Saturday, April 26, 2008

Saturday Again…

Here it is Saturday again. Busy week.  Busy month.

Yesterday I took Andreas and Marion Pestke - our German houseguests for missions conference - to the airport.  They’re off on their new adventure to Nicaragua.  What a great couple and what an asset to the ministry there.  It’s very quiet and somewhat lonely here in the hacienda without them.

Then Phyllis and I had an IHOP breakfast with Doug and Beth Gehman and Danny and Judy Armstrong.  Now there’s a Fantastic Four for the Kingdom!  Danny and Judy have been Globe missionaries for (as they’d say in Cyprus) donkey’s!  (I think originally, they would have said “for donkey’s years,” but it’s been shortened to just “donkey’s.”).  And Danny and Judy have not only so much experience but dreams and visions for the future!

This whole week has been about dreaming and planning and looking at outcomes in training.  Globe International and Globe Europe’s leadership sat around the table sharing stories and ideas and came to the conclusion that all Globe missional training will ensure that:

All Globe Missionaries will…

  • Be equipped to finish well in their personal life and walk with God…
  • Be equipped to make a genuine and eternal difference in the people they are sent to serve…
  • Be vitally connected to the Globe missions family and its vision and values…

That’s a big order for us who work in training others!  Yikes!  But we are looking to help “standardize” training to reflect our common values and vision.  (I really don’t like the word “standardize.”  It doesn’t reflect the real heart of the people involved, but it’ll have to do.)

Lot’s of good things happening.

And we’re putting the finishing touches on the 2008 BootCamps and looking to get everything in order.  There is still room in both camps and if they are as good as last year they will be fantastic!  It’s a lot on me trying to pull all this together, but I’m pressing on.

I’m working on a big missional teaching for the IGM and IWM classes called Going in Jesus Name.  In it I incorporate:

  • The ideas of 21st Century cultural stresses - different from any time before
  • What it means to be the sent people of God - “getting” this makes all the difference
  • Ideas of servanthood from Philippians 2 - serving is not like a light switch
  • The Gospel we preach - good hermeneutics!
  • The Culture we bring - nobody lives in a vacuum
  • The Noise we encounter - everybody knows what the church is (but they’re probably wrong)
  • The Static we cause - our presence causes confusion and interference

So for me, it’s a biggie!  And I want to do it right.

Posted by Glenn & Phyllis at 12:47:36 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Thursday, April 17, 2008

It’s the right time…

Easter came early this year.  And along with Leap Year and early Daylight Savings Time (somebody moved that, too), some people were quite confused.

As one know-most-things person told me, “This is the earliest Easter in nearly a century – the last time Easter fell this early was in 1913.  And nobody alive today will see another Easter this early in the year. Easter won’t fall again on March 23 until 2160.”

The reason “Western” Easter came in March and “Orthodox” Easter is April 27th is a story of conflict and division in the Church.  The “ Western Church ” ties Easter to a solar calendar, so that “Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox.”  Yikes!  What’s that got to do with Passover?  And we do know that Passover is 15 Nisan in the Hebrew Calendar – whenever that is.  (And because it’s based on a lunar calendar, it falls different times every year…)  Double yikes!

But we do know this: the Crucifixion and Resurrection occurred during Passover.  History and the Bible say so.

Tampering with time is always scary.  Re-mastering seasons is always a risk.  And frustrating.  But hey! It’s been going on for centuries.  And clocks and wristwatches are actually pretty new to our landscape. 
Ask an African or an Arab about time and they’ll educate you about what they perceive about Americans and what they perceive about themselves.  A Kenyan pastor told me once, “You Americans, you keep time.  But we Africans, we always have time.” 
By this he meant we were always precise in “keeping time,” showing up “on time,” beginning and ending “on time.”  But for Africans, they always “had time” – had time to stop and chat, have a cup of tea and build the relational network that they felt is important.  Arabs and Africans are more about the “event” than they are the “time.”  The Kenyans believe that time serves them and that Americans serve time.  I guess that’s why we’re so big on Leap Years and Daylight Savings…

But according to the Bible – What is the time and what is the season?  

The Bible describes two kinds of time: chronos and kairos.  Chronos is the kind of time we keep; the time in which things are done.  Like with a watch.  Like, “You have to be at work ‘on time.’”  Kairos is more about the moment, the right time, the strategic-window-of-opportunity time.  The kairos moment is that special time when something has to be done.  Kairos is about the event rather than about the clock.

This is a very strategic season of investment and expansion for us. Traveling in and out of the country and living in Pensacola , we are training a new generation of missionaries!

Phyllis and I are still adjusting to a new “ USA lifestyle” and timetable.  Our chronos-time is spent in training people to know God, hear His Voice, experience His Grace and live out their destiny!  But in this busy schedule, there are genuine kairos moments when you know – you just know! – that a word, a thought, a teaching, an illustration on a whiteboard or a story from our past is a precious kairos moment.  It’s been a holy window of intersection between us, the Holy Spirit and the student.  And this is what we live for!

We are midway the second year of our Institute for Global Ministries with graduation on 29 May.  We have twenty students meeting weekly, studying diligently some of the best missions material assembled and sitting under some of the finest outside teachers you can imagine.  Right now, we have students re-setting their timetables to travel and minister in Nicaragua, Bali, Costa Rica and Japan .
I just returned from a quick trip to Scotland, where I stayed with Bob and Melissa Hill in Overtoun House, a 19th Century castle where the minister.  We met to put together the Globe BootCamp for this year in Overtoun House.  Phyllis and I will both be at the camp in Dumbarton, Scotland 14-28 June where we’ll train, teach and share our lives.  BootCamp a 24/7 experience of training designed to challenge attendees physically, emotionally, culturally and spiritually.  

The Nicaragua BootCamp is 12-16 July.  It will be very different from Scotland because of the venue, but yet the same emphasis: Training a new generation to hear God and live out their part in God’s Big Story!
And it’s a season for Harvest.

Although we’re busy, we continue to look for greater opportunities to train people for Harvest.  We are looking for great release of finances to train more to do more!  We need a live-in training facility to do more intensive training.   We would like to see Globe Training Centers in multiple sites both in and outside the USA .

People are asking questions… What is God doing in my life?  What is God doing in the earth?  How do I do something that counts for eternity?  When should I begin preparing for what God wants me to do?  How can I get trained to be more effective? 
And my answer to them is:  We’re here for you!  We’re here to help you make the next steps and the right choices to walk out your destiny in God.
And you who support us in prayer and finances, thanks for assisting us and allowing us to do this.  As you remember, we are not salaried by Globe International, but depend on your generosity and faith-investment in us, our vision and what we’re doing.  It’s the right time…

Posted by Glenn & Phyllis at 12:48:58 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Friday, March 14, 2008

And away we go…

Well, Im off to Scotland today!  It’s one of those hop-skip-jump flights.  I fly Pensacola - Atlanta - Newark - Glasgow.  And then return Glasgow - Newark - Tampa - Pensacola next Thursday.  Zoom, zoom, zoom!

I’ll get to hang out with Bob and Melissa Hill and their Globe team at Overtoun House.  Mainly we’ll plan for BootCamp in June, but I’ll preach Sunday in the church and maybe do a few other things.

Like always, I have mixed feelings about the trip.  I hate to travel - tiny seats/big man - but I love being there!


Finalizing plans for the NoBrand Retreat 3-6 April and Missions Conference 11-16 April!  And I get to teach in IGM and IGO’s IWM 25 & 27 March.

And Jane’s coming to Pensacola today, but of course, I’ll be gone.  So she has the weekend with her mom.  But we’ll all be together in Valdosta for Easter!

Posted by Glenn & Phyllis at 12:03:04 | Permalink | Comments (1) »