Crossroads Bible Church, Team Holland 2006 Official Blog Site
Dates of our trip: July 12--July 30, 2006.
The team has been assembled and preparing since January, 2006.
Departing Flight Information July 12: British Air Flight #2192, Departing DFW 4:20PM. Arriving London Gatwick 7:20AM. Connecting flight from London Heathrow, British Airways flight #434 to Amsterdam Schipol arriving 1:45PM.
Return Flight Information July 30: British Air Flight #8110, Departing Amsterdam Schipol 7:00AM, arriving London Gatwick 7:10AM. Conntecting flight from London Gatwick, British Airways flight #2193 to Dallas/Fort Worth arriving 2:30PM.
You can also use the links on each of these sights to find out even more information!
In order to prepare for the nature of direct outreach in a postmodern culture, our team read the book "How Should We Live Then" by Colson & Pearcy. It's an excellent read for an introduction to worldviews, their effects and their results.
Some of the most influential books on the subject of postmodernism would be by Francis A. Schaeffer, including "The God Who Is There," "Escape From Reason," & "How Should We Then Live" (which obviously influenced Colson). If you're interested in some basic quotes on postmodernism, you can get them here:
2003: Brent McKinney, Rob Edwards, Deb Stevenson, Jess Semmelbeck, Liz Stevenson, Alicia Garcia, Jude Miniat, Christy Thrasher, Abby Lorenc, Cristina MacGilvra, Matt Eaton, Justin Bascue, Faith Oldenburg, Kayti Edwards, Kim Church.
2006: Brent McKinney, Steve Davis, Debbie Schmidt, Michelle Davis, Thomas Egbert, Schuyler Crabtree, Kayla Russell, Alex Ehrich, Keila Lorenc, Bailey Price, Olivia Schmidt, Maria MacGilvra, Alicia Garcia
First and foremost, this trip is 17 days long and for many team members it's the longest they've been away from home. We'd love to hear from you, so feel free to check back often and comment by clicking on the spaces beneath each entry!
Secondly, pray for the team members and those they'll come in contact with. This ministry is entirely relational...and each day we'll simply be waking up and trying to find someone to share the Gospel with. We'd truly appreciate your thoughts and prayers!
Finally, when this team left, we were short of our financial goals. If you're so inclined to donate, simply go to the church website and click on "contact us," send an e-mail saying you'd like to contribute, and you'll be given the necessary instructions.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Preaching The Word
I admit it: I wasn't expecting much from the sermon at church yesterday. Not because of the reality that I listen to Tim Stevenson every Sunday and most everything else is a "notch below" (brazen, but true, suck-up mention of the boss) but rather the dynamics of going to church in another country. There's a translator and I struggle with that. So, I'd resigned myself to the hope of just paying attention.
Well, the speaker got my attention, alright. Early on he says, "Evangelism isn't about us doing the right thing, it's about allowing the other person to experience God." I was IN. I wrote it on a folded up post-it note and scrambled to find more scrap paper. Even with a translator I was already provoked.
The speaker was a Dutch missionary to Spain. He shared about how Western Europe as moved from a "post-Christian" world to a "post-modern" world and is now in a "multi-cultural" state...the latter meaning that all religions are mixed and regarded as equal, morals & values are derived from anything that isn't the Bible, and there's no "status-quo" anymore. Sounds an awful lot like the training we gave our teens before they came here.
He talked about how if Jesus ran into Zaccheus, a wee little man was he, in Europe, how would he evangelize to him? So, in Luke 10 he pointed out how Jesus saw him as a man with needs, built a relationship with him and then gave him the information he needed to know. Sounds an awful lot like the training we gave our teens before they came here.
His applications?
Love people as they are, where they are. See the unsaved as humans, not evangelical targets.
Every conversation doesn't have to devolve into "God-talk." If someone says how beautiful a flower is, sometimes just agree with them. Don't take it into how amazing our God is unless the Spirit so leads.
Begin from where that person is in their life. We tend to want to change the behavior of non-Christians rather than build the relationship over time and allow the Holy Spirit to work.
Good stuff, translator or not.
But the best part? Later last night, a couple of teens that our teens met when they went downtown came over...our teens went to their house to meet their parents and hung out there. They're going to hang out again. Plans have already been made. Other people we've met in years past stopped by and we chatted with them and continued the relationship. Some believers met here last night and some of our team were able to encourage them in their walk.
It was meeting people where they are, serving them with what we had available and loving them as best we could.
It isn't rocket science...but I gotta say it was beautiful, even in the simplicity.
Just like the sermon.
Brent 7:13 AM