Worldly Holiness

Arabic Class, originally uploaded by papalars.

Tomorrow, Carol and I head north to Santander, on the north Atlantic coast of Spain for our Europe mission staff retreat. This will be our first time together with the entire Europe team this side of the pond since we arrived in September. It should be fun. We will have some great inputs from different speakers, time to share a bit about what is going on across our fields of ministry and variety of things our team is engaged in. From what I gather, it also seems like the group enjoys having fun. All part of maintaining good emotional and spiritual health as we work cross-culturally. I will have some fun taking pictures in a different part of Spain, while Carol will probably enjoy reading and walking the beaches. We will seek to do some of that together. Erick is headed off to Chicago to hang with big brother for the week.

This afternoon, I stopped by to visit my Arabic language teacher. Wow, what a wonderful time together. We went a step deeper in building our friendship and sharing our hearts, some jokes, but most of all our faith. You all should know, by the way, that it is much, much easier talking about God with a focus person than anyone I have spoken with before about spiritual things, except maybe a J.W. Mr. M—, my teacher is passionate about his faith in Allah. We actually share many things in common, different than what my culture had prepared me to believe. We have a growing friendship. I know we will diverge from each other at significant points over what we believe. But I have a sense that we will both be able handle that, that we will regard each other with respect. To focus people friendship is a value that is cherished, held high and upon which I can build as we go forward sharing our faith. My M— called me a believer. What he meant by that I am not fully sure but I think I will find out soon enough. He did say that fellow believers have a tighter bond than blood relatives.

Today we talked about the story of Joseph, Jesus Christ, materialism. I shared with him about my dissertation work on Christian spirituality and my basic thesis that the inward disciplines like prayer, solitude and contemplation must be integrated with the outward fruit of action and mission in the world. He agreed and cited some verses from the Qu´ran. We talked further about the country of Egypt, where he is building a language school to teach Arabic to foreigners. Mr. M— also told me a new joke about 3 people from his home town in Syria. It was really quite good. When I got up to leave, he asked me if I had had coffee yet today. I always have coffee! He invited me down the street for a cafe con leche and that next time I could treat him. After about 2 hours of visiting, I finally left. Wow.

Stay tuned for further chapters to this one. I know God is doing something and that eventually we will open the "Holy Books" together. I can hardly wait. Pray for Mr. M–. Pray for our relationship. Pray for the unmistakable witness of the Holy Spirit and for the Good News to be heard.

One Cross over Barcelona, originally uploaded by papalars.

For more than thirty years, I have felt, on and off again, that there was something more to the Christian journey than my current experience was telling me. During my college years in particular, I sometimes became incredibly disillusioned with my own progress in Christian maturity as well as the lack of clarity and purpose in my life. Disappointingly, I also found few people (thank goodness there were some), who really inspired me to pursue the greater things of God and his kingdom. In this state of mind, I was drawn to the Jesuit movement as a phenomenon of the Counter Reformation in my undergraduate studies. I was intrigued especially with the correlation of the “Spiritual Exercises” of Ignatius of Loyola, how he developed an intentional approach to cultivating the inner life, and the impact this Catholic order had on the world in mission. As an evangelical, I observed the curious contrast with the “Protestants” who seemed more concerned about arguing doctrinal points. Granted, the dynamics of the Reformation and Counter-reformation were more complex and nuanced than this simplistic first impression. I was somewhat captivated but troubled at the same time.

Needless to say, I was set on a journey in these early years to find models and to live as best I could the healthy integration of the inner life of a follower of Jesus Christ and the expression of that life outwardly, in the world of action and mission. I was also concerned about personal integrity, wanting to live with others in a way that said something about the story we claim to live by. I will never be content to know, in an intellectual sense, that right doctrine is enough if the expression of that life does not bear “fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).

My journey continues today. I have had some personal failures as well as success in this venture. Thankfully, I have also found that I am not alone. I am doing some writing and thinking on these areas currently and I´d love it if you joined me. This section will be tagged ¨worldly holiness.¨ I chose this combination of words for the juxtaposition of two ideas which are not usually combined. I want to bind these two often opposing ideas together. I think a true Biblical faith does the same. More on this later. If this gets too thick or heavy, let me know by email. Or simply enjoy the pictures that accompany each post. As always, comments are welcome.

This picture is from Park Guell above Barcelona. I like it because it is a place for solitude, reflection and prayer, if you can get away from the rush of tourists [I’m no longer a tourist of course]. But the city is always there in view. So my reflection and prayer is not cloistered away from the reality of this place. That I think is part of what “worldly holiness” is all about. Any spirituality worth its salt in the Kingdom of God must be connected to life on the streets. It must be down & in, not up and out of life´s challenges.

Guapo, originally uploaded by papalars.

Here is the more to come that I promised about Fabio and the Esparcidos project.

The "Esparcidos Project" is an intentional effort by the Covenant in Spain to respond to the huge demographic reality of the Latin American immigrants who are literally flooding into this country. We read about the influx before we came but to experience it is another thing. Locals sometimes complain about the influx but it is a reality that will not change in the near future. Within our first month most of our connections were, in fact, with Latinos. The majority are from Ecuador, next Colombia, then Brazil. Many of these people are here for work and have fled desperate situations back home. They have come for opportunity and they speak Spanish, but not the Castilian spoken in Spain. The two languages are essentially the same, but different enough to identify where people are from. So our mission community is responding to this demographic reality. Our primary focus in ministry is the Mosaics project and what we call "focus" people, from other places in the world and very different kind of outreach as you can imagine. None-the-less, we love Latinos, are drawn to them and them to us. I think they find in us a friendly face and someone who speaks a little more like them.

Now who is Fabio? Well, Fabio is from Brazil and is fast becoming a friend. He has lived in Canada, the US, Brazil and now Spain. He works for an insurance company and uses his Spanish, Portuguese, and English on his job everyday. About a month ago he asked if he could drop in each week to speak English with me for about an hour. He wants to practice and become more comfortable with our mother tongue. Oh I forgot to mention. Fabio is also studying Italian and is planning to be in Italy next fall for about a month to immerse in the language and culture. That would be his 4th language. I've got 2 down and intend to have some ability in Arabic in the next year. What an inspiration Fabio is to me. Fabio is a gatherer. He invites people all the time into his life. So, he is the principle guy behind this emerging Latino cell group. There are hopes this group will become a Covenant church down the road. I believe it will. I pray with Fabio each week, help him with his English, attend some of their small groups, and generally have become a friend and mentor. Let it be known however. Fabio does the heavy lifting. Pray for Fabio.

The photo of this guapo boy is Aral´s son. He keeps his parents busy. Notice the dirty fingernails and marker on his nose. He is a busy little guy. Aral (dad) is from Colombia and has his family of 5 live here in Barcelona. 

“We regard our involvement in….mission as an adventure, are prepared to take risks, and are anticipating surprises as the Spirit guides us into fuller understanding. This is not opting for agnosticism, but for humility. It is, however, a bold humility —or a humble boldness. We know only in part, but we do know. And we believe that the faith we profess is both true and just, and should be proclaimed. We do this, however, not as judges or lawyers, but as witnesses; not as soldiers, but as envoys of peace; not as high-pressure salespersons, but as ambassadors of the Servant Lord.”               

                                          David Bosch in Transforming Mission

This is a guiding thought from a first rate missiologist as we consider our work among our focus people. His book, Transforming Mission is an encyclopedia. Really! I recommend it to anyone who wants a top shelf guide to a history of missions and the thoughts behind the different periods in mission history. He does an in depth assessment of the guiding paradigm of each significant period from the New Testament to modern times. He passed away in the 90's but left us all with his profound reflections, all 587 pages worth! 

My creation, originally uploaded by papalars.

I mentioned I´d tell a story about Fabio. Well, here is a teaser that I will fill in later. Need to hit the hay and get ready for Carol to come home. Maybe do a little more cleaning than Erick and I have grown accustomed to. We´ve been good. Just don´t know if it's good enough. Most guys understand me. We aim at efficiency sometimes more than cleanliness. I mean why dirty all the dishes when you can be more efficient and save energy circulating the same dishes from the sink to the table. Also, we are not at risk from airborne diseases in our bathroom just because I don't clean the toilet or squeegee the shower everyday.

Remember though. Check back. There is more to come. These are people I have had the privilege of getting to know almost since the day we arrived back in September. It is our ¨United Nations¨ group and there is a specific effort to gather these people together in a cell group. This is part of the Covenant´s "esparcidos" (which means literally "spread out" but may be more akin to the sense of the non-resident aliens, or diaspora). The new Covenant Church in La Coruña, Spain in the northwest corner of the country, where Rob and Nancy Reed serve, have been a big part of launching this group.

So far I´ve counted people from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain of course, Italy, Angola, Cameron, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Sweden, France and Carol and I from the US. So, what do all these people have in common? And who is Fabio? Stay tuned.