Where Will You Live?

 This is the question we get more than any other.  It makes sense, because it is a question that Jenny and I wrestle with consistently.  The short answer is that we don’t know yet.  There are a lot of different factors that go into the decision. 

Here is what I will tell you:  More than likely we will NOT live within the garbage dump communities.

I have to tell you, it is a difficult decision though.  I see all of the benefits of the “incarnational” approach to ministry.  Jesus “pitched his tent among us…” as John 1 tells us.  Likewise, shouldn’t we move in to the neighborhoods where we are doing ministry?  In short, if I (Justin) was a single guy with no family, I probably would.

So how are we going to choose where we will live? 

We have decided on three key elements to our housing that we are using as the framework for prayer.

1. Proximity

We want to live AS CLOSE as we possibly can to the garbage dump.  We don’t want to be the rich, white people that come soaring in off of the mountain.  Historically, this is the way much of missions worked.  Missionaries would find housing that was conducive to the lifestyle they would prefer, and often it required a much nicer location than where they were ministering.  Many times, missionaries have had to travel quite the distances to meet with the people they are ministering to. 

We want to be close to the action.  We want to be as close as possible.

2. Safety

The flip side of this is that we want to live AS SAFE as possible.  We know what everyone knows about Latin America, often Americans have a target on their backs.  Naturally many thieves in Latin America presume that we have money (they'll be in for a surprise if they mug us!). We know that we need to guard the longevity of our ministry.  While it would be noble to move into a rough community to “do ministry,” getting shot a week later wouldn’t be a great step forward for our ministry. 

We also want to have a family.  I (Justin) know that it is my God-given responsibility to protect my family.  There is a HUGE difference between protecting my family and sheltering my family (a distinction more missionaries should probably consider).  We are not looking to eliminate risk.  If that were they case, we wouldn't go!  

This is just a side-note: Jenny and I are perfectly aware of the great risk that this move places on our families.  Yet we both firmly believe that the gospel demands action, action in the darkest, most dangerous places in the world.  Eliminating risk is impossible, as a matter of fact, risk comes with the territory.

We are simply wanting to make the wisest decisions for our family, knowing that there is always risk in proclaiming the gospel.  Regardless, we will be actively  making decisions with our safety in mind.  

3.  Identification

Finally, we plan to live as simply as possible.  We don’t need the flash and glamour of the suburbs.  We want a humble space that we can use.  We will use it for our own personal retreat and rest.  But we also want to be able to use it for ministry.  If we are using it for ministry to people within the garbage dump communities, then we want to ensure that it will not be extravagant in a way that puts their homes and belongings to shame.

We are not trying to fool them.  They know that we are American, and by nature we have more then they have.  At the same time, we don’t want to luxuriously flaunt what we have.  We are perfectly willing to set aside what many of us would consider “necessary comforts” for the sake of our ministry.

We need You!

With that said, we are by no means under the delusion that we can accomplish this perfectly.  We will never completely eliminate risk or need for comfort, and we will never completely eliminate American stigma.  This is why we need your prayer.  Please, pray on our behalf that God would show us the best way to make our housing selection.  Any input from you would also be encouraging and helpful.

We trust a God who provides.  We are whole-heartedly resting in God, that He already has the perfect home for us selected in Guatemala.  We just need to find it!

Worshipping on the Free-Throw Line

A Church in a Gym

I don’t know if I’ve ever attended another church like it.  The echo of the drums off of the hardwood floor made the sound bounce in all directions.  You don’t get to just find your seat, you have to set up your seat, and then tear it down when the service is over, how’s that for “Welcome to Church!”  The only apparent emblem that there is a church somewhere is the flag stuck in the ground outside of the YMCA in which they meet.  And somebody has to take those down too. 

The Summit Church in Green, OH is not your traditional church.  They have an overwhelming passion for their city and a comprehensive involvement in the mission of their church.  Everybody is doing something.  No one is simply receiving and walking away happy that “it was a good sermon today…”.  Needless to say, their pastor preaches great sermons, and their worship team leads fabulous music.  Seriously, it’s fabulous!  But their Christian lives are not tied up in the Sunday event. And for them it is much more of an event than for most churches.

The Summit Church is a church that was started out of a vision to see the un-churched and the de-churched meet with a church.  They began meeting in a movie theatre, but eventually landed in the gymnasium of the YMCA.  Those of us influenced by church structures may have a hard time adjusting to singing our worship songs with the strands of the basketball net looming above us.  But this doesn’t even phase members of the Summit.  As a matter of fact, they love it! 

When they use the word “church”, they mean something quite different than most of us accustomed to buildings and programs mean.  Their “church” is quite literally them!  They spend time together, interact constantly, serve together, throw parties together, invite anyone and everyone.  They all have careers in all sorts of things…but they use their abilities honed by their careers to serve their church. 

My Time at the Summit            

This past weekend I had the chance to speak there.  My overwhelming sense was “my goodness the American church has some sacred cows to slaughter”.  Though this isn’t the first time I’ve concluded this, it returned with a renewed strength.

We are totally consumed by our buildings....How will we adjust them?  What will we add?  What new thing can we buy?  How can we make it better, more attractive, more compelling?

We are totally consumed by our programs…what new event or new ministries should we offer? Is it engaging enough? Will people come? Is the music loud enough, new enough, old enough? Do we have a graphic?…we have men’s, women’s, students, children, college, post-college, pre-college, post-highschool, post-college/premarried…I mean my goodness!  We have too often missed what it means to be the church…together. In an effort to offer the "best possible product" to "our consumers" we have cheapened the gathering of believers.

We have missed that church, the assembly, the gathering, is simply those who have been called by Christ, justified by Christ, and are being sanctified by Christ, gathering to worship Christ. 

And let me tell you…there are whole groups of people that are concerned with the numerical growth of churches, but the Summit is growing, and not with the usual ploys and gimmicks.  There is rawness, an authenticity and genuineness of faith that this generation loves and at Summit they find that.  They find real people, with real problems, not trying to use cosmetics on their buildings, programs or their lives rather passionately pursuing a Savior who rescues them. 

All this to say, I am grateful for my time at the Summit Church, and for the influence that Pastor Tom Hogsed and their leadership team have had.  They are building a church, not a church building, and that cheesy cliché may actually make all the difference.  

Check out the Summit Church here.

April-June Prayer Letter

Check out our latest Prayer Letter

Click Here.

Everything is Changing

     We looked around the room and it hit us.  This is actually happening.  I mean, we knew that it was happening.  We knew that TEAM had accepted us.  But all of the sudden it got very real.  There was still a whimsy to our future that had been washed away.  There are going to be moments throughout this entire journey that will forever be with us.  Walking into TEAM’s headquarters last week will be one that I carry with me for a long time. 

     As I was reaching for the door to walk into TEAM’s building I started feeling that flashback sensation that happens right before a big life-change.  Seeing my glare in the window I couldn’t help but think back to my wedding day – the day that I married the goddess of a woman that is giving up everything with me.  Images of youth retreats to Silver Birch Ranch, Teen Serve, missions trips to Nicaragua, Mexico, and Honduras, leading worship hundreds of Sundays, teaching and preaching all came crashing back.  Faces of our family, and our family at Grace Pointe, Moody, and Canton were speeding through my mind.  It felt like my mind went through every single emotion that I have felt over the past 6 years in ministry here in the USA.  Some were great emotions, others were horrific.  I couldn’t help but feel my failures, the ways that I have not lived as I ought, my sin, my missteps, bad decisions.  I couldn’t help but see unfinished tasks, unrealized potentials, and unacceptable apathy toward the American church.  Great victories were there too – life change in students, warm and loving friendships, compelling worship experiences, libraries of lessons learned. The joy, the sorrow, the laughter, the pain – none of it lacking.    

     The bitter cold air brought me back.  I shot Jenny a glance and reached for the stainless steel handle on the door.  The overwhelming support and love in her eyes reminded me that she is crazy for marrying me, and I’m crazy about her.  It was a new building.  A new task.  A new goal.  Heck, a new life.  We stepped into the building leaving the grip of winter behind us aware that what we were leaving behind was much more than a cold day.

     We rounded the corner and walked into a room full of other missionary candidates.  People that we now call friends.  We shared stories of the places where we will be living.  We heard of medical needs in Myanmar, sex-trafficking in Austria, education in China, Tilapia-farming in Zimbabwe, and of course dump church-planting.   All of it stirred within us a secure confirmation that we were exactly where God wanted us. 

Doing a skit in morning devotions.

Some team building.

     

     God’s heart is for the nations.  And He has equipped us with the tools and resources to plant churches in Latin America.  When we got married, He began to create within us a restlessness in America so that we would some day be walking into TEAM.  For all of the flashbacks that we have experienced, for all of the remorse, frustration, joy, and laughter...for all of the inconsistency and doubt that we know we will face the rest of our lives we know there has been one constant.  God.  He continues to write this story.  The sweeping narrative of our lives keeps taking unexpected turns, but nothing makes us happier than knowing the author.

     Our week at TEAM was fantastic.  It was nurturing, encouraging, and fulfilling.  Nothing bad can be said about it.  What we learned more than anything though is that God owns the past, the present, and the future.  And there is no greater feeling than knowing that.

Grace and Pants

     Have you ever used a word so many times that it sounds funny? The first time it ever happened to me was with the word "pants". Pants, pants, pants, pants. See, it sounds funny. Christian culture, I presume, is going through something similar with the word "grace". We have some pithy definitions of it that are true but not full. We use it so often in church that many of us are inoculated to what is actually meant. For too many of us, including myself, the message of grace (the gospel) has been about me getting my sins forgiven, or it's primarily about my own psychological health, or being rid of my guilt, or not needing to try as hard to earn God's favor. That is grace to many of us. These are all good things, but I do not believe that these are truly the most gracious things that we receive. To be honest, in church, the word is just starting to sound funny. Pants, pants, pants.
     I have recently begun studying the gospel of John in my daily devotions. It's actually a new thing for me. I've always been a bible-in-a-year guy; which means my inner legalist is angry at me for changing the pattern. Regardless, John very clearly elaborates on the full meaning of the grace imparted to us in John 1.

16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

       John is drawing this distinction between what Moses brought and what 

Jesus has brought. Moses brought the law, Jesus brought grace. Out of Jesus' fullness, John says, we have received "grace upon grace", or "blessing upon blessing". Really the NIV does best on this one as it is written above, that basically Jesus gives so much grace that it is piling up on top of other grace. Like when a popcorn machine is making so much popcorn that it starts pouring out onto the ground. That is pretty awesome!  That is how God dispenses grace.
       But then John closes this section of scripture by explaining to us what this grace contains. In Jesus' arrival on earth, in His coming, and living, and dying, and resurrecting, Jesus revealed God to us in a way that was impossible to ever know Him before. Jesus gave us the opportunity to actually know God! He revealed Him to us. By Jesus dying and resurrecting, He provided the path through which we may actually come to know God. Yes, sins are forgiven, no you don't have to continue to try to earn God's favor, yes you can become psychologically whole - but all of those things occur when we truly embrace and know God.  The end of the cross and tomb is not just your sins forgiven, or your mental health, the end of the cross and tomb is that you get to know God. That is why Jesus came. That you might know Him.  That is grace. And that could never sound funny, and we could never get tired of saying it.

First Prayer Letter

Check out our first missionary Prayer Letter by clicking on the link below.

Burkholder Prayer Letter

Guatemala 2012

Guatemala 2012, a set on Flickr.

Some pictures from our current trip to Guatemala.