The Parousia Update Letter For the Week of December 14, 2009

 Dear Friends,

I pray that your holiday season is filled with spiritual blessings and personal joys as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. Those of you in the local area, come join us for our last gathering for 2009 (see below).

Speaking of Letters, Blogs and Networking

Just a friendly reminder for you to check out our blog and our Facebook page. Here are the links:

Facebook (if you don’t have a Facebook Account you’ll need to set one up): http://www.facebook.com/people/Maurice-Smith/1321730658

Blog (to post you’ll need a Google Account): http://parousianetworkcybercafe.blogspot.com/

A House Church Missionary Letter From Thailand

Editor’s Note:  Kennedy and Wendy Paiz are missionaries to Thailand. Their goal is to plant organic house churches in Thailand. I first met Ken at a house church conference here in Spokane when Wolfgang Simson paid us a visit (Wolf’s messages are still posted on our website for the interested). Since then, Ken and I have struck up a correspondence and a friendship. I am humbled that when he and Wendy are on furlough, Ken makes it a point to come to Spokane so we can get caught up. Ken recently wrote to me to share his heart over some of the struggles he has encountered in his ministry in Thailand and to ask for prayer. While I felt that my response was wholly inadequate, I asked Ken if I could share his letter (and my response) with all of you so that the greater house church community could pray for him and perhaps send him some words of encouragement. He would like to network with some of you as you feel led.

Ken’s Letter

Hello Maurice,

Thanks for the newsletter.  I hope you don't mind me writing you a bit.  I have been out on my own working through some books, thoughts and experiences in Thailand.  I do want to say, your newsletters encourage me and I always feel like after I read them I am more sober and more aware of what is important in my life and the things God has given us to do here in Thailand. Thanks for doing what you do.

I just finished reading Pagan Christianity and I have listened to the abridged version of Revolution by George Barna.  I found them both very interesting.  I felt like a foreigner since I have been here for the last 11 years listening to Barna's book. I really don't understand my own culture as well as I should.  I found Viola's book interesting because the  Thai church has become in love with western model of practicing "church".  Just the other  day I was sitting  around singing, praying and talking with a bunch of middle aged women who are water melon farmers.   The  idea is that they want to  start there own church and  they get together in the  front yard.  This time a lady came who goes to another church, and sure  enough she was very strong in leading the other women  in a kind of sudo western church service.  At the end of our time while I was messing around with some things, they all stood up and started  singing the  doxology.  I did not.  Mostly because I was sitting on the ground and it was hard to stand up.  I asked them when they were done, where did this song come from?  They said, from the church in town.  Where did they get it ?  They  said, I don't know?  I challenged  them to write there own and  use it next time.  They all laughed at me, thinking I was telling them a joke.  But, I told them I was not joking.  Then they just looked at me like I was a nut.  These are people who don't read very well, very poor and on the fringe of Thai society.  I think they are good soil.  But, after reading that book it has been discouraging and kind of fun at the same time seeing all the transposed things that Frank V. wrote about even in this corner of the world.

Recently The Lord has been really impressing on my heart to walk the streets and share Christ with whoever I find.  I have been going with a young man who is a believer from Tibet.  He can't speak Thai, but prays and is very fun person, so he can make friends easy.  Every time we have gone we find many people to talk to and many people open to hearing about Christ, but no one believing in Christ.  I am praying for more  believers so we  can  see disciples come up.  I feel like I am not doing missions cutting edge, but I feel like I  am doing missions.  I feel like God is directing this.  I would say the main thing in this experience is  that I am learning to get past peoples smirks and smiles as I do this.  Other believers, who feel this is offensive to Buddhist and would never do this.  I  have found  all Buddhist people to talk to and they have all been open to listening and even wanting to tell friends about Christ as Buddhist because it is  good news to them. I just wanted to say this because you can do this in a  Buddhist country if you know the language and culture and love people in the process. 

As I read more about what is happening in the states, I am more tempted to go home and practice organic, simple, house church.  But, my dream is to see it happen in Thailand.  I am deeply convicted about my lack of love for people right around me. I want to love them, but I fail.  I know a simple invite to dinner.  A gift of fruit, some kind of  relational interaction could make  the difference.  So, we are changing and stepping out and trying to love people. Doing before studying is more of a Thai mind set.  Core Actions as one author said instead of core values.  Core actions is very Thai.  Jesus style of living is actually very Thai.  As an American I am really stretched  and uncomfortable  here.  I am very home sick some days, even after  living here for so long.  But, I have some great advantages here too.  I am praying for the power of God to fill me so  I  can live and see a Thai church movement come about in my life.  In the mean time I am learning to love God and have a broken heart like He does.  This is really painful. 

I am considering moving after 2 more years to a new area that has no church with in a 50 to 200 mile radius with a good sized population.  Muslims are like that.  Some Buddhist areas.  But, see that each time a group of people  are come together, the established church will  take them away.  That is ok, because they are at least getting fellowship and learning about God, but it is a spectators style approach much like our buildings in America.  More of a "service" and a preaching station.  Not a transformational place that is going out on mission.  Thai love to centralize and be religious.  I think humans like this.  We will see about moving.

Anyway.  I write this for a couple of reasons.  I am lonely.  I feel misunderstood by many of the  believers I work with around me who are doing  missions in a more traditional style and I am treading in dangerous waters here in Thailand spiritually.  We are called to be here.  We want to be here.  We want to stay here as long as God will say stay.  But, it is hard and I feel it. So, thanks for letting me write you and just sharing with you. 

In Him,

Kennedy

Maurice’s Response

Ken,

What a humbling letter. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and your struggles so openly. While I am blessed that you enjoy the newsletters, I confess that I often feel like a coach on the sideline of a championship game, sending in plays for others to execute and watching them pour their hearts and souls into what they are doing. If I can offer some small piece of perspective on the progress of the game while suggesting a  play or strategy that enables you and others to move the Kingdom of God forward, then I am blessed beyond anything I can rightfully expect. I can only venture at this point to remind all of us that “the stadium” around us in which we play out this contest is filled with a great cloud of witnesses who together urge us on to greater faithfulness and who remind us that our labor in the Lord is NOT in vain.

Viola’s and Barna’s books are excellent “shock treatment” for a complacent church which has mistaken its methodology for its message. Although I sounded a “cautionary” note about Viola’s book in my newsletter review, it is in reality an excellent exercise in forcing the organized Church to look itself in a mirror and examine why it does what it does. My primary concern, both then and now, is that we be careful about engaging in a new wave of “iconoclasm” – destroying or eliminating everything “religious” in a misguided search for “purity”. But as someone who lives in a foreign culture, you are in a unique position to observe how the organized western church has “baptized” and exported it’s methodology (i.e., meeting in “church” buildings, or as Wolfgang might say, meeting in a holy building on a holy day to do holy things led by a holy person), thereby mistaking its methodology for its mission and its message. It was said of the British Empire that wherever it went during its colonial period it always exported 3 things: First, it sent in its military. Second, it sent in its merchants. And third, it sent in its missionaries.  Hence, Western Christianity appeared “colonial”. On the other hand, let’s be careful about being “anti-western iconoclasts”. The women who stood up and sang the doxology probably did so as a genuine expression of what they were feeling at the time. To ask them to “write their own” doxology may simply be “a bridge too far” at this particular point in their journey. But the fact that they were willing to “spontaneously” sing the doxology outside of the religious trappings of the institutional church probably represented a significant “outside the box” experience for them. Sometimes growth comes in “baby steps”.

You said,  “I feel like I am not doing missions cutting edge, but I feel like I  am doing missions.  I feel like God is directing this”. Trust me, there is no such thing as “cutting edge missions”. This usually means that some new guru has come up with some new “technique” which, in their opinion, represents the future of missions. His next step is to share it at some missions conference where someone promotes it as the “cutting edge” of missions. Here’s my bottom line. I don’t care what anyone does. If God’s isn’t in it, if you aren’t walking in obedience to His direction, NOTHING is “cutting edge”. If you are walking in obedience to what God has instructed you to do, and doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit, then you are doing “cutting edge missions”, whether in the States or in Thailand.  It really is that simple.

My sense is that you have the heart of an evangelist, and that God has given you a love for the Thai people. If God’s heart breaks for the Thai people, it would come as no surprise that He would require the same of you in order to truly reach them for Christ. Sowing through the tears of a broken heart is often God’s prerequisite for reaping with joy. In addition, if God is leading you to go out and share the gospel, or if He is leading you to have someone over for dinner, or to give them a basket of fruit, then THAT VERY ACT represents “cutting edge missions” in your life. And it is that passion for evangelism, expressed through your core values of loving the Thai people, that will result in seeing organic house church taking root where you are.

 This is just a personal opinion, but I think the description of the Thai people being attracted to organized religious services is something of a “human condition” thing. The mega church phenomenon represents this very tendency, only on steroids and served with a caramel & vanilla Latte. Give up trying to compete with it. You can’t. Their lattes (or the Thai equivalent) will always be better than yours. Your goal must be different. I see it as the difference between finding “followers” and making “disciples”. Jesus had many “followers”. There were times when thousands followed Him. But he had few disciples. Paul tells us that during the 40 days between Easter and Pentecost Jesus appeared to more than 500, but only 120 showed up in the Upper Room in Jerusalem in obedience to His instructions. Why? Most were followers. Few were disciples. Invest yourself with those who understand the difference between being religious and being a disciple. Jesus was satisfied with 12. Count yourself blessed if you achieve or exceed that. Bob Coleman said it best 40 years ago in “The Master Plan of Evangelism”:

 "Why did Jesus deliberately concentrate His life upon comparatively so few people? Had he not come to save the world? With the glowing announcement of John the Baptist ringing in the ears of multitudes, the Master easily could have had an immediate following of thousands if He wanted them. Why did He not then capitalize upon His opportunities to enlist a mighty army of believers to take the world by storm? Surely the Son of God could have adopted a more enticing program of mass recruitment. Is it not rather disappointing that one with all the powers of the universe at His command would live and die to save the world, yet in the end have only a few ragged disciples to show for His labors? The answer to this question focuses at once the real purpose of His plan for evangelism. Jesus was not trying to impress the crowd, but to usher in a Kingdom."

 Finally, Ken, I hear and appreciate the pain and loneliness in your voice. My heart aches for you, bro. I’m reminded of an old Twila Paris song, “The Warrior Is A Child” with the refrain, “They don’t know that I go running home when I fall down. They don’t know who picks me up when no one is around. I drop my sword and cry for just a while, for deep inside his armor, the warrior is a child”. If you don’t have days when you feel like a child who is in over his head and abandoned by those who should be there for him, then you’re a better man than I. All of this may be small comfort, but I want you to know that you and the family are not alone. I wish I could do more than merely coach you from the sidelines, but I want you to know that I and many others are with you in spirit. Be encouraged, for your labor in the Lord is NOT in vain.

 With your permission, I would like to include your letter (and my response) in my next e-letter. I have no doubt that others could benefit from your story, and that you would benefit from their encouragement. I’ve discovered that, on this list, I am often one of the duller knives in the drawer and that there are people who can pray for you and encourage you far beyond anything I can offer. Let me know if that would be O.K.

 Heartfelt blessings from one of your coaches on the sideline, Maurice.

 Ken’s Response

 Dear Maurice,

 Thanks for your encouraging email and your thoughts, they are very encouraging and helpful for me thinking through things here.  As you might have read already, I just found out my mother has cancer in many places in her body.  I will know Tuesday what the prognosis is.  In the mean time we will be heading back to the states to spend time with her.  We are planning to come back as soon as we can, but we don’t know how long she has to live.  It is fine with me if you would like to share this email with others.  Thanks for taking the time to respond to my email and thinking of asking others to pray for us.  We have much to do and plan.  As you have experienced in your life, moving is hard.  We must kind of wrap up our lives in Thailand put in all in storage and do much adjusting.  I want to write a better response to your email, in a couple of days.  But,  I did want to answer your question.  Yes, please ask others to pray and even contact us.  I would like to network with more people. In the mean time, we are looking to Him for each days supply of grace.  I know He is planning good in my mom’s situation.  I will pray for you today. 

In Him,

Kennedy