How The Help Helped Us Become (More) Bi-Cultural

On vacation in July, my wife and daughters all read The Help. and I'm man enough to say I read it too. Though all the main characters are women, it isn't 'just a chick book' but it's a rather a stimulating book about our recent past prior to and during the civil rights movement. Another pastor I respect wrote a great review I don't need to repeat.

I wanted to comment on the tag line for the movie. It's change begins with a whisper. But I think the result of 8 or 10 women in our English-speaking congregation reading and discussing The Help for their book club has revealed and spurred on some change. And it shows how we are making progress in our mission to be a justice-seeking, reconciling, bi-cultural, multi-ethnic church.


The Setting of Our Change
Sunday July 31, we got back from vacation to witness an historic Sunday for Crosspoint Encuentro Church. Our Pastor to Hispanics for the last few years, Hector Guzman, an immigrant from Mexico City, preached in Spanish to our English-speaking congregation for the first time. (He was translated by a 2nd generation Puerto Rican man in our church). He spoke as one who knows us well and who loves us crazy Americans but had some good corrections and some needed insight into our vision to be unified - one church two congregations. He was right on and we needed to hear from him!


The Background of Our Change
When we started 8 years ago, the vision was always for a multi-ethnic church. But, as you may know, I'm a white guy from Tennessee. I really had nothing in my family (except some racially-mixed adopted cousins but that is a whole other story) or in our staff to show visibly our desire to be not 'just another white church.' So we just kept holding the door open, telling all the people who visited (most of whom were white) that it's our vision and aspiration to be a church of many nations, races and languages.


So miraculously, three years into the church plant, God brought some bi-lingual people - the Mateos, Santiagos, Rodriguezes - and through them, six years in, the Lord sent us the Guzmans to start a second Spanish-speaking congregation.


The Problem with Change
It is a challenge to start being a bi-cultural church after its always been a mono-cultural church! We had been somewhat multi-cultural and multi-racial in our first six years but adding a second language requires a significant amount of  work and sacrifice so that we can truly be ONE church, instead of two churches that like each other.


Over the years we have held combined worship services. I spent three weeks at language school improving my Spanish. I attend all the Encuentro worship services I possibly can. In our English worship services, we sing one song a week with Spanish. Some of our people are making friends slowly during our education hour when both congregations are in the building together. We send a van around to pick up families. But it seems like we have a long way to go to be unified like a family in Christ.


The Help is Helping Us Change 
We are beyond whispering now! When these ladies read and discussed this book, I was told it led to some deep and perhaps surprising discussion! When Lisa Payne spoke to me after hearing Hector preach, I was shocked at what they had discussed the night before at their The Help discussion.


She said it made them ask, 'Do we do this same sort of thing today? Are we prejudicial in our treatment of Hispanics? What is it like to raise children in a sub-dominant culture?' Wow. Wow!


Only the gospel could have prepared all these English-speaking women (who are quite diverse themselves) to look at themselves and ask such an honest and hard questions!


And only pressing into the Gospel and Scripture and each others' lives will lead us to further answers about the issues. I am deeply excited about how The Help discussion is helping us make progress!


We Aren't All Better Now - But We are Changing at Different Speeds
And now more people are investing themselves in the questions, the issues and the struggle to be united as a diverse church. As your pastor, it's so encouraging to see!

1. One Saturday after their The Help discussion, the ladies book club re-assembled to invite Hector and Cecy and me discuss issues immigrants face living under a dominant culture. The answers were not neat or easy. It makes us uncomfortable. But it was good. (more in future posts).
2. Pastor Jose Mateo (who is a 2nd generation Puerto Rican) just joined our pastoral staff as a volunteer to develop Outreach and Discipleship in our two congregations. Though he thinks and speaks English mostly, he can bridge both cultures in a way that neither Hector nor I can.
3. Sunday 4 people who's primary language is Spanish will lead 18 English-speakers in beginning to learn or improve their Spanish. Our hope is this will develop an appreciation for each other's lives, cultures, families, worship songs and maybe deeper friendships as we learn to obey the Lord together.
4. Next month, in our bi-monthly combined worship service, Hector will preach instead of me.
5. I posted a resolution some of us have made about welcoming immigrants into our church. Its posted here on this blog.

I wonder what else God will do with and through Crosspoint Encuentro as we continue following Him together?

A Resolution about Welcoming Immigrants into Our Church

Over the last few years as we have sought to become a truly bi-lingual and mulit-cultural church, it has come to our attention that there are few churches, in our denomination anyway, who have any official written statements that welcome Hispanics (yes, even people without documents) into their churches. There is a fertile and strategic mission field right here in our city!


I know we are stepping into a hornets nest, but since we have many immigrants in our church membership and we want to reach more, we realized we need to start thinking and writing about this issue from a pastoral perspective. The recent Georgia law House Bill 87 (HB87) and the heated argument about immigration and deportation has only sped up the process for us. 


Scripture has much to say about immigrants, sojourners or aliens. So this resolution starts with a 16-point summary of what the Bible says about immigrants. The nine resolutions are our attempt to address some key issues first in our church, Crosspoint Encuentro Church.


I would be interested in talking with others who have or want a similar statement about welcoming immigrants into their churches.
_______________________

May 25, 2011

A Resolution from Concerned Pastors and Elders of Crosspoint Encuentro Church

Regarding Welcoming Immigrants into our Church

Whereas 

1. God is the Sovereign King over all the earth and all governmental authority is subject to His authority and rule,God, after the Fall, subjected Adam and Eve to an immigrant status upon removal from Eden, (Genesis 3:23) and,
2. God sent Abram to be an immigrant with his family (Gen. 12:2) sojourning in a strange land, then made His covenant with Abraham while he was an alien (Genesis 17:9),
3.  the children of Israel, through God’s divine providence, were immigrants in Egypt for generations (Gen. 50:22-26), were led out of Egypt by Moses, an immigrant (Ex. 2:22) and celebrated the first Passover in Egypt with converted strangers and sojourners (Ex. 12:43ff) who were led out of Egypt with Israel.
4.  God audibly and repeatedly commanded His people to give aliens/sojourners with them Sabbath rest (Ex. 20:10; 23:9, 12), identified them as former aliens and commanded His people to not mistreat or oppress sojourners/aliens among them (Ex. 23:9),
5.  God commanded His people to maintain the same regulations for non-native born people as native-born (Num. 9:14 and Num. 15) and required equanimity in temple worship (Lev. 17 and 19),
6.  God charged the courts of His people to judge righteously between fellow countrymen and aliens living among them (Deut. 1:16) and promises to defend aliens along with the fatherless and widow because He loves the alien and provides for them through the generosity of His people both directly and through the tithes of His people (Deut. 10:18, 24:14-21, 26:12-13),
7.  God curses the man who withholds justice from the sojourner, as well as the fatherless and widow (Deut. 27:19),
8.  Christ Jesus immigrated to earth from heaven,
9.  in His humanity Christ was an immigrant, persecuted by his fellow countrymen,
10.  we were all alienated from God and strangers to the covenants of promise without hope except through God’s grace by faith alone (Eph. 2:12)
11.  through Christ’s sacrifice in our place, He became our peace, made all believers one, broke down the dividing wall of hostility, created in Himself one new man, and by His reconciling work on the cross will make all things new in heaven and on earth by His blood (Eph 2: 14ff, Col. 1:20-22)
12.  his people are and will be from every nation, tribe, tongue and people united in Him, heirs and sons – neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female (Gal. 3:26-29),
13.  all of God’s people are citizens of heaven first and citizens of a nation on earth second (Phil. 3:20)
14.  there is no human governmental authority outside of God’s sovereign will and all government is established by God (Rom. 13:1-7) but does not supersede the government of God,
15.  legal status is not a requirement for salvation or church membership,
16. ministers and elders of God’s church have a moral duty to speak against injustice.

We Resolve…

1.      We resolve to pray for immigrants and their families out of concern for their souls and well-being. We will pray as well for our US governing authorities – local, state & federal – who are responsible to God for their personal, legislative, executive (including enforcement) and judicial decisions in regard to justice and mercy for all people.  We will urge people to pray for the US electorate to consider immigration issues according to God’s Word so that His Word is exalted and obeyed as US immigration policy is debated and decided.  And equally important, we will pray for other nations’ governing authorities who will also one day answer to God.        

2.      We resolve to welcome all immigrants into our church for relief, assistance, development and the hearing of the gospel.

3.      We resolve to accept anyone who meets the requirements of faith in Christ alone by faith alone, they shall be welcomed into full membership in our church, regardless of legal status before the US government or any state in the Union.

4.      We resolve to disciple and train immigrants to ‘glorify God and enjoy Him forever’ and treat them with dignity as image bearers of God.

5.      We resolve to prepare all church members and attenders, whether immigrants with status or without, or citizens of the US, to live as missionaries wherever God may, in His divine providence, send them to live, work and worship Him.

6.      We resolve to protect and teach all children, regardless of status or citizenship, to love God, receive Christ by faith and follow the doctrines of our holy religion.

7.      We resolve to work for the protection of the weak, oppressed and alien during legal proceedings and to urge our political representatives to develop a just and equitable means for immigrants whose status has expired to be reconciled and/or acquire legal status according to the laws of the USA.

8.      We resolve to educate English-speakers in our church about the issues, challenges, problems and struggles for immigrants and to educate Spanish-speaking congregants about their rights and duties as a sojourner in the USA.

9.      We resolve to prepare any immigrants under our care who are not currently under proper status to comply with the laws of the US and if they are unable to rectify their status, prepare them for the potential return to their home nation and accept these consequences peaceably and with grace.

Under the Grace of God and to His Glory Among All Nations,

Jim Moon, Jr. – Pastor, Crosspoint Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Hector Guzman – Pastor, Crosspoint  Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Jim Payne – Pastor, Crosspoint Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Gordon Hwang – Elder, Crosspoint Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Reviews: Everybody Loses if This 'Love Wins'

Is Hell real? 
Does it matter?
Eternal souls are at stake. 


The teasers for Rob Bell's 'Love Wins' book coming out in April set the Christian social media world on fire. It was first  based on speculation as to what the book PROBABLY said.


Well now reviewers have copies of the book. Two solid reviews by people who actually read the book are available and I recommend them.


If you don't know what 'universalism' (the false teaching that eventually everyone will be saved) looks like in the modern world, Bell's teaching in this book is one (probably popular) example. 


The reviews are good and solid. I don't think either reviewer is trying to be mean. Neither takes personal stabs at Bell. However, they take issue with his theology and his misinterpretation of the Scripture and history.


So, the book has many serious faults. Stand firm in your faith. Know the issues. Be kind in your replies and comments. 


The long review is by Pastor Kevin DeYoung. The shorter review is by Tim Challies. 

Why You Should NOT Buy an NIV Bible

If it is the new 2010 NIV 'version', you have an impostor in your hands!

I have been using the New International Version copyrighted in1984 since 1999 because it is an accurate and very readable translation. It is a great translation for beginning Bible readers. Several of my seminary professors worked on the original 1984 translation.

However, in my sermon prep a few weeks ago, I went to BibleGateway to copy the text to start my studies, as I have many times. What I got shocked me!

Galatians 3 was different! I had unknowingly copied and pasted the NEW 2010 edition of the New International Version (NIV). There are significant editorial changes that are NOT in the original language nor in the original 1984 translation. This is wrong and misleading! 

For example, the original language says in verse 26, 'You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.' However the new edition for 2010 mistranslates the verse 'You are all children of God...'

Do These Changes Matter? 

Yes! This is a key verse in the doctrine of adoption. The original word choice is not only revealed from heaven, it has significant meaning! In ancient times, only sons received an inheritance. God, through Paul the writer, was making a very radical, pro-female statement in saying that by faith in Christ Jesus all who believe are His sons.

To say we become 'children' of God is just not what the original language or the original translation of the Scripture into English says at all.

(I will withhold my guesses as to any agenda the editors of the NIV2010 are trying to accomplish.)

And for sake of space, I will not offer an exhaustive list. One change of this caliber is enough. If you want more examples, ask for follow-up.

So do NOT buy a new NIV (c)2010.

Misleading to Keep the 'NIV' Label

What really bugs me is this: the NIV 1984 is a great translation and the NIV 2010 is a different editing job of that translation using the same respected label for an inferior work.

Honestly I wonder how the professors who worked so hard to give us the original NIV must feel? Their work now hacked up and changed beyond recognition...

So, Here is Your Christmas List!

Buy an English Standard Version for each reader in your family and circle of friends. That is what we will be using in the Crosspoint English-speaking congregation* beginning in 2011. 

Part of  my calling as your pastor is to protect you from false doctrine. Our Bibles are the starting point. I want you all to be reading and studying a reliable and accurate translation of the original language. The NIV2010 is simply not reliable or accurate. And it is too confusing to try to keep using the 1984 edition.

Time to Make a Change for Our English-speaking Church. 

Get an English Standard Version (ESV). Or if you have an older New American Standard Bible (NASB) you are reading an accurate and reliable translation.

I'll keep you posted if we need to make adjustments for our Spanish-speaking congregation.

'Jesus Never Fails' - Reviewing My Mom's Book

My mom just wrote a book. Well this one's been in the works for 35 years. It's about my parents risking everything they had to follow Jesus' call into full-time ministry with Campus Crusade back in the late 70s.

Now as an adult (and pastor) I think they were crazy! But as an 11-15 year-old I didn't know.

They were just my heroes following their Hero.

Last month I read the rough draft of mom's journal notes and stories taking shape into this book. I was struck hard by the intensity. Often I choked back tears at the behind-the-scenes confessions and prayers of what my parents went through learning to trust Jesus to put food on the table, clothes and shoes on four growing kids and let Him shape their young hearts. My, how it shaped us all.

I am emotional still as I think of the legacy they passed on to me in their own broken but faithful way.

Mom tells the stories straight: the good, the bad and the ugly. It's a real story of a real family struggling and celebrating God's faithfulness. The journey has been hard and with much heartache along the way.

But it's totally worth it. For God's glory and fame!

O that more of us would live stories of deep and even crazy trust. These stories are priceless and I'm honored to have been raised by parents that were willing to risk everything to follow Jesus. May the Lord raise up more of us who will trust Him and find out Jesus Never Fails. For our benefit and our children.

I'm helping her get the word out. If you could order one directly from her for $12, she can save you $5 off the publisher's price. I think its worth it to challenge more folks to trust Jesus with their lives in a practical way. Thanks for considering it.
____________________
from my mom Barbara Moon
Jesus Never Fails:Stories of God's Faithfulness illustrate through story after story both the difficulties and joys of living by faith and seeing God provide. These stories are taken from my  personal experiences, a diary I kept while we raised support, and newsletters we sent to friends, family and supporters after joining a faith-based ministry.

Whether you’re learning to live on a budget, struggling to trust God with your finances or a missionary, campus minister or church planter raising support, this short 93-page book will help you see God’s faithfulness. I’m excited about the potential for people to see God’s creative provision when learning to trust Him.

1. Could you help me get in 60 paid for direct-orders? I want to get Jesus Never Fails into the hands of people who could use a break. The retail price is $17 with shipping. But if we can get 60 orders paid at $12 then I can use my author’s discount and ship them at no extra charge!

2. I have no advertising budget. Could you spread the word via email, Facebook or Twitter to people who might want to buy a copy for friends or family members who would benefit from these real-life encouraging stories? Thanks!

To direct-order from me, send a Facebook message--or email to barbaramoon77@yahoo.com and I’ll tell you how to send a check. Thanks so much!

Jesus Never Fails Indeed.

When Helping Hurts: Heroic Fail in Haiti

Well-Intentioned Christian 'Heroes' in Haiti FAIL

A friend of mine knows the folks arrested in Haiti for snatching 33 children. Here is part of our dialogue on the Haiti situation, slightly edited for anonymity:

“So the big international hoopla ("Ten Americans Arrested in Haiti...") is folks from our [city]. Three of them are friends, and one of them is barely 18...

“My most visceral reaction was frustration and even anger, that they could have gone in with such a cock-a-mamie plan. They literally planned to find a bus in the DR to charter, drive across the border, fill with the first 100 children they could find, and return across the border to house them in an old motel in the DR.

“The intent was honorable and loving, but the logistics were completely of the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants variety. Central Valley… financed it to the tune of [a significant amount of money], with the intent of similar funding on a monthly basis. They partnered with another church in Eastern Idaho, which had a dream of building a future orphanage, but without feet on the ground in Haiti [WHAT!], or, apparently even a clue about the correct process, rather than working with an existing mission.

“Apparently none of the leadership thought that planning to be questionable--and even now defend it.

“Now the opportunity is lost, 33 frightened children are displaced once again, innocent (if naive and well-meaning) people are in jail awaiting trial resulting in unknown extra costs, and all of that money was wasted.

“Some of that money had been promised to [a local mission in ID], but then rescinded when the emergency trip idea hatched. I am … dismayed at the poor stewardship and lost potential here, and I find myself, uncomfortably annoyed with people who are sitting in a Haitian jail, while I sit at my computer. It does not all add up ... and I wonder at my smug contempt.”

Helping Hurt! Helping unwisely, from the perspective of the ‘all-knowing missionary’ hurt so many people. And who knows the full extent of the damage.

Again, I strongly recommend that we as comparably wealthy Western Christians LOOK HARD at the affects of our well-intentioned mission work. Not all of it will be so disastrous as this episode. But what is 'doing the right thing?'

We (church leaders) have to ask - before we dash to disasters - 'What makes the church response Christ-like or biblical compared any other non-government agency or relief work?'

Answer: Incarnation and long-term development.

The people and nation of Haiti will be no different in the long run without the gospel of Christ preached and lived out - in both relief and development.

Again I recommend When Helping Hurts:How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. I also recommend their online courses on the same subject. Worth the time and effort.

When Helping Can Hurt: Haiti Edition

It is all over the news. Helping disasters victims who have calamity suddenly thrust on them overseas. My next door neighbors are Haitians. It is terrible. Destruction of biblical proportion. 'Close to hell' some say. It makes me want to go and help - sort of.

I'm torn. We're involved with disaster victims who have calamity slowly thrust upon them here locally (the poor). Who should get my time, resources and attention?

Part of the answer is this: who is my neighbor? Who can I help? In one disaster everyone in the world gets motivated to raise money and go? And the other local poverty disaster gets overlooked and uncared for?

Part of the answer is that we all want to be heroes. It's sexy and cool to be on the first wave of help while the cameras are rolling and everyone's talking about it. It was the same way with Katrina, right?

God save the poor from help like that!
I have been restrained from trying show up and 'help' by reading an excellent book (and MSNBC article linked below) on the issue. When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Dr. Corbett and Fikkert.

In the past, I've only wanted to help the poor with RELIEF because it made ME feel better. This book and further study with the authors at the Chalmers Institute, have made me realize I should be helping alleviate poverty holistically with DEVELOPMENT rather than using the poor as a way to help me feel better in the short run.

I used to think poverty was something 'out there' and that I wasn't poor. Identifying with Christ has shown me that I am poor and poverty is close by. In me.

So by all means, let's help! Help the Haitians - but let's do so in a wise way. Let's help as the Lord Jesus helped. Not from above with all the answers (though He was from above and He did have the answers) but by humbling ourselves as He did (Philippians 2:5ff).

Let's help the poor in our own cities. It is a multi-year commitment with no cameras rolling. But helping does help. If done wisely.

PS. Yesterday I was surprised to see this article online. Guess the word is getting around.

Mondays are for Fighting: A Gospel Reader

Repent, Believe and FIGHT!
What do I read and study to learn how to fight? Found a great starter list.

My friend Matt Adair from Christ Community in Watkinsville posted a great set of links to articles and sermons that shape who we are and what we do. Some of the authors are profs I had in grad school, pastors I respect, scholars I study and folks I hadn't heard of until I read their stuff here.

These 24 resources provide a good foundation for personal reading, small group discussion or understanding Crosspoint's mission and my personal vision. Issues we all face. Click here to find the live links.

1. Gospel Coalition Foundation Documents
2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration
3. Together for the Gospel Statement (PDF)
4. The Centrality of the Gospel by Tim Keller (PDF)
5. The Biblical Gospel by D.A. Carson (PDF)
6. Gospel-Driven Sanctification by Jerry Bridges (PDF)
7. The Transforming Power of the Gospel – Steve Childers (PDF)
8. The Gospel and the Poor by Tim Keller (PDF)
9. Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship by Jonathan Dodson (PDF)
10. The Gospel Centered Life by Bob Thune (study)
11. Gospel-Centered Ministry by Tim Keller (PDF)
12. How to Preach the Gospel to Yourself by David Fairchild (Sermon MSS)
13. The Gospel: Key to Change by Tim Keller (PDF)
14. God Strengthens Us by the Gospel by John Piper
15. Advancing the Gospel in the 21st Century Part 2 by Tim Keller
16. Gospel-Centered Preaching by Steve Childers (not online)
17. Gospel Christianity (1.0) (2.0) (3.0) by Tim Keller (studies)
18. The Gospel in Its Many Forms by Tim Keller
19. How Does the Gospel Save Believers? (Part 2) (Part 3) by John Piper
20. Gospel-Centered by Joe Thorn
21. Being the Church in Our Culture by Tim Keller (PDF)
22. Preach the Gospel to Yourself by Tim Challies
23. What Do I Mean by a Gospel-Driven Life? (Part 2 | Part 3) by John Fonville
24. The Gospel-Driven Life by Harry Reeder III