Ep. 170 - The Wide, Wild World
Welcome to this week's episode of Tell Me More. It's engagement month at FBCA, and we talk all about it. And just the the the life of one who is trying to fulfill the great commission, be faithful, be engaged, but go into our own experiences, and it's really meaningful, and we're glad you're listening.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Tell Me More. It's engagement month.
Speaker 1:It's engagement month. It is. This is awesome. Forget all those other months. It's engagement month.
Speaker 2:It's the most wonderful. No. Wait. That's that's coming. That's coming.
Speaker 2:That's coming. Don't know. This is pretty wonderful.
Speaker 3:This is pretty awesome, actually.
Speaker 1:I'll moderate it.
Speaker 3:Especially Sunday.
Speaker 1:These two dudes are riding high.
Speaker 3:It's Sunday.
Speaker 1:These two dudes are riding high.
Speaker 3:It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Because yesterday was a good day at first.
Speaker 2:Was great day.
Speaker 1:It was. Was. Was. I would just argue that so was October 27 or twenty sixth, which had the capstone of the service of remembrance. So, you know, every every Sunday is a good time.
Speaker 2:You can toot your horn.
Speaker 1:I love the service remembrance. I think it's very important for everybody. Was important for me. But it's engagement.
Speaker 2:It's engagement,
Speaker 3:bud. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So okay. I mean, there's a lot to talk about. I feel like we've been leading up to it. Obviously, in the engagement team, been working up to it. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So much work.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Just good hard work goes into this. Mhmm. Thinking about Sarah Persley, who's so behind the scenes, but holds so much together.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So much.
Speaker 1:Let's just take a pause.
Speaker 2:God bless Sarah Persley.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, y'all know.
Speaker 3:Of us are members of the engagement team. All three of us right
Speaker 1:I'm on the engagement team.
Speaker 3:But Sarah Persley, home from Slovenia.
Speaker 1:Yes. Hopefully, you'll know who we're talking about. Mhmm. Sarah and Ryan and their kids are are scent workers in Slovenia since that they had kind of ended their season there, done what
Speaker 3:they It's like how called it
Speaker 2:to you. Seven or eight.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They weren't just maturing. Eight years. They moved there. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They went there. Incredible. Eight years. Sarah was on our staff before she left. She was good then.
Speaker 3:She that's what I told her Sunday.
Speaker 1:Turns out, then
Speaker 3:you bring her back. Sarah does, she just makes it better.
Speaker 1:Yes. But then you bring her back, put her in the right seat here. She's pretty good now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So good.
Speaker 3:Really good. Ryan as well. They're just they're just two very talented, committed people, and the lord views them powerfully in Slovenia.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And and they're not They're not they have no need for the spotlight.
Speaker 3:No. Neither one of them.
Speaker 1:No. I think Sarah I I work more closely with Sarah, so I don't mean to leave Ryan out. But Sarah can handle herself if she's got a mic. She did yesterday. She trained
Speaker 3:the parents. She can.
Speaker 1:Been raising her. But Mhmm. Man, you just give her a project. She can handle it. So really fun to have her on the team.
Speaker 1:But just the
Speaker 3:the the campus yesterday, all the flags. And one of the fun things for me was watching members of our church who are part of our church family, who are from all over the world Mhmm. Getting their photos made in front of their flag. I took several of those yesterday, a few of
Speaker 2:them, some
Speaker 3:church members.
Speaker 1:It means a lot.
Speaker 3:Check a picture of me in front of my flag. You know? So I love that.
Speaker 1:Then David has a good thumb on the pulse with the children's ministry Yes. Of who is in his ministry. So he tries to make sure those
Speaker 2:Sarah personally does.
Speaker 1:He might try to make sure those flags are there.
Speaker 2:Thirty minute conversation about flags. Yeah. Flags go out of.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. Flag to go where
Speaker 1:And we wanna make sure our people It's awesome. You know, a couple of years ago needs
Speaker 2:to be seen.
Speaker 1:Maybe just actually this year, Ashley and I were at Ascent. We were all four were in the room. And someone on stage said, you know, we just have a really multicultural church. He said something like, I think we have 18 nations represented. And I texted Ashley and I said, I bet we have more than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's not really our we don't lead with that as an identity marker. We're proud of it. I want you to hear that. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But I don't know that we got on stage and brag. Anyway, I'm making that sound. But I was like, Ashley, you think we got 18? And and she and I just started, like, well, they were talking making this list of how many nations we thought were represented. I personally could could churn out 20.
Speaker 1:Ashley added about seven I didn't know about in addition to those. I think we got up to I don't wanna I don't wanna over exaggerate. I don't know if it was 30. Ballpark of 30.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And it was And it's people that we know.
Speaker 1:And it's just our people. I mean, we were and it was like, oh, yeah. Bokeh is from Kenya. But, like, Bouquet is ours. I mean, you know, like, it's not tokenism.
Speaker 1:Hope man, I hope we're not doing tokenism. No. I hope it's true representation. Yeah. But it's just really fun.
Speaker 3:It's our family.
Speaker 1:But when you think about how to make okay. It's gonna really make Nushin feel valued if we have that, you know, Iranian flag prominent.
Speaker 3:And she had her photo made yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yes. That but we but we kinda know that and it's like, well, no. Well, let's get the Iranian flag where she's gonna see it. And it just helps
Speaker 2:Korean flag went by the choir hallway.
Speaker 1:I wonder why. Yeah. And again, I hope we're not I hope we're not we do talk about this, that we're not doing tokenism. We're not just casting this to look good, but we're trying to do representation and and help people know that we care about them and that we believe we're best when we're all together and at the table. So being at the table, do we wanna talk about it?
Speaker 1:Or is there
Speaker 3:more Before mean we leave the campus. The campus.
Speaker 1:The
Speaker 3:The in the Children's Building, you know, one of the things that we do with our partnering workers, particularly in West Africa, is we provide motorcycles along with Restore Hope
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:For our, church planters, and then we provide goats for our pastors once the churches get planted. And, I mean
Speaker 1:Just to connect to us, why would you want goats? Well Just making sure people Goats. Understand that.
Speaker 2:Are, easier to take care of than cattle. They can live on a lot less
Speaker 1:So it's a it's an economic It's business model for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So they can either drink the milk,
Speaker 1:they can turn it into stuff and sell it
Speaker 3:and try
Speaker 1:to can breed them. Breed produce them.
Speaker 3:Much quicker than cattle.
Speaker 1:It's like handing someone a small business.
Speaker 3:It is. And then that allows them and plus they they're living in the village in the community, so they're gonna have to farm, but the goats give them a little leg up, if you will, so to speak. And so we provide goats for the pastors once we church
Speaker 1:Just wanna make sure everybody understood that. Okay.
Speaker 3:Right. It is like a a family business. The motorcycles make it more accessible. And not only that, on those motorcycles, we actually provide the ability for them to show the Jesus film, and so they have little projectors and it's just a whole outfit. We also have audio Bibles that we Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Give to them to distribute. And so it's it's it's one of the most one of the best return on investments.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like, there are $1,400 motorbike, which is what it costs. We'll plant somewhere in the ballpark of 15 to 20 churches. Exactly.
Speaker 1:And so catch that? Yeah. Y'all know what that would cost in Yeah. Oh. Arlington, Texas.
Speaker 3:Gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 1:You wanna go plant a church in 07/2013. It ain't $1,400.
Speaker 3:And so having these evangelists on motorcycles make and and and the roads are, you know, they're going to places where it's very difficult to get to. Now and we still have a great number of them who are still walking because they don't yet have a motorcycle, and they they don't complain at all. They're just walking because they feel cold. But to have our children be able to get their photo on a motorcycle like they're in Mhmm. A village in West Africa With a goat.
Speaker 3:Goats. Yeah. It's just
Speaker 1:A great vision. Yes. Know, I always kinda joke, like, vision's great, but then you have people that can pull it pull it together, like, do the work. So the Mcdougalls loaned their kid sized dirt bike, which is just so fun. Like, you hope that that's gonna emerge, but Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And I saw Jason up here installing it. I I'm guessing he built the base. He was installing it
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:To make sure the kids could actually get moves a
Speaker 3:little bit when you get on it because I got my picture.
Speaker 1:It kinda gives looks like But it's stable enough. Like, there's this wooden base Yeah. Which is really thoughtful because, of course, every kid's gonna wanna jump
Speaker 3:on it for a picture
Speaker 1:and who whomever.
Speaker 3:And some adults. Yeah. I took a picture with Gabe,
Speaker 1:on it because, you know Yeah. Since he
Speaker 3:helps oversee that for us in West Africa.
Speaker 2:And there's also vending machines that you can put quarters in that dispense stickers. So there's this Bring your quarters. Elements. Bring your quarters to share.
Speaker 1:And or we might have some
Speaker 3:Yeah. We're try to provide some of your cards with it. So
Speaker 1:And it's just a visual of what your engagement offering offering goes to when you when you give to that fund.
Speaker 3:And then the world map in the Charlie Hamill
Speaker 1:You can just pray over the world.
Speaker 3:You can write a note prayer note over
Speaker 1:I like that. Because it's simple, but it's like Yes. Not I
Speaker 2:mean Yeah.
Speaker 1:But effective. We're asking people to
Speaker 3:pray for
Speaker 1:the nation.
Speaker 3:And the mission magazine that you all produced
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's a white. If y'all just see it's white with some nice colors on it.
Speaker 3:Inspirational. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:I'm guessing we have it online, but I actually haven't asked. It usually
Speaker 2:it usually We may have a PDF version, but I don't think it reads as well as the paper version.
Speaker 1:That makes sense because it's large document.
Speaker 3:It is so good. It is one of those things that you can take and keep from now on because it provides definitions and explanations of what we're doing and why we're doing it. And it has our heat map, our relationship map, if you will, so you can just see everywhere we're connected. I mean, it's really, really well done. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So just all of that surrounding anything, curriculum that was prepared for all of our bible studies.
Speaker 1:We're trying to be on the same page. So, Luke, when we walk in next week, it's gonna be different.
Speaker 2:It will. So we're gonna have our local partners here on campus. So for you to get connected to learn how you can serve
Speaker 1:locally. A fair.
Speaker 2:Yeah. A fair. With booths, it'll actually be people who work for those nonprofits and organizations here on our campus. So we've got, you know, Mission Arlington, Dallas, area, asylum seeker housing, I think International Friends, Into the Light, Taste Project, Metroplex Women's Clinic, Christian Women's Job Corps.
Speaker 1:That all you could get? Just this? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm just I'm probably missing some. Yeah. But Great. But we've even made a schedule you can look at, like, here's a week kind of overview, just an average week. And when these different organizations are open to volunteers, so you can look at this calendar and see, well, I'm free on Thursdays at noon.
Speaker 2:Where could I serve?
Speaker 3:Yeah. That was a great idea.
Speaker 2:So It's good. Trying to make easy for you to get involved.
Speaker 1:And then I don't wanna shoot too far because, obviously, we'll be back in this very soon.
Speaker 2:We are sponsored by First Arlington. That's right.
Speaker 1:You wanna talk about that? This weekend at First Baptist Arlington, I've got two things for you. Surviving the holidays, Saturday morning, and there's a women's event Sunday afternoon. Abide. Abide.
Speaker 1:Chelsea speaking. It's kind of dwell it kind of a kind of a what can the women's ministry Well,
Speaker 3:for grown ups.
Speaker 1:What can the women's ministry do to bless dwell? So it's dwell for grown ups and then a craft that will go with the girls dwell.
Speaker 2:And the quilt fair is also happening Sunday morning. Get it.
Speaker 1:There's Oh, is
Speaker 3:that right? I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Okay. So then next Sunday I think
Speaker 3:I'm gonna come.
Speaker 2:I think I'll be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But well, let me say surviving the holidays because if you don't it's grief share and divorce care, but it's a standalone. So if you're like, I haven't gone all semester. No. It's just well, it's just a one time thing.
Speaker 1:You can come as you are. Come to the one thing. It's very practical about what's Thanksgiving and Christmas gonna look like Yeah. Now that my
Speaker 3:life looks different. Yeah. It could be very different.
Speaker 1:Really great leaders.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's very no judgment. Just show up at 09:30.
Speaker 3:So I'm gonna
Speaker 1:get you in a room. It is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It is great.
Speaker 1:Saturday, 09:30, Main Building. That's all.
Speaker 2:And then next week or two weeks from now, we'll have an engagement trip fair where you can learn all about all of the trips that our church is gonna take over the next year.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:We, I think, currently send around 10% of our youth through adult Sunday school population. That's kinda how we count it. We have a goal of getting to 20. We have we're increasing the number of trips we offer. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So there's some more flexibility for people and when they go, how long they go, where they go. So just trying to increase what we're able to offer. So there's so much in this month that's really worthy of being involved in and Mhmm. Coming and learning. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So it's a
Speaker 1:I have more questions but I don't want to derail Go for it. Because they service.
Speaker 2:Go for it. We've got time.
Speaker 1:Okay. Here's my question. Why would someone wanna go on a trip? Why they need go on a trip? Can they just follow Jesus here?
Speaker 2:You can just follow Jesus here, and you should follow Jesus here.
Speaker 1:We highly This
Speaker 2:is not recommend This is not a binary. Yeah. Do you I think we start to take for granted how much we are shaped by our culture. And so you live in Arlington, Texas, you go to work in Arlington, Texas or Grand Prairie or Mansfield or wherever you may be and life just becomes normal and you actually stop really consciously thinking about what it means to follow Jesus in your own context. So if we're just talking on the what's the benefit to me side, when you go on an engagement trip, what it does is that it forces you out of your daily rhythm, puts you in a new context, a new environment where there are different assumptions about how the world works.
Speaker 2:There's a different way that church works. We've talked about Sierra Leone. You know, a $1,400 motorbike can play in 15 to 20 churches and you need a goat. Mhmm. And so we'll send people to West Africa to engage in the work there.
Speaker 2:And it's gonna change the way you see. Mhmm. And we'll send people, you know, I think about the trip we just had a few people on to Montreal in October and September. You know, it changes the way you Woah. Woah.
Speaker 2:Knocking my own cup.
Speaker 3:Hold on.
Speaker 1:If you're listening, we almost spilled some tea.
Speaker 2:Well, it's empty. I drank all the tea. Oh. But it changes the way you see. You know, if you go to Quebec and you're working with French speaking Canadians and there's this aggressive secular reality from a government side that makes church hard to plant, hard to manage, hard to grow, then it's gonna change the way you think about ministry, the way you think about mission.
Speaker 2:And so then you come home and you see your own context in a different light that you didn't see it in before because now you've been with other believers. And so it kinda helps you assess the lens with which you're viewing home.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And then be a, I think, more attentive follower of Jesus Mhmm. Where you are. Not to mention you go and you help people.
Speaker 1:Right. Whatever the task.
Speaker 2:Whatever the task is.
Speaker 1:That might even be a pejorative way to say it. Yeah. But the mission.
Speaker 3:What the
Speaker 2:Whatever the goal is, you go and you help in whatever way that is. Mhmm. You provide assistance. You build relationships with a broader body of Christ. I think about that table we had on Sunday.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Those are real rich relationships we have with Raymond and Sergio. Mhmm. But that's just as true. You know, if you go to our work in West Africa, you're going to get connected to our national partners there.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:If you go to Quebec and you're working with French speaking Canadians, you're gonna meet Rafael Anzenberger and you're gonna form a relationship with him. Mhmm. And these relationships are transformative. That's, you know, the church is a set of relationships fundamentally. And so when you go and you engage, you engage in a broader set of church relationships that just inform your discipleship in such a rich way.
Speaker 1:Ddub, anything you'd add?
Speaker 3:Well, would just say, all of that, I would say amen to. And it just to me, when you engage with another culture intentionally and you're doing it for the sake of the gospel, it just alters your perspective. You know, you're never the same after that for so many reasons. You see just how God is at work in a different place and sometimes in a way that's a little different than than you've experienced him. And the partnerships are so meaningful and changes your prayer life.
Speaker 3:You know, I went most of my life. I never even thought about praying for Jesus to appear in visions and dreams to leaders in the Muslim family and particularly in our West African context. But I have learned that many many Muslims will convert to Christ because they've had a vision of Jesus visiting them in a dream. Well, there was a time in my life where my theology didn't even allow for that. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:You know? But then I've come to realize that God is working in ways that, first of all, he hasn't sought my permission, imagine that, and and he's not necessarily bound by my theological framework. And so now, it's it's a regular part of my prayer life that I pray that God will appear to, Muslim chiefs, and leaders across the world in visions and dreams because he does it, and it and it's transformative for people. But I learned that
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:On a mission trip, you know, where I sat down and heard these stories. And then also just the burden that you now feel when you when you when you find yourself particularly in the unreached parts of the world. You just now carry a burden for them. And so, yeah, it's it's it's transformative. And plus, I just love the partnership that that you experience when you're on a mission trip with your church family and you're engaged in something that's incredibly important and meaningful and you do that together.
Speaker 3:It creates a bond and relationships that you bring back to the church that that just it just changes how you view each other, changes how you treat each other, changes how you talk to each other. You just share more about how God is at work and
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:In your prayer life, and it
Speaker 1:just enriches ministry that if a student came on a trip with us, mission retreat, doesn't matter in this regard. If they came if they came on a trip with us, then they're in.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Then they're one of us. Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just
Speaker 3:it just changed.
Speaker 1:Even a two night retreat. If they went, then they're one of And so, you know, there's a lot of angles.
Speaker 3:And it's helping to fulfill the great commission. It is. Jesus told us to go, you know, basically, as you go, make disciples, as you go, proclaim the good news. So, it's a part of a it's a part of the calling of God. So, to me, as I've said in the past, I think you have two options as a Christian, you either go or send, and hopefully you can do some of both.
Speaker 3:So if you're not going to actually be going actively and long term, then you've gotta participate in the sending of others because we're we're compelled to go, and we've got to go in the right posture and the right spirit, and we do it in ways I believe that are missiologically sound. Yeah. We've learned a lot through the years.
Speaker 2:My goodness.
Speaker 3:And and so we're, you know, I'm you know, when you you talk about, you know, how physicians will take this oath to do no harm, well, that's really our oath as well in our mission work where we're not gonna do any harm. We're not gonna make things worse. We're not going to promise things that are unrealistic. We've learned. And so we train people.
Speaker 3:We provide adequate training and resources so we know the posture and and just the the the way that we carry ourselves. You know? And we're also there to learn because God is at work in so many ways in so many people's lives. You know, like like, for example, for me, sometimes I'll be in my office studying, you know, looking at, you know, I'm reading all the resources that are available to me. And I still have in my mind, one night, I was in, West Africa in a village.
Speaker 3:We were, camping out, and one of our team members was not feeling well, and Cindy was worried about her. So she so we decided we would stay up in shifts just to make sure she was okay. You know? Sorry about that. So I, so I got the I got the first shift of the night and so, you know, everybody had gone to bed.
Speaker 3:I said, okay. So I'll put my little chair outside of the my tent in this other volunteer's tent. Well, one of our evangelists, an indigenous Fulani evangelist, brilliant guy, hardly any opportunity for education, but he had worked really hard so that he could read and study, and he had two books. He had a Bible, and he had this little, kind of companion Bible study guide that was available in his language because things were so limited for him. And so he came over to me, you know, and everybody was going to bed, and he came over and he didn't speak any English, but he was trying to figure out why why are you still up?
Speaker 3:What are you doing? I wanna help. Mhmm. And I've kind of we communicated, you know, enough to say I'm okay. His name is Umaru, and and and I know Umaru well.
Speaker 3:It's okay. You don't don't worry about it. Well, that wasn't good enough for him. So he went and got his stuff. He just sleeps outside.
Speaker 3:So he went and got his stuff and brought it over to where I was and just put it down. He was not gonna let me, in other words, sit up outside by myself. He just he just wasn't gonna do that. And he's one of our church planters. So he puts his stuff right there by me, and and I tried to tell him, Warner, it's fine.
Speaker 3:You can go. You can go to Saint Louis. Oh, no. No. No.
Speaker 3:You know? And and, I mean so finally, he he gets positioned kind of on his side on his little mat. He gets his bible out in his little book, and he has a flashlight that he's kinda captured between his neck and his shoulder, and he's sitting there reading. And that's all he has, you know, and he's doing his work kind of on our behalf with just the bible and one, companion, very simple bible study notebook. And I sat there and watched him as I was sitting in this chair.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. And I thought, so here's a guy that's given his life to sharing the gospel. He's he's brave. In his village, when they had their after he became a Christian, became a believer, they had a little boy, and they had the naming ceremony, which is a big deal in in that part of West Africa. And the chief always attends, and the chief announces the name, if it's a boy in particular, the name of the new son that's been given to the village.
Speaker 3:And, and and it typically is a family name, something that's kinda carried down through their family heritage. And Umaro named his son John the Baptist. And I forget how you say it in his language, but and so this chief was like, I'm sorry. What what so the whole village is there, and he says, well, why are you doing this? And he said, well, is that a family name?
Speaker 3:No. It's not a family name. No. And he tells the chief, it's come from the angel, from the New Testament. And John the Baptist is the man who paved the way for the Messiah.
Speaker 3:And he said, so my son is gonna grow up and pave the way for the Messiah in our world. That's Umaru. Just think about that. Okay? So sometimes I'll be sitting in my study at home in my reading chair with my temperature controlled room surrounded by the best scholarship available to humanity and I'll think about Umaru.
Speaker 1:Curated lighting and Everything. The whole Yeah. It's made for that moment.
Speaker 3:Yes. And I will stop and I'll just say, Lord, I have no idea who Umaru is right now, but I know that he's faithful to you. He's still studying your word. And so I find myself connected to this guy in West Africa. Well, that would have never happened had I not gone on a trip
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And met him myself and saw what he does, and, and it reframes things for me. So why go on a trip? Oh my goodness. I mean, if you can, you need to go. And those of us who get to the point where you can't, well, then you need to send.
Speaker 3:You need to make sure others can go. Yeah. And and not only that, we're sending them as well. So it's it's it's we're connected just like Umaru, we're still connected to him and Otamu and several of these men. We're still making sure that they're able to go.
Speaker 3:So, so, yeah, it's and this this connects to a long journey for me and Cindy. You know, we when we first started all this, when we decided to go to seminary, we had no idea what God was calling us to do. Cindy felt called to be a missionary when she was a little girl. She was like nine or 10 years old. And I wasn't really sure, but I had a heart for missions and we were just trying to decide what what are we supposed to do with our lives.
Speaker 3:And so I was trying to get in medical school and I'd I'd told Cindy, well, maybe I'll be a medical missionary, you know, and just we'll do it that way. And she was it was, trying to get into PT school, got accepted actually. And and for some reason, that just didn't seem like enough. Cindy's mother was was a parish nurse kind of before anybody really even understood that. She went from house to house in their community, you know, giving people b twelve shots.
Speaker 3:Her mother was a nurse, so she worked for one of the doctors there. And so Cindy used to go with her and go and visit these elderly folks in the community, and Cindy spent time going to, she went to camps for special needs kids and and so we thought, well, maybe it'd be maybe it's medical, you know, and but for whatever reason, that that just didn't feel deep enough, didn't connect deeply enough with us. So we said, well, well, then let's go. And back in those days, half of the missionaries that Southern Baptist sent were from Southwestern Seminary, and so that seemed to be the place to go if that's what you were going to do. So we arrived with this.
Speaker 3:We stepped inside this huge funnel, if you will, thinking it was missions. And so when we got to the seminary and kind of all that got started, that seemed to be where God was leading us. And, and so we began to apply for them, to be missionaries with the International Mission Board. But I had no ministry experience and so they just said, look, you've never really done anything and so, you don't even know what you can do and so which was smart if you think about it.
Speaker 1:They just said, look, you're gonna have
Speaker 3:to get some experience. And so I really didn't know what that meant. And so I was in chapel one day at, Southwestern and, you know, we were, baker James Cawthon. There there was a missionary speaker. I don't remember who the missionary speaker was, I've forgotten.
Speaker 3:But baker James Cawthon was the legendary president of what used to be called the foreign mission board for Southern Baptist, now it's called the international mission board. And he had he really is kind of a short in stature man, but a deep booming voice and just a very famous missions leader in my early lifetime in in in this work. And he did the invitation that day in chapel. And when he gave the invitation, he called for people who were called to missions, you know, who believed they were supposed to be full time missionaries. And a a good number of people came forward and I was standing I was at the back during the invitation and I just I just couldn't see any wasn't there with me, so I just didn't feel like I could go cause I didn't know.
Speaker 3:And, and then he said, okay. He said, I'm wondering if all the rest of y'all are still where you are. And he said, well, obviously, God doesn't call everybody to this. This is not your full time calling. He said, but here's what I would say though, God has given the great commission to all of us.
Speaker 3:And he said, so I'm gonna ask you right now if you'll just say to the Lord, and to yourself that you're gonna do everything that you can do regardless of what you end up doing with your life. If you're gonna be a pastor or, you know, a music minister, whatever it is that you plan to do, if you will say to the Lord, I'm gonna do my part as best I know how to fulfill the great commission no matter where I serve. While I was the first one down, you know, I literally almost ran down the aisle. I still remember it just like it was yesterday and looking up at Baker James Cawthon. And, he prayed a prayer over those who felt called to missions and then he prayed a prayer over the rest of us.
Speaker 3:And, and I still remember that moment in my life that I said to the Lord, okay. I'm gonna do that as best I know how. And so when you get involved in all that we're doing right now, it's actually connected for me to something that I responded to when I was younger than y'all. You know, I was still in my twenties in those days, and I've given my life to try to do it as best I could. Now one day, I'm gonna stand before the Lord and give account for it, but I've at least tried to make sure that the churches that I served understood the calling of the great commission to get the gospel to the world.
Speaker 3:And it's looked differently in every church. But I would say for me and Cindy, in particular, this this month is a very personal month for us just because it strikes at the very heart of how we first started all of this. You know? And and so, obviously, she more than me have spent a lot of time going, you know. And there was one year Cindy was gone seventy two days, not that I counted, but she was overseas a lot in that particular season of our life.
Speaker 3:And but I have great admiration and respect for her because I know how deep it is. You know, there there are times when I sometimes will come home, this has happened numerous times in our marriage, and Cindy will just be distraught. Occasionally, I found her weeping, and I'm wondering what is going on. Has something happened? And it's her weeping over the unreached peoples of the world.
Speaker 3:And she'll just say, I'm just so overwhelmed tonight. I can't I just can't even go to bed because I'm so burdened for the Fulani. And so we'll just stay up with each other and pray and cry. And so it's it's it's embedded deeply within us personally. And so to see some of it lived out in our church and fulfilled in in ministries like Restore Hope and Ascent, it's hard for me to explain.
Speaker 3:I don't know that I have the words to explain to y'all what it means to us to just see it right in front of us and and know that we've had a very small part in it. But but wherever we can put our hands on it, we want to to make it healthy and breathe life into it and support it as best we can, because it answers something in us that that really brought us to seminary to begin with so many years ago, you know. So, yeah, it's a Sunday morning for me. I'm you I know, wasn't even sure I was gonna be able to do it, you know, just because Which part? Just just going up and leading the church beside Raymond and Sergio because it again, it just answers something.
Speaker 3:It calls forth from something from within me that just feels so fulfilled, you know, to to to believe that I'm at a church now to where, you you can just call on church members who, like Raymond and Sergio, to come help you share the Lord's Supper, and they represent so many people in the world, and they represent places that we have felt called to serve missionally. And, and to think that our work in Spain, in particular, as a church, you know, is being conducted right now in Arabic, in Spanish, in English, and it's it's one of the most significant things that we're doing right now in terms of getting the gospel to a strategic place in the world. And the fact that we could capture some of that in our own church and and not have to not have to go out somewhere and hire somebody to come help us do it. These are authentically our people who are living
Speaker 2:out the calling. Respect to Arlington is.
Speaker 3:Yes. So I was just overwhelmed by all that Sunday morning. I was sitting there thinking, okay, I can do this without crying. You know, I I can I can do it? And and I was just I was just humbled by it.
Speaker 3:So yeah. So trying to put all that into words is hard to do. You know, you there are just certain things that, you know, like, for example, when we every time we sing a mighty fortress is our god, you know, we can't sing that last verse. We just can't do it. It's let goods and kindred go this mortal life also.
Speaker 3:The body they may kill, but God's truth abideth still. Well, it's just too emotional for me. I can't I can't even sing it. I just have to let y'all sing it around me, you know, because it's just it's what we felt like we were called to go do, and we've tried to live it out in the life of a local church. And, so, yeah, it's it's incredibly fulfilling for me, you know.
Speaker 3:So and then to be surrounded by Ashley and Luke and you, Katie, and Sarah, and Kurt, and
Speaker 1:Best of the best.
Speaker 3:And and then just this just factor it out. All these different
Speaker 1:people. Keep naming
Speaker 3:it. Right. Invested people in this church, all the folks that worked so hard on the border, you know, Peggy and Linda and Steve McKown and, know, just just giants to me. Yeah. You know, and Rebecca Dark and
Speaker 1:Jack Blue.
Speaker 3:Jack Blue. I feel bad because
Speaker 1:we're gonna leave people out.
Speaker 2:Many list. We did not name.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We
Speaker 2:have not named you.
Speaker 3:You just look at all these people and you're like, seriously, you know, Nathan and Beth. I mean, people that just pause their lives and and some of them have been doing it here locally at Mission Arlington, Tilly, and all of that and people have
Speaker 1:Sylvia.
Speaker 3:Been doing it. Yes. Just
Speaker 1:Every day.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I just look at it and I'm okay, Lord. You've let me you've let me have a taste of it. You know? And so if I think about it too much, it just it's it's too much for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I have to kinda I have to dial it back.
Speaker 1:It's also okay to be overwhelmed. Here, let me the female care pastor can tell you, you can do it while crying. Well, true. You know, can you can be overwhelmed by it and still do it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It gets it ought to be overwhelming.
Speaker 2:Tears or tears of sadness.
Speaker 1:It ought to be overwhelming Yeah. At some point. You know, and that's okay.
Speaker 3:And to see the authenticity Sunday morning when we go up to that table, first of all, just to be reminded of what Jesus has done for us, let's just start with that. Just, I mean, you know, his the life and his sacrifice for us. And then to decide Sunday morning to invite pastor Raymond and pastor Sergio to join us. And and as I said Sunday, and with us three men sitting on that platform, that's like two and a half billion people on planet Earth, you know, represented by those
Speaker 2:three Yeah. And laying
Speaker 3:think about the millions of Christians yesterday across the world who took the Lord's Supper in some form either in English or Spanish or Arabic. Mhmm. And and we didn't even do Mandarin or Hindi.
Speaker 1:Right. The
Speaker 3:other two massive languages. We probably But could've but we could've could've had some church members come up there and help us do that. We could've bold
Speaker 1:people up.
Speaker 3:We we could have. We could've done it on the spot.
Speaker 1:Likely.
Speaker 3:You know? Just grab people out of the car and you're saying, k, come sit with us, and why don't you do this in Hindi real quick? Why don't you do this in Mandarin? We could've, They were there Sunday. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And to be honest, behind the scenes, we talked about all this. Yeah. We went with our Yeah. We went with the ordained ministers
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:Because that represents something
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:We didn't wanna do tokenism
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:And just cast it.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:We wanted, I mean, we we thought through a ton of angles and what if this It's
Speaker 2:a long conversation.
Speaker 1:And then eventually landed on that, which I know I'm saying that's the perfect thing. But look how beautiful it We we considered a lot about how that might all play together. Yes.
Speaker 3:In a in a picture of the global body of Christ
Speaker 1:I mean, I think we can say this and and be honest about it. Sometimes when we think about Arabic, at least growing up in my nine eleven childhood Mhmm. We have some deep stereotypes that are that are bad. Yes. And and I have to confess them because I grew up in a small town
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And that was 15 when nine eleven happened and very formative. So even the kind of this this subversiveness of having someone lead us in a Christian faithful Christian pastor lead us in Arabic and submit to that. That's a good gesture. We'll just remind everybody. Gesture.
Speaker 2:There were Arabic speaking Christians long before there were Christians in Europe.
Speaker 1:Yes. We just have a lot to undo around that. That's what
Speaker 3:I told Raymond and Ida. I said, you know, people were praising Jesus in your language before we were ever thought of. And, it was just it was awesome.
Speaker 1:But if you don't have the gospel
Speaker 2:in Lebanon before it made it to Europe.
Speaker 1:But if you don't have the exposure like you're talking about Yeah. Then you don't know.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:And you or you might forget Right. And you don't understand. I think having that
Speaker 3:at Right.
Speaker 1:On the stage in the sanctuary for Sherlock Charlton.
Speaker 3:And the humility of it to me. I mean, you think about Americans are so in general, we're just very provincial, and everything comes to us. That's how we view the world. Mhmm. Everybody has to learn to speak English if you're gonna talk to us, and I'm in I'm in that.
Speaker 3:I get it. It's just it's just how we treat the world. And for us to be seated in a room and sit while someone is sharing the story of the most precious story to us in two different languages and us sit and listen knowing that you don't understand what he's saying. Yeah. You know?
Speaker 3:Now we had a we had a lot of
Speaker 2:normal experience for many people in our church
Speaker 3:every Sunday. Exactly. Yeah. They're having to listen to another language. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:But I I was sitting there thinking some people might have been uncomfortable with it and it's so good because we need to be reminded that everything doesn't just come to us. That's that's not how this is. We're not the center of the universe. We're just not, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 3:The gospel is so much bigger.
Speaker 2:Well, is what polycentric mission is about. Exactly. We talked about and probably, you know, what you have framed is this idea of monocentric mission. There's one center of mission. Mission, you know, for most of missions history was conceived of is it came from Europe or North America.
Speaker 2:And so it had one center, western culture.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:But we're now in this polycentric missional age where we've recognized mission is everyone to everywhere. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And the example of that to me is our work in Spain. There's an Egyptian Arabic church that leads that ministry, an African Oh my gosh. Set of Christians. Not us. Mm-mm.
Speaker 3:We're we're there.
Speaker 1:That's coming alongside.
Speaker 3:That's all we're doing.
Speaker 2:Well, know what's wild? Just to highlight the polycentricism of the way
Speaker 1:we, we're talking about a Mexican born Yeah. Yes. Worker that we sent.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:I mean, a Spanish speaking, now Arabic speaking
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 1:Mexican born worker who married one of our American girls and what I mean our church.
Speaker 2:It's Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not monocultural even
Speaker 2:in But then you start thinking about the polycentric nature of everything. You know, this summer we're gonna send our youth to Toronto to work with an organization called Toronto Remix which does basically missional equipping in the city of Toronto. And we had found it through some recommendations for people we've connected through with Ascent on the Canadian side and we're scoping it out and then we start tracing the lines. Well, Remix went and ran a program in Spain with this church out of Egypt. And so the organization we had started looking for with our youth actually already works with our partner ministry
Speaker 3:It's great. In Spain.
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden you say, oh.
Speaker 2:And then it's oh. Oh. This is clearly Of course. The way we
Speaker 1:should go. Of course.
Speaker 3:As God continues to lead. So, yeah, I just I just loved all of it Sunday. Like I said, the humility of it, the beauty of it, the richness of it, to listen to to listen to Raymond basically proclaim the gospel in an ancient tongue in our sanctuary in an articulate way.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And and then my brother Sergio to to share just passionately in Spanish, you know, the the meaning of communion and and to watch our people listening and reading at the same time, but knowing what they're talking about because they know what this is. They know what this moment is. Mhmm. And I love to watch how our people responded when these two men in their own language, instructed us to take the bread and take the juice. None of us knew what they were saying, but it didn't matter.
Speaker 3:We were in this moment of experiencing something together at a common table. And then to get the commissioning of the church afterwards was like the exclamation point for the day. And, so, yeah, I'm What a day. I went home full for sure.
Speaker 2:What a day.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, there you go.
Speaker 1:Well, you keep talking, but we actually have three more of these this month.
Speaker 3:That's right. We do. We'll have more to talk about next time.
Speaker 2:K. We'll be back next week. We hope
Speaker 1:you all are too. Mhmm. Thanks for listening to the tell me more podcast today. You can subscribe to this podcast on your app of choice, or you can visit us at fbca.org to find out more information about the podcast and our church. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Have a good day.