Pastor Dave's Blog
My Table Group at Lausanne in Cape Town
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Tuesday October 19, 2010
File under: People & Places
I'm currently in Cape Town at the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. It is my hope to post a blog entry or two while I'm here, but i heard something crazy today. The Internet usage of our conference has put a record setting burden on South Africa's Internet infrastructure, exceeding even that used during the World Cup! So, depending on how things go i hope to get at least a couple of posts up.
One of the great blessings of this Congress has been the decision by the organizers to seat everyone at tables of 6 for the duration of the Congress to facilitate more meaningful connections and spur deeper discussions. Mission accomplished. I love my table group and feel it is a real gift from GOd that I was able to meet these people. Here's a photo of my group:
THese are some remarkable people. Our table leader and the only woman in our group is a woman named Sharon. She is from SIngapore and is a Cambridge educated chemcial engiuneer who left it all behind to serve the Lord in a parachurch creative arts ministry under the banner of Campus Crusade.
Next to her is Ojie. He's a pastor serving in the north part of the Philippines. He was once a gang member but was marvelously saved by Christ. He has a great sense of humor and is such a genuine person. He's added so much life to our little group.
Next to him is Sam, who is a medical doctor and the president of a network of major hospitals in South Korea. He is in his 50s and is moving in a new direction in his life, establishing teaching hospitals, medical schools, and nursing schools throughout Africa. He is also an elder of the church that sent those missionaries to Afghanistan, some of whom were martyred recently.
Finally is Fritz, the Missions Director of a major denomination in Germany. He once worked for the Mercedes corporation but entered the ministry. He has served as a missionary in Africa and plans to return there upon retiring in the near future.
I've truly enjoyed getting to know these folks and they have already enriched my life. There is such a sense of unity in Christ at this historic gathering, as over 4,000 Christian leaders from over 180 nations have converged on Cape Town. I am still humbled that i was invited to be a part of it all.
Please prayt hat this hsitoric meeting will continue to bear fruti for Christ for decades to come. I am grateful beyond words for the people of Harvest Community Church who have permitted and resourced me to take part in this Congress and are even now praying for me.
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My Friend Richmond
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Sunday October 10, 2010
File under: People & Places
I want to introduce you to a remarkable man I met today, whom I am proud to now call my friend. His name is Richmond Wandera and he is from Uganda. I first saw Richmond when he was one of five people featured in a Compassion International video called One Act, presented at the Lausanne 12 Cities 12 Conversations event in Chicago.
The video presented the testimonies of five adults who had grown up as sponsored children in a Compassion International project. They shared of how the selfless decision of a sponsor, in most of their cases a teenager, literally saved their lives. It is one of the most moving videos I've watched in a long time.
I was surprised to find out that all five people featured in that video were currently students at Moody Bible Institute. One of our staff interns, Christian Park, is also a student there so he facilitated a connection with Richmond. He came to our church today to share his testimony and preach from Acts 3:1-10. My heart was shaking as I listened, and it felt to me like our entire congregation was riveted.
After the service one of our families opened up their home for an informal lunch reception and we got a chance to get to know Richmond and his story in a more intimate setting. As he shared, i kept thinking how I, and many others, give faithfully to Compassion because we're drawn in by the immediate needs of hunger, housing, and health. Yet I could see in Richmond that the real tragedy of poverty is that it could hide the light of such an extraordinary heart and mind under a bushel. What a loss to the kingdom it would have been if poverty had won the battle for Richmond's life.
In addition to being a student at Moody, Richmond also serves as the pastor of the church where he was saved back in Uganda. He also has a beautiful vision to train up the pastors in his home country, sharing with them the wealth of knowledge he's been given here at Moody. It was moving to hear him say that he studies so hard because so many pastors back home are waiting for him to come back and share what he has learned, and he just "can't get it wrong."
His vision has led him to start a ministry called Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN). He currently leads bimonthly training conferences for hundreds of pastors, all of whom work on a volunteer basis, often bearing the financial burdens of ministry out of their own pockets. They are not lacking in commitment, but they need more training.
Richmond also has a wonderful vision to create a place for pastors to connect, rest, and study. A place where they can sit and talk with an accountability partner or prepare for their next sermon in the library. It is a much needed kind of "third place" for these pastors and I am praying that God will provide the resources they need to see Richmond's vision become a reality.
Richmond really left a lasting impression on my heart, and i hope you will take the time to follow some of the links and get to know him a bit better. I also hope that you will seriously consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International, and that if you already sponsor a child, you will take the time to write him/her a letter. It will mean so much to them.
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The Goofiness of God
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Thursday March 4, 2010
Recently 3 of my 4 kids attended a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. The older two were just tagging along. Evidently they took a whole bunch of photos in this machine that converts your photo into a stylized pencil sketch. I was flipping through this stack of 8 of these pictures and the last 3 cracked me up. Have a look...
When my wife Jeannie and I looked at these together, we knew exactly where they get this goofy side from - me. No one coached them - they are weird all by themselves. It's in their very nature.
So I got to wondering, if they get it from me, where do I get it from? Of course I can say I get it from my dad, and to some degree I do - though you'd have to know my dad for years before he'll show you that side of himself.
But ultimately where does humanity get our levity from? Why do we love to laugh? Why do absurd things make us chuckle? Why do we delight ourselves in things that don't have a point or serve some functional purpose? I believe with all my heart that it is a reflection of God.
Granted, we can take levity too far and venture into the realm of crass and destructive expressions. But I don't think Jesus was a stiff. I think he knew how to laugh. I believe he cracked jokes.
Jesus had three years on earth to establish an earthly ministry that would endure until today, yet I believe that he took some of that precious limited time to just delight in being alive. I don't think levity in any way detracts from the serious business of life that all of us must engage in each day. I think laughter and even sillyness are lubricants for the soul.
One of the things I love about working with our church staff is that from time to time (don't worry, it's all done in moderation), we can send each other a funny clip from Youtube that causes an eruption of laughter. Have you laughed today? If it's been a long time since you've burst out in a deep "who-cares-what-I-look-like" belly laugh, you're missing out on the full picture of life as God intended it.
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Free Range Parenting
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Wednesday December 2, 2009
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
My friend Dan recently lent me his issue of TIME magazine where the cover story was an article entitled, "The Argument Against Over-Parenting." Turning to the page where the article started, I was greeted with a colorful photo of a mother wrapping her child with bubble wrap.
It was an interesting article with what I saw as two major themes: (1) That we have become over-protective of our children even in areas where the world has become safer; and (2) So many American parents have become "so obsessed with [their] kids' success that parenting turned into a form of product development."
The article referenced a woman named Lenore Skenazy who, as a columnist for the New York Sun, let her 9-year old son ride the New York City subway alone as a "ride of passage." She was exoriated by many in the media as "America's worst mom." In fact, if you Google that phrase you see Ms. Skenazy's name everywhere. In response she launched a movement and a blog called "Free Range Kids" that advocates for a more relaxed approach to parenting. On a recent visit to her blog I saw a crazy video about how some kids in a remote Columbian village ride a 1/2-mile zipline on free-hanging pulleys to get to school - the point: let's not fret over our kids walking a couple blocks to their schools.
I have mixed feelings about all of this because the world has become a more dangerous and unpredictable place. But the answer is not to abandon faith in God or to smother our children. You can draw your own conclusions but I think it's an interesting issue to think through. You can read the article for yourself online here.
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Flashes of Trust
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Friday October 30, 2009
I was working on my sermon at a local Starbucks while waiting for my daughter to get out of her preschool program. All the tables were filled so I took a seat at the windowside bar area. There was one other person sitting next to me - a woman who was working pretty intensely on some stuff.
I had all my stuff laid out on the table but had to run to the bathroom so I asked her to watch my stuff. As I walked to the bathroom I wondered to myself how I coud be so confident she could be trusted. After all, my beloved MacBook Pro was lying untethered on the table. Would she really be watchful? Would she defend my stuff if someone started snooping around? How did I assess her trustworthiness just with a glance? Were there others in the place whom I wouldn't have trusted so instinctively?
All interesting questions, but in the end I realized I'd just decided to trust her. I was appealing to what I hoped was a basic sense of goodness. And no, I don't believe theologically that mankind is basically good - we are morally corrupted. But I do believe that even in our fallen state, many people remain capable of doing what is right.
To my surprise, when I returned to my seat, she said, "As long as you're here, let me run ot the bathroom as well." And without even waiting to hear my response she left for the restroom fully trusting me with her stuff (pictured here). Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it felt like we had this unspoken agreement that for the couple hours we were here, we'd formed a little bond of trust with very defined boundaries that served our needs while we worked here. It makes me realize that we all come hardwired with a need to live in community and trust others, if only for an hour or two in a coffee shop.
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Propagating Error
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Thursday July 16, 2009
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
I saw an interesting thing on Ron Edmonson's blog today where he lists the 6 most misquoted movie lines. It was funny because I've personally misquoted a number of those lines, each time being absolutely convinced that it sounded right. I never really went back to the movies to confirm because it was close enough to what I thought was right that i just went with it.
Perhaps most surprising was that the line "Beam me up, Scotty" was never used in any Star Trek tv episode or motion picture! Yet is is a line that even non-Trekkies recognize and associate with the franchise.
I remember putting together this quiz for my students when I was a youth pastor in Philadelphia, where i put a bunch of quotes on the page and asked them to identify whether each was from the Bible or Shakespeare. To further fool them I put some lines in that were from neither source but many of them swore that lines like, "God helps those who help themselves" was from the BIble. I guess to them it just sounded right...sounded biblical.
Paul commended the Bereans in Acts 17:11 because (according to the NLT), "They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth." Misquoting a movie line does not carry any serious consequences, but each time we say something that "sounds" biblical but is even a little off, we are propagating an error that can have serious negative impact on people's lives.
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Remembering the Dead
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Tuesday July 14, 2009
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
Much has been made of Michael Jackson's death on June 25, 2009. His memorial service was so huge it required a venue like the Staples Center. Many people gave heartfelt statements remembering and celebrating Michael's life. Despite the controversy that marked his personal life, it was nonetheless touching to hear so many speak so fondly of someone who'd touched their lives. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Michael's music was a huge part of my own teenage years. The Thriller album will always be close to my heart.
On the same day on the other side of the world, 1st Lieutenant Brian N. Bradshaw of the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, died of wounds suffered when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle in Kheyl, Afghanistan. He hailed from Steilacoom, WA and lost his life at the age of 24 in the service of his country.
I don't think it would be profitable or decent of me to try to compare these two lives because I don't know either of these men on a personal level. I imagine that both men did good to others while they were alive. And I imagine both men had flaws and shortcomings they never conquered in life. That’s pretty much the story for each of us isn't it?
Death is an occasion that makes those left behind reflect on the lives of those who have passed. Often words like "hero" are spoken to honor the dead. But I think in the final analysis it's how we live, not so much how we die, that is the measure of our lives. Someone once told me that as he wandered through a cemetery and looked at all the headstones, he reflected that our whole lives are basically the hyphen between the year of our birth and the year of our death. I hope my hyphen is worth something to God and others around me.
Michael Jackson has had his day of being remembered and then some. I just wanted to make sure that Mr. Bradshaw also got some public mention. And if you want to see a listing of all those who have lost their lives in military service go here. And remember that in addition to these two men, an estimated 150,643 other human beings passed from life to death on June 25 as well.
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The Ultimate Missionary Vehicle
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Tuesday July 14, 2009
File under: Passions & Pastimes
So I was driving on Golf Road the other day and saw this beastly looking truck pull up behind me. I'd never seen anything like it so I let it pull ahead of me to get a better look. It's called The Earth Roamer and in my opinion it is the ultimate missionary mobile. I'd love to roam the earth in this baby.
This is the vehicle of my dreams, but with a pricetag of $200,000-230,000 and rising gas prices it's only a fantasy. Can you imagine cruising taking this thing to the outermost reaches of the planet in God's service? Find out more at www.earthroamer.com.
Exterior Shot
Interior Shot
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Just had to post this one...
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Thursday July 9, 2009
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
I've flown nearly 350,000 miles in my lifetime and have had more than a few frustrating moments with airline customer service, so when I came across this I felt I had to post it to give this guy a bit more publicity. Hope you're not offended.
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Have you heard of Pétanque?
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Tuesday June 30, 2009
File under: Passions & Pastimes
I was recently reading a short article on the yips, muscle spasms that affect athletes when doing fine motor skills. It is most commonly associated with golfers when they're putting, but I read that it can also affect pétanque chuckers.
Being an insatiably curious person, when I come across a word I've never heard of before, I have to know what it is. That's one of the reasons I'm so thankful for the Internet. It lets me get it out of my system in minutes.
Anyway, it turns out that pétanque is a game that originates from France and involves players trying to throw hollow metal balls and land them as close to a small wooden ball as possible. I thought to myself, "Big deal...wake me when it's over." That is until I saw this video on youtube. It's amazing that you can take the simplest thing and people will find a way to bring it to the highest level and gain such mastery over the required skill set. Some of the highlighted throws are just unbelievable if you think about it.
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