Over the last several weeks I’ve been exploring the idea of what Christmas means to me. I’ve even written a guest blog for my roommate on this topic; soon enough I’ll post it on here as well. To whet your appetite, I’ll leave you with this great reminder from Charlie Brown Christmas.
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Have you ever tried explaining what you do to somebody and it turns from what should be a one sentence descriptor to a briefing of your job description? Yesterday while on the phone with Adam, we finally figured out the best way to describe what XEE is and does. We actually stopped the conversation and had a mini-celebration as a result.
So without further ado: “XEE teaches Jesus followers how to tell the story of the gospel within the context of relationship.”
A friend had this quote posted on his facebook page this morning. Very thought provoking. Enjoy!
from JD Greear’s blog today:
“I can’t help but feel that lurking beneath the surface in much of the current disillusionment with the church is a dis-ease with the traditional message of salvation. People are passionate about the poor, the environment, and third-world debt. But they seem embarrassed by a violent, bloody atonement for sin, let alone any mention of the afterlife that hangs in the balance.
My observation is that as people grow tired of hearing about the atonement, salvation, the cross, and the afterlife, they grow tired of church. Because the more that sin and redemption and heaven and hell recede into the background, the more the church becomes just one among several options for making a difference in the world.
So as much as the church has been nothing but a holy huddle at times and as much as I admire zeal for good works, there is a danger in much of the missional literature that the gospel of God’s grace toward sinners gets swallowed up in urgent calls for world redemption and cultural transformation. There is a danger of centering our churches on adopting schools and offering parenting classes instead of being centered on the message of a heavenly Father who adopts unworthy children of wrath through the work of His Son on the cross. There is a danger that we find our unity in doing good missional deeds for our community and not in the good news of the gospel. There’s a danger our Christianity becomes all imperative and no indicative, all about what we need to do with God and little about what God’s done for us. There’s a danger that when people get disinterested in the gospel, they get disinterested in the church. And once they leave the church, they’ve left the only institution whose mission aims for eternity and whose gospel is truly good news.”
- Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, Why We Love the Church, pp. 50-51
Today I write from the nations capitol of Washington D.C. George Roller, a co-laborer in Christ and good friend is the Executive Director of the Center For Christian Statesmanship. For two years we’ve talked about putting a trip together and having me come out. What a treat it’s been to experience Capitol Hill with him!
So far, I’ve walked through the Senate buildings helping deliver flyers to all 100 US Senators for our Politics and Principles luncheon tomorrow, joined in and met Senate Chaplain Black during his Friday Bible study (only in America can the gospel be preached from inside the Senate Building, conquered old Rag Mountain in Virginia, visited Great Falls (saw some incredible kayakers surfing the rapids…check out the video,) and today wandered the hallowed halls of Capital Building, Supreme Court and Library of Congress.
It may sound like a lot of fun, and don’t be misled…it is, we are using this time to plan our Mission To Congress this coming summer. I’ve been blown away to think that so much of the world has been influenced from this one location. To walk where histories heroes such as Lincoln, Adams, Washington and Jefferson walked and set direction for a united nation. It’s been exciting to see and experience. I’ll write more when I’m not exhausted and can share about our Politics and Principles luncheon.
While presenting XEE at the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, Chuck Swindoll shared 10 ministry lessons from his 50 years of experience. He opened with this unshakable quote: “when God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” Even as I write this, I’m not sure what to think. If this quote is right, coupled with his 10 lessons from ministry, then these serve as finger posts along the journey pointing us in the right direction. (check out the link on scottcarson.org to see all 10 lessons)
Looking back, I’d say the crushing started immediately and occurred often. When we first embarked on this adventure together, I thought that in six months I’d have all the support secured and shortly after be working out of the office in sunny Fort Lauderdale, FL. Like lesson 9 states: “God’s way is better than my way. God is going to have His way.”
Moving home after college was a humbling experience. To me, moving home after college meant failure. To add to that, I had no real desire to ever step foot back into the high school I graduated from. Needless to say, the two years I spent substitute teaching at that exact high school only added to the feelings of failure and brokenness. All part of Swindoll’s sixth lesson he shared with us.
After two years and what looked like more at home, I was invited to move up to the Chicago-land area to be discipled by Darrell Farney. The learning curve did not get any less steep, as I lived and worked out of a basement that was graciously loaned to me. It’s been an unregrettable season of learning from a man who’s devoted his life to pursuing God’s call.
My season in the Chicago-land area is coming to a close as I prepare to move to Fort Lauderdale, FL shortly after Christmas. In the midst of still living here, the truth of Acts 17:24-28 continues to ring true. Just in getting involved with The Edge (youth group) we’ve seen four students come to Christ, one of which I’m discipling as he pursues missions.
Disillusionment, frustration, patience, perseverance, crushing, submission and joy all accurately describe my experience with my job so far. As hard as the time at home was personally, God gave me a gift in disguise. I had an extra two years to spend with family and close friends before we all dispersed.
When you boil it down, each day we take part in seeing lives transformed and it’s worth it. God has allowed us to walk people over the threshold of faith and meet some of the most incredible people in the world, you! Some days it’s tempting to believe that we haven’t made any progress over the last 4 years. Then I catch glimpses of how God has been transforming lives through our ministry and sit in awe of what God is allowing us to be a part of. Simply looking at our Fiji internship, there are three people overseas sharing the gospel as a result. One is working with Youth With a Mission and reaching Muslims, another is in Fiji training youth to share the gospel, and the third is an advanced placement art teacher in the Middle East.
Please continue to join me in praying for wisdom as we start a new season in our ministry in Fort Lauderdale, and pray that our ministry would continue to bear fruit that remains.
Grateful for your prayers, encouragement and support
Last week I had the privilege of participating in the Catalyst 09 conference. Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Louie Giglio and worship leader Steve Fee were in demand as they headlined the conference. However those weren’t the expected highlights for me.
I would have never guessed that Chuck Swindoll would be my highlight. I was pleasantly surprised. After receiving the lifetime achievement award for 50 plus faithful years of ministry, he continued to share with us 10 ministry lessons gleaned from his experience. There is no need to type them out here as you can click this link and be redirected to a summary of his talk. Maybe it’s where I’m at in life, but I can see this sermon being one I return to time and time again for it’s ageless wisdom.
A new day has dawned for our ministry with Evangelism Explosion. During the Summit in North Carolina, several pivotal conversations transpired. The condensed version is that I was presented with the opportunity to: “partner with the Director of XEE North America (Adam Bond) to develop XEE as the cultural and generational paradigm for faith-sharing training in North American Evangelical churches.” Some of my responsibilities would include: functioning as a primary XEE Launch Facilitator, develop Facilitator Training Materials, and discover and train Gen-X pastors as launch facilitators nation-wide.
One of the great benefits of this new position is that it will allow us national exposure to local church pastors. My role of directing short-term trips will not change. In fact, it will be enhanced! Functioning as one of the primary launch facilitators, I am able to meet pastors during the XEE training, and afforded the opportunity to share the vision of our short-term trips. From there we’ll be able to call upon them in the future to join us overseas.
This transition will include several key changes for me personally. The largest is that I’ll be relocating to Fort Lauderdale, FL to work out of EE’s headquarters. However, the move won’t be happening until after Christmas. This will afford Adam, Rick Bond (Director of Generations) and I the opportunity to work hand-in-hand to set the direction of this ministry
One of the hopes I have before moving is to be able to see all of you. I hope to be able to share this great news with you in person and share how God has been and will be using our ministry in “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Thank you for your continued partnership and desire to see the world changed!
Well folks…I’ve dropped the ball as a month has passed and I’ve yet to update you about my trip to North Carolina. My sincerest apologies.
The first week was spent catching up with co-workers and hearing about the future direction of the ministry of Evangelism Explosion. It’s hard to not have a good time when you get a room full of like minded people who want to changed the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m amazed to see how a ministry that started off trying to reach Fort Lauderdale,FL for Christ is having an impact both nationally and internationally.
As our staff time wrapped up, I was invited to stand up in a wedding of one of our former Fiji Interns and more importantly my friend Seth Brown. Two great things came out of this time. One, Seth got married and I had the pleasure of participating in that. And the second was the time it afforded me to get to know our VP of Development and his wife. What a great couple! It’s one thing to know someone in the context of a work meeting, but it’s truly a privilege to be invited in their home and their lives.
After that, I made like a bread truck and hauled buns through the Smokey mountains to Franklin, NC (thanks FA)where I spent the week with Kevin and his wife Sharon. If you ever needed to find us, you didn’t have to look to hard. Lunch at the Gazebo was the norm. Do I miss the sweet tea!
My time spent in Franklin was a great opportunity to relax, meet old friend and make new ones. It was fun to catch up with the El Salvador team and hear about what God has been doing since the trip.
As my time came to a close with Kevin and Sharon, it was off to pool volleyball in Edwardsville, IL. For two years Ben (another friend met in Fiji) had been enticing me to come over and play and our day had finally come. Subsequent to 10 years of careful guidance and subtle direction a sport fit for kings emerged. Countless hours were invested playing what can only be described as the most impressive round the sport had ever seen…not really, but we had a great time.
Shortly thereafter I wrapped up my 2500 mile trip with a visit home to see some good friends, eat some of mom’s home cooking and relax before the unwind began.
These past several weeks hurried by. It started with an Xee launch in Allendale, MI and then a motorcycle ride to Lake Junaluska, NC for our biannual EE Summit. I’ve since spent the week with friends in Franklin, NC riding the Highlands road as well as the infamous Dragon’s Tail at Deals Gap (here’s a borrowed video to give you a taste of what it looks like.) I’ll write more about my adventure once I get home. Photos soon to follow.
This is an email I received recently. On the surface it seems unrelated to our ministry, however; if you remember 2 people from our El Salvadorian host church were being sent to that clinic. Please be in prayer for David.
An urgent prayer item from David in Guatemala:
(Summary translation) On June 25 at the startup of two simultaneous EE clinics in Guatemala City —a Kids’ EE teacher training clinic and an EE Youth clinic— armed bandits entered the “Open Bible” host church, ordered everyone to lay on the floor and turn over their cell phones or be shot dead. The thieves also took the laptop computer belonging to Paola Gomez (the Kids’ EE organizer/teacher/facilitator), as well as the ministry’s video projector.
Most of the people present for the training were teenagers, and the atmosphere was very tense. However, we know that we have the joy of “stealing” away souls from the Devil who has come to rob. He who is with us in more powerful and will give us the victory in the next three days of the clinics.
We invite you to join with us in this great battle, confident of the Lord’s control and power, knowing that he is very present with us, and that all will turn out for the good.
In the all-powerful Christ who is Lord over all of heaven and earth,
David