Deanna and I continue to work with small groups and individuals. I see this as a season to develop pilot projects and training systems which will multiply in the future. We are looking for keys to unlock a viral-type of church growth in the Amazon. One key will be how to get past people’s assumptions about God and Christianity. Jesus said  ^“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

This week I asked one group, “How could fishermen and carpenter’s surpass trained leaders?”

This was a stumper. I let the silence do its work and build pressure. Finally one man responded, “They could try harder?”

After another thoughtful silence I asked, “How could they do that? The religious leaders had studied for many years. They tithed everything, even the herbs from their gardens. They fasted twice a week. How could fishermen and bricklayers try harder than that?” Personally I feel sorry pharisees. They try so hard.

One of the women was thinking out loud. Giving people space to think out loud is healthy as we develop our beliefs by talking about them. “The leaders of the church always dress right and get to the services early because they want to be perfect. It’s hard for ordinary people.” In Portuguese there are two verbs for “to be” or “is”. One is permanent, like your name, and the other is temporary and changeable, like the weather. My name is (permanent) Rick. The weather is (temporary) sunny. This woman used the permanent verb for the pharisees. “They are always trying to be (permanent form) perfect.”

“Are they always trying to BE (permanent) perfect, or trying to APPEAR perfect?” The Holy Spirit was among us. I could see the lights coming on. It was especially cool because BE and APPEAR rhyme in Portuguese. SER and APARECER. I had to ask the question several times as the group thought through the implications of the question. Be the right person or Appear to be the right person? In Brazil we have a saying, “A ficha caiu.” This literally translate as the moment when the quarter falls into the bubble gum machine and the candy gets released. I saw the quarter drop for this small group. We have to BE the right people. Jesus said it is not enough to try to APPEAR TO BE the right people. We cannot talk nice to someone’s face and bad behind their back. We cannot pretend to give money in the offering. We cannot “LIKE” a Facebook sermon just so others will think we actually listened to it and liked it. The motives behind our actions are more important to God than the actions themselves.

A big smile spread across the woman’s face. “Now I get it. I am always worried about appearing right. From now on I will not try to Appear (temporary) the right person, I will Be (permanent) the right person.” I smiled inwardly. Easier said than done. This is a lifelong quest requiring all the help we can get from the Holy Spirit.

This lesson and several others like it have convinced us that encouraging Discovery Bible Studies on all the little parts of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) will play an important role in producing a viral-like Disciple Making Movement here in the Amazon.

Imagine the Trinity before Jesus came to earth. They created the world. They chose Abraham through whom to reveal their ways and through whom to bless the whole world. Finally the Father asks Jesus, “Will you go down there and explain what We mean?” Of course Jesus came to pay the price for our sins, to be the ultimate sacrifice. But He also came to show us the way. Matthew 5-7 is Jesus explaining how God expects His people to live and behave. Learning to walk with God in the way that He wants is so satisfying.

Along with Discovery Groups we also do a weekly Healthy Habits of Catalysts training, and Deanna does Immanuel Prayer several days a week.

This week our front gate broke. I called a friend who called an acquaintance. A young man arrived on an old motorbike with a bald front tire from way across town. As he was working on the gate motor he answered a few of my conversational questions.

“I am a Christian from the Assemblies of God.”

“I am one of eight children.”
 
Then he stopped working and started telling his story. “My dad abandoned our family when I was 3 years old. He always liked other women, outside of his marriage to my mom. He had 6 children with my mom, and 2 with other women. Finally he left us for one of his lovers. My mom raised all six of us. We were very poor. One time when our electricity got cut because we could not pay for it a man showed up at our gate. He asked questions about my father. Finally he told my mom, ‘I am your husband’s cousin from São Paulo (5,000 kms away)”. This sounded plausible, so mom let him in the house. He stayed all day. In the evening my mom got concerned because here was a strange man in the house, and her and us kids. She decided to talk to him. She talked from 7 pm to midnight, using candles for light because we had no power. She told her testimony, and how her husband abandoned us, and how God was helping her. Finally the man said, ‘I have decided to tell you the truth. I am not your husband’s cousin. I live in São Paulo. Your husband stole my wife and that blew up my family. I decided I would do the same to him. I found out where he was from, and I came here to kill you all, to do the same to him as he did to me. Now I see that you do not deserve this, and I decided not to kill you. I will kill him. Here, look in my bag.’ He opened his satchel and showed her a revolver and a dagger. ‘I was going to wait until you were all asleep. But now you can guard my bag for the night, and I will not do this.’ The next morning the man left. Soon he was back from the grocery store with two huge boxes of food. This was an incredible windfall and blessing for our family at that time. That man became like an uncle to us, helping us every so often. Mom was just talking about him the other day. He died recently.” 

“What happened to your dad?”

“He never got killed. He is now a pastor of an Assemblies of God church.”

“Another time my sister, when she was 8, was riding her bicycle. It did not have the rubber part of the pedals, just the iron stub. She fell with her bike, and one of the iron stubs sliced into her calf. Over the next days her leg started to dry up at the calf. Tetanus set in and her thigh got swollen. Finally she died. My mom got the prayer ladies from the church. They came and gathered around my sister and cried and prayer. My sister remembers leaving her body and watching them from the ceiling, this group of ladies and my mom praying and crying. Then suddenly she returned to her body and opened her eyes. After that she started healing until she was completely better. She lives near where I live now. She is 32 years old, and has a gift of prophetic dreams . . . “

The stories continued to flow. The stories continued to flow. God is miraculously providing for his mom, enabling her to build a house, while she is sick . . .  It got dark. I was tired. He would have kept going. Aslan is on the move, and the poor have a special place in His heart.

Possibly the hardest part of church planting is to successfully develop transformative communities out of people who were far from God. It starts by getting to know them.

We have planted churches in unchurched communities. Very soon, in two different communities I am remembering right now, two or three other church plants suddenly appeared from other denominations. These newcomers spent much of their time evangelizing the people who were frequenting our church, explaining their version of right and wrong. It is easier to engage in a theological discussion with a new believer than with an unbeliever, and especially if you come in with superior knowledge. Often a codependent relationship starts. The great teacher needs to be great, and the new believers need this person to tell them what to believe and how to behave. They both need each other. If the great teacher quits coming it is very likely the dependant church will quit meeting.

So how do we engage unbelievers and young Christians so they will connect directly to Jesus, resulting in transformed lives and transformed communities? It starts by finding teachable people who want to learn to connect directly to God, and who want to help others learn to do the same.

Lessons from Jesus

1. We eat from the Tree of Life.

We frequently spend quality time with God.

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22). 

And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die (John 11:26a)

2. We do not judge others.

We move away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:1,2).

3. Who wants us around?

These are our people. Here we invest our pearls and sacred treasure.

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6). 

4. Wolves like lambs.

Lambs are not scary. The wolves have the power. We spend quality time with Jesus every day to build up our superpowers which come through as mercy, empathy, and compassion.

Luke 10: 3 “Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”

5. Get out of God’s way.

We don’t have to know the answers. We share God with our friends, share how it works for us, and then we step aside.

John 6:45a “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’”

Summary

1. Spend time with Jesus. Feel His heart for the lost.
2. All people are created in God’s image. Feel the pain of their wounds.
3. Some people around you would love to be your friend. Find these people and share your pearls of wisdom and your sacred treasure.
4. Look for wolves. Do not be afraid to enter the dragon’s den to get the gold. Start with a prayer for direction, and then take the first step of obedience.
5. Once you find these people work to connect them to directly to God without your presence.

QUESTION: Have you had any success in engaging unbelievers that ended up with a transformed community?

A loon swims in the snow at Fishtrap Creek.

The view from our back window in Abbotsford.

Mom and Dad come to visit us in our townhouse.

Deanna is part of a Really Great Family!I thank God that He blessed me not just to marry Deanna, but to marry into the Hansen family. The Hansen Family was a major player for the first twelve years of the Xingu Mission and the church planting that happened in those years. They continue to be very supportive. Harold came and found me in the Yukon, and pointed me towards Christ For the Nations in Dallas. Ross was my best friend at the Bible School in Texas. Then I married Harold’s daughter and Ross’s little sister.

Deanna, Anni, Rachelle, Bella

Ross and Karin were missionaries with us for 14 years in the Amazon. They came over with Harold and Joan to celebrate Deanna’s birthday. They even sacrificed watching part of the hockey game to have brunch with us.

Harold (Deanna’s dad), Deanna, and Ross (one of Deanna’s two brothers).

The Hansen family. Just missing Ross’s oldest daughter Janaea and her family because they are living in New Zealand.

Try praying this part of The Lord’s Prayer over yourself and others. Then keep your eyes open in a cheerful expectation. Watch for tone.

Yourself

Keep me safe from myself.
Keep me safe from the devil.
I submit to Your authority over me.

Others

Keep (___________) safe from themself.
Keep (___________) safe from the devil.
May (________) see things clearly.
May (________) sense Your presence.
May Your Kingdom come here and now.

“Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge!” (MSG Matthew 7:13).

God’s Big Idea

God’s big idea is that we all affect the people in our immediate vicinity.
Jesus modeled this.
Jesus commissioned His disciples to do this.
Jesus is still commissioning His disciples to do this.
This is not about having prepared scripts, or perfect answers.
This is not about being safe or in your comfort zone.
This is about being on an adventure with God, and being yourself.

“Are you having fun?” I have discovered that the “fun factor” may be the best indicator of whether a person is living a Theopraxic [to give all you have, every day, to living fully for God] life. It reveals whether a person is empowered by the Holy Spirit rather than his or her own efforts. The fun factor shows whether a person is trusting the Lord and has confidence in how things will turn out, or even an interested curiosity or humorous inquisitiveness about how the Lord will use some particularly difficult circumstances for His glory and our good in eternity. Fun, in this sense, is an evidence of living the abundant life that Jesus came to give us” (Sergeant, C., 2019, Chap. 6, Suffering is our Pathway, Para. 36).

Sergeant, C., (2019) The Only One. William Carey Library.