In a series of short videos, I review Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. I review this because Stephen King is a successful horror writer and people, especially unbelievers, read him. A Christian horror writer once said that horror is really a philosophy. My goal with this three part series is to engage people in conversation about the issues I bring up. You can go here to view all of the series.
Today’s Video:
https://youtu.be/4PRHsAde2KU
So, the biggest complaint among older people is how people post deeply disturbing details of their state of mind (pictures like below) on Facebook. Yet, the other day over a meal someone was talking specific details about the problem with their pancreas or colon. In both instances, these are examples of relationship building. Listening. Supporting. Loving. This can be a bridge of communication.
Advising Chiang’s Army will be done by the end of the month. “We Stood Upon Stars” has not been shipped yet.
Coffee With Nikki are short episodes addressing older Christians or the technologically challenged to help the church body use this tool to share the Gospel and build relationships online. If you would like to hear more about hashtags, you can go to my free Facebook class in May or we can set up a Zoom or Skype session to talk.
Video Length: Less than 3 minutes
Crazy schedules and a lifestyle of doing will wear you out. Creating new habits means starting the week out right. Every Monday and Tuesday of my new job and new schedule, I start out with reading a chapter in the Bible and sitting quietly. I want to listen to what God would tell me rather than fill the silence with my words.
In my mind, it’s not how often you read the Bible, but how you spend quality time reading the Bible. I do deeper study through books and leadership development courses, but something about simply reading the Bible in prayer and listening helps me keep peace. Monday and Tuesdays are my intimate times with the Lord.
How do you spend time learning the Bible and listening to the Lord?
Since the beginning of December, I’ve been running active ministries and looking for a new job. I’ve also been praying and working to raise my support numbers.
God continues to work on the hearts of those He wants to use to support my work. I have a couple of verbal supports and I am at 22% support. It’s been tough to get everything done. The job hunting has taken away valuable free time, and I am pleased to say my prayers were answered.
Last week, I began my first week at a new job. The hours work well with ministry and I am slowly getting a feel for what my new schedule will look like with WorldVenture. I won’t say publicly where I am working as they are sensitive to the brand reputation of their company. It is my desire to keep my social media activity unconnected to the job. What I post is my own and not reflective of the company I work for.
I leave my role at Solid Rock Christian Fellowship as a church secretary to becoming Solid Rock’s church-supported Social Media Mentor (part of WorldVenture’s organization).
As a friend pointed out, “Working for money will make you miserable.” I do what I love and love what I do.
Will you continue praying for me?
Billed as creepy, The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel grossed me out. In spite of this reaction, I thought it was well-written and reflected a part of our culture the Christian world doesn’t always address (especially in their fiction).
This novel helps us understand what’s wrong with the Roanoke family and why the girls in the family keep disappearing or killing themselves by skillful manipulation of the chapters. The book takes us from now to then and to the different girls in the family history. The family lives in a small town in Kansas and it is as broken and dysfunctional as the Roanoke family. However, the Roanoke family have their own special brand of dysfunctional.
You discover this in the first few pages. Grandpa loves under age girls that are related to him. He’s an incestious pediphile. The book shows us how the girls and Laney (the main character) has bought into his kind of “love.” The book has many twists and turns, showing us how Laney and the other girls really had nowhere to go or any kind of help to escape the nightmare of the Roanoke family.
Laney’s own fatalistic point of view that she can’t escape her family history, succombing to repeating the cycle of her past, should bother you. We know our hope is in Christ and second chances can come by making different choices. So, why should a Christian read this book?
First, it’s a fascintating book, truly getting mysterious as Laney is the only one concerned with her cousin/sister’s disappearance. Allegra leaves clues. Other plot twists begin to happen including an ex-boyfriend who has changed. We find out the psychological trauma Laney is suffering from and how it affects her other relationships.
Second, while this book is peppered liberally with swear words, this is the language of the culture and world we live in. White washing reality is not the answer to raising intentional adults to work in an environment that is troubling to say the least.
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel was well-written with a twist you can’t see coming at the end. The end is a happy ending in the language of our world, but as a Christian, I wondered if they got married or were shacking up with each other?
Rating: 4 Stars
*Book given by publisher to review
Tonight I make my first appearance at Solid Rock Christian Fellowship as their church-supported international worker. Please pray that my booth and my words are right and that I can clearly convey the message of the vision I feel God has given me.
From Sunday, March 26 to Monday, March 27, I will be on a social media fast. On Monday, I will check in online but it will be in the evening. During this time, pray that the Lord will impress on me next steps and that my creativity gets a refresh.
Some prayer requests for this week:
He was given authority to rule, and glory, and a kingdom; so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. – Daniel 7:14
Worshiping in a different language is beautiful. I did not understand the words, but I understood who I was worshiping in that service. In my lifetime, I have worshiped in an American Latino church and in a Central America (Honduras) church. Both experiences taught me that the verse above is accurate. But there’s another culture we tend to ignore–each other’s tastes of how we worship in the American church.
Bring up carpet color or music style in any church in America and you will get an argument, even a debate. You are tampering with holy ground so to speak. If we are truly accepting of different countries worshiping our God in their heart language, then we should not worry about what music is playing. It should not bother us that one person sings hymns while another one is contemporary. With over 300,000 churches in America, all one needs to do is drive down the street to find the service that fits their cultural tastes. The traditional, blended, and contemporary kind of services are a culture of its own. Each service has a different way of speaking into a different kind of generation. I call it a heart language, though heart language is mostly used with international workers when explaining a worship of God in other countries.
For instance, a tribe of people I read about in the Perspectives course once heard western style music and thought that was heresy. Their tribal music was discordant and (I’m sorry to say) awful, but to them this music was a holy way to worship a holy God. International workers worship with them even if the music isn’t to their tastes. As Christians yearning to be one church, we should mimic how international workers worship and serve in foreign countries, patiently and lovingly standing with our brothers and sisters in Christ in spite of our music preferences. After all, we go to church to worship and fellowship together. Why should we let something like music divide us?
It’s interesting to note in a book I recently read called, A Wind in The House of Islam, how Muslims do not generally accept teachings from people outside their Muslim community. This is why some indigenous believers use shadow pastors to mentor them as they reach out to their people with the Gospel. Western churches in the area fearful of repercussions were said in the book to turn away seekers from the Muslim communities. This caused many Muslim-background followers of Christ to form their own house churches. In thinking about the trending topic of Millennials and how to reach them, the church simply needs to find common ground, mentor millennials, and/or shadow pastor a millennial to send out and start a church made just for their tastes of music and culture if a church is unable to adapt. Another fascinating highlight from the history of people who reach out to unbelievers globally is how the most successful church plants in foreign fields were those who adapted to the culture and used it to share the Gospel. They tossed aside their unsuccessful western approach and acclimated to the culture.
So, when I think of multi-cultural approaches to sharing the Gospel in an American sense, I see churches in the culture and language of the people group they represent, including music and teaching styles that are in English. As a church, if we claim we are multi-cultural and embrace the worldwide spread of the Gospel in its different formats and styles, why do we find it so hard to accept people who are different from us in our own American culture? Why aren’t we more intentional in our approaches, deliberately putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations for the love of our neighbor? Even if I don’t understand the language, I deliberately use a Bible version (youversion.com) in that language and use this opportunity to immerse myself in another culture for the purpose of understanding and love.
And while it’s painful, I also sit in more traditional services on occasion so I can be with new and old friends, because that is their heart language of worship. Many of them have positively influenced me as a new believer.
How do you worship? And do you serve cross-culturally as defined in this blog post? What is your favorite music and why?