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Last night I was reminded of the most important class that I ever took in seminary, World Missions. I took the family to State College to take part in the First Night Celebrations. State College is the home of Penn State University. It was a wonderful night of watching a parade, looking at ice sculptures and general fun with the family.
It was the parade that got me thinking about my seminary missions class. It was a very small parade made up of freeze-dried hippies beating drums, and college kids wearing festive costumes. How does a parade of freeze-dried hippies get me thinking about missions? Well, fifty miles away in the town where I pastor, a typical parade is made up of fire engines from thirty different local fire companies, ten different high school bands, and countless baton-twirling classes. Fifty miles transported me from one culture to another.
There is an assumption that pastoring in America is a “one education fits all” thing. The reality is that is not true. In our church we have had pastors come from California, the city and the South, only to leave in a short period of time in failure. Why? They did not recognize that they were entering a different culture which required them to adapt their methodology. They needed to grasp cross-cultural ministry. They did not know how to study the culture and find ways to contextualize the gospel.
They needed to pay attention in “World Missions” class.
As I was recently traveling through Virginia, I was reminded of an incident that I witnessed a few years ago.
Three years ago I was traveling to a conference in Central Virginia. As I was driving along Highway 522, I saw a house fire in the distance. The house, located along the highway, was completely engulfed in fire. Fire trucks were present in overwhelming numbers. As I drove by the fire, I was shocked by what I saw. On the front porch of this house were ten firefighters huddled together posing for a picture. Obviously the house was a controlled fire for the purpose of training firefighters. But the scene of firefighters posing for a picture with a house burning down around them was deeply disturbing.
As I remembered that incident, I could not help but think that we are like those firefighters. The house is burning down around us and we are too busy posing for a picture. The world is spiraling to eternity in Hell and we are posing for recognition, for glory, and for success in ministry.
At that moment on a highway, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and asked me, “George, when it comes to your life in this world, Are you too busy posing?”
I recently returned from a 8 day trip to Haiti, where I had the privilege of teaching a group of Haitian pastors. It was a rather humbling experience since most of these men are pastoring churches that are 2, 3 and even 4 times that size of the church that I pastor.
As I spent time with these men, I believe that I have found the key to church growth in the Haitian context. So the following are some church growth lessons that I gleaned from them.
1. Minister in obscurity. No one will ever know your name. Books will never be written by you or about you.
2. Live in extreme poverty. You literally have to pray for the next meal. Death is a constant reality. (Note: One of the pastors had to leave the 6 week school and return home because he received word that one of his children had died.)
3. Live by simple faith. All you have is God
4. Expect hardship. Each day holds its trials. (One of the pastors received word that his cow fell in a hole and died. This was a major financial loss to this pastor.)
5. Deal with constant opposition from evil. You have to deal with the threats of the enemy daily as he threatens your life (literally) and your reputation.
6. Proclaim the gospel only. You simply give the message of Jesus’ death and nothing else and watch the spiritually hungry come to Christ.
As I listened and spent time with these men, it occurred to me that we have a lot to learn in the America about true Christianity.
