Love: The Return

This evening I attended VERTICALE, a monthly worship and prayer gathering held in Paris at le Pavé d'Orsay. Tonight's theme ("Amour: le Retour" / "Love: the Return") was a follow up of last month's theme of "amour / love."

I really appreciated how the Scripture readings were done. Each text was flashed on the side wall with the video projector, along with an appropriate photograph. This must have taken a lot of work for someone to put together. However, the words actually stood out more than when someone just reads them out loud from up front.

I don't understand why some churches don't take advantage of the technology which makes it easy to post biblical texts on the screen, especially if they use videoprojectors for other parts of the service, like putting song lyrics. Studies show that people retain a lot more if they both see and hear something, rather than just see something. One church we attended stopped putting up the biblical texts because they thought that it might have discouraged people from bringing their own Bibles. In the short run this might be true. However, in the long run, I think it would encourage people, especially novices to the Bible, to want to read it for themselves. However, unless a church provides the same version of the Bible for people as the one who reads the text out loud, then texts probably should be flashed on the screen. In this case, readers should tell the page number where the text can be found, then pause a little bit to give people time to turn to the page. If a church really values the readng of Scripture, then it should do it as well as possible, including forewarning Scripture readers more than just before a service begins. Some criticize the "biblical illiteracy" of our time. However, to help make novices move from biblical illiteracy to literacy, then churches need to help educate their people in simple ways like this.

Another interesting part of tonight was allowing people a chance to respond to God's love in different ways. Some suggested ways tonight included writing something down and attaching it to a wooden cross in the corner, putting money in for a special collection to help those in physical need, and getting some playdough and creating something expressing our love for God. After writing something and attaching it to the cross, I got some red playdough and formed it into a heart.

During the last 2 Verticales, I've thought about Jessica. I guess the worship style and creative ambiance in the room bring me back to Jessica's memorial service there in early Nov. I think the style of Verticale connects with me more than any other meeting that I'm part of at this juncture. It's like going to a fun gathering with old and new friends. I love having an evening meeting, although this isn't that practical for families with young children.

Today has been a good day. This morning we went to our daughters' school for a conference with our older daughter's teacher. It was encouraging to hear how well #1 daughter is doing. She's becoming more assertive as well, in a good sense. We're so thankful for this school and its teachers, as all of our kids have benefitted from it.

Afterwards, we stopped at a park we used to got to often when our kids were very young. It's amazing to see how much they've grown in relation to some of the toys and things that they had trouble with before. I'm so rich to have these 3 living children. Even though I miss having Jessica with us, I'm glad she's safe and sound and problem-free now in heaven with Jesus and my mother. That is the home that all of us prodigals are ultimately longing for.

20th anniversary of an art's ministry

Last Saturday we drove to the southeastern suburbs of Paris for the 20th anniversary celebration of the Christians arts ministry "Chantre." It was held at a Baptist church in Pontault-Combault. It was interesting being there, as I considered working with that church association before coming back to France in 1993. Feeling the call to work inside of Paris, I didn't join them. However, I recognized a number of the people who were present at the celebration. I remember thinking that, had I joined that project in the eastern suburbs, I probably would know nearly everyone there.

Chantre has 2 main artists: (1) Pierre Lachat and (2) Denis & Isabelle Hey, known as "Den-Isa." When a student at l'Institut Biblique de Nogent 1989-90, my Christian service project was to sing in the school's music group "Unisson." The Heys both graduated from IBN and Isabelle was the receptionist that year. So I got to go on tour to places like Nantes with Unisson and Den-Isa. That was my first real taste of art ministry in France.

Over the years, I've kept in touch with Den-Isa. I've purchased most of their CDs. I've been to several concerts. We financially supported their ministry for a number of years.

During the celebration evening, I got a better understanding of the impact of their ministry. One particularity of it is their focus on children. Several of their albums are for children. They have 2 daughters, both of whom sang with them. One turned 18 that night, while I remember the news of her being born. Where do those years go? Den-Isa also do children's and youth music training at different camps. It was fun listening to the audience get into the medley of songs of theirs. Like many French artists who are Christian, they don't have access to the financial resources that American ones have. They do the best with what they have, which is really all that God asks of us.

Our kids did really well, especially considering that the concert began at 8:30 p.m. I hope that they will get the chance to go to one of Den-Isa's camps when they are older.

My favorite Den-Isa song is a Christmas one titled "Dieu Ne Change Pas" (God doesn't change). It's on their first Christmas album, titled "Fenêtre sur Noël" (Window to Christmas). We played the album a number of times this past Christmas and my kids recognized it when they sang it at the concert. Music has a way of touching our emotions and I got a little teary when hearing them sing it. It was a challenging Christmas, with Jessica not being with us. But the song reminds us of that God doesn't change, whether we're going through times of suffering or blessing.

Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Il est le même, éternellement [He is the same, eternally]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Et il nous aime depuis la nuit des temps [He loves us since the beginning of time]

Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Mais à Noël, il y a deux mille ans [But at Christmas 2000 years ago]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Et il nous a fait un don sans précédent [He made for us a gift without precedent]

Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Mais à Noël, il a livré son plan [But at Christmas, He delivered His plan]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
Dieu ne change pas [God doesn't change]
C'est le début du Nouveau Testament [It was the beginning of the New Testament]

Depuis ce jour, le premier Noël [Since that day, the first Christmas]
Tout est devenu nouveau [All became new]
Jésus a sauvé ceux qui l'ont accueilli [Jesus saved those who welcomed Him]
C'est par amour pour ceux qu'il appelle [It was through love for those He calls]
Qu'il est descendu d'en-haut [That He descended from above]
Venu libérer ceux qui croiraient en lui [Came to liberate those who would believe in Him]'

Depuis ce jour, le premier Noël [Since that day, the first Christmas]
Tout est devenu nouveau [All became new]
Il s'est approché pour changer notre sort [He came to change our destiny]
C'est par amour pour ceux qu'il appelle [It was through love for those He calls]
Qu'il est descendu d'en-haut [That He descended from above]
Il s'est présenté pour effacer nos torts [He presented himself to erase our sins]

We had our friend Tricia over for supper tonight. She's been giving speech therapy sessions to our older daughter. She has made remarkable progress through Tricia's help. During the meal, Tricia mentioned getting to live her dream of living in France the past 2 1/2 years.

I've been so fortunate to get to live my dream of getting to live and do ministry in Paris. It's been nearly 14 years in Paris, as well as the one year at Nogent and another one in Albertville in the French Alps. Getting to work with artists like Den-Isa and others now with la fonderie have been some of the wonderful surprises of these years here. Having an international group of friends from the 4 corners of the world is also part of the dream. Having a wife and 3 living children is part of this too. I even got to be part of a Passion Paris event last June.

Someday, I expect that I'll need to leave Paris. I don't know when or why that might be, but expect that it may happen someday. While I would miss the city and its people and its Church, I would be thankful for getting to live my dream of being here. That dream began germinating 1989-1990 during my year at Nogent and continued to grow during 2 years in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and another year in the U.S. I've been a fortunate guy since 1993 to be here.

A Ministry of Presence--Part 2

One sign for me of a busy life and schedule is having a lot of days between blog entries. It's been a full past week.

Since my last entry detailing some of my son's challenges at school, we've seen some positive changes, both in his situation and at the school, as well as in our hearts.

I notice that whenever I drop him off or pick him up now, my eyes are much more alert to the faces of the other kids and parents. It's like I'm starting to see what I formerly just looked at without really noticing. I also pray a lot more for the people I happen to notice, as well as for peace at the school. I also pray for our son's teacher, the other teachers, and the school administrators.

Last Sunday afternoon we went to a park by the school. It struck me that this was the first time we had been in that park on a Sunday since our visit there several days after our Jessica passed away. There were lots of kids, as well as parents there today. One way to calm violence is just to have lots of parents who are physically present. One boy was getting a little pushy with my son, so I went over to him and let him know that I saw him and to stop. That pretty much ended that.

Anyway, our son ended up playing with a girl in his class. We got to meet her mother through that. It turns out that she lives in the same apartment residence as us, but several entryways down. We exchanged addresses and will probably have her over sometime soon.

On Tuesday my wife accompanied our son's class to a film at a local cinema. The class needed 2 parents to come and she volunteered. She got to know some of the kids that our son had talked about, including a couple of his aggressors. She tried to talk with them and had some interesting observations. She asked them some questions about themselves. One boy, who is a mix of a Black parent and a White parent, said that my wife didn't look at all like our son (as he has my darker coloring). He then said that he didn't look like either of his parents (and seemed sad about that). My wife has a lot of compassion for these different children.

My wife's primary ministry is to our family and our neighborhood. She has the time to invest in both and will be volunteering to accompany the class for other events. I wonder just how much her investment in these neighborhood children will pay off. Probably in big ways. Prevention is so much more cost effective and damage controlling that curing a problem that has developed. Even if just 1 kid is helped to become a productive citizen, that is a huge thing.

Earlier this week while reading Visioneering by Andy Stanley, I was struck by his words:

You have no idea what God wants to do through you. Your seemingly small vision regarding your next-door neighbor, your children, your finances, your church, a potential ministry, may not be so small in the long run. You just don't know. But what you do know is there is a link between what you have been called to do and what God is up to in history. And the closer you can tie the two together the more compelling your vision will be. (p. 98)

He continues later:

Once you have made the connection between your vision and God's charge to you as a believer, your vision will transcend mere circumstances. You won't be launching a company, you will be financing the great commission. You won't simply be raising children, you will be influencing a generation. You won't be holding your marriage together, you will be reestablishing God's order for society. When we couple our personal visions with God's sovereign plan, we leverage the future. (p. 100)

A ministry of presence

Today's Lenten reading is Matthew 2:13-15, the story of the angel's telling Joseph in a dream to take Mary and his infant son Jesus and flee to Egypt. They were to remain there (as refugees) to prevent evil King Herod from finding Jesus. As a young child, Jesus was a political refugee in Egypt.

Today, due to famines, war, floods, drought, religious extremism, poverty, etc., many people around the world find themselves as refugees. In the Old Testament, "foreigners" or "strangers" were one of the groups that God wanted special protection for, as well as widows, orphans, and Levites. I think that God honors and blesses those who honor and bless these groups that often don't have their own protection otherwise.

In "Pilgrims and Peacemakers: A Journey Through Lent Towards Jerusalem, Garth Hewitt tells the following story:

The late Bishop Festo Kivengere of Uganda told me about a group of refugees for whom he campaigned, who were on the borders of Uganda and Rwanda. In fact, they were not even classified as refugees. They didn't even have that dignity, they had no status at all. They were rejected by all communities and he campaigned on their behalf to the United Nations. He told me that, as he walked around the camp, he was utterly shocked and appalled by the conditions and quite distraught, but many of the people in the camp were Christians, and they held a little service and began to sing, and the song they were singing said, 'Where God is, there is joy' and they clapped their hands and they said, 'Where God is, there is laughter' and they laughed. At first he just couldn't believe it and he went to one woman afterwards and said, 'How can you possibly praise God in this situation?' And she smiled and said to him, 'You see, Bishop, you come and visit us and then you go away again, but Jesus never leaves the camp.'

In France, some like Voltaire were/are deists. They see God as being like a distant watchmaker. While He may have created the world, He is nowadays distant. However, the doctrine of the immanence of God is the "God with us" idea. God is not an impersonal, far away Being. As a former refugee, Jesus can identify with the pain and difficulty of living in a foreign land and of not having one's own land.

One of my former grad school classmates, Mark, has lived with his wife and adopted sons in Chicago for a couple of decades. He heads up the Urban and Ethnic Ministries with my organization. A recent e-publication of our group has an interview with Mark about what is an urban Christian. He says:

Urban Christians are people that are fully engaged and a part of the city and neighborhood in which they live. They have an appreciation for place. It means that they live, work, minister, and worship with their neighbors.

This is what Jesus did. He had a ministry of presence -- a ministry of hanging out. It's a Biblical idea.

Urban Christians are concerned about the economic, spiritual, and physical welfare of their neighbors. God is not only concerned with individuals but with the welfare of entire cities.

Why would God mention the cattle of Ninevah in Jonah 4 verse 11? It's because cattle were the main economic system of that city. God cares about all aspects of our lives.

During this week, we have experienced some of the particular challenges in our neighborhood in Paris. Our son, who is 7 and in French 1st grade, has experienced some violence at his public elementary school. On Monday, 3 of his classmates were messing with him during the lunch break and tore something of his hat. He's had problems with 1 of them throughout this school year. He came home Tuesday with a band-aid on his leg. Apparently he received a kick from someone .

Yesterday (Thursday) my wife spoke with the school principal, as well as our son's teacher Karine. There is no school on Wednesday, so this was the earliest she could. Karine said that this is a rough class and that a number of them come from troubled families.

The French gov't, in trying to encourage the mixing of the classes, has HLMs (gov't subsized housing for people of poor or modest incomes) in all areas, including Paris. Many of the troubled kids come from families living in these "projects."

Our first reaction is to want to bust the heads of those who are messing with our son. (I've felt like doing this on the playgrounds sometimes as well, when seeing how wild some of the kids are). However, violence often breeds more violence, rather than helping resolve the situation.

Our 2nd reaction is to want to protect our son at all costs. Last year we had considered putting him in a private elementary school for this year, but decided against it, as we heard that our son's public school was a good one. We wondered if we had made a wrong choice.

However, we remembered that we had prayed about the choice of schools, as well as that God would put him in the right class with the right teacher.

My wife discussed this with the mother of one of our son's classmates. The violence in the school was discussed at a recent parents' meeting that we missed. She suggested that we attend these parents' meetings.

Certainly we want the best for our children. My wife and I both have memories of our suburban grade schools being safe places. If we felt our son was in grave danger, then we would pull him out.

But I think that these experiences are a wake up call to my wife and I to more active involvement in the school. I recall reading or hearing Ray Bakke, an urban ministry expert, say that even in the worst schools, a child could get a good education if the parents were involved. One way that we could be salt and light in our particular neighborhood is through more hands on involvement at the school. My wife will be accompanying our son's class to 2 films in the next few weeks. She has also mentioned volunteering to help teach English, a compulsory subject in France.

As the world becomes more urban, our kids will need to learn in cities, as well as with problems like violence. We want our kids to be peace makers, but not get trampled on for appearing as being weak. We may put them in karate or a similar class, not as a means for beating up people, but for defending themselves, as well as others who cannot defend themselves. We want them to learn to be wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.

We want all our family members to have a ministry of presence in our neighborhood in Paris.

Artists' evening

Last night (Monday) I attended the 2nd in a series of monthly meetings for Christians who are artists or involved in creative professions. It began at 7:30, but I arrived late (around 8:10), as I had to take my son to his weekly swim lesson. It was fun to arrive and see a long table with 18 other people, all of whom I recognized. I live a busy life right now and it's hard to find time to get together with friends, so last night was a great opp to see many friends whom I would have loved to have seen, but didn't have time to arrange meeting up with.

We had a tasty meal of salad, lasagna, bread, and a dessert of vanilla ice cream and fruit. Arriving late, I sat at the end of the table. Directly to my left was John (musician/composer/singer/choir leader), then Alice (creator of perfumes), Olivier (film producer), Benoit (film producer), Aurelie (interior designer), Jaime (dancer), Agnes (singer/composer/musician), and Bernard (painter). Directly to my right was Mary (musician), then Jean (guitarist), Jean (graphic artist), my good friends Charles (musician/composer/choir director) and Magali, Christelle (concert organizer/artist manager), Jean-Luc (pastor/musician) and Nadege (musician). Steve led the event and Miki & Stephanie helped behind the scenes with dishes and food service.

Steve had someone read a biblical text out loud. I think it was Psalm 19, but I was in the kitchen for the start of the reading. This led into a fascinating discussion about creativity and art. As always, I love watching and hearing artists of different disciplines interact on these sorts of issues. I appreciated the perspective of Bernard (who looks like my former Wheaton advisor Lyle Dorsett), who was our senior member last night and who has been a painter for many decades now, as well as a committed Christian.

The majority of the artists present to not do what some call "Christian art" (i.e., art around a specific Christian theme or for a Christian organization). Yet they obviously have been given specific artistic gifts. Bernard mentioned how we all carry a fragrance about us which impacts people through how we treat them. Even if we are singing songs or creating graphic designs not specifically Christian, our faith and worldview can shine through.

It was mentioned that in many evangelical churches, art was seen as (1) something done as part of the worship or (2) something for evangelism. Thus, art and artists were valued for utilitarian purposes, rather than just for what it is and who they are. Christian artists who didn't fit into these often weren't seen as being legitimate.

Another point that struck me was that many Christians who are artists have a hard time finding their place in the established church. For this reason, many of them are not in a local church. Helping right this situation probably involves (1) helping local churches be more sensitive and understanding of the call of artists, (2) creating some new churches that have this sensitivity and welcoming of artists in their DNA, (3) being bridge people between churches and these artists and (4) the development of this monthly Monday evening gathering.

I'm thankful for my artist friends. While I know I have some creative gifts, I'm not trying to earn my living through my art. But I value them. I'm thankful for my creative and artistically-wired wife, as well as for the artistic interest I'm seeing in my children.

Being a witness in the 21st century

I found the following quote on the Facebook page of Glenn, my current newest friend on Facebook. It summarizes how I have felt for many years now about how to "do evangelism" in the 21st century. In "Walking on Water," Madeleine L'Engle writes:

"We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."

Certainly there is a time for words and a verbally clear witness. But I think that often people aren't ready to receive a verbal testimony of what we believe until they smell the fragrance of Christ on us and see His good deeds coming out of our lives. This is probably linked to the parable of the Good Samaritan, as just being a good and compassionate neighbor speaks powerfully.

I just got back in Facebook contact with one of my old H.S. teachers. In his status yesterday, he wrote: "...is going to church; so much to be thankful for." This man was always one of the most popular teachers each year. His classes were interesting and his manner was kind. However, if I were to wager on it now, I would bet that he is a follower of Jesus. Thinking back now, he just has the aroma of a Christian, even without ever saying it in class.

My Dale Carnegie teacher was like that too. Lloyd did share about it briefly on the last seance of the class, just before Christmas. Again, he was kind, respectful, enthusiastic, and excellent at what he did.

I think that many people are tired of religious rhetoric. What they want to see is the fruit of the Spirit born out in people's lives.

The Good Shepherd

Yesterday morning I walked my 3 kids up 2 flights of stairs to their Sunday school. This begins after the praise & worship time of the Sunday morning service. Once in the room, my younger daughter was very clingy, which was unusual for her. Because of this, I ended up staying upstairs with the kids' Sunday school class. According to my wife, I missed a good sermon on Jacob's wrestling with the angel in Genesis. Pastor M. is one of the best French preachers whom I have heard and I appreciate his reflective messages from the Scriptures.

But I did get to participate in the children's lesson on David the shepherd, from the Old Testament. During the course of this time, I ended up helping the teacher by doing the following:
-Keeping my kids calm, especially my younger daughter
-Taking 4 kids to the bathroom
-Drawing some sheep that the kids then glued cotton on for their fleece. My drawing of sheep is like that of the man in "Le Petit Prince." You know, "Dessine-moi un mouton." The teacher and I got a good laugh out of my horrible drawings.
-Distributing cookies and pouring water
-Locking and unlocking the room door (as I have a set of keys from my Fonderie responsibilities)

This lesson for the kids has stimulated some of my thinking on what makes a good shepherd for Parisiens in the 21st century.

In the churches I grew up in, a lot of value was placed on attending meetings on Sundays and during the midweek. In the churches I remember as a child, many of its participants lived within a 1 to 15 minute drive from home to church. They got home from work around 5 and often had supper then, which made meetings earlier in the evening pretty common. Many of the people lived in proximity of the church as well.

Our Paris context is quite different, in that
-People get home later from work, often making an 8:00 p.m. meeting the earliest time possible.
-Travel to church by car is a struggle during the week. Travel by public transport takes longer than 1 to 15 minutes
-Parisiens are super busy people with high demands from their children. Time is precious and people aren't looking to attend a lot of extra meetings. I find that getting to midweek activities in the U.S. seemed much easier than it does here.
-Sunday morning sometimes isn't the best time to do a weekly gathering. Sometimes it's hard for a congregation to have access to a worship space on Sunday mornings. In Paris, congregations blessed with their own buildings often share their space with several other congregations on Sunday. This is good use of space IMO.

As a church gets into around 50 people, the pastor can't meet all the demands of his flock. If this is the case, then some other structures need to be developed to shepherd its people. Churches that don't create these discipleship structures tend to stop growing. Certainly there is comfort in being in a small church where you know everyone and can talk to everyone on a Sunday morning. Being "big" for the sake of being big is not really honoring to God, but rather appealing to our prideful egos. However, churches that are larger for healthy reasons often have more resources and can have greater local and global Kingdom impact than smaller ones.

Certainly the cell group/house group format is one way that some Paris churches try to disciple its people. By having groups in different parts of the city where its people live, its ministry is more accessible and more broadly extended. Besides, it also is a natural form of leadership training and getting more people involved. If cell group leaders are also seen as shepherds, then you multiply the number of shepherds in a congregations. If these shepherds are following Jesus' exhortation to "feed my lambs," then a congregation is being spread wherever there is a cell group. In this model, a key component of a lead pastor's role is to help oversee the training and equipping of the shepherds of small groups.

I think the Internet and e-mails provide tools for helping to disciple people. It could be sending a formalized, yet not to "schoolish" e-mails or posting them on the web site. Podcasts are a way of downloading sermons and listening to them on one's Ipod. A pastor could send weekly or regular communiqués to the people who sign up for them. Regular e-mails allow those who are sick or away (and have Internet access) to the life and teaching of a congregation. Sometimes, even those who have moved halfway around the world can still be discipled through these e-mails.

Ideally, a good shepherd will also recruit and train other disciplers, so as to multiply his overall impact. To survive for the long-term, pastors need to be doing leadership training of its current and prospective members.

One thought that challenges me is that the Good Shepherd is where it says, "The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep." How can a pastor give his life for his sheep?

In some of the best churches or youth groups I know, there has been a shepherd (whether with the title or just the call and gifting) who has invested in equipping faithful men (and women) to do all that he/she knows how to do, following the example of Paul with Timothy.

Anyway, small isn't necessarily bad. In the O.T., it says to "not despise small beginnings."

However, if a group or church remains small because of a cloistered mentality, a lack of welcome and engagement of newcomers, a lack of clear vision or direction, or a lack of training and equipping of its leaders, then that is a sad thing at best and a waste of Kingdom resources at best. As churches are organisms, some are healthy and some dysfunctional. I think that when a church gets beyond the point of no return (when it can't healthily reproduce fully committed followers of Christ), then it need to consider stop meeting.

I have no particular church in mind that meets all the criteria I just mentioned. It's more hypothetical, based on some churches I've visited or heard about.