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If you follow any of my Blog Links to the right, I want you to notice I've added 3 new Blogs from the current "Holy Session" of The War College.
I Believe We Shall Win! - Joel Boyd
No Compromise - Denise Knee
K-Thoughts - Kirsten Ivany
Apparently there are not as many sessioners blogging as last year, but I picked these 3 (after reading some of them) as representatives for this year's group.
I wish you could get to know them at least as well as I did in my few short days with them, but you'll have to settle with reading their thoughts- which I have always found gives you a pretty good idea who a person is. Blogging is good that way!
Read up. Get blessed.
Here's a picture of a place that actually exists and just in case you don't believe me, I've got the picture to prove it.
This is the place where they legally teach you how to properly stick a drug needle in yourself (for insulin, you ask? Ha!). For some reason, someone got the bright idea that if they teach drug addicts how to properly inject their drugs, it will somehow become safer for them. After all, you wouldn't want them to hurt themselves, right?
And they tell me that the Police are lately cracking (sorry for the bad pun) down on J-Walking.
Hey- I've got a great idea! How about a place to teach people the proper way to cross the street.
Okay. I'm home and I've begun the task of finding my desk under the mail, vouchers and other things I need to do- yesterday. But I'm not even close to settling back into my own time zone. Rough night. {sigh}
So much happened in the last couple of weeks while I was in Vancouver! Herein I begin the process of fulfilling my promise to let you know what happened while I was away at The War College.
First, I introduce you to the Holy Session:
Let's see if I can actually name everyone pictured (L-R): Philip, Joshua, Juan(ito- fixing his "hair"), Ashley, Joe, Jenea, Joel, ME, Kirsten (the homie), Katie, Kath, Andrew, Olivia (okay, I already knew this one!), Crystal, Denise, Andrea, Melissa, Jacynta (Purple), Jill, Craig, Kirsty, Anthony, Roro(row your boat)/Rebecah, Andy (with the tongue), Dan and Darren (honorary sessioner?). I'm missing Matthew and maybe another one or two who weren't there when we took the picture. Whew! I THINK I did it (we'll see if I get any comments with a correction)!
As you can see, they're a lively bunch! This is actually the better of the two pictures we took. The other, has even more of them figiting and doing things generally considered weird by the rest of the world . . .
As previously mentioned, I had less time to get to know this group, but they quickly endeared themselves, by hanging around WAY after class, asking questions and chatting about things. I had lunch with a few, hung out with a couple and had great, productive prayer ministry with them all! Well, we did miss one or two because of sessions going extra long or one forgetting their scheduled time (don't worry- I won't mention any names, Juan). In fact, I dare say there are a few wider smiles, because of their productive prayer sessions! Don't you just want to pinch their cheeks?
Take a good look, because this is a group God has anointed powerfully for spreading his love around the world. I'll tell you more about them and our time together over the course of the next few days.
I would SO love to blog about what happened today . . . but I am beat to my socks! I need my beauty rest.
It doesn't look like I'm going to have a moment to blog tomorrow or Saturday either, so I promise I'll fill you all in on my exploits when I get home.
If this is Albequerque, this must be Thursday, right?
This time zone change is creating havoc with my blog entries! By the time I get to blogging my day's activities, it's already the next day in my home time zone (where my blog is registered) and it posts on the wrong day.
I also don't have a calendar I can see here, so I don't know what day it is!
As the High Council of The Salvation Army was wrestling with the various questions that will be presented to the soon to be prospective Generals, I was fielding numerous questions from the Holy Session of The War College. I have mentioned before that there are many students this year, but I have not mentioned how inquisitive they are!
I like questions because they generate discussion and discussion helps us all work through our salvation "in fear and trembling." Even though I pride myself in having a good understanding of many spiritual things, I still learn new things from people all the time. And I often learn good stuff from unexpected places (including from students with lots of questions!).
I taught back-to-back class sessions today, since there is a local conference the students are attending Friday. Therefore I'll be in prayer ministry all day Friday from 8 AM to 7 PM! After classes today, I did a couple more prayer ministry sessions which went VERY well. We kicked out more demons and settled some stuff from the past, which is always very cool!
Then in the evening I had an interesting conversation with Danielle (aren't ALL conversations with Danielle "interesting?") about the gift of tongues. I've got some major re-thinking about this topic, so I'll blog more on the subject later. I've already spent some extra time in The Word chatting with Jesus on it!
Looks like I've got "many questions" for Jesus too!
My first full day of teaching/prayer ministry has finished and my thoughts at the moment surround my gratitude for sunfower seeds. Well, not necessarily the seeds themselves, but the salt they are covered in!
If you know me, you know that when I talk for long periods of time, my throat gets sore. So I typically have salted sunflower seeds around to bathe my throat in the healing benefits of salt. By the way, I talked a long time today!
The first class of the session went very well. In fact, I was impressed at the student's interest in continuing the questions and discussion (talking) more than 1/2 an hour beyond class end! And some good healthy discussion at that.
A little after Noon, we went to lunch at the Harborlight (and talked some more) until it was time to go to The Command Center for prayer ministry (1:00-6:00). Granted, much of this time was listening (and sucking on salty seeds!), but when you put it all together I end up needing some voice rest at the end of each day.
We had five very effective prayer sessions today. I was pleased to see God bring freedom to a wide variety of situations, including casting out some demons in a very easy way. The person was not even aware they had done so until I pointed it out to them at the end! Cool!
Tomorrow, it's two teaching sessions (divided by lunch) and three prayer sessions (followed by a private invitation to dinner). I'll be teaching some of my favorite stuff, so I'll certainly need those sunflower seeds!
Thank Good for sunflower seeds!
Generally, we have been taught that it is bad to express anger. Along those lines, we have been taught it is certainly the absolute worst thing to get mad at God!
But have you read the Psalms? David gets downright belligerent with God at times! He lets all his anger out and you know what? God can handle it. He's big enough to take it. He knows everything anyway- why do we think we should "try" to keep it from him? As if he doesn't know exactly what's going on!
I have found it's better to let that junk out than to hold it all in. If you hold it in too long, it builds into an ugly mess that can physically hurt you. Here's a case in point from my Listening Prayer Community Conference these last few days:
As we were heading to the first night, my stomach felt like someone was pumping it up with an air pump. I wanted to burp or something, but couldn't. Nothing I did helped. I didn't feel sick in any other way, just that my stomach felt like it was about to burst. I asked God what was happening and he said it was a spiritual issue, not physical. That took a bit of a load off, because I was wondering if I should get to a hospital! Since it was spiritual, I prayed against it and it subsided enough to comfortably sit through the evening's teachings.
At one point they asked us to listen for something God wanted to deal with in our personal prayer sessions (scheduled throughout the weekend). When I asked, I got a simple word: "anger." I wrote that down and some other thoughts that came during the evening's teachings as well. I went home with a little pain but by morning it was all gone . . . until we headed out to the second evening's session! The pain returned with a vengeance and grew to the point where I couldn't sit still during the worship. In fact, I never made it to any of the evening's scheduled events, because I ended up in a private room with someone praying for me. The pain was so bad at this point I couldn't sit still for a moment and couldn't find a single position where it was bearable.
But as we prayed we began dealing with anger that had built up within me all during my life. The more we dealt with that anger, the less my stomach hurt. My guess was- we were on to something! Finally, I was directed to go to the "soaking room," where people could just sit in God's presence and soak him in. I was instructed to tell God everything I was angry about and it focused on my anger at him.
I won't detail everything I spewed out at him, but I will say that when I finished, all the pain was gone and it hasn't come back since. Saturday, we finished up the issue and when we were through praying, I felt "lighter" than I have ever been! Issues that had been weighing me down for my entire life were gone- for good!
I find it interesting that I have long taught we can get angry at God; that we need to- he can handle it and it helps us express ourselves to God so that we can deal with our pain. But in my own life, I felt like I shouldn't do that. Now I know different- and I mean "heart knowing" as opposed to "mind knowing." Sometimes that makes all the difference.
In Church Growth philosophy there is a recognized wall that churches run into when they grow to about 200 members. It's called the 200 barrier. This barrier is especially hard to grow through because a group of 200 people is about as large as most people can handle being associated with. In other words, we can only realistically deal with knowing about 200 people.
So when a church grows to around the 200 member mark, it naturally settles down and growth stops. For growth to continue, something needs to change in the structure of that church. In particular, how people (and particularly the pastor) relate to each other. The church needs to move from one single congregation to multiple, connected congregations. The pastor needs to move from being a shepherd to a rancher.
A shepherd handles one group of people, but handles every one individually- all 200! A rancher handles a smaller group, and each person in that group- in turn, handle another group, who handle another group. And so on down to every last person. Everyone is covered and connected personally to another group of persons, but it is not one pastor who is expected to cover everyone.
Admittedly, this is not an easy change to accomplish (for a lot of reasons), but once it happens, the church can grow again and their is no upper limit to their numbers. The largest churches in the world follow a form of the rancher model.
I propose that in The Salvation Army, the 200 barrier is actually the 60 barrier. That, because a Salvation Army officer has much more on his plate than the average pastor who "just" runs a church. Because of this, we have become a denomination of (mostly) small congregations hovering somewhere around the 60 mark. Granted this mark can vary widely because of many reasons in any particular corps, but the concept is a good one.
In order for our congregations of 60 to move beyond this membership wall, we need to be intentional about changing the operation of our congregations. Everyone is not going to know everyone in the room on SonDay's. Not everyone will know the corps officer- personally/closely. S/he will not be expected to visit everyone (or do everything in ministry), rather their "pastor" will be responsible for their pastoral needs and each person will exercise their own spiritual giftedness within their small group.
This is a huge change for people to accomodate- I realize this. But I also realize that if we are going to get beyond our 60 barriers, we can't just keep doing things the same old way and expect different results.
Are you ready for a change? Are you willing to take the steps necessary so that your corps can reach more people for Jesus? It's not going to be easy, but we can do it if we commit.
I just realized this is my fifth trip to Vancouver's DTES (Down Town East Side) where 614 Vancouver & The War College are flourishing. While each of my trips have only been between 3 days and 2 weeks, I have still developed a connection to the community.
Yesterday I walked across town to the Crosswalk (where classes are held). On the way, I stopped by the cafe where I usually get a hot chocolate and the same girl with purple hair greeted me and took my order. I dropped into a couple of Pawn Shops and chatted with a guy about The Salvation Army, Maine weather and where he keeps the DVDs. I nodded to people as I walked through alleys that should set your teeth on edge, but actually feel quite comfortable to me. I never feel afraid, rather safe, knowing God is powerfully working in this area. Lots of memories flood my mind as I see images of Jenn, Steve, Nick, Rob, Heather and many other friends and students talking and helping people here.
I quietly slipped into the class in progress (preaching) and looked at the new class of students. I poked Olivia from behind and said hi. This is the first time I won't be getting to know the students before I start my class week. I always learned all their names, but there's many more this year. So we'll see how differently things play out this time!
I went over to the War Room and chatted with Xander and Jenni. That room has such a powerful sense of God's presence and peace! Then I hung out at Steve & Danielle's until Tara and I headed to our first session of our Listening Prayer Conference. Brad Jersak is not there (rats!), but he's not the reason I registered anyway. I want to learn more about hearing God's voice and will do whatever it takes to grow in this area. Discerning God's voice clearly is one of my life goals.
As the conference leaders taught, I heard God speaking to me about issues he wants to deal with in my life. I have a private prayer session scheduled sometime during the conference and I am expecting God to do some major clean up of unwanted junk hidden deep down and away from conscious view. I can hardly wait! Then next week, I'll pray with as many students who can fit into the schedule while I'm here.
This is going to be a real good 11 days!
I was recently questioned about the lack of numerical growth in our last couple of corps. The gist of the conversation was something like this: "Finances do well, people grow spiritually, there is a good emphasis on learning and worship, but the numbers basically remain the same. You're successful in almost every area save one. With your emphasis on 'church growth theology,' why can't you seem to grow corps?"
My first reaction was to stand up for ourselves and state that in both our last corps and current, there has been a large number of people who left during our tenure (for various reasons like death, moving away, conviction, etc), yet our numbers remain(ed) the same. If I were to graph those additions, we'd see a healthy percentage of growth. And the people added were solid Salvationists involved in the war, not dropping like flies when the going gets tough. I believe to remain the same while going through a season of pruning is a real blessing of God!
But as I was "defending" myself, it dawned on me that it was unnecessary. God always takes the point in our defense- if we let him. We can trust him to bring us through anything with a good reputation (as if our reputation matters).
And what about the gifts God has granted The Body? Everyone is not gifted to do everything. Some water, some plant, others get the result of those things and witness great growth.
I agonize over the lack of obvious growth in our appointments (and the lost in general). I want to see more people come into the saving knowledge of Jesus, Redeemer. But my role is to build a wide, solid foundation that will weather the tests of time and The Enemy. My purpose is to help others develop their ministries so that we can all- together- get about the business of winning the world. I'm not going to do it all by myself. God didn't design me that way.
I'm happy in the role God has given me. how about you?
After a crazy long day of travel, I arrived in Vancouver about 1/2 hour ahead of my original schedule. I would have made it a lot earlier, if one of the planes didn't have a necessary repair which took about 2 hours.
What a messy day to travel! I got rained on getting in and off the first plane. The others were covered and the day got better as I got further from the eastern US, where weather patterns were bad everywhere. But as I took off from Bangor, I was reminded visually of a powerful truth:
It was cold, dark, windy and rainy. The storm was making everyone cower on the ground as we tried to protect outselves from the depressing mess. But as the plane rose up through the cloud layers, it got brighter until we broke through it all into the warm, dry, comforting brightness of the sun.
In those moments, God reminded me yet again of his faithfulness. No matter what the circumstances are "on the ground" under the darkness of the enemy's attacks, all you need to do is rise above it all into the brightness of God's never-failing presence.
Don't let yourself be fooled by the enemy's tactics. What he dumps on you, is not the truth. Rise above it and you will see that God has not forsaken you; it is never as bad as it seems. Take your stand against him and he will flee, leaving you- still standing and even more empowered by God's hand on your life.
Right now I should be packing, but as I began to put things together, I ended up by the computer and well, there ya go- it's blog time!
Tomorrow's a L - O - N - G travel day. Fifteen hours from first airport to final airport- not including travel time to and from. To save a buck or two, I decided to fly with 3 layovers. I've never been to Phoenix or Las Vegas (2 of my stops), but I probably won't get to see much as I'm only in each for about an hour. Let's hope the weather in Bangor cooperates, because we're supposed to have a bit of a storm about the time I'm scheduled to be flying to Philadelphia. As you can see, your prayers would be appropriate even to just get me started!
I am reminded of a story I heard from a friend who told me she used to be afraid of flying. When she'd get on the plane, she would hunker down and pray like crazy that God would take care of her and the plane. One day as she was praying hard, the man next to her asked her what she was doing.
"I'm a Christian and I'm praying hard for our safety," she replied.
The man said: "I'm a Christian too, but I just shoot a quick prayer up to God and thank him for always knowing where I am."
They had a wonderful conversation after that and my friend stopped praying like crazy every time she flew, finally understanding God always knows where we are and what's going on.
Good thing he does and we can trust him with our safety wherever we are and whatever we're doing.
Wednesday I head out to Vancouver, Canada for my third teaching session at The War College (sounds of thunderous applause inserted here)! Things will certainly be different, now that Jenn isn't there. But I have accumulated plenty of wonderful friends who are still around the area, so I'll have no problem making connections during the 2 seconds of free time I have after teaching and prayer sessions (Steve Court works you HARD)! Ah, but I love it and am so looking forward to my trip.
There's a whole new class this year to get to know. Every other year, I made sure I learned everyone's name, but this year's group is so large, I don't know how I'm going to manage. It will also be good to re-connect with last year's students who are involved in Phase 2 work nearby.
Before my teaching starts, I get to attend a conference with Brad Jersak! I am SO looking forward to this! Tara will be going with me and maybe Danielle. It should be a powerful time for all- especially since they schedule every person in attendance with personal prayer ministry time. I feel like I can really use it right about now. It's always great to go for ministry and also get ministered to- although that certainly happens with all my involvement at The War College.
I would appreciate your prayer for my ministry while there. I'll keep you posted.
Today our SonDay service centered around sponsoring children. I had intended to have information from World Vision as well as TSA materials available, but World Vision did not get their stuff to me in time (ordered 2 weeks ago). So our entire presentation dealt with sponsoring children at Salvation Army run projects around the world. For only $20 a month, you can sponsor a child in almost any part of the world you can imagine.We had pictures, names and information on 13 children all waiting to be sponsored. We showed pictures and names on the screen and shared some personal information about many of the children. When all was said and done, the wonderful people of Bangor had agreed to sponsor 8 of the 13 (Our Men's Club even agreed to sponsor a young man)! And that with a bad weather day with heavy snow and ice (much lower attendance than we had hoped).
Earlier, when opening the materials, I was drawn to Daniele. Knowing we already sponsor a child (Miriam, in Mexico), I made Daniele (from Brazil) available to be sponsored with the rest of the children while secretly hoping no one would choose her, so we could do so anyway. At the end of the service, one last person was hovering over the pictures to make their choice. I could no longer hold my breath, so I quietly slid Daniele's picture under them all, so she was not seen. Whew! She was still available (heh, heh), so Debbie & I agreed to take Daniele!
Isn't she just adorable?
Are you sponsoring a child? There are so many who need your help. We still have 5 children available for sponsorship. I hope we can get five more people (or groups) to step up to the plate and help these kids. Twenty bucks is so little, yet it does so much when put to this incredible use.
- - -
You'll also want to check out Alberta's blog (one of our teens) about her choice to be a sponsor. She got together with another of our teens, Cylie (or is that Cindy?) to sponsor Gabriela. You GO girls! You're both awesome!
All Day I Dream About Summer
For the Christmas season at our corps, we did a special Lord's Dollar Project ("The Lord's Dollar" is a special offering we collect monthly for missions). In this case, we collected money every SonDay during our services throughout November and December. The intent was to use the collected funds to purchase items from a World Vision Gift Catalog. The items provide a person, a family or even a community with much needed survival materials. For instance, $75 provides a goat; $135 a treadle pump; $400 a camel, etc.
And now the drum roll please . . . We raised $1,350! We are totally excited!
With these funds, we purchased 2 Oxen with a Plow,
A Cow,
And a Sewing Machine.
World Vision provides their catalog online, so if you'd like to take a look around it, please go to www.worldvision.org.
You can also sponsor a child you choose by picture for only $30 a month. We've been sponsoring Miriam in Mexico for the last few years and it has been fun watching her grow (via pictures).
This SonDay, we are going to have a special "adopt a child" day and encourage individuals to take this wonderful opportunity.
Sponsoring children is a great way to get involved in missions work. It really puts a personal touch to your self-denial dollars. The Salvation Army also provides opportunities to sponsor. Why not get involved today?
First, thank-you to all who offered their thoughts on my last blog's question. It seems if I want more responses, I just have to stop blogging until you write them! I am amazed at how many people tell me they read my blog, but never actually respond. I guess that's like talk radio- many listen only a few get interactive. I encourage you to give it a shot!
Well, I'm still working through a lot of things- some of them frustrating, so I don't want to necessarily blog openly about them. And because some of them concern real, live people who might just read this blog (don't insert yourself here, unless you're paranoid, in which case you probably worry that all my blogs are about you anyway!), this is certainly not the place to air them. Hence my lack of daily blogging. The last thing I want to do is fill this blog full of complaints and grousing. Yes, I too go through those rough times now and then. I'm in a long, hard one right now!
I was challenged by many of your responses:
1) Yes, in some ways discipling and getting people saved is the same thing, but not really where it matters. I can get someone saved without ever discipling them or even ever seeing them again. Getting someone saved is the initial work; discipling them is what should happen from then on, as they are trained in what being a Christian is and does. That's where the rubber meets the road. Discipling is what Jesus told us to do- "Go and make disciples of all nations (ethnos; races)." - Matthew 28:19. His concern is that we reproduce ourselves into reproducing disciples who continue the process of reproduction. And so on, and so on. Discipling goes on and on . . . Getting someone saved has a period at the end of the process.
2) Loving people no matter what. Sounds simple, but it's really full of deep truth. IF you really love someone, their best interests are at the heart of your relationship. In order to fulfill their best interests, you will be teaching and/or modeling so that they can grow and use their gifts in/for the body. If we had more true love in our midst, we'd not need to be concerned with "what is the most important thing."
3) One person can't do it alone. Ah, right up my alley! We all need each other- get busy using your gifts! We are not all programmed to do the same thing. Therefore, we cannot be expected to do it all. Nor should we all be expected to get the same results. We should be focusing on what we do well and those things in which God gives us results.
4) Being more concerned with stats than with status of people's souls. Now THAT seemed to hit the target for me! When the call is to "get more people saved" because our stats are down, the result is not what we expect. When our focus is the wrong place (numbers), we can too easily overlook the people behind those numbers. And Christianity is all about relationship with those people- not the numbers. If we focus on the right things, our numbers will grow . . . in the right time.
There is a time for all things. We cannot expect to grow all the time. There is a time to pare back, to prune or our plant gets unwieldy and wild. Pruning actually produces more and better fruit over the long haul. And a much better plant. The vintner who refuses to trim his vines will eventually destroy his whole vineyard.
If our foundation is crooked, what we built on it will never be straight or sturdy. It always takes longer to fix the foundation than to just start all over again. But sometimes starting all over again is just not an option- you've got to fix the foundation. And that takes time. Numbers will have to be tabled for awhile, while you repair cracked bricks, replace others and just plain remove those that don't belong in the place they've ended up. Through it all, God guides, because it's not up to us to sort all these things out.
What's more important? I say discipling, because it concerns itself with the people, not just the numbers; the status instead of the stats. In the long run, if discipling is the focus it will produce more salvations. Conversely, in the long run, if salvations are the focus it will probably not produce disciples and the process will end.
Is that what's happened to our Army?
