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Fun Facts About St. Patrick and Guinness Beer on March 17

Here on St. Patrick's Day, a few fun facts in honor of my great historical mentor (and subject of my doctoral thesis titled "The Transformational Missiological Leadership of St. Patrick").

St. Patrick:  YES there was BEER involved in his mission in the 400's, to tell the Celts the good news of God's love through Jesus Christ.  He does not mention beer in the two short works he left to history, "The Confession" and "Letter to Coroticus," which can be read in one sitting here  https://www.confessio.ie/#

BUT beer is mentioned as part of the mission when it is first described in writing by someone else, a number of years later.  Patrick took with him to Ireland many priests, deacons, bakers, etc as part of a large team. Included in the list is a personal beer brewer for Patrick.  It would have been not just for merriment, but also for something clean to drink in swampy areas with no potable water they might encounter.

[picture of the oldest church in Ireland, traceable to the time of St Patrick: Saul Church]

Guinness Beer: Was not in existence in Patrick's day. But it is an outstanding example of Christian Irish business people, inheriting the faith of St. Patrick, living 'on mission for Christ' through good, profitable work and blessing others purposefully, starting in the 1700's.   I learned this from the book "The Search for God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer That Changed the World."

I recommend this as a quick, enjoyable, spiritually encouraging read.  From the book jacket:

"It began in Ireland in the mid 1700s. The water in Ireland, indeed throughout Europe, was famously undrinkable, and the gin and whiskey that took its place devastated civil society. It was a disease ridden, starvation-plagued, alcoholic age, and Christians like Arthur Guinness—as well as monks and even evangelical churches—brewed beer that provided a healthier alternative to the poisonous waters and liquors of the times. This is where the Guinness tale began. Now, 250 years and over 150 countries later, Guinness is a global brand, one of the most consumed beverages in the world. The tale that unfolds during those two and a half centuries has power to thrill audiences today: the generational drama, business adventure, industrial and social reforms, deep-felt faith, and the noble beer itself.

For readers who love history, cultural studies, religious debate, and stories of business success. 

What readers will learn with this book...

• The earthy, human, and holy importance of honing a craft over time
• Example of a family seeking to do good in the world as an offering to God
• How unexpected and small things impact the history of humanity
• Inspirational fuel for entrepreneurial dreams"

So tonight, Angie and I will toast St. Patrick with a Guinness. And I will recount again how the study of his spiritual and entrepreneurial leadership has so influenced me and my work.  So, in the words of the common Irish toast - Slainte!  It literally means 'health,' with the feeling of when we say 'cheers!'

 

Church Planting In a Post Christian Context: Intensive Seminary Course & Training June 10-14 @ Lake Forest Church

Who do you know whom this could benefit?

I'm excited to announce a new level of partnership between the Lake Forest Church Planter Training Center & Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary-Charlotte.  We will be offering our "Church Planting & Mission in a Post Christian Context" class this year as a one week summer intensive June 10-14, on site at Lake Forest Church - Huntersville. Free housing will be provided to most students needing it. In addition to seminary students, for a modest fee the course is open to anyone interested in church planting (pre or post seminary folks, potential church planters trying to discern their future, precocious late college students, early-in-the-process church planters).

We do NOT teach a 'one method/model of church plant fits all' approach in any way. And when I say 'we,' Rev. Aron Gibson will be an instructor with me in the course - he led a large young adult ministry in Los Angeles for over a decade, and successfully planted Lake Forest Church-WestLake over the past few years.

Mornings will be spent in the classroom learning biblical/theological/historical rationale and principles of church planting, how to think and contextualize like a missionary, current fruitful models of church planting nationally and internationally, how to exegete your neighborhood, practical process and leadership in a church plant, pre-assessment of aptitude for church planting, and more. 

Afternoons (and some evenings) will be spent in the field.  We'll be out visiting with and learning from active church planters in the region in a variety of missional contexts.  We will witness and glean wisdom from some fresh Holy Spirit experiments of the Body of Christ as they are in early formation.

When I say 'The Church Planter Training Center at Lake Forest Church,' we have planted one church every 2-3 years for a while now, coaching those pastors through the process, we currently have two Church Planting Residents in training (and two former LFC CP Residents are launching churches in other cities in 2019), we are training up and launching out a Spanish speaking congregation in 2019, while choosing the location of our next church plant and church planter by the end of the year.  God has called us as a church to invest ourselves heavily in the multiplication of Christ-centered, on-mission churches for the next generation. It is part of our joy at LFC.

To register or inquire further - GCTS students will pursue normal registration, all others email [email protected] .

Praying for Wisdom in Chile

Angie and I had the joy and privilege of traveling to Chile for discernment this week with our friends and partners in ministry, John and Maritza Hernandez.  They are the founders and directors of Children's Impact Network (CIN), our church's longest constant mission partner.  CIN exists to rescue abandoned and abused children, offering long-lasting, life-changing assistance.  Primarily through 're-familying' children with love, counseling, medical care, education, vocational training, and discipling them into God's family. The people of Lake Forest Church partner primarily by helping to build orphanages and sponsoring children (family-to-child) in several countries. www.cinonline.org

This trip began with the annual CIN board meeting in Miami, then the four of us flew overnight to Santiago, Chile.  The purpose of this trip was to spend time seeking God's will and God's future for a new opportunity to rescue children that has been given to CIN, through the donation of a 75 acre property with buildings in the northern, mountainous area (almost all of Chile is either coast or mountain - the valleys in between hold vineyards).  Because of its track record, CIN has been offered to assume existing properties and ministries in other countries. This is the first time they've said 'yes,' sensing the Lord has something special ahead this time.  I appreciate how John and Maritza say more 'no's' than 'yes's' to ministry opportunities, one of the many spiritual leadership qualities I admire in them.

 

But we didn't start at the property, we started by spending time with the church partner John and Maritza have gotten to know over a few years.  La Puente, The Bridge Church, is a thriving, large outreach- and church-planting-oriented congregation in La Cerena, a university and beach city in northern Chile.  It's the closest city to the more remote mountainous property.  The pastor is Marcello, here with his wife Carolina in La Puente's worship center.  They have formed a fast friendship with CIN and believe God is calling them to partner in a new work to rescue children in need in Chile.  Fun facts: La Puente's men's ministry grills HUGE amounts of meat monthly (ruff ruff), and they have a residential seminary to train new pastors.

This brings up another aspect of the Hernandez' leadership I admire - when going to a new country, they find people whom the Lord is already working through, trustworthy and healthy churches, and build a partnership from the ground up together.  Here's how they state their strategy on their website: 

Each Life Center (Colombia, Honduras and Bolivia Life Centers) is operated in partnership with the local community in which it exists, specifically with a partner church. Children’s Impact Network cherishes these relationships. We believe in empowering the local community to address the needs of their children. We think it is important for the children to have role models from within their own cultural communities. We value and respect our differences and will never enter a community thinking we know how to best address their issues. Friends of Children’s Impact Network often express their gratitude for creating opportunities to help abandoned and abused children through long lasting relationships.

 You can see why we trust them not only personally, but also their ministry methodology.  Here's another two of the partners, Pastor Hector and Cathy, outside of a dorm on the land.  They are the happy parents of four, and they currently oversee the property, host church retreats and training events there, while planting a church in the next town up the mountain from CIN's new property. 

The land is a STEEP drive six thousand feet up from the coast.  Nearby is copper mining, world-famous observatories (the road CIN's land is on is called 'The Way of the Stars'), vineyards, and lots of goat-herders.  Thus we had yummy queso de cabra, or goat cheese, for lunch along with local honey.

Something else I admire about the Hernandez's leadership is patience...until the Spirit speaks clearly...then GO.  This property has belonged to CIN for almost three years now.  However, they've taken their time to build local relationships, ensure clear understanding of local economics attached to the land, assess need, and pray.  Its not unlike what Lake Forest Church went through over the past 18 months to clarity our next vision, or mountain to climb together.  Elders and staff prayed and planned for almost a year, congregational leaders prayed and discerned for 3-6 months, and the congregation then prayed and discerned for 3 months, before we moved ahead with clarity and unity.

Angie and I accompanied John and Maritza in order to be helpful, prayerful eyes, ears, and hearts as options for ministry using this property are becoming more clear, and decisions are pending. There is a need for the rescue of abandoned and/or abused children here for certain. We had a delightful time visiting these little ones - left with my hair messed up, fingerprints all over my glasses, and a full heart.

 

Several possible ways of leveraging this beautiful, serene property and buildings to rescue children in need have presented themselves. Interestingly, two opportunities involve local and regional government officials who've become aware of CIN's good work elsewhere. These officials have highlighted specific areas of need for orphans in Chile, asking CIN to consider meeting these desperate needs. Each option would be true to God's long term calling on CIN, but serving a slice of distressed children we have not fully focused on before.  It's not appropriate at this point to share the different options publicly. There will be a time for that, and it will be shared by the Hernandez's as they begin to see the road ahead more clearly.

But would you join me and pray, as you read this, for wisdom for John and Maritza? They are doing a good job of "knocking, seeking, asking" as Jesus tells us. And they are widely seeking the counsel of others, as Proverbs so eloquently leads us to do for success in any endeavor. And now we simply take God's at His Word and ask for wisdom for John and Maritza, their staff and their partners.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5

I'm grateful for their friendship.  And I'm grateful the LORD has used our partnership with CIN to help us suburban Christians at Lake Forest grasp that 'discipleship,' or being formed more into the image of Jesus, is not merely head learning.  Its also caring about the aching needs in our own community and in other parts of the world, and sacrificially serving as part of God's mission to restore people to Himself. In this way we become more like Christ.  I wear CIN's theme verse on my wrist often, as a way to 'check myself' that Lake Forest continues to be a legitimate mission-oriented tribe, and not just a self-dealing purveyor of religious goods and services for our members:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  James 1:27

As you pray for the Hernandez's and CIN, perhaps pray for wisdom for yourself to know what hurt or pain near you is God using/calling you to serve with the salve of the gospel?  And is this the year God is calling you to 'GO' on a cross-cultural short-term mission trip with Lake Forest, or with another church?

Lord Have Mercy: Race and Understanding Today in the US

Like you, I am troubled by the state of race relations in our country today.  Like you I am horrified by the events last weekend in Charlottesville, most particularly that there is such energy in our country today among groups who openly express hatred and ill will toward non-white races. For the sake of God's glory and God's mission (the One who created all humankind in God's image and 'so loved the world'); and for the sake of our country's most revolutionary statement at our founding - 'all men (sic) are created equal' - and the related aspirational goal of 'liberty and justice for all' - such groups must be named, condemned, opposed, and exposed at every turn.  (to my friends:  fyi I pretty much quit blogging during my period of denominational leadership - some things had to go - so today 'I'm baaaack')

 I often laugh at the anachronistic names of some European political parties who long retained the word 'Christian' in their title as an accident of history rather than a serious statement of identity.  Instead of laughing, however, I am angry and saddened by those I saw last weekend who've cynically and grotesquely attached the word 'Christian' to their racist organizations. 

They are nothing of the sort. Our older brother in the faith, the Apostle John, pastors us clearly in this regard:

"If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."  I John 4:20

John was ruminating on the teaching and life of Jesus, who said 'love your neighbor as yourself' and when asked 'who is my neighbor?' he answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.  In that parable, Jesus specifically defined the neighbor we should love as a person ethnically different from ourselves.  Because Jesus knows what is perpetually lurking in the heart of humankind because of our fallen nature - a tribalistic temptation of superiority, scapegoating, and disdain toward those we define as 'other' based on racial, linguistic, or other cultural factors.

But it's not sufficient for followers of Jesus to condemn racism.  We must be those who live and lead in a way intended to shine light in this specific darkness.

Why? The Apostle Paul, another of our older brothers in the faith, asserts that Jesus Christ has entrusted to his followers "the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation" 2 Corinthians 5:18-19.  Our message is first and foremost that God loves you and invites you to come and live at home with Him, 'reconciled' to God.

But this reconciliation extends to our relational everyday lives as well.  Paul writes in Ephesians 2 that the work of Christ is also to reconcile 'groups' of people into 'one new humanity,' specifically groups who in their natural state tend toward 'hostility' toward one another:   "For (Jesus Christ) himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility...His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."  Ephesians 2:14-16

We are currently in a sermon series called ONE, in which we are demonstrating the unity that all Christians share in Christ (as opposed to division, critique, and competition over non-essential differences between denominations). We Presbyterians are sharing this series with a local Pentecostal church (Grace Covenant) and a non-denominational church (Life Fellowship), with the senior pastors rotating between churches.  We are also sharing a mission project and a night of worship together (Aug 20 6pm @ Grace Covenant Foursquare Church - join us!). 

In the spirit of this series, I point you to the Southern Baptist Convention's exemplary public actions this June to name and condemn the racism of the white supremacist alt-right in America today.  They also express ongoing repentance for racism in the American church in the past and present. It is entitled "On the Antigospel of Altright White Supremacy." It's a striking statement marked by clarity, humility, and thoroughness. It almost makes me wanna convert to Southern Baptist - wow.

I will link to it at the bottom of this post. They leave no room for any Christian to wink at today's white supremacy proponents. And did you know that in 2014 their denomination 'urged fellow Christians to discontinue use of the Confederate battle flag?' I didn't know that either - its also in this statement, linked below. 

As a citizen and a community leader, I ask our local, state and national political leaders to speak the truth about the evil of racism.  And I ask them to take up responsibility for leadership toward greater racial understanding, reconciliation, and justice in our town, our state and our nation. 

I invite my friends who are followers of Jesus in business, technology, education, social services, homemaking, school, etc. to have the courage to call out racism and speak God's truth. Please take initiative in friendship to shine the light of greater racial understanding, reconciliation and justice in your spheres of influence, including your family.  As an important part of joining God's mission of reconciling love in our everyday lives.

At Lake Forest Church-Huntersville, here are a few ways we are humbly seeking to live out the 'ministry of reconciliation' regarding racial 'hostility' in our current season of life together:

1. Make racial understanding a subject of our biblical teaching with regularity. In the past year, a dedicated sermon, two dedicated evening seminars, many sermon points on various Sundays - not as a 'hobby horse,' but because the Bible has so much to say about reconciliation, and our culture has so much need of reconciling love regarding race.
2. Since May, our Elders have been in dialogue with the leadership team of our closest partner church that is predominantly African-American around this question: how can we have an even closer family relationship as churches? We currently swap pulpits annually and share two mission initiatives.
3. We have acted to 'love our neighbor,' specifically our town's new Spanish speaking neighbors, with a pastor who is Mexican American who will lead a new Spanish speaking church to be the newest member of the Lake Forest Family of Churches.
4. Our LFCH staff have articulated a 3-5 year goal, that our worshipping congregation on Gilead Road each Sunday would come to reflect the ethnic percentages of our zip code and one or two surrounding zip codes.
5. Simply continuing to seek the renewal of our minds in this and every area of our lives, through learning God's Word together weekly on Sundays, regularly in groups, and individually at home.  So that we might live as missionaries of God's reconciling love at all times, just where God has put us on this green planet. 

Here is the June resolution by the Southern Baptist Convention. http://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2283/on-the-antigospel-of-altright-white-supremacy

"How Forlorn the City..," MY City - Lamentations 1:1

I woke up sad and hurt for our fair city this morning, and want to offer thoughts to friends.

Many Charlotteans are asking 'what am I called to do in the face of these tensions in my city?' 

The fact that some people are responding with violence and crime under the cover of legitimate protest, and the fact that some are responding with name calling and blame on social media, in no way diminishes the need for every Christian to find at least one way to respond in faith, and in a Christ-honoring way.

Some are called to protest, some are called to protect, some are called to advocate. Most are bewildered today. What is your specific calling in the face of racial tension in our town?

My primary calling is to build relationships.  To build cross-racial friendships that point to the healing and uniting power of Jesus, leading to the growth of me and my friends to "love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with God" more fully (Micah 6:8).  I'm called to this personally and as a leader of our tribe in Lake Norman.

I pray for my actions, and those of our church, to point to Christ "who is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" - Ephesians 2:14.

When the downtown protests began last evening, I was barely a mile north in the fellowship hall of a predominantly African-American church in the Druid Hills neighborhood. Two of our pastors (me and Flake) and two of our elders (Jack and Allen) were talking, praying and breaking bread for hours with the leadership of our big-hearted sister church 'Faith Liberation Church EPC.'  This was our second meeting specifically to plan greater partnership between our predominantly white and predominantly black congregations.  Because we believe we can assist each other in ministry, because we think true friendship between our folks will be redemptive in our city, and because we just like each other.

And how timely was it that this past Sunday, my closest African-American friend and pastor shared a sermon with me on 'Breaking Down the Wall of Hostility' at Lake Forest Church - Huntersville (link below).  And we've already had a follow-up phone call to plan more specific, relational partnership between our church members.

75% of Americans do not have a significant friend of another race. I don't mean 'going out to lunch from the office' friend, I mean 'having over to dinner in my home' friend.  I mean a friend with whom enough trust has been built that you can sit down, discuss race, the scriptures, and solutions with even strong disagreements, still remaining friends.  A true friendship that isn't for a mercenary or token reason, but where two people really like each other.

What this means is at least 75% of white Americans don't have a black friend who is close enough to be open, honest, and personal with them about how their families experience the ongoing, legacy effects of past and present racism in our society.  So the problems remain impersonal, affecting others, and (speaking for myself now) therefore us white folks struggle to own how serious they are and to be motivated to act for greater mercy and justice regarding racial disparities.

This also means that most African-Americans don't have a close enough white friend to have a trusted back-and-forth discussion with about such things either.  Although because they live in a majority white culture, its more likely for them to have such a friend.

Building stronger cross-racial friendships is do-able for everyone of us.  If your calling is not to advocate, protect or protest - then perhaps this is your calling in this moment (however, it may lead for you, as it has for me, to future callings to advocate or protest for change in specific ways).

I'm not saying that other people need my friendship.  I'm saying that I need their friendship.

If you are looking for direction at the moment - how to be part of something, anything God may want to do in our city as a response to this racial tension, I'm suggesting you could start with relationship. And for most, God has already put us around 'lunch time' level friends whom we like.  We just need to be intentional about taking it to the next level, as appropriate with that person. One move I suggest is to add someone into your texting circle.  Think about it - the people you text with, especially during non-working hours, are next-level friends.  Who might God be calling you to make that next-level move with?

I actually think Jesus would say this kind of friendship is imperative at the moment and not optional.  Why would I say that?

When Jesus said that one of the greatest commandments is to 'Love your neighbor as yourself,' he was asked a followup question, 'Who is my neighbor?' that you're telling me to love 'as myself' Jesus? His answer is recorded in Luke chapter 10.  Jesus' answer connects the imperative of 'loving your neighbor' with his definitive definition that 'that neighbor is a person of another ethnicity who is in distress.'

If you don't remember that as Jesus' answer, go back and check it out.  He answered with the well-known Parable of the Good Samaritan. If a person of another ethnicity is in distress (in the case of the parable a highly mistrusted other ethnicity), Jesus says the highest form of loving my neighbor is to enter into their distress and love them according to what is needed.

To my white friends: our black brothers and sisters in Christ are telling us they are in distress, individually and as a group. We dare not be those ones in Jesus' teaching who walk on by, saying its not my problem or its not such a big deal.  May we be those whom Jesus describes as stopping to take seriously the distress of another, even when their distress doesn't seem to affect me personally.

If your calling to love our city today does not include protest, protection, or advocacy, I suggest you accept the calling of relationship.

And to my Lake Forest friends, perhaps a few of you will feel called to worship at one of our predominantly African-American partner churches this Sunday (Liberation Ministries on Beatties Ford Rd or Faith Liberation Church on Moretz Ave, both in Charlotte). If so (and I don't mean everyone!), just say 'I'm here because our churches are friends and partners, simply to worship in unity with you today.'

Here is a link to video and audio of last Sunday's 10:30am sermon "Breaking Down the Wall of Hostility" (or Fear of the Other) Breaking Down the Wall of Hostility

 

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