Finishing the Job

But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus -- the work of telling other the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

There is nothing I hate more after a fire than getting home, taking a nice warm shower, then hearing the pager go off to return to a fire that has rekindled. It doesn't happen often, but every once in a while, a hot spot is missed and the result is a rekindling. Most the time, this never amounts to much further spread of wildfires, but it can certainly be a disastrous occurrence.

One of the speeches -- I am known for getting a soap box occasionally -- I often give rookies on their first grass fire is the importance of completing the job. Almost like a paraphrase of the Acts passage I quoted above, I can often be overheard telling newer firefighters "all the work we do today is worth nothing if we do not complete the job... we'll only be called out here again at 2am to finish it anyway." Our job as firefighters is worthless if we do not finish the job and fully extinguish the fire. Usually, once my explanation of being called back in the middle of the night sinks in, the firefighter agrees and works harder and smarter to complete the job before leaving the scene.

A few weeks ago, I posted some thoughts about the Great Commission. At that time, I was focusing on filters and biases that we often unknowingly put on the concept of spreading the good news. When we removed the blinders, we not only see how tunnel visioned we have become, but also see the endless possibilities when we put no limits on God's desire for us to share the Jesus story. I want to return to the Great Commission now, but to ponder on a more broad concept. As I said, we are instructed in this Matthew 28 passage to make disciples of all nations. Later, in the Acts 20 passage above, we hear Paul declare to the elders of the church in Ephesus that his life is worth nothing unless he does not complete the command placed on his life... sharing the Jesus story. Of course this is only after he declares that the Spirit has warned him that jail time and suffering are in his future.

My life is worth nothing if I don't complete my work. Would I be able to make that declaration if I knew for certain that it would lead to jail time and suffering? As Christians, that is the expectation.

I often hear Christians share their desires to create financial stability, raise a loving family, then possibly do some short term mission work later in life. All of these are wonderful aspirations in and of themselves, but if I were offered my picture-perfect American lifestyle knowing that it might lead to me not completing the commands set out before me, I hope my choice would be to surrender those desires in order to share the Gospel. Anybody thinking that late in life is a great time to start mission work might consider renting the movie UP by Pixar. If you have a heart to share the gospel as, in fact, the Spirit dwelling in all of us yearns to do, then waiting until later is never the right time to start.

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What has God placed on your heart about sharing his story lately?

Digging a little deeper than I was able to go in a short blog post, what does it mean to count your life as nothing?

What might be the response if all Christians really did count their lives as nothing and instead rush to finish the work assigned to us?

Like a fire truck with no water...

Many of you have read a previous post, where I described what it was like to receive our very first Class A pumper. I want to take a little step before that--just about 3 years prior--when I was a rookie. There was a 1975 Mack fire pumper. Now, when I had previously explained that my department had never had a Class A pumper, that was slightly inaccurate. We had never had a working Class A pumper. This 1975 Mack fire pumper was really missing something. It had no water. Furthermore, it didn't even have a working pump. The truck was the first due vehicle for structure fires, yet it contained no water. We lacked the funds to replace the rusted tank and fix the pump, so it served as a personnel-carrier with some hand tools and extra fire hose and equipment. The second due vehicle was a tender (water tanker) with a portable pump that could be used to make an attack on the structure. The sad story, as described in a previous post, is that this set up could never fight any more than a simple kitchen fire or any fire requiring more than 250 gallons per minute, for that matter. We needed something more to be effective in our work.
Could we fight fire with that particular set up? Yes. But what was missing was the icing on the cake... the actual water to put on the fire.
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For the past two years, my mission team has been training towards launching a church planting work internationally. While we have been through the proverbial ringer over the past few weeks, we went over the weekend to our final team training retreat, called a training module. This module was called the CPAC, or Church Planters' Assessment Center. The focus of the training was a final assessment as to the maturity and capability of the team. Was our team incapable? No. Was our team immature? No. We simply were missing some focus and direction. This module was the icing on the cake. Much like a good marriage retreat, this weekend took close-to-the-surface issues and allowed them to surface in a productive environment of mentors, missionary peers, and fellow teammates.
During our team training modules, weekly mentoring meetings, and individual team meetings, we have come up with a team strategy, team covenant, traveled on a survey trip, and even performed some outside research to form some concepts relating to the Aussie culture. We needed something to be more effective in our work.
Could we have arrived in Australia without this training module and performed the work we had planned? Yes, but, just like the fire truck with no water, we lacked the icing on the cake.
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Below is my synopsis of the ingredients of the aforementioned icing, which has now been applied to the cake which is our team.

1) Desire: We typically consider desire to be something related to our personal wants. Kent Smith, one of the mentors of the weekend assisted us in the process of redefining desire. Most of us desire things like a steady job, nice things in the home, even a nice meal with family on holidays. These things are not necessarily bad, but don't really deserve the title of a true desire. As a Christian, a true desire is a want that falls in line with God's will for us. As we work towards our 2010 launch for Australia, we have now worked through a process which takes these desires and bring them to fruition. What to know how you can center yourself more by aligning your desires with God's will in your life? I'm working through Kent Smith's book Centered right now, and maybe you will find its iPhone, Kindle, or PC version helpful as well.
2) Team Maturation: Admittedly, this assessment was tough to work through. With losing a teammate just weeks ago, this assessment was inevitably skewed in all questions relating to trust and communication. Even still, we were able to talk through some things that would assist us. We also agreed to wait several months and take this assessment again.
3) CernySmith Assessment: This gave a strong profile on our intercultural readiness, and explains some things we will each need to work on in order to be prepared to work as a team in the new culture.
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What's the Point?
Most of you who read my blog postings understand that I desire to work in dialogue to sort through issues plaguing Christian communities. Much like Christ's parables, which used everyday occurrences to explain his story, I seek to use things I know and understand-- fire service-- to relate to you. Tonight's posting really has no hidden meaning. I merely desired to share with you some things I'm working through with my team.

Are you working through some things that you would like to share?
Don't hesitate to post things you are working through. I would love to hear your comments below. Additionally, if you read this post on my Facebook profile or on Twitter, those are wonderful places to dialogue as well.

Answering the Call: Staffing Shortage

In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, cities around the country were searching to cut back. After years of sales tax revenue increases and other signs of strong economic times, the downturn in housing and financial markets led to lower income for municipalities through tax revenue and all of a sudden cities were forced to make hard decisions. From a macro perspective, it seems easy to find ways that local governments can cut back without dire consequences. When we look at how it affected fire and emergency services, however, the result was a decision that costs lives.

For those not in fire service, allow me to explain--using some vast generalities--the seating positions of a typical four man fire truck. Typically, the driver of the apparatus works the pumps once on scene. He/she is called the operator. The front passenger seat is called the officer seat, is typically a captain or lieutenant, and that position is typically for the individual who leads the crew on that particular fire truck. The two positions in the back seat are simply called firefighter positions, and typically are given jobs such as fire attack, search and rescue, or other jobs as assigned. For any firefighters reading this, we can all attest that it takes all four seats being full to be effective on the fire ground. While one less firefighter is literally only 25% less individuals mathematically speaking, the ability of the remaining firefighters to work to at least 75% capacity with only three of four firefighters is greatly diminished, if not impossible.

That being said, this is exactly the expectation many cities placed on their local fire service. The fire departments sought to prevent this from happening, but when the choice is to reduce staffing or cut staffing all together, many chose the lesser evil. One fire service website stated that adequate staffing is very similar to a good insurance policy. You only worry about it when you need it, but to find out you are uncovered can be devastating.

And so it has come to be that fire houses and fire trucks are staffed with fewer, though the fire calls continue roll in and the fire trucks continue to roll out. They still must answer the call.

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This past week, our "little mission team that could" lost a team member. One of our teammates informed us that moving to the other side of the world was no longer a commitment that she is willing to make. Many mission teams have multiple family units, including singles, couples, and children. Our team, however, was just my wife and I as well as two singles. Though small, each individual on our team had a unique capability, much like the seating positions on a fire engine. Each of the four of us had very unique personalities and gifts, which tended to give us the ability to have a very well-ranged perspective as a team.

For anyone who has never had the privelege to serve on a long term mission team, it is important to note the psychological impact of losing a teammate. Many have likened such a loss to a serious couple breaking up. There is a great sense of betrayal when you place your trust in an individual to work with you into the next decade only to find out that he/she has decided to break off said commitment.

And so it has come to be that "the little mission team that could" is now staffed by three instead of four. Just like the relationship of fire calls to fire trucks, God still calls this team, and this team will still answer the call.

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The Whole Earth

One day I read the Great Commission.

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

"All nations?" I pondered. "How would eleven disciples go into the entire world?"
I decided that Jesus must have meant for everyone from that point forward to be part of this commission. "What joy Christians must get, having the honor to live out the very same commission granted to the eleven so many years ago. I bet they love to go out and share the Gospel. There must be missionaries all over the world," I thought.

I decided to check out exactly what Jesus must have meant about sharing the Gospel with all the nations.

Then I took a look at a map of the earth. My eyes went right to Antarctica and I chuckled. "Evangelism to penguins," I thought with a smile. So I chose to remove Antarctica from the map. I figured the North Pole fell under the same criteria, so I scratched it out too.


"There," I thought. "Now we have an inhabited earth to talk about." Then I remembered reading about how much of Canada and Russia are uninhabitable. If I scratched out the North Pole and Antarctica on those criteria, I couldn't very well justify leaving those sections of Canada and Russia, right? Since I couldn't remember what parts of Russia and Canada are uninhabitable, I just removed them completely. I also wasn't very skilled in high school geography, so rather than looking up a map with governmental borders, I just wiped out everything that looked VERY white on the map. Who wants to live in the permafrost anyway, right?

"Wow," I thought. "The earth is still rather large. How are all the Christians going to reach so much land mass and so many people?"

After studying the map for a while longer, I began to think about Europe. Since that continent is mostly made of white, affluent people, and mission work is typically targeted to those of lesser means, I decided to remove them next. Aussies and Kiwis speak just like the Brits of Europe, except have a prettier landscape. I hated to see them go, but since they are mostly white and affluent cultures, others just need the Gospel more than them. So away went Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.


After some more thought, I remembered a politically conservative elder getting up during church and praising our troops for the work they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I overheard another person at church saying that they wouldn't be surprised if Iran is next, the way Ahmadinejad is acting. "If so many people from my church are in support of our military's efforts on foreign soil, it must be the Lord's work being done, right?" I considered. I zoned out for a few minutes and thought of all of those email forwards I've received with pictures of soldiers praying. "Wow, and to think I had always thought wars were just political," I smiled. "Now I know that God's democracy is being spread the those nations." Upon that epitome, I scratched out the remaining portions of the middle east, because our soldiers pretty much have that region taken care of.


I keep hearing Christians on late night news commentaries on MSNBC and Fox News debate that we are a Christian nation. They give evidence in everything from the Pilgrims to the Founding Fathers, even citing scripture to suggest that the United States is a holy, ordained nation. Since this country is so well cared for, I took it off the list. "Who needs to send missionaries to a Christian nation?" I jested.

But after removing so much wasted space that is uninhabited, nations that have already seen Christ, and rich nations who don't need to hear the Gospel, I still thought the earth look rather large. While I've been able to draw on my own experience and my own intuition until this point, it is clear to me that I now must begin some intensive research. It is imperative that I know exactly what Jesus meant when he said "all nations." Surely, with an earth this large, he really meant to just pick a few target areas, right? I mean, the whole earth, really? C'mon.

So I took it upon myself to research congregation after congregation. Their websites were very resourceful. After exhausting the list of congregations I could remember off the top of my head, I turned to non-profit organizations with a Christian heritage. While not churches, these are organizations that use media, missions efforts, and other means to spread the gospel. Their websites and fundraising mailouts were instrumental in gathering information. Finally, after researching churches and nonprofits, I turned on the Christian channel on the TV. Almost immediately, there was a host to the program in some poor nation talking about feeding the poor and hungry and how Jesus wants us to care for those less fortunate. I noted the countries this show visited and added those nations to my list. After much research, I noticed Asia, with the exception of the Indian slums, was noticeably missing from the Lord's work. If God's people--by that, I mean the churches, organizations, and media sources that claim his work--are not working in a certain area, then surely that is because God's will has them working elsewhere, right? Along the same logic, if I see God's people referencing the Lord's work in the same places from completely unrelated, independent sources, then it must mean that God desires us to focus in these areas, right? I was rather proud of my newfound logic, and made my final cut.



As I sat back and looked at my new visual interpretation of the Great Commission. Surely Jesus must be proud that I took the time to read into his words and finally figure out the puzzle. I had finally gotten to the bottom of this. I thought I might share it with my pastor and elders too, so that they might be able to share with the congregation that the riddle is finally unwrapped... we now know where Jesus desires us to put our focus thanks to some careful consideration. Being so proud, I decided to go back to the Great Commission again. I read it out loud.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I looked at my map. Somehow, there was a disjunct. My logic was sound, though, so what was the problem?

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

After reading these verses aloud again, I looked back at my map.



Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

My eyes began to tunnel in on the verses. Something was amiss.

go and make disciples of all nations.

all nations.

Oh, wait.

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In this fast-paced world, we always want to get to the meat 'n taters of the verses. You know, the main point. We want a synopsis, the reader's digest version, the Cliffs Notes. The biggest problem is this:

When you spend your time trying to reduce Christ's words to your own logic, your own meat 'n taters version, and your own worldview, you won't make the right cut.

Trainingless churches pool ignorance. Pt 2

If you missed Part One of this discussion, you can find it here.

The general synopsis. I have noticed a serious issue that pervades churches. Police, fire, military, and other public service organizations fully understand the need to constantly train to adapt and change with the rest of the world. While churches have done a wonderful job training ministers to produce wonderful shows every Sunday morning with advanced media, powerful music, and thought provoking speeches, there is a segment of church responsibility that is being overlooked. That segment is a method of sharing the gospel. I do not believe the solution to be something like a "5 steps to salvation." No, the solution must be multi-faceted, complex, and adaptable. While I did not label this issue in Part One, I have decided to call this the Molly Problem, in honor the video that piqued my interest in this issue.

Now that we're all on the same page, I do not want this blog posting to be a church-bashing. My last post was related to the issues. This post should be about solutions.

My wife is a black belt. She may, in fact, be a second degree black belt sometime during the spring. It has taken a long time for her to reach this point. While the work in obtaining a black belt was difficult, it pales in comparison to the responsibility once someone obtains a black belt status. When my wife tested for her black belt, there were others that were obtaining that achievement at the same time. I noticed a significant difference between some black belts. Some believed the black belt to be the highest honor and achievement in martial arts. Others, however, believe the black belt to be the highest responsibility related to martial arts. What's the difference? The first group believes that their achievement is completed and the job is finished, while the second group believes that their journey as martial artists has only just begun. My wife will tell you that one of the greatest honors she has as a black belt student is that she now has a responsibility to share that honor with others. She now gets to teach students of all ages and rankings. Not only is she a great martial artist, but she is also a great teacher. That is the difference between a black belt status and a black belt martial artist. My wife is a black belt martial artist.



I believe Christians have the same responsibility. Martial Arts is a journey. Along with that journey, there responsibilities bestowed upon the students. To me, becoming a Christian through baptism comes with a wonderful responsibility. The honor in being a Christian is not merely that we gain entry to the Kingdom. Furthermore, the honor is not just that we have everlasting life. Those are great honors in and of themselves, yet one of the greatest honors in becoming a Christian is undertaking the responsibility of sharing in the story of Christ and assisting others in that journey.

What do I mean by responsibility of sharing in the story? Don't we hire ministers and missionaries for that? You tell me...
Matthew 28
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I don't know about what you read into that, but I have yet to find the verse that says church-goers have less responsibility to share the story of the Gospel than the paid ministers.

What does this have to do with the issue of pooling ignorance and assuring that we no longer have the Molly Problem creep up within our congregations? I believe that when we become Christians, the journey has not ended. Instead, it is now our responsibility to share the Gospel. In order to be able to share the gospel, we must know the gospel. The key is training. It takes mentors of all ages sharing together about their experiences in sharing the gospel. There are so many resources out there that involve sharing the story of our sovereign God and his slain Son. Why do our churches fail to train the membership?

In fire service (and other industries), there is a system called "train the trainer." The concept is that if those teaching fire ground operations are not properly train, it is just a great big pool of ignorance being taught through generations of firefighters. However, if the training officers of a fire organization have advanced knowledge of fire ground operations as well as advanced knowledge on how to teach/train on these operations, then the trainees will leave the classroom/training field better equipped to adapt and overcome in their own environments.

While churches historically have lumped all evangelistic training into five simple steps, that is neither biblical nor appropriate in this culture. The answer is to train the trainers. We need to go back, as a people of God, and assist each other in living out the responsibility, the honor, bestowed upon all of us to share in this wonderful story of Jesus who is the Christ.

Just as fire service training captains and black belt martial artists are expected to continue learning and developing their craft, we should be developing our knowledge on the story of the creator God and his Son, the Messiah. Furthermore, just as fire service training captains and black belt martial artists are expected to pay that knowledge forward, we should be sharing what we have learned about Christ with those around us.

The way I see it, that is the solution to the Molly Problem.

Discussion:
1) Is my solution too simple? Have I missed the boat somehow? Tell me how! Let's learn together.
2) How does a church train the trainer? Or, in some cases, how does a church re-train the trainer?

Trainingless churches pool ignorance. Pt 1

If one were to ask me what it takes to be successful in fire service, my number one answer is training. Whether you are a salesman, career fire fighter, executive officer, or a volunteer, change in this world is inevitable; training is the key to keep up with this change.
Sometimes training goes well...
Sometimes, well, you get the picture...

As a salesman, I am often blessed to see new developments in fire service equipment that can better the methods for those on the front lines. I often get to train on these pieces of equipment and show departments how training to use this equipment can better their operations as a whole.

Take the Eclipse thermal imager, for instance. This little pocket-sized imager is now cheap enough for most departments to afford and is even being adopted by larger cities so that more firefighters on the fire field have the life-saving device in their hands. Not only is size and price a benefit, it also is capable of software upgrades via the web, giving fire departments the ability to change with future updates. This is a piece of equipment poised to change thermal imaging operations.

In the case of firefighters, training is a necessity for their safety. As a firefighter, I am a proponent of aggressive training protocols to keep fire departments ready to adapt to challenges in protecting a community. For career departments, it can be as simple as what some shift departments do, which is devote 2 hours per shift to some form of training. For volunteer departments, it should probably be at least 6-10 hours a month (e.g.- two weekly meetings per month devoted to training.) Of course, we would all love to show up at the fire, be a hero, and go home to our families without danger and without the need for training... but that is a reality only in Hollywood depictions of fire service.

The problem with training is that it is all theoretical. Sure, there are some math equations in advance pump operations and hydraulics, but most of training is an exercise in being prepared for the unexpected. That is a poor argument some people use against training, but I say it is just a challenge that must be overcome. The training should not be a list of rigid rules with no flexibility. Instead, training should include flexibility, sharing potential downfalls to each tactic and offering alternatives. The key to good training is preparing for adaptability.

So, it is obvious that fire service needs training, but what about in families? I answer this question with a resounding yes! Though Tish and I have not yet been blessed with children, many families have shared with us that "teachable moments" are the key to raising disciplined, well-behaved children (in other words, using day to day activities to share with children about life lessons.) In addition to parenting, married couples must take time to grow and learn together, constantly seeking to understand their partners more. The result: families that communicate, love each other, and genuinely take care of each other.

If training works in fire service, and it works in families, what about in churches? I came across this question recently when viewing a YouTube account of a teenager trying to share the story of Christ to a Hindu friend. Take a moment to watch this video if you have not already. The entire premise of the scenario is cause for concern, but my focus is actually to rewind the clock and see what would happen if we were to employ training to Christians as a resource on how to share the gospel in love, not ignorance. In a post-Christendom world, where Christians are often viewed as ignorant, hypocritical, and hateful, it would have done wonders for the Christian in this video to do a little ground work first. Would it hurt to learn a little about Hinduism and Sara's home country of India before spouting off about Jesus, hell, and the wrong continent? Simply taking the time to learn Sara's spiritual point of view would go a long way in establishing trust and showing genuine love and sincerity. At this point, all this video has shown is that most of the stereotypes of Christians are true.

The case is made for mentoring in the scriptures (remind me and a future post will be on the subject of mentoring). I believe this mentoring relationship we see in the Bible carries over in how we teach each other to share the gospel. Those with wisdom and understanding-- especially those portraying grace and sincerity-- should be helping those who have less experience in sharing the story.

Sharing the story of Christ varies in tactic as much as people vary one to another. For that reason, I don't believe a simple lesson on the "steps to salvation" will do. Instead, I believe that training people how to share the gospel, just like in fire training, is a lesson in adaptability.

Unfortunately, I must stop here for today. The good news is that I will be back for Part Two soon.

In the meantime, I'd leave to hear your perspective on the following.

1) Am I right? Has the Church failed to train people to share the Gospel in love?
2) If you were to put a training curriculum together, what would it contain?
3) If you are not a follower of Christ, I would love to hear your perspective. Has anybody ever talked about the story of Jesus with you, and did they do so in love or did they do so more like our friend Molly in the video above?

Before you Crack...

The sound, so I am told, was unforgettable. First a Crack and Boom; next, water is going everywhere. The weight and pressure must have been unbearable for the worn out old pump. What am I referring to? What you see pictured is called a pump volute. It is essentially a housing that surrounds the impeller (the rotor in the pump that increases pressure as well as gallons of flow). With the housing cracked and broken, the pump loses its ability to force water, essentially disabling the entire fire truck. Unfortunately, this scenario became a reality for one of our brush trucks last week.
The culprit was simply that the filling valve on the back of the truck (which is plumbed directly into the pump) had nothing to support its weight. As 150 gallons per minute of water flowed into the filling valve, the weight became insurmountable. The result is what you see in the above picture.
In life, the flow of our daily grind can slowly wear down on us. As we go about our daily work, the pressure builds tension and eventually we crack. But what if we were designed with a support system to help us cope? What if we could relieve the tension so the inevitable "cracking" never occurs?
From Acts 4...All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
I have more verses regarding the first century church and a supportive community than I have space to write. The truth is, a community is absolutely necessary in order to help us cope. Had Christ simply died for our sins, then left us with no support system, what good would that have served? No, Christ knew that we would need a community to give us the support we need.

Many have read my previous posting, I want to be tired. In that posting, I spoke about how I do not believe we are created to live a life seeking refreshment. I believe we have work to do on this earth and we need a greater sense of urgency in our work. When I speak of a supportive community today, it is not in contradiction of my former post. In fact, I believe it backs up my previous statement. The "supportive community" of which I speak is not intended as a crutch, but rather an encourager to press on and work towards the goal.