The Difference between Evangelists and Evangelicals

A Muslim friend from Turkey asked me today to explain the difference between Protestants and Evangelists.  I guessed immediately that he meant "Evangelicals". 

So, being my typical long-winded self, I started all the way back with the Greek.  "Ev" = good, "angel" = news (and yes, that is the same "angel" that we get our English word angel from).  And of course I explained what the Good News is (the perfect life, substitutionary death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus).

Then I finally got to evangelists.  I explained that an evangelist is someone who shares the good news about Jesus.  And (after pausing slightly to think how to explain the difference) that an evangelical is someone who believes the good news should be shared.  I wish I could remember the exact words he used, but it was something like, "I think I see the difference.  An evangelist actually does it, and an evangelical is a spectator?"

Uh, actually...yes!

Ouch.

The Battle for Ganesh

As some of you know, my father went to India earlier this year to meet and encourage a group of Indian evangelists who are planting house churches.  On Monday he received an email from one of them.  I am pasting excerpts from it below, without correcting the English or altering any details. 

Ganesh a 12 year old boy born to fanatic Hindu parents and among 3 children he is the last one. He heard God’s story (Through mega voice) in one of our house church where he went to play with other children. To his surprise as he heard the God’s story, though he did not understand any things but he was amazed after hearing. And the Lord put a hunger in his heart to know more detail on the story and he was led to our house through our church children. and we make him watch the story on the laptop and he was not only able to listen but was able to see, he felt so fascinated and was convinced that God loves him and Jesus is his God.

And his parent came to know that he is going to a Christian home and learning about Christian God, and they threatened him, slapped on his cheeks, pushed him down and expressed their anger on him. Told him it is shameful for them to have other god’s and if the society will come to know they will not be able to put up their head. But the Lord is working in such a way in that boy that he even removed the religious mark on his for-head and the parent forcefully put the mark o his head again. You can see the mark on his forehead on the picture. And they restrict him very strictly yet he loves so much being with a Christian home, singing, hearing God’s word and having fellowship with Christian children.

and today he escaped somehow from his house and came to our house again, and the parents came to know somehow that he is in our house so both parents came running and very angry on us saying, we have done some witch and his boy is always saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus at home. And in front of our house they scold us with abusive language and as our Hindu neighbor heard they also came running to watch what happened. And the parents told our entire neighbor that we have done some witch and their child is mad of Jesus. We just kept silent and talked nothing before the people in front of our house and as a family we were just praying in our heart, though we had no word heard outside but our heart was filled with joy that we did not feel ashamed or fear. They beat him and dragged and took Ganesh from our house.

A picture of Ganesh

We know Ganesh is having hard time at home and they are watching him where ever he is going. Ganesh feels insecure and fearful in his house and he loves the fellowship of Christian home. Ganesh is quiet a silent boy but very courageous and He is crazy to grow more in God’s love.  Please pray for him so that this boy will be more courageous to stand for Jesus and his parents Rammurthy and Devi, and 2 other children at home will know the love of Jesus.

The pastor did not mention this in his email, but my guess is that Ganesh was named for the Hindu god Ganesha.  Pray for him and his family!

Book Review: Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale

A friend recently recommended Jerry Trousdale's new book, Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims are Falling in Love with Jesus.  The salvation of Muslims is a topic close to my heart.  But being too Dutch (or Scotch, or Jewish) to buy it, I was delighted to find that if I would agree to review the book for BookSneeze.com, I could get a free electronic copy of it.  (And no, I did not have to give a positive review!)

The bulk of the book is carefully reported stories of rapid multiplication of churches (mostly underground) throughout Islamic Africa.  The author attempts to analyze the reasons for this surprising expansion of Christianity and find a pattern that other Christians can follow.  Some of the principles he describes have been circulating in missiology for some time: chronological Bible storying, finding a "person of peace" in the community, making disciples and not just converts, targeting groups and not just individuals.  Other ideas were new to me: Bible studies which require no teachers (called "Discovery Bible Studies") and discipling people to conversion (e.g., beginning to disciple people before they become Christians).

The weakness of the book seems to be an inadvertent tendency towards pragmatism.  Rather than taking time to start from Scripture to build a theology and methodology for evangelism, the author starts from "what's working in Islamic Africa" and then finds Bible verses to fit.  Although I'm sure this wasn't the author's intent, the message seems to be, "These principles are working in Africa.  Here are some Bible verses to support these principles.  Therefore, you should use these principles too."

This tends to make the principles taught in Miraculous Movements surprisingly lacking in nuance.  For example:

The challenge in making obedient disciples is to teach obedience. In the context of Disciple Making Movements, we have seen that the best tool to teach obedience is Discovery Bible Study (DBS). Do not teach or preach; instead, facilitate discovery and obedience.  (Kindle Locations 1515-1517).

Or:

The Islamic cultures are cultures of shame and guilt. Talking about sin will not touch them.  But talking about what causes shame or guilt will have an effect. So try to find out the things in the community that are bringing shame and guilt and that are also seen as sin in the Bible. (Kindle Locations 2778-2780).

This leads to some of the stories describing what I would regard as poorly-founded conversions.  For example, in this story from a Christian donkey cart driver, we are left wondering what exactly this woman asked Jesus to save her from:

A lady told me that her husband beats her. He gives cattle as a sacrifice for an evil spirit, and they are getting poor. She asked me what to do. I told her that there is a solution. I told her about Jesus, and she said, “If he is going to be a solution, I am willing to follow him.” She accepted the Lord as her Savior. Now she is a Christian and she has peace and joy in the Lord. (Kindle Locations 2558-2561).

Miraculous Movements, a bit like the book of Acts, awakens a hunger to see God convert sinners and exalt Jesus.  Read it and be encouraged that God is still at work in our world.  Thank Him that He even works in spite of our occasionally misguided techniques.  And start with the Bible, not this book, for your methods.

Bless the Lord, because He is merciful!

On Sunday I had the privilege of giving the sermon in our church.  My text was Psalm 103.  At the risk of boring you, I'm giving a link to the video, as well as the notes I prepared to speak from.

Great Things Come From Small Churches

While I was up in Ogden a couple months ago, I began flipping through some booklets on Pastor Kolkow's coffee table.  I learned they were printed and mailed out regularly by Mount Zion Bible Church--a small church in Florida--for free!

When I got back home, I visited their web site and signed up for a free subscription to their quarterly printed magazine, the Free Grace Broadcaster.  Sure enough, a few days later, the mail brought not only a copy of their latest magazine, but also a sampling of their other free-upon-request booklets as well. 

Most of their materials are carefully selected reprints of works by noteworthy dead Christians such as Spurgeon, Pink, Bunyan, Whitefield, Bonar, Calvin, and a number of the Puritans.  All of these materials are also available for free download as PDF's from their web site. 

If you like chewing meat, not cotton candy, send an email with your mailing address to chapel@mountzion.org and ask to be added to their mailing list!

"I should think myself in the way of my duty, to raise the affections {for God} of my hearers as high as I possibly can, provided they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with." -- Jonathan Edwards

Looking for Gift Ideas?

Dear _______,

I pray that the enclosed “surprises” will be as great a blessing to you as they have been to me.

I love using the Psalter in my personal devotions.  Many of the tunes are borrowed from familiar hymns, and for the ones that aren’t, I have usually been able to find another tune with the same meter that I do know.  (I’ve enclosed a few ‘cheat sheets’ to help you with this.)

I just learned of the “Dispatches from the Front” DVD series recently.  It came highly recommended, and now I can see why.  I’m not sure I can put their impact into words.  They’re an unusual but beautiful blend of missions, Scripture, spiritual depth, simplicity, unnoticed heroes, and good videography.  The one caveat I have is that in the first episode (southeast Asia) they deal some with sex trafficking.  For portions of this episode, I found it best to look away from the screen.  (And for young children, the beginning of episode 3 would be frightening as they recap the history of civil war in Liberia, West Africa.)  But still, all five episodes are worth watching and sharing with others.  May the Lord of the Harvest use them to thrust many more laborers into the fields!

Grateful for your years of friendship and prayers,

Daniel

Bless God and Die?

A Muslim friend wrote me recently to ask why his Arabic (Van Dyke) translation of Job 2:9 says, "Bless God and die" while English translations say "Curse God and die".  I had no idea, so I did some research and here's what I replied.

hi my friend, that is an excellent question. You are very observant. I had never noticed this difference before. So, here's what I have learned.

This same thing happens in Job 1:5 ("Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed [blessed] God in their heart"), Job 1:11 ("he will curse [bless] you to your face"), and again in Job 2:5. It is used in a similar way in Psalm 10:3, "the greedy man curses [blesses] and spurns the Lord".

Whatever the word means, it's obvious that this word is being used in a 'bad' / negative way here. It's something that Job does not want his children to do. It is something that Satan does want Job to do. It is something that Satan knows will displease God. So, Job's wife is telling Job to do what Satan wants him to do.

So, why does the Bible use the word normally translated "bless"? So far, I have found two possible explanations. The first is that the men who copied the ancient Old Testament (Hebrew) texts were fearful of writing the words "curse God". So they substituted the opposite word ("bless") knowing that people would realize this was not the right word, and understand the correct meaning from the context.

The second possibility is that by "bless" they mean "say good-bye". There is a relation between 'blessings' and greetings of welcome or farewell. In English, for example, "good bye" literally means "God be with you". So it may be that Satan wanted Job to say to God, "I am leaving you now, I don't want to be with you anymore, bye!" You have asked a good question and I hope this helped some.

I am grateful that there are so many online reference tools available to help with questions like this.