Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Church Leadership Training for Ayutthaya

I'm really impressed by the leadership at the church we work alongside - there is no "full-time" worker or pastor, but 3-4 couples share the responsibilities for running the church (administration as well as teaching), and a few others help with preaching, Sunday School, and so on. It has been very easy to tell people that I haven't come to "pastor" or lead Tha Rua Church - the church is doing quite well without us. What we are here to do is work alongside TR Church to start churches - or, more accurately, networks of congregations - in the surrounding districts that do not have churches, and throughout Ayutthaya. What we will be needing for that to happen is more Thai leaders. And I think, since we have several people who are involved in ministry at one level or another, it will be important to start developing leadership now, so that when membership grows we will have more leaders able to nurture spiritual growth.
Because we have several people with some degree of ability and even experience already, I want to aim for a plan that will be a bit more egalitarian, rather than top-down. I like what Greg Ogden has suggested in his book, Transforming Discipleship: Trios are more conducive to multiplication than either pairs (direct mentoring) or small groups (5-8 people). Ogden found that those who developed in trios were far more likely to start second and third generation groups than any other type of group. He suggested that one-on-ones tend to be hierarchical, and the person being mentored usually gets few if any opportunities to practice leadership. In larger ‘small’ groups, one or two people tend to dominate – it is much more difficult to make them egalitarian enough for everyone to develop leadership ability. Of course, trios can be dominated by one person as well, but it seems to create the atmosphere most likely to lead to multiplication.

In our groups, I want to recognize the abilities and experience that each person brings, as well as admit that I want to continue growing in ministry ability and spiritual depth. When I first started working with Tha Rua Church, Ajaan Suphachot (head of ACT Central Thailand) gave me some good advice: that Thai Christian leaders don’t like to be seen as the “luuk nong” (underlings) of foreigners. I’ve made it a priority to keep that advice at the fore of our work here.

I do like the flexibility of the “Train and Mentor” materials – each member can choose which module to work on to develop in spiritual depth and ministry. The problem I see with this curriculum is that it is designed to be hierarchical – only those under the chain of authority of the licensee may use the materials without having to pay the fee. However, I think we can develop a curriculum using some of the available materials in Thailand, and a template for group members to develop their own modules. It is taking some time to draw up a menu of available and potential modules, but I do like how it is coming together.

To summarize, the kind of leadership development scheme I’m trying to develop will (1) use trios (at max 4 people, after which the group can split), (2) aim for mutual encouragement and accountability, with each person having authority and responsibility in the group, (3) use a flexible, biblical curriculum, hopefully with the opportunity for members to develop their own modules based on interest and need, (4) groups will meet regularly (twice a month?) and commit to pray for one another daily.

I have also tried to summarize the purpose of these groups as: To develop enough leaders for many churches in Ayutthaya who (1) depend on the Lord and walk closely with Him, (2) have the ability to lead the church and proclaim the gospel, (3) love and understand God’s Word, (4) are able to develop the next generation of leaders as well as church members, and (5) are continually growing in spiritual depth and their own ability to lead.

I presently have about six guys I’d like to try this scheme with. I’ll update how this is going from time to time.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Welcome back to Thailand

We had a rather rough 'welcome back' to Tha Rua yesterday. About 4 a.m., music started blasting from some temple or other, announcing the celebration of a young man going into the priesthood. Not particularly nice for us when we're trying to adjust from jet lag. I was kind of frustrated, but knew I wouldn't get any sleep, so I went downstairs to do some work on my computer. The hard part, though, was when my son came downstairs a few minutes later, really grumpy about the music, and declaring how much he hated Thailand. Mind you, it was already hard enough for him to leave grandparents and so much he enjoyed in North America - he had reminded us about 20 times over 4 days that he did not want to go back to Thailand.

Thankfully, by then I had regained some equilibrium, and was able to spend some quality time with him. I asked him, "Do you want to help Daddy make breakfast?" and he was quick to say yes. We have a tradition of having omelettes on Sunday mornings, so Nate helped me chop up the onions (his favorite food!) and bell pepper and cook up the Chinese sausage (kunchiang). During one break, I suggested we take a few minutes to pray for the people who were playing the music, and he was quick to agree. I think in the end it was a bit of a healing time for him, even though he still misses grandparents and friends from NA. We even took a few minutes to write an email to "Grampa Bakes".

Often, we face various frustrations and (especially in a cross-cultural situation) can slide into really negative attitudes. By God's grace, we can still choose our response. Our responses aren't limited to "I hate ______" or "Oh, it doesn't matter", but we might need to say something does matter, but also turn the frustration into an opportunity for God to work on us and to pour out his overcoming love to others, such as we can do through prayer.

I must say that Sunday turned out to be a really good day - being back in church with the brothers and sisters, seeing God at work in them, visiting with Jeff and Mervil in Ayutthaya, and making breakfast with my boys. :) I was exhausted by evening, but it was all good.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Reminder of why we're in Ayutthaya

Tough experience this morning: We arrived at the airport to fly to North America, bags all packed, everything in order, we thought. Even though we have been quite focused on work and getting things in order, we have really been looking forward to 30 days with family. It's been two and a half years since we were "home", and as much as I love my work, I need this time with family.

As an airline official checked our paperwork, I turned to Brenda and remarked, "Next year, several of our passports are due to be renewed." The words were barely out of my mouth when the official said to us, "This passport has expired." We were totally stunned - one of the boys' passports, used in re-entry into Thailand (so required for departure) had lapsed two months ago. Nothing could get us on that airplane now, no matter how much we wanted to go.

It felt like hell. No, literally. No amount of pleading would get us on that plane: and rightly so, since the legal requirements were not satisfied. It didn't matter if we were "good" people. It didn't matter that we had tickets. It didn't matter that we had our bags all packed and who was waiting for us on the other side of the ocean or how much we knew or how often we'd been to church or... I wanted to cry out, "But I didn't know it had expired! No one told me!" but that would be no excuse, and it really was my own responsibility.

I'm no fan of hell. Yes, our family's experience is 'just' a delay of 3 days, not an eternal destiny, but the sad truth is that some people who have been banking on going to heaven will discover all too late that they have no "passport" when they 'arrive at the gate'. Thinking it's all about being good enough, or smart enough, or having made merit or done the right things (such as going to church or another religion's equivalent), there will be a lot of shocked people to hear, "I'm sorry. I never knew you." And whatever else hell might be, it will be the pain of that door being locked forever when you thought you had all your papers in order, but also knew you had ignored a critical but just requirement. If you want to enter the home, you must know the owner, and the owner must know you.

But so many people in Thailand do not know, either through ignoring or rejecting what they've heard or by not really having much of a chance to hear the gospel. I personally prefer to focus on the positive side: The gracious Lord of the universe has issued an invitation that is too good to refuse! Just as our destination (to be with family) is something really, really good, heaven is a great hope, better news than our dull imaginations usually come up with. But there is a serious side to our message: ignoring or rejecting the invitation means being left out. I got just a small taste of that this morning, a reminder of the importance of our message to the people of Thailand. And we need help to spread the news of God's kingdom to the people of Ayutthaya.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Changeling Christians

This morning, I preached on Eph. 1:1-14. As I was preparing, I was a bit torn between wanting to talk about our position as "saints" (holy ones) in Christ, but also wanting to talk about the 6 blessings in Paul's effusive declaration in vv. 3-14. However, this problem was resolved when I realized that all 6 of the blessings relate directly back to our being holy (set apart by God for His sacred purpose).

Paul addressed his letter to faithful "saints". We ought to feel a bit of a start at this - saints? Who, me? Holy? Really? But that is how God sees us in Christ. I expected the Phii Nong to look a bit confused or skeptical this morning when I started off with, "สวัสดีพี่น้อง ผู้บริสุทธิ์ในพระคริสต์" ("Greetings brothers and sisters, holy ones in Christ"), but they didn't even blink - I guess they're pretty secure in God's work in them. A good thing, though it made me wonder if I'd prepared the wrong sermon. I went on to tell the Native American story of "the Changeling Eagle" - an eagle that had been raised from birth as a chicken and thought of itself as a chicken. "Sometimes we are like eagles who've been told we are chickens. And when we forget who we are in God's sight, we lose sight of God's plan and blessings for us, and we start to act like spiritual chickens."

The six blessings of Ephesians 1:3-14 are: (1) God chose us to be holy and blameless; (2) God predestined us (i.e. set us apart) to be His children; (3) God redeemed us and forgave us through Christ's blood (the 'how' of holiness); (4) God revealed the mystery of His will - to bring all things together under Christ (i.e. why He has set us apart); (5) God has predestined us (i.e. set us apart) to be for His glory (again, why); and (6) God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit - the guarantee of all these blessings.

It was pretty exciting for me to see just how this all fit together. (I owe Eugene Peterson for the breakdown of the "six active verbs of God's blessings".) A good principle of interpretation is to use the context to interpret any passage of Scripture. Understanding these blessings - which have a real flow to them - can help us understand our identity as "saints", "holy ones" in Christ, and guard against living our lives as changeling Christians.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Welcome to Ayutthaya Alive!

Thank you for visiting the Ayutthaya Alive! blogsite. The purpose of this site is to inform those who want to partner with us either by praying for God's hand to move the hearts of this province or to come and join us in proclaiming the grace, love, and salvation freely offered to us in Jesus Christ. I strongly believe that God desires to bless His people with His Shalom - lives filled with His peace and demonstrating the restoration of proper relationships between us and our Creator, with fellow human beings, and with God's creation. I believe the Lord wants to bring His healing into our lives for past hurts and sins and present pain and bondage. Our vision is:


By God’s grace we aim to see a movement of biblical Thai Christian communities equipped and eager to participate in the spread of God’s Kingdom throughout Ayutthaya and to  the ends of the earth.

May God bless the people of Ayutthaya!