Mobilization Musings: Moving to the Unreached

I am not sure how to construct this post in a way that is not going to offend some. It’s not that I am afraid of offending people. I’m not so bad at that. However, I really don’t like being offensive. I particularly don’t like the possibility of offending people whom I know and even like. (This may be why I really don’t have that many friends…)

But I write.

The past few months have found me in different kinds of churches, mostly in Wisconsin, to talk missions, Mongolia and the Kingdom and Glory of Christ. Each church is a menagerie of different experiences: fun, interesting and, in some cases … well … interesting. I've been in small churches and I've been in large churches, each with its own dynamic and various strengths and weaknesses. I must say that over all it's been a good experience, even though I am now quite ready to get back to my family in Franklin.

Missions mobilization is the primary job of the furloughing missionary. I believe that. My aim is that as many churches as possible will be involved with God's mission for the world. It’s my hope that stories from the field, direct contact with the workers (i.e., me) and exposition of the Bible will help people in churches move closer to the least reached and unreached peoples of the world.

I make one major observation from doing this tour (this is where the offensive part comes). The key individual for missions mobilization and missions engagement in local churches in America is not the visiting missionary. It is not the missions committee chair. It is not the common member of the congregation. The key missions mobilizer in any church is the pastor and/or the pastoral leadership. In every church I have visited the heat of missions fervor is relative to the lead pastor's interest (or disinterest) in the overseas work. It's the maxim. The constant. The every-time reality.

I’ll be careful here. I was a pastor for a long time. I understand the pressures that are on the shepherd of a congregation. It can be overwhelming ... and it can be overwhelming to even think about one more thing to be responsible for. Particularly something that may seem minor. Missions involvement. Isn’t that why we have missionaries? Isn't discipleship more critical? What about local evangelism? Why missions? Why one more thing? I understand the pressure from below and the pressure from above that pastors face. I really do. But, sorry pastor dude (if it's possible there is a pastor among the four or five who read this blog). I can't let up on this issue. The missions temperature of any given church depends on where the pastor sets the thermostat. It’s been true in every church I’ve visited.

So what's a leader in the church to do? I am going to list four things that I think will help. There’s much more there, perhaps. But, here is my initial stab at a list that I hope will be helpful. I am open to more. I like discussion. As you can see, I have absolutely no opinions about this issue, at all (tongue firmly planted in cheek).

1.Bathe in the Bible (... and encourage your people to bathe in the Bible)
The scope of this article does not include an argument of why missions should be a center piece to every Christian church. Suffice it to say that there is plenty of material out there to make this argument. I have read the Bible from cover to cover several times during my years of ministry, and I find the issue of God's glory being revealed and spread to all peoples of the earth a consistent in Scripture. It's in every book of the Bible. All I can say is read it. You'll discover this to be Scripture’s central theme. Any person (or pastor) who lives in and is fed by the Scriptures will find a Biblical motivation for caring about unreached and unengaged peoples around the globe. I really believe that we should care about what the Bible cares about. In doing that we care about what Jesus cares about and our priorities are right. Too often, Pastor (yeah, I’ll speak directly here) we get too concerned about our own ministry kingdom and personal ego. I say this from experience. I've been there. I know the human ego - and worse, the pastoral ego - far too well. This is why God gave us the gift of the cross. We must crucify fleshly ego that gets in the way of what He really wants to do through His church, purchased with His blood, that we have been called to lead. We can only lead when dead to self. There’s no other way.

2. Understand Missiology (... and do what it takes to help your people understand missiology)
This may seem like an ivory tower issue. I know that the popular way to advertise churches now days is to let people know that we give "practical messages" and most would not find missiology immediately practical. The problem here goes back to number 1, at least to some extent. A people mobilized for missions are a people who are versed in the Scriptures. However, it is also important to understand the unique issues surrounding overseas work. I have met with missions committees who have no idea about basic issues like contextualization, dependency or church planting. While these things may not seem to have immediate relevance, the person who is mobilized to do their part in fulfilling the Great Commission should at least be aware of some of the issues that those on the field are facing. One the best educational resources for missions mobilization that I am aware of is the material put out by the US Center for World Missions called "Perspectives". As far as I am concerned, this is something every pastor should take. If possible, every member of the missions committee should be scholarshiped by the church to go through this. This training of local pastors and missions leaders will serve those of us who are serving on the field beyond telling, in terms of awareness, help and support. It will make a missions committee more effective in doing it's job and it will give the local church greater global impact.

3. Don't Make Everything "Missions" (because that will make nothing missions)
I know the trends. I know we now use the term "mission" as a generic word for "outreach.” Some churches will use "global" and "local" as descriptive modifiers. However, it seems many churches are confused when it comes to the difference between these two areas. And there is a difference. It is not appropriate to pit local outreach and global missions against each other, or to call one more important than the other. However, I also think we do a disservice to both areas when we equate them with each other. Reaching out to American inner cities or helping hurricane victims on the Gulf coast is good work that churches should be involved with. However, this is not the same thing as connecting with those who are crossing culture to reach an unreached, under-reached or unengaged people group. Churches in America can and should be involved with both. Our terminology is important and people get confused when we equate local outreach to global engagement. These are not the same things. While it may be possible to be engaged globally and not involved locally, this is not a typical problem. In most of my observations the exact opposite issue is a greater problem. More churches than ever are engaged at a local level, and assume that things will care for themselves globally. There’s an incredible disconnect. This is exacerbated when we call local outreach "missions" and pat each other on the back for being "missions-minded", when in reality the church is mostly about locally growing bigger and gives very little thought to the unreached and unengaged peoples of the world. Global missions and local outreach are not the same, and engagement with one does not mean engagement with the other.

4. Get Involved With Relationally Based Strategic Partnerships
This means that your church connects directly with a field, a worker or a field project at a personal and relational level. In other words, the local church actually knows and understands international workers, and their work. Partnership is relationship that moves to a specific way of the local church praying for, resourcing, connecting and communicating with the field. Church members know the overseas work and is able to participate with that work in incredibly tangible ways. The field worker, likewise, knows the church and has connected with the people there. We have partner churches who have paid for and installed computer labs, taught Mongolian girls how to quilt and provided field workers with needed vehicles. Official strategic partnerships connect the church with the field, and the field with the church. I'm a fan. For churches in my denomination, this is can now be accomplished in an official manner at www.cmalliance.org. I can’t tell you how much I am a fan of this model of mobilization. It engages both the church and the field and is a true “win/win” for all involved. (Contact me personally if you want more specifics!)

In the end, missions mobilization requires intentional pastoral involvement and there’s no way around it. Pastor (here I go talking direct again), you have to be globally engaged. Meet with and encourage the missions committee. Take “Perspectives” with them. Partner with a field or a field worker. Bathe and believe in the Bible. It's not enough to talk about local outreach, or even to make random short term trips. Make sure your theology of missions includes the unreached, under-reached and unengaged peoples of the world.

Missions should be in the DNA of the church, but it probably won't be until it's the heart of the pastor.

What other ways can a pastor get more involved with missions? How does your church leadership work to mobilize the people of the church for the Great Commission?

Toward the Uncomfortable: Calling for a Moratorium on Church Planting in Nashville

Contrary to popular belief, Home Assignment is not a year long vacation, just in case anyone has false ideas of what “missionaries” do when not on the field. Currently I am in the midst of a 10 week tour in Wisconsin. Even last week, when I was on vacation with my family in Panama City, FL, I still had the opportunity to speak and share in a church being pastored by an old friend. We’ve been to Wyoming and New Mexico to connect with our church partners. Kingdom work in Mongolia goes on there and we are about the work of raising awareness, prayer and support here. It’s a full time job, really. Being away from family for huge chunks at a time is not great. However, I am happy to connect with churches and to see awareness and support and connectedness with the Global Kingdom of Jesus increase. It's satisfying.

Wyoming, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Florida … and Tennessee. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in each of these places. A couple of weeks ago I was driving through an unnamed Wisconsin town. The downtown area had an unbelievable number of bars. It was fairly amazing, actually. I can’t say that I have ever been to a place that has more bars, per capita. One Catholic Church. One Lutheran Church. 75 bars. (Okay, maybe not 75 … but trust me when I say it was a lot.) As I drove through “Bar-Town”, Wisconsin, I decided something. There needs to be a moratorium on church planting in areas like Nashville (and that includes Franklin, Brentwood and Spring Hill) and Dallas (I read that this is the most churched area in the country - and Metro Nashville can’t be far behind). Church planters who are feeling called to establish a new congregation really need to consider places where there is little Gospel presence and that would NOT be Nashville. It WOULD be places like Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, or towns in States like Maine or Montana. I drove through Spring Hill, TN one recent Saturday evening and the entire main drag through town was littered (seriously, it looked like actual litter) with church signs in preparation for Sunday Morning (and Saturday night) services. Spring Hill doesn’t need another church. Franklin, TN doesn’t need another church. But, if planting a church is what’s on your heart, why not consider going to Española, New Mexico or to Beacon Falls, Connecticut? Nashville already has churches. Lots and lots of churches. I would even go so far to say that Nashville has enough churches. I know there will be some who disagree to the point of even being offended by that statement. But, I wholeheartedly believe it’s true.

I was sharing these thoughts with an old friend of mine recently. His immediate response was expected and common. “Well, there’re lost people everywhere, brother.” Yeah, I know it. And, in Nashville and places like it, there are is also opportunity everywhere. There are over 800 churches in Nashville. If neighboring Williamson County is thrown into the mix there are well over 1000 churches in the area. One thousand churches. Granted, many of these churches will not be Gospel preaching churches. So take away half. Take away two-thirds. Take away three-fourths of them. That still leaves at least 250 churches, for crying out loud. That goes without even mentioning all the Christian ministries and organizations that are located in Nashville and the surrounding counties. I dare say that Nashville is churched. Are there lost people? Yes. Are there unchurched? Sure. But establishing another church in a place where there are so many other churches is not going to change that fact.

Church planters must ask and answer the question of “why do I want to plant?” And let's not play games. Answer the question with brutal honesty. Several years ago, I met with a church planter guy who wanted to "plant" in the Nashville area. His stated main goal in trying to figure out where to establish his new congregation was not “where is the need?” His main goal was “how close am I to our family and what school system will my kids be in.” Are you kidding me? This is terribly wrong criteria.

I wonder sometimes if we really understand what Jesus meant when He said that we are to deny self, take up the Cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Somehow our American Dream mindset discounts the implicit discomfort of that call. Establishing the Kingdom of Jesus in the areas of the world (and America) that are unreached and least-reached is not going to be comfortable. The easy places are essentially reached. The easy places have Bibles and churches and Christians. It’s the uncomfortable places of the world (and America) that are left. I would never choose to live in “Bar-Town”, Wisconsin or Connecticut or even Panama City, Florida (yeah, the beach is nice - but sure wouldn’t want to live there). But these are the places where church planters NEED to live and do the work of the Kingdom. If the choice were mine, I wouldn’t choose to live in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It’s not an awesome city. It's far from family and there are very few "perks" in living there. But it’s my harvest field - where I am called. Church planters need to go to the places in America (and the world) where the need lies … not necessarily to the places in America (or the world) where they are comfortable.

So until the Gospel of grace and freedom is being proclaimed over the noise of “Bar-Town”, let’s call a moratorium on further church planting in Nashville and other such over-churched places. If you are called to a place like Nashville, why not connect with and assist something that’s already happening instead of feeling the need to start something of your own? There are good things happening in many Nashville area churches. Join what God is already doing there. If there is a sense of being called to something new, why not check out “Bar-Town”, Wisconsin? It’s time to move toward need and not comfort. That’s what Jesus said.

On Boys, Dads and Killing Snakes

The day came all too soon. It was a Thursday. It was surreal. I got in my little (borrowed) Saturn Astra. Jonathan got in his Ford Explorer. We’d packed. We gassed up. We left Franklin. Destination: Greenville, SC. Jonathan has been with us for 18 years, and it’s time for him to venture off on his own.

I spent most of the trip in my car, he in his. Alone together. Together alone. We stopped just once, I think. For food. I spent most of the trip wondering how the time got away from me so quickly. Eighteen years really isn’t that long. As we drove past places along the way, memories flood my mind. Big Rock Mountain in Crab Orchard, TN. We camped a couple of times and learned to rock climb together there. We passed Gatlinburg, TN, where Renee’, Jonathan and I had some of our first family vacations. I still remember pushing Jonathan around in a stroller through the winding Gatlinburg sidewalks. As we hit the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, I made the decision that this is indeed my favorite area on the planet. Jonathan, Cori and I went on several camping trips in that area … some of the very first ones were there. Jonathan ate himself sick on blueberries. We hiked the AT. We slept in an abandoned barn. It’s funny how a stretch of interstate can have so many memories that I didn’t even know I had.

As a father, I want my son to exceed anything and everything I’ve accomplished. I guess, most Dads want that for their kids. It’s normal. My prayer and hope for Jonathan is not that he will “follow in my footsteps”. I want him to run past me. Blow me out of the water. That’s my hope. He is going to the same school that Renee’ and I went to. For that I am glad. It’s a good place to learn how to seek God. And as long as he seeks God he will do fine. I know he’ll be all right.

We arrived in Greenville that evening. It was dark. As we pulled on campus, so many other memories flood my mind. This is the place where I learned to follow Jesus. It’s where I learned that it’s more important “to be” than it is “to do”. It’s where I learned the things that I needed to know to sustain 17 years of ministry without quitting when it got hard. We parked the cars and started to wander around. We needed to find someone to help us check into our rooms. As we climbed the stairs to head to the dining room, I stopped short. There was a copperhead snake laying directly across the path in front of us. I had nothing to move it with, nothing to kill it with - and I sure didn’t want to step over it. If I’d had boots on, I would have stepped on it and smashed its head. But I was wearing sandals, and just didn’t want to take a chance of missing and having to go to the emergency room with a snake bite on my big toe. So, we climbed onto the building and were able to navigate around the snake, and we did find a young lady to help us. When I told her that there was a snake on the path, she gave a squeal and promptly brought me a shovel. Welcome to the Evangelical Institute.

I wasn’t able to kill the snake. It has crawled off the path, and I couldn’t get an angle on it with the shovel. I think I may have injured it. But now there was a really angry hissing copperhead in the bushes. We avoided that area for the rest of the night.

Jonathan and I worked to get his room set up late into the night. We drove around Greenville the next day and finished getting everything he needed for the coolest dorm room ever.


I spent most of the day continuing to wonder where the time had gone. Wasn’t he just pushing Thomas the Tank Engine trains around the living room last year? Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that he was playing soccer in shorts that went down to his ankles and socks that went up to his waist? And I know it was just a few days ago that he donned his pink hat and with fear and trepidation boarded an airplane to Mongolia, trusting that Mom and Dad were not completely insane and that we were all doing the right thing. Now he’s 18 and in school. On his own. My heart hurts. But I am not worried. Not worried at all. I am really, really proud of him. I didn’t have much to do with him turning out as well as he has. God is faithful.

God is faithful … and time is fleeting. That’s what I keep coming back to. The Bible says that life is a vapor and all flesh is grass. I understand that better than I care to, now. We don’t really have that long on this planet and it’s sure not our home. We’re only visiting. It is more crucial to me than ever before that life be lived for the Glory of Jesus and not be wasted on uselessness. By my math, I’m at least half way finished (in all likelihood). My son is just starting his journey. I pray he finds more joy and more satisfaction in Jesus than I ever could. I pray that he fights harder and accomplishes more than I ever did. I pray he has less wasted moments. More fruit. More prayer. More victories.

It was getting late. I had a long journey to Wisconsin in front of me. Time to go visit churches and talk about Mongolia. We finished setting up the dorm room. I took some last minute pictures. We walked to my car and said goodbye. I could see him walking back to the dorm in my rear view mirror. I called Renee’, told her that he was going to be okay and cried. As I made my way north, I did much thinking and much praying for both of my children. I don’t know how great of a father I was for them. I get so uptight about stuff that’s not so important. They have both seen the ugliest sides of me. I wasn’t one to wrestle and I don’t think I did enough “Dad things”. But I know that there is one thing that both of my kids have learned from their parents. You have to do the will of God no matter what. I suppose if there is nothing else to learn, you’ll be okay if you learn that.

I listened to the Jars of Clay song called “Boys (Lesson one)” (lyrics below … it’s a fantastic song) and cried again. It seemed like an enormously long drive to Kentucky.

As I pulled off the Interstate, weary and worn out, I got a text from Jonathan. It simply said, “We killed it! :]”. I smiled and thanked God. He killed the snake that I wasn’t able to. It was really an answer to my prayers. God is faithful. Life is fleeting. I know that he’s in good hands and he will be fine.

Lesson one - do not hide
Lesson two - there are right ways to fight
And if you have questions
We can talk through the night

So you know who you are
And you know what you want
I've been where you're going
And it's not that far
it's too far to walk
But you don't have to run
you'll get there in time

Lesson three - you're not alone
Not since I saw you start breathing on your own
You can leave, you can run, this
will still be your home

So you know who you are
And you know what you want
I've been where you're going
And it's not that far
it's too far to walk
But you don't have to run
you'll get there in time
Get there in time

In time, to wonder where the days have gone
In time, to be old enough to
wish that you were young
When good things are unraveling,
bad things come undone
You weather love and lose your innocence

There will be liars and
thieves who take from you
Not to undermine the consequence
But you are not what you do
And when you need it most
I have a hundred reasons why I love you

If you weather love and lose your innocence
Just remember - lesson one


Boys (Lesson one) by Jars of Clay

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Telling the Old, Old Story

These days have found me (Bernie) spending much time at the Williamson County Public Library or Starbucks working on a couple of research papers I want to have finished by the end of the month.* This is not to say there are not other proverbial irons in the fire (I have this thing called “missions conference tour” that I keep hearing about), but that’s the focus at the moment. In reality, I’ve found the first months of home assignment to be refreshingly uneventful. I think ‘uneventfulness’ is something I needed more than I probably knew. Even recent mornings have found me waking up groggily at 10:00 AM, quite the rare event for those who know my early rising tendencies. Perhaps my perceived laziness is telling of my weariness. However, that said, it’s been a good couple of months to rest and write and think.

I’ve found my thinking often lands on the issue of community. Community, not in the sense of development or “centers”, but community in the sense of “living life together”.



Last week I went to a “Hutchmoot”. “Hutch” as in a cage for rabbits. “Moot” as in an old English word for meeting, used specifically with regards to the meeting of large tree-shepherds called “Ents” in the writings of JRR Tolkien. Strange name. Spectacular gathering (I almost wrote “meeting” but “meeting” could bring thoughts of board rooms and power lunches. This was more a gathering: dispersed people wandering to one place for an informal but glorious “moot”. Check out the web page and the Rabbit Room for more info and true etymology.) Weekend discussion focused on Gospel centered story telling through music, literature and other artistic expression. Lot’s of talk about books and music - which was fun. However, the core and essential matters, and the moments which moved me most were conversations which ended up centering on Christian community in relationship to Gospel storytelling. I came away with the seed of an idea that I am not sure I will ever move away from. The best ministry and creativity in a Christian and Biblical context will always sprout and grow to fruition in an environment of community. I am still playing with that sentence. I don’t know for sure. But I have this deep suspicion that it’s true. Truer than I know.

M. Night Shaymalan had a couple of decent films early in his career. The Sixth Sense and Signs were examples of good film-making; surprising, redemptive, even beautiful in their message and tone. That said, all of his films since those two have taken a serious turn for the worst. He’s become a “one-trick pony” and his recent films have been good examples of the uncreative and banal. In a recent conversation, we were discussing how someone could go from “Sixth Sense” to “Last Airbender” and I found out, interestingly enough, that Shaymalan works in alone. He writes alone. He has complete creative control of all his films, and does very little collaborating with others. He does not work in community. This answered many questions for me.

Community and creativity must walk together. Without community, creativity becomes a one-dimensional effort; limited; dull and what once was original becomes secondhand and worn out.

Contextual theology is creative work in much the same way writing a song or a novel is creative work. This is particularly true in a young church that doesn’t have 2000 years of church history to stand on. The Church in Mongolia is in the process of becoming “self-theologizing.” This is a critical and oft neglected aspect of mission. Right now Mongolian Christian theology has been nearly 100% imported. Some is fine. There are aspects of theology that are universal and timeless and cross all cultures. However, there is s great need pastors and teachers and thinkers and writers in Mongolia to learn how to theologize in way that is both Biblical and contextual. There is much more to be said about contextual theology than what can be put into a blog post, but I will say that this task of learning and doing will take a great amount of creative energy, much of which was sapped in Mongolia by seventy years of socialism. My Mongolian sisters and brothers will have to open new channels of thinking and creating in order to do the creative work of contextual theology. This is not a mere academic venture. It is as much artistic.

At the very center of this creative contextual theologizing, is a community of believers united by the Cross, the Blood, their faith and their story. Learning to live and work together, “striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3) A group who is called “the Body of Christ” (I Corinthians 12:27) and “the Bride of Christ” (Revelation 19:7), and even “brothers” of Jesus (Hebrews 2:11). A group that Jesus has prayed for very specifically. “...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21) This group is called to tell the unique story of Mongolian Jesus followers to this generation and to the next. No one else can tell their story. The story must be told. Together.

I have to confess that this kind of community is something I’ve only tasted a few times in my life. I’ve written about it before, and, in recent days, have had so many good discussions with good friends on this topic. However, it is something that I dream for the emerging church in Mongolia. We return in 10 months. My hope and prayer is that next term we will have the opportunity to begin walking with the Mongolian church to a new age: Community-based, Biblical, creative, contextual theology propelled through the culture in the conduit of proclamation, story and song.

My hope is that if we work together with Mongolian brethren, and the church works together in community, we will see stories and films and songs in the Mongolian language that will rival the works of Lewis or Tolkien or Chesterton in the English language (and perhaps very little of everything “The Last Airbender” represents).

Now back to the library. I have a paper to finish.


* For those who are not aware, I am doing graduate work through the University of South Africa. I hope to finish phase one of this work the first week of February. More on this in another post…