by John Shirk
Following Jesus
It is common to hear Christians speak of the Great Commission as the marching orders of the church. Jesus’ last instructions to His disciples were to go into all the world and make disciples. I suspect most Christians would agree this is central to our mission. We know Jesus commanded us to make disciples and we want to obey, but knowing our mission and wanting to fulfill it doesn’t guarantee we will succeed in accomplishing it.
by Wayne Bridegroom
As has been mentioned in two previous stories, the wonderful works of God are to be repeated over and over, generation after generation. The Spirit of God has an amazing way of going about the work of building the church. In our wildest dreams we could not have conceived of such methodology.
by Wayne Bridegroom
Tell these stories to your children over and over, to generation after generation… so says the Scripture. Well, here’s another one. It goes far beyond any local church.
Castro took over Cuba in the mid 1950’s as a communist dictator. It didn’t take him long to kick all the missionaries out. A mere five years later I was in Guatemala for the summer with the California Yearly Meeting of Friends to help agricultural missionaries in the Chiquimula and Jocotan region. I quickly learned a sad truth. The best and brightest national believers were sent off to Guatemala City or the US for seminary training. They never came back to their own towns and villages. Thus, their excitement about a new fangled thing called TEE (Theological Education by Extension) was explained to me.
by Wayne Bridegroom
Last Sunday was quite a day of positive twists and turns. If you follow John’s “BlogTalkRadio” show, you may recall his interview with me in regards to the 10-week class on racism that I had just finished co-facilitating at our church here in Modesto, California. Among other things, I spoke of the incredible reception and glorious time of worship we had (as part of that class) at an African American church in town. Yesterday, we announced that there would be another trip to that church in west Modesto on Sunday next month. A number of people immediately signed up to join me in order to visit Christian Love Baptist Church once again.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. – Albert Einstein
Recently I had a great conversation with new Christian. After explaining the cross and the gospel in simple terms, he asked, “Why don’t more Christians talk like you do?” I think he was referring to the fact that I talk about biblical truth from the standpoint that I, myself, am struggling to understand it. I usually don’t have the final word on a subject; I’m in process, and I’m letting others in on the process and asking them questions to get them engaged.
Questions are so much better than answers.
If I had a Book of Answers to sell you or a Book of Questions, which one would you be interested in? There was a time when I would have bought the Book of Answers, because that’s what I was looking for. I wanted the answers to life’s problems. I wanted to answer everyone’s questions. I thought that if Christianity answered everything, then everyone would want to be a Christian.
Actually the opposite is the case. Answers are what make Christians boring and dogmatic. With answers, it turns out to be “my way or the highway,” and who wants to cozy up to that? Christians who have bought the Book of Answers in many ways discourage the process by which people actually come to faith in Christ. Answers lead to a dead end. There’s nothing more to talk about — nothing more to explore.
Answers are often stagnant. Answers so often end the conversation. There’s nowhere else for the discussion to go. So there it is; there is the answer — take it or leave it — and if there are no more questions, then I guess we’re done.
In contrast, questions humble us. They open us up. Questions lead to lively discussions that almost always lead to more questions. Questions make us think. They help us to know each other more deeply. Questions feed the conversation as we walk alongside each other. No matter how far we go, there will still be questions on the table, sometimes more than when we started. So we are never “done.”
Questions reveal where we agree and where we don’t, but even when we don’t, questions allow us to keep the discussion open-ended. We’ll come back to it another time. Who knows: we might see things differently the next time we talk. Questions allow us to live with each other in the meantime.
Most importantly, questions capture the magnificence of God more than answers do. I’m always amazed when I look at the Book of Job and discover how there are more questions in the end of that book when God finally speaks and “answers” Job’s questions than there are in the beginning. In other words, God answers Job’s questions with even more questions — the weight of which crushes Job in showing him how little he is and how grand and all-powerful God is. Indeed, His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. So much so that Job proclaims in the end, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-7). Repent? What did Job have to repent of? The notion that he and all his friends could actually have an answer to his situation. There are certain things we simply cannot know, and there is no one who can answer that except to humbly repent of the assumption that you could.
Peter Pan is one of Marti’s favorite childhood stories. She first experienced the Broadway production of Peter Pan in New York when she was eight years old. So inspired, upon returning home, she flew off the top of her brother’s bunk bed only to break her collarbone, but not her spirit, which has carried her belief in the story ever since. So when learning the original Broadway version of Peter Pan was playing in Orange County, I bought two tickets; one for Marti and the other for her eight-year-old self, Joci, her granddaughter to carry on the tradition. To celebrate, I asked Marti to share her inspiration from the story of Peter Pan for today’s Catch.
by Marti Fischer
I believe in the power of fairy tales, where simple childhood stories often carry profound spiritual wisdom. One of my favorites is Peter Pan, a timeless tale that still captivates me. Peter, an orphaned boy, lives in Neverland—a place of eternal youth and wonder. His adventures with Captain Hook and the lost boys highlight the tension between growing old and growing up.
So I thought I’d do my wife a favor. She had a package ready to mail this morning to the Social Security Administration and asked me to take it to the local Mail Stop when I realized it was going to an office about 20 minutes away. Now I knew she was nervous about sending her drivers license in the mail and waiting for them to mail it back (she was applying for a new S.S. Card and they required her actual license for identification) so my offer to personally deliver her application and hopefully come back with her license was met with great enthusiasm and appreciation.
by Marti Fischer
Seeing me empty, you forsake
The Listener’s role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew
–C. S. Lewis
I have no doubt that prayer does something; I am just not sure what it is, and I don’t fully understand how prayer works.
Prayer is talking to God.
Prayer is listening to God.
Prayer is deliberate (not going to sleep).
Prayer is reaching, stretching, wondering, doubting.
John Fischer The Catch 