A letter to Mr. Boh: living in the past

Bonjour Mr. Boh,

You asked me to send my observations and experiences throughout my journeys in the land of ecclesiastic plenty. Well, this letter is more my personal reflections on life and my purpose here in this foreign land, from which I came.

"Stranger in a strange land" by Mike Tracy (miketracy.net)

I go here, there, and everywhere sharing about Europe. Maybe it is pretentious or presumptuous, but I believe God wants to use me to:

* bring together 15 European Grace churches into a network, pooling resources to pursue the common vision of being on mission for Christ.

* create a European service / mission agency in order to send more and more and more Europeans from those churches on mission throughout Europe and beyond.

* create a humanitarian organization that will partner with the Fair Trade "Café du Monde" to do good in the world… in Jesus' name.
Ah, Boh, I've told you many times about a verse that inspires me greatly: "the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands" (Isaiah 32:8). So the vision is clear, but that doesn’t mean I see the path that will lead me to the above destinations.

In sharing this vision, I do not yet have stories of people saved, or even helped because these entities — network, agency, organization — do not yet exist. But that is why I am focusing on them, because they need to be created.

As the sage said, “but money is the answer for everything” (Ecclesiastes 10:19). Ah, Boh, in looking for funding I sometimes feel like Europe’s spiritual needs compete with Africa’s material needs for America's dollar. And who am I to tell people what to do with their money? That is truly between them and God. Africa’s need is great. Europe’s need is great, just in extremely different ways.

So will backers come forth? Financial backers yes, but I need to know that people are with me in prayer, on mission together on the Dark Continent that birthed the Enlightenment.

Ah, Boh, you are introspective so you will understand my self-interrogations. Questions are legion:

Have I been gone for so long that I no longer know how to present a message that makes sense to the people of this plausibility structure? Do I just need better marketing to capture my audience? Is God leading me into a different, more sustainable way of being on mission for him? Question engenders query.

Incessant introspection causes me to live the present badly, yet I believe that God still has good works for me to walk in. And I know that he wants to transform me. So instead of living under the financial Damocles sword of discovering new sources of financing, I am (again) learning to trust in the Father’s love and provision.

So, rather than erratic existence resulting from projection into an unpredictable future, I have been spending more time in the solid past, reviewing God’s historical faithfulness in my life. He really has taken care of my family without respite or pause. Ah, Boh, I remember when…

Old faithful

Well, Boh, thanks for listening to my ramblings, for caring and for praying. Hope to see you soon!

Warmly,
Your friend

Mr. Boh considers “truth with an attitude”

“Dear Mr. Boh…” that is an appropriate salutation for my close buddy, thought Mr. Boh’s friend.
You see, Mr. Boh(emian) lives in Europe where he is just discovering the person of Jesus; so he is looking at the church, familiar to you and me, from a fresh perspective.

Mr. Boh’s friend has gone on journey to the land of ecclesiastic plenty where things are not necessarily wrong, but often quite different from that to which he is accustomed. Friend of Boh continues his post card…

“… one thing that has struck me is that believers here in the land of ecclesiastic plenty talk about grace as good news, but the people around them perceive them as being harsh, bellicose and choleric. Why is this?


So in order to understand some of these dynamics, I picked up a book called, They Like Jesus but Not the Church. The author, Dan Kimball, writes about common (mis)perceptions of the church, “The church is an organized religion with a political agenda” and “is judgmental and negative,” among other things.


I mean really Mr. Boh, did the church family that you are now part of tell you that you needed to adopt a particular political orientation in order to follow Christ?!

It will reassure you that I recently saw on the front board of an evangelical church “Pray for President Obama — 1 Timothy 2:1-4”

[I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.]


So I guess at least some evangelicals are asking God to give the president wisdom and attempting to be at peace with him, a democrat (that is the leftist party here in the land of ecclesiastic plenty).
In his book, Kimball points out that evangelicals are known for what they are against rather than what they stand for. Even if this is a stereotype that does not at all represent what you and I believe or do, “when part of us misrepresents Jesus, we are all misrepresented. If part of us is misunderstood, we all are misunderstood,” he explains.

It seems to me that Paul and the other writers of the New Testament were very concerned about ethics within the church, yet evangelicals quoted by the media seem to be attempting to impose Christian morality on unbelievers.

Mr. Boh, think about it, how can people who do not know Christ be expected to live according to Biblical standards when they lack the power of the Holy Spirit?

I think that there is the danger of attitudinal worldliness among some believers. I admit to having met believers who seem to have adopted both the convictions (that is okay) and acerbic attitudes (not okay) sometimes heard on national news networks.

Whatever one’s Christian conviction may be, should it not be accompanied by love and be gracious toward people who do not follow Christ, whatever their position or lifestyle may be currently? In this way they would have a living example of the message that we preach — purity, grace, love, reconciliation and peace.

After all, Paul instructed Timothy to: “Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).
I guess what I am saying is that we believers want to present truth with an attitude… gentleness. An appropriate Christian approach is not presenting truth harshly or being graciously vapid, but sharing truth embodied in graciousness… "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Well, Mr. Boh, I am out of room on this postcard. As I said before, there is much to think about in this strange land!

Your friend…"

Mr. Boh asks, “Quantitative or qualitative?”

A friend of Mr. Boh went on a trip to a land of ecclesiastic plenty.


Before leaving, Mr. Boh reminded his friend to make sure to note his observations along the way. “I can do that Mr. Boh,” replied his friend.


Friend of Boh’s journeys took him far and wide.
He spied many fascinating things.

For example, Friend of Boh noticed was how big and how many churches there where in the land of plenty. Once he was at a stop light and noticed that there was literally a church on every street corner. “I've got to take a picture of this for Mr. Boh. Four at this intersection of this little town!” thought FoB. “My city only has five believing churches. How spiritually rich these people are!”

At times, FoB MapQuested directions to a new church, and at times he was not sure if he had arrived. You see, FoB could not always tell the difference between school buildings, corporate buildings and church buildings. Friend of Boh reminded himself, “It’s not wrong, just different.”


Friend of Boh went to a church service where everything was more elaborate than he was accustomed to, much, much more! Afterward he chatted with the pastor, a man of God.

The man of God had just been on a spiritual retreat complete with meditation, prayer, long periods of silence. He told FoB that the retreat leader introduced their time together by saying, “My hope is that you will never rush again.”

Afterward Man of God was troubled; he found peace in stillness while away, but as soon as he returned to the land of plenty, it was rush, rush, rush, more, more, more.


Man of God wanted to do some research on why it is so difficult to be peaceful, to focus on God in the land of plenty. Friend of Boh queried, “Could it be possible that the focus on ‘more,’ on quantity, actually precludes a focus on quality? Could it be that quantity and quality are antithetical? Hmmm, there is much to ponder in the land of plenty.”


Friend of Boh had already noted that the quantitative was very important in the land of plenty, that “metrics,” measurements were mysteriously linked to spirituality. He remembered a quote by an Asian believer who stated that the land-of-plenty-ites “need to count their religion.” “I guess this is what he meant,” thought FoB.


While having bigger musical groups & buildings are just different forms of church, a question haunted FoB:

“To what extent should believers focus on the quantitative?

Yes, we can count the number of people attending a service, but how does one tally ‘disciples’ — people who obey Christ out of a heart of love?

How does one measure depth of relationship with God?

When does a quantitative focus become counterproductive, undermining or even (shudder) precluding the qualitative?”


“Hmmm," thought Friend of Boh, "there is much to mull over in the land of ecclesiastic plenty!”

CM: Young boh-friends say, "Finally!"

“But I can’t preach or play the guitar!” lamented young Mr. Boh. “Poor me!”

Young Mr. Boh(hemian) was very sad because he wanted to serve Jesus through his local church but there were no opportunities that matched his talents and gifts.
The elders of young Mr. Boh's local church thought that he was recalcitrant, difficult to work with (maybe he was) and unwilling to serve (maybe he wasn't). Mr. Boh did lack self-confidence so was not one to propose himself for ministry for which he felt ill-suited.

Elders' perception of Mr. Boh

Mr. Boh's perception of local church opportunities

The Fair Trade Café had been bedouin for about 18 months, traveling from fair to festival and back again, promoting justice through selling coffee. The Café team seeks to do good because Jesus has been good to them.
But the Café had no home to call its own. Then in June God opened a door for the Café and that opened doors of service for Misters and Misses Bohs. Maybe they weren’t teachers or melodious, but they could do pointing on 15th century stone, piping, electrical work, painting and papering.
Modernist people sometimes seek unity that borders on uniformity.
Postmodern people sometimes seek diversity that borders on anarchy.
Jesus seeks unity AND diversity in dynamic tension.
The body metaphor for Jesus' church helps us to understand diversity, giftedness, opportunity, service, and unity. A body of coordinated members serving together with purpose.

Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, (therefore cannot play guitar) I have no place in this body….
And if the ear should say, because I am not a mouth, (therefore cannot preach) I have no place in this body….

One of the purposes of the Café was to expand opportunities for service for those who could not find a place within the local church structure.
I find it interesting and instructive that just a few months prior, the elders of Mr. Boh's local church were befuddled, saying, "Mr. Boh and his young boh-friends spend too much time together. And they don't think about serving."

Yet, Misters and Misses Bohs are the very ones who have jumped into the Fair Trade project feet first, contributing the most. "Finally," exclaimed young Mr. Boh, "something that I know how to do. And I can do it for Jesus!"
"But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. As it is, there are many parts, with differing functions, but one body."