I had a very exciting opportunity Sunday evening (March 14th, 2010) to meet with Elie Haddad, President of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary located in Beirut, Lebanon. Making contacts and friends is a very important element of the groundwork I need to accomplish before we make the big move.
Pastor J, who leads the Arabic language congregation at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham has agreed to be my mentor as I learn how to minister in the Arab world. He was kind enough to arrange for me to meet with Mr. Haddad at his parents' home for coffee after the service on Sunday night.
Pastor J's parents are a very gracious and friendly couple, probably in their late seventies. His father has been a Pastor in Lebanon as well as here in the US, and is a fountain of interesting and entertaining stories. John's mother is a friendly, gentle soul who takes great care in her hospitality. I see much of her in Pastor John. She carefully set out the cookies and chocolates on tables, making sure I was aware of the ones that had apples baked inside them.
While the rest of us made conversation, Pastor J prepared the traditional Arabic coffee. It's more of a sludge than a liquid, especially as one gets to the bottom of the cup. It is served in a small, ornate cup and is sipped slowly because it's very strong. I normally drink my coffee with a lot of sugar and cream, so this strong drink doesn't even register on me as coffee. I just drink it straight and deal with it.
Pastor J's father has a number of scriptures in Arabic framed and hung on his wall. He asked me to read a few of them, and I was able to demonstrate my literacy. They were in some intricate calligraphy, however, which made the reading more difficult.
When we settled in, I began asking Mr. Haddad some questions about Church Planting, which is dear to my heart. Now, this seems like an easy question to discuss, but it quickly became apparent that we were speaking more than two different languages. I asked “What is the Seminary doing to train and equip leaders for Church planting.” His reply, rather abruptly, was “We're not doing anything with Church planting, that's not part of our mission.”
Here in the US that would be grounds for a witch hunt. There was an awkward silence for a moment while I paused to regroup. Now, I knew that the Seminary had a heart to reach the lost, so I figured I was asking the wrong question. “So, you're leaving that to the local Churches and just teaching the principles to the leaders?” I asked hopefully.
“No,” he replied without much hesitation. “We're not really working on that.”
Now, those of you from Southern Baptist backgrounds are probably already lighting your torches and sharpening your pitchforks. I'll admit that I was thinking that a bit myself. Bear with me, though. I have a good sense of communication and I knew that we weren't discussing the same thing, so I kept digging.
I will take this moment to clarify the problem for you, though I hadn't yet pinned it down at this point. He knew that I was a Southern Baptist, and I think he perhaps knew that I'm a Pastor. He assumed, not unreasonably, that I when I said “Church Planting,” I meant “putting up a building and getting a large group of people to come and put their name on the roll.” That's what Southern Baptists have always pushed, much to our loss.
What I really meant by “Church Planting” was “forming communities of Christ followers.” People who know me will understand that I don't think about Church Planting as a static model, I'm totally out of the box on that. Mr. Haddad had no way of knowing that, and I think this was the source of much of the confusion.
So, in a last ditch effort to figure out something, I asked. “So, what is the Holy Spirit doing?”
Now, that was the correct question to ask. If I'd been wise enough to ask it in the first place, much confusion could have been avoided. I'll summarize his answer here, but I'm still pondering the profound nature of what he told us. It's a question so big that I'm not sure anyone can answer it.
Lebanese Christians have, for a long time, had their focus on evangelizing the Christian culture. There's a large segment of the population, mostly varieties of Catholicism, that identifies as Christian but does not practice the faith. The largest group, the Maronites, are responsible for one of the most disgusting massacres of the Lebanese Civil War. A “Christian” militia went into Palestinian refugee camps and massacred women and children by the hundreds. Now, I'm not Catholic-bashing with this statement. In Alabama we have a large Baptist culture that is in exactly the same godless state. If our local Catholics want to win some of those lost “Baptists” for the Lord, I'm all for it.
What the Lebanese Baptists have discovered is that the Holy Spirit is moving among the Muslims. That should not be a surprise to any of us, but is great news. It also raises a big question: What happens when a Muslim chooses to follow Christ?
Traditionally, that has meant that the new believer must leave friends, family, community -everything, even their job in many cases. They have to move to a new location, live among new people, and adopt new habits.
This may discourage many of them from accepting Jesus as Lord, or at least from making their faith public. One might point out that Jesus said many things about being willing to give up things to follow him:
Perhaps his most direct commentary on the issue is:
Yet, the scriptures give us two examples of men who were secret followers of Christ.
There is no condemnation of them or their actions in the scriptures. Both of them are, in fact, important characters in the Gospel story. When Nicodemus came to Jesus secretly by night, for fear of being found out by the establishment, Jesus didn't chide or reject him. Instead, Jesus gave him one of the most profound teachings we find in the scriptures. “You must be born again.” Why did Jesus give this to a secret follower? Perhaps he needed it most.
Another, perhaps larger, issue is that traditional conversion has meant evacuating new Christians from Muslim society. We wonder why there are so few people sharing the gospel with Muslims, and why so few Churches and Christian communities form. Yet, as soon as someone places their faith in Christ, they must immediately leave their culture. There is no multiplication among Muslims, because no one stays to multiply.
If the Church is to grow in the Muslim world, it must remain somehow in that world. What does it mean for Christians to live in Muslim culture? What does it mean for Christians to continue being Muslim?
Mr. Haddad told the story of a missionary who moved into a neighborhood controlled by a militant group. This Muslim group is almost a nation unto itself, with it's own military and intelligence networks. The next day men came to his house to ask him if he planned to convert people to Christianity. “No,” he answered quite honestly, “I just want to teach them to follow Jesus.”
They left, and let the missionary stay. The men were not concerned with religious beliefs. They didn't care about doctrines of faith. They wanted to know if he would be moving people out of their culture. They were concerned with community stability and the balance of political power.
The early Church dealt with these same questions as it grew. What does it mean to be a Christian and a Jew? How do Christians continue going to the synagogue? What practices are continued? For gentile converts, what about eating meat sacrificed to idols?
Just as the early Greek/Jewish Church had to grapple with these issues, so the Church in the Muslim culture will have to find answers.
Mr. Haddad's point was that we should pray for and support the believers living in Islam, rather than pick apart their theology from the sidelines. Do we truly trust Jesus to build his Church among Muslims, and for the Holy Spirit to lead them into truth? Are we willing to be helpers rather than critics?
When I took my leave for the long drive home, I thanked Mr. Haddad. Not only am I grateful for his wisdom and insight, but I am thankful that he helped me to ask better questions. These are questions that are vital to the future of the Church, and should not be taken lightly.
Pastor J, who leads the Arabic language congregation at Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Birmingham has agreed to be my mentor as I learn how to minister in the Arab world. He was kind enough to arrange for me to meet with Mr. Haddad at his parents' home for coffee after the service on Sunday night.
Pastor J's parents are a very gracious and friendly couple, probably in their late seventies. His father has been a Pastor in Lebanon as well as here in the US, and is a fountain of interesting and entertaining stories. John's mother is a friendly, gentle soul who takes great care in her hospitality. I see much of her in Pastor John. She carefully set out the cookies and chocolates on tables, making sure I was aware of the ones that had apples baked inside them.
While the rest of us made conversation, Pastor J prepared the traditional Arabic coffee. It's more of a sludge than a liquid, especially as one gets to the bottom of the cup. It is served in a small, ornate cup and is sipped slowly because it's very strong. I normally drink my coffee with a lot of sugar and cream, so this strong drink doesn't even register on me as coffee. I just drink it straight and deal with it.
Pastor J's father has a number of scriptures in Arabic framed and hung on his wall. He asked me to read a few of them, and I was able to demonstrate my literacy. They were in some intricate calligraphy, however, which made the reading more difficult.
When we settled in, I began asking Mr. Haddad some questions about Church Planting, which is dear to my heart. Now, this seems like an easy question to discuss, but it quickly became apparent that we were speaking more than two different languages. I asked “What is the Seminary doing to train and equip leaders for Church planting.” His reply, rather abruptly, was “We're not doing anything with Church planting, that's not part of our mission.”
Here in the US that would be grounds for a witch hunt. There was an awkward silence for a moment while I paused to regroup. Now, I knew that the Seminary had a heart to reach the lost, so I figured I was asking the wrong question. “So, you're leaving that to the local Churches and just teaching the principles to the leaders?” I asked hopefully.
“No,” he replied without much hesitation. “We're not really working on that.”
Now, those of you from Southern Baptist backgrounds are probably already lighting your torches and sharpening your pitchforks. I'll admit that I was thinking that a bit myself. Bear with me, though. I have a good sense of communication and I knew that we weren't discussing the same thing, so I kept digging.
I will take this moment to clarify the problem for you, though I hadn't yet pinned it down at this point. He knew that I was a Southern Baptist, and I think he perhaps knew that I'm a Pastor. He assumed, not unreasonably, that I when I said “Church Planting,” I meant “putting up a building and getting a large group of people to come and put their name on the roll.” That's what Southern Baptists have always pushed, much to our loss.
What I really meant by “Church Planting” was “forming communities of Christ followers.” People who know me will understand that I don't think about Church Planting as a static model, I'm totally out of the box on that. Mr. Haddad had no way of knowing that, and I think this was the source of much of the confusion.
So, in a last ditch effort to figure out something, I asked. “So, what is the Holy Spirit doing?”
Now, that was the correct question to ask. If I'd been wise enough to ask it in the first place, much confusion could have been avoided. I'll summarize his answer here, but I'm still pondering the profound nature of what he told us. It's a question so big that I'm not sure anyone can answer it.
Lebanese Christians have, for a long time, had their focus on evangelizing the Christian culture. There's a large segment of the population, mostly varieties of Catholicism, that identifies as Christian but does not practice the faith. The largest group, the Maronites, are responsible for one of the most disgusting massacres of the Lebanese Civil War. A “Christian” militia went into Palestinian refugee camps and massacred women and children by the hundreds. Now, I'm not Catholic-bashing with this statement. In Alabama we have a large Baptist culture that is in exactly the same godless state. If our local Catholics want to win some of those lost “Baptists” for the Lord, I'm all for it.
What the Lebanese Baptists have discovered is that the Holy Spirit is moving among the Muslims. That should not be a surprise to any of us, but is great news. It also raises a big question: What happens when a Muslim chooses to follow Christ?
Traditionally, that has meant that the new believer must leave friends, family, community -everything, even their job in many cases. They have to move to a new location, live among new people, and adopt new habits.
This may discourage many of them from accepting Jesus as Lord, or at least from making their faith public. One might point out that Jesus said many things about being willing to give up things to follow him:
Luke 9:61 Then someone said to Jesus, "I want to go with you, Lord, but first let me go back and take care of things at home."
Jesus answered, "Anyone who starts plowing and keeps looking back isn't worth a thing to God's kingdom!"
Perhaps his most direct commentary on the issue is:
Matt 10:32 If you tell others that you belong to me, I will tell my Father in heaven that you are my followers. But if you reject me, I will tell my Father in heaven that you don't belong to me.
Don't think that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came to bring trouble, not peace. I came to turn sons against their fathers, daughters against their mothers, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law.
Your worst enemies will be in your own family. If you love your father or mother or even your sons and daughters more than me, you are not fit to be my disciples.
Yet, the scriptures give us two examples of men who were secret followers of Christ.
John 19:38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night,
There is no condemnation of them or their actions in the scriptures. Both of them are, in fact, important characters in the Gospel story. When Nicodemus came to Jesus secretly by night, for fear of being found out by the establishment, Jesus didn't chide or reject him. Instead, Jesus gave him one of the most profound teachings we find in the scriptures. “You must be born again.” Why did Jesus give this to a secret follower? Perhaps he needed it most.
Another, perhaps larger, issue is that traditional conversion has meant evacuating new Christians from Muslim society. We wonder why there are so few people sharing the gospel with Muslims, and why so few Churches and Christian communities form. Yet, as soon as someone places their faith in Christ, they must immediately leave their culture. There is no multiplication among Muslims, because no one stays to multiply.
If the Church is to grow in the Muslim world, it must remain somehow in that world. What does it mean for Christians to live in Muslim culture? What does it mean for Christians to continue being Muslim?
Mr. Haddad told the story of a missionary who moved into a neighborhood controlled by a militant group. This Muslim group is almost a nation unto itself, with it's own military and intelligence networks. The next day men came to his house to ask him if he planned to convert people to Christianity. “No,” he answered quite honestly, “I just want to teach them to follow Jesus.”
They left, and let the missionary stay. The men were not concerned with religious beliefs. They didn't care about doctrines of faith. They wanted to know if he would be moving people out of their culture. They were concerned with community stability and the balance of political power.
The early Church dealt with these same questions as it grew. What does it mean to be a Christian and a Jew? How do Christians continue going to the synagogue? What practices are continued? For gentile converts, what about eating meat sacrificed to idols?
Just as the early Greek/Jewish Church had to grapple with these issues, so the Church in the Muslim culture will have to find answers.
Mr. Haddad's point was that we should pray for and support the believers living in Islam, rather than pick apart their theology from the sidelines. Do we truly trust Jesus to build his Church among Muslims, and for the Holy Spirit to lead them into truth? Are we willing to be helpers rather than critics?
When I took my leave for the long drive home, I thanked Mr. Haddad. Not only am I grateful for his wisdom and insight, but I am thankful that he helped me to ask better questions. These are questions that are vital to the future of the Church, and should not be taken lightly.
I wish I had been armed with more of these insights during my time in Muslim countries. Your point on communication is spot on, but what really grabbed me was the analysis of how Christian "vaccum" produced so often under the traditional conversion model. I guess I took for granted that once saved they would leave; the battle having been won, and never considered the ramifications of that.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me all the more excited about your, and another friend of mine's, missions. We will continue to support you in prayer, and stand ready to support in other ways as needed. God is indeed good!