a few more years shall roll

So, in the ten minutes before I leave for choir practice, I thought I’d write a quick announcement.

Life as I know it is shortly going to change. I’ve been working for the past (almost) seven years at Penn, where I also spent four years as an undergraduate. In some ways, this campus feels like home. I enjoy my job, I appreciate my colleagues, and I have grown professionally here.

Yet, I’m leaving. I announced to my office co-workers on Friday that I’ll be starting a new position at my church in November. The official title is Missions Coordinator, and I’ll be working closely with the Missions Pastor both in communicating with our workers overseas and educating the congregation about work going on in Philadelphia and around the world. (there are a few other pieces to the job description–but for now, that will do). It’s an exciting opportunity, a huge challenge, and a complete change from my current work.

That’s the brief version. I’ll write more when I don’t have choir practice to run to!

I spoke as part of the short term on Sunday at a luncheon at Tenth. Here are some notes I wrote up from that talk. I’ve edited it for content on a public website, so sorry if areas are vague.

Last year, I was able to go on Tenth’s Journey of Grace to the Middle East with nearly fifty other members of Tenth. During that trip, I saw and learned so much about the nation we visited, I was able to meet and get to know believers, and I knew I wanted to return. But, I wasn’t really sure what to do with all of those things. I did know a few things: I knew that Tenth had made a commitment to focus on that area. I knew that we were part of a group of churches who are partnering with the American workers and the national believers, believing that we can accomplish more together than we can separately. I also knew that relationships were key to the partnership.

In many ways, the JOG prepared the way for this year’s trip. It allowed our brothers and sisters to know that we at Tenth cared for them, that we wanted to be with them, that we loved them. Relationships were developed during last year’s trip that helped make this year’s trip a “success.”

But, this year’s trip was also vastly different in scope and intent. Our team of fourteen learned a great deal and we are compelled to share what we have learned with Tenth. The team has a term that we became quite familiar with—greeting well. Greeting well was our assignment for this trip. Greeting well involved honoring the culture we entered, observing, listening, spending time, asking questions, but avoiding assumptions, coming into a completely different culture while recognizing our own American-ness. Before we can “do” anything, we have to enter into to a culture and greet the people well. We were really learning a new (for us) approach to missions.

So, going in, we didn’t know what to expect. We weren’t sure what the next day would hold. But, we asked God to help us, to teach us, to give us grace.

How did he answer our prayers? What did he teach us?

He used his Holy Spirit in our lives to change us, to open our eyes, to draw us to Christ. I am using a broad category to encompass what he did—He humbled us.

We were humbled:
 By our mistakes and misinterpretations within the culture. We didn’t always greet well, we were very American at times, and things went completely over our heads at other times. But, God was gracious and allowed us to learn from mistakes (our own and each other’s), so that perhaps by the end of the trip, we were making fewer.
 By learning our great need for grace. We learned that when we tried to make things happen (conversations, interactions), we were often unsuccessful. We had to learn to rely on God’s grace and to know that a good conversation was no more a result of our ability than a bad conversation a result of our inability.
 By our study of the Word. Each day, and sometimes twice a day, we were led to the Scriptures to learn about humility, life in community, grace. This allowed us the proper framework for our daily activities, and gave us immediate application as we went out into the streets.
 By the worship services, where we were conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit as we worshipped with a multi-ethnic, multi-national church.
 By the faith of our brothers and sisters. We shared meals, nights out, sightseeing, etc with different members of the church and we were encouraged by them. Seeing them hold so tightly to their faith spurred us on in our own faith.
 By the attitudes of the American workers we spent time with. We saw them serving in a very behind the scenes way, putting others first, building relationships, confessing sin, asking for forgiveness. This humility guided us as we then interacted with each other and the people we met.
 By being part of the team. We saw God’s grace as we interacted with each other—we faced some major challenges from the start of our trip, but God used them to draw us to Him and to each other. It was encouraging for me to see the members of the team seek out ways to serve each other, to really keep an eye out for the other team members. We were given a glimpse of real life in the body of Christ.
 By the overwhelming hospitality and friendship of strangers. Certainly we want to be careful not to idolize a culture and to recognize that every culture is fallen, but we were taught by non-Christian strangers how to live hospitably in a more Biblical fashion, as they welcomed us into their homes, lives, and businesses. In coming back to the US, many of us are still wrestling with how to better integrate hospitality into our lives in Philadelphia, as well as how to deepen relationships we already have.
 By recognizing the importance of community and family. We tend to live individualistic lives as American Christians, seeing relationships on a 1 to 1 basis, rather than in the context of community. We could see the potential for Christianity, with the basis of community already in place. We know that we are called to live in community, so it was humbling to see others who do not know the Lord doing this well. But, we also recognized the difficulty that such a community-oriented culture could be for those who turn to the Lord and might be forced to leave that community. We could see the importance then of a strong Christian community for the believers, and also gained an understanding of how our relationship with them could encourage them that they remain part of the community of God.

What are some of the results of this “humbling”?
1.We see less of ourselves. We see more of others, and more of Christ.
2.We are put in a receiving position: learning from others, receiving hospitality, instruction, friendship, and a taste of the Lord’s work.
3. We are given a new perspective on the work of the kingdom as a partnership.
4. God is better able to work in our hearts. To let us see new pathways for service, either right where he has already placed us or where he might be moving us.
5. We want to maintain that attitude of humility as we work with the church there. We want to submit to our brothers in the Lord, so that we can grow and be a part of the Lord’s work.