus we are older and cannot run up and down the court like these youngsters can. Anyway, we got throttled last night by 25 points or something but we are just out there to build relationships and have fun anyway. About 8 minutes into the first half I notice that the opposing teams point guard was absolutely no threat to do anything with his left hand. Now, don't get me wrong, he was killer with his right but when I forced him to go left he would take 1 dribble and pass it off. What a handicap. I made the observation known to my teammates during the game and he didn't like that very much. He began taunting me and taking it very personal. After the game I caught up with him and apologized and said that I did not mean anything personal by it. I encouraged him to work on his left hand so that he can be a threat to go both ways. I think a lot of these guys don't see the need to development the fundamentals when they can always get to the bucket when they go with their right. So, amidst getting our butts handed to us, maybe there will be some sort of fruit down the line.

Last night however, I drew my first nickname from the guys who lined the court to watch: "Steve Nash" they shouted everytime I touched the ball. I'm not sure if it was becaue of my Canadian accent or because of my constant having to pull my hair behind my ears. Maybe it was because of my killer floater that I dropped on their big man for 6 points!!

Missional........

So I began my offical debut as a Seminary student about 4 hours ago. After being oriented with all the procedures and structures of the school, and forking over the money for books, I am on my way. I am offically a Seminarian, and the fact that I am broke and will be reading in all of my spare time should be a good indication that I am such. But anyway, I am super excited to begin my training.

Biblical Seminary , is paving the way for training men and women to be ambassadors of the Gospel to this ever changing and emerging culture that surrounds us. It has already been exciting and challenging in thinking along these lines. God is a God of mission and it is our job and calling to align ourselves to be a part of His mission in this world. That is, in a nutshell, my purpose for even attending seminary. I want to be well trained and equipped to share and minister the Gospel to this world in which I live, whether that is in SW Philly, or overseas, I need to take the very words of Jesus and live them out so that people will be attracted to Him.

My desire in this blog is to jot down what I have been learning in order to interact with others who are on this same path of trying to live Jesus to our world.

I consider myself blessed and priviledged to be on such a journey and it is my desire to complete the journey well.