A long obedience in the same direction

Eugene Peterson coined this phrase some years ago as the title of a book:  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.  It signifies that the faith journey is indeed that, i.e., it is a journey.  It’s not a once-for-all-decision, but an ongoing series of decisions to follow the way of Jesus.  I am pondering this as I sit here in the airport, waiting for a flight to Frankfurt and then on to India.  CBM has been involved in India since the 1800s, and it has been a long journey with ups and downs and twists and turns.  Through it all, though, there have been multiple generations of people (both Canadian and Indian) who have sought to be faithful witnesses to the Gospel.

One of my co-workers sent me this quote recently, from Frederick Buechner (one of my must-read authors!) and since Buechner always says it better than me, I’ll just end this post with the quote:

“If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened to you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: “Can I believe it all again today?” No, better still, don’t ask it till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied that daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer’s always Yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because the No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The No is what proves you’re human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and. . . great laughter.”

Moving past CPR

You see a body floating down a river.  The person is still alive but is obviously struggling, drowning.  You jump in and grab them and swim to shore; you place them on their back and perform CPR.  They live.  You have just rescued someone!  That is a good thing — a very good thing.  You have taken a risk, given of yourself, and made a difference in someone’s life.

But then you see another body floating down the river.  Again, the person is alive but is drowning.  You are startled to see this happen again, but of course you jump in, grab them, and swim to shore.  You perform CPR, and they recover.  Once again, you had done something wonderful — you have saved a life!

But what happens if you notice another body floating down the river?   Maybe, at some point, you realise that it’s not good enough for you all by yourself to be rescuing people, so you form a Rescue Station, and you staff it 24/7 so that no matter when a body comes floating down the river, they will be rescued.  Eventually you build a Medical Centre next to the Rescue Station so that people can be nursed back to full health.  And then you create a Centre for Swimming Lessons next to the Medical Centre, so that people increase their capacity to survive being in the river.

This is all good.  You have moved from ad hoc emergency rescue (“relief”) to a more systematic and planned response that strengthens the people you’re helping (“development”).  “Relief and development” — that’s a good thing.

But at some point, you may start to wonder:  WHY are bodies floating down the river.  WHAT IS HAPPENING UP-RIVER?  Are the banks slippery?  Is someone throwing people into the river?  Why, exactly, are people ending up in the river?

Once you start asking those questions, you have moved past “relief” and past “development” into the realm of “justice”.  Social justice is about moving up-river, asking the hard but necessary questions that deal with WHY.  It’s a harder task than just doing relief, and it’s a harder task than just doing development.  But if we don’t ask those questions, and if we don’t seek to become a part of collaborative attempts to figure out what is going on “up-river” and to deal with it, we are just dealing with the symptoms, and not the causes.

Let’s rescue people — yes.  Let’s strengthen them and help them learn to swim — yes.  But let us also find out why they’re ending up in the river in the first place.

Being people of justice has little to do with whether we’re “left-wing” or “right-wing”; it has little to do with how we vote.  The “up-river” causes are complex, and so are the possible solutions.  In fact, the causes and solutions are complex enough that I can see justice-minded Christians coming up with very different solutions to deal with what is wrong.  For example, some would say that free trade and globalisation have helped lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, and others would say the opposite.   Some would say that the minimum wage is critical in order to keep people from sliding into further poverty, while others would say that it increases unemployment and thus increases poverty.

No-one said this was simple.  But let’s not run away from the complexity.  Let’s keep asking the “justice” question, and live in the tensions of our various responses.

February 20th is the World Day of Social Justice (http://www.un.org/en/events/socialjusticeday/)  I’m glad that the U.N. has such a day.  I think that Jesus thought it up first, though.  His version?  “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  (Luke 4:21)  Justice comes with God’s Kingdom.  Justice comes with Jesus.

“If you work hard, stay focused, and use your gifts, you’ll get ahead.”

“If you work hard, stay focused, and use your gifts, you’ll get ahead.”  This is the kind of advice that is commonly given to children and young adults, often with good intentions.  There is a certain amount of truth to this of course.  It’s just an utterly incomplete truth.  And what it leaves out is stunning.  It assumes that:

• you are growing up with enough nutrition in your diet that your brain develops normally and is functioning well
• your society and religion encourage you to use your gifts and don’t prohibit you from certain roles just because of your gender or ethnicity
• you are living in a country that is stable, without random violence, so that you will not be attacked and maimed resulting in you becoming incapable of working
• you are living in a place where quality is education is provided so you learn how to read and to think
• you grow up drinking water that is clean so that most of the time you are healthy, not sick
• and more . . .

The fact of the matter is that success results from hard work PLUS many other things that are out of the control of the individual.  Those of us who live in the developed world take for granted all those things in our environment that help us be successful, such as clean water and stable societies.

Many of the world’s poorest people have entrepreneurial instincts and work long hours with few resources.  One of the best ways we can help them develop economically is to help them maximise their particular gift-mix by leveraging it into a small business, so that they can earn an income for themselves.  This usually takes money.  But they are unable to borrow money because they have no collateral and the loans are too small to be worth the paperwork for commercial banks.

That’s where micro-credit can help.  Access to small amounts of credit allows people to move from small income-generating activities into small businesses. Small loans let the poor develop their own businesses, thereby creating self-sufficiency, a sense of dignity and long-term sustainability.

Microcredit plays an important role in reducing poverty.  Income from small businesses goes to buy food and keep children in school. Working with national church partners,  CBM’s The Sharing Way takes a unique and effective approach. We’ve seen income from small businesses vastly improve the overall quality of life for all participants and beyond as empowered groups often start to look at how they can address other needs within their communities. Women in many impovershed cultures are often viewed as low in status, but by becoming engaged in business and being responsible for money, they are able to build confidence  and have a voice within their community.

Micro-credit is our “Project of the Month” for February.  You can find more information here.

When persecution results in unity and ministry: a modern-day story

You are about to read a great story, about something that just happened a few weeks ago!  It’s from Aaron Kenny, one of CBM’s Field Staff, working in Kenya.

Persecution can drive Christians to scatter and disband . . . or else the complete opposite.  Under trial, Christ’s followers can come to see the importance of unity and cooperation as brothers and sisters in Christ.

East Africa was in the news last summer because of the drought and famine.  It is a part of the world where Canadian Baptists have long been present and involved, and in the crisis of last summer we worked with our partners to provide immediate food relief.  Our next steps now involve working with local churches to help them become centres of community development and food security.

But, new challenges have emerged.  The past six months have been a time of unrest in Kenya’s North East Province (NEP), including the city of Garissa.  Reprisals from the Islamist extremist group El Shabbab against Kenyan targets have included attacks against Christian churches and community members in Garissa. Pastor Ibrahim of the East Africa Pentecostal Church, which was hit by a grenade attack in November, buried two members of his church and has cared for four others wounded in the attack. “God is greater!” shared Ibrahim, “There is no evil as powerful as God. We do not need to be afraid for God is with us. We need to trust in Him! [Outreach] takes a long time to see even a few fruits. We must continue to pray and person-to-person, one to one, we must be friends to our neighbours. Friendship means helping them when there is need, person to person. This takes humility, being a servant of Christ.”

This January, Canadian Baptist Ministries held its first Garissa Pastors and Church leaders conference with representatives from almost all of the churches in Garissa. Gathering in the cool coffee hills of Ruiru, the pastors met for prayer, fellowship and a focused time of reflecting upon their individual and shared ministry in the context of Muslim majority communities. “This is the first time we have done this”, shared Pastor John Mwaura pastor and chairman of the Garissa Pastors fellowship, “This is an historic day!”

Kenya is predominantly a Christian nation, but there are 3.7 million Muslims living there, many in NEP.   Learning what it means to be the Body of Christ in the context of Muslim-Christian relations is not an easy journey:  it has been a rocky road, and the Church has endured internal schism, mistrust, and external strife through four decades of ministry. And yet, the Church stands together in humility and grace.

Throughout our meetings, the pastors confessed past failures in working together and in ministering to their community. “It is easy to see ourselves in competition with each other,” admitted one pastor.  “Unless we know each other as brothers, how will we be one as the Kingdom family of God?” In practical ways, the pastors discussed how they will move forward in mutual support and openness. Sharing both hopes and fears, we were moved by the honesty and vulnerability of these Christian leaders who share a common desire to serve God in building his Kingdom and strengthening the Church.

We were also amazed by the openness and maturity of the pastors as they discussed their experiences and missteps in Muslim outreach and dialogue. “The Gospel must be shared through acceptance and understanding,” shared a pastor, “We cannot argue anyone into our faith.” “In the past we have tried crusades and preaching in the streets,” admitted another, “But these only bring conflict and hatred upon the entire church.” Prayer, understanding, open-handedness, hospitality, and sincere friendship with their neighbours emerged as important dimensions of effective witness of the Church. Together the pastors identified needs for further training and support for themselves and their congregations as they desire to live their faith in dynamic ways to bring about the shalom of God in this community.

 During the conference, our CBM Africa team facilitated discussion and led workshops on models of Muslim Ministry and approaches to Food Security, two key areas of interest and concern. The pastors were encouraged by the gathering and have requested that CBM join their fellowship in strengthening the witness of the Church in Garissa. Not only have the churches committed to future training with CBM, they have committed to work more intentionally with each other with 100% participation in the local Garissa pastors fellowship and seeking ways to cooperate together in worship, congregational training and community outreach. “Together we must be in unity,” shared one of the pastors at the end of the conference. “With one voice we are the Body of Christ — One Loving witness!”

***

Video greetings and thanks from two of the pastors:

1.  Pastor Jessie Muiruri from the Garissa Pentecostal Church http://vimeo.com/35184118

 2.  Pastor Johnson Ndonye of the Africa Inland Church, Garissa, thanking CBM for the gift of this conference and for the Canadian Church supporting them in prayer.

http://vimeo.com/35185317

Go global, act local: Wherever you go, there you are

“Wherever you go, there you are.”  I first heard this saying from a friend of mine, who, no doubt, thought he was being profound and witty at the same time.  And he was.  He was saying that we as individuals don’t find salvation or transformation by escaping into new environments — we can’t run away from our problems.  No matter where we go, we take ourselves along, and eventually our “self” comes out, and needs to be dealt with.

But there’s something else we can get out of this saying, which is: all our actions are “local”.  In other words, whether we’re at home, or on the other side of the world, if we choose for example to love those around us, we will be doing that literally to those around us, whether it’s a family member (at home) or a hotel receptionist (on the other side of the world).

In today’s world we often say that our discipleship (i.e. how we follow Jesus) needs to be both local and global.  Discipleship needs to be global because our world is global — the things we buy and the way we spend our money and the types of economies we develop all have global impact. We can no longer pretend that our local actions have no global impact:  they most certainly do.  This means that when we think of discipleship, we also need to think of how our discipleship has global impact, e.g. should we only buy fair-trade coffee because we believe that the Kingdom of God includes the idea that people are paid fair wages for their work?

Global discipleship results in local actions.  Wherever you go, there you are.

I often end up in conversations with people who are trying to figure out what this means.  What does it mean to be a disciple, locally and globally?  The new issue of mosaic  magazine engages this issue — you can find it here:  http://www.cbmin.org/cbm/mosaic.  If you like what you read, share the link with friends of yours who are wrestling with the same issue!

No more fragmentation: it’s time to be whole

Imagine if someone who knew how to help semi-literate village farmers grow crops in semi-arid conditions also knew how to offer them the Bread of Life. Imagine if someone who knew how to help people drill a well so they could have clean water also knew how to help people discover Living Water.

Or, imagine if a pastor who had been trained to offer people the Word of Life also knew how to equip them with vocational skills so that they could make a living. Imagine if an evangelistic initiative invited people to new life in Christ and a new life NOW because they were learning how to read.

That’s “integral” mission. It’s mission that is not bifurcated between word and deed, and that does not fragment the whole love of God into bits and pieces. Integral mission is about the whole love and shalom of God entering into the whole life of the people He loves — into their body, soul, spirit, relationships, gifts, wounds, dreams . . . everything.

We — CBM — believe in this kind of mission because we believe that it embodies the full/whole love of God.

CBM in its history has been cutting-edge many times, e.g. establishing multi-ethnic teams, building partnerships between Canadian churches and international churches, training national leaders, and so on. One of our recent cutting-edge endeavours is the Diploma in Integral Mission, which takes people who know how to help people physically (e.g. help them grow food) and teaches them how to root that work in the church and the Gospel, so that people who are fed also know that God loves them and wants to know them. It takes people who know how to help people spiritually (e.g. teaching Scripture) and teaches them how to lead their community into not just talking about God’s shalom, but living and embodying it.

God’s not fragmented. I don’t think His mission should be either!

 

(More information about the Diploma in Integral Mission is here:  http://bit.ly/wCtKva )

And now, behind Door Number 3 . . .

Do you remember the TV show ”Let’s Make a Deal”?  Monty Hall, the host, would choose people from the audience who would play games that would win them prizes, but then (and this is where it got interesting) they had the opportunity to trade what they already had for something behind one of three doors.  They would pick a door, it would slowly open, and they would see if they had traded for a better prize, or “the booby prize”.  Was it better to hold on to what they had, or to take the risk that something better was behind the door?

It’s  a New Year.  What the year holds is not known to us.  There may be much blessing; there might be tragedy.  Do we compulsively try to hold on to what we have, or do we take the risk that “something better” will be present in this next year?

Life is intrinsically uncertain, isn’t it?  That’s what makes it a journey.  It’s what makes it interesting.  And, to be honest, it’s also what makes it somewhat stressful.   We enter the New Year much as we enter each new day, receiving it as a gift from God and collaboratively co-authoring the story with Him, trusting that His Presence will sustain us and preserve us regardless of what comes our way.  We are safe in the hands of God.

Happy New Year.