David & Katya

This article may offend some… If it does, please feel free to comment; however, please read the whole thing before answering. Feel free to comment below… Please don’t try to start an argument with me or anyone else on this blog, though. I haven’t blocked anyone yet, and I hope I won’t have to.

I watched what I thought to be one of my favorite movies a few weeks ago. I say “I thought” because there were many things I didn’t realize about this film until this time around – the ideas subtly expressed and implied and the blatant sexual references that were, frankly, way too much for the type of movie that they seemed to be trying to create.

I’m sure most all of you will have seen the film A Walk to Remember with Mandy Moore and Shane West. It’s a tragic love story between a bad-crowd, troublemaking, young man (Landon Carter, played by Shane West) and a saintly preacher’s daughter (Jamie Sullivan, played by Mandy Moore). I’ve read the book and enjoyed it, but, coming to the end, I felt like there was something missing. After watching a piece or two of the movie with the director’s commentary, I know what was missing. Hearing director’s, Mandy’s, and Shane’s perspective on the objectionable parts, my mind was changed on the intent of this film.

The movie is supposed to be a story of redemption for Landon as he changes through his relationship to the preacher’s daughter. The movie can be mistaken as a somewhat Christian film as the soundtrack is taken from bands like Jars of Clay (one of my favorites) and Switchfoot (which also used to be one of my favorites). Songs like “I Dare You To Move” and “Only Yours”, which are two of the greatest of Switchfoot’s offerings, are used in the song. Also the by the redemptive storyline.

Yes, I love Christian music. Yes, the performances are awesome. Yes, the story is very sweet and moving. Yes, I believe that redemption of a lost soul can and should happen!… but! But, but, but! The whole film is without Jesus! The only reference I remember to Jesus in the film is when a friend asked the troubled young man if his preacher’s-daughter-girlfriend was “one of those ‘honk if you love Jesus!’ people.” He responded, “No, she’s not like that.” What? Not that she should be weird about it and one of those emotional, plastic Christians… but shouldn’t she love Jesus? She’s the only person, aside from the pastor, in the whole movie that believes in God.

In fact, by the end of the film, there’s not even any affirmation at all that Landon even believes in God – much less Jesus. Towards the end of the film, in his commentary, the director says that some Christians had given feedback on the movie about this lack of any real conversion. He said that wasn’t the point of the film – that the important thing was that Landon found his own spirituality, not necessarily God, Jesus, or anything like that. (Not his exact words…)

Also, the movie, in a way, makes light of the convictions that many Christians have about physical purity in relationships. Jamie and Landon spend a night together alone in a cemetery, without anything implied, but that’s certainly not how I would want any daughter of mine to behave, or son for that matter! They spend extensive time in compromising situations, usually kissing, etc.

The director, in his commentary, doesn’t really seem to care about that. During a scene where one of the characters is making a very suggestive joke, he, with a laugh, says, “The Christians hate this part!” Mandy Moore replies, “It’s just a joke…” He echoes her sentiments and they move on to the next scene.

My whole point – two things.

Firstly, don’t be deceived… movies, music, and other media that looks like it’s “good Christian material” isn’t necessarily. Folks like those that made this movie know that American Christianity is a large and lucrative market. This movie was made for that.

Secondly, Jesus is the only way to true redemption. Yes, if this were a true story, Landon Carter may have had an amazing transformation in his life, gone to medical school, learned compassion, etc., etc… HOWEVER – Jesus tells us in John 14:6 that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Do we believe Him or not? If all Landon found in his life was how to be a “pretty good person” and make a positive difference in his life, that doesn’t change the basic, root problem in his life. His sin is still not taken care of. He is still going to die as a sinner and go to hell. Now, I’m not so concerned about this person in particular, because he’s a fictional character. However, I know that there are billions of people in the world that hold this viewpoint – live a good life, try not to hurt anyone, make a difference, and, on the other side, you’ll be ok.

I’m just saying that there is a lost and dying world out there full of people that think that their “positive energy” or “good karma” is going to save them when they get to the end of their life… That’s not true! If that is true, then Jesus and the whole Bible is a lie. If Jesus is correct, then we need to tell them that they need Him!

I pray that I haven’t offended any of my friends by saying all of this. I just want us to be serious and honest with ourselves about life and about the future of the people around us…

 

Father, please help me to take seriously the fate of those around me.

Please help me to see people as You do – loving them and wanting them to know the Truth, wanting them to know You.

In Jesus’ Name.

 

Well, I’m starting to get over jet lag. I’m not sure how long that will last (I hope not very long). Today, I stayed up until about 2:00 or 3:30 and got up at 9:30ish. That’s… almost normal. Haha. 🙂 I’m hoping that will be over by sometime mid next week.

While I was in America, you guys donated a bunch of Nerf guns to the youth group here in L’viv. I was SO excited for this – except for the idea of bringing over 20 Nerf guns through customs. Praise the Lord – I had NO troubles whatsoever! God definitely gave me favor with the customs agent that was there. She almost seemed like she was trying to let me through but just had to ask me a question or two to the “just the right answers”. Haha… I gave her a letter from a church here requesting that we could bring them in because they were for charity. We tried them out yesterday at our Friday night youth group. We only played with the CS (“clips system”) versions of them, because those take the most training not to break, and that’s the kind we have the most of. If any of you ever want to send over more guns/darts/etc. in care packages, that would be awesome! I would love to make playing with these a regular thing between our youth group and other youth groups – plus we can use them for evangelism events and all kinds of things!

We’re about to get a sound system!!! I’m SO excited for this! More opportunities for the worship team, outdoor concerts and outreaches, indoor concerts and outreaches, bands coming, worship nights with multiple churches… I can almost see folks coming up for altar calls receiving Jesus for the first time, other people with their hands up high, the lights down low, and the soft picking on the guitar, later on to explode with shouts of praise to God as the next song crescendos. It’s gonna be awesome!

Please be praying still for our location for the church. Right now, the plan that our landlord has us on is that we will move out on May 1st… or the rent doubles. We’re looking for a new place for the church right now. She’s offered to sell it to us, but we don’t have $300k just lying around in our back pockets! Haha. I don’t think it’s actually worth that much, but something close to that. Whatever God wants, please pray for that – I honestly don’t want to move the church, but He could have something much better in store for us.

I wanted to thank you all for your hospitality while I was in America. You have all blessed me so much. From Cleveland and St. Mary’s, to Indianapolis, Chicago and Appleton, to St. Paul’s, and all the way down to San Antonio – you have all been great. I wish I could bring all of these places together… That’s what I love about Heaven. Someday, we’ll all be together – those of us that have trusted in Christ. There will be no more tears, pain, sorrow, fear, worry, or jet lag. There will be no more, “Oh, I’ll see mom next Thanksgiving,” or “I’ll see dad next Christmas.” We’ll all be together – one big, happy, peaceful, wonderful family in Christ Jesus.

One of the interesting things I discovered on my journey back and forth is that, on almost every leg of the trip I could answer the question, “Where are you going?” with “I’m going home.” I love it. My family is everywhere. While I’m in Ukraine, where God has called me, I have my church family. Most of my closest friends are in Indiana, and I definitely count them as family. When I traveled from there to Minnesota to visit my dad there, I was going home. Then I went to San Antonio, where my mom lives – I was going home. Then I went back to Indiana and then to Ukraine… every time – I was just going home.

None of these are my real home, though. My home is Heaven, where my Lord waits for me. I just finished reading the end of The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis (check it out – it won the Carnegie Medal, which is one of the highest accolades in children’s literature… but don’t read it without reading the rest of the series first!). That book is basically an allegory for the end times here on Earth. It was an amazing reminder of just how wonderful Heaven is going to be. We’ll get to know brothers and sisters that we have never met from continents and places on the world we’ve never been to and times and epochs we’ve not lived in. We’ll get to know king David, the Apostle Paul, Moses… Moses’ mom! haha… We’ll get to spend the rest of our Eternity getting to know the Author and Finisher of our Faith. Basically – it’ll be the coolest thing… regardless of sliced bread or velcro shoes. It’ll be the coolest thing since the world was created.

I can’t wait.

I love how C. S. Lewis portrays Aslan as a lion. It’s such a great picture of Jesus. At once the most joyful creature and creating joy, and, at the next second, serious as meeting a lion in the woods. “He’s not a tame lion,” I can hear all of the creatures say. It’s the same with our Lord – He’s not tame. He’s not One to do what you tell Him to do, but He’ll often do what you ask. Altogether loving, faithful, just, merciful, and good… It’s really an adventure just know him.

That’s my King. Do you know Him?

 

I bought my plane ticket! I’m leaving on the 29th!

Wow… This time in the States has been intense spiritually! It’s been an interesting ride. I’ve been gone a long time, but I’m finally going back to Ukraine! I originally didn’t plan on staying in America for this long; however, I’ve seen several things that have been good that came out of it… To name a few:

• I was specifically able to minister or witness to two people deeply during this time.
• I have been gone longer than 90 days, so there is no way that the Ukrainian visa regulations can be remotely interpreted against my favor when I come back.
• I was able to build relationships with several new people and churches this month.

Thank you to all who have been praying! Please continue to pray for my travels! I always get nervous at this stage of “pre-travel”. Please also be praying for the people that I’m staying with. Two of their family members are having surgery this week!

 

I’ve been traveling to several different churches since I got back from Ukraine, and one of the things I have noticed is that several of them are in a state of transition with their pastors. Either one is about to leave, one is just coming in, or they are currently looking for a new pastor.

Just last Wednesday, I was visiting a large church in Indianapolis, and, during one of the conversations with one of the staff members, she told me that their pastor had resigned a few months ago and they were looking for a new one. She said that two of the assistant pastors were teaching on Sundays, another pastor was taking the leadership role of the church, and that they were still looking for a new senior pastor. Now, that confused me a little.

I asked her why the “lead pastor” didn’t take that position in the church. She replied that he didn’t seem like the right guy for it. I then asked her if there was anyone else in the body that could take that role, and she said that no one else seemed to be the right fit for it.

Firstly, I want to say that I don’t believe this church is doing anything morally wrong or against God by looking for a pastor outside of their “faith family”; however, with the way I was spiritually trained and raised, it makes much more sense to me to look within rather than without, if for nothing else that someone coming from the outside could also come with a drastically different perspective on ministry and vision for the church. I would think it would be easier on the church body to simply have someone that was raised under the original pastor’s leadership, accountability, and vision to take the reins, someone that the congregation already knew and loved.

The true problem that I see is that this doesn’t seem to be an isolated instance. Like I said, I’ve been to several churches the past couple of months, and, of the ones that are in transition, they have all been looking outside of their body for a new pastor to come in. Here is my question:

Are we that bad at raising up disciples within our churches?

I was taught in Bible college that you should always have a Paul, a Timothy, and a Barnabas in your life. The “Paul” is there to instruct you and keep you accountable, the “Barnabas” is there to be your friend, encourage you, and give you counsel, and the “Timothy” is your follower, the person you pour yourself into, the person that will take over what you do when you are taken from that position by the Lord.

I’ve seen a few ministers do what I call “pulling a Peyton Manning.” I think most of my readers are familiar with the Colts’ all-star quarter back of currently the worst team in football. I’m a really big fan of Manning, and I believe that he is the greatest QB currently in the game (if he is still in the game with his injuries…), but he never took the time to raise up a successor that could truly step in to those big “size 18” shoes and command the Colts’ offense to a semi-victorious season. I wish he had, but, without their “coach on the field”, the Colts barely pulled off two victories last season.

He didn’t disciple someone to fill that position, and the team suffered the consequences when he could no longer do his job.

We aren’t invincible. We have a stopping point. We can’t count on our ability to keep going in the ministry indefinitely.

Some of these concepts are derived from a book that I read during college that outline the process of discipleship. It s called The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman. Discipleship starts at evangelism and ends at our “graduation from this life”, when we take off the mantle of our fleshly bodies and join the Lord. I think every Christian is in some part of this process of discipleship. Every Christian should be an active part of this process.

Many people think that they can’t be ministers because they don’t have a seminary degree or aren’t on the church’s payroll. This couldn’t be further from the truth! The Bible and the rest of history are filled with people that were able to step up and do something with their faith without being a “full time minister” or a “seminary grad”. I know many pastors, the ministries of whom are great and fruitful, that have not graduated from a seminary – they were simply discipled in a proper way (some through discipleship programs such as HSE or CCBC).

Some of you may be thinking, “Ok… You keep using that word ‘discipleship’… Now, what does that mean?”

Discipleship is simply the process which occurs when God takes two people and uses them to better one another spiritually while one serves as a spiritual leader and the other as a follower. Jesus commanded us to do this in Matthew when He said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19, 20 NASB)

How should we begin to disciple these future leaders? I believe it starts with two things – investment and invitation. We need to invest our time and energy into building real relationships with those around us. We need, then, to invite them to follow us. Like Jesus said, “Follow me,” and Paul, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”. As we are doing this, of course, we MUST endeavor to follow Christ as closely as possible. How can we lead others to follow someone that we are out-of-step with? We MUST follow Him.

Secondly, we need to give them opportunities to minister and work, to succeed, and, yes, even to fail. That last one is the one I most struggle with. I never want to see anyone fail, especially someone on my team… But, they must get a sense of what real ministry is like – with the training wheels off. Now, this all must be kept in perspective. Just as you wouldn’t hand a ten-year-old the keys to your Harley on the day he graduated from his training wheels, I don’t think it would be wise to send someone off with an obvious, though inexperienced, gift of teaching to preach on Sunday their first time before people. Let them share a devotion with their peers, then build them up to a home study, etc. Take it in stages, encourage them, and see how God uses their particular gift (they may not teach exactly like you…).

Also, teaching others to eventually disciple still others is essential for our work to continue. Our followers have an expiration date, just as we do. We will all stand one day before the Lord. They will need to raise up a new generation to carry on the Glorious Gospel that was handed down to us.

Lastly, we should pray for them. This really should’ve been first, in the middle, and all the way to the end of this process. God uses prayer. He responds to us when we call to Him. “…You do not have because you do not ask.” (James 4:2 NASB). “”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7, 8 NASB) For the sake of our churches, for the sake of our pastors, for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s ask.

 

Starbucks can be a funny thing, I think. Either you love ’em or you hate ’em, it seems… kinda like the Patriots, but that’s another story. 😉 Anyway, I just wanted to relay a story about Starbucks and a young woman whom I will call “Sally” (for anonymity) that I met there the other day. Now, I’m not that much of a coffee drinker. Mind you, that’s not because I don’t like coffee – I love coffee… I just don’t like what it does to me. My hands get shakey, my heart starts racing, and I just generally freak out about anything and everything. Therefore, I don’t drink much coffee.  Thankfully, Starbucks doesn’t only offer beverages of the burnt bean variety, so I still venture in and get a something-or-other every once in a while.
The other day, I went to Starbucks just to relax for a little while and do some work on the internet. After entering the building, I proceded to scan the dining room for appropriate seating (I love to sit in one of the cushioned chars in the corner at Starbucks.  If I have to sit at a table, I’d rather just go somewhere else if I’m by myself…).  I found an availible seat with my preferred specifications next to a young woman with a bunch of paperwork and a laptop.  I asked her if she minded if I sat in the chair next to her, and she replied, “Sure, if you don’t mind the mess!”  I responded with the fact that I was “living on the road” and didn’t mind at all.

“Are you in town for the Superbowl?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “I’m a missionary in Ukraine, and I’m traveling around, visiting different churches and sharing about the vision we have for ministry there.”
She found this very interesting, as she had some friends that had been missionaries to Ukraine. That opened a door to an amazing conversation about spiritual things.  I asked her what kind of church she went to.  She responded with the fact that she didn’t go to church but used to on the north side of Indianapolis.
We eventually got around to the question of, “What do you do with Jesus?”  Her answer was that she wasn’t sure.  She thought she believed in Him and in the Bible, but it was because she had been taught that all of her life.  She also basically said that she wasn’t living as a “good Christian”.

From that, I took her to John 3, where Jesus describes how we get to see the Kingdom of God.  I explained to her that the definition of a Christian in the Bible isn’t being a “good person.”  It’s being born again.  She then asked what that meant, and I took her to Ephesians 2 and told her how we are “dead in [our] tresspasses and sins” and how we need to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation.  I explained to her that, after we believe, we are changed from the inside and then want to do what God wants us to do.  I also gave her a card with my blog address on it.
She allowed me to pray for her later in the conversation about some other things…  Please pray for her.  She has some important decisions to make soon.