Joyeux Noël ! A ray of life

To enrich your celebration of King Jesus' birth, I would like to share "A ray of life" with you. It is a blues song inspired by Isaiah 9:1-7 that some friends and I gave as a gift to our Dijon church family at last week's Noël party. Enjoy!

People walking in shadow
Perceive a glimmer of hope,
Those living in the pall of death
A ray of life they behold.

ombre de la mort (left): photo by Romain Hem-Reun

Anguish felt by threatened people
By peace is superseded.
Instead of contempt, oh so familiar
Dignity is now accorded.

A splendid light, a powerful bolt,
Sent from the Father, the flash that frees.
The King is born, the Son is given
Jesus is with us — Immanuel !

The luminary came to enlighten
The entire human race.
The will of enlightened man
Received him with hate.

Everyone who contemplates this lodestar,
Whoever welcomes him,
Receives forgiveness, truth and life
Thanks to this light bestowed.

Paul Klawitter's translation of « Un rayon de vie » de Paul-Raymond Delcamp 2008.
Used by permission
And I would like to wish each and every one a Christmas season rich in faith, hope and love!

Frohe Weihnachten
VESELÉ VÁNOCE
Nollaig faoi mhaise duit
FELIZ NATAL
Feliz Navidad
MERRY CHRISTMAS

Joyeux Noël !!!

Warmly from Paul & the ET

Back to school: pursuing dreams together

Harmonious teamwork means serving side by side as one person, for one goal. The art of this is to be of common heart and vision leading to coordinated action, and that without demanding uniformity.


So during the apostolic workshop we focused on moving toward thinking, guiding principles that ensure that we are all moving in the same direction, while allowing for creative and contextual variance. Then as we all move in that same direction, pursuing the same goals, we push toward the center of all—Christ (Colossians 1:17).

Apostolic Workshop, Dijon, November 20-23, 2008

The participants were asked to express share a guiding principle by having us guess which one they were presenting by using a picture, an object, MP3 song, a poem, PlayDough sculpture, mime…

Then they explained what the principle means to them, why they embrace it, what it is they do not understand about it, or why they simply do not agree with it.

We then modified our guiding principles which resulted in the following list:

Pray in faith
Do good in Jesus name
Be spiritually bold and culturally sensitive
Live what you want to reproduce
Minister sustainably
Cultivate hot hearts, sharp minds, skilled hands
Embrace a moving toward mindset
Contextualize church based upon metaphors
Be inclusive, not exclusive
Share resources, do not duplicate ministries
Partner with others of common heart and vision
In partnerships, give more than you get
Deploy multinational teams serving according to giftedness
Practice the hermeneutical cycle in a learning community
Cross-pollinate toward reproduction on every level
Pursue in dynamic tension, biblical truth, relationships and mission

As leader of the GBIM Europe team, I do not seek uniformity in the application of these agreed upon principles. With a multi-national team of about 45 people serving in multifarious ministries and radically different cultures, uniformity would at best be unwise and at worst successful.


To pursue our mission together, my teammates and I need to embrace a moving toward mindset. Paul Hiebert describes this “centered set” way of living, ministering and perceiving (see May 6, 2008 entry & Anthropological Reflections on Missiological Issues, ch.7): one defines the center and describes the relationship of the person/teammate to that center. Are they moving toward the goal or away from it?

Ultimately Christ is the center of all (Col. 1:15-20) and as we cultivate our relationship with Him (Phil.3:8) we go deeper into eternal life (John 17:3) and increasingly resemble Him (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Similarly, the GBIM Europe Team is pursuing common dreams in order to honor Christ. We are not all passionate about all five dreams nor pursuing them in the same way, but everyone is participating in the realization of at least one of them somehow. And we are in agreement that these are the dreams the Spirit has given us to pursue together on this continent at this time.


DREAMS TO HONOR CHRIST

DREAM 1: See vibrant spiritual communities peppered across the European continent—scattered throughout the countryside, penetrating the hearts of the megacities, and foraying into the world.

DREAM 2: See the Charis Partners dwarf the GBIM team; see two full-time Europeans for every one American.


DREAM 3: See the European churches become spiritual farms producing bumper crops of elders, evangelists and church planters, sending them out to the regions surrounding local churches and throughout Europe.


DREAM 4: See the Europeanization of the chateau ministry (the chateau is currently an American-run ministry in the heart of Burgundy France). Our dream is to bring together a multi-national team working according to giftedness ministering at and through the Chateau of St. Albain connecting people, churches and ministries across Europe.

The Chateau of St. Albain: a place where workers are equipped, where the weary find rest, a place of solace for urbanites, a place where faith is expressed through the arts, a place of prayer for the nations.

DREAM 5: See the European Grace Brethren churches, Charis Partners and GBIM Europe develop common vision that will lead to concerted missional action throughout Europe and beyond.

At the apostolic workshop we did not attempt to agree on “how” we would pursue these dreams; we agreed that these are our guiding principals and that these are the dreams that God has put in our hearts and heads, in this place, at this time, for this team… all to honor Christ who is the center of all that is.

Back to school: working on teamwork

About fifteen years ago I observed that "we talk about teamwork but we can't get teams to work."

I have since learned that staunch individualism combined with the firm convictions and drive needed to do church planting often result in poor teamwork wherever American missionaries are found.

But rather than rejoice in the fact that we may be averagely bad, GBIM Europe decided to tackle the problem. So Tom Barlow led 17 of us "back to school" to work on teamwork.


Tom first had us interact with Philippians 1 noticing that the personal pronoun "you" is systematically plural.

And Paul says to the Philippian church, “But whatever happens, you must live in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ, as citizens of heaven." Here's how: "standing side by side, fighting together for the Good News," literally "in one spirit, one soul, side by side."

Then, Tom used Roger Peugh's doctoral thesis, "God and Teamwork: Implications of the Unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for Christian Ministry Teams,” to guide us along the path of healthy teamwork practices, practices found among the members of the Trinity:

love
trust
submission
honor
respect
fellowship
communication
mutual support
faithfulness
loyalty
clarity regarding personal identity

I found these principles insightful and practical; they allowed my teammates from Paris and me to work out some bugs in our communication.

I echo the words of one participant who said:

"I very much appreciated the training that Tom provided, defining God's priorities for the functioning of a team. I now see that I have some real work ahead of me to be up to these standards."

Workshop on teamwork
Château of St. Albain / November 18-19, 2008

Back to school: teachers' workshop

Many of us were trained to teach monologically; this was presented as the "Biblical" way of teaching. E.g. in Acts 20:7 one might get the impression that Paul soliloquized so long that Eutychus fell asleep and out the window!

Some people monologue rather well…

The verb dialegeto, however, is variously translated as “spoke” (NIV), “began talking” (NASB), “kept on talking,” “dialogued” (Birkey, 54), or “conducted a discussion” (BAGD, 185).

F.F. Bruce (425) comments, "A conversation rather than an address is indicated, a 'sermon' in the etymological sense of the word (Lat. sermo, 'conversation')."

Birkey (56) reminds, “We must not forget that the New Testament ideas of Christian education are built upon a ‘Hebrew model’ of the Old Testament, which placed the responsibility in the locus of home life (cf. Deut. 6:1-9),” the head of the household informally teaching those under his roof. Also in the Hebrew tradition, rabbis were known for their Q&A approach to teaching.
So some GBIM Europe teammates went back to school, sort of, to explore dialogical, interactive teaching.

(Note: We began gift-based workshops a few years ago to hone our skills and cultivate the gifts the Spirit has given us. Other workshops this year: apostolic, shepherds' and evangelists'.)

Susie, Tom, David, Roy, Scott, John & Louise
November 2008 Teachers' Workshop - Dublin, Ireland

Tom in action

Organizer Tom Barlow had us read articles on dialogical teaching and Günter Krallmann’s book, “Mentoring for Mission.”

He also asked us to share interactively on one of the following:

• What is the sermon you remember the best? Why?
• What person had the greatest impact on your Christian growth? What made their impact so powerful?
• Who is the person you have impacted the most? What methods did you use? What are the signs of your impact?
• What methods did Jesus use to teach / influence others?

Was the workshop helpful? Here are a few teammates comments:

I just want you to know that I had one of the best workshop experiences with all of you this past week! What a joy it was to be able to hear and glean from your rich experiences. Thank you all so much for letting God use you in my life this past week! God is using you in the European body of Christ to help me to grow. What a fantastic week!!! Thank you all so VERY MUCH! And Tom, Thank you for leading us in this great experience.
...

Let me add my thanks and appreciation to all of you for your part in making for a super experience during our days together in Dublin. Special thanks to Tom for creating an atmosphere in which everyone could feel free to share openly.
...

I will add my kudos and appreciation to the teammates who were [in Dublin] last week. It was a great time together and to experience some of what we were talking about, i.e. "withness". Great job, Tom, for prompting us and spurring us on. I am still trying to figure out which of the cats in the cat-herder clip I seem most like.

Some highlights that I mentioned in my presentation from Günter Krallman's book, Mentoring for Mission.

Spend quantities of quality time together
The “essential with-ness principle.” (19)

Mark 1:14 “that they might be with him.” (52-53)

“On the basis of such with-ness he generated a dynamic process of life-transference which was meant to foster wholistic maturity in his friends.” (13)

Consociation - togetherness
“Hence he made the experience of his with-ness the pivot of their training. 'Jesus had no formal curriculum'… no classroom syllabus. Instead, he called his disciples to be with him.” (53)

Coleman, “Truth was not taught in abstract doctrines or regulations; it was caught in the experience of their shared life.” (53)

“He first majored on making friends and only later on sending out apostles (Mk 3:14).” (55)

Discipleship
"The favorite image and the technical term Jesus chose for this action-charged procedure was ‘to follow’ (Greek akoloutheo) him as Master. He viewed discipling as life-transference through the channel of relationship, and not a mere intellectual absorption of certain theoretical precepts." (57)

Priority people come first
“Jesus made himself more readily available to them than to anyone else (Mk 9:30-31), took a special interest in their understanding of his teaching and mission.” (54)
“The time which Jesus invested in these few disciples was so much more by comparison to that given to others that it can only be regarded as a deliberate strategy.” (54)