Medicine Or Candy?

In Peru, Hall's throat lozenges are treated as candy.

In Boston, where I grew up, Hall's throat lozenges were used to treat a cough or a sore throat.

In Boston, Hall's was considered as a type of medicine.

In Lima, they're candy.

In Lima, people will give you a Hall's throat lozenge the same way that they'd give you a mint or a Hershey's kiss.

It's considered candy.

What do people consider the message and the work that you are producing in your church or ministry?

Do people see it as soul-healing medicine?

Or is it just syrupy-sweet candy, never offensive, never in-your-grill, only meant to appeal to twitching ears and sweet-laden appetities?

Is your word and your church and your ministry considered medicine - or just candy?

In Fashion

Last week I attended a fashion show for the very first time.

Why was I invited to a fashion show? Because one of our attendees at FRC in Lima was graduating from a local fashion and design institute, and some of her clothing designs were going to be modeled at the fashion show, and another one of our FRC attendees was going to be doing the modeling.

Before the show started, I was chatting with our design student. She mentioned how the show would feature both profesional models and amateurs.

"How do you know the difference?" I asked the design student.

"By the way they walk," she replied.

By the way they walk.

This quickly became obvious to me once the fashion show started. The professional models knew how to walk down a runway, twirl, and walk back. They knew how to walk the walk. The amateurs did not.

You, your church, your ministry - do people know that you are a Christ follower by the way you walk?

Can they tell?

Are you walking the walk?

Or just talking the talk?

The world is watching to see how you walk.

Mickey D's, Peruvian Style

There's a McDonald's right next to the cinema where we do church on Sundays. Actually, there are probably more than 20 McDonald's in and around Lima, Peru, and they seem to do a pretty good business. The McDonald's right next to our cinema does a particularly great business on Sundays, after our services are over, since hundreds of people are spilling out of the cinema at about noontime, hungry and looking for lunch, and the Golden Arches are right next door. It works out quite nicely for Ronald McDonald & Co. on Sundays next door to us.

Of course, you are all familiar with McDonald's, no matter where in the world you are doing church or ministry.

You all are very familiar with McDonald's, the most successful fast food franchise in the world, and a place where you can get great fried chicken, fried yuca, and Inca Kola.

What?

You say that you can't get fried chicken, fried yuca, or Inca Kola at your local Mickey D's? They only have Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, and great fries?

What McDonald's has done in Lima, and very successfully so, is to integrate the franchise with Peruvian food culture. So, of course, you can walk into any of the Golden Arches in Lima and wolf down a Big Mac, or a Quarter Pounder, or large fries, and they all taste exactly the same as they do in the USA, or anywhere else, but McDonald's also has added items to their Lima menu that specifically appeal to Peruvian taste buds, such as fried chicken (chicken is more popular than beef in Peru), fried yuca (somewhat like french fries, but not exactly the same), and Inca Kola (the #1 soda in Peru).

Any McDonald's in Lima is about 95% the same as any McDonald's in the USA or anywhere else in the world, particularly in terms of look, environment, and taste, but McDonald's also has smartly left a little room to integrate Peruvian food culture into their franchises, and this has worked to their benefit and bottom line.

How can you follow this model in your international church or ministry? While you may have certain beliefs, rules, regulations, norms, and traditions that are non-negotiable, how can you integrate your local culture more, in order to give more local flavor to what you are doing?

Doing so will benefit your church or ministry, no matter where you are in the world.

If McDonald's can do it, then so can you, and so should you.

Light Bulb

I have a postcard taped to the wall above my desk in my office. The postcard reads, "Todo comienza con una idea."

For those of you that don't read Spanish, this means, "Everything begins with an idea."

On the postcard is a picture of a light bulb.

Our God is a creative God, and He has filled you with creativity. You may not even believe that, but if He has put you in a position of leadership and authority in your church or ministry, then your creativity has played a role somewhere along the way.

Foster the growth of your creative ideas. Nurture them the same way that you'd nurture a new baby. Feed them. Attend to them. And then watch them grow and impact your church or ministry!

Study pastors, church leaders, and ministries that seem to thrive on creativity. And don't be afraid to read about non-church creative geniuses such as a Walt Disney or a Steven Spielberg for ideas. God has created you - so be creative yourself!

Everything begins with an idea - so light up your light bulb!

Stripped Down

Bishop T. D. Jakes of The Potter's House in Dallas, Texas, USA, has said, "Ministry is birthed when you are stripped down to your heart's desire. You want your life to have counted for something for God."

When you are stripped down, when you are totally naked in a spiritual sense before God, what is it about ministry that brings you passion? What is it about ministry that keeps you up at night, or makes you hungry for the start of a new day, or drives you to your knees in prayer, joy, and worship?

What are you passionate about? What is your heart's desire?

When you know the answers to these questions, and when you pursue these answers, then you will be unstoppable.

God has given every one of us at least one passion and one heart's desire.

What is yours? Find it, know it, embrace it, and pursue it with everything you've got.

Satan's Strategy

"Satan's strategy is to get Christians preoccupied with their failures."

C. S. Lewis said that, and he was so right.

So many Christians, be they pastors, church leaders, ministry volunteers, or merely pew-warmers, focus more on their past than their future.

So many Christians focus more on past failures than on future opportunities.

God knows your past.

He also knows your future.

God doesn't want you to focus on your past. He wants you to focus on your future.

God is well aware of your past screw-ups.

Perhaps you lied like Abram, or lied like Isaac, or lied like Jacob, or killed someone like Moses, or committed adultery and had a man killed like David, or disobeyed like Jonah, or were corrupt like Matthew or Zacchaeus, or stole like the thief on the cross, or had multiple relationship failures like the woman at Sychar, or doubted like Thomas, or persecuted believers like Saul, or denied Christ like Peter.

God knows what you did.

He also knows what you still can do.

I was a lawyer for many years. One of the first things that they tell you in law school is that you need to know the other side's case and strategy as well as your own, in order to know how to defend against it and also to know how to attack it.

Congratulations! You now know Satan's strategy.

Defend against it. Attack it. Tell the enemy how you know and believe that God is not focused on your past failures, but rather on your future successes.

The Great Illusion Of Leadership

"The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there."

These are the words of Henri J. M. Nouwen in "The Wounded Healer", and what impactful words they are.

Moses spent 40 years in the desert, tending sheep for his father-in-law, before God selected him to lead the Israelites. What "desert" has God put you in? It may not be an actual desert, and it may not be for 40 years, but God has certainly allowed you to experience a time of solitude, reflection, thought, prayer, and, hopefully, clearer communication with Him, all in order to prepare you to lead at a higher level and to accomplish greater things for His kingdom.

Where is your desert? How long have you been there? Are you still there now?

Take heart, and be encouraged, for God is using this time and this experience to prepare you to lead others, for God has something big planned for you right around the corner.

Time spent in the desert with God is never wasted time.

Take Every Opportunity

"Your regrets aren't about what you did, but about what you didn't do. So I take every opportunity."

This isn't a Bible verse, nor is it a quote from a famous pastor or theologian.

This is a quote from the famous actress Cameron Diaz.

I know nothing about the faith walk of Cameron Diaz.

But I love her quote.

It's a quote that we all can readily apply to international ministry.

What opportunity do you have in your church or ministry - right now - that you will surely regret if you don't take advantage of it?

Take advantage of it - right now!

Take every opportunity!

Leadership Summit Day 1

Today was Day 1 of the Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit. Bill Hybels kicked off the summit with a timely teaching about how to lead during the current global economic crisis.

Hybels noted how we, as international church leaders, need to acknowledge that the "old normal" of steady economic times is over, and how the "new reality" of prolonged, worldwide economic challenges is going to be with us for a long time. Hybels said that we need to go back to the Acts 2 church model, and that God gave us all the gift of leadership just for these economic times and challenges.

Hybels also said that we, as international church leaders, need to make absolutely sure that during this time of great financial stress and crisis we have an "adequate replenishment strategy" to ensure that we always have a fresh spirit and a grace-filled demeanor.

Hybels said that we all need to ask ourselves, "What do my followers see when they look at me? Do they see someone who is exhausted and fearful? Or do they see someone who has a fresh spirit and a grace-filled demeanor?"

Hybels added that we must always be sure that the pace at which we are doing the work of God does not destroy God's work in us.

It was a great teaching, and just perfect for these days and times.

Red-Faced

I've always loved Jesus' words in Luke 14:8-11, and I've also always loved the way that Eugene Peterson interprets these verses in modern-day language in The Message:

"When someone invites you to dinner, don't take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he'll come and call out in front of everybody, 'You're in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.' Red-faced, you'll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left. When you're invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, 'Friend, come up to the front.' That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I'm saying is, If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face. But if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

We saw lots of examples of this on Thursday at the thanksgiving ceremony with the President of Peru.

Dozens of pastors and church leaders, all with very high opinions of themselves, marched right to the front of the church sanctuary, believing that they were all highly worthy to be seated right next to President Alan Garcia and all of the other top Peruvian government and military leaders who were attending the ceremony.

But all of these pastors and church leaders were quickly ordered to the back of the sanctuary, to the very last rows of benches.

All of these pastors and church leaders had entered the sanctuary with their noses held high in the air, but they soon found themselves flat on their very-red faces.

Thursday's thanksgiving ceremony with Peruvian President Garcia brought home Luke 14:8-11.

Show humility, and God will acknowledge it.

The same goes for arrogance, too.

By the way, we were seated in the fifth row of the sanctuary, just four rows behind President Garcia.

And we never even asked for it.