Dark Stairwells in France

This morning I watched the 40 Days in the Word Day 24 Devotional with Tommy Hilliker from Saddleback Church.  I immediately resonated with the story he opened with about getting stuck in the basement of a building with the lights out - in total darkness.

If you know me well you know that I'm mildly claustrophobic.  OK, maybe a little more than mildly; if it less than 9 floors I'll take the stairs.  I had a similar situation as Tommy this past Summer when our family was visiting friends in Paris, France.  Our friends lived on the top floor (16th) of a high rise apartment.  We were leaving to do some sightseeing and the elevator was too small for all of us to ride down, so naturally I volunteered to take the stairs.

My friend Joel told me to be careful because the light in the stairwell was out two floors down.  It turns out that the lights were out for six floors.  It was a tight spiral stairwell with NO windows and NO light - pitch black.  Thankfully I had my phone with me and was able to use the flash from the camera to see my way down.

I think Tommy's and my stories are great analogies for what it's like when we are seeking spiritual direction in our lives.  Many times in my life I've been in a place where I knew God was leading me in a new direction in some way but I had no idea what that meant or what it would look like.  The two years between when I was serving as an associate pastor and when I became a lead pastor was one of those times - like an old Polarid picture slowly developing.

I find myself in that place again - knowing that God is on the verge of doing something new, or bigger, or more challenging in or through me but not knowing the details.  It's like walking down a small spiral staircase with just the light of a phone for guidance.

I have a list of things that I do during during these times.  Here's one that been especially helpful.  I listen to people who have been there and allow their wisdom to fuel me as I wait on God to give more details.  In the day of blogs, Twitter and Facebook this is especially easy to do.

Here's a few words of wisdom that I've held onto over the last few weeks.  If you find yourself in the dark with little, or no light I hope these words help you to.

"Barriers are blessings. God said 'no' to Paul for Asia so He could say 'yes' to Macedonia and Europe and the west. God turns everything to Good." - Jimmie Davidson

"God has given you what you need to fulfill what is in your heart. Follow Him, go after what ignites your passion, and change the world!" - Tim Schraeder

"What would you pursue today if you weren't afraid to fail?  If you were given permission to make it happen?  Might be time to go do that." - Brad Lomenick

"If your dream doesn't scare you to death you haven't really come to life."  Mark Batterson

Changing The World One Child At A Time

Our church has what we call "strategic partnerships."  We have strategic ministry partners and we have strategic church partners.

A strategic ministry partner is a partnership with a ministry outside the church that we support on particular issues as homelessness, poverty, orphan care and vulnerable children initiatives.

Our strategic church partnerships are with churches that have a similar vision and similar missional and theological DNA as our church.  Since we value the local church and we believe the local church should be the "hero" in their community, these partnerships are pastor to pastor and congregation to congregation.

In Nairobi, Kenya we have both.  We have a strategic ministry partnership with a ministry called The Royal Diadem Centre for Excellence.  It's a ministry of our strategic church partner Nairobi Gospel Centre International.  We are currently working together to meet the needs of vulnerable children in community near the church.  We are partnering together to change the world one child at a time.

My friend and ministry partner, Enock Matte is the project manager for our vulnerable children's initiative in Nairobi.  He recently put together this video that explains our vision and strategy in Nairobi.  If you want to support this project or find out more about it go to our non-profits website and click donate.

Mission Trips, Shoeboxes and My Son

I love mission trips.  I think every follower of Christ should go on at least one mission trip.  They are unique windows to our world that have the power to change our heart for the Kingdom of God.  I've been a part of so many mission trips that I've lost count.  But everyone of them have shaped my worldview, enlarged my heart for other people and have given me a better perspective on what I have and how God wants me to use what He's entrusted to me.

I love shoeboxes.  Not the kind with shoes in them, the kind with toys, school supplies and candy in them.  The ones that have Operation Christmas Child written all over them.  I've seen OCC, a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, do amazing things in our church through the years and in people's lives.  It's also doing incredible things around the world as it points people to Christ.

And I love my son.  Since the first time I laid eyes on him and held him we've had an incredible bond.  We are similar in our personalities, likes and dislikes and we share the same struggle of not being able to focus when we need to (ie. ADD.)

So it's no wonder that a week spent with MY SON on a MISSION TRIP handing out Operation Christmas Child SHOEBOXES would rank as one of the best experiences of my life.  Simply put it was an incredible experience and I'm so thankful that he and I were able to share it together.

A Quick Report From Our DR Team

Greetings from Santo Domingo-

Happy Valentine's Day!  We swam in the waterfall on Sunday afternoon

and yesterday Collin and I rode on the back of the flatbed through

town.  It was more fun than the van.  We completed two distributions

so far.  One was very orderly and one was in a community park and was

chaos.  We almost packed it in and left because the parents were being

so aggressive.  God intervened as did our threats to leave and we

ended up doing a conga line distribution model.  Get a box and go

home.  Not the best situation.  Thankfully, it was the second of the

day and not the first.

Last night we counted out the antibiotics into doses and labeled them

for the doctor.  It was interesting and tedious.  Not the most

sanitary situation either even though we tried.  Our hands were clean

but who know about those used pill bottles...we were filling.

We are looking forward to the pig roast on Friday and of course more

shoe boxes.  Collin and Addisan are going to the school today to help

Claudia with vision testing and then they will help teach english.

See you next week.

Jaimie

Circles That I've Drawn

Our staff is reading Mark Batterson's book The Circle Maker together. I've gone on record before and said that Mark is an amazing writer and one of the most authentic and intentional people I've met. I highly recommend all of his books.

I was humbled this week when I saw a picture posted on FaceBook by one of the parents in our

church. Her daughter, who is in Kindergarten, wrote this in her prayer journal. Her brother has been sick for a while and has had to have a lot of tests. The family is still waiting for a diagnosis.

Prayer is about drawing circles around people and things that we're trusting God for. She's drawn a circle around her little brother and in doing so has taught us all a lot about prayer.

Here are three things I've recently circled in prayer:

• My son Andrew and I are going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. We leave in less than two weeks. Andrew has been out of the county (Europe) but has never seen real poverty. For the last couple of months I've been praying that while we are there God will enlarge his heart for children who have so much less than he has. I'm praying that this trip is a life-changer for him.
  
  
• I'm praying for our church as we launch a 40-Day campaign. I'm praying that in the end we will not only want to KNOW more scripture but we will want to DO more scripture.
  
  
• And I'm praying for an event that's coming up this weekend in Northern Va. It's called Mission Possible and it's all about helping students learn about the social needs in our world and how they can be apart of changing that world.

What or whom are you circling in prayer?

Prayer Circles, Big Dreams and a Kid Named Ancent

This is a picture of a kid named Ancent.  He's 5 years old and lives in Nairobi, Kenya with his mom and his 13 year old brother.  At age 3 Ancent's father was brutally killed by thugs who robbed him on his way home from work.   Last week he came into our lives at Fairfax Circle Church.  Here's the backstory.

About three years ago a woman in our church, after reading Kay Warren's book Dangerous Surrender, had a God-sized dream.  Actually at the time the dream was pretty vague - "orphans in Africa."  So we began, what Mark Batterson would call, circling that dream in prayer.   It's been amazing to see God work and bring clarity to that original dream.

It's also been amazing to see God bring the right people to help us chase this dream.  People like Pastor Charles and our partner church Nairobi Gospel Centre.  A group of ladies from NGC who, before we ever met them, were having the same dream.  My friend Enock Matte, who has done an incredible amount of work at lightening speed in Nairobi to get this dream off the ground.  The folks who launched Side By Side Ministries to help generate funds.  And countless others.

Our dream is pretty basic - to help vulnerable children like Ancent.  We want to find ways to help parents who are at risk of not being able to keep their kids, keep their kids.  And for those kids who have been orphaned or abandoned, we want to find them a loving home with family who will care for them and show them God's love.

We abandoned our original idea of building an orphanage.  Why we do something in Kenya that we wouldn't do in America?  We also knew that the family was God's idea and He created everyone for family.  So we decided to find ways to help families foster those kids that have no families and to help struggling parents find a way to provide for their kids so that abandoning does not have to be an option.

My dream for this ministry is pretty simple and pretty big - 1,000 kids in the next 10 years.  That's going to involve a lot of resources, a lot of work and a lot of people.  But God is a big God and I don't think he's interested in small dreams.

In Kenya they have a saying that goes like this "kidogo kidogo hujaza kibaba."  It means "little by little the cup is filled."  That's what our church and Nairobi Gospel Centre, are doing.  We're working together, at a steady pace, "little by little" filling the cup.  Our goal for this year is 10 kids by the end of 2012.  And then our hope and prayer is to have a snowball effect.

But today we're celebrating and praising God that Ancent was just enrolled in a better school and that some of his family's basic needs are being met.   And that God has allowed us to be a part, in some small way, of his life.

What the Church Can Learn From Apple

I'm an Apple fan. I wasn't always, in fact I used to give Apple users a hard time about their devices. But a couple of years ago I bought my first Mac, a MacBook Pro laptop, and I've never looked back. Last year I bought my first iPhone and this year I intend to buy my first iPad. And I still have my original video iPod.

But this is not an advertisement for Apple products, it's an encouragement to those of us who lead in our churches to learn from anyone and anything we can - including Apple.

I'm reading Steve Job's biography. It's a fascinating read that even the anti-Apple folks would probably enjoy. When the company was in it's infancy stage a guy named Mike Markkula invested and became a one third partner and Apple's first marketing director. Mike wrote what became Apple's marketing philosophy which was made up of three principles. Three principles that I believe every church should adopt. Here they are:

1. Empathy - an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer: "We will truly understand their needs better than any other company."

I DON'T believe the church should operate from a consumer mentality. I believe too many churches do that and in doing so create overweight (spiritually speaking) Christians that are not engaging the world around them for the Kingdom. I DO believe the church should do all that it can to understand the needs of the people who would benefit from our message and then meet them where they are based on those needs.

2. Focus: "In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities."

Anyone who knows me as a Pastor knows that I believe a church should be focused. Focused on what matters most - not on good things but on BETTER things. In the eight years I've been the Lead Pastor at FCBC we've probably stopped doing more things than we've started. Churches don't need more programs, meetings and ministries they need more focus.

3. Impute: "People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities."

The church has the greatest story in the world. God came in person to offer everyone forgiveness and a fulfilled life. Everyone on the planet needs to hear, understand and accept that message. But too many times we present it, and ourselves for that matter, in slipshod ways.

We sing songs that are emotional for us but don't connect with the current generation. We use outdated technology when the rest of the world uses, well, Apple products. We communicate in a language that outsiders don't understand. And on top of that we serve the worst coffee in town and make people sit on uncomfortable pews.

What if churches adopted these three principles? We probably wouldn't hit Fortune 500 status but I bet we would reach more people for Christ.