The Church is Christ’s

Karl Barth is not one of my favorite authors; but at times he had a knack for stating the obvious in a memorable way. Maybe I should say a knack for stating what should be obvious but is too often overlooked.
He once closed a lecture on the church by stating, “The church is not a society of pious people; it is the church of Jesus Christ.” What he meant by that is clear from the context; and it is a truth that ought always to be kept in mind.

The church is not a group of people called together to promote an agenda upon which they have come to agree. The church is called together by the Lord. It has not come together to take a vote on what the people think ought to be done. The church works together to carry out the Lord’ will, not the members’ will, not the leadership’s will, but the Lord’s will.

Christ is the head of the church (Eph 1:22; 5:23; Col 1:18). As any physical body takes its orders from the head, so the church gets its instructions from the Lord.

Of course, our Lord is a compassionate head. He cares if the feet are hurting or the arms are weary. He takes steps to alleviate needless suffering of his body. But he also takes steps to strength his body, and sometimes those steps may even increase our pain. He cares, but he does not surrender his Lordship to our complaints or opinions. The body does not instruct the head. The body serves the head. The body obeys the head. The body submits to the head.

One major American denomination planned to hold a conference May 3-15 that was to vote on an extremely plain teaching of scripture, whether to accept it or not. The virus has cancelled that conference, but the whole idea was pointless anyway. The stupidity of such a conference is obvious. The leaders of that denomination are on par with the kindergartner who, not knowing the gender of the rabbit the teacher had brought to class, suggested “let’s vote on it.”

I suppose that one can vote on the gender of a rabbit if he chooses to do so. But the vote does not change a thing. The rabbit is what the rabbit is.

The church either obeys the instructions of its head, or it shows itself to be a rebellious false body, not really the church at all. We should study the instructions. We should obey the instructions. We can disobey the instructions, but we cannot change them.

The church belongs to Christ, not to the people.

Life is Interconnected

Ron Rizzi was involved in organized baseball for over fifty years, most of that time as a scout for major league baseball. When asked about the best pitcher he ever saw, Rizzi replied, “Brien Taylor.” Some of you are not baseball fans, so you never heard of Brien Taylor. Some of you are baseball fans and still, you never heard of Brien Taylor. He never made it even to the triple-A level.

The Yankees gave Taylor a $1.55 million dollar signing bonus. You give a kid fresh out of high school $1.55 million, what could possibly go wrong? One “off-field altercation” (a fight, in plain English) and Brien Taylor’s arm and career were ruined.

I see two clear lessons here. They are so clear that I hesitate to state them for fear you will feel that I am insulting your intelligence. But I will risk it.

Lesson one: Do not give a kid too much spending money, too much authority, too much autonomy. There is a reason why God ordained that kids are to have parents. Yes, we can by-pass the need for two parents (one male and one female) with medical technology and wrong-headed adoption laws. We can by-pass the need, but we shouldn’t. Kids need parents until they are really adults. Traditionally, no one was seen as an adult until he was 21 years of age. We changed that in 1971. How is it going? Has the change led to greater maturity and happier homes in our nation?

Lesson two: What happens off the field affects on-field performance. What happens away from work affects on-the-job performance. All of life is interconnected. What we do in private makes us what we are in public. You cannot soar with the eagles in the morning if you hooted with the owls at night. Or, as Jesus put it, “No one can serve two masters.” If we let our eyes dwell on evil, our whole life will be full of darkness (Mt 6:22-24).

Yes, we might get away with living wrong in private while acting right in public. We might get away with it for a time, but it never lasts. Yes, we might do good in private and have it remain unnoticed for a time. But eventually, what we are (good or bad) comes to light (1 Tim 5:24-25). Look at that passage carefully. On the negative side, we can see that Brien Taylor never made it - because all of life is interconnected. On the positive side, we can see that any one of us can make a positive difference in our world - because all of life is interconnected.

Decision Time

For months now, we have been saying that the final decision as to where we will carry on this work would be made in April or May. April has arrived. The leaders of the schools we first considered have urged us to decide, and we have done so.

Before stating the decision, I first want to say that it was not an easy decision. I believe that we could have done good work and honored our Lord in any of the places that were considered. I also want to say that when we first began this process, we perhaps made the issue of housing too much of a consideration. We only looked at places where there were existing schools that could offer us free housing. While there might have been a significant financial advantage at an existing school, there were other considerations that now seem to loom larger.

At any of the existing schools that we considered, it seemed likely that Thayer would have been entangled in administrative work for the school. As time went on, this problem appeared larger and larger to us. Another disadvantage to the existing schools we considered was that they are in areas that are either high crime areas or areas where medical care is poor (even from an African point of view). In some cases, both of these objections applied.

Still, despite those difficulties, we could have done much good at Nigerian Christian Bible College or at Daybreak Bible College. And we would have gone to one of them if something else had not happened. It all came down to dialing a wrong number.

Several people asked us, “why not go back to Swaziland, where you already know people and where the communication infrastructure is so much better? Would it not be easier to do this work there?” Our minds had been on the cost of housing, and we had not considered going there – since doing so would involve renting a house. But we decided to phone a brother in Eswatini (as Swaziland is now known) to ask, “How much would it cost to rent a house?”

I dialed the wrong number; but the right person answered the call. I accidentally dialed the home of Ella Magongo. Her son Jonathan “happened” to be visiting his mother, and he took the call. I had never even considered phoning him. But, as soon as I heard his voice, I realized that the Lord had guided us to the right person. I had been trying to phone a retired plumber, but instead I was talking to brother who has worked in banking and is currently in the insurance business. Jonathan was in a good position to help us find a house and to help get permission from the Eswatini authorities to do this work in their country. The person I was trying to call could have answered my question, but Jonathan has been able to do so much more. And I called him “by accident.”

The Decision
So, as you have surmised by now, we feel led to return to Eswatini. It will cost a bit more per month, but we believe that it will be better in the long-run.

I want to emphasize that this decision does not cast a negative light on either Nigerian Christian Bible College or Daybreak Bible College. Both are very good works and the State-side administration of both schools were very cooperative. But the technical difficulties of working in a place where the electricity is (at best) spotty, where safety is questionable, and where Thayer would likely be sucked into a time-consuming administrative role weighed heavy in our thinking. We want to thank the board of African Christian Schools Foundation and Chad Wagner, their president, for encouraging us to move back to Nigeria. We want to thank David French of Daybreak Bible College for his encouragement to consider that work. We deeply appreciate everything that these brothers did for us.

Flexibility

Working from Eswatini we will not be directly associated with any school, but that may be an advantage. The road system in Eswatini and the Republic of South Africa is good. We will be able to visit several schools in the region. We will be in a better position to get input from a larger number of students. We will be able to be of assistance to a larger number of native teachers.

Leadership Training
Of course, the textbook project will not take up all our time. There is also a tremendous need in this area for programs to develop local leadership in the churches. When we moved to Eswatini in 2000, the Bible school that was there had been in existence since 1965. Many evangelists had been trained and several congregations had been planted. But none of those churches ever appointed elders or deacons. Very few of those churches held Bible classes to train their children (or any of their members) for the work. Unconsciously and unintentionally those who set up the work in Eswatini had created a clergy system. Only the preachers received any training, and so the preacher had to do all the work.

During our three years there, we were able to set two of the congregations on a path that led to the appointment of elders and deacons. We were able to make a start on getting the churches to see that they need to train all their members to take part in the work. In returning to Eswatini, we will not be housed on the campus of a school but will move about among the churches, offering training at night and on weekends so that the entire church (not just the preachers) can be equipped for every good work.
Now that our sons are all raised and on their own, Chery will be able to be even more actively involved in this. Women outnumber men in the church. The ladies need training especially adapted to their needs and their expected roles.

We believe in this work and are willing to accept a sizable reduction in our income to do it. But we cannot do it for free. We are seeking monthly support of at least $3500. It is not a huge figure. This work will make a huge difference.

Monthly support pledged as of 26 March
Since a decision has been made on location, our figures for moving fund and monthly support will need to be revised. We are working with brothers in Eswatini to get a more accurate estimate of cost. That may take some time (especially under the current conditions). But it currently appears that the monthly support figure may need to increase slightly, while the moving cost may come down significantly from what was indicated earlier.

In addition to the monthly commitments, we currently have $5750 of one-time gifts either pledged or in hand.

Any excess in one-time gifts beyond actual moving costs will be used to supplement the monthly support needed. For example, a one-time gift of $4200 could be used at the rate of $50 per month for at least 7 years. Or (to think big) a one-time gift of $120,000 applied toward monthly support could almost eliminate any need for raising more monthly commitments over a 5-year period! I know that $120,000 may sound outlandish, but it is not.

We know of a building and parcel of land that will soon go up for sale. It has been indicated by the brothers and sisters involved in that sale that the African Textbook Ministry will receive at least a large portion of the proceeds. None of us knows what the sale price will be, but this might be how the Lord intends to provide. This land is in an area of low property values, so the sale may not bring in that much. But then again it might bring in more. Real estate auctions often surprise us. Pray about this! And give some thought to assets you might want to dedicate to a good work.


The Effect of the Pandemic on our Plans
You will not be surprised to learn that the current pandemic has forced us to make changes in our plans. We had hoped to have all the funds raised by the end of May and we had hoped to move back to Africa in October. Both target dates are now out of the question.

Once travel and assembly restrictions are lifted, we will set new dates. At this point it would appear that a delay of two months to complete the fundraising will be needed. The actual move is likely to be delayed even further. A two-month delay in moving would mean moving in December, and that is never a good time to move. Our target date for getting moved will now have to be pushed forward into 2021; but how far forward is uncertain.

Keep us in your prayers. We will try to keep you informed.

By the way, for those who really were hoping to get to see us as we raised funds in April and May, check out the Flanders Road Facebook page. I have quite a few videos posted there.
https://www.facebook.com/FlandersCofC

Even during lockdown, we will be very glad to hear from you. Please drop us a word of encouragement – or a major commitment! 😊

Nice People

It is assumed, by some, that wicked people will be wicked in every respect. That faulty assumption has led many to a faulty conclusion. If you meet a really nice person who is polite, friendly, and kind, but who turns out to also be an adulterer, or a homosexual, or a heroin addict, does that prove that adultery, homosexuality or heroin use are no big deal? Some seem to think so.

I took a course in Brazilian history and culture in college. The teacher, Dr. Ellis Long, had lived in Brazil, at Sao Paulo, for about 15 years. Across the hall from the Long family’s apartment there lived a nice old man. He was friendly, generous, and kind to the Long’s children. He was also, it turned out, a Nazi war criminal. Did his kindness to the Longs excuse the gassing of prisoners at concentration camps? If I remember correctly, this “nice neighbour” was convicted of 900,000 counts of murder.

Let’s face it, very few people are completely evil. The fact that someone is nice does not mean that they are right.

People are too easily taken in by style. If a politician or a preacher has a pleasant smile and a smooth presentation, some people will accept what is said, although it may contradict both the constitution and the scriptures. On the other hand, if someone tells it like it is in a stern tone, some folks are ready to reject the truth.

John the Baptist was not soft-spoken (Mt 3:7-10), nor for that matter was the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:18-32; Gal 5:12). Even Jesus spoke very bluntly at times (Mt 23). On the other hand, some whose speech can be as “smooth as butter” are deeply evil (Ps 55:21).

If God says something is evil, it is evil. Sure, some of the people who do things God has forbidden seem to be nice people. Satan is smart enough to disguise himself, and his evil work (1 Cor 11:14). Don’t be fooled by appearances. The fruit looked good to Eve, but it was evil.