For those interested to know more about this year's NMC and what we learned in main sessions and workshops, this post is for you (sorry no more pictures :-D).
The theme for this year's convention is also the title of these posts, "Harvest of Hope." Hope by its nature is focused on the future, so it's easy to talk about and get people excited about something (anything) that might be better about tomorrow when most people agree that today is generally pretty crummy. Casting the seed of hope is easy. It's harvesting the fruit of faithful execution that is difficult but brings the real reward. The theme carried this idea of being ready to reap the fruit of placing our hope in God. It was calling attention to the ripe opportunities we have right now to share the Gospel and see lives changed in our own time.
On the first night of the convention we went to the only main session we would make it to for the weekend. I was a little let down by the worship time. I guess I was expecting that with such a diverse group of countries and cultures represented that the worship time would be a more unique experience than it was. It wasn't bad (though there were a few technical glitches) just different than I had imagined.
I mention that not to whine and complain, but rather to say I'd love to see more diverse expressions of worship, especially when gathered with a diverse group of people. For example, I'm not a huge fan of bluegrass music, but sometimes I think it would make more sense to walk into a church in east TN and participate in bluegrass worship. Some churches in our area might do that better than anyone else in the world. Does anyone else feel like the local church is missing something by ignoring local culture and trying to create mainstream experiences?
Lately I've been a little obsessed with the idea of worshiping with a jazz band. I even came across a YouTube video recently where a jazz band was just doing some improv jamming while a singer recited the words of a Psalm. I'm hoping there's at least a little corner of heaven where some jazz greats get together to praise God in their own way.
Moving on with the rest of the first night two things in particular caught my attention. The speaker for the night used some interesting illustrations from track and field to make his various points. I think my favorite was the baton. The baton he said is the unmistakable proof that you have started, run and completed the race laid out before you. He referrenced the recent olympics where some of the teams with the top athletes, who were favored to win, were disqualified because they dropped the baton. I love that concept of the relay race being more about the successful movement of the baton than the raw talent of the runner. I can look back on times in my life now and see that there is a purpose for every stage of starting well, running well, ending well, and waiting well before starting again.
I also love very visual illustrations and the challenge of the church to share the Gospel with over 6,000 known people groups was made plain with the unrolling of a huge scroll with 2 columns of small print with the names of all those groups. It went from one side of the arena floor to the other without being completely unrolled. Each name on the scroll in some cases represented hundreds of thousands of people. I wrote down the name of one people group that landed in the isle next to me and plan on learning more about them.
Moving on from the main session to workshops, I'll just give a brief overview of each and a statement that all of them had excellent information that was highly relevant to me and our church situation. As a reward to those of you who have read this entire blog, I will tell you something that is not a secret, but also not widely known about the church where I now serve. A few years ago, the church received a large inheritance from a former member. When I say large, I'm talking over $1 million large, and this to a long established small church with no building debt and a small staff. Needless to say there is a lot that could be done in a small east TN town and throughout the world with $1 million. Until recently the money has been invested and propping up the deficit in the budget, but our leadership is preparing to do some big things for God's kingdom with this generous gift.
I am super excited to see what is going to happen and have been spending a lot of time thinking and praying about ideas for how God would best be honored with the ways this money is used. I specifically chose workshops that I thought would provide us with some wisdom and insight on what to do and what not to do.
The first workshop was "Don't waste your money" and talked about the need for churches to have priorities in giving to missions projects. There was also some great practical advice concerning evaluating the people and organizations you support as well as creating accountability and partnership with missionaries instead of just funding and forgetting.
The second workshop I went to was probably my favorite and was about "Community Development". There was so much good information that I actually asked for and received the entire powerpoint presentation. In a nutshell it was about how the way we tend to provide community services and give handouts to the poor is detrimental to everyone involved. It boosts the pride and arrogance of the givers, and destroys the value and responsibilty of the takers. That's not an especially new idea but a great piece of wisdom when you have an opportunity to make a big impact on your local community. The most dangerous thing for us as a church will be if we fail to guard our hearts and minds in our giving and unleash big amounts of money that in the long run bring us temporary praise instead of bringing God grateful disciples made through the resources he gave us.
The final workshop (where I won the iPad drawing") was a more specific one that intrigued both Kim and me. It was about ministering to International college students. Basic idea was that all these people from the so-called "10/40 window" that Christians have prayed for are now coming to our college campuses to learn from us before returning as leaders in their own countries. We can impact the world from our own backyard.
I think I have officially said enough. Thanks for hanging in there to read all this. Until next time!
- Andy
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