In Curtis Sergeant's book, The Only One, he suggests the discipline of writing poetry as part of our Bible reading.  

"Poetry is by nature a limiting form of expression. I find that it forces me to think deeply as I search for just the right word to convey the nuance I am contemplating."

As I have immersed myself in the first few chapters of John these past few weeks I decided to give it a try and tease out the nuances of what I've been contemplating. It was a rich experience and forced me to wrestle with what I feel the Lord has been highlighting for me. Writing poems from my Bible reading won't become a daily discipline, but I'll certainly come back to it when I come across a passage of scripture that I really want to dig into.

I'd encourage you to give it a try sometime.

Here is my poem, "Come and See" that I wrote as I dug deep into John 1:29-51.  It may not be great poetry but it certainly helped me meditate and learn from this passage of scripture.

I wrote about the idea of inviting people to come and see for themselves in last week's post, Come and See.  You can read it HERE.

In the first few chapters of John an interesting pattern emerges.  The numbers of those following Jesus begins to grow as his followers simply invite their friends, family or, in the case of the woman at the well, entire village to "come and see."

• They don't invite them to read a book about Jesus.
• They don't invite the to come to church where someone else - a professional most likely - can tell them about Jesus.
• They don't try and explain who Jesus is theologically or convince them of their sin.
• They don't simply focus on doing kind things for the person in hopes that one day they'll be asked why they're so nice.

To be sure, none of those activities are wrong and God uses all of them to help people come to faith - they are simply not the example of Jesus' first followers in the first four chapters of John (John 1:39; 1:41-42; 1:45-46; 4:28-30).

For them, "come and see" was enough.

It seems they knew that if they could just get their friend to spend some time with Jesus - even a cynic like Nathanael - that would be enough.  And Jesus is still enough today.  Like his first followers, we can ask our friends to come and see Jesus by sharing the stories of Jesus from the gospels and by inviting them to read these stories.  

We can do this by inviting them read through one of the gospels with us or we can invite them to into a discovery Bible study using one of several story sets:
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• Creation to Christ (short version)
• Creation to Christ
• Stories of Hope
• Signs of John

My default has been to invite people to church or to open up deep philosophical conversations with my far from God friends. God has of course used both of these tactics, but increasingly I'm learning (and trying to learn) to default to simply asking them to come and see Jesus for themselves by inviting them to read the gospels with me. 

How about you?  How have you been inviting people to Jesus lately?

It is not hard to imagine why, in a country where for thousands of years families most likely  lived in grass huts with snakes being an ever present issue, the custom of how to enter buildings developed differently than it did in England.  It's also not hard to imagine the looks of confusion and even disdain this British gentleman must have received from Nigerian women as he emphatically ushered them into their potential death by snake bite.
  
This cultural nugget of difference is multiplied thousands of times with every new cultural context we enter.  Some issues are minor while others can lead to tremendous damage to relationships and potential opportunities to share the gospel. As disciples of Jesus it is important to first realize that those differences, both the deep and the shallow, will always be present when we move into cross cultural settings.  We then must do the hard work of trying to understand these differences to see where God is  already at work and how we can join him there.  This is hard work.  Just when we think we’ve figured something out we’ll run into nuances that will confound us once again.
  
If cross cultural ministry is something that you are or will be a part of then it is vitally important to do some homework.  Cross cultural ministry can happen in varying degrees wherever you are.  Crossing the ocean to engage with people from a different religious background that speak another language is of course more complex than a midwesterner traveling to New York City, but both are cross cultural ministry.
  
Regardless of the complexity and depth of difference between cultures, we can train ourselves to do better at recognizing both the differences and the opportunities they present.  Part of that training could be reading books like Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier or Global Humility by Andy McCullough.  Context specific books like the one shared above can be a next step.  There are also great trainings for missionaries preparing to move overseas at places like Mission Training International and the Center for Intercultural Training. 

Here at Everywhere to Everywhere though we are working to equip and empower the local church for local cross cultural ministry and so have created a fun and interactive one day training we call the Cross-Cultural Scavenger Hunt Training Module.  This training can be done in any local city in about 5-6 hours.  It includes discovery Bible study, interactive lecture and activities, lunch at an ethnic restaurant and a cross-cultural scavenger hunt that takes participants to three to four different immigrant-owned grocery stores.  All of this is followed by a debrief while eating snacks purchased at the stores.  

This has been an amazing way to help local congregations move past fear and begin to get to know their new American neighbors - many of whom come from Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Animistic backgrounds.  Many of whom have never had an opportunity to hear the gospel. The goal of the training is to bring awareness of the different cultures around us and then give participants a beginning framework for understanding the differences so that they can more effectively love well and share the gospel more confidently.

If you would like to explore hosting your own Cross Cultural Scavenger Hunt Training Module you can find a fuller description of the event and all the necessary resources by clicking the button below.

Sometimes you need a book that, through reading a chapter a day, you receive encouragement in your faith.  Fear Not: Living a Life of No Regrets was just that book for me this past summer.   Author James Cha weaves captivating stories, Biblical truth and a lifetime of wisdom into this great devotional.  James and his wife Faith spent over a decade serving the Lord in Central Asia, saw more than 120 Muslims come to faith in Christ and experienced their own share of persecution.  It is because of these experiences and James' deep knowledge of the Bible that Fear Not is an excellent resources for any believer wanting to grow in their faith.  It will be an especially helpful resources for any interested in moving to the Muslim world to serve the Lord.  The book covers a myriad of topics all of which work toward helping the reader to respond to the call of Christ in obedience and surrender. It was incredibly encouraging, filled with exhortation and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to grow closer to Christ and learn to be a more active participant in His kingdom mission.

Fear Not: Living a Life of No Regrets
*Links to book are affiliate links.

UPG North America is a great new website to help the local church engage the unreached people groups who are moving into the neighborhoods of North America.  It is the collective work of multiple organizations with the shared desire to "serve the entire Body of Christ in our common goal of communicating the love of Christ to all peoples of the world."

The website exists to identify the least-reached diaspora communities in North America, mobilize prayer for them, and see an increase in gospel activity among them.  A few of the unique aspects of the site are an interactive point of interest maps and virtual prayerwalks for specific people groups in a city.

This website is a great new tool for anyone interested in sharing the love of Jesus with the least reached in North America.

Visit now:  www.upgnorthamerica.com

I've written often about the importance of immersing ourselves in the word of God and have shared  tools for helping us do that well.  Today I want to take one step back and share a short scripture hammer tool to help young believers discover the absolute importance the scriptures.  The tools are great but if your disciple doesn't understand why they need to apply the tool, well, it may not do much good.

When I sit down to read these with my disciple - or a group of disciples - I read each passage two to three times aloud and then have the individual or the group summarize the basic message in their own words.  I save the last passage - Jesus' confrontation with the devil in the wilderness - for last as a way to sort of watch Jesus apply the scriptures in His own life.  

The goal is to help our disciples discover the joy, the benefit and the power of the scriptures in our lives.  The sooner we can help them begin prayerfully engaging with the scriptures on a daily basis, the quicker they will grow toward maturity.  If we really believe that the Holy Spirit will guide us - and them - into all truth (John 16:13) then we have to help them get into the scriptures trusting that the Holy Spirit will indeed disciple them into all truth. 

Do you have a young believer in your life who is struggling to get into the word daily?   Find some time to sit down and work through these scriptures together.

Do you have another scripture or story that you would include in the list?  Share it in the comments below. 

Scripture List:

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17
• Psalm 119: 11, 105
• Isaiah 55:11
• Psalm 1:1-3
• Hebrew 4:12
• Luke 4:1-13

If you do take a disciple through this discovery study, let me know how it went in the comments as well.

What is the person of peace?   It's a term that is increasingly used both in the church and in the mission field.  Practitioners of disciple making movements (DMM) often talk of searching for the person of peace and yet different groups use the term in different ways.  All are correct but for those just beginning to explore the idea of the Person of Peace, a clarification might be in order.  

Some define the Person of Peace (PoP) as anyone who welcomes and opens up their relational network to to the messenger - be that a missionary or a local lay believer crossing the street in their neighborhood.  In this use, the PoP doesn't necessarily need to be someone who initially accepts the message, but rather gives permission to the messenger to share with the group.  They are often a gatekeeper of sorts - an elder of the village or the patriarch of a family.  God is using them to open the door for the message to go forward in their context.  This is also sometimes referred to as a House of Peace.

A second way the idea of the Person of Peace is used is to simply indicate someone whom God has prepared to receive the gospel.  They are a seeker, a God prepared person.  Perhaps they've had a dream or a vision or have had a crisis in life that caused them to do some deep soul searching. Their heart is prepared to respond to the gospel.  They are ready to receive the messenger and the message.

A final way I often hear to idea of the Person of Peace discussed is that they not only are prepared to receive the gospel, but they are also ready and able to reproduce and share the good news with other.  They receive the message and the messenger but they also readily receive the mission.  When the woman at the well believes Jesus in John 4 she immediately takes that message back to he village where she tells everyone the good news and brings them to Jesus.  Many would also refer to this person as a "Fourth Soil Person" who reproduces 30, 60 or 100 times from the Parable of the Sower. 

All of these definitions work but as you are reading the literature or listening to interviews with practitioners, it is helpful to understand how they are using the term.  It was a bit confusing for me the first time I ran into the different ways it was being used.  

Perhaps there are other ways to think about the Person of Peace.  If so, let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Until then, I'd encourage you to download this discovery tool to help you learn about the Person of Peace from Jesus' ministry in the gospels.  Trainer's notes are included on page three.

I saw you today.
Walking past my office window, 
dumpster to dumpster with drag foot strides.
I saw you - all of you.
You two mothers pushing your finds in converted baby buggies, 
babies slung over bent backs, 
one tugging at the slack edge of a scarlet head scarf.
Your three and four year olds – 
boys in rags and broken sandals – 
trailed, 
sometimes behind, sometimes squirting ahead, 
but always walking wearily, 
wary of the ways of the back of your hand.
Harsh hands and harsher words carry them down dumpster lined streets.
The four year old’s mother
hands an unpeeled orange to his open hand,
rescued from refuse, but fails to peel it. 
He makes a marvelous mess of pulp and juice before she,
the giver, the guardian, 
slaps it from his greedy fingers.
On they walk, 
on into their gypsy life, 
their wandering life, 
their hungry life,
And they disappear.

Later,
a father came.
A father with another four year old 
and another converted baby buggy 
and another journey down an Istanbul street, 
dumpster to dumpster, market to market, 
meal to meal to find to find.
He stopped the buggy behind a black Mercedes, 
said stay – to the buggy and the boy –
and crossed to a waiting meal in the market trash.
The boy stayed, 
lips moving – presumably for himself though I could not hear, 
fingers fondling the days find.
But then a man approached, 
middle aged and well dressed, 
talking kind words to the boy, beckoning – 
And the boy went, without qualm 
quickly on his heels and into the next door store.
But then the father returned, 
smiling at the two bruised apples and a smashed orange in his hands 
to find the buggy but not the boy.
I saw it then.
I saw how much love he harbored in his tired heart for his son.
I saw it in the fear that crept into his eyes.
I saw it in the terror of his movements 
and in the two new bruises the apples received 
as they hit the concrete at his broken sandals.
I saw it in his hands, cupped around shouting lips –
And finally, 
I saw it in the flood of relief that his smiling son 
gave him when he bolted from the store, 
cookies clutched in jubilant hands.
Relief came.
A broken heart was not broken more.
The middle aged man walked past the two, 
a silent Samaritan not letting left know what right had done.
On he walked, 
on into his Muslim life, 
his secular life, 
his blessed life.
And he disappeared.

Later,
I walk home along the sea, 
praying for this nation, 
praying for grace and discernment to be salt and light to this land.
I stop at the store, 
mindlessly buying four kinds of noodles, 
not knowing what we’ll make with them.
My groceries and I make our way to the tunnel where 
I will cross the tracks and head for home. 
But there
On a concrete bench
Sit two tired teenage boys.
“Mister, we’re hungry.  Do you have any food?  Do you have any money?”
I stop, surprised.
“Would you like some noodles?”
I offer to blank stares and then add –
“You can cook them at home.”
Their look tells me they may not have a home.
“We’re hungry mister.  Do you have any money?”
“No.”
I turn and I walk
And I cross the tracks
And walk from them
And disappear. 
But the five lira in my pocket doesn’t disappear.
And the words of Jesus don’t disappear.
“You will always have the poor among you.”
Among you.
It seems now more a command than a fact.
A command I’ve missed through a sham of fact.
Among you.
If the poor are not among us,
Could it be we disobey?

I surely did today.
I surely did today.