Cultural consumption and self-awareness

To those of you who prayed for the conference, thank you! It truly was a blessed day. All told, between participants, kids, and volunteers, we had about forty people there. As far as I could tell, the speakers were engaging; more significantly, the conversations people were having penetrated into the deep issues in their lives. Everyone offered very positive feedback, including the three nonbelievers present. We're still in the process of discussing "what next."

Some food for thought... At what level do you consume the goods of your culture? Meggan and I are in the midst of a ten-day media fast for one of our classes (the professor is a prolific blogger himself); we're abstaining from TV, movies, video games, and superfluous internet usage. (That last one is ironic, as here we are on a blog... For me, it primarily means abstention from ESPN.com, etc. for the duration.) Just for fun, I've tacked on a fast from caffeinated beverages for myself (though I have had some delicious coffee ice cream).

How much of your daily energy is given to activities of this nature? What are the effects of these media on your heart, mind, and relationships? Have recreation and entertainment become synonymous for you? Which of the following words ring true:
...thought-provoking?
...mind-numbing?
...distracting?
...relaxing?
...fun?
...inspiring?
...exciting?
...wasteful?
...enriching?
Others?

Take a minute to think about which words describe your cultural consumption (and which words do not). Honestly chew on that information. Consider trying a media fast, especially if you think it will help you to discern better the effects of these things in your life. I'm not saying one should run away from everything, but a little self-awareness could go a long way. Maybe Meggan and I will come out of this fast & choose to reduce our regular media intake. Maybe I will replace some ESPN.com time with conversation, or contemplation, or study, or prayer, or any manner of other truly enriching human engagement.

As always, comments are welcome...

Musings on results in ministry

Hello, friends!

Meggan and I have set up this blog primarily in preparation for our upcoming summer in Madrid. We hope it will be a good way to keep you updated on what we're experiencing and how we're processing those experiences. In the long run, it could become our primary family website (maybe?). This particular post is, more or less, a test post, but I've decided to discuss something real rather than just saying, "omg, our blog works!"

As I'm writing this, it is a Tuesday in early February. On Saturday at Bethany (our church home here in Denver), we are hosting a marriage conference for Spanish speakers in the area. I'm the organizer of the conference; it was an idea God planted in my brain a few months ago, though I am in no position to play a speaking role in the conference itself as I am not yet proficient (let alone fluent) in Spanish (or Hispanic immigrant culture). Also, I've never really planned anything like this, so that's interesting.

What are our goals? We desire to see God redeem and restore broken marriages. We desire to see followers of Christ deepen their faith in him. We desire to see non-Christians come to know this God who loves them dearly. I desire to honor the immigrant population, that they might perceive from their interactions with a handful of us Anglos that we do not see them as proverbial cultural stepchildren but as fellow sojourners on this earth. And, to be honest, I'm probably thinking, "35 people in attendance would be great; and if 1/3 of them are non-evangelical folk, that would be awesome; and if everything went really smoothly, I'd be really thankful; and if God showed up in amazing ways, a few families were saved from divorce, four couples gave their lives to him, three families joined Iglesia Vida Nueva (the Spanish-speaking congregation at Bethany), everyone told all their friends about how great it was, twice as many people showed up at a follow-up conference in May..."

... and a partridge in a pear tree. You get the picture.

So, what should I be thinking, praying, believing, hoping as this weekend approaches? What would define a successful weekend? a failure? How should I respond to either of these occurrences?

Emotionally, my first instinct is to define success by observable things - number in attendance, welcoming environment (as if a cultural outsider could truly measure this), no organizational hitches, number proclaiming life change, increased involvement at Vida Nueva. But I can't stay there for long, for a few reasons... (1) It makes me too nervous. (2) I've done that in the past when an event "failed," and it bites. (3) I've done that in the past when an event "succeeded," and it can lead to giving oneself too much credit for what God has done.

(4) I've read the prophets. Sometimes God calls people to engage their world, and the world shrugs its shoulders and continues down its path of self-centered living. If success were to be defined as above, Jeremiah was a colossal failure.

So there must be something else.

Success must be about faithfulness to God and to that which he has put before us for this season. It must be about loving him and loving people created in his image. It must be about our identity as his ambassadors, not the response of those to whom we ambassadors have been sent. It must be about walking the road Jesus has set before us in the manner Jesus leads us to walk it.

Of course, I will still pray for many of the things which the old "success" would entail. I will pray for people to come, and for God to change lives. I will pray that we will somehow accidentally stumble into making our Hispanic neighbors feel welcome and honored. I will ask God to grant us few problems and the grace to handle well those problems which we do encounter. I will pray for healthy growth for la comunidad de Vida Nueva. I will work hard toward all these ends, as much as it is up to me. And when it's over, we'll evaluate what went well and what didn't, what should change for next time and what should stay the same, etc. But my hope is not built on this kind of success. We still live in a fallen world; Christ is yet to return to this earth, to redeem it entirely from its brokenness. We will continue to experience this brokenness, even as we observe the reign of God breaking into more and more of the world he loves.

So, the results belong to God, and I trust him for as much. And I also belong to God, but this latter statement is not dependent on my personal ability to observe the former.