the reluctant leader

Too Busy to Blog

Someone recently asked me why I stopped blogging. I didn’t actually stop, just been too busy – traveling too much. I’ve been home (Manila) four days out of the past five weeks. I love traveling, but I really love being home.
 
Here’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing:
 
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – ministered at City Church, a multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-campus church led by Wayne Alcorn
 
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia – taught 800 ACC pastors on discipleship at the Australian Christian Churches Queensland leadership conference
 
Sydney, Australia – regional leadership summit with our Every Nation pastors from Australia and New Zealand and ministered at the 10th anniversary of Every Nation Sydney
 
Singapore – Every Nation Asian Pastors Equipping Conference (APEC) with 180 Every Nation pastors, missionaries and church planters from 25 nations
 
Manila, Philippines – three days in Manila to unpack and re-pack
 
(retreat center near) Innsbruck, Austria – European Pastors Equipping Gathering (EPEG) with 40 Every Nation pastors, church planters and missionaries serving in Europe
 
Innsbruck, Austria – Cross Culture Conference with representatives from Every Nation churches in Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Sweden, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, England, Spain, Austria and Switzerland
 
Normandy, France – a week off with William as our tour guide (pix on fb)
 
And now we are back in Manila, and back online, blogging again, with some substance coming tomorrow…

NOTE: the personal photos, notes & anecdotes that have vanished from this blog site, can now be found on facebook and twitter.

Tues Top 10 List - Boracay Vacation

After a week in Boracay with my wife and 3 sons (and no cell phone and no blogs or tweets or flutters) listening to the waves, breathing fresh air and basically doing nothing - I felt like I woke up Monday morning, not only on a different island, but on a different planet.

I’m once again breathing “air” that I can taste, and waking up, not to the heavenly sounds of the ocean crashing on the beach outside our door, but to the hellish sounds of Jeepney horns and police whistles.

Here’s my Boracay ‘09 vacation top 10 list:

10. White sand

9. Blue water

8. Green plants - don’t see too many of these in the city

7. Reading meaningless mind-numbing novels

6. No cell phone – mine drowned in the rain on the 2nd day, and I didn’t miss it at all

5. Sleeping ‘til I’m finished 

4. Big waves - that’s what a beach is all about and that’s why my fam loves the beach during rainy season

3. Being outside all day – we’re not really an indoor family

2. Rest - don’t know why I resist it so much since it was God’s idea in the beginning, wasn’t it?

1. Family – not sure how it is with your fam, but we kinda like each other and love hanging out together, esp in Boracay!

What do you like about vacation?

On the Beach and Offline

Last blog for a week - heading to our favorite beach in the world with the fam early Monday morning - going old school - no twitter, no facebook, no multiply and no typepad - cold turkey on the tech stuff - Bora' here we come!

I Hate Packing & I hate Overnight Flights...

I hate packing, and i hate trying to sleep on planes. Overnight flight to Australia later today. Need a boring book to put me to sleep. Got plenty of them to pick from.

While in Australia I will preach 5 weekend services at CityLife Church in Melbourne - 2 Sat PM and 3 Sun AM. 

CityLife is one of the largest and most influential churches in Australia. Kevin Conner was the CityLife pastor before passing the baton to his son, Mark. I look forward to learning from Mark and his team. Also look forward visiting with friend and mentor Kevin and his wife, Rene.

After a few days in Australia, I fly to NZ for our Every Nation South Pacific Conference.

The NZ conf is always one of my fav conferences of the year. No one worships like South Pacific Islanders! And every male dancer should learn the haka, just to stay in touch with his masculinity. 

What a MESS!

Our ministry MESS gets bigger and better each year…

I've been too busy to blog last few days because I’m at the Every Nation M.E.S.S. (Middle East Strategic Summit) with our leaders from Dubai, Sharjah, Ral Al Khaima, Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, India and Sierra Leone.

Leaders from Egypt, Bangladesh, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain were not able to attend - but they sent encouraging reports of all God is doing in their nations, including testimonies of former Al-Qaeda operatives who have repented and are now training for ministry.

Even though most of these nations are “closed” to Christian ministries, the hearts of the people are open to the gospel. Because of our security protocols, I can’t post photos or give details - but here’s a summary of the country reports:
     - Huge need & great opportunity
     - Closed doors & open hearts - Intense persecution & death threats
     - Plentiful harvest & scarcity of workers
     - "Macedonian" calls for prayer & help

Common Middle East prayer requests:
     - protection - believers established in word and faith
     - new strategies to share the gospel
     - jailed believers & their families 
     - apostasy bill will not become law (Iran)

I fly from Dubai to Lagos, Nigeria in 16 hours. Can’t wait to visit one of my fav churches in the world, the Chapel of Glory in Lagos. After Lagos, I fly to Joburg for a few days of strategic meetings with leaders from southern Africa.

Please pray for the persecuted church in the Middle East.

TUES TOP 10 LIST - Israel Study Tour Memories

Top 10 Israel Study Tour Memories:

10. Friends. Joey & Marie. David & Sandy. Jerome & Therese. Wolfi & Allie. Ariel. Most good memories involve friends.

9. Ancient Architecture. Herod the Great was an evil man, but he was an amazing builder. I am totally impressed with those ancient Roman engineers and architects. Some of their work is still standing 2000 years later. We build for one generation. They built for 100.

8. Masada. See comments on # 9.

7. Galilee. A deeper understanding about ancient fishermen and shepherds made the whole trip worthwhile. 

6. Arbel Cliffs. Breathtaking view. I'll never forget Arie's teaching about Jesus feeding the 5000 while sitting on the cliffs looking at Galilee.

5. Arie. Soldier, paratrooper, composer, musician, orchestra conductor, carpenter, police officer, botanist, astronomist, story-teller, pastor, "professor", Bible teacher, and the best tour guide on the planet.

4. Holocaust Museum. Arie’s personal story about his father-in-law’s survival made my eyes sweat.

3. Following. Was great to not lead for a week. Not making decisions was refreshing and relaxing. All leaders should try it occasionally.  

2. Family. I love to travel with Deborah and Jonathan. Hope to come back to Israel some day with William and James.

1. Hunger. Can’t wait to dig deeper in God’s word.

*** Some of my Israel pix here ***

*** new post on accidental missionary sports page - "Filipino Wins Australian Open..."

Religion is Confusing

- Jerusalem has to be the most religious city in the world - and the most divided, confused, angry and unhappy.

- Religious people never smile. At least not around here.

- Druze. Jews. Muslims. Christians. Everyone has their own diet, dress code, hat code, beard code and haircut code. It’s so confusing.

- Religion divides people. And confuses people. And makes them mean and unhappy. But it does not seem to make them love each other, or God.

- All these religious people around here - Jews, Muslims and Christians - seem to love their opinions and their sacred monuments more than they love their neighbor.

- Jesus was not impressed with religion or religious people. Neither am I.

- One more day in Israel. This “Israel Study Tour” has been beyond what was advertised – one of the rare cases when reality beats hype. If you ever get a chance to participate in a study tour with Arie Ben (or is is "Bar"?) David – do it.

- Group of Nigerians & Koreans at the Garden Tomb today really knew how to pray - loud.

- All the Nigerians wanted pix with the Filipinos. Maybe they had never seen Asians. Marie and Therese were like celebrity models.

- Arie gave us great insights about the cross today. I think I’m preaching at Victory-Alabang this weekend. Will probably try out my new cross material.

- Holocaust Museum - no words to describe. Made my eyes sweat.

- Meet in the lobby at 6AM tomorrow, then Masada and Dead Sea… then midnight flight to Manila, via Seoul.

- More later…

Passion Makes Every Topic Interesting

Our tour guide, Arie Ben David, is an amazing man.

I hate to call him a tour guide because he is so much more. He’s a war hero, a paratrooper, a classical musician, a symphony conductor, a carpenter, a Bible scholar, a husband, a father, a grandfather and our guide.

(This guy had a bullet removed from his body - with no anesthesia. None. He watched the whole procedure. I would have passed out - natural anesthesia.)

Jerome calls him professor.

From sun up til sun down for 4 days, Arie has taught me about Israel, church history, Jesus, Paul, David, leadership, family, community and life in general.

And, I’ve learned something about preaching and teaching. Here it is:

Passion makes everything interesting.

Arie is so passionate at every tour site and on every subject that I actually get interested in topics I've never cared about, such as about Israel’s geography, mountains, rivers, climate and vegetation.

Arie's passion is contagious. It makes me listen.

God help me be so passionate when I teach your word!

Reflections from Galilee - From Fishermen to Shepherds

Israel Study Tour '09. Day 3. Fishermen and shepherds have opposite values and attitudes, but after 3 years of discipleship, Jesus tells a fisherman (Peter) to think and act like a shepherd (John 21).

Fishermen only value the biggest fish and throw out the small, while shepherds focus on the smallest and weakest in their flock.

Because the Romans taxed the fishermen based on the number of fish they caught, seasoned fishermen threw out the small fish and kept the big ones. In order to find 100 keepers for the market, a fisherman might have to catch 250 or 300. For a fisherman, size mattered more than numbers. Big fish were important. Small fish were throwaways.

The attitude of the shepherd was exactly the opposite - every sheep was valuable, not just the big and strong. In fact the good shepherd was expected to leave the 99 strong and mature sheep and go after the lost. He was expected to protect and care for the weak. Before he did anything else, he was supposed to feed the lambs - the smallest.

Jesus started by calling bunch of fishermen and teaching them to fish for men. By the end of the discipleship process he wanted them to think like shepherds, to feed the lambs - to value the smallest weakest - something fishermen would never do.

Discipleship (carrying the cross & walking with Jesus) is supposed to change our values.

Jesus never referred to himself or to God in fishermen terms.
But he did use shepherd images to help us understand how God cares for us.

Yes, we need to learn to fish for men. But as we mature in the discipleship process, we must also learn to think and act like a shepherd. We must value and protect all, especially the lost, the young, the helpless and the weak.

More tomorrow...

Israel Study Tour – Day 1 & 2 - Supernatural Provision & Prayer

It's 5AM in Galilee and i'm wide awake. The one blessing of jet lag.

2 days into our Israel study tour and everything looks about like it did last time I was here. I guess ancient ruins don’t change much in 12 years.

Day 1
Nashville to Newark to Tel Aviv to Netanya to dinner to bed. Almost 20 hours including layovers, delays and bus rides. Still faster than Nash to Manila.

Day 2
Breakfast. Caesarea. Mt Carmel. Megiddo. Lunch. Nazareth. Tiberias. Dinner. Jet lag crash.  

4 Big thoughts after 2 days:

1. Friends & Family. This wouldn’t be much fun with a busload of strangers. Glad to be here with my wife, my son and some friends – Joey & Marie, Jerome & Therese, David & Sandy, Wolfi & Ali and Ariel.

2. Go Deeper. I need to study my Bible more – there is way too much good history, geography and cultural stuff I don’t know.

3. Amr Fastfood. World’s largest KFC bucket is in Nazareth. Really, that thing is big enough for a small family to live in. 

4 Prayer & Provision. Why did it take 7 times more intercession for Elijah to get provision (rain in drought) than judgment (fire on the altar)? Elijah prayed once for the fire on the wet altar (1kng18:36-38) but had to prevail in prayer 7 times longer for the provision of rain (1kng18:41-44). Some of us just stop too soon when it comes to asking God for miraculous provision.

All for now. more tomorrow...