The Life Of A Non-Resident Missionary

And so another journey begins for Blue Passport. Seven weeks, thirty thousand miles, twelve time zones and three countries. Along with the travel I will teach at least 120 hours before nearly 100 people including cross-cultural church planters assembling in Hyderabad, MA students in Bangalore and one student from Denver, Colorado. I will enjoy, briefly, New Delhi where we lived for four years, Indian village life, the halls of academia and a conference with world Christian leaders in Thailand. I will miss my wife’s milestone birthday October 5th (I won’t tell you her age, but you can write her by sending a message to Sandralewis2@gmail.com), and, thankfully, the presidential campaign and election (though I’ve already cast my absentee ballot). I will also miss, regretfully, moving my aged parents off their farm of 33 years into assisted living.

And why do I go through all of this? So that I can communicate the importance of taking the message of Christ cross-culturally to those who have never heard. My appreciation to all those who support us financially and through prayer.

Respect For The Book

The other day in an American church the worship leader paused between songs to read a passage of Scripture. What I noticed was that he had laid his Bible on the floor behind him and picked it up to read. A guy across the aisle had placed his Bible on the floor, under his chair. I was reminded how offensive it is in another culture to disrespect the Book.

I first became aware of the “sacredness” of Scripture in the early ‘90’s while working in Russia. Books, all books, were considered a prized possession and therefore handled with esteem. To write in, make notes, underline in a book is highly offensive, and of course, one NEVER places a book, certainly not the Bible, on the floor. The ground is “profane” space, where one puts their shoes, certainly not a Bible.

What is it about our culture that we have become so careless with little regard for fashion, music or literature? I am aware the Book is just a book and does not hold particular spiritual powers. Nevertheless, it seems to me that perhaps we would have more respect for God’s Word if they weren’t thrown in the trunk of our cars or tossed in the corner of our homes. A word to short-term teams going overseas -- hold your Bibles in your hands, place them on your laps, don’t throw them on the floor.

Culture As Commodity and Short-Term Missions

In the August edition of American Ethnologist is an article entitled, Sharing Culture or Selling Out? The author looks at the tourist industry in general and Alaskan tourism among the Native-American Tlingit people in particular.

Tourism is big business for many countries, especially for developing countries and indigenous people. For the Tlingit, the summer Alaskan cruises provide tourist dollars and cash income that fishing cannot compete with, and a whole lot less work. But with every boon there is a bane. “Tourism is commercialized hospitality” (p 384) and while the tour guide provides the visitor with a look into the past, in the process he chips away at culture present and the demise of culture future. Of course culture change is inevitable, and perhaps one function of sharing culture is preserving its memory as well.

For a tour to be successful it must follow a certain script, a “tourist formula.” The tourist formula includes: “the greeting, the guide, demonstrated use of the heritage language, traditional architecture, a performance, a gift shop or souvenirs or sale, and often, demonstrations of traditional Native crafts” (p 385). The better one can master the formula the more successful the selling of culture as a commodity.

As I read the article on the selling of culture and the “tourist formula,” it reminded me of some short-term mission projects I know. The idea that, “Culture itself must be simplified for tourist consumption,” and “For [culture] to be marketed and sold, culture must be packaged according to consumers desires” (p 387) is true for many Christian/mission tour ventures. While the goal of short-term missions is certainly more commendable than secular tourism, if not careful, the promotion of missions can be commercial selling of culture and faith as well.

Forced Reconversion

I continue to receive news from my friends and former students about the troubles in the state of Orissa. One of my students wrote that his brother was killed and their house was destroyed. Another church planter wrote to tell me his house was burned and that his family is now hiding in the forest. This morning I received this news:

Forceful Reconversion Carries on ; 
Supreme Court Raps State, Asks to Submit Report 


Hindu mobs led by fundamentalists are roaming in the whole of Kandhamal district & threatening the Christians to reconvert or else face death. Yesterday 5 families were forcefully reconverted, against their will, to Hinduism in Adaskupa in Kandhamal.

The Court further directed the Orissa Government to place a report of steps taken to protect lives of people in riot-hit Kandhamal district. "The court wanted to know what the state government was doing to protect the lives of people belonging to the Christian community," the court official said.

The religious fanaticism, which started on the night of August 23, has drawn strong condemnation from the international community. 



In a letter sent to the Bishop Joel Mal, Moderator of North India, The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, called for an end to the violence and urged Christians elsewhere to show their support for the Christian community in Orissa. 

"I hope that Christians and people of faith around the world will make known their horror at this violence, their support for the rebuilding of lives and the churches, orphanages and schools destroyed, and for work towards future reconciliation," he said.

EFI has compiled a comprehensive list of database with assistance from Archbishop's House Bhubaneswar, John Dayal, Christian Legal Association, Light Foundation and EFI News reporters and other sources, which can be found at Orissa Christian Persecution Fact Finding Report.

The next potential problem is the proposed yatra that is scheduled for tomorrow, September 6, in Bhubneshwar, carrying the ashes of slain leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.

Communicating The Gospel: Retelling The Story

As many of you know who read my blog, my passion is cross-cultural communication. To those who do not live in the world of missions it’s hard to grasp the importance of studying culture as it relates to communicating the Gospel. A focused study of culture should not only be a pre-field endeavor but an on-going pursuit as well.

Terry Muck, in a 2004 article entitled, “What Does It Mean to Do Theology Missiologically?” (Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XXII, No.1 January: 3-4), quotes Curtis Chang who gives a simple, yet profound, three-fold step in presenting the Gospel cross-culturally.

"First, ….that people must enter into the STORY OF THE CULTURE in which they are communicating the gospel. This means understanding its thought forms and then using those thought forms and especially the language of that culture to understand their paradigmatic stories."

Too often cross-cultural workers seek ways to invite people of other beliefs into their own stories of creation, forgiveness, eternity, without yet understanding the host cultures story. When we understand their concepts and, more importantly, the way they express those concepts, we will be better equipped to enter into meaningful dialogue.

"Second, the missiological theologian 'retells' the story. 'Retelling' does not mean 'stealing' the story for one's own. It means to emphatically understanding it to the extent that identification occurs with the people indigenous to that culture. It means that one can use the language and thought forms of that culture to communicate one's own ideas."

For example, Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet of God (Allah). Is it not reasonable that a cross-cultural communicator can retell the story of this great prophet as a prelude to discussing His uniqueness to that One true living God? This concept of retelling the story then leads to Chang’s concluding argument.

"The third stage, capturing the story, means that we ADD GOSPEL VALUE to the story so that the story is not countered but enhanced--or even transformed. INSTEAD OF SAYING, ‘NO,’ TO THEIR STORY, THE MISSIONARY THEOLOGIAN SAYS, ‘YES, BUT...YES, BUT HAVE YOU THOUGHT OF THIS?’" [emphasis mine]

Too often we bring a halt to the discussion before we begin. By understanding their story, retelling the story using their language and thoughts, we can own their story, without compromising ours. This approach is a natural bridge in retelling the story that may be similar, yet critically different.

I find that many of my students, and even many readers, are so terrified of compromising the truth of the Gospel that they fail to see they importance of first learning their story. We can only truly contend for the faith when we understand the argument.

Persecuted Church

People often ask me about the religious tolerance in India. My answer is always that India is a secular state and, though it is predominately Hindu and therefore a bias against minority religions, for the most part Christians are able to freely worship without persecution. However, India is a big country and there are pocket areas where there is antagonism against Christians by Hindu fundamentalists.

Last week one of the outspoken leaders against Christians, Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati, was murdered. Though the government has concluded that Maoist separatists committed the crime, the locals have turned against the Christians as being behind the killing. This morning I was sent this report on the persecuted church in Orissa.

AFTERMATH OF SWAMI'S KILLING : THE CHRISTIAN VICTIMS LIST


1) NUN BURNT ALIVE: A nun was burnt to death on 25th, Monday, after an orphanage was torched in at Phutpali in Bargarh district in Orissa during a bandh called by Hindu nationalist parties.Twenty children, who were at the orphanage, managed to escape but a priest suffered serious burn injuries in the attack. 



2) RASANANDA PRADHAN TORCHED ALIVE: Another person, Rasananda Pradhan, was burnt to death when his house was set ablaze at Rupa village in Kandhamal district. 



3) INFLAMMATORY SPEECHES TARGET CHRISTIANS: During the bandh inflammatory speeches spreading hatred against the Christian workers and the community were given by the VHP leaders. To gain the mass support,the activists have also carried the body of Swamiji throughout the town. 



4) CHURCHES BURNT ALL ACROSS ORISSA STATE: Churches were attacked in Khurda, Bargarh, Sundergarh, Sambalpur, Koraput, Boudh, Mayurbhanj, Jagatsinghpur and Kandhamal districts as also in the state capital, police sources said, adding 40 houses were set ablaze in Phulbani town. 



5) BUSES AND VEHICLES TORCHED: Mr. Mishra Digal was beaten up, while the motorcycles of Mr. R. K. Digal and Jitendra were burnt. Several buses at Gee Udaigiri in Baliguda were burnt. 



6) PULBANI CHURCH RANSACKED: The Church at Phulbani,and several other churches at Phiringia were attacked and ransacked. Pastor D. Tatson's house was vandalized and his property burnt. 



7) KAKRIGUMA CHURCHES VANDALISED: Churches in Kakriguma have been targeted by the mob that reportedly damaged the Assembly Of God Church and the Philadelphia Church. 



8) WORLD VISION STAFF FLED FOR SAFETY: World Vision India office ransacked and the Staff has also fled to jungle for protection. 



9) CHRISTIANS TAKE SHELTER IN FOREST FOR PROTECTION: A police camp at Barakhama was also attacked by the Hindu fundamentalists. With several houses being burnt down and people being made homeless, many Christians,particularly from Nua Sahi, Munda Sahi and Suna Tonga have fled into forests for their lives. 



10) NUN RAPED: A young Catholic Nun of the Cuttack Bhubaneswar diocese working Jan Vikas Kendra, the Social Service Centre at Nuagaon in Kandhamal was reportedly gang raped on 24th August 2008 by groups of Hindutva extremists before the building itself was destroyed. 



11) SENIOR PRIEST AND NUN INJURED: Fr Thomas, director of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre in Kanjimendi, less than a kilometer away from the Social Service Centre, and another Nun were injured when the centre was attacked. They were taken to the police station in a disheveled state as the armed mob bayed for their blood. The Pastoral centre was then set afire. 



12) BALLIGUDA CHURCH BUILDINGS DESTROYED AGAIN: On 24th August 2008 evening lynch mobs at the block headquarters of Balliguda, in the very heart of Kandhamal district, which had seen much violence between 24th and 26th December 2007, attacked and destroyed a Presbytery, convent and hostel damaging the properties. 



13) CHRISTIAN BOYS HEADS TONSURED: The mobs in Balliguda caught hold of two boys of the Catholic hostel and tonsured their heads. 



14) PHULBANI CHURCH DAMAGED: On 25th august 2008 morning followers of the late Lakshmanananda Saraswati damaged the Catholic Church in Phulbani, the district headquarter town. 



15) MOTHER TERESA BROTHERS ASHRAM ATTACKED: Mobs attacked the Mother Teresa Brothers' residence and hospital in Srasanada, destroyed once before and rebuilt two months ago, and beat up the patients. 



16) BHUBANESWAR BISHOP'S HOUSE ATTACKED: On the morning of 25th August 2008, violent mobs made several attempts to enter the compounds of Catholic Church and Archbishop's house in the heart of the Capital of the State of Orissa. They could not enter because of the police presence. They threw stones at the guesthouse of Archbishop's House, damaging windows. 



17) DUBURI PARISH: Another group of fundamentalists entered presbytery in Duburi parish, managed by the SVDs and destroyed and damaged property. Two priests of the parish are missing. 



18) Mr. Jamaj Pariccha, Director of Gramya Pragati, is attacked and his property damaged, vehicle looted and burnt. 



19) A Baptist Church in Akamra Jila in Bhubaneswar is also damaged. 


20) Christian institutions like St. Arnold's School (Kalinga Bihar) and NISWASS report some damage. 



21) BOUDH DISTRICT [Adjoining Kandhamal]: Fundamentalists enter the Catholic parish church and destroy property. People are fleeing to safer places. But nothing seems safe. 



22) MUNIGUDA: Muniguda Catholic Fathers and Nuns' residence have been damaged. 



23) SAMBALPUR: HM Sister's residence (Ainthapalli) has suffered damage. 



24) PADANPUR: One priest is attacked and admitted to a hospital. Hostel boys and the in charge have moved away from the place. 



25) MADHUPUR: Madhupur Catholic Church currently under attack. 



26) SMALL CHURCHES: Attempted violence on small churches in various districts, including Padampur, Sambalpur near GM College, Talsera, Dangsoroda, Narayanipatara, Muniguda, Tummiibandh, Tangrapada, Phulbani, Balliguda, Kalingia, Chakapad, Srasanranda. 



27) VILLAGE CHRISTIAN HOUSES ATTACKED: Houses attacked on forest hamlets of Balliguda, Kanjamandi Nuaguam (K.Nuaguam), Tiangia (G.Udayagiri), Padangiri, Tikabali. 



28) KALAHANDI DISTRICT: Houses burnt even though the district is more than 300 kilometers from the place where Swami Lakshmanananda was killed. 



29) PASTORS' HOUSE BURNT: Pastor Sikandar Singh of the Pentecostal Mission beaten up and his house burnt in Bhawanipatna. 


30) KHARIHAR: 3 Christian shops were looted and burnt. Pastor Alok Das and Pastor I M Senapati beaten up. 



31) AAMPANI: Pastor David Diamond Pahar, Pastor Pravin Ship, Pastor Pradhan and Pastor Barik beaten up and chased away with their families. 






Celebrating 40 Years

August 23, 1968 Sandy and I became husband and wife. I was a second year Bible College student, Sandy was working for Baldwin piano in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We had no clue, like most newly weds, how the Lord would lead in our lives.

In the eyes of some, our marriage is an unconventional union as I have been on the road a lot working in different parts of the world. Our kids grew up in boarding school (Rift Valley Academy), which most parents of today’s generation find abhorrent. But, along the way the Lord has given us two wonderful daughters, two great son-in-laws, four beautiful grandkids and a rich and rewarding ministry. Together, the journey continues.

Report? Inform? Inspire?

This past week I have been in California, speaking in churches and meeting with mission committees. At the conclusion of one meeting, which was primarily a report of our ministry, a woman came up to me and said she wished I had said more about what it means to work cross-culturally. A few days later at another church, I didn’t say much about anything we were doing but talked about mission trends and how their church could be more effective in their outreach program. In the midst of the meeting one of the members wondered if my ministry was merely short-term mission trips, which is a trend in missions. My message Sunday morning had little to do with either mission strategy or reporting, but a biblical message on faith.

The events of this past week were a reminder how difficult it is for missionaries in their role as communicators of global ministry. There just isn’t enough time to touch all the bases. On the one hand it is important to report on ministry activity. Churches pray and give financially so that the Great Commission might go to the entire world and, as a representative of their investment, it’s important that missionaries make known how their contribution is fulfilling that goal. It’s nearly impossible in a thirty-minute message for a missionary to educate or even to report on ministry activity. I have often felt the message of missions is more inspiration that information and as a result most church members have little understanding of the worldwide need for cross-cultural ministry, unreached people groups or what is or is not effective or strategic ministry. Missions is complex which requires concentrated and constant access to new information in a changing world.

So, what is the answer to this dilemma of reporting, information and inspiration of missions?

1. Churches need mission committees that are informed. Being on a missions committee should not be just for those who are just passionate about worldwide outreach, though that is obviously very important. Committee members should take classes in missions, read books and journals so they might be current on today’s mission issues.

I believe that the primary role of being on a mission committee is to motivate and inform others in the congregation on missions. They can only succeed in that role if they are fully informed themselves.

2. Be intentionally involved with what their missionaries are doing. Most missionaries send out a monthly or bi-monthly report. Many, like myself, have blogs and websites that give regular updates on ministry activity. For a supporting church to not know what I do is disheartening as is to many of my colleagues. I realize that trying to keep up with every missionary is nearly impossible, but the information is out there if people really are interested.

3. When a missionary visits your church, somehow in a limited amount of time, make them available to the broader church population so they can get to know those the church supports. Somehow create a forum that gives people information on what they do as well as the state of missions in the broader context. Hopefully through the process of giving information the inspiration of what God is doing throughout the world will be made known.

Cultural Debris

In the most recent issue of in the Journal of the Society of Cultural Anthropology is an article on “Imperial Debris.” The cultural remains left behind by foreign occupying nations on the landscape of countries linger long after the alien people release their occupation and give back to the indigenous people their own land. The residue of the Spanish in Latin America, the French in North and West Africa, the Russian expansion that made up the Soviet Union and the colonialism of the British Empire has left on the landscape of the world remnants of their influence and cultural practices. Present day domination of American capitalism and the market economy has impacted the globe to the point that even Communist China has formed an alliance between collective good and personal economic advancement. Like space junk, nuclear waste and plastic bags, cultural debris never goes away, even though it no longer is needed or wanted.

Of course not all cultural debris is inherently bad. As societies evolve one can appreciate the advances of education, medicine and technology and the positive residue that come with progress and advancement. Critics would argue that that these steps forward is too high a price to pay for the loss of cultural identity, corruption of indigenous values and the invasion of new diseases brought about primarily due to expansion. Try to make that argument to those people who still have no clean water, labor in the fields as subsistence farmers or to millions of kids who cannot read but long to enjoy the good things they see on television. Like a banana peel that one discards, you cannot savor the fruit without also having to contend with the part that’s not edible.

As a cross-cultural worker the tension I must compete with is making sure that whatever I am selling is the fruit and not the rind. The message of Christ is not the problem, but sometimes the trappings of Christianity in the Western (as well as Korean, Brazil or South African) wrapper are the culprits. The ultimate goal is that the only debris that remains when Christianity confronts culture will be that of spiritual transformation brought about by the message, not the cultural residue of the messenger.

One Piece of a Very Large Puzzle

The hostess of the evening asked if I liked jigsaw puzzles.

“Not really,” I replied. “My son-in-law worked on one a couple of weeks ago while we were in Colorado, but they just don’t fascinate me like they do other people.”

She then told me about a jigsaw puzzle she has been working on since 2005. Someone gave her a Rogier van der Weyden puzzle of Altarpiece of St. Columba. How many pieces? 18,000! She took me to their spare room and there in five or six panels was the masterpiece in process. One-third of a panel done on some, perhaps half of another, yet there was several bags of pieces yet unopened. It will take this woman another three years to get this 126.5 x 61.8 inch puzzle into final form.

This morning as I was listening to my favorite Bible expositor they began by reading letters of supporters of that radio ministry. One wrote to say that reaching the hidden people groups of India was the purpose of her support. Getting the Word to the unreached through radio is ONE piece of the puzzle. I thought of the many people I see each week in India and Africa who do not have a radio and wouldn’t know how to dial into a Christian radio station if they had one. I look at my ministry and, as I told my hosts over supper on the campus of this historical seminary, my contribution is more like one piece in a three trillion-piece puzzle. And I think of those who support our ministry, those who faithfully pray for our piece in the puzzle and I realize they, too, are a small part in God’s great redemptive design.

What will be interesting about eternity will be to learn how the pieces of the puzzle came together; the many who heard, received, and then shared the Gospel with others. How through time and space that message of Good News of Christ’s salvation circled the globe, and penetrated into the interiors of the cities, jungles and deserts of this world. It will be intriguing to learn how the Name of Jesus wove it’s way into countless languages and He became known even to the most isolated people groups of the world. I’m not a big piece, or even a significant piece in God’s redemptive mosaic, but I am one, seeking the other pieces God wants in the picture.

Sleeping god

I’ve seen many idols in my 15 years of visiting India, but I did a double take walking on the road last week. The “sleeping god,” that some Indians call it, is the most unique idol I’ve seen thus far.


What’s interesting about this idol is that it’s in an area where the Gospel has had a strong presence for over 70 years. I asked a friend of mine, who graduated from a nearby seminary in 1959, if the “sleeping god” was there when he was a student. He said no, but the tree has some mystical meaning to the locals as they use to sacrifice chickens there back in his time.

How can one reconcile the presence of the Good News of Christ that has been around for so many years with, seemingly, little impact? Even more sobering, how should I or other workers justify the intention of our ministries if in-fact the impact of the Gospel is marginal? If the redemptive message of the cross is the power unto salvation, why after seven decades there is so little change in the hearts and minds of so many? My only conclusion is that the god of this world continues to hold people in spiritual bondness. Superstition and fear of unseen forces still hold a grip on the minds of millions. The Gospel is not just for those who readily receive, but also for those who live in perpetual darkness. While the idol may represent a sleeping god, his eyes, wide open, reminds us that indeed, the god of this world is not asleep at all.

Working In The Village

Last weekend the students of the seminary visited a nearby village. Billed as "ministry of social services," the students performed various tasks to serve the people of this village.

First picture, students walking to village. Note the sheep coming our way.


Woman washing clothes on street.





Boys cleaning streets and sewer.



Giving free haircuts (a savings of 25 cents) - Girls in the clean up as well.



The team sang, performed a skit and preached.










In a village of less than 200 people, there were at least 15 shrines to different gods.

Tired of the Messenger, Not the Message

A mutual friend told my friend recently that he was “tired of what he was teaching.” The only reason he continues is because the university where he teaches has benefits, which includes a big discount for his college age children. This brother is no slouch, in fact he’s brilliant, but, like many who have been in the work for a while, he no doubt longs for younger days when he challenged status quo and launched out into the deep without regard of the consequences.

As I board another flight to teach in South Asia I must admit at times I struggle with my subject. I’ve been teaching the same thing now for 18 years and the material has lost its edge. Of course I am forever reading and trying to keep up with our constant changing world, but sometimes I get weary of my hearing my own voice telling stories that I have heard myself repeat countless times. So why do I still do it?

First, because what is old to me is new to 90 percent of those who are in my class. Most seminaries major on theology, few, if any, know anything about cultural anthropology, cross-cultural communication or understand how cultures work. The field of study is still interesting to me, even if the material has become familiar.

Second, because the subject is new to most of my students there is always a “ah ha” moment in every training session. When I teach, for example, epistemology, the study of the science of knowing (how to you come to know what you know, and how do you know what you know is right?) there is never a time when those in attendance don’t walk away with insights they have never thought of before. And, even though the study of lineages, worldview and social control seem to be academic (and even tedious), its when I help students “connect the dots” on how these subjects are relevant in church planting and communicating the Good News of Christ, that the students come alive.

The fact of the matter is, even though I weary at the start of another class, I wouldn’t want to teach anything else. I cannot serve where many of my students will minister. I can’t learn all the languages, customs and cultures they will eventually go. It’s after two or three weeks of teaching that I walk away with a feeling that maybe I have contributed to the equipping of others for the ministry.

Effective Communication

Though I teach cross-cultural communication, I am increasingly seeing a need to instruct on how to communicate mono-culturally. Actually, the principles are the same, but the key is context. Theoretically it should be easier to know the mono-cultural context but my experience in listening to a few sermons in the U.S., off-and-on over the past seven months, prompt me to share some thoughts on communication. Here are a few simple suggestions on sermon delivery.

1. Create a Narrative, NOT Repeat History. I heard a pastor speak a few weeks back on Elijah, and basically his sermon was a review of a chapter in 2 Kings. Elijah is one of my favorite Old Testament characters and his story is chock-full of great applications, but the pastor didn’t create a narrative he just methodically read verse-by-verse recounting the story, pausing occasionally to make a point. The message meandered like a lazy stream in the flat lands of Mississippi. No real purpose in the sermon, just a story about one who lived a long time ago.

2. Leave The Lexicon In the Study - I don’t mind digging out the meaning of a verse from the Greek or Hebrew to bring the text into context, but I weary with pastors who feel the urge to make their sermons into a hermeneutics class. (It was the dullest class I had in Bible College and it’s even worse when you have to sit through it but don’t get credit).

3. Dress Appropriately – Can we please get past the Rick Warren Hawaiian shirts? I don’t mind casual, but I do have a problem with sloppy. On the other hand, I know a few brothers who are so full of themselves (they are the ones who are constantly looking at their reflection in the window) who feel as though they have to wear expensive suit while the farmers in their congregation are wearing jeans. If a speakers dress, sloppy or fashionable, is a distraction, you lose the power of communication. One of my professors told us that he only wears a white shirt, black tie and black suit when he preaches. He takes off his ring(s) and watch because, “I want people to hear the message and not be distracted by what I wear.” Perhaps a bit radical, but I never forgot his point. The spotlight is to be on the message of Christ, not the speaker.

4. Have ONE Theme – Can you tell me what last Sunday’s sermon was about? If you can’t it’s because the sermon had so many points and sub-points that the average hearer got lost in the maze of information. One pastor, who I really think is brilliant, is tedious to listen to because HE KNOWS TOO MUCH. Sometimes I believe he gets lost in his own sermon as he goes down one bunny trail to the next. If you can get people to come away with ONE thought, you’ve done your job well.

The list on how to communicate effectively is long, but it can be boiled down to this: Know your audience, have one theme, tell the story in a way that is relevant to their lives. Knowing the message is only half of the job, effectively delivering the message is just as important.

Why I Celebrate The 4th

When I came out of the Wal-Mart store yesterday I found this note on the windshield. Someone had no doubt noticed the POW license plate of my dad’s van, which I am driving as I ferry them on errands and to their doctor’s appointments. Obviously someone, in the spirit of the upcoming holiday, wanted to just say thanks and express their appreciation for those who have served our country in the military.

My dad’s story is an interesting one. He was a waist gunner on a B-17. On one mission they had to ditch their plane in the Adriatic Sea because of engine failure. His last mission his plane was shot down over Austria and my dad was one of four, out of a crew of ten, that survived. He spent the remaining time of the war in a German prison camp. (You can read the pilot’s account of that July day almost 64 years ago by clicking HERE ).


When I got back to my parents house my dad was in a lot of pain so I took him to the VA hospital. Hard to believe the young guy kneeling in the photo is almost unable to walk now; his voice is weak and he can hardly hear.

This 4th of July I will celebrate the day maybe with a little more awareness of its meaning. The only time I ever saw my dad cry was when he talked about the day he was shot down. He asked me a question I couldn’t answer, “Why was I spared and my buddies didn’t make it?” Like the note left on the windshield, I want to say thanks to all who served.

Project Pokot - Part Two

In 1976, when I first began working in the bush of Kenya, there were few Protestant missionaries who had ever worked or even seen the people of Pokot and Turkana. By the mid-80’s there was a flurry of mission activity in Pokot because of better roads, though few missionaries actually lived or worked down in the rugged conditions of the bush. My doctoral research in 1991 revealed that, though there were many churches in Pokot, the percentage of Pokot people who attended those churches was remarkably low as the majority of Christians in the district were actually people from other tribes who lived and worked in Pokot. Even more startling in my findings was how few Pokot men were reached with the Gospel. My thesis was, and is, it’s not how many churches that are planted that’s important, but how effective is outreach to those who have never heard. Planting one church for every one thousand people may mean a saturation of churches, but that doesn’t translate into making the Gospel relevant to those who do not accept that message.


In my dissertation I concluded that missionaries (national as well as foreign) needed to move away from traditional African missions (TAM) and create a strategic African mission (SAM) outreach. SAM can only be accomplished by (1) learning the questions of their culture and (2) develop a contextualized approach in presenting the Gospel.

Next year I will be spending more time in Kenya training Kenyan missionaries how to implement SAM (though I will still be teaching in India as well as other places in the world). The goal of my research is to live in Pokot and to revisit the issues I addressed 18 years ago. Because cultures are not static, what has or has not changed among the Pokot since 1991?


- How has their worldview changed?

- Has their family structure changed?

- Do they still practice polygamy, bride price exchange and still practice rites of passage such as sapana and female circumcision?

- Have the churches in Pokot become more or less indigenous?

Every missionary endeavor, in my opinion, should be asking the similar questions as they create a strategy of mission for their target people group. Methods may be easier to create, but it is only when we do the hard work of asking the questions that a true contextualized message can be presented.

Project Kara Pokot

I am fond of telling my students “Learn the questions, before giving the answers. Too many times we are giving answers to questions people aren’t asking.” Part of the reason I am passionate about that statement is because in my preparation for ministry I was never taught the importance of learning the questions. I launched into ministry in Kenya believing I had the answers, having gone through Bible College and pastoring in Texas for five years. My denomination had (has) a mission philosophy, which in essences states, the primary importance in doing God’s work is (a) preach the word and (b) be faithful. After all, it’s His work, we just need to present His message and let Him use it as He sees fit. This philosophy of missions (wrongly in my opinion) is still prevalent among many mission organizations and missionaries today.

After my wife and I completed language school in Limuru we moved to the western part of the country. Though we were invited to work in Eldoret by two other missionary families, I was drawn to areas where there was little or no missionary activity (Rom 15:20). Eventually our ministry focus was among two semi-nomadic tribes of the northwest bush, the Pokot and Turkana. It was working with these people, who were animist, that I came to understand that, though I had the answers to their greatest need i.e., to know the true and living God, I didn’t know how to make the message understandable to them. It wasn’t until my second term in Africa before I heard the word “contextualization.” Their worldview of misfortune, family, values, life-after-death, was not anything I learned in my hermeneutics class in college or in my ministry in the Bible-belt of the US. Confronted with what I didn’t know I began the quest of learning the questions before giving the answers.

Learning the questions is not easy and in fact is labor intensive. The first place to learn the questions is through research. For me, in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, before the Internet, it was reading books and journals. I learned about contextualization, syncretism, dynamic equivalence, the purpose of arranged marriages, polygamy, cattle worldview and the role of witchdoctor, initially through reading. Determined to learn more about the questions, my furloughs were dedicated to taking classes to help me understand what I didn’t know so I could better determine the best way to give the answer. In this process of discovery I spent a number of days, weeks and months in the bush of Pokot, living in a mud hut (picture above), formally and structurally considering a people that were totally different from what I perceive as norm. My pursuit of learning the questions continues today as I read and teach others on the process of mining the complexities of culture and religion.

In 2009, 18 years after the publication of my doctoral dissertation on the social organization of the Kara Pokot, I am making plans on moving back down to the desert for a few months to do a follow-up study of this pastoral tribe. Since nothing remains static, how have the Pokot changed since those days I first worked with them back in 1976?

More on Project Kara Pokot next time.

The Price of Oil and Missions

I heard a man in church the other day talking about how the price of gas was affecting his business; that fuel cost was up over 50% since the first of the year. I thought to myself, “Yeah, it affects my business as well.”

In India, where I spend a lot of my time, inflation has risen 18% in two months. I recently bought a domestic airline ticket and they now have a fuel surcharge of $50. Couple that with a weak dollar and one begins to get the picture that the cost of doing God’s business continues to rise.

I don’t write this to whine about the financial plight of my or others in ministry, but just a reminder that while Americans suffer under the high cost of gasoline, global inflation is an issue for those who live on a “fixed” income overseas. I cannot pass my cost on to my clients or customers. What I must do, like everyone else, is to manage even better our monthly budget. God’s work will go on no matter how high the price of a barrel of oil may rise. But, like all businesses, some activities will have to be scaled back; some may go out of business all together. What remains constant, in this world of uncertainty, is a Sovereign God who is not frustrated by OPEC or politicians and good people who faithfully give of their hard earned resources so that the Gospel will continue to go to those who have never heard.

Lessons From The Desert

I purchased a new scanner this past week, one that scans slides and negatives, of which I have hundreds that span over 30 years of ministry in Africa and other parts of the world. As I go through the faded images of my past ministry in Kenya I am reminded of the profound impact the desert has had on my life.

There is something profound about isolation, being cut off from the norm of the familiar. It was in the bush of Kenya, working with the tribal people of Turkana and Pokot, that I spent many lonely days and nights away from my immediate family, and of course my extended family in the U.S. When I close my eyes, even today, I can feel the unrelenting heat, the grime of everything made of cow-dung, the pesky flies that swarmed my face and how difficult it was to walk in sand. At night I would listen to the mournful singing of the people in the village and look up into the African sky and see a billion stars. It was in the desert that I learned to think through and even challenge my faith. In the desert I was away from the pressures of my peers, the judgment of a godless world system; it was just God and I, in the desert.

Throughout history the desert has been God’s classroom of instruction for His followers. Moses was exiled to the wasteland to prepare him to lead His people in the desert; David, a man after God’s own heart, was formed herding sheep in the bush; God sustained Elijah for seven years of drought by a brook; John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, did his work, not in the city of Jerusalem, but in the wilderness; the Apostle Paul, after his dramatic conversion, was banished to the backside of the desert for three years to contemplate his Damascus road encounter with Jesus.

In this world of instant communication, 24-hour news and the measure of a man gauged by name recognition and portfolio, one must discipline himself to be alone with God. Depending on the press of the day, time set aside for God could be 10 minutes or 1 hour and perhaps a few smattering petitions throughout the day. While snippets of devotion is better than not acknowledging Him at all, the time needed to allow God to mold the spirit is difficult, if not impossible to find. In spite of the malaria carrying mosquitoes, snakes and scorpions, I often miss the solitude with God I found in the desert.

YOU MAKE THE CALL: Family and Missions

I try not to write a lot of personal stuff on this blog, and if I do I make an attempt for some missiological or spiritual application. Such is the case with the post today and I appreciate your indulgence.

Yesterday afternoon my 88-year-old dad was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease. A bit of a shock as we knew he is confused a lot lately, but thought it was dementia or just plain old age. As we think of the future for my dad and, certainly for my mom, it’s challenging time for all of us.

My wife and I moved back to the states last December for the express reason of lending a nurturing helping hand to my parents as well as my wife’s father (my mother-in-law passed away two years ago). Our siblings are local and have been taking care of family matters for the 40 years that Sandy and I have been either overseas or located in some other state. It wasn’t necessary for us to return, but we made a conscious choice to be around in the waning years of our parent’s lives. As a trainer and non-resident missionary, my role has evolved since our pioneering days in the bush of Kenya and I don’t feel it’s imperative for me to physically be on the foreign field to be effective in missions. With the news we received yesterday I think we made the right relocation decision. But the question must, should be asked, is it legitimate for a missionary to come off the field to deal with family issues?

A friend of mine is in California taking care of his mother, who also has Alzheimer’s. He is the only child and he told me his mission agency was not sympathetic to his problem and has asked him to resign. Some of his donors, he confided, also question him on how long it will be before he goes back to the field. He has no idea. Alzheimer’s is not something that has a well-defined time-line. Another friend was home several years because one of his kids was having psychological and emotional problems. After seven years the sending agency asked for his resignation and he is still bitter about it. Were they right to take such action?

Like everything, BALANCE is the key. I do believe that there is a biblical principle as it relates to family and ministry. In Luke 9:59-62 there was a man who hesitated in following Jesus, saying, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But he (Jesus) said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” In the service of Christ family issues cannot, should not, take preeminence. At another, time, however, Jesus criticized the religious leaders for not taking care of their parents, using the work of God as an excuse to let them live in poverty (Matthew 15:3-7).

While not addressing my particular case, you make the call. What are your thoughts on missions and family issues? It’s a difficult decision that missionaries face everyday.