HISTORICAL
Known for its rich history and culture, France has long been a leader and influencer of world affairs. For the purpose of this paper, only the history since the Middle Ages will be considered. In the last 1000 years, however, France has been the epicenter of religious strife, political upheaval, invasion, occupation, torture, and political struggle.

It has been a culture with a long history of religious ambiguity, corruption and deep tension. It was in Avignon, France in the 1200s that a dual papal battle began, with one Pope located in Avignon and the other located in Rome. After the errant leadership of Pope Boniface VIII, the French king Phillip IV manipulated the church and had the capital of the Catholic Church moved to Avignon in 1305. So began a long “captivity of the church” as the French king used his influence over the pope during a particularly weak and corrupt era n church history to enrich his kingdom and fund his ongoing war with England. Pope John XXII, installed by Phillip’s influence, devoted his whole tenure as pontiff to enriching the papal treasury (and subsequently, Phillip’s war coffins). It wasn’t until 1415 that a single Pope was finally elected by the illustrious and imposing Council of Constance – Pope Martin V.

By this time, however, incredible damage had been done to the cause of Christ through a multitude of Crusades, religious infighting and greed among the church’s leaders. A generation of Reformers arose to debate the church’s error, defend the Gospel, and describe the true meaning of church to an apathetic culture. Ironically, the same Council of Constance that created the end of the papal battle (in 1415, there were actually three men who were called as Pope!), also named John Wycliffe a heretic and ordered him burned.

In the next 400-500 years, Europe was the site of such great spiritual earthquakes, with the likes of John & Charles Wesley, Martin Luther, and John Calvin – that many considered Europe entirely Christianized. The discovery of the American continent and its emergence as a world power suddenly shifted attention away from France, allowing some of the religious “dust” to settle. It settled thick. Generation after generation would remember the fallacies and sheer outrage of acts of the “church.” Even with the spirit of reform in the air, to many outsiders, it just looked like a reorganization.

In the 20th century, Catholicism reigned in France, but it was nominal at best. France was embattled by Germany, invaded, and occupied in the early part of the century. It never seemed to recover its sense of national identity. Once a staunch ally of the United States and its old rival, England, in the last 30 years, France has leaned steadily leftward politically. Recently, France became the subject of debate among American political conservatives as it refused to endorse or help in the war on terror in Afghanistan or Iraq. In fact, upon closer examination, a people once known for their arrogance now considers Americans to be supremely arrogant as anti-U.S. attitudes continued to grow, particularly among the young people of France.

Because of the well-publicized faith of U.S. President George W. Bush, many of the young people in France identify America’s “arrogance” with its religion and have turned their back on the faith of their fathers – which in most instances never had a chance to establish itself either.

I chose to focus my paper mainly on the youth of France. I took three years of French in high school and have always been drawn to the country. Here’s hoping that this series will provoke thought, prayer, and strategic mission effort toward the youth of Europe and specifically, France.

Western Europe is one location on earth that many would never consider as having “unreached people” living within it. The likes of John Calvin, Martin Luther, William Wilberforce, and other great Christian leaders and reformers are inscribed on the pages of history books and church cathedrals across the continent. However, the youth of France today, who will be the focus of this paper, have rarely seen or even held a Bible!

Many would say that to classify anyone in Western Europe as “unreached” is ridiculous. However, within the youth population of France, there are dozens of other ethnic people groups, each desperately needing a witness of the Lord Jesus among them. While other missiologists continue to publicize and hype the “10/40 Window” to the church, unreached people exist in historically Christian countries. This unnecessary overemphasis may be the result of a man-centered approach to the interpretation of Jesus’ words in Matthew 24.14 where Jesus said that the gospel of the kingdom must be preached to the whole world and “then the end will come.” That one passage has shaped and formed the strategies of hundreds of American mission agencies in the last 20 years and has resulted in the neglect of emphasis on other key influential areas, particularly Western Europe and France.

The youth in this powerfully influential area of the world are at crucial spiritual crossroads, and to abandon a concerted, strategic focus on them may set the church back even as it pours resources elsewhere. In fact, to neglect the evangelization of the youth culture of France or Western Europe will eventually create the most influential non-Christian group of countries in our world. The purpose of this series is to identify the urgent spiritual needs of the youth of France and to develop a strategy for reaching them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

[Above image taken from worldmap.org. Source.]

We heard Swindoll back in October at Catalyst, and he was deeply encouraging. Somewhere along the way, my generation of Christian leaders jettisoned its heroes, in favor of independence and self-sustained creativity. I can’t speak for everyone, of course, but it seems like we were all tired of “church as usual” and were determined to start from scratch.

That spirit of renovation and resistance led to a few good things, but it disconnected us with the wisdom of our elders in a detrimental way. Today, it’s discomforting to see that same spirit of independence and entrepreneurialism displayed in the new stars of American Christian leadership.

Chuck Swindoll humbly and confidently spoke from God’s Word today, and somewhere in his message, I again found a hero – a man annointed by God that I can follow and emulate as he demonstrates continued faithfulness to the cross.

These are the notes from his message today:

“I know you’re there, but I hope you’re listening. Now and on into tomorrow.”

THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SERVANT.

I Corinthians 3.22-4.2:

• All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
• Original term of “servant” means “underrower” – those who row in the under tier of the trireme – bottom level of large, ancient galley ships.
• “Stewards” – housekeeper, house manager, butler or maid.

A good part of every week for me is spent in the study. It always has been. Unless I miss my guess, many of you are cutting short your time with God in which you spend before God’s Word. You must row, and you must cook. You must prepare the meals of God for His people so that they are well-prepared and well-presented. If you neglect His word, you are serving up poorly prepared meals.

Know who you are, accept who you are, be who you are. One of the worst thing you give to your people is someone you’re not. As old pastor said, “Be who you is, cause if you ain’t who you is, you is who you ain’t.”

“When a man of God dies, nothing of God dies.” (A.W. Tozer) He transcends the changing of pastorates.

There’s not a celebrity among us! We are under rowers and cooks! Keep it constantly in mind. Keep that oar in the water and the spoon in the pan. Prepare the meal well so that you have depth.

Be aware that there are all kinds of sermons (devotional, topical, etc.)… longhorn sermons – a point here and a point there and a whole lotta bull in between. Expository sermons are the best because they take a lot of investment and time in God’s Word.

As for stewards, we must be found “faithful” or “trustworthy.” There’s no such thing as retirement for preachers! What are you living for?

Another word for under rower and cooks is… shepherd. Before long, you start smelling like the sheep. You love them, you care about them, and if you don’t, just go ahead and get out of the ministry. You never have to say “I need to be respected” because they will do so because of your love for them.

One of the major temptations is to think you deserve more respect or that your deserve a better seat on the ship. You think you deserve to be served the meals rather than serving all the time. It’s called self-pity. It’s the most reprehensible of the sins among the servants of Christ because you start feeling sorry for the sacrifices. Temptation comes back time and again and finds an undefended area and moves in closer.

2 Kings 5: Naaman heroic, famous and a leper. He takes $3 million and 10 suits of clothes, thinking to buy his healing. Elisha refuses to take payment – either before or after Naaman’s healing.

• But Elisha has a servant named Gehazi, and he sees a way to capitalize. 4 lies in v22. It wasn’t well with the servant, not deep down. It’s easy for words to come out of our mouths that represent a lie.
• He’s now living with his rationalization of being an unfaithful servant.
• Now he lies to the prophet, “Your servant went nowhere.”
• Powerful example of an unfaithful servant.

Swindoll’s told the story of serving as an assistant to and in the shadow of J. Dwight Pentecost as his “under rower.” A man in his church named Jim brought him a note that said, “The adversary would love to plant some alien thoughts in your mind. Guard your spirit from any spirit of entitlement. Avoid ways to promote yourself as you ride in his chariot. You enjoy many benefits you have not earned. His is the appointed ministry of significance; yours is the appointed ministry of assistance.”

FINAL POINTS

1. Guard your imagination. You are who you are. You are not anything other than that. Let it be.
2. Restrain all rationalization.
3. Leave no room in your ministry for deception. If there is any kind of cover up, come clean. Address it. Deal with it. Face it! It is not a time to nurture your own lusts when you’re cooking for God.
4. Ask yourself daily, “What is my motive?”

“Row, row row your boat – never ever quit – ever faithfully serving Christ, the captain of your ship.”

Moving just a few doors away is a unique situation. I was a huge proponent of the “get-50-people-and-line-them-up-across-the-neighborhood” strategy that would create a human conveyor belt for our belongings. It didn’t work that smoothly, but we had a ton of help and were grateful to be stashed in our new digs in less than 48 hours.

For those of you who have moved recently, you’ll understand the phase we’re now in. We are comfortable, and even though there are tons of boxes still waiting for our attention, it’s not stuff we need every day, and so we’ve been unmotivated to unbox. It’s strange how life doesn’t slow down to allow you to focus on things like that.

The week prior to our move, I traveled to Orlando for the Exponential Conference, treated all our church’s volunteers to a laughter-saturated appreciation dinner and baptized seven folks at our church. It was an incredibly full week that I mentioned briefly here.

Since moving in, we’ve been able to host our small group twice, and it’s a humbling experience to see God at work in people’s lives even as they sit in your home. One of our criteria in our home search was that it had to be a wonderful place for families and friends to relax with us and a home in which ministry would be centered.

The ministries that take place through our (and your) home, however, are not nearly as important as the ministries that take place in your home. It would be comically tragic for small groups and Bible studies with church members and guests to be regularly occurring within our home at the expense and absence of daily discipleship within our own family.

Let me urge you to prioritize the ministry within your home before you attempt to do ministry through your home. As a Christian husband, I have been granted the humbling and deeply significant role of seeking Christ for my whole home. I am to be my home’s pastor before I am my church’s pastor. This is true even for Christian husbands who are not vocationally called to serve as pastors. Our relationship with Christ must be mirrored in our relationship with our families. We humbly seek to lead our wives and children closer to Jesus as our life’s utmost calling.

The leaders of the church in the New Testament saw the home as an unquestionable spiritual priority for leaders in the church. Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “He [the leader] must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) (1 Timothy 3.4-5)

Moving from one house to another is irrelevant in the definition of a Christian home. It’s not the bricks that are ordained or special. It is the living building blocks of the church that live within them. (“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3.9)

How does your spiritual home look these days? Is it time to unpack the things that you’ll need to most to spiritually shepherd your family?

I heard him in Atlanta last fall at Catalyst, but when he spoke Tuesday at Exponential, I was struck by his renewed passion and intensity. He has always urged college students to drive deep into their love relationship with Jesus Christ. At Exponential, Louie urged church planters to do the same thing.

He began by reading all of Isaiah 55, focusing on Isaiah 55.10-11. As he talked about his growing conviction that led him to help start PCC, he answered the oft-asked question that many of us church planters receive: What kind of church is it?

Louie’s responses about PCC was simple: “I don’t know.”

I thought his response was brilliant. Most folks are wanting to pigeon-hole your church, and in doing so, they attempt to rob it of influence. “Oh, it’s a Baptist church…” Or, “Oh, so you guys light candles?” The list goes on. I wrote an entry a while back about the danger of marginalization. In a nutshell, when people can classify you, they feel comfortable with you.

So Louie’s response to that question may force initial discomfort.

As he unpacked his biblical rationale, he also wisely challenged some assumptions of the contemporary church world that needed to be challenged.

Most will say that you need a clear vision in mind when you’re starting a new church, that you need a mission statement, that you need a 3-year strategy, a launch date, and an iPhone. Louie said that with PCC, they didn’t start with a photograph in mind of what they should become. Rather, they began with operational principles.

While many in the past 20 years of the church planting/growth movement have identified the church in Acts 2 as being their role model, Louie asked a great question: What kind of church did the Acts 2 church think they were becoming? In other words, the Acts 2 Church didn’t know they were an “Acts 2 Church.”

Louie said they had three operational principles:

• They had the teachings of Jesus.
• They were eyewitnesses of the Resurrection.
• They were filled with power by the Holy Spirit.

He urged us to rest secure in the reality that Christian today have what they had. “We have what they had!” he exclaimed. “Plus, we get the maps!” he said with a cheeky grin.

When we depend on the teachings of Jesus, believe and act in dependence on Christ’s resurrection, and surrender and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, we too can demonstrate the radical nature of the New Testament church. He then asked with conviction, “How could we ever become arrogant?!”

“It is arrogance that leads to divisiveness and competition.” He also urged leaders to quit getting our vocabulary and ideas from the latest book that is released in the contemporary/missional/postmodern/transformational church world.

Be confident in the Word of God.

Quoting from the Isaiah passage above, Louie passionately urged leaders to believe deeply that God’s Words will accomplish their purpose. Every time. They never fail in their assignment. We must seek repentance for failing to walk by faith in His Word.

Louie said he occasionally hears someone say something to the effect, “You really hit it out of the park this week.” He wished that expression and all like it would be banned from our responses. It’s not whether we “hit it out of the park,” but did we place the Word of God before the people? If so, “it ain’t coming back.”

What Others Said About It

• Jason Curlee
• Matthew Erickson
• Jenny Clayville

It’s an unusual passage, and as Mark shared his own journey with us of a failed church plant attempt in Chicago (a project for which he got an A on his plans for it in seminary), he pointed out that many times, we head out in a direction with our plans rather than God’s plans. We may be going in the right direction but have the wrong intent.

In Numbers 22:30, the donkey is the rational one in the passage, having endured three beatings. Up to this point in the passage, the donkey is the only one to have seen the angel in the way.

Mark pointed out that we like “open doors” more than closed doors, but the closed doors are more significant. It was the angel of the Lord that kept closing the path forward… but strange… God told Balaam to go in the first place.

Sometimes, God gets in our way to show us His way.

God wants you to get where He wants you to go more than you want to get where He wants you to go. Batterson urged us to consider how our plans may be interrupted by God’s better plans. Don’t get discouraged when what you have in mind doesn’t fall into place. Trust that the Lord is up to something that you may not be able to perceive.

In the end, God wanted Balaam to bless, and not curse His people.

Perhaps a better moral would be: Don’t be so quick to mistreat the smart asses in your life. They may be seeing more than you are.

As I reflected on this Psalm a few days ago, it struck me. I’ve grown callous to sin in me and around me. I am unmoved regarding disobedience. This is in spite of the reality that each Sunday, I urge others to simply obey. It’s way too easy in this flash flood carnality that we live in to become immune to the rampant disregard of truth.

While political parties debate about the rights of health care, and others bemoan the evaporation of civility, the psalmist weeps because God is ignored. As in his day, it is in ours – it’s repugnantly easy to disregard God.

In the depths of my soul and the extent of my experience, I’ve never found obedience to God to be ultimately harmful to me. Rather, submission to His Word revealed in the Bible is a relief. It removes me from the driver’s seat on a trip that has stretched far too long and exceeded every energy drink I have in stock. Submission to God’s Word and will at that point is a lifesaver. For I simply cannot go the distance. The desire to stay in control is there, but my heart and soul have been designed to lovingly ruled by their Creator.

It is when we obey that blessing blooms.

Wonder with me today. What is it that you will not obey?

What odious word, what hateful directive

Do you refuse to to be your life objective?

Is God so wrong and you so right

That you resist Him day and night

Is He intent on your destruction

So much so that you’re bent on construction

Of a life deluded in your independence

Of one denuded of your obedience?

Your lids are heavy and the road’s great length

Exceeds your energy, your drive, your strength.

Best pull over; let Another drive.

He will not forever with you strive.

“Your statutes are the joy of my heart. My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.” (Psalm 119.112)

Let yourself be moved today.

This is the first of my posts in reflection on my recent personal retreat. As an aside, I’m grateful to David James, the Arkansas Baptist Collegiate Ministry Team Leader, who effectively urged me to take a regular personal retreat each year that I served under him as a campus minister. It was a strange practice to me at first, but it’s become a cherished pilgrimage that I now seek to prioritize twice a year.

Since moving to Virginia, my family and I haven’t been east of Blacksburg except to go to the airport in Roanoke or attend a meeting in Richmond. I left last Thursday a.m. with Lynchburg in my sites for the first personal retreat in a year and a half. 2009 was just so crazy for me that I wasn’t able to schedule one.

My three days there were spent reading, writing, praying, and simply being. At times the quietness almost overwhelmed me. I am grateful for an incredibly supportive spouse who recognizes my need for solitude and for two kids who just seem to take for granted that dad needs time like this.

Bookstore melancholy

I visited a bookstore while in Lynchburg, and while there, I bumped into a familiar bookstore buddy of mine – melancholy. Typically I ran into Mr. M when I was in Mardel in Little Rock or Barnes & Noble. It was no surprise to find him there. He seems to ambush me frequently in between shelves.

As I tried to explain this to Carolyn the other night, I felt a little foolish, but after reflecting on this sense of sadness/longing that envelopes me in bookstores, I’ve reached some tentative conclusions:

• The Muzak is playing Back Street Boys, and I just haven’t realized it.
• A voodoo doctor is sticking pins in a doll of me somewhere.
• I wish I could have/run a bookstore.
• I am running face to face into my finiteness.

I tend to opt for the last one (although I really have dreamed of owning a bookstore throughout my life).

My own awareness of my great limitations is never more obvious in a bookstore. I am a reader and love to digest new material and be challenged. It’s in a bookstore that I have this sweeping realization that I will never be able to digest even the smallest portion of what’s available. I am doomed to perpetual ignorance.

Even if I had a photographic memory and started today, I would not in my lifetime be able to consume the material I want and that I’m hungry for. Even though Google has become a collective human database, it still cannot tap the innards of copyrighted material. Nor can I remember everything I read. On top of that, I can only read one thing at a time – for limited amounts of time. And so I’m left… melancholy.

The fact that I forget so much of what I’ve already read means that I have to spend a portion of my life re-membering, refreshing, reflecting and upgrading. I will never catch up. All of reading must be done in a linear fashion. I can’t read two books simultaneously.

It makes me hungry for heaven, actually.

When I am welcomed with joyful grace into eternity by my Lord Jesus, I firmly believe that the invitation of eternal blessing is matched with an invitation for eternal learning, discovery, and adventure. I’ll be able to spend a thousand years reading and then take a break with another thousand years of backpacking heaven’s equivalent of the Andes. What I’ll do next as I enjoy the glories of God’s Presence and Love is all cake.

As I bemoan my inability and finiteness, I am turned to praise the wonder and majesty of God. He is a God who created all things, knows all things, and is a Master of it all. He is not overwhelmed in Barnes & Noble. He is the Author of Life. His omniscience and immanence are stunning and beyond comprehension.

So while I can’t plug a USB cord into my neck and download (and remember) all the information I want here, it’s OK. Those surprise ambushes by Mr. M are counteracted with confident knowledge of future discoveries in the kingdom of God.

In the conclusion of this powerful message called “It Is the Spirit Who Gives Life” by John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church on December 27, 2009, Piper points out from John 6 that “whenever resistance to Jesus starts to mount – and we feel like in our culture that we’re losing our grip… Oh, what will poor God do without America? – whenever it looks like resistance to Jesus is winning, we Christians need a clear, robust vision of the sovereignty of God.”

Jesus’ hard words in John 6 did not pander to the crowds. Indeed, in John 6, Jesus’ ministry appears to be going downhill as many left Him. I listened to Piper’s message on the way home from our Christmas traveling today, and it struck me as a much-needed corrective to Christian-centered churches and ministries. It’s not about us; it’s about Him.

One of the most profound thoughts voiced in this message was about those who rejected (and are rejecting) Jesus. “Their unbelief is not a proof of their sovereignty,” he said.

I’ve included a clip of this part of the message for you to listen to, but I encourage you to listen to the whole message here.

Until I reached my conclusion…

Let me back up a little.

We’ve focused our evenings around the Advent themes. Last night was about Peace, and the message was “Peace Follows Release.” We began by allowing Linus to read Luke 2 -our focal passage:

The interesting thing about that passage is how the King James Version says “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” Most modern translations recognize that another alternate meaning is essentially “peace on earth to whom God is pleased.” In other words, God’s peace is conditional.

The angels weren’t pronouncing world peace at all, after all.

In fact, that little baby that they announced would later pronounce “Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth…” (Matthew 10.34)

Was there a discrepancy between the promise of the angels and the mission of the Messiah?

That was the theme of the message. We looked at what Scripture describes as the person who pleases God. Hebrews 11.6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God…”

The apostle Paul says in Romans 5.1 that since we are “justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is the person of faith that pleases God, in other words. Peace on earth is promised to those who in faith believe and love the Lord with all their hearts, minds, strength and souls. Peace on earth is not an amorphous promise. It’s succinct. It’s specific. Peace is promised, yes, but only “among those with whom he is pleased.” (ESV)

Those who release their lives to Christ find peace from Him. It is only through faith – trusting God instead of ourselves or others (or our things) that we find release.

And here’s where the Rolaids analogy comes in.

I played with the word RELEASE in my conclusion. I rarely do this, and it’s cheesy, but I used each letter to represent what we should release to Jesus.

R – Relationships. As Jesus said in the Matthew 10.34 passage, we should not allow any earthly relationship to compare to our love for Him.

E – Expectations. All ______ (anger, frustration, worry, anxiety, etc.) is the result of unmet expectations. We need to release our expectations to the Lord.

L – Lesser Loves. Anything good that demands our attention, time and effort is still a lesser love when compared to Christ. We need to recognize them for what they are – idols – if they come between us and our allegiance to the Lord.

E – Ego. Our pride and our relentless commitment to ourselves needs to be released. James 4.10 urges us to “humble ourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

S – Stuff. I know it’s not sophisticated or eloquent. But we all let stuff interfere with our love for God. Our possessions, our time, our checkbooks, our financial goals. We must release these in order to discover the peace that comes from God.

E – Experiences. Whether it’s past successes or failures, fantastic heights or stunning hurts, we cannot allow our experiences to define our obedience. We must release them all before the Father.

There you have it… except for the “A.” The A was “Attitude. We cannot allow a skewed perspective or negative viewpoint to hinder us from following Christ in faith. Our attitude can dramatically alter our ability to enjoy God because it reveals we cherish our emotions more than our Messiah.”

However, last night, I just missed it in my notes. Completely.

Most folks didn’t catch it (or were gentle enough to overlook it). Others were quick to assume that was the Arkansas spelling of RELEASE. And they pointed that out with great glee.

Fortunately, the Lord used it anyway. (I hope and trust.)

It’s not really important that you can spell “release” in all actuality. It’s just crucial that you can do it.