Leap Year #1 - The Suffolk West's in February

You’re getting this email because you have encouraged Eileen and I as we have been discerning God's new direction for us. Thank you! Many have said, “Keep us informed along the way.” So I thought an email-blog would be best.

I met with Bishop Kammerer on February 15th. The purpose of the meeting was simply to inform her of our new direction and to seek guidance. I asked if she thought there was a need for a new evangelist in the Virginia Conference. She answered, "I think there's probably not just a need for one more, but maybe three or four more." Good sign.
I shared the concept of "Theology on Tap", something like this . . . we go to the local bar and find out which night is slowest for business. Then the proposal: We'll invite people to the bar on Tuesday nights and we'll give a presentation that will turn into a conversation around Jesus and the Scriptures. Our presentation isn't heavy handed or pushy, just a conversation. Alcohol isn't one of our topics, but if we're asked, we'll share that the Scriptures speak against drunkenness, but not drinking. Our Catholic brothers and sisters are using this approach in different parts of the country seemingly with great success. Again, Bishop Kammerer was good with it.

This week I met with the Board of Evangelism for the Virginia Conference. The interview went well and I was given a ‘thumbs up’. My friend Brian Sixby, also a pastor in Suffolk is the chair of this group. One of the highlights for me was when one of the pastors interviewing me discovered there was no salary. We made eye contact and with a puzzled look he said, “How are you gonna get paid?” I leaned forward and said, “I’m just about to take up an offering!” Good guy, he gave me his card afterwards and told me to call him.

So thanks for your encouragement and prayers. I’m also in the middle of setting up the required 501(c)(3). The next interview is March 25th with the Board of Ordained Ministry. The goal is to be appointed as a ‘general evangelist’ in the Virginia Conference. This will give me the freedom to be the ‘missionary evangelist’ that I believe God is calling me to!

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

I remember well that soccer game in Managua. The horses were on my team as was this muchacho!

These children were a part of a Compassion International project. Very moving.

http://www.compassion.com/

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

Catastrophe in Haiti: A Different View

I am thinking of God being misrepresented at a time when our hearts are most vulnerable. I am thinking about the suffering of the people of Haiti and the tragic history of the island of Hispañola. What if the ‘Christian’ Europeans had actually obeyed Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor”? They would not have exploited, enslaved and massacred the indigenous peoples. They would have developed friendships and partnerships with the native peoples to develop the land. Maybe without this brutal history, which betrayed all of the teachings of Jesus, the island would not be impoverished and wrecked today. Maybe Port-au-Prince and the other cities would have been built with the resources and technology capable of withstanding a 7.0 earthquake.

Please forgive us. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul devoted an entire letter to his friend Philemon asking him to change his relationship with Onesimus, from slave to that of a beloved brother. This appeal was “on the basis of love” (Philemon 1:9, 15-16). We did not listen.

Please forgive us. The failure of the church to do serious study and application on the Biblical letter to Philemon gave a green light to the suffering, enslavement and death of millions. The consequences, pain and injustices are still felt today.

In Luke 13:1-5, there is a simple and weighty teaching of Jesus:

“About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. Jesus asked, “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

In this passage we are told of two catastrophes, both resulting in numerous deaths. The first is man made and the other is what we call a natural disaster. Jesus knew the thoughts of the people: They must have deserved it. Jesus corrects them with an emphatic “No.” We would be wise to apply this teaching: When tragedy comes, do not try to infer guilt and judgment. Your business is to be ready for your own death and judgment.

Please forgive us. We revere the Bible, but we don’t really know what it says.

Please forgive us. We have often made a Jesus of our own imagination to fit our politics, our prejudices and our greed.

Please forgive us. Though we are told to be “ambassadors for Christ”, there is too often little resemblance between the beauty and compassion of Jesus and we his followers.

There is a long, sad history of church leaders driving their personal agendas while claiming to have Jesus’ stamp of approval. With that being said I quote E. Stanley Jones, a 20th century missionary to India:

“Let me declare my faith in, and appreciation of, the Christian church. With all its faults it is the greatest serving institution on earth. It has many critics but no rivals in the work of human redemption. The isn’t a spot on the earth from the frozen north to the tropical islands of the sea where we haven’t gone with schools, hospitals, orphan and leper asylums, churches, everything to lift the soul, the mind, the body of the human race.”

Jesus, please forgive us.

“The Kingdom of God is God’s total answer to humanity’s total need. . . If Jesus made the kingdom of God the center of his message and the center of his endeavor, the greatest need of man, as I see it, is to rediscover the kingdom of God. Man needs nothing so much as he needs something to bring life together into total meaning and total goal. Life for the modern man in East and West needs something to give total meaning to an otherwise fragmented life. He needs an absolute from which he can work down to the relativisms of the day, a master light of all his seeing. He is being pushed and pulled and beckoned to, enticed and bludgeoned from all directions. He is being pushed from relativism to relativism. He is confused-the most confused and yet the most intelligent person that ever existed. He knows everything about life, except how to live it.” From E. Stanley Jones' book The Unshakeable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person.

The phrase 'Kingdom of God' appears 65x in the New Testament and 'Kingdom of Heaven' 31x (all in Matthew's Gospel); and yet we don't tend to think of Jesus' message in this way. Individualism and the focus on the afterlife has reduced and altered the message to 'accept Jesus and you get to go to heaven with him when you die.' Jesus certainly is the way to the Father, but this reduction and alteration of the central theme of his teaching tames the revolutionary message of complete allegiance to this King and complete participation in bringing this Kingdom of God, of heaven to the earth: ". . . your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" Matthew 6:10.

Here is an amazing quote from Thomas Cahill's book: The Desire of the Everlasting Hills ~ The World Before and After Jesus.

He writes . . . ‘the radical society of friends, of free and equal men and women, that came forth from the side of the crucified (an earlier reference to the blood and water that poured out of Jesus as the spear went into his side - the blood and water, the Lord's supper and baptism) was quickly overwhelmed by ancient patriarchy and has been overwhelmed in every era since by the social and political forms of the age’ (pg. 303).

So this community of love that Jesus envisioned and gave his life for has been usurped by some with different agendas. Well meaning, good people maybe, but still not in line with the purposes of Jesus. So it's been form over funtion and the the mission of Jesus is often subverted in favor of issues of power, status, expedience, structure, legacy, etc. It's very difficult for people to discern because religious language is used and the forms are taken to be the reality; "having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5).

Kingdom and Church

Sunrise Worship, Resurrection Sunday on the James River

"The church gets into trouble whenever it thinks it is in the church business rather than the Kingdom business. In the church business, people are concerned with the church activities, religious behavior and spiritual things. In the Kingdom business, people are concerned
with Kingdom activities, all human behavior and everything that God has made, visible and invisible. Church people think about how to get people into the church, Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church, Kingdom people work to see the church change the world." Howard Snyder

The One who started the church said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the
gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35). This is not just true for individuals, but for groups as well and institutions! So the church that is in survival mode ends up losing its life and the church that willingly gives away its life ends up saving it.

Just finished Langston Hughes' brilliant book, Not Without Laughter, written in 1930. It's the coming of age story of Sandy, a black youngster being raised in Kansas poverty mostly by grandma, who is called Aunt Hager. The book climbs to this passage, "But was that why Negroes were poor, because they were dancers, jazzers, clowns? . . . The other way round would be better: dancers because of their poverty; singers because they suffered; laughing all the time because they must forget. . . . It's more like that, thought Sandy.
A band of dancers. . . . Black dancers-captured in a white world. . . . Dancers of the spirit, too. Each black dreamer a captured dancer of the spirit. . . . Aunt Hager's dreams for Sandy dancing far beyond the limitations of their poverty, of their humble station in life, of their dark skins.
"I wants you to be a great man, son," she often told him, sitting on the porch in the darkness, singing, dreaming, calling up the deep past, creating dreams within the child. "I wants you to be a great man."
"And I won't disappoint you!" Sandy said that hot Chicago summer, just as though Hager were still there, planning for him.

I read through 1 Thessalonians this morning. Some thoughts . . .

Almost everyone will tell you Paul wrote this letter, but it’s actually written by Paul, Silas and Timothy. So there was a team! "We", "us" and "our" are the words that fill the letter. There are only two times in the 5 chapters that the word "I" is used, referencing Paul. We keep trying to be superheros for Jesus when God is trying to form a team with it's strength being the unity shared in Christ.

These passages from 1 Thessalonians showed that at the core of the Gospel, is about living ‘life together’.

1 Thessalonians 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.

1 Thessalonians 2:6 We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, 7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

James Madison on the enemies of true liberty . . .

"Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manner and of morals, engendered in both. No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare … War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In war, a physical force is to be created; and it is the executive will, which is to direct it. In war, the public treasuries are to be unlocked; and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them. In war, the honors and emoluments of office are to be multiplied; and it is the executive patronage under which they are to be enjoyed; and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venal love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace."

Phenomenal insight into a great plague upon humankind. And does not one war sow the seeds for the next war? I certainly don't have it all figured out, but we're killing ourselves, literally.

Take a look at Congressman Ron Paul's words during the buildup for the war in Iraq:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLV7zDhKzDY&feature=related

And here is Chalmer's Johnson on a little history of Iraq:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wg1WuPgFJQ

haunting song - Wave of Sorrow ~ U2

I've been haunted for 6 months. The first is Bono explaining the song and the second is the song and video.

Ashes from the Sky

The tree fort is enclosed from all sides, though by way of a small path you could walk to my back yard in under 60 seconds. It's only 5 feet off the ground, but it gives me a sense of being away. My thoughts are clear here.
So, how do I find freedom to walk with God and not pursue the things that harm me and those I love? One day I feel a closeness and and seem to believe I will enjoy this closeness without interuption. Then the next day, my thoughts are far away and I doubt, I judge, I justify, I desire that which would harm me or others. Yes, choosing those things that alienate me from God. It is Romans 7 . . . so how do I live in Romans 8? Then I see the flakes, just one or two white flakes floating down through the pine trees, close enough for me to reach and catch them. And I do. The pungent smell of smoke has been in the air for days and I've grown used to it. The fire is from the Great Dismal Swamp seen in the photo above, blowing south across the North Carolina border. Now as the wind blows north, not only is the smoke visible in the air, it fills every breath and more . . . the ashes from the sky.
I think of ashes and their significance in the Scriptures. Repentance. Turning from sin. The ashes from the sky . . . Does God desire to meet with me here? Here in the tree fort pursuing me with such love? The tears come slowly and I press the caught ashes into my forehead in the sign of the cross. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Forgive me. I want to be free. My life is not my own, I am bought at a price. The rest of the day I gratefully look for more ashes from the sky. I catch them and press them into my skin, drawing near.

fun with the children

The school is next to La Chureca, the trash dump. Some of the children live in the dump. The songs were playful and brought joy in watching.

La Chureca -

la chureca - casa in the center of the dump
Hosanna school near la chureca

school is out

communion + 8 nicaraguan children

Friends,

I was deeply moved on Sunday. When we came together to receive the bread and juice / the body and the blood of Christ, 8 Nicaraguan children also received hope through a new relationship with 8 families. We only had 8 child sponsorship packets from Compassion International available so, my brother sent a dozen more yesterday! Hopefully those will be on the altar table this Sunday for anyone to pick up. If anyone would like more information on Compassion you can check out their website: http://www.compassion.com/default.htm
All of the children we’re sponsoring thus far are from Managua, Nicaragua. We have a team of 6 people going to Managua in late October and we will meet these children. Our plan is to have another trip or two (God willing) in 2009. You can start saving now!

At the center of the good news of Jesus, is this call to self-denial, to surrender and to lay down our lives . . . the Apostles spoke what they heard from the Master. If our following Jesus skips this point, I believe we’ve missed it all.

Jesus . . . Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? Luke 9:23-25

Peter . . . As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 1 Peter 4:2

John . . . This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 John 3:16

Paul . . . Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1

I was asked to share the letter that my brother wrote about his experience in Managua, it is below.

In Jesus’ great love,

Pastor Greg

From: "Doug West (US - MktDev)" Date: June 24, 2008 11:31:57 AM EDTTo: "Doug West (US - MktDev)" Subject: Urgent Call to Prayer!Last week a small group of us stood in Juan’s yard in Ciudad Sandino, Nicaragua, to learn more about his and his family’s life. The air was hot and still, with some pesky flies and mosquitoes buzzing around. His wife, Brenda, did most of the talking. They had 3 children and all of them were sponsored in the local Compassion projects. 3 is the maximum number of children from one family that can be enrolled, so that alone told me they were in a desperate situation. A few from the group sat in some plastic chairs in front of their 12x12 single-room house made of scrap boards, some cinderblocks and a rusting tin roof, as we asked questions about their kids, their jobs, their hopes and dreams, etc. One of their sons and 2 other local boys were high above us in the branches of the mamon tree, gathering the small fruit to eat or sell. At most homes we visit on these trips, we are welcomed inside. It was different here. Brenda was embarrassed about how little they had; ashamed of their poverty. We all knew that Juan and his family were not less than us; they just had less than us. Despite that, their poverty had begun to work in their minds and hearts to cause feelings of shame and embarrassment over their situation. When we realized this, it was uncomfortable and we quickly tried to lighten the conversation. We asked how we could pray for them and specifically for Juan – and even then it was Brenda who answered for him. Not wanting to make the meeting so one-sided, we encouraged them to ask questions of us. Most times, the questions we get are pretty light: does it snow where we live, what church do we attend, etc. I wasn’t prepared for the weight of the question Juan asked:“For you, when you help take care of our children,is it easy for you, or is it a sacrifice?” We get caught up in life in America, the richest country and culture in the history of the world. And by American standards, perhaps I am sacrificing to help children like Juan’s. We don’t have cable, we own and share one car, and we try to curb our desire for new clothes or other things, buying stuff second hand when we can. But looking at Juan and Brenda and all they have to do to care for their children, because they have no other choice, the truth, the absolute truth, is that I no nothing of sacrifice. I have never faced the choices they face daily, and I probably never will. I brush up against poverty on these trips, we sponsor several children and donate in other areas, but looking at their lives it is clear that what we do is pathetically easy and requires no true sacrifice on our part. It is I who should be embarrassed and ashamed, not Juan and Brenda. Lord Jesus, show me more and more how I can serve you with all I am, how to truly sacrifice, how to truly lay down my life for others, for You. Tomorrow is a day of Prayer and Fasting for the Global Food Crisis. Please join in! Go to www.compassion.com/pray to learn how this crisis is affecting those in poverty and to add your name to the list of those who will be in prayer for Compassion children and their families during this time. Praying with and for you-

doug west
advocate relations - southeastcompassion international
ph. 877.432.0003 mobile 336.662.2819

Skyline drive fall 2007

josiah 7

evie 5

luke 5

Answering God's prayers

Maybe all of us have wrestled with the question, 'Does God answer prayer?' or 'Why doesn't God answer prayer?' The later question fails to consider that maybe God answers by saying, 'No'. But the new thought that's running through my mind is 'Do we answer God's prayers?' Follow me. If indeed, Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God; God clothed with humanity, then what about the prayers of Jesus? Are they not the prayers of God? He prayed, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. . ." (John 17:20-21) So whenever we fail to draw near to God, to walk in the ways of Christ, we fail to answer God's prayer or our answer is 'No'.

I think it's fair to say that Jesus is the only one who can define what a disciple is. What if each denomination, or church, pastor or person who had an interest in Jesus defined disciple as they wanted? Yikes, but I think this isn't far from where we are. So how does Jesus define a disciple? I found a passage that includes one of the most misquoted verses in all of the New Testament. People readily say, 'the truth will set you free'. It's not wise though to cut a passage in half; this 1/2 quote misses the conditions for being set free.

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

So holding to Jesus' teaching is the requirement to be a disciple, then a knowledge of truth happens and freedom! How can you hold to some teachings if you do not know them. We are a biblically illiterate culture, even within the church. So what are the chances of us holding to teachings we're unaware of? There has been a renewal of interest in Wesleyan theology in the last few years due to the 400 year anniversarys of the Wesley brothers. We have to learn about and implement the methodology that carried the theology to so many lands. I'm convinced that this methodology was that of Jesus, as Wesley and others studied the Gospels and the life of the early church in order to follow closely to the pattern given.

After a friend read Wesley's definition of 'a Methodist' he said well if that's a Methodist I think I've only met just a few in my life. This friend had grown up largely in 'Methodist circles'. Wesley's definition follows:

"What then is the mark? Who is a Methodist, according to your own account?" I answer: A Methodist is one who has "the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him;" one who "loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength." God is the joy of his heart, and the desire of his soul; which is constantly crying out, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee! My God and my all! Thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion forever!" He is therefore happy in God, yea, always happy, as having in him "a well of water springing up into everlasting life," and overflowing his soul with peace and joy. "Perfect love" having now "cast out fear," he "rejoices evermore." He "rejoices in the Lord always," even "in God his Saviour;" and in the Father, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom he hath now received the atonement." "Having" found "redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of his sins," he cannot but rejoice, whenever he looks back on the horrible pit out of which he is delivered; when he sees "all his transgressions blotted out as a cloud, and his iniquities as a thick cloud." He cannot but rejoice, whenever he looks on the state wherein he now is; "being justified freely, and having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." For "he that believeth, hath the witness" of this "in himself;" being now the son of God by faith. "Because he is a son, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into his heart, crying, Abba, Father!" And "the Spirit itself beareth witness with his spirit, that he is a child of God." He rejoiceth also, whenever he looks forward, "in hope of the glory that shall be revealed;" yea, this his joy is full, and all his bones cry out, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten me again to a living hope--of an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for me!"

Yusuf Herman a friend from seminary sharing Christ with a leper in Indonesia.

How about these to stretch your mind and give us a different perspective on reality. G. K. Chesterton

"A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, Do it again; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, Do it again, to the sun; and every evening, Do it again, to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

“In the upper world, hell once rebelled against heaven. But in this world heaven is rebelling against hell. For the orthodox there can always be a revolution; for a revolution is a restoration” (Orthodoxy, 117).