Pastor J.D. has asked me to write a “guest blog” for him. So first off, my apologies to everyone who navigated their way here in hopes of a recent revelation from Pastor J.D. I know when I check out J.D.’s blog and find a “guest writer” I’m always a little disappointed at first. So let me assure you, dear reader, I understand. All the same, since you’re here, why not stay a while? I’ll be brief, I promise.

(Summit (J.D. here), this is a great reminder of how we can be a part of this process of sacrifice. I am challenging you to give, extravagantly, to our Christmas Mission Offering. 100% of this offering goes to take the Gospel to places it is not and to alleviate poverty.)

My name is James,* and I am a missionary in Central Asia. Don’t be ashamed if you don’t know where that is; a couple of years ago I didn’t know either. Basically it’s all of the ‘stan’ countries: Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Stan-the-man-istan. Okay, I made that last one up, but you get the picture. I have a job, teaching English, but my main task is to spread the name of Jesus and to see churches planted.

As I thought of what I should say to bridge the gap between you (average JD’s-blog-reading citizen) and me (bizarre lives-on-the-other-side-of-the world wacko), my first instinct was to tell you how different and difficult my life is. And coming from America, mine is certainly a demanding life. Every day I’m speaking somebody else’s language, eating truckloads of rice, and relieving myself in a hole outside. As I walk through the local bazaar, even though I wear the appropriate local attire, I stick out like a sore thumb, so I attract gaping-mouthed stares. In the summer I try hard to keep cool, and in the winter I try hard to keep warm, but neither attempt is very successful. And since bathing is such a chore, usually I’m pretty dirty.

But even though I could illustrate the thousand differences between America—which, in my mind, is a promised land of freedom and beauty, where dollar bills grow on trees and everyone smiles all the time—and my current living situation, I don’t think that would really help bridge the gap. There’s already an odd sentiment abroad in several churches that missionaries are some kind of heroes, super-Christians that are able to endure more than the average Joe. I don’t want to perpetuate that idea.

Instead, I want you to realize that sacrificing great things in obedience to God is a joyful experience (there's your paradox!). Yes, my life is often uncomfortable—who in their right mind prefers pooping in a hole to a nice, porcelain throne?—but in following God here I’ve experienced the joy of obedience. I live in a city of tens of thousands, yet among all these people, I and my small team of expats are the only people that know Jesus. Not only that, we are the only people for a hundred miles that have even /heard/ the gospel of Jesus. Day in and day out, I have the privilege of bringing the love of Christ to people who have for centuries known nothing of it. And that’s exciting work. Exciting, meaningful, and often exasperating, but always joyful.

I would encourage all of you to seriously examine your lives. It may be that the lack of joy you are experiencing can’t be fixed by an economic upturn or a change in your relationship status. It just may be that you need to let go of all the good things in your life in order to grasp the better thing—obedience to God. I don’t know what this means for you. For me it meant leaving the comforts of a country I love for a foreign one, leaving friends that love me for suspicious neighbors, and leaving a job at which I was quite competent in order to speak another language like a two-year-old.

So what does this mean for you? Perhaps there is something in your life standing in the way of your obedience to God. Whatever that is, I can assure you that following God fully is more joyful than clinging to your comforts. I might not have believed it myself until I experienced that I can be filthy, tired, far from home, AND absolutely content.

/James and his wife, Elizabeth* would love to hear from you—questions, comments, rambling rants, whatever. Drop them a line at friends in central friendsincentralasia at gmail.com. 

//*Names changed for security purposes

OK, so we had a TON of questions turned in for "Ask Anything Friday," and being type-A people-pleaser I feel obligated to try and answer them all, but that's not going to be possible. They ranged from theology questions to leadership to personal life... thankfully none on dating but I'm sure that is coming. We'll do one a week on Fridays, stopping along the way to collect more questions. Here's the one for today:

What is the most important thing for a pastor of a church that's out-growing the "everyone knows the pastor" phase to do?

I think the most important thing is to, before you get to that phase, develop a culture in the church that leadership is multi-leveled. That comes from teaching on the egalitarian nature of ministry gifts--that each believer is empowered by the Holy Spirit with gifts to minister to the body. I often tell our congregation that according to Ephesians 4:11, when I became a pastor I left "the ministry." I became an empowerer.

There are small but significant things you can do to inculcate this, like referring to yourself as only "one of the pastors," or sharing significant stage time with other leaders. You can strategically not show up at certain events so that other leaders can be seen as such. People will whine and moan about this at first, because everybody knows if you (the lead pastor) are not there it doesn't really count in God's eyes... but overall, that's good pain for them to go through and they'll get used to it.

And, for you, the pastor, you have to get used to having people disappointed with you. If you're a type-A people pleaser like me, that's difficult. I have to remind myself that God didn't call me to please people by meeting all their expectations, but to pastor a church. My assignment is a proactive, not reactive one.

I also found it very important to set a precedent, from the very first week I was pastor, to emphasize to the congregation that the greatest thing I could do for the people was teach the word of God faithfully and creatively each week, and so we would guard viciously my preparation time. From the beginning I've never taken calls or emails before 11am, because that is my time in prayer and the word. I could be a wonderful counselor, administrator, phone call answerer, problem solver, etc but if I am not teaching the Word of God with power each Sunday then the church suffers. Flipping that around, if I teach the Word well each Sunday, other things may struggle for a while, but the church will be healthy and other leaders will arise to do those things... or, through faithful preaching, you can grow the size of your congregation to where you can hire someone to do them. Either way, guarding my time in the Word has been a key to developing multiple leaders.

I have also found that developing a culture of sending people out is important in raising up leaders--whether that be out into the community for ministry or somewhere to plant a church or new campus. Real leaders love a challenge and compelling vision. Leaders like to lead, not just follow. They will not be content to be cogs in "your machine"; they will thrive when you are empowering them to see the things that they can lead in the church and community. We at the Summit often emphasize that the best ideas for ministry are in the congregation, not in our offices. Our role as pastors is to inspire and release. I would rather our church be like a group of wild steeds and our staff be like the reins trying to keep all the horses running the same direction than I would our staff be more like the engine driving a car.

Surprisingly to me, considering the size of our church, I feel relatively balanced, and I think that is because of we have a large leadership culture. People in our church really do see a host of pastors, small group leaders, and coaches as every bit as able to minister the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit as I am. I have the freedom now to talk to people comfortably after service, and am able to return most of the phone calls and emails that come to me. That's in part because people from the church don't email me as much anymore--because there are multiple leaders they can talk to. That wasn't always the case. I used to get asked about every question you could think of--from theology to complaints about the church to math word problems (that's not a joke!).

Tim Keller wrote a great article about churches going through new stages and new demands on the leaders... I've read it but don't have it and don't know what it's called. Anyone know?

Here's another blog on this subject.

OK... I feel like I've rambled on... hope this at least plants some good ideas.