Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Archive for January, 2007

Wrong Way. Do Not Enter. One Way Street. All of which are some of my favorite road rules when it comes to worldly perspective. Being that God is the One who has truth, shoot… Who CREATED truth, it is through Him that our thoughts and desires should pass. It is disheartening to see people like Mr. Stine give up God in order to be the one to come out with the latest fad, speaking about God through his eyes instead about things through God’s eyes. That’s too bad because he’s actually a pretty good comedian. The rest is up for debate and you can see why through this article:

Posted on Sat, Jan. 13, 2007 (www.charlotte.com)
“Putting manliness next to godliness”
Forget Christian nice guys — this virility crusade preaches a macho message
JENNY JARVIE AND STEPHANIE SIMON
Los Angeles Times

The strobe lights pulse and the air vibrates to a killer rock beat. Giant screens show mayhem and gross-out pranks: a car wreck, a sucker punch, a flabby (and naked) rear end, sealed with duct tape.

Brad Stine runs onstage in ripped blue jeans, his shirt untucked, his long hair shaggy. He’s a stand-up comic by trade, but he’s in Nashville, Tenn., this day as an evangelist, on a mission to build up a new Christian man — one profanity at a time. “It’s the wuss-ification of America that’s getting us!” screeches Stine, 46.

A moment later he adds a fervent: “Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!”

It’s an apt anthem for a contrarian movement gaining momentum on the fringes of Christianity. In daybreak fraternity meetings and weekend paintball wars, in wilderness retreats and X-rated chats about lust, thousands of Christian men are reaching for more forceful, more rugged expressions of their faith.

Stine’s daylong revival meeting, which he calls “GodMen,” is cruder than most. But it’s built around the same theory as the other experimental forums: Traditional church worship is emasculating.

Hold hands with strangers? Sing love songs to Jesus? No wonder pews across America hold far more women than men, Stine says. Factor in the pressure to be a “Christian nice guy” — no cussing, no confrontation, in tune with the wife’s emotions — and it’s amazing men keep the faith at all.

“We know men are uncomfortable in church,” says the Rev. Kraig Wall, 52, who pastors a small church in Franklin, Tenn., and is at GodMen to research ways to reach the husbands of his congregation. His conclusion: “The syrup and the sticky stuff is holding us down.”

John Eldredge, a seminal writer for the movement, goes further in “Wild At Heart,” his best-selling book. “Christianity, as it currently exists, has done some terrible things to men,” he writes. Men “believe that God put them on earth to be a good boy.”

Says Christian radio host Paul Coughlin, author of “No More Christian Nice Guy”: “The idea of Jesus as meek and mild is as fictitious as anything in Dan Brown’s `Da Vinci Code.’ ”

So what’s with the standard portraits of Jesus: pale face, beatific smile, lapful of lambs?

“He’s been domesticated,” says Roland Martinson, a professor of ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. “He’s portrayed now as gentle, loving, kind, rather than as a full-bodied person who kicked over tables in the temple, spent 40 days in the wilderness wrestling with his identity and with God, hung out with the guys in the street. The rough-hewn edges and courage …got lopped off.”

Stine’s wife, Desiree, says she supports manly leadership; it seems to her the natural and God-ordained order of things. As she puts it: “When the rubber hits the bat, I want to know my husband will protect me.”

But some men at the conference run into trouble when they debut their new attitudes at home. Eric Miller, a construction worker, admitted his wife was none too pleased when he took off, alone, on a weekend camping trip a few weeks after the GodMen conference this fall.

“She was a little bit leery of it, as we have an infant,” he reports. “She said, `I need your help around here.’ ”

Miller, 26, refuses to yield: “I am supposed to be the leader of the family.”

In-your-face aggression at first troubles Howard Stephenson, who paid $68 for a day at GodMen in hopes of forging friendships with other Christian men. When Stine, a born-again Christian, shouts that it’s OK to cuss — and then demonstrates with a defiant “bull …” — Stephenson shifts uneasily. “This is so extreme for me,” he says.

A few weeks later, Stephenson, 43, is still not sold on profanity. But he has ditched the nice-guy reflex of always turning the other cheek. When he spots a Wal-Mart clerk writing “Happy Holidays” on a window, he boldly complains: It should say “Merry Christmas.”

The virility crusade is, in part, a response to a stark gender gap. More than 60 percent of the adults at a typical worship service are women. That translates into 13 million more women than men in the pews on any given Sunday, according to David Murrow, author of “Why Men Hate Going to Church.”

Women are also significantly more likely than men to attend Sunday school, read the Bible and pray regularly, according to the Barna Group, a Christian polling firm.

Murrow blames men’s lackluster attitude on the feminization of mainline churches: “Lace curtains. Quilted banners on the wall. Pink carpet. Fresh flowers at the podium.”

Even in evangelical mega-churches, which tend to use more neutral decor, the mood is hardly alpha male. Dancers wave flowing banners as the choir sings. TV screens glow with images of flowers and sunsets.

Millions of men, of course, find such worship peaceful or inspirational, not stifling. And there remain some staunch defenders of the Christian nice guy. “It’s a wonderful thing to see a man welling up in tears,” says Greg Vaughn, who teaches men nationwide how to write love letters to their wives. “It takes a lot more courage to do that than to talk about football.”

Stine argues that the genteel facade of a Christian nice guy inhibits introspection and substitutes clichÈs for spiritual growth. GodMen is his attempt to encourage men to get real. His speakers admit to masturbation and adultery. Such honesty, Stine contends, molds better, more godly men than a typical Sunday service.

“We want to force you out of the safe places that have passed for spirituality,” Stine says. “Maybe worship could be hanging out with a bunch of guys, admitting we like blowing crap up.”

A similar — though less ribald — approach is taken by Men’s Fraternity, which was founded in Little Rock, Ark., in 1990 and has expanded around the world.

“It’s testosterone-friendly,” says Rick Caldwell, global director of the program. He urges chapter leaders to have NFL bloopers on the big screen when the men come in, and oldies or country-western on the radio. “No opening prayer. And for heaven’s sakes, don’t ask the guys to take the hand of the guys next to them. That scares them to death.”

BOO, New England!!!!!

I will pray heavily for the Indianapolis Colts all week long.  Man, I’m tired of the Patriots.

(Sorry Pats fans.  Nothing personal.)

Jonathan and I have just entered the full-time support-raising phase of our ministry.  But what does that look like?  That’s a very good question.  I know it’s a good question because I wondered that myself.  The first day of this, we sat down and made some decisions about how we would now be spending our time.
Here’s what we’re doing:
First thing in the morning we check our email, fix the coffee, and then sit down to spend some quality time with God.
The rest of the morning we make phone calls, send emails, and write letters to find as many speaking opportunities as possible.  We’re also trying to take advantage of this time before we leave by seeing as much of our friends as possible, so we work out our calendars with everyone else’s and set up a lunch or dinner here and there.
After lunch, we get notes and cards ready to be mailed.  Then we prepare partnership development materials such as prayer cards, bookmarks, and brochures.  To plan for upcoming speaking engagements, we brainstorm about the content of the message based on the time we’re given to speak.
Just before dinner, we go to the PO box to get the mail and send the cards and letters we’ve prepared that day.
During the evening we try to relax but the work never really ends.  We update the website, write on our blogs, and make a few more phone calls or write another letter.
Outside of all this, I am attending a ladies’ Bible study at Hickory Grove – North Campus every other Monday night on 1 John.  I am also volunteering some at Elevation Church, helping them with their accounting.  Jonathan volunteers at Elevation by putting the sermons online each week.  We are both doing some small tasks for an upcoming 5-week training class here at JAARS.
It sounds like we’re super busy but we are managing our time well, spreading things out as much as we need to.  I still sneak a moment in here or there to read my books.  Jonathan enjoys the computer so much that he works on the website, blogs, newsletters, and stuff for Elevation all while watching the big championship game (Go Gators!), NFL playoffs (Go Chargers!), or other important sporting events (Nascar… how bad have you got it?).  And since this is our last American Idol season in the States, we’ll pencil that into our schedule for sure.

If you right click on the main page of our website you’ll notice a menu that pops up indicating that you’re viewing a site built in Flash.  I am definitely not an expert in Flash and have no formal training in web design.  All of my knowledge has come from just diving in to see what I could learn.  The program I use to build the site is called SwishMax and is great for both beginner-level and advanced-level web designers.  So, if you’ve ever been interested in playing around with we stuff, this program is a great starting place!

For nearly everything in life, each person has an internal do’s and don’ts list they follow. Even if they say they don’t, they do. But what I’m curious about is the various ones you have when it comes to entertainment (i.e. movies, tv, music). Whenever I stopped getting high and drunk and handed my life back over to God’s guidance and protection, some of the things I immediately gave up entertainment wise was… if you know my Baptist background, you guessed it… R-rated movies, any show that I felt glorified sin, and pretty much all secular music. Bye-bye entertainment, right?!

But, my fundamentalist ‘line-not-to-cross’ has changed since I noticed such a presence of legalism in my life. On the way to volunteer at Elevation Church this morning, Dana and I jammed out to Linkin Park. Ever heard of ‘em? The album we listened to is an older one of theirs but it was all new to my ears and I loved it. Here is a sample: Play the jam

—— Message
From:
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2007 10:27:13 -0500
To: Classified
Subject: [JCL] Any Polar Bears out there?

We are hosting an afternoon swim if you are game. Come at 1PM with your suit, towel and Thermos of hot drink!

—— End of Message

See, there are crazy missionaries, too. The mental condition isn’t exclusive to the general Christian population.

From:
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 09:51:48 -0500
To: ‘Classifieds’
Subject: [JCL] Free hospital bed at Lakeview

PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL.

There is a hospital bed at Lakeview free for the taking.

#############################################################

Even if I wanted to respond to this e-mail, I would have NO idea what to say. Just think how messed up it would be if the bed is ‘hot’ (stolen), cause you just don’t hear of stuff like this being offered everyday, especially ’round the corner, next to the pond.

It must’ve ‘fallen off the back of a truck’ or ‘been given by a relative’… yeah, right. We’re on to you, klepto.

I’m sitting here this morning on the couch in our RV.  On the other side of our 8-ft living room is the front door which has a nice-sized window in the top of it.

The door faces kinda southeast so the winter sun beams on us in the mornings.  It feels good just sitting here in the sun as it should being that stretching out on the beach in the summer is one of my favorite things to do.

I’m troubled by my view of the Bible.  My mind has fallen back into one of those subconscious beliefs that cripple your actions more than you realize.  Do you know what I mean by that?  Well, what I have caught myself progressing toward is the mentality of “since I can’t understand everything in the Bible, why even try?”  WHOA.  Wait just a minute.  Do you already see the position that puts me in?  To help me understand how detrimental that is to me, I try to approach it from different angles.  Applied to different areas of my life looks like: Since I don’t know how to build a website in every way, shape, form, feature, I need to give up learning web development.  Since I don’t know how to take a Pulitzer Prize winning picture, why even pick up my camera?  If I don’t know how to get to my long-since-separated friend’s house in Charleston, I’m not even going to get in my car.  Those are ridiculous, right?  So, why am I so quick to not even pick up my Bible this morning?

So, what messed-up train of thought needs to be corrected?  It’s that stupid all-or-nothing approach to doing stuff.  I’m going to see my friend in Charleston by first talking to him and getting directions.  Then, I’ll plan a date to go.  I’m going to improve my photography skills by first grabbing the camera and pressing the shutter button, with the lens cap off of course.  I’ll make adjustments by looking at the pictures I take and investigating how to change things on the camera.  I’m going to open my flash-editing software and explore the menu bars, google ideas I have that I’d like to do with a webpage and not be scared to spend time learning at my own pace while making mistakes.  All of these actions ‘expose’ me to the way these things are going to work out.  That’s my keyword that I’m going to work with.  My first step is to get myself exposed to the information, the methods, the ins and outs of what I want to accomplish.  I simply cannot sit down and have instant understanding.

God’s Word is powerful.  Don’t read that statement and brush it off as just another Christian-ese comment.  It really does have power.  I know.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve heard it.  I’ve experienced it.  It is so powerful that simple exposure can make a difference.  It is like being out in the sun.  You can lie outside in a lawn chair on a summer day and not do a dang thing, but what ends up happening?  Something happens, right?  Whether you tan or go lobster-style, something happened to you that wasn’t noticeable until you did some real self inspection.  That’s where I’m going to ‘reset’ my mind to with the Bible.  Isn’t that really basic for a missionary to do?  You’re doggone right it is and I’m not in any way proud of having to check my heart on why I want to read the Bible.  Forget about the shoulds, like is this where I should or shouldn’t be.  No.  Is this where I want to be?  Do I want to rely on moldy bread in my brain from last weeks brief encounter with the Bible?  No.  I want to be fresh.  I want God everyday.

So, what am I going to do now?  I’m about to go sit out in the Son… in the Bible just reading and hopefully get me one of them Holy Ghost tan-lines.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12.2

—— Message
From:
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 20:56:32 -0500
To: JAARS Classifieds
Subject: [JCL] Free Rabbit

Male Bunny Rabbit.
Affectionate
Named:  Cinabun (Cinnamon and White coloring)
Free.  Cage included
Phone only:   704 843 5525
Rachel Engel

—— End of Message

Get a jump start on Easter.

To preserve personal privacy, I changed the names of the involved parties, but still wanted you to hear this story.  <>< Jonathan

Happy New Year to All,

Today, we have cause to celebrate.

Many months ago before [Margaret] and I left Orlando, we had worked out for a family to assume the duties of manager of a newly created guesthouse in France.  During that time [Jean Claude] came and said he and his lovely wife [Julianne] would like to serve as guesthouse managers.  When I informed him that we already had someone to fill the position, he was undaunted.  Time and again he would arrive at my desk, and each time he would say, "[Frank], I've been praying about this, and I believe God wants us to go to France."  So, I encouraged him to prepare the paperwork for a long-term French visa and see what the Lord had in store for him.  Somewhat later, the designated couple withdrew their request to go to France.  I notified Jean by phone and he was excited beyond belief, but their challenges had only begun.

The French visa required an extensive FBI background investigation along with a mound of French paperwork which takes a minimum of three months.  They had troubles with the paperwork, and especially obtaining legible finger prints.  Then began the long wait for final approval.

The visa approval no more than arrived when doctors discovered a small tumor lodged in Julianne's brain.  The doctors insisted that Jean and Julianne put their move to France on hold.  I put out a call to our own prayer warriors, the great WA All Staff, Mary and her prayer team, asking that we enter into a season of prayer for Jean and Julianne.  The number of messages of encouragement sent to Jean and Julianne were staggering.

I received a message from Jean a few weeks ago saying that they were going to Mayo Clinic for another medical opinion.

Yesterday, I received the message below and Jean has permitted me to share a portion of his message with you.

Please read on:


From: Jean Claude
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 6:45 PM
To: Frank
Subject:

Blessings,
Jean and Julianne

Now we must pray that the final stages of Jean and Julianne’s move to France will move smoothly.  God’s hand is in this move.  Yesterday, during my quiet time, the [couple was] very much on my mind.  They are a lovely, godly couple, and though retired, are still willing to serve.

When we match God’s Holy Word with humble prayer, always seeking to know His Will, we are never defeated.  God reigns supreme.

Please pray Jean and Julianne into France.

The Power of Prayer!

Give God the glory,

Frank

P.S.  I’m sure Jean and Julianne would love to hear from you.