Along the Shore

Kenya – 1997
People Group: Maasai

Most of us have who live and minister “stateside” have gone on short-term mission trips to various places. Many of us have ministered in other places in North America. Others have ventured to leave home, cross a cultural barrier, and take the Gospel to the nations.

My most memorable, life-changing, growing experience was almost ten years ago, when I led a team from my church to work among the Maasai people in the nation of Kenya. We ministered in an area called Ilkushin, in southern Kenya, near the border with Tanzania. This was my first-ever experience with church planting. I’ll be sharing stories from this experience … and the lessons learned … over my next several posts.

What about you? What was your most memorable, life-impacting, growing experience in cross-cultural missions? What did you learn?

That’s pretty much how I feel right now.

Most of my friends who read my blog know at least a little bit about my church.  Crossroads Fellowship is a 5-year-old congregation.  We have a wonderful “temporary” home in a building that we purchased in 2005.  That building is directly across the road from our 39-acre future campus.  We have dreams of someday having, not only a worship facility, but a park, lake, athletic fields, walking track, and an outdoor amphitheater.

This spring we took our first steps to “settle” on our land by constructing a beautiful pavilion for our outdoor fellowships and events.  It is centered in the area that will someday be “Crossroads park.”  We have recently been putting the finishing touches on that pavilion.  We’re going to hold our first baptism on our land at that pavilion near the end of August.  We’re even planning to hold worship there one Sunday morning in late September.

So, you can imagine my shock and disappointment when one of the men in my church called me this morning to tell me that there had been some vandalism on the property.  Apparently, our rented portable toilet had been run over by a vehicle and damaged beyond repair.  And the company was going to bill us about $450 – $500 for a replacement.

I jumped in my vehicle and immediately drove down to the property.  I found the pavilion littered with beer cans and shattered beer bottles.  And, worse than that, some of the electrical outlets had been beaten off of the poles, apparently with 2×4’s from our construction.  And for some reason the vandals decided to take a 2×4 to the rather expensive breaker box.

Late this afternoon one of my church members … actually, he’s our electrician … was checking out the damage when two vehicles entered the property … presumably headed for their new-found party spot.  They fled when they saw him, but he pursued them and got the numbers off of their plates.  They were, apparently, teen-agers.

So, I’m speechless.  I’m numb.  And I’m a bit depressed.

I guess I’m just so disappointed in this world that we live in … a world in which our young people feel the liberty to desecrate a church’s property with alcohol and destructive vandalism.  I have never, personally, dealt with anything like this before.
I ask that you pray for me, pray for our church, and pray that the Lord will give us the wisdom to deal with the complexities and legalities of the situation in which we now find ourselves.

I’m heading out in a couple of hours for a night fishing tournament at Kentucky Lake.  This is our first-ever “Open” Night Tournament with our FOCAS (Fellowship of Christian Anglers Society) club.

I’ll be fishing with my buddy Todd Price.  We fished the FOCAS members-only tournament a couple of weekends ago and took second place … which included a little money.

Here is a picture from that night…

 So I’m going to be out of touch for the next twelve hours or so.

Meanwhile, you can help me out.  I am currently locked in “mortal combat” with my buddy Les Puryear in a “who’s who among Baptist bloggers” competition over at Kevin Bussey’s blog.  So, sometime in the next 24 hours, be sure to visit this link and cast a vote for your old buddy, Geoff.  I’ll be sure to split the winnings with you. (Let’s see … naught divided by naught leaves naught…)

And wish me fisherman’s luck.  A top finish could mean a few extra buck$ at the Baggett house!

Sunrise over the beach of St. George Island, Florida. I took this picture as I was going out to do some early-morning surf fishing last spring. I took it from the deck of our rental house. The house was named, “Right On It.” I think you can see why.

There wasn’t much “surf,” but I caught a huge shark that day.

Sort of reminds me of the “New Baptist Covenant …”

Reactions?

Interpretations?

Comparisons?

What do you really think?

Phil Johnson and company at Team Pyro have launched a series of motivational posters about some of the inconsistencies they see in the Emerging Church. This is an example of their provocative work. Check out their other “motivational posters” here.

Communicating Irresistible Influence through Stories

Lewis stresses that the most helpful tools for clarifying a vision for ministry in the church are the stories of its members (98). He seeks to expose church members to personal ministry stories in public worship services and the church’s monthly magazine. The most engaging, encouraging, and motivational portion of his book contains several personal stories of victory in ministry at Fellowship Church.

This approach is another deviation from the standard practice in most churches. Most personal testimonies tend to be centered upon self. They relate how God has moved and acted in the personal spiritual life of the individual. However, the Irresistible Influence approach to testimony places the focus upon God moving on the lives of others through a Christian’s ministry. This is a very insightful and motivating approach. It is quite clear that testimonies of ministry struggles and successes are powerful tools in the development of personal ministry.

I have sought to use personal ministry testimonies on a regular basis at Crossroads Fellowship. They are always very moving times in our church. The most incredible testimonies come from people who never felt equipped or able to do ministry before. Their stories are always heart-warming, exciting, and inspirational. We have been blessed with many such testimonies in our first year of existence.

(more…)

Structuring for Irresistible Influence

Lewis identifies the structure of a church as the single most powerful element that either encourages or stifles ministry in the community.  Indeed, once the new vision of ministry is planted among the people, the implementation of the Irresistible Influence strategy often requires a change of structure in the church.  The goal is to design a structure that would unleash people for purposeful ministry (75). 

Hands-on ministry experiences.  The first stage of transformation is to carefully select projects for the church that will provide opportunities for members to successfully interact with the community (77).  This is the process of bridge-building in its stages of infancy.  Lewis proclaims that the church will never wander into the world on its own.  It must be led into the world (78).  Therefore, church leaders must plan and calendar ministry experiences for the church.  These ministry opportunities must be stressed as being vital to the life of the church.  Lewis offers examples from the life of his church.  Its people took part in work days at local public schools, adopted a local public housing project for hands-on ministry, and rented a local theme park for an entire day for local policemen and firefighters. 

This intentional approach is absolutely essential.  It has been my experience that many churches make no intentional plans for community ministry.  Indeed, most often ministry is considered to be action within the church body.  Truly, the church must be led into the world.  By intentionally planning ministry exposures in the community, church leaders can help break down stereotypes, bring good will in the community, and show the priority of outreach in the church.  It seems clear that this first step is in the hands of the leadership, namely the pastor.

We have sought to provide bridge-building ministry opportunities for our new church, Crossroads Fellowship in Cadiz, Kentucky.  We have worked on homes of community residents and held work days in the local school system.  These opportunities of first exposure to ministry have led to a growing hunger for ministry among our people. 

(more…)

Equipped for What?

It is obvious that Robert Lewis did not intend to produce just another book on church growth and outreach.  His goal is to help the modern-day church rethink its role in today’s culture.  He points out the ongoing goal of the church to equip the saints.  But he follows the affirmation of this goal with a haunting question, “Equipped for what?” (29)  Indeed, with the club-like, self-serving mentality that exists in most North American churches, what is all of the equipping process for?  This book is an attempt by Lewis to answer that question.

A New Philosophy of Ministry

The systematic approach that Lewis uses to “make his case” for community ministry is most impressive.  He does not simply launch into a barrage of ideas for ministry and testimonies of church members.  Instead, he first leads the reader to rethink the very nature of church.  His text encourages the leadership of a church to identify the church’s real purpose.  Before a church can address a change in its approach to ministry in its community, it must first affect a change in its philosophy and in the hearts of its people.

(more…)

About two months after launching Crossroads Fellowship in 2002, I was blessed with an invitation from my sponsoring church to attend (at no personal cost) a conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. I didn’t know what the conference was about, and I really didn’t care. I simply knew that I had an invitation to get out of town, for free, and enjoy some fellowship with some terrific Christian men … so I jumped at the chance.

I had no idea that the next three days would change my philosophy of ministry, the direction of my fledgling church, and my ministry career. The conference was called “Becoming a Church of Irresistible Influence.” It was hosted by Dr. Robert Lewis and the Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock. The conference developed the ideas presented in an incredible book published by Lewis in 2001 entitled, The Church of Irresistible Influence.

I recently read a review of this book on the 9 Marks site by Greg Gilbert. While I respect his views, I think he became so bogged down in his desire to avoid a “social gospel” that he completely missed the theme of the book … that ministry is our pathway (bridge) to opportunities to share the Gospel (preach the Word).

So I decided to share my views. Most of my posts this week will consist of a review of this life-changing, ministry-changing (for me) book, as well as some commentary. I want to share this review with you in the hope that you might consider purchasing and reading the book, and seek to implement some of its strategies in your church.

Enjoy…

(more…)

Okay … I had to post this …

Something really deep, theological, and eternally life-changing. Well … not really.

You see, I recently had a water leak in my bathroom. I am actually a man who is truly blessed beyond measure … I have my own personal bathroom adjacent to my home office. I live in a house full of women (three of the age 13 and up!), so you can imagine what a blessing this third bathroom really is. Anyway, the leak under the sink ruined my cabinet and floor. I had to replace both.

Once I installed my new sink cabinet, I realized that I no longer had a toilet paper roller. I had thrown out the old “system” with my former cabinet. What was a (fisher)man to do?

Well … I had this old bait casting reel that was not usable. I bought it at Wal-Mart a few years ago. I tried it for surf fishing once. It had various mechanical problems. And it simply wasn’t suited to fishing the surf anyway. But I had this idea … how might the thing do as a completely unique, fisherman-designed, toilet paper distribution system?

So, I disassembled the reel, did a few measurements, cut the center spool in half with a hacksaw, and got the task of fabricating a connecting brace in the hands of my buddy, Allen Coleman, who is an expert metal worker. Allen designed, cut, molded, and welded the mount ends on a 10-inch piece of stainless steel. He turned me a perfect 2-inch tab on each end. He even drilled two mounting holes for me. And it fit my reel “like a glove.”

And … wallah … now I have the most unique toilet paper distribution system in the world!

I decided to mount my new toilet paper system on a cool piece of driftwood that I found while beach combing on St. George Island, Florida. The driftwood has square nails in it, and looks like it could be a small piece of wood from an old ship (or it might be a piece of a pallet … I don’t know).

Anyhow … here are the pictures of my most unique creation. The handle actually cranks out the toilet paper for me. I don’t have to worry about setting the drag , but I have the anti-reverse turned on.

I just thought I would start off everyone’s Saturday with a smile!