Worldly Holiness

Monastery walks, originally uploaded by papalars.

“There is seldom a period in which we do not know what to do, and we move through life in such a distracted way that we do not even take the time and rest to wonder if any of the things we think, say, or do are worth thinking, saying, or doing.”
Henri J. M. Nouwen in The Way of the Heart, p. 10.

Last week, Carol and I were at the all-Europe staff retreat in Santander, in northern Spain. We had great times of interaction with the rest of our team serving in places across this incredibly diverse region–The Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Russia, Sweden, and other parts of Spain. We also had several folks who came as guests from Chicago who played a role with us in the retreat experience. The highlight for me was to get to know each other a little better and the time of breaking bread together at each meal.

One of the components of the retreat reflected a theme in the broader leadership of the Covenant denomination, the area of “sustaining pastoral excellence.” It may not be obvious to all what this refers to. Essentially, we are talking about how to keep going over the long haul, maintaining the internal fire for one’s personal life and ministry. I learned in one of the presentations that the Christian ministry is one of the most dangerous careers today with a very high incidence of health, personal and relational problems. It is tough going in other words. Missionaries are part of this equation. We have the added issues that come with separation from family and loved ones and pressures [along with the joys] of living in another culture.

It occurred to me somewhere after the retreat that I was exhausted. I also got sick during the retreat, bringing that back with me to Barcelona. This explains a little of the absence of posts on my blog for about a week. Hmm, I was supposed to be refreshed from the time away at the retreat. Well, I was in certain ways, but in all honesty, I think we tried to pack too much into our agenda. This brings me to think about our lives in general. While much of our daily life is good and full, how often do I run from one distraction to another? Somewhere in the last 2 days I read the quote above from Henri Nouwen and I felt like this describes my life too much. I'm like the little hamster on the wheel in the cage that goes faster the faster one runs? As servants of Christ, passionate about ministry and getting things done for the Kingdom, we too often resemble that little hamster! I admit, guilty as charged.

Our retreat last week was good. It was very good activity, all of it. But it was not really a retreat to recharge the batteries for life and ministry. I didn’t take enough time to rest, reflect and listen. This is serious stuff for, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain." [Psalm 127:1]. Pray for us as we take the next steps in life and ministry. We need to keep the passion of the Lord before us and discern what he would have us do and be, with each other, our loved ones, our children, ourselves, and our focus friends. Thanks for accompanying us in the journey.

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.

Girona Cathedral Inside, originally uploaded by papalars.

I promised I’d return to the reason for our trip to Andalucía, week before last, and why we were in Ronda with the wild bridge. By the way, the two pictures I most recently posted have really made a hit on my flickr site. Lots of views and comments. What do you think about the girl with the birds below?

Anyway, we took that trip to Andalucía in Southern Spain to speak with some people about collaborating in ministries of “member care.” One of Carol’s strong interests is to come alongside people who are hurting in some way. Member care is a fairly recent area of ministry in the mission community but has been something all missionaries have needed or experienced at some point in their time of service working cross-culturally. The challenges of missionary work can be daunting and they affect each of us in different ways. When conflict hits, when there are problems in the ministry, or when relationships go south the added layer of being in a cross-cultural context can make things more difficult. Things occur in the extended family that the missionary cannot be present for. Even the question of “where are you from?” can be reminders that we are strangers in a foreign land. Missionary children often feel this most intensely and sometimes struggle with identity and relational bonding. In other cultures ways of dealing with all these issues are different and the normal support structures that one would seek out in times of trouble are not there. What is a missionary to do? That is where member care comes in. And that is what we are hoping to be part of here in Spain.

One group we met with in Granada has around 150 Latino missionaries working with our focus people in the region. Carol wants to come alongside these wonderful servants who have left all to serve the Lord. Many of them are single women also, and need someone who speaks their heart language—Latin American Spanish!! By the way, we personally are no strangers to this stuff. Pray for us as we seek to both provide member care to others as well as find healthy ways to take care of ourselves and to build that support structure necessary to thrive in cross-cultural ministry.

Annie Dillard affirms that the clue to full spiritual aliveness is found in the very forces of calamity that we would avoid if we had the power to choose. The 3 d’s [disillusionment, dislocation & desert] that missionaries experience can bring us new growth or make life miserable, depending in large part how we process our stuff. Struggles and conflict can make us more alive, in paradoxical ways. This is counter-intuitive for most Westerners, where a Western spirituality focuses on upward mobility that has an innate fear of “the fall.” But we need to embrace the dark and difficult things we experience, our suffering and our sin. Not in a way that makes Eeyore our patron saint, but in a way that is honest, truthful and open to God’s healing touch.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16

Alone by the Sea, originally uploaded by papalars.

My last post was about a week ago, right after my trip to Malta, which seems like a distant memory. I feel reflective tonight, like I need to “collect my bearings!” My kids laugh when I say that. They think it sounds silly, almost like I am a kid on the playground who has lost his marbles. Well, that is the way I feel sometimes, even though the saying refers more to orientation, reading a map and knowing where you are. Anyway, it is time to take stock of our time here in Spain/Europe, reflecting on what God has led us into and the things that are yet ahead. This week we are entering our 6th month of living here in Barcelona. Wow, can it be? As I look back at what we have done in that period, it seems longer, or that we have experienced and seen more than one can fit into that time span. Does that ever happen to you? When you are in the midst of something time seems to move slow, but when you look back you can hardly believe all that has happened? Perhaps that is human nature, at least my nature. I can be impatient in the midst of something, wanting it to move faster.

My prayer tonight–"Well, here I am God, ready for bed, but not really. We need to talk. Please, let me know you are present. Well, wait a minute! I know you are. In fact, when I read our support statement today and saw who contributed to us in 2006, I got warm in my heart and tears came to my eyes. Though sometimes this transition has been hard, I realize you are there with me, with us! You have brought people into our lives to encourage and to join in the journey. Thanks for that. It really helps. Help me in turn to be faithful, first to you Lord, and then to those who trust us with this ministry. Help me to continue to pursue those things you have put on our hearts, and the activities we take up. Help me to measure time well, neither rushing too far ahead in planning for tomorrow, nor lagging behind waiting for something better to come along. Help me to cherish the moments with family and friends, knowing they are gifts of companionship from you, even if they don't always bend to my agenda. Guide me to that still place where I can rest in your presence even if I can't see you. Then help me to be that place of rest for others. Thanks for the joy of knowing you!"

“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards;
at the still point, there the dance is."
    T. S. Eliot

“And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”     Colossians 1:15-17
                   

More to come…

Well, the Larsen boys are back from our adventures, Erick to Oman and me to Malta. I haven't gotten the full run down yet from Erick, but understand that things went well for him with some new understanding of that part of the world and friendships.

I am a little tired from my time in Malta. It was a full packed schedule with keynote speakers, smaller workshops on many topics like media, member care issues [that means the stuff we all deal with living and ministering in our context, cross-culturally, that may require some special assistance], etc. There was a core track woven throughout the conference that featured ministry highlights from each country across the region. This was very helpful in giving a bird’s eye view of what God is doing and who the players are. I was able to also engage in a ton of networking with others focusing on this region and type of ministry with our focus people. The value of this last piece is huge and will have implications down the road as the Mosaics project takes more definitive shape and we grasp our specific roles in the panorama of ministry options. My time with colleague, Ken S. [ www.mosaicsworld.blogspot.com ] was also very good. We spent a lot of time debriefing some of the keynote sessions and explored important questions for our own ministry. And we networked. A lot of new ideas and crucial connections.

Ken and I, sometimes along with Erik Amundsen [son of Byron and Judy, our bosses in Mission Headquarters in Chicago…well not really “bosses”], got out in the community a few times to see the area, have a good cappuccino [see pictures to the side] and refresh our minds before we went back into sessions at the conference. This was an important aspect of our time to maintain our sanity. After all, the mind and heart can only absorb as much as the butt can endure! Malta is an interesting place that has a long history of military campaigns being fought on their small but strategic piece of land in the middle of the Mediterranean. The ones who were most recently on top were the British. That explains why they drove on the wrong side of the street, spoke English well, and had these old buses [photo] from England in the bus fleet. Maltese, the native language is a Semitic language put to a Latin alphabet. Very interesting.

By the way, Malta is not the piece of land at the end of the boot of Italy that I mistakenly mentioned in my last post before I left. That would be Sicily. How dumb of me. Malta is at the end of the soccer ball, much smaller, and is what they call an “archipelago!” Look that one up on Wikipedia. While you are there look up Malta and you will find some fascinating history. Well, I better get back to unpacking and sorting. You could take that to mean my clothes, as well as all the business cards and little pieces of paper with important contact information on them in my shirt pockets, backpack and who knows where else. If you’d like an issue related report from the conference, let me know and I can email that to you. As always, leave a comment or send a greeting. You can also find a set of 55 photos from my trip in the flickr site to the right.

Vale! Venga! Ciao.