Easter - He Left the Tomb and Preched

Once again, the church’s annual Easter Eggstravaganza was an incredible success!  Not only was the weather absolutely perfect, but the entire church came out to serve the hundreds of people who attended. 

We learned after our first years of ministry in Queens that the culture here is nothing like the culture of PA.  A great event or service project, no matter how meaningful, simply does not persuade people to come and visit a new church.  Additionally, religious holidays in NYC only affect the “already religious.”  There is no common spiritual conviction that leads people to pay tribute to God, but only a secular desire to be with family and enjoy the day off.  What this means for our young church is that Easter is one of the least attended Sundays, as members go to be with their families or vacation.
To accommodate for this cultural particular, we gear our outreaches not only to be attractional, but primarily ministerial.  Since we cannot expect people to come to church, we, instead, take the church to them.  Each aspect becomes an intentional means of communicating the Gospel and inviting people to respond or ask questions.  For example, each Easter egg not only had a piece of candy inside, but also a short explanation of John 3:16.  The crafts were illustrations of the cross and/or empty tomb, and every food and refreshment came with an invitation to and explanation of our church.  Of course, there were also “Story Time” areas where church members shared the truth of Jesus and “roaming evangelists” witnessing to our guests.  The day was full of testimonies, new contacts, and even some new believers!

But the real story is the work of the Spirit taking place through incredible people God has given us the privilege to pastor.  They are the one who made planned, coordinated, prayer-walked, invited, and staffed the event.  Their changed lives were what gave credibility to the stories and Bible verses they shared.  There is a real work of the Holy Spirit taking place each week in Forest Hills.  Every worship service is a passionate pursuit for His holiness and power.  We don’t swing from the rafters, but we do worship with reckless desperation and anticipation while people come to know Jesus. 

Seven Baptized

FHCC’s latest baptism was truly a celebration of how God can transform lives for His glory. Among the participants were an eight year old boy and another young man who, weeks ago, had attempted suicide and been completely without hope. A third man had been running from God for years after his girlfriend and the mother of his daughters accepted Jesus and began praying for him. Her family lost both their grandmother and grandfather in the same week, and this young man finally surrendered his life to the Lord. Seeing how the family handled the situation with such grace and faith, another aunt also committed her life to Jesus and joined in water baptism. The week ended with great joy for them!

Cross Cultural Musings: Is there a Super Culture?

Many Christians makes the assumption that the Bible has a culture all its own and is one that, in fact, supersedes all other cultures.  Therefore, the challenge for the Christian minister is to recognize his own culture (which is like asking a fish to identify the water in which he swims), the culture to which he is being sent to minister, and the supracultural ideals that God is decreeing through His Word. 
   
As has already been noted, discerning the culture of the missionary and his target group is a daunting task; but to require that the supracultural elements of Scripture be discerned, as well, is next to impossible. Let no one forget that not only is a people with a unique culture that is ever changing with both time and writer transcribing the Bible, but it is also being interpreted and reinterpreted by persons of changing culture.  The assignment to discern the supraculture of the Bible is in many ways like asking the interpreter to chase the invisible, unceasing wind.  (Good luck with that!)  But, as many sociologists and anthropologists have confirmed, unless the missionary (or any foreign communicator) takes the time to not only assess both his language and his message, legitimate communication and understanding is impossible.
   
Therefore, let it be suggested from both the writings of so many on the subject and my assessment above that the most important task for the missionary is not compassion, fund-raising, and/or target audience obsession, but rather hermeneutics.  A good missionary is not one who merely understands his audience, but he is one who, first and foremost, understands the Will and Message of His God.  Agencies and denominations must reject the growing tendency to undermine the importance of Biblical scholarship or doctrinal integrity.  If the Church is not careful, it will quickly become nothing more than another humanitarian group or antiquated cult unless it returns to its Biblical imperative and example as Divine ambassadors.

Grace in the Storm

Thank you for the many emails and phone calls to check on us after Hurricane Sandy!  While our partner church, FHCC, is located in central Queens and was, therefore, shielded from the worst flooding, everyone in the area was affected by electrical outages and gas shortages.  The important thing is that everyone we know is safe, and God used the storm to provide some awesome avenues to share His love!
    
MatchlessFire and FHCC have “adopted” several families that were hardest hit—a fellow missionary family, a young family with two sons whose house was destroyed, and two sisters.  These ladies have a miraculous story; one was able to evacuate to New Jersey, but the other was not excused from work and attempted to ride out the storm at her apartment.  At 8pm on the night of the storm, with the waters swirling about 10 feet high in her street, the National Guard carried her out to a shelter.  Her block was the last one rescued before emergency personnel had to turn back.  The girls were separated for almost a week, with no way to contact each other, but God kept them both safe.  On the third floor, their apartment was miraculously kept intact, and although they had no power for almost 3 weeks, they were the only ones in their community with gas and hot water.  Despite the furnace being submerged in salt water for a week, it also miraculously worked when the flood waters subsided.  Viewing the continual devastation in their neighborhood—where people scrounged through piles of clothes on the street to get clean garments, where they had to leave for work at 3am to find transportation in the crippled mass transit systems, and where people were reliant on the kindness of strangers—they decided that GOD had spared them for a reason!  They opened their home so neighbors could bathe in their hot water, and they boiled water on their gas stove to keep the families who were sleeping in their living room and kitchen warm.  Above all, they used the opportunity to share God’s love and give comfort to their neighbors in the name of Jesus!  Please visit our website if you need more info on how to pray for or give to those affected.

Happy Meals for the Community

Many of the youth who attended our block party returned the following evening (a Sunday) in hopes of receiving more goodies.  While there was no bounce house, we WERE conducting our regular Sunday service.  Because it was now outside, and because we allowed them to eat the food we had brought as a potluck, these kids came inside—something they first expressed fear of doing because of their cultural background.  God had divinely ordained these circumstances to create a comfortable environment to welcome them. 
     We have turned this into a regular ministry, creating “Happy Meals” to share Jesus’ love each Sunday evening with the kids on the street who wouldn’t otherwise approach a church.

Reaching Queens NY

MatchlessFire and Forest Hills Community Church ended the summer with a bang—celebrating Jesus with several Christian bands, a bounce house, kids’ crafts, health & financial counseling, literature give-aways, and lots of free food.  Held on the lawn of the church from whom we rent, one of the busiest, most visible intersections in town, God drew 500+ people to be connected with Him and the church.

I Love this Book

If only pastors would read what matters and stop listening to the "talking heads"...

There is so much hype around the contemporary pastor and church, especially concerning style and personality. Pastors are not called to be rock stars or self-help gurus, not are they called to be CEOs of a franchise company. The biblical role of pastor is lost in today's market-driven world and it is killing everyone! Young pastors are becoming disillusioned, old pastors feel like failures, and the church folk are nothing more than market research and polls number of the pastor's approval/disapproval rating. IT IS SICK, and Rohrer calls us all out.

The job of the pastor is simple: preach the Word and point people to Jesus. We are but vessels of His power and message. Rohrer is not ignorant of the tensions of ministries, but seeks to address them in this book while still keeping the focus on Jesus and the Gospel.

Pastors, put down you Barna report and pick up this book. Read it and then go back to preaching the Word regardless of the people's response.