Unity or Uniformity

I recently read an article written by Ralph D. Winter entitle “The Highest Priority: Cross Cultural Evangelism.” He submitted the paper to the Lausanne Conference of 1974. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization seeks to encourage and stimulate the involvement of churches, denominations, ministries, networks, and individuals in the cause of world evangelization. Their mission statement is: "The whole Church taking the whole Gospel to the whole world." To find out more about the Lausanne Committee you can go here. To see the other documents of Lausanne 1974 you can go here.

This article addresses specifically cross-cultural evangelism as it relates to the global mission field. As I read the paper, I first considered how it might apply to our church’s desire to bring the gospel to the Kuvi/Dongaria Khond people. Yet, as I reflected upon it more, I realized that it speaks directly to evangelism, ministry, and worship here in northwest Arkansas and even more specifically here at UBC.

Three Types of Evangelism

Winter outlines three different kinds of evangelism: E-1, E-2, and E-3 evangelism. E-1 evangelism occurs when an individual from the same cultural, linguistic, socio-economic, and other backgrounds shares the gospel with another individual/group from the same background. E-2 evangelism occurs when an individual shares the gospel with another individual/group from a similar but not the same background. The culture may be a little different; the linguistic dialect may be somewhat different, or the social structure may be a little unique. E-2 evangelism is a little more challenging and may require different techniques to effectively communicate the gospel. E-3 evangelism occurs when an individual shares the gospel with another individual/group from a totally different background. The culture, language, and economic status are usually different creating significant barriers to sharing the gospel effectively.

For example, on our trip to the Kuvi/Dongaria Khond (DK) this past April, I was given the opportunity to share the gospel with the village of Gorta. Obviously, they were a significantly different culture, social status, economic status, educational status, and language to name just a few. This would be E-3 evangelism. Before I shared the gospel with the villagers, we wanted the new DK covert to share the message of salvation with his own people. As I mentioned in a previous post, this experience will go down in my “most memorable moments” of my life. This type of evangelism would be E-1. Jetu was sharing with people from his own culture. He spoke the language and shared in terms that they could understand. Though he was from a different village, it was still a DK sharing with DK. Now let’s say that the village of Gorta came to Christ and began to evangelize the other nearby DK villages. This would still be E-1 evangelism. But, if they began to share with other tribal groups such as the Kutia, Sitar, Malua, or Desia, it would be E-2 evangelism. These tribes speak a little different dialect and have a little different cultural and social background. For example, the Sitar people are known as the weavers as they weave baskets, containers, hats, mats, etc. The DK are primarily agriculturalists and do very little weaving. The DK could possibly understand what the Sitar are saying but it would be a little more difficult as the dialect is unique. The Kutia people live in the hills like the DK but they are the most primitive of all the tribals or Khond people. The women are barely clothed and their villages are even less advanced than the DK. Yet, all of these tribal people are somewhat similar and the boundaries to cross are not that significant.

As we do E-3 evangelism among the Kuvi/DK, we hope to raise up new converts who will do E-1 evangelism among their own people. As a church planting movement begins, we will want to encourage the Kuvi/DK to do E-2 evangelism among their cousin tribes. E-1 evangelism is the most effective. E-2 is less effective and E-3 is the least effective. All three types of evangelism are necessary, though the goal is to bring E-1 evangelism to the people group as quickly as possible.

E-2 and E-3 in Our Community

So how does this relate to northwest Arkansas or to UBC? Do these three types of evangelism transfer to our individual or corporate ministry of evangelism? I believe that they do. UBC has its own unique background. Though we are a church that is open and welcoming to any and everyone who would like to be a part of the vision, mission, ministries, and relationships we call UBC, we have a unique identity or DNA. There are exceptions, but on the whole we are a Caucasian, middle-class, and well-educated group of believers. Overall, our family worship service is fairly traditional and our preaching is evangelical. We are a Southern Baptist Church that embraces other ministries and mission efforts. These descriptions are fairly broad but give enough of a fingerprint to distinguish us from other churches in the area.

The vast majority of those who visit UBC fit into these categories. Is this a bad thing? No, it is a natural thing. We naturally invite people to our church that are within our spheres of influence and relationship. The majority of those led to Christ who plug into our church usually fit into these categories.

One of the most significant helps and evangelistic ministries of our church is Second Mile. They administer the grace of God by helping people who are in desperate need. They also faithfully share the gospel with everyone who comes through the doors for help and as a result, many decisions for Christ are made. What ever happens with those new believers? Why do so few ever plug into our church body?

Angela and I have become friends with an individual who has been ministered to through Second Mile. We have invited her to church on numerous occasions. She lives just a few blocks away but has yet to ever come to a worship service. She shared with us one day why she could not attend UBC. She first said that she didn’t have anything appropriate to wear. We told her that it doesn’t matter what you wear to church, but it really mattered to her. She also said that she wouldn’t fit in with all of us rich folks. I’m not sure what the definition of rich is, but when you’re living from welfare check to welfare check trying to raise four children alone, it doesn’t take muck to be called rich. She also said that our church was just too big. As we shared with her, I realized that it wasn’t E-3 sharing, but it was definitely not E-1. Our church was a different culture to her - a different socio-economic status that she could not relate to.

At this point, there are a couple of choices. First, we can just right her off. Her excuses for not being involved with a church fellowship will be nullified before a holy God. Secondly, we can help her find a church that is more “culturally” relevant to her situation. Thirdly, we can seek out new methods of providing ministry and worship opportunities that she can relate to here at UBC. Actually, the later did take place at UBC for awhile. There was a member who had a burden for the new Second Mile believers. He formed a Bible Study for them on Sunday mornings meeting in the Second Mile building. The potential for a ministry like this is enormous. What would happen if God’s Spirit came down mightily upon such a ministry to the point where we were having 100-150 people show up on Sunday morning? Would we have to insist that they filter into our regular worship service or eventually combine with our regular service? I would say no. This new body of believers will be able to do E-1 evangelism and reach a far greater number of people from similar backgrounds that our regular ministries and worship service could through E-2 relationships.

Let me touch on another hot topic that continually circulates among our church. Should the college students continue to have their own worship service and ministries or should they be combined into one unified ministry? It sounds wonderful for all of the different groups being together in unity. To worship and minister together is surely what God intends for the church to do and be. Yet, I’m afraid that we’re sometimes more concerned with uniformity and than with unity.

We have a Chinese Bible study that meets in our facilities on Friday night. They don’t join with us on Sunday morning and we wouldn’t expect them to as the cultural divide is probably too wide. We might even realize that new Second Mile believers will seldom enter our worship center and it would be a great thing to offer a unique setting for those believers so that they can grow and flourish in their faith and more effectively reach others within their particular sphere of influence and background. Yet, with the college, we see them more as E-1 relationship rather than E-2. Sure, there are some college students who come to our regular worship service and prefer it above our more progressive college service. Sure, there are some who want to be more integrated or at least have the opportunity to rub shoulders with families and older adults. Yet, the vast majority of college students have difficulty making the “cultural” leap to our service. In fact, if they college student is totally unchurched, it may feel more like E-3.

Unity or Uniformity

Is it a matter of method or a matter of biblical principle? Is it more about unity in Christ or about uniformity in UBC? Is it kingdom mindedness or kingdom building? Well, I’m still struggling with this issue, but you can tell where I’m leaning. I’d love to be a part of a church that doesn’t define unity by the single type of worship service or ministry it offers. I think it would be awesome to have multiple worship and ministry settings that reach out into many different cultural settings of our community. I would love to be a part of a church involved in E-1, E-2, and E-3 evangelism, missions, ministry, and relationship. I think it would be incredible to have Hispanic, Chinese, Second Mile, College, Traditional, Contemporary, Blue Grass, etc. gatherings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday all giving glory in their setting and worship language. May the glory of God be the uniting theme of our worship, our ministries, our evangelism, our missions, our relationships, and our all.

The Mysteries of God

I’m taking a seminary class on church history from the establishment of the Church to the time of the Reformation. In my years at Baylor and Southwestern Seminary, I studied church history from the perspective of music and worship. We broadly touched on the theological issues; usually when these issues influenced church music and worship form. The class that I’m presently taking focuses on the historical and theological aspects of the church.

It has been so interesting looking at the early church fathers and apologists wrestle with and defend both the humanity and divinity of Christ. In the early 4th century, the debate mainly focused upon the deity of Christ. After A.D. 360, the divinity of the Holy Spirit became a target for heretics. The Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381 drove a stake into the heart of heretical teaching concerning the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit and helped define what we call today the doctrine of the Trinity.

As I read a good deal of the writings of these early church fathers and apologists, it is fascinating to see them try to verbalize the doctrine of the Trinity. After the Council of Constantinople, the wording was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “one in substance/essence and three persons/beings/hypostases to which we today speak of one God in three Persons. Yet the early writers struggled with describing one God in three Persons much like we do today. We use descriptions like water in three different forms, a pie cut in three pieces, or a man being a husband, father, and son. All of these descriptions fall so short. How can we truly begin to explain in human terms the Trinity?

There are others aspects about God that are almost impossible to understand or explain. Try explaining some of these mysteries:

How does God eternally exist?
How vast is God’s presence?
How great is God’s greatness?
How does Christ, the hope of glory, exist in man?
How is my body a temple and place of residence for the Holy Spirit?
How can God love someone like me?

Here are my answers:
He just does.
Vast.
The greatest.
By His grace.
By His grace.
By His grace.

To truly think about and meditate upon God is to realize that He is mysterious. He cannot be fathomed. Consider some of these passages from the Word:

Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? (Job 11:7)

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. (Psalms 145:3)

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:28)

One of the newer worship songs that I enjoy today speaks to this theme, especially in the choruses. I’ll close out today’s thought with this song by Laura Story and Jesse Reeves calld "Indescribable."

Indescribable! Uncontainable!
You place the stars in the sky,
And You know them by name;
You are amazing, God!

All powerful! Untameable!
Awestruck, we fall to our knees
As we humbly proclaim:
You are amazing, God!

Incomparable! Unchangeable!
You see the depths of my heart
And You love me the same;
You are amazing, God!

God's Glory Among the Kuvi

This past week, our church, our missions committee, our 2006 India mission team, numerous individuals, and our family had the opportunity to visit with Samanta Naik. Samanta, or Brother Sam, is from India and helps oversee a ministry in the state of Orissa called Happy Valley. Happy Valley provides a Christian boarding school for about 40-50 children and a Bible College to train young pastors and evangelists. On our trip to minister among the Kuvi/Dongaria Khond (DK) this past April, our mission team spent several days at Happy Valley and grew to love Sam, Bano, and Philos - his wife and son.

Before I proceed with the present, I must go back to the roots of how India and the Kuvi/DK people have been branded upon our hearts. I humbly recognize that there are many who have contributed much more significantly to the expansion of the kingdom of God among this people group than I have. I’m grateful for the small contribution that I’ve been able to make so far and the opportunities that the Lord has given me to bring light to this overwhelmingly dark area of the world. As I hold my little flashlight among the Kuvi/DK alongside other lightbearers, I pray that the Lord continues to add flashlights, floodlights, lighthouses, lighting towers, lighting grids, and more for the glory of God.

The Beginning of a Vision in Our Hearts

Angela and I met at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1989. I need another log to share about God’s providence and grace in bringing us together. She came to seminary believing that God was going to send her to the mission field, possibly working in China at a children’s orphanage. The Lord would alter and fulfill this calling in the years to come, but in a totally unexpected way.

We were married in June of 1991 and graduated from seminary the next year. The Lord brought us to Farmington, Arkansas to serve in our first full-time ministry. A few years later we were involved in a church plant launched from our church in Farmington in cooperation with the association and another local pastor named Clark Lasse.

In 1995, a class entitles Perspectives on the World Christian Movement was offered in our area. Angela had always wanted to take the class while in seminary but didn’t get the opportunity. She wanted take this class, so we decided to enroll together. The class had a dramatic impact upon our lives. I shared with Clark, Wayne Summers, and Kevin McCollum what God was doing in my heart. Wayne had already taken the class, Clark grew up on the mission field, and Kevin had just returned from a short-term mission assignment with the IMB. God ignited a vision in our hearts to become involved in adopting an unreached people group. Without going into all the incredible details, God led us to the Kuvi of India. Our church, Life Change Community Fellowship, formally adopted this unreached people group seeking to help instigate a church planting movement among them.

The First Trip to KuviLand

We formed a missions team to pray, prepare, and plan. In 1997, I had the privilege of being a part of the first team from our church to walk among the Kuvi. Our simple objective was to engage this people with the love and kindness of Christ. We prayerwalked among various villages, laid hands on and prayed for the sick, fellowshipped with them, and gathered a great deal of video, pictures, and information that we could bring back to our church. This precious people were deeply planted into our hearts and into the hearts of our church body.

Our Second Trip to KuviLand

In 1999, Clark, Wayne, Kevin, myself, and a friend of mine named Mike Delancey made another trip to India. This trip involved a week of teaching to pastors who were working among the Kuvi. One of our translators was completing a degree and Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI) where we were teaching. Our hearts quickly bonded with this student/translator not knowing that this relationship would continue to grow over the years. Our new friend’s name was Samanta Naik.

Another key relationship was with a man who was running a children’s orphanage there at HBI. His name was Louis, and he would join us on our second week as we traveled from Chennai in south India to G.Udayagiri in east central India to spend a week with Calvin Fox, an IMB missionary working among the Kui people, a cousin group of the Kuvi. Our desire was to learn some of the agricultural, evangelistic storytelling, and medical methods used in reaching his target people to see how they might be implemented among the Kuvi. Calvin passed away several years ago and his work in G.Udayagiri has discontinued.

Next Steps

Let me fast forward a bit, not to overshadow other significant trips and progress, but to bring this story to its present climax. Life Change Community Fellowship metamorphosized into Life Change International (LCI), a mission organization whose major focus and support is channeled to reaching the Kuvi for Christ. LCI purchased land at the base of the Kuvi/DK foothills in Muniguda with the plan of establishing an agricultural and evangelistic training center similar to Calvin Fox’s about four hours away. Louis would live at the training center and oversee this initial phase of evangelism to the Kuvi/DK. He would be helped in the agricultural techniques by a man named Tuna who was Calvin’s main assistant.

In October of 2005, UBC formally adopted the Kuvi people. When UBC sent its first mission team to KuviLand this past April, we met and/or worked alongside Tuna, Samanta, and Louis. Each man is gifted in distinctly different ways. Tuna is obviously gifted in the agricultural techniques and how to improve food and cash crops. Louis is blessed with mercy and humanitarian gifts that work well with his heart for people. Louis and his wife Visanthi were wonderful hosts for our team and guided us throughout the various Kuvi/DK villages. Samantha is a natural leader and visionary that wants to establish a boarding school, medical clinic, and Bible college about an hour away from Louis’ training center. Samantha went up into the hills with us and served as a translator.

As UBC prays and considers its next steps for our work among the Kuvi/DK, I can’t help but believe that each of these three men will play a more significant role as we seek to coordinate our efforts. Our focus now seems to be upon four specific areas of ministry: evangelism, agriculture, education, and mercy.

Evangelism, Agriculture, Education, and Mercy

We must continually engage the Kuvi/DK with the gospel. We must share the message in every means possible whether it be storytelling, one-on-one evangelism, village evangelism, crusades, and more. We must go ourselves and share the gospel. We must send national evangelists into the hills. We must support the seven new DK Christians and continually encourage them to share the gospel with their people. Samanta could possibly be a key person in this area as his ministry helps equip pastors and evangelists.

Agriculture is the means by which the ministry can become independent from Western support. The goal is also to take many of the techniques into the villages in order to improve the crops thus improving their health and income. Tuna could possibly be a key person in this area.

The Kuvi/DK are a primitive, tribal group. They are uneducated and illiterate. They have knowledge of the hills and have learned to adopt to the harsh conditions of life in these villages. Yet, with the caste system and their uneducated status, they are in bondage and enslaved to stay in their present condition from generation to generation. Something must be done! We are beginning to discuss the possibility of putting Kuvi/DK children in a boarding school where they will be provided the basics for living, and education, and the gospel. At the same time, we need to send qualified teachers into the villages to begin teaching the other children, youth, and families to read and write. Again, Samanta could possibly be a key person in this area with the establishment of his boarding school. Louis is also a key person as he presently has several assistants working in the villages. Louis also has a before/after school teaching program at the training center for the area children.

Mercy ministries such as medical, sanitation, clothing, etc. open doors into the villages and provide a legitimizing purpose for our ultimate goal of evangelism. Louis is possibly the key person to oversee these types of ministries. As already mentioned, Samanta is preparing to build a medical clinic and is also planning on acquiring a minibus that will be converted into a mobile medical unit.

Conclusion

God is up to something big here. He is continually expanding the vision into hearts and churches. He is lining up significant relationships that will play key roles among the Kuvi/DK. Prayer networks continue to be advanced. I’m humbled and grateful to be a part of making Christ known among the Kuvi/DK.

For our family, the vision began with my wife’s heart for missions. If it were not for her influence upon my life in this area, I’m not sure that I would have ever taken the Perspectives class, or at least not in 1995. I would not have shared so passionately with our church staff or personally become involved with the Kuvi/DK. Who knows, the Kuvi/DK might still be an unheard of people group still waiting for the first chance to hear the name “Jesus.”

I’m grateful for my wife, for my partners in ministry, for the various teams that have gone to India, for the churches and mission organizations who have joined the cause, for those national leaders on the frontier, and for those who continually champion the cause of Christ for the Kuvi/DK.

I look forward to the day when the glory of God shines brightly among this precious people group known as the Kuvi/Dongaria Khond.

Knowledge and Reflection of God

This morning I read the short book of Jonah. It’s only four chapters long, but it paints a beautiful picture of the grace, compassion, love, and mercy of God. It also challenges the believer to put knowledge into action.

God had called Jonah to preach against the city of Nineveh because of its wickedness. In disobedience, Jonah ran from God and from His call to preach repentance. He tried to get as far away from God as possible. In fact, he fled to the west border of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea where he boarded a ship headed for Spain. He wasn’t just jumping on his camel and going to the next city or even country, he was going as far away as he possibly could.

Why did he run from God? Why did he choose such drastic disobedience? Some suggest that because he was a Jew, he was appalled at the idea of God offering forgiveness to a “heathen” people. Nineveh was located in Assyria along the east bank of the Tigris River in modern day Iraq. The city was known for the cultic worship of the goddess Ishtar. How could God show grace, compassion, love, and mercy upon an idolatrous nation - a nation that was not chosen by God to carry His blessing? We get a hint of Job’s feelings after God showed compassion to the people of Nineveh. Jonah 4:1-2 says, “But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. He prayed to the LORD, ‘O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.’” These verses don’t reveal the root of Jonah’s disobedience but they do show us that Jonah wanted God to unleash His wrath upon the Ninevites.

Maybe Jonah was prejudice against the Assyrians. Maybe he believed all idolatrous nations should be destroyed. Maybe he was prideful of His status as a Jew and position as one of God’s chosen people. There could be any number of root issues that could be considered and possibly should be explored. Yet, to me, there is a greater tragedy to be found in this account.

As indicated in the verses above, it is clear that Jonah knew God. He knew His character - gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and merciful. He knew how God would respond to a repenting people - forgiveness. Yet, Jonah displayed godless character and action in his own life. He had a knowledge of God without a reflection of God. Let me sidetrack for a minute and focus on God’s character.

God demonstrated His grace, compassion, love, and mercy to everyone mentioned in this story. First of all, He demonstrated His character to the sailors. When they agreed to throw Jonah overboard during the storm, they knew that would be committing murder. In fact, they cried out to God asking Him not to hold them accountable for taking an innocent man’s life. God was gracious to them. When the sea calmed, the men bowed in worship before God. Secondly, He demonstrated His character to the Ninevites. When they repented from their evil ways, the Scripture says that “He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). Lastly, He demonstrated His character to Jonah. He provided a great fish to swallow him rather than allow him to drown in the raging sea. When Jonah cried out to the Lord from inside the fish, God heard Him and had the fish spit him out on dry ground. God even pursued Jonah when he was angry. He came to Jonah when he was angry at God’s forgiveness poured out to the Ninevites. He came to Jonah again when he was angry about the withered vine. What an incredible God we serve. He shows grace, compassion, love, and mercy in our desperateness (sailors), in our wickedness (Ninevites), and in our carnality (Jonah).

Now let me get back to my main subject - knowledge without reflection. Jonah knew God’s character and even saw it demonstrated, yet he wouldn’t reflect or demonstrate God’s character in his own life. This is where the rubber meets the road; this is where faith is lived out. I may have incredible knowledge of God, I may attend every Bible study offered at church, I may read the Bible daily, I may have large portions of the Word memorized, I may even lead a Bible study. Yet, if the character and nature of God are not reflected and demonstrated in my life, I’m like smoke blowing in the wind. God reveals His character and nature in His Word and demonstrates them in our everyday lives. He calls us to reveal and demonstrate His character and nature in our daily lives.

Father, thank You for revealing and demonstrating Your compassion, grace, love, and mercy to me in my desperateness, my wickedness, and my carnality. Thank You for continually pursuing me even when I run from You in disobedience. Oh, forgive me for not immediately responding to Your voice. May my knowledge of You always be reflected and demonstrated in my life. May Your Holy Spirit empower me to receive and incarnate Your Word.