Monthly LifeSharer Letter

 
 
 
 

 

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