Adam and Crystal Myers your connection to the least reached peoples Reenrolling to Return to School Again Yet Another Time
Crystal has a legitimate fear that I will be a student for the rest of my life. If Jesus doesn’t return, we’ll be sharing a room in a nursing home 60 years from now that is furnished primarily with bookshelves, and I’ll be registering for classes somehow, somewhere.
I entered seminary (Faith Evangelical Seminary)originally in the fall of 2004, with the goal of earning a Master of Divinity – the typical seminary degree for most pastors and many other ministries as well. At that point, I didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, so that necessarily became my starting point. I finished my B.A. (Religion) in 2007 – right about the time we left Silverton to begin our training with NTM. Apparently we left all of our time and money there as well, because by 2008 we had neither to give to further schooling. Turns out, I had earned enough credits to graduate with an M.A. in Theological Studies, so I went with the unintentional degree instead.
To put a nail in this uninteresting story before you pass out, I am finally a student again! I need just 3 more classes to finish up my M.Div., and I just registered for one of them. Coincidentally (?) it is a class covering much of the same material I’ll be teaching next month at New Tribes Bible Insitute in Wisconsin! So…I’m going call it class prep where the instructor earns credits right along with the students.
Tags: Faith Evangelical Seminary, NTBI, Redundancy Repeated in the Title
Holiness, Schmoliness
“You shall be holy, because I am holy.” What comes to your mind when you think of “being holy?” Often, we think of holiness according to the phrase “set apart.” I recently had the opportunity to preach the last half of 1 Thessalonians 3 at our sending church, Silverton First Baptist, where Paul speaks of the goal for believers of being holy at the return of Jesus. Using a story, we looked at 3 common misconceptions of holiness.
First was encompassed in a person we called “The Grumpy Puritan.” This view of holiness wraps it up in red tape and self-made rules. There are rules about the rules, and then more rules for how to keep the rules. It is a holiness completely void of happiness, full of judgment and legalism. The set-apart Grumpy Puritan is our source for the phrase “holier-than-thou” and the reason the word “piety” now has a negative connotation to most Americans.
We then looked at “The Radioactive Saint.” He gets his name from the unnatural, halo-like glow about his head. He lives is life in a rapturous mind-lock with God, completely oblivious to what is going on around him. He is our source for the phrase “so heavenly-minded he’s of no earthly good.” He uses his communion with God as an excuse to avoid people and will not break his heavenward gaze even for a second to reflect God’s grace to desperately needy people.
- Finally, we looked at “The Unapproachable Light.” Here, God’s majestic holiness was presented without the complementary truths of His Love and Grace. Holiness for us is unattainable and hopeless as God remains unapproachable. While there is probably more truth in this view of holiness than the other two, it still falls desperately short of what holiness for us really looks like.
We can say that holiness is living by a standard…but it’s God’s standard. It is not our own ideas and rules and pride molded into a façade that makes us look good before God. It is living for God’s purposes and glory. Holiness is living in a state of constant communion with God and setting our hearts and minds on things above…but in a way that makes us more sensitive to the needs of those around us. Being holy means that we “weep with those who weep” and “rejoice with those who rejoice.” God’s holiness is his majestic purity; it is wrapped up in the fact that He is unapproachable. But, we must remember that, when He was unapproachable, He approached us! When we were still sinners, God demonstrated His love for us in the life and death of Christ.
When Paul looks at our goal of holiness in 1 Thessalonians 3, he is doing so through this lens. “…may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness…” If we look to approach and attain holiness without being permeated with a God-built love for others, we will have missed a vital ingredient. We will ourselves become both unapproachable and unapproaching, like the Grumpy Puritan and the Radioactive Saint. When we define holiness as “set apart,” we cannot forget to add the second half of the meaning “for God’s purposes.” God’s purpose for us is that we would love “one another” (other believers) and “all” (those yet without Christ) with His love demonstrated in Jesus.
To dowload the sermon, check out “Silverton First Baptist Church” on iTunes, or visit http://silvertonfirstbaptist.org/podcast/index.htm.
Tags: Holiness, Love, Preaching, Silverton First Baptist Church
What We’ve Been Waiting For…
What We’ve Been Waiting For…
When a life-changing decision has to be made, where do you go to find answers? For us, the life changing decision was where to serve within New Tribes Mission. We have long believed that the Lord has gifted us to serve on staff at one of the two campuses of New Tribes Bible Institute, but which one? NTM operates campuses in both Waukesha, Wisconsin and Jackson, Michigan. They are nearly identical schools with the same curriculum. Their visions are one in the same: To help raise up and equip the next generation of missionaries by giving them a solid education in the Word of God. So how did we choose between the two? We prayed like crazy and sought input from as many people as we could. There were literally people from all over the U.S. who helped us find the school that best fit our ministry gifts. We’re so thankful for the godly men and women who asked a lot of questions and offered wise insight to help us determine our final choice. SO WHERE ARE WE GOING? Waukesha, Wisconsin! This may come as a surprise to more than a few people, because both Adam and I were students at the Jackson, Michigan campus and built so many solid relationships both with the staff and with a really amazing body of believers at Cornerstone Community Church. Over these last several weeks, however, we have seen the Lord move us and direct us toward Waukesha. To our Michigan friends and church family, please know that you are very special to us and the hardest part of the decision was in knowing we wouldn’t live near you! You’re not rid of us forever, though.we do plan to visit as often as we are able! What’s next? We are working fulltime on developing and building our partnership team – even NTM’s training staff like us are required to raise the finances necessary for their salary, benefits, and ministry expenses. For the next several months, our lives will be filled with prayerfully seeking out and meeting with partners who will join with us in our future ministry. We are trusting the Lord that we will be fully supported by June 2012 and are tentatively planning to move to Waukesha then.
Until the Nations Come in Worship, Adam & Crystal Myers
Getting to Work!
Well, we’ve been back in the great state of Oregon for a week as of last night! In that time, I had the opportunity to preach at our sending church, Silverton First Baptist, we’ve almost completely unpacked and settled, and gotten to share our ministry and vision a couple times with different people. Coming up very quickly is a short trip to Honduras. I’m going with a team from church to work with another missionary our church supports. We’ll be helping to construct a building for a church to meet in, as well as doing some children’s ministries and possibly assisting with some evangelistic outreaches. Please pray for our team as we travel and serve, as well as for Crystal and I as we look to set up meetings and appointments for sharing our ministry vision with people, and for folks to come on board with us to Expand the Reach of the Gospel! Until the Nations Come in Worship! -Adam
We Made It!
Just a quick note to say that we made it back to Oregon! We’re praising the Lord for safety on the road, and look forward to rolling up our sleeves & getting to work. Up first is Adam preaching at Silverton First Baptist May 29, followed by moving into the house the Lord provided for this next year. Then we’ll be off and running with our Partnership Development. Pray with us as we settle in and get to work!
Goodbye, Show-me State!
Greetings from Missouri! This will be our last update from “the show-me state”…and I still have yet to find out what that State Motto actually means.
As I reflect on the past school year, I wonder, “What has this past school year been like for YOU?” Wherever life has you right now, we hope this letter finds you well. We sometimes feel overwhelmed with everything going on and we know we’re not the only ones. We hope you are blessed and are finding new ways to rest in Jesus in the midst of life’s hurried pace!
We are excited to let you know that we will be graduating from the New Tribes Mission training program next Friday, May 20, and will be heading back to Oregon a few days after!
After we graduate, we will officially be missionaries of New Tribes Mission and look forward to our ministry training church planters and Bible translators at one of the two campuses of New Tribes Bible Institute. Both campuses could use additional faculty and have invited us to serve with them. We, along with our sending church leadership, are prayerfully weighing the decision of which campus to serve at. Please pray for us as we make this decision!
Over the next year, from June 2011 to June 2012, we will be doing our “Partnership Development.” We trust the Lord will add to our team those who are willing to stand with us through encouragement, prayer, and finances, as some of you have already so faithfully done!
Praise & Prayer
· We graduate this Friday from NTM’s Missionary Training Center along with 18 other candidates!
· We will be traveling back to Oregon following our graduation to do our support raising for our future ministry. Pray that the Lord would raise up a team to join with us in Expanding the Reach of the Gospel!
· Crystal re-aggravated an old shoulder injury, and all 3 kids are down with a stomach bug at the moment. Pray for us as we pack up to move again!
· For more workers to join us in the harvest, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the least-reached peoples!
Small Parts in Something Great!
As I gaze out my window at a pleasant Sunday afternoon, I can see several kiddos running around in the sunshine. Parents are pushing their young ones on the swings. A young girl takes a leap off a bench and glides through the air on a rope swing. Two very pregnant ladies compare bellies. A wife holding a barefoot little girl gives her husband a quick kiss as he rides of on a four-wheeler. A two-year old boy shows off his tricycle riding skills. Several dads observe the role of protector of the playground as they stand watching their sons test the limits of their careless bravery. Another dad uses a tree branch to help his son rescue a bouncy ball from under a parked car. I can’t help but be at peace in this moment. The world holds so much potential for these families out my window. All of them are my fellow missionaries in training, and all of them will soon be off to untold destinations across the seas. I think about how we’re all here together at the Missionary Training Center for such a short time, and then we will inevitably disperse. A sudden smile comes to my lips as I think of the potential these families have to reach the unreached tribes of the world. They are just “regular” people, from regular places: California, South Dakota, Montana, Michigan, Hungary, and South Korea. And yet all of them have chosen to do something really radical with their lives: Tribal Missions. As Adam and I prepare for the ministry laid out before us, we are constantly reminded of the hundreds of missionaries out there right now teaching tribal people the Word of God. I’m encouraged almost daily as we receive updates from missionaries at different phases of teaching and translating the Word of God. I’m so encouraged by the stories I read of tribal people whose lives are being changed right now by the Love of Christ. And I’m reminded of how good it is to be a part of something GREAT. I’m so happy God has us where he has us right now, in this small town in Missouri, training to be a part of New Tribes Mission. Thank you so much to those of you who make it possible for us to be here—you know who you are! Until next time, Crystal
Leave them alone – they’re happy & innocent?
One of the most impacting classes we’ve been in this semester is one we’ve just started – Animism. Animism is a religious worldview that essentially looks at all of life’s events as being controlled by personal spirits or impersonal spiritual forces. These spirits can either be good or bad and are manipulated through sacrifices, taboos, etc. in order for life to go well. Ron Risse, the instructor, told of some particularly disturbing and grotesque customs of some Indonesian tribes relating to the death of a loved one. (The customs are non-family-friendly enough I figured I’d not post them. If you’re interested, shoot me an email & I’ll fill you in.) In the animism of the people Ron worked with, they also had significant food taboos for pregnant ladies. Basically, there was very little they were allowed to eat, and as a result, they were incredibly anemic. When the Risses first began working among them and were doing genealogy surveys as part of their culture learning, it was commonplace to find a lady who had had 15-16 children, with only 2 surviving infancy! We are reminded daily in this class of the urgency of getting the Gospel out to people groups who are enslaved by their animistic worldviews. Freedom & joy can only be found in Jesus!
Waiting for the King…
Had a good morning at church this morning…though I was there solo. Carl seems to have picked up an ear infection, so Crystal & the 3 kids stayed home. It was refreshing to get back into a partial routine, though, of leading the worship in music time. One of the songs we sang was “Sing to the King,” a Passion song from a few years back that looks forward with anticipation to the coronation of Jesus and the throngs of worshippers around the throne. It’s one of those songs that I can’t sing sitting down as I picture in my head King Jesus making things right & fixing the brokenness of this world, while people from all over the globe rejoice at His goodness and greatness. Praise God for our new brothers in Christ from the Wano & Uriay peoples! Pray as well for folks to believe as teaching begins with the Akolet & Mwinika! And, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
A Day of Skype, Eagles, and ɨ
Had a full & busy day today…full of events that made me remember how grateful we are to be training for reaching the least-reached with the Gospel!
We started the day with a chapel about culture and language learning…only this chapel was taught by a Bolivian lady, in Cochabamba, Bolivia via Skype! Ms. Ureña is the director of Serve Abroad - a Spanish culture and language school used by NTM missionaries in Bolivia. She spoke about the importance of building relationships as the means for learning language so that we might communicate the Gospel to them with clarity.
After this we went to our “e-linc” group for a discussion on leadership. E-linc is basically a small group of students and staff who meet twice weekly for discipleship, prayer, and growth. On the way back to class, we got to watch a bald eagle fly around for a few minutes! What a fun reminder of God’s goodness!
We rounded out the morning with 2 hours of Phonetics class, learning to make vowel sounds that don’t occur in English…like the “ɨ.” (pronounced “barred-e”). To pronounce a ɨ, start by making the “e” sound like in the word “beep.” Then pull your tongue back ever so slightly and clench your teeth together…and join the ɨ party!
With the weekend coming, I was able to take the afternoon and spend some time in the woodshop. I’m building a dollhouse for the girls for Christmas, and it’s coming along nicely. If I ever remember to take the camera with me, I’ll get a picture or two up. It’s been quite the learning experience for sure, and it’s given me some ideas for building Crystal something for Christmas as well. Don’t tell her though!
And, can’t forget the UO-OSU game tomorrow…Go Ducks! (My guess – Ducks win 47-24.)
