A day with the Lord

Ryan and I have begun this season of preparation for ministry in France and already we have had many moments of feeling burnt out and fatigued. There is this strange phenomenon that occurs all too often (I hear especially in full-time ministry) in that sometimes we forget to practice what we preach. Our hearts' desire is to see and help people to know and follow Jesus more and more, but often in all the busyness of life and preparing for this task we forget to slow down and spend time with the Lord ourselves. And the less time spent in God’s presence, the more crazy and out of control life becomes… because He is our sustainer and our strength. As much as oxygen and water is, literally the absence of the Lord brings darkness and eventually, death.

So we decided this past Saturday to take a break, to slow down, and most importantly… to spend the day with the Lord. It was awesome. We woke up and did our daily devotions, we had a slow-paced peaceful breakfast, we went to our favorite coffee shop (Jaho) and read and reflected on what God is doing and speaking into our lives, and then we took a long walk and de-briefed together. At the end of the day and even now (almost a week later) I feel more at peace than I have in a couple months. Life makes more sense and the big picture has come back into focus.

Praise God for this wonderful day and the many more to come!

Praise God for little encouragements

We picked up our second financial supporter this week!

We still have a long way to go, but it’s a start. It’s exciting and humbling at the same time to have people commit to give to our ministry, because it is 100% outside of our control. So, it is a real tangible expression of God’s love and goodness through another person. God works through people, people like you and people like me, how amazing and how humbling.

Praise God!

Religion By the Numbers

Statistics can’t show everything, but they can help present a picture of religious life in France, especially when compared to America.

A couple things to note:

• France has a greater percentage of self-professed Atheists than America has of Evangelical Christians.
• Conversely, America has proportionally more Atheists than France has Evangelical Christians.
• France’s Muslim population is proportionally twice as large as all other religions in America combined.
• A generous estimate for all practicing Christians in France is around 8% while in America over 78% claim to be Christians.

We could scrutinize the numbers and question what counts as practicing, but the reality is the percentage of Christians in America is immensely greater than in France. America certainly needs more sold out followers of Jesus, but doesn’t that mean that the French need is that much greater? It isn’t so much about trying to raise the French numbers as it is about looking at the pool of available Christian workers for each country. Americans have large numbers to pull from, the French don’t. Jesus said that the harvest was plentiful, but the workers are few. It is workers that are needed. The French need workers, because their harvest is plentiful but their workers are few.

What is Discipleship?

Before Ryan and I go to France there are a handful of things we want and need to accomplish first including (but not limited to); developing partners, paying off debt, learning how to rightly handle the Bible, finding mentors, and in turn discipling others. I keep lingering on this idea of discipleship. It is kind of a buzz word in the church today, partly because it means so much and partly because most people don't really know what it means. We know according to scripture that our main call as believers is to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:18–20). But what is a disciple really and what does it mean to disciple someone?

Wikipedia says a disciple is "a learner." In Christianity, the disciples were the students of Jesus during his ministry. They wanted to be as much like Jesus as they could be. Discipleshiptools.org says: A Disciple is one who grows in Christ and in so doing models and teaches Christians the precepts of the Bible, prayer, doctrine, relationship, Christian living, service, and worship.

So if I am understanding this right it seems that the first command should also fulfill the second. As I strive to become more like Christ, I will model what it means "to be like Christ" to others, and intentionally with some (whom I disciple) as I attempt to help them become more like Christ too.

Hmm... I actually feel better about discipling someone now (that sounds rather self-serving doesn't it). I struggle sometimes because I want a detailed step by step guide of exactly what to do, but God and the Bible are better than that (I think I will read a book about Discipleship though, just in case). I will trust too that God will even use my rough spots to show what not to do, and I'm sure I will learn even more than those I disciple sometimes.

So here it goes... let the experiment begin!

Getting Started

I just recently did a triathlon, and right before the race they typically let people swim a bit in the water to get used to the temperature—in the icy waters of New England this experience normally isn’t pleasant. However, it struck me how similar this pre-race warm-up is to where we are right now in our progress towards France. We have entered the water, so to speak, and are about to get underway, but right now we’re still holding, waiting, and anticipating the start. Raising financial support is like those frigid moments before the start of a race when you’d much rather just get going already. We want to move to France. We want to start ministering to the French. We feel ready. But God, in his wisdom, knows we need this time in the water to adjust, to acclimate ourselves to trusting him in a deeper way. It’s tough, but we need it. The shock of trusting Him in a foreign country is made slightly easier by beginning to trust Him radically here. We feel ready to go, but He knows better. A lot of things need to happen first, not least of which is being fully financially supported, before we can begin. We trust the Lord to know when the time is right, but the water can be really cold.