Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

Read the rest of the article here.

I know some the folks who hang out here have some unique insight into this issue, and I’d love to hear it.

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We have no memory of happier times
except the mimeographed black and white
irrelevant and unlived kind

No touchstone of bliss to serve as reference
For reconstruction and renovation

Instead we forage through the present pieces of ordinary lives
gathering Eden from the disparate strands presumed to be
echos of the first thing, the better thing, the joyful thing

And perhaps the joy itself is provenance enough
to prove that such things were present there
And have floated down the Tigris to us here.

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Bind us together
Under one banner of grace
Where we have broken covenant with our
Brothers and sisters

Teach us the sacred art of mending

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Now, I know that for those of you unwashed heathens, the word “Missions,” or “Missionaries,” perhaps conjures perhaps images of that awful movie, “At Play in The Fields of The Lord,” which you know was fiction because Daryl Hannah was married to John Lithgow.  That movie also treated us to our very first Kathy Bates nude scene.  Hooray!

Missions also conjures images of forced conversion, tract-wielding hippies, and bike-riding Mormons.  It’s an unfortunate stereotype, unfortunate because like all stereotypes it’s somewhat earned.  

Let me offer you a different image.  Doctors Without Borders.  For these two weeks, my dad, Dr. Suburban Family Man, will be treating HIV patients in a small village in Uganda.  He will be The Man, supervising any and all medicine practiced in that village.  

Mission work in the 21st century is more about serving, and giving.  For weeks, my parent’s bedroom has become a clearing house of goods collected for this village.  They packed, and paid for, 12 suitcases full of shoes, medical supplies, and clothes.  My mom texted me and told me that the workers in the clinic openly wept as they went through and selected new shoes for themselves and their families.  

The cool thing about going on a service trip like this, and although I’ve never been to Africa, I’ve done a little of this type of thing here in California and Mexico, is that you are forced to surrender your agenda.  Even on a vacation, you’re in charge of your fun, and (at least for me) there’s always this lingering feeling of, “Are we having enough fun?!!?”  With a trip like this, that pressure is off.  There is no agenda, save whatever God places in front of you in the moment.  It’s a very liberating experience, surrendering your agenda.  

Now, for those of you who know my family in person, the idea of these three camped out in a Ugandan village is pretty awesome and hilarious.  Erica and I are seriously hoping that they get converted, rather then the other way around.  

Pray that they will be able to bless those with whom they come in contact.  

Pray that the goods and money that people in our community donated will make a lasting impact on those receiving the gifts.  

Pray that my family will get their heads spun around and put on again, unable to see life the same way ever again.  

Pray, above all things, that God will be honored, and Jesus’ kingdom of justice and mercy will be advanced in small but significant ways.

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Give us this day our forever bread

sustaining, abiding
bread of life
bread of heaven,
O bread of life,
O bread of heaven,

Forgive us our owed debt
As we forgive debts owed us

And by this forgiveness,
Knead us together in one body of grace,
One body abiding in you, and sustaining each part,
Give us this bread.

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Lord, hasten the day when your peace reigns, and war is a forgotten tragedy of a broken world.

[See post to listen to audio]

Taps for Maynard, by Walter White

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It’s been causing me to think, over the last few days, about what that blessing means. I have a bit of a mystical and contemplative nature, and am prone to think about everyday events as small reenactments of grand themes. In this case, though, the act of placing on hands and blessing a child doesn’t feel like some great supernatural transaction, some new angel hovering near, or fortune being enticed into a child’s life by some new supernatural gravitational field. The blessing of the church felt human, earthbound, and it was that humanness that brought me to tears in the service. Yes, I cry a lot these days. It’s how I leak out all this excess testosterone.

The church didn’t pray down a blessing that didn’t already exist. They stood up, laid their hands on my son, and confirmed their commitment to the blessing he already shares.

He will live and grow in a community of faith, and will learn to see the hand of God in the mundane transactions of life.

He will learn in the company of loving teachers, in silly songs and motions, in shared toys and snack time, he will learn how to be gracious and patient. As he grows, he will learn to love The Book, and learn how to let it implicate his life. He will learn to take up models and heroes, and to let them inform his choices. He will learn to serve, to give, to set his hand to the task of building the Kingdom of God in acts of justice, compassion, and grace.

He will learn to be a man in the company of godly men. In their strengths, and in their failings, he will learn about honor, and self-discipline, and humility, commitment, the special obligation of the strong to the weak, about virtue and integrity. He will learn about sexuality and identity, about the particular weaknesses of men, and he will learn about them in the company of those who love Yahweh.

He will be the recipient of grace, of instruction, of companionship, of diligent correction, of hospitality, of all the good things that come from life lived together.

When our church comes together to bless someone, it is a very human thing we do - we pledge to be blessing to that person. To see a hundred people stand, and lay their hands on his head, and on his back, and on us in support, and to hear them say, “He is ours, to care for, to love, to encourage, to teach, he is ours, and we are his. We are the cloud of witnesses, the strong right arm, the body, the co-laborers, the gathered followers of The Way, the forgiven-thus-forgiving Family of God in this place. We are his brothers. We are his sisters. We obligate ourselves to him. This is our particular blessing to him.”

Nothing could make me love this church more than the beauty of that moment.

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Grant us these 40 days
of emptying out
of exhale
of white knuckles unclenching

Grant us this 40 day reprieve
from indulgence
from frantic urgency
from self-obsession
from sensuality

from every mundane thing that
binds us too closely to this earth and
obscures our view of your kingdom com(ing) and
shouts down the songs of heaven whispered in our hearts

Grant us these days
in the shadow of death
to prepare for the coming feast

When we will be dead to sin,
And made fully alive in you.

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Horrified, I started scanning for more information, hitting up Google News. I found more information about a shooting at a missionary training center in a Denver suburb. I assumed that my original news alert had gotten the details wrong, but that wasn’t the case. There were two shootings in Colorado church gatherings today, and it’s unclear if they are related or not. There are some details, though not many, at Reuters. [link]

Please pray for those affected.

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(ht: Joshua Blankenship for the idea)

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