the Glocal Trekker Blog

We have been running Bob's blog on mirrored sites. Thatis changing today. Bob's Glocal Trekker blog with the same great content and insight is moving to http://www.glocal.net (where it has also been for some time). Join us there and find the exact same thoughts from Bob plus some sidebar stuff that you may not know about. Reset your RSS feeds and join the glocal conversations. See you there....

Jordan Fowler
Pastor of Worship and Communicative Arts
NorthWood Church.

We have this young theologian in our church named Mark. He brought Carlos Santana to church Sunday. He brought his guitar and rocked the place. We've been studying the children of Israel and how they crossed over with implications of what does it mean for our church to cross over to the next phase, and what does it mean for us as individuals to cross over to a deeper walk with Christ. There are all kinds of metaphors and typologies of that in the Exodus out of Egypt. We were emailing about it and he said something really good, "The preaching of the cross isn't just for the lost but for the saved." I like that. For the lost, the preaching of the cross is to be received. For the found, the preaching of the cross it is to be lived.

Met two cool and prominent Dallas businessmen yesterday named Jim and Joe. They get transformation. It's what they're all about. They do critiques of various ministries generally in the DFW area in hopes of mobilizing people and increasing effectiveness. We talked a lot about moving the focus from preacher and church to disciple and society--they got it, they've had it for a good while! I'm so amazed at how we "preachers" have gotten so far behind the learning curve on all this. I don't think it's hard to understand why so much time is given to "our stuff" in terms of worship and ministries of the church that we can have all this really good stuff going on without ever connecting with the community.

There's a lot going on at NorthWood. It's frankly really hard to keep up with it all - even as the Senior Pastor. That's not true - it's not hard to keep up with - it's impossible. Our youth ministry continues to expand and is reformatting. Our children's ministry has just done the same. Our global work has exploded and for the first time we now have boots on the ground which has sped up everything. We've just reformatted our church planting. Our members have really taken off with working in so many projects that they, not us, are driving. Our entire staff, not just me, is dealing with the issue of other churches calling and needing help in different areas, particularly in how we engage our community and the world. It's exciting, and it's also overwhelming. Needless to say, there's been a lot of prayer, work, evaluation, restructure that has been going on to accomodate all God is doing.

Yesterday, I shared with our staff some of the unique things going on outside our church, but because of our church. I updated them, they updated me. We updated one another. Communication between staff, I've learned, is sometimes tough when your ministries are all growing at the same pace. We've never had competition among ministries at our church. I pray we never do. We've been one church on one mission serving one Savior in the context of teams, youth, children, recovery, worship, mission, etc.

Then we prayed . . . and it was rich. God was there. As we were praying and all of us realizing the scope of ministry we have before us we were praying for guidance and direction, wisdom and insight. We prayed for God to be alive within us, to keep us one, to be alert and effective in spiritual warfare. Then someone, or maybe two or three prayed - "Lord as we grow, to reach the thousands and organize to reach the thousands let us not forget the one." That's a good tension. Either extreme is dangerous. If you live for the one you never reach the thousands. If you focus on the thousands, church becomes a machine. It's not an either or, but a both and. So how do you balance . . .

I kept reflecting on this all day yesterday. The story of the 100 sheep, they all belonged to the shepherd. One wanders off and He left the 99 to get the 1. Why? Because the one mattered. But, were the 99 alone? No, they were together, watching out for one another. When He got the one, did He run off just with the one and party with the one alone? No, He brought it back to the flock, the flock was important--those other 99 mattered.

My conclusion, all 100 represent 1 - all 100 are important. We're not omnipresent. As individuals we can only reach one at a time. Therefore, the one is what I do in my personal evangelism and outreach. The 99 is what we do together as a body. So given our context, the one is our personal evangelism, the thousands are what we do as a church strategically. If I ever stop doing the one, I loose effectiveness in reaching the thousands because church merely becomes a holding pen or event. If I ignore the 300,000 around me who need Jesus for the sake of focusing exclusively on the one, there is no light on this hill for people to find their way home. What do you think?

Hey, one of my young heroes is entering the blogosophere. Check it out! Go Vince Baby, Go!!!!!!

One of the most incredible books out there is Loren Cunningham's new book entitled The Book That Transforms Nations. You've got to read this! It operates on the same premise as my book, but it deals with a lot of things my book does not deal with. It’s as if they are companion volumes made to go together. Read it. It deals with a lot of history and other things. It’s incredible!!

Nikki and I had a blast the past week - we were in Hawaii with Veryl and Cheryl Henderson and spoke to pastors about transformation, glocalization, and multiplication. We had a couple of days to walk on the beach - play - and kick back for a much needed break. It was a wild trip. On the plane over, we found out a hurricane was on the way. Our first night - we woke up the next morning to an earthquake. The next day before boarding a ship for a sunset cruise we received a tsunami alert from the earthquake in Peru. An out of control fire had taken over 6500 acres on the north side of the island. Our hotel went on strike. On the plane back - as we boarded a little old lady was out of it - running up and down aisles taking pictures of people with an old polaroid saying "this is the one." She was removed from the plane!!!! It was crazy all the goofy stuff happening.

Tonight I was interviewed on Sirius Satellite Radio by Mike Feder - it's a talk show - the following are some of the things that we covered.

A TWO-STATE SOLUTION
As we begin there are 3 core things that must be kept in mind.

First, reconciliation is the ministry all of us are a part of.

2Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

Relational diplomacy – people to people – is the key. Top down dealing with powers and bottom up – dealing with people at the most basic level of needs. It was my exposure to the Afghans and others I met in the Middle-East that began to change how I thought.

Second, understanding the divine promises related to Israel and all nations.

Third, honest historical examination. A great book is Tony Maalouf’s “Arab’s in the shadow of Israel deals with this – and is good to read because it’s from an evangelical Arabic scholar.

WHY?

First, we are allowing speculative theology to formulate foreign policy. That’s very dangerous. When conservative Bible believing scholars can’t agree – for one opinion to be pushed to the point of war is arrogant and dangerous.

Second, as a Christian we say we care about the Middle-east and Muslims and want to see them come to faith in Christ. We are saying accept Jesus, and our politics. The thing they care about most, we ignore. We are so one-sided in our position we’ve ignored the very people we would want to reach. None of us would ever support suicide bombers – but neither should we allow refuge camps to exist. We should serve people, not because we are trying to convert them – but because we have been converted. God is just to the just and the unjust alike – who are we to pass judgment on and say these can live in refugee camps, be displaced and these cannot. Tell that to a child, to a young family – what is Christian about that? Because we have not addressed it in a just manner – we are breeding the very behaviors that we all despise.

Third, we have not respected the views and situation of Palestinian evangelical Christians. Before ’67 2/3rds of Palestinians present were Christians – now that’s 8 to 12% depending on who you talk to. How could we have ignored their concerns – these are our brothers in Christ. This makes no sense. Who was better positioned to tell people in the Middle-East about Jesus than the Palestinians?!!! We’re responsible to some degree for them having to leave. I’ve spoken to seminary professors who teach there – it’s hard for Christian students there to understand. We tend to interpret Scripture in light of our own culture and experience. I was on my way to Egypt when someone showed me this verse – Isa. 19:23 “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. 24. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. 25. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.” If we want to make a Bible verse come true – this one certainly wouldn’t hurt. A theology professor said, different people from different nations underline different verses – when we see the whole world – we underline the whole Bible!

Fourth, we are creating an environment that creates an atmosphere for war. And whereas we would disagree with a war “jihad” from the Muslim perspective - we are guilty of the same thing when we push our troops in harms way because of our “personal” theology. As Christians we should view war as a last resort – even then in response to a Hitler who is killing millions of Jews – not someone who’s policy we disagree with.

Fifth, faith should bring us together and cause us to treat one another with respect – not fear and confrontation. This is what Jesus did – it cost him his life. This is what Augustine did. This is what St. Francis did. We need new models of Jesus followers to emulate.

Sixth, some Christians have forgot the teaching of Jesus that when the Apostles wanted a physical kingdom – he said no. When Peter picked up the sword he made him put it down. God’s kingdom isn’t temporal or physical but eternal and heavenly. God does have an eternal covenant with Israel, but it is eternal and heavenly – not temporal and physical – Jesus said this, Hebrews 11 says it. David says it in the Old Testament.

Seventh, God loves all the nations. Abraham was only Abraham when he became the Father of Nations not just the Father of a nation. The nations are not done away with. The Bible teaches they will exist throughout eternity – and that people from every tongue, tribe, and nation will be present and living in peace. Rev. 22:1-5 – Jesus will be the king. God has a commitment to every nation that has ever existed. Rev. 7:9

Eight, God’s expression of favor on Israel was not because of who she was or what she did. He loved her as the least. She was a picture of what a nation looked like when she followed God and the disaster that would come when she didn’t. She was to be a light to the nations in the world. This is why David and Abraham sought for a city that did not yet exist that would only exist in eternity – according to Hebrews 11. Abraham was a stranger on this earth – there was an eternal city, world, that he longed for and lived for. They longed for a heavenly country and city.

Ninth, some people believe that either what we do with Israel or how fast we “convert” others will hasten the coming of Jesus Christ. That is arrogant and unbiblical. The Father says no one knows when Christ will come, only when the Father sends him – not even the son. We do what we do because Jesus lives in us and we love him and others – not to manage God’s agenda – he does that just fine.

If you want to get around some really sharp-thinking people from different points of view click here. What an incredible opportunity.