Dear VSM LifeSharers,
August
2008
Question Number 1) What’s a couple who have been so
heavily involved in the history, structure, literature and even education of the
English language doing in a Russian language internet activity?
Question Number 2) What’s a couple of committed para-church
veterans doing as mainstays in the Sunday services of a downtown local church?
And Question Number 3) What are the pro-life
activists who make up the “staff” of Vital Signs Ministries doing running a
blog, preparing a pie social, anchoring book discussions, going to Africa,
mobilizing Christian action, promoting Virtue Media, speaking to little kids,
speaking to politicians, speaking to medical students, speaking to Christian
university students, giving an interview to a newspaper reporter, speaking to
abortion clients, and hosting film showings – not to mention writing,
corresponding, answering questions, networking and a whole lot of praying?
The short answer?
The best we can!
But then, you might appreciate a few more details than that so
I’ll make this month’s LifeSharer a “newsy” one, updating you on some of
Claire’s and my activities for Vital Signs. Let’s take things one item at a
time, shall we?
* VSM Resources --- I suppose our creation of a
Russian-language internet outreach isn’t really all that foreign to us (pun
intended). After all, our
techno-pals Rich Sorenson, Rob Bass, Steve Young, Patrice Kabore and Isaac
Serafino managed to persuade old-fashioned teachers like Claire and me to take
Vital Signs Ministries into the cyberspace communications of web pages, blogs
and now (for crying out loud) podcasts. And the Russian connection? Well, very
successful teaching/speaking stints in Moscow (1x) and Minsk (10x) have
certainly established both our interest and our impact there so - presto - VSM
Resources was a rather natural move for us to take. The site will, as we’ve
explained before, allow us: a) to greatly expand our global gospel outreach; b)
to share biblically-based pro-life information to societies where abortion is
even more commonplace than our own; c) to stimulate Russian-speaking Christians
in their Bible study and better equip their pastors and teachers; and d) to help
me continue teaching, in some capacity anyhow, the students I’ve been honored to
connect with in Russia and many parts of Belarus.
It will be just a couple
of weeks now before we formally launch VSM Resources with an opening catalog of
about 30 articles and sermon outlines with more to be added continuously.
Continuous too will be our efforts to promote the site to Russian-speakers
around the world. (By the way, the web site offers the materials in English as
well as Russian. And by the time of its launching, it will carry another name –
something a bit catchier and explanatory to Russian speakers. We’re still
pondering that one.)
* Faith Bible Church --- When I was asked to be a
guest speaker at this church last December, I certainly wasn’t expecting what
has resulted. You see, I had spoken at Faith Bible Church once before but that
had been a couple of decades ago. I had almost forgotten it was tucked away
there on 27th and Hickory on Omaha’s near-South side.
Already a pretty small
congregation in an impoverished neighborhood, church controversies, a pastor’s
discordant exit and over a year of being unable to find a new pastor had taken
their toll. Sunday services
sometimes saw less than 35 adults.
Many were feeling a sense of despair about the church’s future even though we
could see that several ministries, led by excellent, energetic Christians, were
functioning very well. Still, the disappointment over dwindling numbers and
inability to find a full time pastor caused some in the church leadership to
look for a dramatic solution – a merger with a growing suburban congregation of
their own denomination. But the merger would have involved Faith Bible Church
surrendering their name, their assets, their successful AWANA program, and even
the stimulus of having a real preacher for, in the new system, Sunday sermons
would have come via videos provided by the parent church. It is kinda’
understandable then why many in the congregation opposed this particular
alternative.
Our arrival presented at least some temporary relief since
my first guest appearance on December 23rd was followed by a second
and then a third. Claire and I really warmed to the people and it seemed like
they warmed to us too. We were touched by the congregation’s difficulties in
keeping Faith Bible Church alive but, more important probably, was that we were
able to see the church from a different vantage point…one that produced a
considerably more positive outlook than what many of them were seeing. For
instance, we were very impressed with the faithfulness, energy and spiritual
effects we saw from their AWANA program, their men’s and women’s groups, the
strong body life of the small congregation, and with the work of Good Neighbor
Ministries to which FBC had long been associated.
Therefore, before we knew
it, a few weeks of preaching there became a few months. We hadn’t enjoyed a
church fellowship as much since the days when I was preaching frequently at
Tabernacle Baptist Church up in George, Iowa. And the stability in the pulpit
began to show substantial dividends. As did the new spirit of joy,
self-confidence and hope which we began to see in the congregation. The mood of
the Sunday services began to change.
The numbers began to grow.
The congregation voted 70% against the merger.
It was to their credit. All we did was build them up, encourage as well
as challenge them, and sincerely applaud the good works of the Lord they had
performed…and were still very much performing.
And we taught the Bible.
I started a series called “Gospel Gold: Narratives from the Earthly Ministry of
Jesus” and the people responded wonderfully. They love the Word of God at Faith
Bible Church and so they really enjoyed the type of sermons I preach: expository
sermons where the purpose is simply to explain the text. Sure, it is incumbent
on the preacher to do his homework well in order to preach a message that has
excitement, drama, learning, relevancy and inspiration. But the star of the
sermon must always be the text.
Then in the summer, I
offered a six-week hermeneutics class on Sunday evenings, hoping to get at least
six people. After all, taking an hour-long class on Sunday evenings when the
church doesn’t normally have meetings then, especially classes that promise to
explore some pretty heady stuff would be quite a stretch. Six people, huh? The
first class drew 27! And despite summer vacations and family events, we never
had less than 22. It was quite impressive. Experienced saints and eager novices
– all tossed together, listening intently, taking notes, comparing points with
one another afterwards, even sharing with me along the way how they were
implementing what they learned. It was really cool.
You can see why Claire
and I made such fast friends there and why we sensed a rare opportunity; namely,
to help out a local church that really seemed to need what we had to give –
solid Bible teaching, experience in ministry, servant-oriented leadership, and
genuine respect and affection for the congregation and the people of the
neighborhood to whom the church was reaching out. And one more thing…the church
hasn’t much money. Claire and I could actually help the church expand their
budget – not by cash donations (which we don’t have) but by serving them with
our Sunday mornings (which we can). Thus, the huge monies they would have to pay
for a fulltime pastor can be used instead to extend other areas of the church
budget, areas that have gone woefully under financed for a long time.
Perhaps they’ll be able to even create new ministries altogether.
And so we made them an offer. If
they wanted us to stay and provide the preaching for Sunday services as well as
conducting occasional special presentations and Sunday evening series like the
hermeneutics class AND if they didn’t expect me to fulfill other pastoral
duties (I am, when all is said and done, the Director of Vital Signs Ministries
and cannot compromise my time commitment to that) AND if I’m free to
travel whenever I need to – then they can have us for as long as they want us.
What about the advantages
to Claire and I (and even Vital Signs)? Well, there are several. Among them is
the fact that we love it and it has helped energize us in many personal ways.
Also advantageous is the invaluable exercise which regular preaching requires of
me: more intensive Bible study and theological reading, sharpening my
communicative skills, deepening my intercession. And just imagine how pleasant
it must be for Claire and I to teach and stimulate pro-life action in a local
church body – not as para-church guys begging for a presentation once in a great
while, but as the regular preacher. Nice change that.
And finally, one more neat advantage to preaching regularly at Faith Bible
Church is one that lends immediate value to the purposes of Vital Signs. This is
the fact that the sermons and classes I conduct at Faith Bible Church will be
doing double, make that even triple duty, as 1) they will constitute
the bulk of the sermon outlines which will appear on the Russian-language
website and 2) in audio versions, they will provide most of the talks of
our brand new podcast service. And that is? See the next item, please.
* Exposition 101: Sermons, Bible Classes and Other
Addresses --- Now to some of you (probably most of you) the following
description of how a podcast works is gonna’ sound like Scotty describing to
Captain Kirk why the transmorgifier was displaced by the ionic imbalances in the
blistymic atmosphere caused by the Gran Grazelle effect in the warp drive
engine. But, trust me, there are others reading the description who will receive
it with full understanding.
Here’s Isaac Serafino with the details, The "podcast" is like a radio program
on the Internet. Each episode is contained in an "MP3 file". The new podcast
site provides links to download MP3 files for each episode. You can also listen
to the episodes online, using the embedded MP3 player. Finally, you can
"subscribe" to the podcast. That means to save the address of the podcast in
special software called a "podcatcher". The podcatcher will automatically
download new episodes. You can even synchronize your podcatcher to put episodes
on your iPod or other portable media player device. For example, iTunes is a
common podcatcher. To subscribe with iTunes, drag the "PODCAST" button from the
sidebar on the left side of the podcast site. Drop it into the iTunes window,
and you have subscribed.
Got that? If not, let me
know and I’ll send you Isaac’s e-mail address. He will be Scotty to your Captain
Kirk and, I’m sure, the Enterprise will make its way home again.
* The Haggai Fest --- I’m not traveling back to
Burkina Faso to write and narrate a documentary film like my last visit there.
That film, you remember, was Come to the
Light and it dealt with the conversion from Islam to Christianity of the
country’s former president. We are in the process of putting
Come to the Light onto the internet
where it will almost assuredly garner more viewers in a week (and those viewers
being all over the world too) than it has received to date. Great!
But no, this time around I’ll be joining
with Patrice Kabore, Teran Anderson, Femi Awodele, Ron Brinkman and others in
participating in Burkina Faso’s first Haggai Fest, an event that incorporates
training seminars, crusade-type public addresses, various stations featuring
practical information and services for families, and a lot of interactive fun
things for kids. It will, if
God allows, serve as a prototype for similar fests in other African countries.
One of its key priorities is to capitalize on the willingness of Muslim and
animist parents to let their children attend festivals – despite those events
being organized by Christians. The
Haggai Fest can thus provide tremendous leverage in winning not only children
but also their moms, dads and older siblings to a new respect for Christians and
an open-mindedness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I will be doing some
speaking in other venues while there, including a crash course in hermeneutics
at a couple of Bible colleges. I’ll also be helping with the festival booths and
visiting a branch of the orphanage I visited my last time in Ouagadougou. I’m
even taking along some baby blankets from the same young people of Country Bible
Church in Blair who sent a number of orphanage gifts the last time I went to
Burkina Faso.
My primary role
for this trip, however, is in teaching seminars to local pastors, leaders and
teachers entitled “Suffer the Children to Come unto Me.” The seminars cover the
biblical philosophy of ministries to children and will feature such matters as
the Bible’s patterns regarding the protection and nurturing of children, the
role of parents as primary educators, the connections to other ministries of the
local church, the manliness of mentoring (i.e. children’s ministries are not For
Women Only), Jesus’ personal challenge to those who would disrespect children’s
ministry, and so on. Neat stuff. Maybe some time you can invite me over to your
church to present it. Without having to wait for my remarks to be translated in
French, then in Mòoré, maybe even in Bambara, I can get through it a lot faster!
We would certainly
appreciate any and all prayers for an outstanding success of the Fest and our
other duties there. Also, if you’d
like to make a special financial donation to help Vital Signs get me there and
back, just designate that in a note. We could really use your help, especially
because we plan to take over a bunch of stuff for the orphanage and for the
churches who are desiring to improve their children’s ministries. Those are
things that are either unavailable there at all or are more expensive than our
buying them here and transporting them over. They include cloth diapers,
powdered milk, puppets, flannel graph materials, etc.
Additionally, we’d love to get some extra to provide for the travel expenses of
Patrice. Since he’s the leader of
the team, but doesn’t yet have the necessary funds for his airplane ticket,
that’s a priority I’m deeply interested in getting taken care of! For more on
this exciting event, look up
http://haggaifest.org on the web where you can learn more and even watch the
compelling video clip Patrice showed at the Vital Signs pie social.
* Vital Signs Blog --- The blog “traffic” has
leveled off a bit from what had been a remarkable growth curve ever since we
started it three years ago. We
expected that to happen sooner or later and it’s no surprise to see it finally
occur in these “dog days” of summer when “back to school” activities and
Olympics watching are at their height.
Still, we remain very pleased at the quality of Vital Signs Blog and in
its ministries of: 1) educating Christians (and other web surfers) about
those religious, cultural and political issues of the day most relevant to our
Faith; and 2) mobilizing effective responses with our “Taking Action”
posts which give contact info and even examples of what to say to legislators,
editors, business leaders and so on.
Please visit often. The web address?
http://www.vitalsignsblog.blogspot.com
* The Annual VSM Pie Social --- Though we took
several more pies than normal, this was the first year ever that we didn’t send
a lot of pie home with people.
Everybody got plenty, I think, but we went right down to the bare pie
tins to serve up those last lingering appetites for thirds and fourths!
The numbers were the usual – about 110 – but people were just hungrier
than normal, I guess!
The evening was a smashing success – partly because of the pie; partly because
of the celebration over the cessation of surgical abortions at the Council
Bluffs Planned Parenthood; and partly because of other good news Claire and I
shared about ongoing Vital Signs activities. We were pleased to see a few new
faces, particularly the 15 or so who traveled way out west to Christ Community
from Faith Bible Church. But the
biggest thrill of the evening was listening to the joyous, triumphant African
music played and sung by Patrice, Linda, Meelom, Jonathan and Gerald.
It was fantastic, compelling and thoroughly enjoyable to join in with –
even when the singers were singing in other languages.
Patrice followed with a video clip and personal comments about the
upcoming Haggai Fest back in his native country.
It was, in more ways than one, a very sweet evening.
* Virtue Media --- Our efforts last winter to raise
money for the top notch television spots of Virtue Media were just the beginning
of what we’re sure will be a long partnership with this outstanding pro-life
educational organization. Their TV
ads are powerful and beautiful, necessary and very cost-effective, life saving
and life changing. The Virtue Media
campaign swept the state with nearly 10,000 30-second ads, ads that generated
hundreds of calls and web contacts with crisis pregnancy centers. Please be praying with us that many, many more
churches will get involved as we start gearing up this fall for the next media
blitz to be broadcast this winter.
* Yet other stuff --- Among other
educational/advocacy opportunities we’ll be involved in these next couple of
months will be a sit-down discussion with Congressman Lee Terry (check that; we
just had this meeting this afternoon – very productive), September speaking
engagements at Grace University’s chapel service and to a student group of the
University of Nebraska Medical Center, some sidewalk counseling sessions down in
Lincoln, talking to AWANA audiences at Country Bible and Faith Bible Church, and
our ongoing Book It! discussion meetings over Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s
Infidel, Chuck Colson’s
The Faith, and Rebecca Hagelin’s
Home Invasion.
There’s also the answering of letters, e-mails and phone calls to handle
as well as the various gatherings we host here at the house.
* Conclusion ---Well, did I manage to answer those
questions I posed at the outset of this LifeSharer letter?
Probably in a lot more detail than what you needed, right? But, trust me,
it’s a good thing for Claire and I to run through such details every now and
then. As you might guess, the
battles we fight for the sanctity of life, for biblical orthodoxy and for a
lifestyle aimed more at heaven’s rewards than the paltry ones of earth can be
daunting. So, reminding ourselves
of exactly what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and, most important, for Whom,
is always a helpful thing.
We pray that this month’s
LifeSharer provides some insight and encouragement to you as members of the
Vital Signs team. We, of course,
remain forever in your debt for all of the generosity, loyalty and exemplary
compassion you have shown us over these many years.
But we’re not finished yet!
So please stay on board and help us move forward in those challenges yet before
us. Whether those challenges take
us to the abortion clinics, foreign climes, or the mysterious realms of
cyberspace, we know we travel with “God’s speed” and your blessing. Thanks.
Much love and appreciation,
Denny and Claire
