Category Archive

Originally published on IgneousQuill.net
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The movement of which I am a part was born with two driving objectives: A return to original Christianity and the undenominational unity of all Christians. At the moment I am undecided as two which of these is more naïve.

The conservative position in the Stone-Campbell movement has been that unity can only be found in accepting only what the Bible says and either leaving everything else out (as the Church of Christ claims to believe, though imperfectly in practice) or leave opinions as “non-essential” (per the independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, a position which also has difficulty in practical application). The liberal angle, as found in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has been to go for organizational and institutional unity through ecumenical means with other denominations.

All attempts have shown themselves to be failures. So, has Jesus’ prayer failed?

Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples, and not only those who followed him in his earthly ministry. He made it clear he was praying for all of us in every century of this present age. The trouble, in my view, is that we’ve misinterpreted this passage. We’ve assumed that somehow it will be possible to get everyone on board with specific doctrines and practices. Yes, we must struggle to find our commonalities and discover the ground we share together, but I don’t believe that this will be found in any conference or meeting room. It will be found on the mission field…and the entire world is the mission field.

Traditionally, this prayer of Jesus has been read to mean that once we acheive unity, the world will see our harmony, want the peace we find together in Jesus, and be converted. This is plainly not true. In context, we have every reason to believe that Jesus was talking about a practical unity, a unity in mission and not in every detail of faith. It was not institutional unity that Jesus was interested in, but rather missional unity.

A little girl goes lost in the forest. Very soon a rescue team is formed and volunteers join trained workers in the effort. A base camp is established, though it is empty most of the day. A few coordinaters work from there, while teams spread out to search. There is a ground effort as well as a search by air. After three days a couple of searchers on one of the teams spots the little girl next to a creek. She’s tired, hungry and scared, but otherwise okay. A helicopter airlifts her out while paramedics take her vitals and give her juice.

The people on that rescue team may have had a lot of ideas about a lot of things, but they were united in their common objective: Seek and save the girl.

Now, I know that in a church the issues can be far more complicated. We have Scriptures that guide our faith and any number of personal issues to deal with, but we also have our common mission: Seek and save those far from God.

Jesus was not praying that we would be a showcase for love and harmony (though that is a very desirable by-product of working in common mission). He was asking the Father’s blessing for us to be able to work smoothly together in advancing God’s rescue mission to this world. It is only in this way, as we unite our efforts and coordinate our energies, that the world will be effectively reached with the Good News that Jesus is Lord.

The following came to me via e-mail and I pass it along here to encourage anyone in the Midwest who can make the trip to Tulsa this Spring to do so. The Tulsa Workshop is a very worthwhile gathering of Christians, not only Church of Christ brethren but now also welcoming those from the independent Christian Churches.

www.tulsaworkshop.org

Due to recent events and fresh insights, this site is undergoing some changes.  More information will be available over the course of the coming weeks.

Thank you.

The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps. (Proverbs 16:9 NRSV)

No one knows what a day will bring, much less an entire year. While making news years resolutions wasn’t part of my upbringing, I’ve long been into goal-setting.  Is there a difference?  Maybe, or maybe not.  I do know that the year ahead holds quite a bit of potential and that I don’t want to pass any of it up through lack of focus on my part.

First, my brother-in-law Marcelo has succeeded in his request for a visa to visit the United States.  He is the Brazilian missionary who stayed on in Uberlânia with his wife and kids when I moved my family to the United States.  Under his leadership one congregation has become two and a young man who was converted through his ministry went away for a two-year ministry training course.  Great strides have been made in the evangelization of the city, and Marcelo and Selma (his wife) share a vision not only for bringing people to faith in Christ but to truly help people in practical ways.  They work in marriage and family counseling, holding workshops and seminars to help people live better and have happier homes.  There is a recovery aspect to their ministry as well and a group in the church has organized to help out in social projects, such as volunteering at a local orphanage and arranging donations of funds and goods for this work.  Marcelo’s purpose in coming to the United States is to raise awareness and support for the mission in Uberlândia.  He has yet to finalize travel plans but intends to come to New Jersey first, then head to the Midwest.

Second, my family is planning on making a trip to Brazil.  This is especially significant because my wife hasn’t been back there since 2006 and I haven’t set foot in Brazil since leaving in October 2003.  Had things gone according to plan we would have been back in full-time mission work there in 2008.  At this point it seems more likely we’ll be working indefinitely with the Brazilian community here in the northeastern United States and making occassional trips to Brazil.  It would be best if we created a fund for these trips.  At this point we are nowhere near the estimated $3500 we’ll need for airfar, and I’m estimating that renewing our paperwork for travel (including American passports for my wife and daughter who were naturalized in 2008) will cost no less than $1000.

Third, this is the year when we intend to get serious about youth ministry.  A few of our congregation’s young people are now teenagers and we are anxious to begin holding regular youth group meetings in our home beginning in January.

Fourth, my wife and I want to head to Honduras in December 2010 to help with the second annual “Jesus Banquet.”  Click here and here for more on this effort.

Fifth, there are unsettling uncertainties we face here in the year ahead.  The start-up I work with in New York is running out of investor funds.  If we don’t succeed in raising another round of funds by the end of January or beginning of February we’ll have to close up shop.

Through it all, with all the hope, potential and insecurity of a new year, we move forward believing in the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who was revealed most fully in Jesus of Nazareth.

Your prayers for us and the good we seek to do are deeply appeciated.  Happy New Year!