Billy Collins Favorites 5: Walking Across The Atlantic

I was introduced to Billy Collins' poetry with this one, and it remains my favorite.  Here's "Walking Across the Atlantic"--

I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach

before stepping onto the first wave.

Soon I am walking across the Atlantic

thinking about Spain,

checking for whales, waterspouts.

I feel the water holding up my shifting weight.

Tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface.

But for now I try to imagine what

this must look like to the fish below,

the bottoms of my feet appearing, disappearing.

Billy Collins Favorites 4: Forgetfulness

I'm getting to where I can identify with this one more and more.  Here's "Forgetfulness"--

The name of the author is the first to go

followed obediently by the title, the plot,

the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel

which suddenly becomes one you have never read,

never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor

decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,

to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye

and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,

and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,

the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,

it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,

not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river

whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,

well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those

who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night

to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.

No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted

out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Billy Collins Favorites 3: Thesaurus

Another favorite while listening on my iPod on the flight back from Zambia: "Thesaurus"--

It could be the name of a prehistoric beast

that roamed the Paleozoic earth, rising up

on its hind legs to show off its large vocabulary,

or some lover in a myth who is metamorphosed into a book.

It means treasury, but it is just a place

where words congregate with their relatives,

a big park where hundreds of family reunions

are always being held,

house, home, abode, dwelling, lodgings, and digs,

all sharing the same picnic basket and thermos;

hairy, hirsute, woolly, furry, fleecy, and shaggy

all running a sack race or throwing horseshoes,

inert, static, motionless, fixed and immobile

standing and kneeling in rows for a group photograph.

Here father is next to sire and brother close

to sibling, separated only by fine shades of meaning.

And every group has its odd cousin, the one

who traveled the farthest to be here:

astereognosis, polydipsia, or some eleven

syllable, unpronounceable substitute for the word tool.

Even their own relatives have to squint at their name tags.

I can see my own copy up on a high shelf.

I rarely open it, because I know there is no

such thing as a synonym and because I get nervous

around people who always assemble with their own kind,

forming clubs and nailing signs to closed front doors

while others huddle alone in the dark streets.

I would rather see words out on their own, away

from their families and the warehouse of Roget,

wandering the world where they sometimes fall

in love with a completely different word.

Surely, you have seen pairs of them standing forever

next to each other on the same line inside a poem,

a small chapel where weddings like these,

between perfect strangers, can take place.

Billy Collins Favorites 2: Child Development

Another favorite:

As sure as prehistoric fish grew legs

and sauntered off the beaches into forests

working up some irregular verbs for their

first conversation, so three-year-old children

enter the phase of name-calling.

Every day a new one arrives and is added

to the repertoire. You Dumb Goopyhead,

You Big Sewerface, You Poop-on-the-Floor

(a kind of Navaho ring to that one)

they yell from knee level, their little mugs

flushed with challenge.

Nothing Samuel Johnson would bother tossing out

in a pub, but then the toddlers are not trying

to devastate some fatuous Enlightenment hack.

They are just tormenting their fellow squirts

or going after the attention of the giants

way up there with their cocktails and bad breath

talking baritone nonsense to other giants,

waiting to call them names after thanking

them for the lovely party and hearing the door close.

The mature save their hothead invective

for things: an errant hammer, tire chains,

or receding trains missed by seconds,

though they know in their adult hearts,

even as they threaten to banish Timmy to bed

for his appalling behavior,

that their bosses are Big Fatty Stupids,

their wives are Dopey Dopeheads

and that they themselves are Mr. Sillypants.

Billy Collins Favorites 1: Aristotle

I listened to Billy Collins reading his poetry on my long flight back stateside. I’ll post a few favorites. Of course, its better if you can hear him read them aloud, but the next few posts will give you an introduction. Here’s “Aristotle”–

This is the beginning.
Almost anything can happen.
This is where you find
the creation of light, a fish wriggling onto land,
the first word of Paradise Lost on an empty page.
Think of an egg, the letter A,
a woman ironing on a bare stage as the heavy curtain rises.
This is the very beginning.
The first-person narrator introduces himself,
tells us about his lineage.
The mezzo-soprano stands in the wings.
Here the climbers are studying a map
or pulling on their long woolen socks.
This is early on, years before the Ark, dawn.
The profile of an animal is being smeared
on the wall of a cave,
and you have not yet learned to crawl.
This is the opening, the gambit,
a pawn moving forward an inch.
This is your first night with her, your first night without her.
This is the first part
where the wheels begin to turn,
where the elevator begins its ascent,
before the doors lurch apart.

This is the middle.
Things have had time to get complicated,
messy, really. Nothing is simple anymore.
Cities have sprouted up along the rivers
teeming with people at cross-purposes –
a million schemes, a million wild looks.
Disappointment unsolders his knapsack
here and pitches his ragged tent.
This is the sticky part where the plot congeals,
where the action suddenly reverses
or swerves off in an outrageous direction.
Here the narrator devotes a long paragraph
to why Miriam does not want Edward’s child.
Someone hides a letter under a pillow.
Here the aria rises to a pitch,
a song of betrayal, salted with revenge.
And the climbing party is stuck on a ledge
halfway up the mountain.
This is the bridge, the painful modulation.
This is the thick of things.
So much is crowded into the middle –
the guitars of Spain, piles of ripe avocados,
Russian uniforms, noisy parties,
lakeside kisses, arguments heard through a wall
too much to name, too much to think about.

And this is the end,
the car running out of road,
the river losing its name in an ocean,
the long nose of the photographed horse
touching the white electronic line.
This is the colophon, the last elephant in the parade,
the empty wheelchair, and pigeons floating down in the evening.
Here the stage is littered with bodies,
the narrator leads the characters to their cells,
and the climbers are in their graves.
It is me hitting the period
and you closing the book.
It is Sylvia Plath in the kitchen
and St. Clement with an anchor around his neck.
This is the final bit
thinning away to nothing.
This is the end, according to Aristotle,
what we have all been waiting for,
what everything comes down to,
the destination we cannot help imagining,
a streak of light in the sky,
a hat on a peg, and outside the cabin, falling leaves.

Winning Ways: 'Come and See' or 'Go and Tell'?

It’s wonderful to be back with the Hillcrest Family after 5 weeks in Zambia! On Wednesday, August 5, I will bring a report on my trip. But now that I’m back from the mission field across the sea, I’m anxious to turn our attention to our mission field across the street. So that will be the focus of my sermons the next few weeks.

What's our job? Should we tell people to "come to church"? Or should we, as God's people "go and tell"?

A lot of people are writing about this these days, dismissing the so-called "attactional" approach to outreach and advocating what they call a "missional" approach. They contend that we abandon all efforts to invite people to experience the life and worship of a church body ("attractional") and instead simply live an authentic Christian life in our workplace and neighborhood ("missional").

It's either-or, according to many: Either compel the community to "come and see" or compel the church to "go and tell."

Um.... Am I the only one who sees this as a false dichotomy? People veer off course in the whole "missional versus attractional" debate the moment they actually think the word "versus" belongs between those two words.

Should I build a genuine relationship with my neighbors? Yep. Should I live an authentic Christian life in their presence? Yep. Should I serve them? Yep.

But now, keep going: Should I bring my neighbors to sit in with my Bible study group and listen to us believers wrestle with the implications of the text? Yep. Should I invite my neighbors to the church ski retreat? Yep. Should I pray and work toward the time my neighbors begin to sit with me in a service where real worship is taking place? Yep. Should I enlist my neighbors' help on a church mission trip? Yep.

The point is: Of course we should be "in the world" building relationships, but we're not "doing church" right if we don't spontaneously and naturally want to bring someone with us to experience our congregation's life and study and worship.

If we have a church where people are doing all the stuff that a real church ought to be doing -- praying for each other, serving each other, forbearing each other, worshipping God, challenging each other with the Word -- well, wouldn't that be absolutely the best environment for the spiritually curious to see the life-changing difference Christ makes?

So, does Jesus want us "out there" with people or does he want us bringing people into the Christian community where we share life together?

Yes.
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Links to Your World, Tuesday July 28

20 of the World’s Most Beautiful Libraries


Silencing the Voice That Says You're a Fraud


From the Department of Duh: "A study which entailed outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months, found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting." (NY Times)


“Having covered Tim [Tebow] for three years, I would say he's the most effective ambassador-warrior for his faith I've come across in 25 years at SI.” (Sports Illustrated story on Tim Tebow)


"Here are 10 skills seminaries need to emphasize. Churches also need to support these skills with opportunities for lifelong continuing education. Most seminary graduates do a passable job of interpreting Scripture, preaching and/or operating church programs. But a vast majority of church travail traced to ministers involves failure touching on one or more of these skills” (Marv Knox makes a list)


In this Baptist Standard opinion piece, Charles Foster Johnson misses the point in the recent SBC decision to drop Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church from affiliation with the SBC. Broadway does not believe that disciples attracted to homosexuality must be challenged to make changes to their orientation, or even their behavior. Johnson, who recently completed his service as interim pastor at Broadway says the Convention’s action was a violation of the Baptist belief in the autonomy of the local church. Hooey. The convention is a collection of autonomous churches that get to decide what is required for an autonomous church to affiliate with them. Broadway can do what it wants as an autonomous church: she just can’t pretend she’s Southern Baptist in the process. The fact that the Baptist Standard printed this opinion piece with no response piece is curious.


According to this story, over 80 percent of those who attend megachurches (defined as a church with 2000 or more in attendance) invite others to church. That’s good news until you discover that the people they are inviting are already attending somewhere. Yep. Just 6 percent of those who get involved in a church of 2000 or more were unchurched before they began attending. In fact, 44 percent simply came from another area church. “It appears that megachurches draw persons who want a new experience of worship—contemporary, large-scale, professional, high-tech,” said Scott Thumma, quoted in the story, co-author of Not Who You Think They Are: The Real Story of People Who Attend America’s Megachurches. Nice.


Keep up with David Smith and contribute to his medical expenses at this website.


“On the latest Koinonia Podcast Douglas Baker hosts a discussion with ‘leading historical theologians who identify, discuss and debate the origins, actions and future of Baptists. The origins of the Baptists and how they become a presence in the history of the church focus the discussion in ways which lead listeners to understand Baptist identity at 400.’” (HT: Between Two Worlds)


Interview with Conrad Mbewe, a Zambian Baptist leader.


10 Ways to Look Good in Photos


Take 18 Minutes to Keep Your Days on Track:

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day.
STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus..
STEP 3 (5 Minutes) Review.

Kilby's Eleven Resolutions

In The Pleasures of God, on page 95, John Piper recalls 11 resolutions Clyde Kilby made for staying alive to God's glory:

I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the ‘child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.’

At least once every day I shall look steadily upon the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of great drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death, when he said: 'There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.'

I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding 24 hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence but, just as likely, ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are, but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their ‘divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic’ existence.

I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, ‘fulfill the moment as the moment.’ I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

If for nothing more than the sake of a change of view, I shall assume my ancestry to be from the heavens rather than from the caves.

Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the Architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

Song of the Week: Jars of Clay "Two Hands"

I'd like to be consistently unreserved in my love and loyalty to Christ. The fact that I'm not means that I can identify with the new Jars of Clay song, "Two Hands"--

Game Preserve

After a month of service, I got a chance to play the tourist yesterday. I spent a day at Chaminuka Game Preserve. I went with Franklin and Paula Kilpatrick (pictured here) and their son Ben and his wife Shelley, both professors at Southwest Baptist University in Missouri:


I won’t bore you with a lot of game shots, but here are a couple of favorites:




I leave for home tomorrow, with an overnight stay in Heathrow. I’ve been writing these posts and placing my Skype calls thru the Kilpatrick’s wireless signal about a hundred yards from my flat. We’ve dubbed this the Kilpatrick Internet Hut:

Winning Ways: God Can

Howard Stern once shook his head after listening to her radio program and said, “Liz, you’ve got to clean up your act!”

Liz Curtis Higgs had shocked the king of “shock jocks”! As she admits now, though, “It wasn't my on-air show that was in trouble; it was my risky off-air escapades.”

You may know Higgs as the best-selling author of twenty-two books. Many have been introduced to her through a study called Bad Girls of the Bible, with over half-a-million copies in print.

She knows something about the subject of bad girls. In her devotional book, Rise and Shine, she wrote, “By my twentieth birthday, I was spending four and five nights a week on a bar stool, Southern Comfort in my glass and longing in my eyes. Like the country song says, I was ‘looking for love in all the wrong places.’ I found companionship in many but comfort in none.”

She was a radio personality at various stations and formats, including Howard Stern’s Detroit station. It was at an oldies station in Louisville, Kentucky, that things changed. She had reached the lowest point of self-destruction, “playing dangerous games with marijuana, speed, cocaine, alcohol, and a promiscuous lifestyle,” she wrote. “I'm one of those people who had to fall all the way down to the bottom of the pit before I was forced to look up for help.”

“Leaning over my pit of despair and extending a hand of friendship was a husband-and-wife team who had just arrived in town to do the morning show at my radio station. Although they had enjoyed much worldly success, what these two talked about most was Jesus Christ. Even more amazing, they seemed to like and accept me, ‘as is.’ Simply put, they loved me with a love so compelling that I was powerless to resist it.”

Higgs made her commitment to Christ on the seventh Sunday attending at a friend’s church. She now impacts hundreds of thousands for the cause of Christ.

We ask, “Can God still love me after what I’ve done? Can God still use me in his work? Can God accept me into his eternal joy after I die?”

God can.

And that’s the God we celebrate each Sunday. I’m looking forward to joining my Hillcrest Family in that celebration this Sunday, God willing! I wrap up my mission service in Zambia this Wednesday, and start the long trip home on Thursday. I can’t wait to join you in worship!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

End of Term

The term has ended at the seminary where I’ve been teaching. The seminary choir performed in the last chapel service:


Teaching my last class:




Posing with the second- and third-year students I taught (Left to right, on the front row: Jackson Phiri, Crimson Shandolo, Isaac Kalale, Gracious Chambala, and Henry Gwese. Left to right on the back row: Budula Mbewe, Tom Goodman, Richard Daka, Japheth Sausande, Felix Kalemba, Michael Kandela, David Chibanga):


Ezron Musonda serves as the seminary principal. He was a deacon at Central Baptist Church on my visit in 1996. He now leads Central as their pastor as well as leading the seminary as their principal:


The seminary offered me a gift on the last day--artwork on Zambian copper:

Song of the Week: Ray LaMontagne's "Three More Days"

Traveling back to Texas this week, God willing! Ray LaMontagne puts it into words for me--

Graduation Day

I went with Van Thompson again to two locations of TEE (Theological Education by Extension). Church leaders were due to complete a book and receive their certificates.

Church leaders from 4 churches gathered on the grounds at a government school in Chongwe to finish their course and receive their diploma. The last photo is of the village leader who also serves as an effective leader over one of the Baptist churches in the area.






In another village, leaders from 3 churches pose with their certificates. In the second photo, Van Thompson shows the church leaders their photographs.

Hopkins, High and Low

Two of my favorites from Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). The first exults in God, the other complains to God. The first could be Psalm 8 and the second could be Psalm 88. The first below was among his first written (in 1877) while the last below was his last (in 1889).

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged* with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wear man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West* went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

* “charged with the grandeur of God”—Hopkins liked to play on words: does charge mean “electric” or does it mean “ordered with the task of displaying God’s grandeur”?

* “last lights off the black West went”—Is “West” capitalized to signify the lands of former Christendom that no longer recognize God’s grandeur, or am I just reading this line too much in the light of Tolkien and the “Lord of the Rings”?

* “…and with ah! bright wings.”—What a nice surprise right at the end. It’s as if you’re standing with Hopkins at dawn just as the sun breaks over the horizon.

[Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord]

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum; verumtamen justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c.*

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavor end?

Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,

Sir, life upon thy cause.* See, banks and brakes
Now, leaved how thick! laced they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes

Them*; birds build—but not I build; no, but strain,
Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.*

* The Latin phrase is the Vulgate version of Jeremiah 12:1 (KJV), “Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?” According to my book on Hopkins, this Latin line was the original title of the poem.

* You have to work at this line, but it reads like this: “Oh, the sots and thralls of lust do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend, sir, life upon thy cause.” In other words, “Lord, how come those who waste their lives in useless passions seem to get along far better than someone like me who has committed himself to your priorities?”

* Another difficult line: I can’t place the accent marks on this blog post where Hopkins places them, but the words “leaved” and “laced” should be pronounced “leave-ED” and “lace-ED.” A “brake” is a clump of fern and “fretty chervil” is interlaced parsley. The point is, he looks around and sees nature bursting with productivity, but he feels he’s nothing more than “Time’s eunuch”—barren of any results from his efforts.

* And the best line, at which he turns his frustration to prayer: “Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.” Does the “Mine” connect with “lord of life” or “roots”? I tend to think the latter, adding poignancy to how desperately his roots need God’s rain: “Others are benefiting, even nature is productive, so mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.”

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The genius of Hopkins’ poetry was “discovered” in 1918,
30 years after his obscure life closed.
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Find more favorite poems by clicking here.

Zambia's Champion Barista

Meet Francis Njobvu, one of the baristas at the Black Knight Café. He’s been supplying my “coffee fix” once or twice a week during my stay in Zambia. Francis is a world champion barista—and I mean that literally. He represents Zambia in the World Barista Championships, and won in 2007 (Tokyo, Japan) and 2008 (Copenhagen, Denmark). He was due to compete in this year’s Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, but could not secure the visa required to travel to the U.S. Francis uses coffee grown in Zambia.

Winning Ways: Hallowed Be Thy Name

What’s in a name? Apparently, quite a lot!

Sometimes Einstein would sign a check and never see it again. His signature became so famous that even his creditors held on to his checks.

Joe DiMaggio had trouble with checks, too. The famous Yankee center fielder once had to wrestle a souvenir collector at his bank to retrieve a check made out by DiMaggio and endorsed by his then wife Marilyn Monroe.

These autograph collectors knew that the name alone was worth more than the amounts for which the checks were drafted. These days, an old autograph of Thomas Jefferson fetches $1000, a signed photo of Humphrey Bogart starts at $1000, and a two-page letter handwritten by Greta Garbo recently sold for $6600.

Of course, not everyone appreciates a famous name. Golf great Lee Trevino recalls autographing a $5 bill once for a persistent woman in a restaurant. She gushed as she walked away, "I'll treasure it forever." But later, upon paying for his meal, Trevino looked at his change from the cashier and saw the $5 bill he had just signed!

How highly do you value God’s name? In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us that the very first thing that should come to mind when we pray is the value of God’s name. He taught us to ask God to “hallow” his name—to make it holy and special. It’s interesting that the first request of the Lord’s Prayer covers the same territory as the first sentence of the Ten Commandments: the name of God.

When someone slanders us, we say they’ve ruined our “good name.” Our name is a kind of short-hand for our being and character. Jesus said that the highest priority for anyone should be reverence for the being and character of God.

When was the last time you asked God to “hallow” his name in your life, your church, and your world? Take a moment right now to pray the way Jesus taught us to pray!

I’m nearing the end of my mission service in Zambia. I’ve asked Jim Siegel to speak again this Sunday. He is always a treat to hear! Join your Hillcrest Family this Sunday @ 10am!
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

What 13 Years Will Do To Two Pastors...

Here's what 13 years will do to two pastors. Photos of Misheck Zulu and me from 1996 and 2009:

Misheck is pastor of International Baptist Church in Lusaka. I brought a team out in 1996 as the church was just getting launched. He is also business administrator of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Lusaka where I've been teaching the last four weeks.

Underwater Weddings

I saw this story on a scuba group training pastors for underwater weddings in Fort Lauderdale. It reminded me of the underwater wedding I conducted.

Yes, I think I remain the first and (to date) only pastor to conduct an underwater wedding while serving in the Cayman Islands. Actually, I think I remain the first and (to date) only certified marriage officer in the Cayman Island who was also scuba-certified.

So, an American couple wanted a unique wedding experience. They were newly-certified scuba divers and wanted an underwater ceremony like the ones they had read about in other resort settings.

They wanted me to hold up laminated signs that said, “Do you take . . .” and they would hold up signs that said, “I do.” I wasn’t keen on that idea. I told them that we could exchange rings underwater, but in the British West Indies it was required that a ceremony be conducted in such a time and place that someone could object if necessary. Besides, vows are serious business: I wanted them to make their promises in a way that was (1) public and (2) not “cutesy.” I didn’t mind the exchange of rings underwater, but the vows would be on the boat.

My friend and fellow church leader, Rex Crane, was kind enough to serve as the yacht captain of this little ceremony, and he and the videographer were also witnesses.

Following the exchange of vows, the bride, groom, videographer and I geared up for a shallow dive not far from Stingray City (for those of you who know about this Cayman spot).

It didn’t go exactly as the bride planned it.

The aim was for us to float horizontally, belly down, just off the white sandy bottom 15 feet underwater where the bride and groom would exchange rings. They would then remove their regs and kiss, and then turn and kick away from me like they were heading up the church aisle. The videographer was to get all of this over my shoulder.

Everything went fine enough until the couple swam away. Those of you who scuba dive know it’s harder for inexperienced divers to maintain buoyancy the closer you are to the surface. So, as they kicked away, the bride kept floating, bottom-first, toward the surface, and the groom kept having to pull her down. After a few moment of capturing this on film, the videographer and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. Let’s just say it wasn’t the best angle to capture the departing couple for film.

Then again, you could say they got their wish since they wanted the film for, um, posterity.

By the way, though this was my only underwater wedding, it wasn’t my only non-resident wedding. I was asked many times to perform so-called “cruise-ship weddings” for couples who were traveling to the island for the purpose of getting married. I resisted these invitations for my first year in Grand Cayman, but then I felt I was missing a “kingdom opportunity” with couples unlikely to have a church or a Savior. So, I developed a 2-hour pre-marriage workshop and required couples to sit with me for the workshop if they wanted my services. The workshop included some biblical guidance on a healthy marriage, the plan of salvation, and guidance on finding a church home when the couple returned to Canada or the U.S.

It was meant as seed-sowing, not harvest. But I fondly remember a Canadian man writing me a few years later to let me be among the first to hear of his profession of faith--a process, he said, that began with my witness in the workshop. Though that’s the only couple who has written me, hopefully there are other stories like that among the couples I worked with.

…Including the scuba-diving bride and groom!

Trailer for "A Good Man in Africa"

If you've just started following my posts about my mission trip under the label, "A Goodman in Africa," the title of the post series comes from a 1994 Sean Connery film called "A Good Man in Africa." The only connection that the film has to my trip is the name, but here's the trailer:

Review of Worldly Saints

In his book, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were, Leland Ryken presents a needed corrective to assumptions people have about the Puritanism that influenced English and American history for two hundred years.

It is not a new book, and I was familiar with most of his findings, but it is good to have the arguments in a single volume. And an accessible volume: the clear structure of his writing style makes it easy to complete the 220 pages in a few days.

The negative assumptions about the Puritans are nearly uniform in our culture: “Everyone knows” that these pious religious people were morose, joyless, narrow-minded, and legalistic.

Ryken cites numerous quotes from Puritan leaders to prove that what “everyone knows” needs to be re-examined. In the chapters on vocation, marriage and sex, money, church life, education, and social action, what the Puritans actually believed may surprise you. The last chapter, in particular, made me want to live more seriously for God. Those of you who keep up with me via Twitter have seen my frequent quotes from Puritan leaders from in Ryken’s book.

Considering that the evangelical movement has descended from the Puritans, it’s important we appreciate their strengths as well as acknowledge their weaknesses. You will probably find that the strengths and weaknesses Ryken identifies in the old Puritans are, largely, our own today.

“We live at a moment in history when evangelical Protestants are looking for ‘roots,’ writes Leland Ryken. “One of the foibles that some would foist on them is that the only traditions from the past to which they can return are the Catholic and Anglo-Catholic traditions….Puritanism can give us a place to stand.”

P.S., Earlier I posted a list of six reasons to study the Puritans here and I posted some things Ryken says we can learn from Puritan failings here.

Learning from Puritan Failings

What can we learn from Puritan failings?

In an earlier post, I listed six reasons to study the Puritans according to J.I. Packer. To that end, I recommended Leland Ryken’s book, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were. Ryken provides a much-needed corrective to the erroneous assumptions about English and American Puritanism.

However, Ryken also takes a chapter to acknowledge the Puritan failings, and considering that we American evangelicals are the modern descendents of the Puritans, I couldn’t help but see similar vulnerabilities in the 21st century church. Ryken recommends that we practice the following in light of Puritan errors:

__ Value leisure and recreation as good in themselves for purposes of rest, celebration, and human enrichment.

__ Be on guard against multiplying the rules that we add to our foundational moral principles.

__ Practice the art of conciseness, leaven some things unstated, choose quality of words over their quantity, and respect the attention span of an audience.

__ Beware of overkill through too much moralizing.

__ Avoid thinking in terms of male superiority.

__ Rise above party spirit by differentiating between the principle of a thing and its abuse.

__ Respect the religious feelings of people whose viewpoint we reject.

__ Remember that accuracy of expression is better than overstatement, that mildness of expression gains more respect than belligerence, and that a good thing when carried too far becomes ridiculous.

The Jesus Film in Mafungo, Zambia

Yesterday I went with Van Thompson and three seminary students to show the “Jesus” film in Mafungo, about 2 hours outside of Lusaka. I’m sure you’ve heard about the global impact of this simple depiction of the Gospel of Luke. It’s been translated into hundreds of languages, using national church leaders as voices (my friend, Misheck Zulu from International Baptist Church is the voice of Jesus in one language version of the film here in Zambia).

It was a great experience to sit under the Southern Cross and other unfamiliar constellations and watch the story of Jesus with about 100 villagers. At the end of the film, a seminary student shared the gospel. Twenty-one responded.

Here is Mafungo Baptist Church:






Here we are setting up the equipment before supper:


I walked uphill to get a shot with some perspective. We are in the bush, and had to supply our own electricity through a generator to run the film:


We didn’t have to supply our own supper however. Notice to the left of this young man and his drum and you’ll see dinner is being prepared for us:


Pray for Mafungo Baptist Church, and their pastor, Ezron, pictured here, as they follow up on the 21 new believers from last night’s outreach:

Song of the Week: Nora Jones' "Lone Star"

Into my fourth week in Zambia, and thinking of Texas. Here's Nora Jones singing "Lone Star"--

Six Reasons to Study the Puritans

J.I. Packer suggests six reasons why we should study the 16th and 17th century English and American Puritans—the misunderstood and maligned forebears of (misunderstood and maligned) evangelical faith today.

First, he says, there are lessons for us in the integration of their daily lives. “Seeing life whole, they integrated contemplation with action, worship with work, labor with rest, love of God with love of neighbor and of self, personal with social identity, and the wide spectrum of relational responsibilities with each other, in a thoroughly conscientious and thought-out way.”

Second, Packer says there are lessons for us in the quality of their spiritual experience. Mindful of “the dishonesty and deceitfulness of fallen human hearts, they cultivated humility and self-suspicion as abiding attitudes, examining themselves regularly for spiritual blind spots and lurking inward evils.”

Third, there are lessons for us in their passion for effective action. “None of them wanted to be revolutionaries in church or state, though some of them reluctantly became such,” writes Packer; “all of them, however, longed to be effective change agents for God wherever change was called for.”

Fourth, there are lessons for us in their program for family stability. Regarding marriage, says Packer, the Puritan ethic “was first to look not for a partner whom you do love passionately at this moment but rather for one whom you can love steadily as your best friend for life, then to proceed with God’s help to do just that.” As for leading the household built around such a marriage, the Puritan’s family “he endeavored to make a Church, laboring that those that were born in it, might be born again to God.”

Fifth, there are lessons to be learned from their sense of human worth. “Through believing in a great God, they gained a vivid awareness of the greatness of moral issues, of eternity, and of the human soul.” Packer adds, “Their appreciation of man’s dignity as the creature made to be God’s friend was strong.”

Finally, there are lessons to be learned from the Puritan’s ideal of church renewal. Citing Richard Baxter’s famous work, The Reformed Pastor (which I read early in my ministry), Packer said—

For Baxter, a ‘Reformed’ pastor was not one who campaigned for Calvinism but one whose ministry as preacher, teacher, catechist, and role model for his people showed him to be, as we would say, ‘revived’ or ‘renewed.’ The essence of this kind of ‘reformation was enrichment of understanding of God’s truth, arousal of affections Godward, increase of ardor in one’s devotions, and more love, joy, and firmness of Christian purpose in one’s calling and personal life. In line with this, the ideal for the church was that through ‘reformed’ clergy each congregation in its entirety should be ‘reformed’—brought, that is, by God’s grace into a state of what we would call revival without disorder, so as to be truly and thoroughly converted, theologically orthodox and sound, spiritually alert and expectant, in character terms wise and mature, ethically enterprising and obedient, and humbly but joyously sure of their salvation.

To these six ends, you might want to pick up the 1986 book, Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were by Leland Ryken. Packer's six reasons to study the Puritans can be found in the foreward.

Happy Birthday, John Calvin

“How this beautifully crafted expression and interpretation of God’s loving power appeared from the hand of a 25-year-old exile who had never formally studied theology cannot be adequately explained by historical circumstances.”

That’s a reference to “The Institutes,” John Calvin’s magisterial work of theology, from “Calvin,” a biography just published by Yale University Press by Bruce Gordon, as quoted in the NY Times. Professor Gordon teaches Reformation history at Yale Divinity School.

Today is the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin.

With my references to God’s sovereign control over all, including salvation, I am sometimes asked if I am a Calvinist. I would define my position with exactly the same words Timothy George used in this interview, which you should really take the time to read. Here’s a taste:

I think, in particular, we spend too much time building fences around our backyard and not tending to the foundation on which the building stands. We paint our fences, we hold them up – “I’m this, not that!” – and, in the meantime, the foundations are being eroded. And what you sense and what I’m sensing, I think, is a renewed interest in the foundations. Reformed theology is a way of talking about that. It’s a way of getting in touch with the reality of the faith, with God, with the Scriptures, with Jesus Christ and salvation, with the mission of the church in the world. Reformed theology, at its best, is about those things. It’s not about, “I’m a Baptist, not a Presbyterian,” or, “I’m this kind of Baptist, not that kind of Baptist,” or, “I’m a conservative, not a moderate,” or, “I’m a moderate, not a conservative.” Those types of old-fashioned political distinctions, I think, no longer have the bite they used to. And what’s taking its place among many, not all – we shouldn’t exaggerate this – is this growing interest, and I think reformed theology is one of the things that people can latch on to. They sense it’s real, it’s substantial, you can build your life on it, you can raise a family with it. And I think it is a good thing.

By the way, Timothy George is on a short list of men I’d like to have coffee with. Can anyone set that up?

Winning Ways: The Fear of Success

I’ve read of perfectionists driven by a fear of failure, but I’ve seen more people crippled by the fear of success.

Fear of success? Who could possibly be afraid of success? Could the answer be…you?

Eugene Peterson recalls a time when he was five years old, standing at a barbed-wire fence, watching an adult neighbor and fellow church member, “Brother Storm.” The man rumbled up and down the field in his enormous tractor and the daily wish of little Peterson was to ride on that John Deere.

One day while the little preschooler stood by the fence with that mixture of awe and longing, Brother Storm stopped. He stood up from the seat, and made strong waving motions to Peterson with his arm. “He looked mean and angry," said Peterson. “I knew I was probably where I shouldn't be; five-year-old boys often are. I turned and left. Sadly, I hadn't felt I was doing anything wrong – I was only watching from what I thought was a safe distance and wishing that someday, somehow I could get to ride that tractor. I went home feeling rejected, rebuked.”

The next Sunday at church, Brother Storm approached young Peterson. “Why didn’t you accept my invitation the other day? I was hoping you’d ride with me a while.” In his preschool eyes, Peterson thought the man was shooing him away when instead he was beckoning him into an experience the little boy had long desired.*

I wonder how many times God calls us into what we most want to do, but we think he's shooing us away.

We fear success. We fear the work success requires, we fear the ridicule our dreams might bring from others, and we desperately fear that we might not have what it takes. After all, if there was no possibility of failure, they’d call it “sure-thing-taking,” not “risk-taking!”

Every venture is a test of our mettle, and some of us would rather stay within the safe confines of our private dreams instead of face the risks.

Those of us most crippled by the fear of success are most surprised by Psalm 20. “May he give you the desire of you heart,” the poet prays for the king, “and make all your plans succeed.” Imagine that: God put that prayer in his Book so we would have permission to talk to him about our desires!

I’m in my fourth week of mission service in Zambia. For this Sunday and the next, I’ve asked Jim Siegel to preach in my absence. Jim is in his seventh year of service as our Minister to Students at Hillcrest. You’ll like what he has to say. Join your Hillcrest Family this Sunday @ 10am!

(*Eugene Peterson told this story in an article that appeared in Leadership Journal, Winter 1993, pp. 127-28.)
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Of Dinner Speeches and Preaching

“Jack was to give the [speech], as he knew very well—it was expected of him, and it was his privilege. But this kind of deference, this attentive listening to every remark of his, required the words he uttered to be worth the attention they excited—a wearing state of affairs for a man accustomed to ordinary human conversation, with its perpetual interruption, contradiction and plain disregard. Here everything he said was right: and presently his spirits began to sink under the burden.”

Patrick O’Brian’s description of Captain Jack Aubrey at a dinner speech in the novel I'm reading, Master and Commander. Those of us who preach can sometimes feel the same.

Song of the Week: Nkosi Silkelel' iAfrika (God Bless Africa)

I'm in my third week teaching in Zambia. Here's Nkosi Silkelel' iAfrika (God Bless Africa) from an old Vineyard project called "Live from South Africa"--



Lyrics--

Nkosi Silkelel'i Afrika (God Bless us Africa)
Maluphakanyisw'uphondo Iwayo (May her glory be lifted high)
Yizwa Imithandazo Yethu (Hear our petitions)
Nkosi Sikelela, thina lusapo iwayo (God Bless us, Us Your children)

Woza Moya (Come Spirit)
Woza Moya Woza (Come Spirit Come)
Woza Moya (Come Spirit)
Woza Moya Woza (Come Spirit Come)
Woza Moya Oyingewele (Come Spirit Holy)
Nkosi Sikelela (God bless us)

Morena Boloka Setjhaba Sa Heso (Lord we ask you to protect our nation)
Ofedise Dintwa Le Matshwenyeho (Intervene and end all conflicts)

O Se Boloke (Protect us)
O Se Boloke Morena (Protect us Lord)
Setjhaba Sa Heso (Protect our nation)
Setjhaba Sa South Afrika (Protect South Africa)

Nkosi Silkelel'i Afrika (God Bless us Africa)
Maluphakanyisw'uphondo Iwayo (May her glory be lifted high)
Yizwa Imithandazo Yethu (Hear our petitions)
Nkosi Sikelela, Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika (God Bless us, God bless us Africa)

Random Shots of a Goodman in Africa

I took 4 days to preach through the Beatitudes at the seminary’s Spiritual Emphasis Week:




The Lusaka Pastors Fellowship invited me to bring a message and share a meal with them at their monthly gathering:



I’ve already mentioned the tea time at 10am every morning. Franklin Kilpatrick snapped a couple of shots at tea this week. In the first slide, I’m speaking with 2 of the students in my class, Gracious Chambala and David Chibanga. Gracious is a marvelous musician, by the way. In the second photo, Franklin caught some of the children of the seminary students. There is a day care for them, but they are released at tea time along with everyone else:




I mentioned the musicianship of Gracious Chambala. I do wish I could capture the congregational singing for this blog, especially when they break into songs and choruses that arise out of the various languages of Zambia and the surrounding countries:



A shot of the students taking a break with a game of football. They invited me to join them, but they are too young and too good! (To clarify: I was never good at soccer, but I was once young….)



I’m so-so with the stove, spoiled rotten at home with the best cook in the world. So it was a special treat to be invited over to the Kilpatricks and the Parks for meals this week. I already posted about the Parks. In this shot, Franklin wanted you guys back home to see the size of the T-bone he grilled for me!

Baptist Global Response

I want our church’s missions committee to examine the work of Baptist Global Response and consider how we can participate. Stateside churches are encouraged to fill 5-gallon buckets with medical supplies so that they can be delivered on home visits where families are dealing with a critically ill member. IMB missionaries Franklin and Paula Kilpatrick work with police chaplains and military chaplains, among others, to get these buckets distributed to families in need. In these pictures, a military chaplain is making plans with Paula to pick up 60 buckets from a shipping container on the seminary property. Paula caught a couple of shots of me lending a hand to get the buckets on the truck.








Click here to learn more about Baptist Global Response.

Review of Stephen Lawhead’s "Hood"

Imagine the old story of Robin Hood told as a Welsh freedom fighter in AD 1093. Stephen Lawhead believes there is good reason to believe that the Robin Hood legend had its origins not in an English Sherwood Forest but in the vast forest that separated England from Wales in the 11th Century. He has set his “King Raven Trilogy” in this time and place. There’s Little John and Friar Tuck and Maid Merian, but all are more complex characters in Lawhead’s hands.

I was first introduced to Lawhead’s imagination in his book, Byzantium, which I strongly recommend. That, along with his novel Patrick, Son of Ireland, will introduce you to a world of primitive white tribes from what is now northern and western Europe—my ancestors (and probably yours).

Brutal and pagan primitive tribes until costly missionary outreach brought them to Christ. I can’t help but compare my ancestor’s history to Africa of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The King Raven Trilogy doesn’t appear to cover the same ground as Byzantium and Patrick (i.e., missionary impact on ancient pagan European cultures). As I’ve already mentioned, it’s a retelling of the Robin Hood story in a way that makes it ruggedly more realistic than the Erroll Flynn or Disney or even Kevin Costner versions of recent years.

I’ve just completed the first book of the trilogy, Hood, and I’ve started on the second, Scarlet. Lawhead is an especially good writer for men (considering his characters always seem to be men, and men dealing with hard choices and heavy consequences). And, since Lawhead’s books are distributed by Thomas Nelson Publishers, you can be sure that the books don’t descend into, um, imaginative territory Christian readers shouldn’t go.

I’m enjoying the King Raven series, and will update you with further reviews. But go ahead and get a copy of Byzantium and/or Patrick at a used book store somewhere and tell me what you think about it. Fascinating stuff.

Dinner with the Packs

While serving in Zambia, my next-door neighbors are James and Songja Pack. The are ISC workers (International Service Corps) with our International Mission Board. James was a pastor in Korean Baptist churches for many years, both in California and in Houston, Texas, before he and Songja went to Argentina as ISC workers. For the last six years, he has served as an instructor at the Baptist Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia. Songja also teaches women’s classes at the school. On weekends they are often traveling to the bush to train and support remote, rural congregations.

The IMB is commissioning more and more Korean Americans for mission service, and you may know that one of the larger missionary-sending nations outside the U.S. is South Korea. The Packs occasionally meet with South Korean missionaries who are serving in Zambia.

Last night they invited me for Korean food. Ah, such good eats. I’m still full.

Winning Ways: Finding a Forever Family

What does it take to reach unchurched people, and how are we doing in that effort?

To find out, I invited a few formerly unchurched people to my house. They ranged in age from 20-something to 80-something. They have made their profession of faith here or they have renewed their love and loyalty to Jesus after years of little spiritual growth.

The reason I wanted to visit with them was to simply find out what "clicked" for them at Hillcrest after years without a commitment to Christ and to a church. Here are some of my conclusions from the meeting, in no particular order of importance.

First, I'm grateful for the "Connection Campaign," which God used to reach into the lives of several unconnected people.

Second, the Anchor Course has played a key role in the lives of the formerly unchurched. The eight-week study with me has given people a chance to ask their questions about Christianity and to gain more confidence about Christian basics.

Third, the formerly unchurched find Hillcrest to be a very welcoming church. All who visited with me at my house had stories to tell about those who befriended them, called them, remembered their names on subsequent visits to the church, and invited them to activities outside the church program. Keep up the good work!

Fourth, the formerly unchurched feel that Hillcrest really is a place where people can "find and follow Jesus together." Before walking into Hillcrest, they assumed they would be the only ones who were new to the place, unfamiliar with the Bible, or plagued with personal problems. Instead, they quickly found others who, like them, were newcomers still learning their way around Hillcrest. They found others who, like them, were willing to admit what they didn't know about the Bible. And they found others who, like them, confessed the heartbreak of personal problems. In other words, the formerly unchurched appreciated the level of honesty they found here.

Fifth, as I talked with the formerly unchurched I was reminded again that God is in charge of this process of salvation and spiritual growth! We simply need to make ourselves available as instruments in his hand as he does his sovereign work in lives around us.

So, as you gather with your Hillcrest Family this Sunday, keep in mind how many unchurched people that God has turned into formerly unchurched people through the work of Hillcrest. And keep praying for that work to continue!

I’m halfway through my 5-week mission service in Zambia. This Sunday, David Smith will bring the message at Hillcrest. David serves as the director for our Austin Baptist Association. Gene and the music team are preparing some patriotic music to celebrate the nation of our birth, and David will talk about the duties in the kingdom of our new birth. Gather with your Forever Family at 10am!

P.S., Today’s edition of Winning Ways was shared with our LeaderLines readers a few weeks ago. I wanted Winning Ways subscribers to read about this, too. If you want to subscribe to LeaderLines, my e-newsletter for church leaders, go to our website.
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Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to over 950 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.