Searching for Equilibrium
I just got back from Holland 30 minutes ago. Yeah, you might not have known I was in Holland since I was just in Italy. Actually I was home for 3 days before it was time to go to Holland. Does it all sound crazy to you diary followers? Well, yes it is--and this week I just kind of finally hit the wall.
The missionary life can be stressful. It is a life filled with unique blessings and unique challenges. There is the odd, and often unpredictable schedule, there is the added factor of cultural adjustments and the unique issues of raising kids overseas. As Regional Coordinators, it means that the journeys of our missionaries become our journey too. And on top of all of that---we are trying something very different in this region: Three Worlds. It's a new system and strategy for doing ministry and working cross-culturally and it has been working marvelously.
I'm happy with the great teamwork and synergy.
I'm happy with the team unity.
I'm happy with the response of the countries throughout our region who have graciously embraced 3W.
I'm happy with the systems of transparency that we have set up and are setting up in this region.
I'm happy about our de-centralized approach which is allowing our missionaries to add more value not just to their assigned country but to the whole region.
And I'm happy and thankful for all the supporters and friends of Three Worlds out there making it all possible.
But all of this success has come at a cost. It's been an exhausting 18 months. We've had a pretty crazy travel schedule. We've added a new family to the team and are receiving more requests for personnel and internships than we can possibly process. That's all good. But I realized a few weeks ago, I work 30 out of 31 days. A "day off" usually involves a plane trip from location A, B, or C, back to Berlin.
This past weekend was our first 3W Seminar in Holland. I love visiting Holland and I've known a lot of the Holland friends since 2005 (long before becoming RC). It is always great to see them. Unlike other 3W Seminars, this one I did completely alone--and on 3 topics that are very easy for me to speak about. The turn out was great and enthusiasm was high. But...
I did a lousy job. The subjects were so important, but I wasn't able to pull it together. This is not like me. A few things happened here: 1) I'm just exhausted. 2) We continue to struggle with issues relating to Marco's school and this was probably the worst week we've had in that regard. 3) I dealt with laryngitis while in Italy and have been taking some medication that makes me completely loopy (I can be pretty sensitive to medicine). I wasn't thinking straight at all.
So it was--in my mind--a truly disappointing experience. I know we all make mistakes, but this felt like multiple mistakes on multiple levels and I was really furious at myself for dropping the ball this badly. On Sunday I preached at our new Congolese church in Holland and that went well. And then I came home.
And so the moment has arrived to re-group and regain some equilibrium. It's been exciting to see Three Worlds flourish and be accepted across the region and back in North America--but it has been exhausting. It's been like starting a business with myriad things to think about, prepare, present, and promote. It really has been a start-up.
Jamie and I work really hard, but neither of us are the kind of people that are workaholics or people who let family life disappear in favor of work. We both grew up in hard working families that still made family time a very important part of life. We schedule family time, we take breaks, and we know that our kids shouldn't pay the price for our work. But it seems like, at the very least, the next 18 months can't be like the last 18 months.
We made some changes when we took this job:
-No emails after 6PM (that's a hard one considering we deal with people in multiple time-zones).
-Take regular vacations instead of feeling guilty and avoiding them.
-Make sure to really take a sabbath day off in the week (I've been bad about this one).
-Be available for family time, reading, games etc.
All of that has been helpful, but we're going to have to add more to the list. Like:
Lessening the schedule: Every Feb/March we have a very important meeting in Russia, but I've decided to cancel my attendance to it this year. Thank you to our friends in Russia for being so understanding and thank you to 3W teammates Kelley and Rhonda for attending it. We have a mandatory trip to Greece coming up that all 3 of us have to go on, but at least we will all go together (hopefully there won't be violent riots like this week). My next "long" trip without Marco and Jamie is not until May--which is very good.
Overall, 3W Year 2 has had a lot more time set aside for being at home than year 1. I managed to work in two separate times of being at home with Marco 6 weeks in a row during this year. But with other things going on, it's still not enough.
My hope is that as we add to the team, more and more of what I do will be done by the incoming team members. This is very likely, but getting there can't just be done overnight. People have to be carefully selected, they have to raise funds, and then they have to be integrated. It all takes time. It's been great having the Oldhams join the team and they are already doing so much that makes things easier for us.
Saying "No": I also feel such guilt turning down offers to speak, but I'll have to start doing that more.
Taking a break from Diary More: The last 2 years, I've taken a 4 week holiday from the Three Worlds Diary. That's a regular thing I am doing now and I think it's a good idea once or twice a year. I'd like to have a guest diary writer in this upcoming year--someone who will keep the diary going with lots of interesting things while I'm away.
Delegating more: The 3W team was made for delegation and de-centralization and already we have been able to pass things off to teammates to assist us since they are just as competent if not more so than we are. The Simpsons, for instance, will soon be going to Liverpool, England. A trip I would otherwise have to make. The Philips are already our 3W reps to Russia, and the Varners are busy doing all the massive, logistical things for the 3W Care-a-Van which is our big event in April. Thanks guys.
"More Prayer/Meditation:" I tried having solid blocks of silence and meditation recently (Marco joined me) and it was amazing the relaxing power it has on the brain. There have now been a lot of studies that show the brain expects and really wants a minimum of 30 uninterrupted minutes of relaxation without analyzing or computing---just relaxing. Interesting that the brain is being proven to be hardwired for prayer.
"Less News/More Fiction: I'm a non-fiction junkie and a news junkie. But I recently read how fiction relaxes the mind considerably more than non-fiction because it provides escapism and the story is not written by your mind--but rather your mind follows someone else's thinking into a story where you don't know the ending. That kind of interactive, yet passive mode of thinking is very good for the brain. I've changed the kind of books I read this year (on a test run) and it's been nice. Reading a novel is more relaxing than reading non-fiction projections for world-wide environmental water table damage, as it turns out.
"More Excercise: This one is the hardest one for me. I've lost a lot of weight this year because I eat better, but the excercise stuff is hard for me. I like team sports, and really don't feel like being cremated in football by a bunch of Germans. When I am not on the road, I just want to be in my house with my family. Even going to the corner store feels like a huge chore. So an exercise machine is in the near future.
"More Board Games:" Marco is now at a great age for playing board games and they are apparently a great idea for relaxation and for families. He's ruthless at Monopoly. These games always include a lot of laughter and the whole family faces each other the whole time--instead of the TV or something.
Well sometimes it takes hitting a wall in order to get our attention. I'm disappointed that the church in Holland had to feel the effects of my crash. They were very gracious and patient with me. But hopefully I can take some time in the next 2 to 3 weeks and really gain some equillibrium.
And now, to find that equilibrium....
Rome 3W Seminar
The first Rome 3W Seminar is in the books! I just got back Monday from a wonderful week in Rome where we did our first 3W Seminar at the Church of God in Ostia. The subject of this 3W Seminar was "How to Organize Your Church." Time and time again, I've seen that poor organization is one of the things that most holds back a church's potential. For this seminar we had Gary and Belinda Kendall---founders of the mega-church Indian Creek Community Church in Olathe (Kansas City), Kansas, which not only has 2 campuses but has planted other churches. Gary is an absolute wealth of knowledge on church structures and organization and a mentor to many.
Joining us was George Lutzer who is the Senior Pastor of GracePoint Church in Edmonton, AB (Canada)--the fastest growing church in Western Canada. But what makes these churches so great is not their size, but rather their leadership and the impact that a well-led church can have on a community.
Pastor Gary taught us about the Vision Ladder--and the way a church goes about identifying the particular mission and gifts that it has. Pastor George taught us about the excellent leadership structure which keeps GracePoint so healthy. Both churches show the kind of balanced leadership that really produces great results: strong, empowered leadership that can set the tone combined with a de-centralized but accountable structure which allows people to be creative and innovative. Too much one way or the other can easily be a disaster. And poor management leads to stagnation and death for the organization.
I had 2 days to show George, Gary and Belinda around Rome. I always enjoy being the tour guide--especially in these awesome European cities. Shockingly, on our 2nd day of sightseeing, it snowed for the first time in at least 35 years in Rome. It was absolutely wild. The city shut down and no one was fed to the Lions that day. The snowflakes were huge, and because we were on the Mediterranean, the air was wet--making it feel much colder than 30 degrees F. While it made for frigid sightseeing, it was amazing to see the city in snow.
We also had plenty of time to visit with Pastor Daniele Santonocito of the Ostia Church. He was a great host taking us for cappucino just about every day. And we also made lots of new friends and saw some old ones. Thank you to Marco, Timos, Maria, Francesco, Albert, Eleanora, David, Jessika, and everyone else for welcoming us in your homes and giving us great food. You guys are a great church!
Thank you for turning out despite the snow and the big Roma football match! We were amazed!
Hopefully this will be the first of many Rome 3W Seminars.
The Next Christendom: Discussion 4
We continue our Next Christendom Discussion picking up in Chapter 5.
This next section deals with demographic trends---a subject that is very relevant to the study of religion but is often overlooked or not talked about.
Overall, the bulk of the world's population lives in underdeveloped or developing areas and this trend is projected to continue into the foreseeable future. Countries in Europe like Italy, Russia, and England are seeing steep population decline. Outside of Europe, Japan is declining at a very fast rate. Meanwhile, India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Uganda are rising quickly despite the toll AIDS has taken on these nations. The highest fertility rates are in Yemen, Uganda, Afghanistan, and Angola. Chad, Iraq and Bolivia are also fast growing populations.
Trying to decipher which religion people follow in countries is not so easy. In countries such as Poland, everyone is overwhelmingly baptized into the Catholic Church whether they practice the faith or not. If they leave the faith, this is never counted by the church. "A mother church doesn't abandon her errant children." So the numbers of believer or practicing Christians can be very wrong.
Furthermore in many countries (like Brazil), people may mix their Christianity with other folk religions such as Santeria. Jenkins says that oddly, figures about practicing Christians are probably more likely to be accurate in a place like Nigeria than in Romania because there is no established church.
So which countries will have the largest Christian Communities by the year 2050:
1. United States
2. Brazil
3. Mexico
4. Philippines
5. Nigeria
6. Democratic Republic of the Congo
7. Ethiopia
8. Russia
9. China
10. Germany.
He singles Uganda out as a country where Christianity has grown so much that it is one of the "triumphs of the missionary movement." The Philippines which was introduced to Christianity by the Catholics in the 1500's, also has a huge Christian presence as does Brazil-which he suggests may be primarily Evangelical as opposed to Catholic in the future.
Europe is the area where it is most secular with 44% of British people not affiliating with any religion whatsoever, with 2/3rd of young people not practicing any faith. In Eastern Europe, the Eastern Orthodox church will lose a lot of followers since so many countries where the Orthodox church is strong are seeing huge population drops. New immigrants to Europe, however, do tend to be very religious.
The same is true in the United States where Latin Americans and new Asian immigrants. The infusion of growth into American Christianity will most likely come from immigrant communities and other ethnic groups. White America is secularizing quickly in the United States, but that is not the sum total of America's religious experience.
He makes a final good point that a lot of Middle Eastern countries have more religious diversity than the United States where only 4 to 5% of the population does not adhere to some form of Christianity.
Patrick's Comments:
This chapter is especially helpful for Americans who are often in a panic about Christianity disappearing from the United States. It is white America that is seeing a pretty steep decline and that skews people's perspective. But the US is still a place filled with religious dynamism. Many of the older institutions and mainline communities (and newer institutionalized denominations like ours) are in serious trouble. It's no coincidence that some of the greatest dynamism we see comes from Mexican immigrants who often become die-hard evangelicals and church planters. I got to meet some in Baltimore while making "Mosaic." Any denomination would be lucky to have them--and they work toward becoming legal if they are illegal. Law-abiding, Evangelical, new citizens of the United States.
Consequently, it's very ironic when Christians in America get in such a panic about Mexican immigration. They may be one of the last bulwarks against total secularization. And furthermore, Mexican immigration is dropping very fast as Mexico's economy takes off. It's increasingly not worth the effort to work in low-wage American jobs when there are many more opportunities in Mexico.
As with the economy, the US's Christian future is being challenged. But as with the economy, the answers can all be easily found within our own borders and within our own structures. Reform and re-calibration are completely possible--it's just a matter of will. Not so for some the countries in the rest of the world where they are in serious trouble.
The faith will become mover diverse, however. And this is true across the board--hence the importance of this book and the work 3W is trying to do. Christianity, which has often been represented by the theology and the media of one particular culture is now becoming more diverse. If any country has the opportunity to really navigate this it is the United States where there are so many opportunities to experience that diversity in a safe environment--as opposed to much of the rest of the world.
Our discussions will continue here at the three worlds diary...
3W Seminar: Rome
In a few hours, Pastor George Lutzer of Gracepoint Church in Edmonton, Canada will be arriving in Berlin. Together we are going to travel to Rome tomorrow for our first 3W Seminar there. The subject is on "organizing the church." One of the least talked about, most important subjects a church needs to deal with in-depth.
I met George last May when I was in Canada and was so impressed with his church and his leadership. I had previously heard a lot of good things about this young, emerging leader and his fast growing church. I attended a service and got to meet him personally while presenting a series of papers at Gardner Bible College. We are thrilled to have him and to learn about what they are doing to create such a fast-growing and healthy church.
We arrive Tuesday night in Rome and then the next morning, Gary Kendall and his wife Belinda arrive from Kansas City, KS. Gary will also be co-leading the 3W Seminar and sharing about how his church, Indian Creek has grown from about twenty people to more than a couple thousand with church plants and a satellite campus.
I will also make sure that they have 2 days of sightseeing in Rome since I don't think any of them have been there before. I love being the tour guide. Rome is not my specialty, but it's my 4th visit so I should be able to handle the top 10 places to see. I'll take lots of photos--although the weather calls for rain.
You can learn about George's church Gracepoint here.
And you can learn about Indian Creek Community Church in Olathe, KS here.
The very next weekend, we have our first 3W Seminar in Holland. We'll be updating in other place as well.
We're on Facebook at: Three Worlds and we are also on
Twitter at: 3WCHOG
NPR on Why Young People Are Leaving the Church
If the media player doesn't come up....don't know what to tell you. I'm not sure how long my relationship with wordpress will stay in tact.
David Kinnaman is back with a new book called "You Lost Me." Like "UnChristian", this book explores why young people are abandoning the institutional church. In this interview he mentions some of his recent finding. He raises a few issues on NPR:
*Church not offering a deep response to the complexities of today's world.
*Those churches that deal strongly with complexity, didn't show a strong committment. Those that are very committed don't offer complex answers.
*An example of the complex questions: "A girl in a youth group asking should I sell my eggs to be able to afford college tuition?"
*Youth don't feel the freedom to ask the questions that they really have for fear of condemnation.
*Reverse-mentoring. Young people can enliven congregations and yet they are very open to mentoring and older people in their lives.
A few comments:
I liked his comment about the churches that can handle complex answers showing less fervor than those that cannot. This is a real phenomenon. The churches that take the most clear stand on issues (for instance fundamentalist churches) are often the least likely to dialogue about those issues.
The ones that are open to dialogue, tend to be more liberal and open---but have lower demands on the people attending. So the churches and the people tend to be less dynamic and committment among parishoners is lower. It's a sociological phenomenon. So how to deal with that trap?
If you just respond to today's youth with inflexible dogma, they tune out. But if you are excessively open, there is little that demands a committment. It doesn't just water down Christianity, it makes it pointless.
I think the key word for the church to internalize here is dualism. When churches and Christians are dualistic, it means they divide everything into good and evil--with everything in the world (secular) being totally wrong and awful. Fundamentalist churches are especially prone toward dualism--as are many Pentecostal churches. The whole world is evil and everything in it is evil. Only once you are in the protective bubble of the sect (church) will you find music and art and people that are okay.
This is not what the Bible teaches, but many churches take this posture. Christianity teaches that what God made was "good," and that as the result of the fall, things are not as they should be. Because of sin and fallennes, they have been robbed of their full glory. They are not what they could be (and will be). So the world is beautiful as are all of God's creation--they are just not in the state they were intended to be in.
It's a bit like an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There's no doubt that the Gulf of Mexico and all the sea creatures there are beautiful. But an oil spill taints that. It doesn't suddenly make the whole ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico ugly or bad or not beautiful. But it does taint it, and only true purification can ever restore it to its full glory. But even that oil stained pelican, or fish, or coral reef retains its stamp of beauty.
What the younger generation really rejects is dualism: "Because there was a gulf spill in the Gulf of Mexico, everything is bad! All the fish are bad! All the coral reefs are bad! It was always bad and it's still bad." This is how a lot of Christians have defined the world. As if nothing has any merit whatsoever unless it is found in the church and was produced by the church (like Christian rock music).
Of course, the oil spill taints everything--including the churches. So it wouldn't take long being in a church or hanging out in the Christian music industry and finding out that---lo and behold--things are not so pure there either! It doesn't seem honest to young people to say "there's all good and all bad, and we're the all good."
A non-dualistic view does appeal to young people. It's not that there is no "right and wrong", but it is that your view of right and wrong comes from a point of:
1) Deep humility: We are aware that at any given moment, we too could (and are) tainted by the oil spill of fallenness and imprefection.
2) Love for Creation: An acknowledgement that the world God created is beautiful--even the parts that are not in the church or necessarily Christian. Instead of always talking from the point of judgment and condemnation, one is engaging the world trying to find that hidden value in things that might not apparently be from God.
I think a non-Dualistic Christianity mourns the fall, but continually seeks after beauty.
A Dualistic Christianity forgets we are all tainted by the fall, and is obsessed with deciphering right from wrong.
So why are young people not asking their real questions?
Why are the churches not able to handle the complex questions?
Because many of them are locked into that dualistic paradigm, and the kids know it--even if they can't name it as such. They sense it. There's no process and no humility. "It's my way or the highway."
Confident Christianity is unabashedly Christian---tied to a historic person, processed through 2 thousand years of deep Christian thought, and represented by a book like no other. But Confident Christianity should not need to constantly be in a posture of defensiveness and hyper-panic.
Today's kids are plugged into the whole world via internet and exposed to multiple cultures and worldviews constantly. Overall, I think this is a very good thing, not just for them--but for Christianity as a whole. But it is amidst the bombardment of the senses that there is something within them that longs for the quiet transcendent. The church can be that place, if it doesn't completely devalue the world they live in.
Special thanks to Jen in Indy and her 1 1/2 year old husband Randolph for forwarding this NPR story.
Venice, Italy
On my trip to Italy last weekend, I stayed in a cheap little inn half way between Venice and Treviso. It was only $3 dollars for a round-trip bus ticket to Venice: one of the most famous cities in the world. The bus trip took about 18 minutes going, and only 15 coming back. I've never been to Venice, and it's always been pretty low on my list. Tuscany, Rome, the Italian Rivera, the Italian Alps and the Lake District always interested me more. A lot of people have negative things to say about Venice. In fact, all my life, I've always heard people say bad things about Venice. "It's smelly," "It's crowded," "It's sinking into the ocean." So I've never been that interested in it like I have been other places. But with a trip to Venice only costing $3, I had to check it out.
Venice is a series of 117 islands immediately off the coast of Northeastern Italy. It is a flat, marshy area (much of Italy is mountainous or hilly), with canals. The Venice that people think of, are actually two or three islands where about 60,000 people live in these crowded homes separated by the famous canals. This "old town" Venice is what you see in photos and postcards.
The bus took me across the causeway (a flat bridge that takes about 2 minutes to cross) and then dropped me off at the bus station. It is here that all cars and trains arrive and stop. There are no streets for cars in Venice. You walk by foot or take a gondola or water taxi.
So how was it? FABULOUS! I loved it. It's an absolute must-see if you are in that part of Italy. For starters, it was winter time. When I set off at 10AM, it was about 38 degrees. Unlike July or August, Venice was not crowded with tons of people. Neither was it hot or muggy. Neither did anything smell bad.
As you leave the bus area, you quickly enter into the maze of old streets. It is an absolute maze and it's easy to get lost. I walked across the two main islands back and forth over the course of 4 hours. About 3 1/2 hours into it, I finally did get lost. Just as with a maze, you go down one path and find it's a dead end. Go down another way, and end up where you started. It was fun.
The canal water looked clean. The buildings were absolutely gorgeous--pictures don't do them justice. Throughout the city are lots of Catholic churches--all of them very ornate and beautiful. The main Piazza of San Marco was just like it is in the movies. Since it was winter, often I was walking through these maze-like streets alone. Then every once in a while, there would be a crowd of fellow tourists. This is probably the perfect time of year to visit the city. My guess is that most of the people I know that have gone went in the middle of peak season.
The colors of the houses were so vibrant. I'll bet the city was refurbished at some point in the past 20 years, because like so much in Italy--it all looked very good and well kept up. No trash anywhere. All that Euro money does wonders for the infrastructure. Although overall, the Italian government (especially under Berlosconi) has been terrible about taking care of their many beautiful places.
Some say that Venice is really just a day trip. Yes, that's probably right. Although there are lots of cute little hotels and inns scattered throughout which would probably be fun to stay at if you wanted to take your time and look very closely at the architecture and the churches. If you need to get from one side of the maze (city) to the other, water taxis are the way to go. I didn't use one, but it was fascinating to see how it really is the only way to get from point A to point B in a hurry.
Anyway, I didn't realize I'd get to see Venice this year--at least not this month. But I had a whole 6 hours to kill before meeting up with the gang in Treviso and spending it Venice was absolutely wonderful. Here are so me of my famous, lousy pictures for you to lament. Is it possible that this place can still look beautiful despite my bad photography?
Check it out!
Architect Needed for Mission Trip!
We are looking for an architect to help out with a missions trip in Lebanon. The architect is needed to examine the remodeling of the campsite in Lebanon. The dates are Feb 17-28 and the cost is $2400. Contact us if you know of anyone that would be interested.
Brand New 2nd Church Launched in Italy!
This weekend, I flew to Venice, Italy for the dedication service of our newest church in Europe: the Treviso Church of God. Treviso is a small city just outside of Venice. Venice, of course, is a series of islands with canals that is world famous. Treviso is on the mainland of Italy. The Treviso Church of God, now joins the Arco Church of God (Italian Alps), and the Chelyabinsk-Lenin District Church as our newest congregations.
A group of about 7 people from the Rome Church of God (our only Church of God in Italy until 2010) drove up to visit the Arco church and attend the Treviso dedication. We were also joined by Sue Haberly of Cottage Grove, Oregon Church of God and three other West Coast ladies. Some members of other local churches attended, and all in all, there were 50 of us at this celebration. Many of the people attending come from Latin America as well as Italy.
Pastor Daniele Santonocito of the Rome Church of God gave the dedication message and did a wonderful job.
We are very excited about this new church and are thankful for all the hard work Pastor Niccola Lovaglio is doing in Northern Italy.
Our churches in Italy need support. These first months and years of this new congregation will be key. Please contact us if you would like to hear more about how you can help the Italian Church of God as it expands.
I will post some photos of Venice coming soon.
The "Well-Discovered Life"
A good quote: "Not only do you not know what will happen, you don't even know what can happen ... Radical emergence occurs all the time, Turing machine to the Web to Google, Facebook and the Arab Spring. Taken together this suggests something I'm falling in love with: Live the well discovered life. Here you do not know, as you live your life forward, as Kierkegard said, even what new opportunities will open before you affording unexpected virtues you can perfect."
-Stuart Kauffman