Monday, June 14, 2010

Jesus the lifeguard?

I ran into this intriguing quotation on a friend's blog. What do you think?

The New Testament proclaims an unlikely Savior. The work of Jesus in his incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension makes no worldly sense at all. The portrait the Gospels paint is that of a lifeguard who leaps into the surf, swims to the drowning girl, and then, instead of doing a cross-chest carry, drowns with her, revives three days later, and walks off the beach with assurances that everything including the apparently still-dead girl, is hunky-dory.

(Originally from a book by Robert Farrar Copan.)

Friday, June 11, 2010

Our June 2010 email newsletter

Hey there - we've just jumped back into the world of email updates. Here's our latest newsletter. If you'd like to get them sent directly to you in the future, click here to subscribe.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Youth ministry in Spain: another missionary's reflections

What follows is an excerpt from a blog post written last October by Dan, our field leader in Madrid. Almost a decade ago, he and his wife, Eva, spent some time as leaders for the youth group at a church called La Elipa. Here he answers "Where Are They Now?" for the youth who were part of the group at that time. This shows a glimpse of why we are excited to work with youth. Read and enjoy!

The current youth group at La Elipa

Andy was always a committed believer even from before we ever met him. He went on to marry the daughter of a well-respected missionary. He went to Bible school and then on to a masters program that is related to Ravi Zacharias ministries. He now lives with his wife and two kids in Granada were he is leading an apologetics ministry for "Agape" (Campus Crusade). The Lord is using him and his wife on university campuses all over Spain.

Pablo has been very involved with summer outreach campaigns and has become a gifted preacher at La Elipa. He is particularly effective in communicating with the younger generations. He and his wife are leading a small group ministry for the older "jóvenes" (25-35) from our church and other churches as well.

Alex has also been very involved with summer campaigns and camps. He is gifted in leading music and leads the worship time at La Elipa from time to time. When he is not at La Elipa he is often helping lead music at other churches or ministries. He is also quite involved with united youth events.

Chema has gone on to be a manager for Christian music groups and artists. He has organized many concerts and has been quite successful in getting Christian artists into secular venues. Chema currently is working with a ministry that is part of Agape that consists in working with Christian musicians and also in reaching out to non-Christian musicians and groups. He is also very involved with youth and music on a national level.

Andrés was the son of an elder who had some medical problems. A valve inserted at the base of his brain when he was a baby became infected when he was about 19. This infection led to his loosing all sight. His family lives in England now (his mother is English). He has had a ministry online to other blind people as well as chatting with others all over the world. I've not heard much about him in the last few years.

Eugenio and Luna... I mention these two together as they recently got married. Both were in our youth group. Eugenio and Luna have been very active with the Sunday School program and with summer camps, Christmas programs and summer campaigns. [NOTE: Meggan and I know Eugenio and Luna! We worked together with them at La Elipa's children's summer camp in the summer of 2008. They weren't yet married at the time. We're excited for the possibility of being "couple friends" when we return!]

Ismael was pretty young and just starting in the youth group when we left. Today he leads the worship ministry at La Elipa and is very involved with another ministry with youth at a church in San Fernando. There he is preaching quite often as well as leading worship.

Carolina was a leader in the group when we were with them. She has always been very responsible and influential with the other youth. She married a very fine young man from Zaragoza who is career military. They live in Zaragoza now and have a one-year-old baby with very a severe disability (I don't remember what it is called, but part of Samuel's brain never formed). Carolina is Alex's older sister. They also have a younger sister who came some to our group. Since then she has left the church and I don't know where she is spiritually.

Sarah and Israel are brother and sister and the children of one of the elders (now an elder at a different church). Sarah never accepted Christ and even when she came to the group always made it clear that she was not a believer. Israel did accept Christ but about the time we were ending our involvement in the group he ran away from home and became very rebellious. He got into all kinds of stuff in the years that followed. He came back to the Lord some years later and has been involved with ministering with drug addicts at rehab centers.

Kevin is Andy's younger brother. He fell away from the faith some years after we left and has never returned. We are still praying that some day he will come back.

The reason that I mention these "jóvenes" is to illustrate how a little involvement at a crucial period of a young person's life can have a far-reaching impact years and even decades later. I think that working with jóvenes from as young as 12-15 or even up to their mid- to late-thirties can have a profound impact on the local church and on the communities that they in turn will later impact.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Fresh reflections on John 4

The story from John's gospel of Jesus with a Samaritan woman at a well has long been a favorite of mine. Like the parable of the prodigal son, it's one of those gospel stories that amazes and inspires on first reading, then gets richer and even more incredible when you delve into its literary and historical-cultural context. We learn so much about God's heart and about ourselves in this story. But reading it recently, it didn't feel like a favorite anymore. It's not an encounter I found particularly inspiring this time, and I'll tell you why.

I don't like the Samaritan woman.

Apparently it's been over a year since I've read this story, because the Samaritan woman's situation took me by surprise. I was appreciating the story up through verse 16, but then Jesus startled me with her place in life. "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

Suddenly I found myself feeling like one of the other women in town, the women avoided by going to the well at the hottest time of day. This Samaritan woman deserved to be socially ostracized - she is dangerous. When you've been with at least six men, and you're currently living with one out of wedlock, the collateral damage of your broken relationships spreads to every nook and cranny of your small town (and in that day, they were all small towns). The women who wouldn't socialize with her were possibly all related to men she had been with - uncles, cousins, brothers, sons, or maybe even husbands. Whereas the Samaritan woman had always seemed like a victim of her social circumstances to me in previous readings, now I can't help but see her as the incarnation of the adulteress warned of multiple times in the book of Proverbs.

Slightly removed from the initial shock of this new view on the woman at the well, what can I say about this? Who indeed is the woman? And what does it mean that Jesus approached her with love and truth?

First, who was she? Was she a victim of lifelong abuse from a young age, who kept getting stuck in abusive relationships, who may have been widowed a couple times, who just needed some roof for protection in a patriarchal culture, who was unfairly cast aside by the other women in town? Or was she spoiled, a poisonous personality, a gold-digger, always seeking a new man to conquer sexually and financially, using and abusing the people around her, only looking out for her own good, leaving a trail of wreckage behind her wherever she went? . . . We don't know. The text doesn't tell us. The point is, she could be either one. We can't take comfort in the fact that Jesus would only reach out to people who fit our moral sensibilities.

The fact is, she was probably a bit of both of those caricatures. That's the thing - real people don't fit in the skin of their Disney prototypes. Every innocent victim has a narcissistic streak, and every rotten apple has been a victim along the way. Jesus sees it all in each of us: every bit of our junk that's not our fault, and every time we play the victim card when we're actually the perpetrators. The same goes for the people who have left us as the wreckage in their wake. He knows that they are even more despicable than we understand, and also that they're more deeply wounded than we can fathom. He moves toward people who society casts out, even when society has good reasons for that judgment.

The reason the Samaritan woman is a hero in the text is not because of her colorful past; it's because of her response. She opens herself to God's redeeming love. It doesn't matter if you're an eagle scout or a gangsta, Mother Theresa or Lady Gaga - you can humbly accept God's love and grace, or you can pridefully try to stand on your own two feet.

He moves toward you. You don't fit God's moral sensibilities. But he loves you. Respond to his love with humility, awe, and restful acceptance. Then extend his love to others; go love your "enemy" today, wherever you may encounter such a person. Find a slice of sympathy for that person, even as you acknowledge you're with a real jerk.