Women 'Get' Mission

Stopped in at Baptist Women's Conference, last weekend in Gatineau, Quebec - held at the Chateau Cartier Resort. Saw my friends, Marc and Kim Wyatt, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missioners, who will soon return to partner with us in Canada - in reaching out to welcome the international peoples of the world who have settled in our major cities (and places in-between).

Above, Patty Card, who with her husband Malcolm are part of the global field staff of Canadian Baptist Ministries, serving in Kenya, introduces a friend and leader from Kenya to the women gathered. (I'm sorry, I missed her name but will try to get it . . .)

I love the women-in-mission emphasis of Baptist Women of Ontario & Quebec. They 'get it.' Indeed, Baptist women have always 'gotten it' - having led the way for over a hundred years, in Gospel response and missional initiatives. They gathered to send missioners before the Baptist Convention of Ontario & Quebec (with whom I serve) had been thought of. They are still way ahead of most men - and, frankly, most churches in initiating and responding to the Church in mission globally.

Liquid Times

Walking on water in liquid time
ankles, toes, shanks immersed
but not quite sinking, yet:
Can we learn to walk on water?

Can we learn today when things are fluid
to live in the in-between
of large shores of history, culture

of old and new ways of doing things.

In between modern and postmodern
in midst of change, on cusp of change

do we have to walk on water
or is it optional?

Are we just showing off?

is it a party trick?
- What could this skill possibly
be in aid of?

Have we been thrown - or fallen overboard
and we need now just to learn
how to do this impossible task
'cause we’ll drown otherwise?

Because we cannot walk on water
we can’t even swim, perhaps
least, not as far as we need to, we must
- can we?

Is it faith or folly or fate
are we tempting providence?

Is Jesus calling us to, wanting us to, waiting
to teach us, help us, lift us?

If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat
- but am I, is our whole society
already ‘out of the boat'
rightly or wrongly having left all known?

All safety gone, the past, the known
like Peter, did we leave our fishing?
- the basic tools for doing, being,
behaving, left behind?

Must we leave our boats to reach the Kingdom?
to enter and share God's Way of seeing

things whole in all
He's made, re-made on Heaven and earth?

Are we swimming, drowning
or still in the boat
when we might be walking nearer
to the Kingdom ?

What is 'Liquid,' anyway?

what its beauties?

Like that TV paint commercial
bright, beautiful, mesmorizing
a stream, a lake, an ocean
constantly changing, ebbing, swelling.

There's a certain thrill in being
‘over our head’

in some extreme adventure
- and doing the impossible.

What are the dangers of 'Liquid'
if on stormy Galilee
or going with every day's flow?
- drowning, doubting, daring.

How to survive these liquid times
or make progress in such swells or calm?

What on earth - what Spirit possessed Peter
- possesses us, to want
to walk on water for a while, at least
to get out of the boat
and strike out towards Jesus?

Is it possible yet really not sustainable

for Christians to walk on water
do perhaps more

for all who discover true humanity?

Or could faith be such -
so true in being and such in action

that we could do it more,
maybe longer?

Is Jesus hoping we’ll at least try
and understanding if/when we fail?

since were' living now, contemporaries
in such liquid times?

Is there not a watery middle-‘ground’
some ‘sea’ to cross? - to walk on
between old ‘land masses’

striding on, in liquid times?

between times

of governments old and new
old economies and new economies
old and new wine and winekins.

between
old and new healthcare systems
a life with a spouse and life after his/her death
between ‘green’ living and economic realities?

living between

the time when we can accept

or ever come to terms with

the death of parent, child or friend.

Between befores and afters

of friendship strain and reconnection

walking, swimming, drowning
between the befores and afters.

Life between, before

the not yet of acceptance of the theft,

the accident, the incident
between before and after visits to third-world slums.

Drowning between the loss of the old,

the purchase of the new

living between businesses, careers

selling the farm to buy the treasure

living in liquid times . . .

True Cost of Being Missional

Today I simply mourn and invite you to join in shared prayer to the Father of all comfort, because of the martyrdom of three young Christian men, one a pastor, in Izmir, Turkey. This hits me on several levels, not the least of which is that I visited this beautiful, historic city just a little over five months ago. Let us pray to God for justice, mercy and the ability to forgive as already shown by wives, family, fiance and church - and for courage to face the times that may yet come to any of us, as faithful followers of Jesus.

In the city (ancient Smyrna - one of the 7 cities of the Revelation churches) where Polycarp, disciple of St. John and follower of Jesus, made his final confession of faith and loyalty to Jesus in word, fire and blood, there continues today opposition, hostility, evil and fear, engendered in the hearts of some men and women - revealing much darkness in which shines the starlight of good and hope, as counterparts as well. It is when the night is darkest that the stars shine most bright.

These martyrs of this month were the first known martyrdom of Turkish converts since the founding of the republic. It was a gruesome assault, with hideous atrocities and barbarous actions reminiscent of medieval times. Two of the victims, Necati Aydin, 36, and Ugur Yuksel, 32, were Turkish converts from Islam. The third man, Tilmann Geske, 46, was a German citizen.

Four of the five young men arrested for the murders, all 19 to 20 years of age, admitted during initial interrogations that they were motivated by both "nationalist and religious feelings" and they had done this '"for our country." According to one article, an identical note in the pockets of all five young men read, "They are attacking our religion."

Unity and Diversity

Whether we have an English garden or a city orchestra we can appreciate the rich sights and smells and the wonderful sounds of music that come forth because of diversity - in the context of unity - from the uniqeness and the blends of many gifts.

Not all blossom at the same time and season, and not everybody is even (supposed to be) on the same page at the same time (though all the players, pray God, are on the same musical number) . . .

And then there's the queston of the gardener and the maestro - the necessary leaders, enablers, those who call forward the beauty of what will bless.

These are the ones . . .

I think of the words of Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche Community, sometimes, when I think about how the church is best built up to strengthen people and bless the homes around. These words help me think futher about whether I am wanting to help create and/or belong to a 'small group' based on geography - or on 'affinity' (i.e. meeting with people like me, or just with the kind of people I like . . .):

We would have chosen better people,
nicer people, more beautiful people,
talented and gifted individuals . . .

but these are the ones whom God has given us,
with whom we are called to live
- and to build community.