A Mission Field You May Never Have Heard Of

 In seminary I had a class from C. Peter Wagner: “Strategies For World Evangelization.” It was a church growth class on a global scale. We learned about “unreached people groups” within countries all over the world. I kind of filed that approach away in my mind. Then, many years later I became aware of an unreached people group right here in the United States (and worldwide) that I had never heard identified. Here is how I came to know about this group.

A lady in our church called me one day to ask me to pray for her new little granddaughter who had a severe hearing impairment; in fact, she was deaf. From time to time the grandmother would bring the little one to our church and she would take her to the nursery. Pretty soon, the whole family came to church on a fairly regular basis. Our nursery folks took good care of little, blonde Amy, but when she was four she outgrew our nursery department. I vividly remember the first morning after she turned four. As I stepped to the pulpit I dismissed the children 4 years through 5^th grade to our great children’s church. I saw Amy’s grandmother walk hand-in-had with her out of the sanctuary to take her to her class. As I saw them go, tears came to my eyes, and I had a hard time getting into my sermon, because my heart broke when I realized we were not prepared to teach a deaf child about Jesus. From then on, her grandmother, and later her mother, tried to help by going with Amy and signing to her what the teacher said. They were gracious about it, but I knew it wasn’t enough, and it also meant that one of them had to miss worship every week they came.

About this time, I found out about a ministry called Silent Blessings, which had been founded by a college classmate of mine, Marshall Lawrence. He understood the problems of deaf people better than I ever could, because his daughter is deaf. He offered some breakout sessions on ministry to the deaf at our annual denominational convention. For the first time, I got a glimpse of understanding that the deaf community is an unreached people group who live among the rest of us. Around 30 million Americans have significant hearing loss. Turns out only about 2% of deaf people know Christ as Savior, and most churches have nothing for them. Less than 5% of churches have any outreach to the deaf and usually that consists of offering sign translation of the sermon. While that is helpful, it is not nearly enough, especially for those who were born deaf. A child who grows up deaf will probably never hear the Bible stories most of us take for granted, so when a sermon is signed to them as an adult, they often don’t have enough background to understand it very well.

Marshall also introduced a deaf pastor and some deaf believers to the breakout sessions. It was delightful to hear their testimonies through translators. What’s more is they had a deaf service two nights of the convention and that was a real eye-opener to me. More precisely, it was an ear opener. Even though they couldn’t hear, they still praised God through music. They loved to feel the beat, which requires the volume to be turned up very loudly.

Our church tried to make accommodations for Amy. I shared my concern about Amy and the deaf with our people and many of them understood the problem. Amy’s mother and a friend taught sign language and several of the children took the classes and really tried to communicate with Amy. We had Marshall come and share his ministry with us. I took two free ASL classes at the local college, but when you aren’t around a deaf person all the time, it’s hard to approach proficiency. Anyway, about the time I finished my classes, Amy’s family moved away and we only saw her when she came to visit her grandmother.

Our church wanted to do something that would reach deaf people, but we ran against problems that are common to people who want to reach this community:

1. The deaf community is tight knit.

2. They are self-sufficient.

3. They have a hard time trusting the hearing community.

4. They don’t consider their affliction as a handicap, or even an affliction, and they don’t like being treated as handicapped.

5. They speak a foreign language called ASL, American Sign Language.

Families with deaf children have unique problems:

1. Nearly 95% of all deaf children have hearing parents.

2. Only about 10% of those parents ever learn enough sign language to hold a conversation with their children.

3. They have to make very difficult decisions concerning treatment and education. Right choices are not clear-cut. They are far reaching, and there’s a lot of conflicting advice.

What I would like my readers to do:

1. Please pray for this enormous, largely ignored unreached people group.

2. Educate yourself about the deaf community. A great first step is to visit the Silent Blessings website, silentblessings.org.

3 Check out the children’s television program that Silent Blessings produces, “Dr. Wonder’sWorkshop.” It’s an amazing tool God is using to teach deaf kids about Jesus. If you can’t find it on your TV listings, check out samples at silentblessings.org.

4. Give to folks who are on the mission to the deaf community like Silent Blessings

5. Consider having Marshall Lawrence come to share his burden for the deaf with your church, small group, or club. He will open your eyes and touch your heart with this great ministry. 

Thank You to My Friends who have Served on Veterans Day

I never served in the military. The draft was on in my day and I was in the last cohort that received a deferment because we went to college. When my number was drawn, it was very low—30—which meant, without the deferment, I would have been called very quickly. I remember the day they drew my number. I did something I never did before or since. I walked off my summer job—just told my boss I was leaving and left. I drove around the Kansas countryside to decide what I should do. If I passed the physical, I would have been in uniform in a few months. Perhaps I should enlist. Could I get into the National Guard? My dad served in WWII; shouldn’t I go too? He waited to be drafted and I knew he didn’t want me to volunteer. How would I do? Could I handle the discipline? How would I react if I were in combat? I was confused. Finally, I decided that since I didn’t have to go right then, I wouldn’t. The deferment made me ineligible for the draft until I graduated unless I quit school, became a part-time student, or fell below a 2.0 gpa. Also, I was a ministry student; they had special deferments for ministers and student ministers. Should I sign up for one of those? I just didn’t feel right about taking ministerial student route. I was not a conscientious objector. I didn’t like the idea of fighting, but I knew that I would, if I had to. I just didn’t know how well I would fight. I decided I would use the regular student deferment and, after I graduated I would decide. But when I graduated the war was over. I was never called and the draft ended.

I have always liked reading history and I have read a lot about war. I stand in awe of the guys who have been in combat, especially those who have fought bravely. I’ve always wondered how I would react in combat. Would I stand strong? Would I curl up in the fetal position? Would I become a homicidal maniac? Or would I run away? I will never know. I’m kind of glad of that. I’m grateful to the men that faced an enemy so that I never had to. It’s right to celebrate these fellows (and in recent years, ladies) and the sacrifices they have made: in their bodies, in their psyches, of their time, and in their families.

About 10 years ago I was called to officiate at a funeral for a man I knew as a stroke victim. He was only a couple of years older than me, about 55 when he passed. He had been confined to a wheelchair for a number of years since his stroke. He seemed like a great guy, but he had a hard time communicating because the stroke had affected his speech as well as his mobility. He was a Viet Nam veteran so there would be military honors. It turned out he was quite a vet. He was a genuine hero. Six guys from his unit showed up and told stories of him that he had never spoken of, even to his sister. They had been a special reconnaissance team and spent a lot of time behind enemy lines. This guy that I knew as a cripple had earned a bronze star and a couple of other high honors on the field. At the funeral, these men had wonderful things to share about his bravery. I felt inadequate to say anything worthy of this man. He had gone to war because he was called. I had not because I was not called. He learned some things about himself that I can never find out about myself. I still feel a great deal of gratitude toward him and all the vets.

I travel a lot and when I see someone in uniform at an airport, I always try to thank them for service. It’s not much, but it’s way better than the reception Viet Nam era guys got. Veterans are among us and not distinguished by uniform, so these remarks are the best way I know to thank them.

Thank you veterans and God bless you. If I knew how to salute, I would salute you now.

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."- George Orwell (or at least attributed to him)

Who are You Trying to Impress?

That was the question the conference leader asked a group of about 500 or so pastors and church leaders. “Who are you trying to impress?” I was a very young associate pastor and being a typical Baby Boomer know-it-all, I answered to myself, “I’m not trying to impress anyone. I just want to be me.” Then, the leader went further and said “Who would you most like to hear compliment your ministry? A friend? A parent? Another pastor? A seminary professor? Who would you most like to hear say good things about your preaching and your leadership?” Well that brought the question home to me. I thought I would love to have some of my old profs (I was about a year and a half out of seminary) tell me I was doing things the right way. This conference leader had started his church with nothing and led it to be, at that time, one of the fastest growing and most effective churches in America. He said, “I decided when I started that if I could get a compliment from anyone on my ministry, I wanted it to come from the unchurched in my town. That is who I decided to try to impress.”

To me, that was a brand new way of looking at ministry, and it has become the way I have tried to conduct myself as a pastor. Because Jesus’ command to us is to make disciples, I knew I needed to make an impression on those who don’t know Him. How else could I help influence them to join me in following Christ? This idea began to color the way I sought to preach, the programs and events I led my church to do, and even the kind of building we eventually built. Sometimes, it’s meant choosing to do things in a way that was not impressive to my profs or even the older leaders in my church. From time to time, those people made their disappointment with me very obvious. But the Lord did not assign me to impress them. Jesus had the same problem. Most of the religious people of His time were not impressed with Him at all, while the regular folks followed Him.

Impressing the unchurched does not mean becoming like the unchurched, but it does mean sharing the Gospel in ways that get their attention and speak to them. It means treating them with respect and loving them. It means doing your best to make them feel accepted, comfortable and loved in your presence. You won’t have to point out their sin (the Holy Spirit will take care of that), and it’s not your job to judge them (I believe that is reserved for Christ). Your job is to care about them and want them to join you on the journey to heaven.

Too often the practice of congregations does not match its rhetoric. They say they want to win people to Christ, but they leave the unchurched feeling like they are a bother. When people do decide to join the body, the congregation often keeps them on the fringe of the fellowship for a long time. (Right after becoming the pastor at a church, I heard some of the core people talking about the “new family.” Turned out the “new family” had been attending and giving to the church regularly for 5 years.)

Lesson for Pastor: It’s easy for your office to become an ivory tower. You can find yourself surrounded only by Christians and people who try to act like Christians when they are around you. Find ways to get to know unchurched people in your community and be Jesus to them. Join a service or hobby club, play on a ball team not sponsored by the church, volunteer as a police or fire chaplain, coach your kid’s sports team. Do anything that will put you in close contact with people you might be able to influence for Christ. Then, get to know them. Become friends. Share life with them and thereby earn the right to share Christ.

Lesson for Church Leaders: Help your pastor develop a culture in your church that expects and welcomes unchurched people. Realize that they will bring baggage with them from the world and be willing to help them deal with it when they’re ready. Don’t expect people who don’t know Christ to act like Him. Be real with them. You probably aren’t as Christ-like as you should be either. Share the road to Him with them.

My mentor, Dan Harman, used to say when I was his associate at First Church in Fresno, CA that he wanted there to be three kinds of people in Fresno: 1.) People who are members of First Church. 2.) People who are members of another church, but say, “If I didn’t have a church home I would go to First Church.” 3.) People who don’t go to church anywhere, but say, “If I decide to go to church, I think I’ll try First Church.” We didn’t get that far, but we worked at it. I challenge you to work at it too.

Think about it. From whom would you like to hear a compliment? Who are you trying to impress?

Should You Try to Grow Where You Are or Go Somewhere Else?

In my last post, I came down pretty hard on church people who complain that they are not growing in their church and use that as an excuse for leaving their church. I realize that the growth of many Christians really does stall. When that happens their church experience and even their relationship with Christ can become stale. Changing churches is awfully drastic. It disrupts your life, the church, and often damages the Kingdom of God.

Here are some things you can do to grow at the church you now attend.

o   Find out whom the pastor is targeting with his messages and pray with him for those people. Who does he see as the people who your particular church has the best opportunity to reach? Those folks are the primary mission of your church. Now that doesn’t mean that others are excluded. It means that those folks are the center of the target. There is a biblical precedence for “targeting.” Jesus targeted the “lost house of Israel”, but He also healed the Syro-Phoenician woman, and told he disciples to go to all people. Also, Paul targeted Gentiles, but also reached Jews. Conversely, Peter targeted Jews, but he was the first to baptize a Gentile (Cornelius). Pray that your pastor’s messages will touch the targeted people at a deep level.

o   Find out whom the songs target and pray for them. Also pray for the musicians that they will be able to keep the message and not the applause their priority. While you’re at it, ask God to help you enjoy the music more. If you don’t like it, or it is too loud, don’t complain to anyone except, perhaps, the music leader him/herself.

o   Look into the eyes of the people who visit the church and newer members. Ask God to help you love them even if they are different in generation, different socio-economic status, or education level.  Ask him to use you to be part of winning your neighborhood and the next generation

o   Find out what needs to be done and offer to help in anyway you can. Ask a staff leader where you might fit in and how you can get trained to do it.  Tell them you want to be on the team.

o   Whether not the staff can help you find an “official” job, you can still be part of accomplishing the mission. You can warmly greet others, especially visitors. You can invite new people to attend your small group, Sunday school class, etc. Even if they never come, they will appreciate a sincere invitation.

o   If you know that you need help to grow in the Lord, join or start a group or class that will go deeper in the study of the Bible. Ask the pastor or a staff leader for direction in this.

If you can’t be part of the team, do your church, the Lord, and your pastor a favor and find somewhere else to attend. However, before you do that think about how you will explain your leaving your church to the Lord. That’s a lot harder than explaining it to your pastor or someone at church, because God knows your heart. If your reasons are selfish He will know. If your reasons are valid you will know His approval. 

Before you write off the leadership of your church and/or decide to leave, ask yourself these questions:

1. If the church changed to suit me would it be more likely or less likely to reach           unchurched people?

            2. Am I a customer at my church or am I part of the work force?      

People complain about commercialism in the church and say church leaders work to impress the unchurched. Some of those same folks then choose to leave the church because the church doesn’t suit them. What they seem to want is for the church to treat them as customers. For the church to work as it should, church members should be part of the staff, not the customers. The customers of the church are people who need Jesus. When they put faith in Jesus, the process of customer becoming workers begins. The work people in God’s church are supposed to do is the great commission and the great commandments. 

I have actually heard people say that the church should cater to them, because they give money. Well that’s consumerism. Our gifts to the church are just that—gifts. Some folks give to the church the way they pay dues to a country club. They think their offerings buy them the right to be served by the church and use the facility, and that the church leadership should put the social and religious needs of its members first. On the contrary the church must put the spiritual needs of those who don’t know Christ ahead of the religio-cultural needs of the members. We should expect, even require, that our gifts to the church be used to build the Kingdom of God.

On the other hand, if the reason you don’t feel like your are growing is because the church is not reaching people, then you do need to find another place where you can be part of the doing the mission. You need a place where you grow by serving and supporting the vision to reach your community for Christ. You are not to be a spectator. You are to be a stakeholder. You are to be a servant. You are to be a minister and missionary!