NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Home First Impressions I can’t even begin to explain to you what it feels like to cross a sea of jungle veiled in puffy white clouds knowing that in the near future you might be calling that very stretch of jungle home! “Home,” what a word! What a concept. For the last year Pennsylvania went from being a vaguely familiar place to being the very hills I know call home. Grimesville Rd, Cogan Station, Florence Dr., West Forth St. and the whole works. But it wasn’t alway that way. I once called the high Savannas of central Brazil home. It was there that I could name every bird you might point out and tell you where it lived and what it ate. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would be calling Pennsylvania home. But life goes one weather you like it or not. You can’t stop this old train when you feel like it and the (instructor/director) has an agenda all his own. I’m sure Pennsylvania will remain home in the good ol’ U.S. for years to come but a new land looms on the horizon. Although everything here in the Amazon port city of Manaus is vaguely familiar in smell and sound and taste it is still drastically different than the place I use to call home. I didn’t realize how much I missed Brazil until I stepped off the plane and made my way through the terminal and out into the hot air out side. Immediately, ones senses are over loaded with sounds and sights and smells. The little cars zoom by weaving in and out honking at each other sounding like the whistles of a dozen football games happening all at the same time. The brightness of the sun here is almost blinding at times and you have to squint to make anything out. The air is hot and humid and immediately you feel your skin begin to perspire which of course adds to the mired of jungle smells already swirling about in your nostrils. Sweet smells of local treats and snacks, damp earthy smells of near by ponds and rivers, and then you are rudely drawn back to reality by the gaging smell of exhaust just in time to jump out of the way of a swerving taxi. But what makes a place home? Is it knowing what to call each stimuli that is bombarding your senses? Is it knowing how to get around? Is it owning a local piece of real estate? What makes a place home to you? I suspect is it different for everyone but for me there are a few peculiar things that must happen before I feel like a place is home. I like a place is home when I know the vegetation that surrounds me; when I know the names of the plants, bushes, and trees and I know how they grow and when they blossom and bloom and what they are good for. I know, strange hu? Another strange indicator is when I know or at least recognize the birds and can tell you a little bit about them. A third, perhaps more normal indicator is know how to get around, knowing the local geography. But the most important thing of all is knowing the people and knowing that they know you! All in all, it is still a temporary home. Jesus said the foxes have lairs, the birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head. As true ambassadors of Christ, as children of God, as citizens of heaven, no place on this lonely planet seems to completely like home. No matter how beautiful the place or how awesome the friendships something always feels a bit strange, a bit unfamiliar, and a bit disconcerting.

Have you ever tried to nail down exactly what the gospel is? Ever been part of a that debate that ended up at square one? I have and I have a few thoughts to add to the discussion. Mind you they are not conclusive. They are much more like evidence that has been added late to a trial in an attempt to give the jurors a clearer picture of what THE gospel actually is.
Technically it is simply the Greek word that means “good news.” But a problem develops when you say something like, “the gospel of Jesus Christ.” It is no long just good news. It is the good news about something, specifically, someone. Now, it is commonly understood that when we (and by we I mean the Christian community) say the Gospel we are referring to the ideas conveyed by the whole phrase the “gospel of Christ.”
So what is THE Gospel exactly. We say it is what someone must believe in order to be saved. But there are major problems with that statement. If you probe that statement carefully you will quickly find that it is not cut and dry. We must all believe to be saved; that is true, but WHAT must we believe? You see, we all come with preconceived ideas, knowledge, and experience that is unique to anyone else. Nowhere is this more clear than in the field of missiology. We find that the Gospel might just be individually tailored.
For example, a native in the heart of the Amazonian jungle might not even know that there is an ocean on the other side of which is an entire continent. And he would most certainly know nothing about the Jewish race that lives on that continent. “What does that have to do with an individually tailored Gospel?” you might ask. Well, some would claim that the Gospel is the simple fact of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection. Simple enough right? Well, try telling that to our native friend. What difference would it make that a random man by the name of Jesus (a name he has never heard before) died, was put in the ground (a concept that might be totally foreign to him), and resurrected three days later? Assuming this man believed your story would he be a new child of God? Would he be a believer? Or must he understand more than just the death burial, and resurrection?
I believe he must. There are too many key elements missing from that simplified version. For example: the fact that Jesus was God, that He was sinless, that God has a standard, that any action counter to his character is sin, that sin has the high price of death, that we are separated from God, that God promised to resolve the separation, and that Christ’s death was the payment needed to resolve that separation. In order to believe the good news he must know why it is good news to begin with.
But what exactly is this good news. Romans makes it clear that we are without excuse for our wickedness because of creation. It says that God is seen from creation and not only is his existence obvious but many of his attributes are as well. For example we can tell that God is very creative, that he is interested in the marco as much as the massive, that he is powerful, and that he is wise. We can even tell that something is a miss, that this world is suffering and hurting and that we do not have access to this God. But there is one piece of information that creation cannot and does not tell us and that is the good news of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is creation’s missing link!
The Gospel then is everything that we need to know that creation has not told us about our alienation from God and the restoration of that broken relationship. The Gospel is the missing piece of information. At the core of the Gospel is the person, Christ. That is why it is called His gospel. But to the native isolated in the Amazon the gospel is much more than the death, burial, and resurrection – it is everything God’s creation could not tell him. It is Creations missing link.

Grace – a word I never really understood. Semantically it represents something that everyone talks about, but only a few really understand – the few that actually live it; if, in fact, it is metaphysically possible to live it. Perhaps what is meant is that their lives have been defined by grace (the noun); therefore, they express grace (the verb). Or perhaps it is much more dramatic than that. Perhaps the act of grace has actually given them a new life – no, LIFE itself! Perhaps, grace was the force that cracked the shell of the egg in which they once lived and allowed them to live a different life altogether.
I once knew a boy bound to the past, or rather, who bound others to the past. Meaning and value were defined by the good he had done, the bad he had not done or the bad he managed to avoid. Living by this golden scale, he measured everyone to precise increments, often pretending to be shocked when he discovered that they were lacking on the side of the scale labeled “good.”
Try as he might he couldn’t resist the temptation to weigh the lives of others. All this was being done secretly in the hope that he would confirm that they were worse off than he- even if only by a fraction of a gram. It’s a very hard thing to live by a scale you know will always find you lacking. The only comfort is that you might be lacking just a little less than the next guy. But what a distasteful comfort that is. It is no different than comparing one rotten apple with another; neither is fit for eating.
This was his fate.
Then one day he fell in love with a peculiar woman – a woman who “lived grace.” Try as he might not to weigh this beautiful thing he had discovered, he eventually succumbed to the old habit. It was a terrible thing. He didn’t want to weigh her. It didn’t feel right. There was something deeply wrong about it; but, as beautiful as her freedom was, it was more than he could bear. The grace she lived suggested the law he lived was no longer the rule.
It has been said that, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” I love this idea. There are several profound thoughts captured in that phrase. The first is that we must learn to love. This I have found, is certainly the case. The second is that there is a immense difference between loving and being loved. The third is that there is an mystical connection between the two – being loved and loving. But this is where the phrase breaks down. The order of learning has been reversed and the cart has been placed before the horse. God says that we love because He first loved us. God Himself is love and if we have not fully dealt with the ramifications of accepting His love than we have not loved. It is an impossibility.
It might be argued that loving is much easier than being loved. True….true, if and only if one has already accepted love. You can not love if you have not accepted God’s love- God’s grace. But once you have you are free to love others.
You see, my dear friend could not accept grace because it invalidated his value and meaning. It rendered his scales useless. Oh, his golden scale wasn’t lying. It worked just fine. The woman he loved was found lacking on the side of the scale labeled good. The problem was that the scale was altogether a useless artifact in a system of weights that measure not works but faith, not the exterior but the heart. It was a system that functions with Christ as the standard weight, a system that automatically credits each life with a critical mass larger than the universe in which it exists. It credits each with Christ Himself. The problem wasn’t that her actions couldn’t be weighed, it was that she could not be weighed. The life she lived was not a life that can be weighed. It is altogether a new sort of life.
And such is the power of grace – it allows the present to shape the future just as the past shaped today. The scale on the other hand, although truthful as it might be, binds us to the past relentlessly refusing to let the present shape the future. This quote was dropped into my life the other day and I think it is very powerful. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present. ” How fitting that the gift of grace would gift us with a “present” to be lived.

Recently a friend asked me, “Why, if the fall had not occurred yet, did God say, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone?’” Besides the obvious reason stated by God in the following verse, “I will make a helper suitable for him,” another thought occurred to me. It seems to me that the reason for the existence of man and the reason for breathing life and free will into a lump of clay was that in turn that lump of clay might truly bring God glory.
But how does God get the glory? When we want to honor a fellow human how do we set about doing it? Doesn’t creation itself give God glory? In an indirect way it does give God glory but if that were sufficient why would God have created man? Would he not have had the glory through the entirety of the natural universe?
You see I think there is a key component missing. When we want to honor (i.e. give someone glory) we can’t simply give them a plaque, a certificate, an honorary burial, or write a biography about them. Yes, we do these things but the key component is something that is a part of all of these examples. The key component is an audience, a witness. What honor does it give someone if we write a book about them but nobody reads it, what difference does it make if we give someone an honorary burial but no one is present to witness it? What honor is had in having a plaque in an office if no one reads it? None! Likewise what glory would be given for a wonderful creation if there were no-one to give it? Hence the creation of man!
To press the issue a little farther we will recognize that glory is best given when the second party gives glory to the first in the presence of a third. For example if I commend a doctor friend on the accomplishment of the degree hanging on his wall a certain level of awkwardness exists (one which I have not fully explored), but if I introduce a friend to this doctor and comment on his accomplishment a deep sense of honor is achieved.
In the same way I wonder if that is not part of the reason for the creation of Eve. It was ok for Adam to walk and talk with God about His creation but how much more meaningful would it be if he did so in the presence of a third party – Eve!
As I pondered the third party concept another thought occurred to me – where else has a third party made all the difference, where else has it been modeled? Nowhere less than the Trinity itself! Many have speculated for the reason for the Trinity. Some have stated that two were necessary to have a real relationship which is modeled in perfection in the Trinity, but why three? Perhaps the answer lies in concept of glory and the action of glory giving!

Let us say that we are participants in a three way cosmic debate on philosophy. Rene Descartes makes the opening statement, “I think therefore I am.” As we watch his words leave his mouth and ripple throughout history we see them find their fullest embodiment in the western ideal of the rugged individualist; in fact, even now becoming the pinnacle of the American Dream. An obscure animist counters in his native tongue with the statement, “I belong therefor I am.” Isolated from the impacts of technology and the opportunity for entrepreneurship he finds his identity in the group. Pockets of unique cultures are formed throughout the world as isolation creates a group mentality. Both men are proud of the legacy they see unfolding in the pages of history but in unison they turn to you eagerly anticipating your opening statement. “Cristos Bride is our name”…and I wonder if that is all most of us can ever explain – the rest is history, the history of the church. Not understanding our identity we have turned each to his own way. But a bold, feeble old man from amongst us stands up and picks up where we left off, “Cristos Bride is our name,…we, we are loved therefore we live!” To Descarte he replies, “You see, thinking is contingent upon being and being (the rugged individualist) when it is finally achieved is a very lonely prospect, indeed. To the animist he replies, “Belonging is contingent upon the group but the group is contingent upon your belonging. In the end the dependent identity stifles life and snuffs itself out.” “Ah, but now comes love, love lifts us up were we belong! It gives us value, purpose, choice, inspiration, creativity, and yes, even life itself. Can you see it? We think because we are loved; we belong because we are loved; and in the end we love because we are loved. And if we love then we live!

Might I give credit where credit is due. Much of this idea of being an especially the animists perspective was taken from a series of lectures George Walker did on World View/ Split Level Christianity.

As much as people talk about the call of the Lord and weather the Lord has called me to go into Tribal Missions or called them to be here in the States or to do something else in particular, I have often wondered what that really means. What does the call of the Lord mean?
People will come up to me, give me a hand shake and say, “Lord bless you brother, so glad the Lord has called you to do this and that you are responding to His call!” And I’ve often wonder, “What is that call? And if He has called me to go then why has He called them to stay, or has He not called them? Perhaps He has only called a few?”
As I think about it I realize that the Lord is Holy but most of the time we live our lives consumed by the flesh, consumed by the mentality that governs this world. We live in a fleshly manner. We don’t live a holy life. And if you say you do then your are fooling yourself. If you walk with the Lord then the entirety of the the rest of your life will be spent with Him revealing how truly awful your flesh is, and how unholy, and undeserving you are of grace. (Of course He does this in a gentle merciful manner but He does it none the less, for He is conforming us into the image of His Son.)
Given these two circumstances: the Holiness of the Lord and our depravity as Human beings, I suspect that if the Lord is calling for us to do something, or calling for us to act in a certain way, or to think in a certain way then it is going to be a call in the opposite to who we normally are. His call is going to be calling us away from something we consider comfortable, away form our normal pattern, away from our stereotypical, earthly way of doing things.
In that case I believe that the Lords call in one’s life is usually going to be a call away from what they would like to do. (Although this is not always the case.) As humans we are normally going to revert to our depraved flesh. And if the Lord is Holy and He calls then I suspect that His call is often not a call we would often like to hear. And so to those people who say, “I am so glad you received the call, but I don’t think I have received the call to go,” I pose this question: “Have you ever felt like the Lord has called YOU to do something you didn’t want to do?” If not, perhaps it is time to rethink the nature of His calling.