Red Town 2013... A Movimiento of change in Zapopan, Jalisco...

Mix a group of dedicated leaders, kickin’ music and a desire to do something real for God along with about 60 people under 30, shake it all together in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico and you’ve got the real life organic church plant Red Town Movement.

The dream of brothers Albert, Marlon and their sister Rebeca Corona, Red Town is almost everything the established evangelical church in Mexico is not.  And that is why it just might succeed where other attempts to build a movement have fizzled.

I had the opportunity to spend time with Albert and Marlon this week while I was in the Guadalajara area.  I have known and served with them and their family for many years, but this was my first chance to see their vision fully developed.

If you want your church experience on Sunday morning to be controlled, sedate, include an offering and sing either hymns or the popular praise songs offered up on most Christian radio stations, this place is not for you.  

Starting at 6:00 on Saturday evening, the last work day of the week for Mexico, the group begins arriving about 5:30.  As they catch up with each other, a buzz of anticipation starts to fill the room.  Once the clock hits 6:10, there’s an opening prayer and then the band takes off.

That’s the cue for the party to begin.  Soon everyone is on their feet dancing, singing and moving about in what can only be described as a wild church rave scene.  On it goes as they church gives their all in worship to the savior.

And then, as quickly as it all began, it stops for the evening message.  I got a little break this week as they gave a quick wrap up of a recently completed camp before I took the stage, wondering what I could to say to a group of people united in Christ and a desire to be a different expression of Jesus love in a hurting world.

After my message we finished up with a couple more songs and then it was time for dinner.  Piling into cars, about 25 of us headed to a local restaurant to continue the party.

It was there that I heard how they reach out to new people.  Prayer!  Everyday at 5:30 in the morning a group of the members of this church get together with their leaders to pray for Red Town and their work.

The restaurant table is also where I heard some of the people sharing about jesus with someone who had come that night for the first time.  Contrary to what a lot of people think here in Mexico, these young people pulled no punches in their sharing. 

What are my takeaways?  I’ve got a few.

• This is as organic as it gets here in Mexico.  Red Town was dreamed of by a group of people tired of seeing their friends and others of their generation leave the church.  They got tired of being told they could not do church as they wanted and decided to give it a try on their own, so they rented a big house and got busy.

• It’s loud, active and not for everyone, and that’s okay.  I am not sure every church family is for everyone.  The diversity of the body of Christ is what one of the greatest things about the church.

• Discipleship is a strong core value of Red Town.  They’ve developed materials that are culturally and contextually suited for the group they are targeting.  But more important, they are theologically sound.  No cheap grace here.

• If the established church in Mexico, and elsewhere I suspect, really wants to connect with the next generation, they need to consider what Red Town is doing.  

In closing, I wonder if Red Town will survive for the long haul.  Many efforts like this are strong for a few years and then struggle to re-envision the ministry as the founders, or leaders age and grow into different people.  This is the question many church plants face... will they continue to evolve to attract new generations, or will they grow old and die with the founding generation.

I hope Red Town chooses the former, scary as it can be.  But until they reach that point, I’ll be content to visit and be part of this exciting ministry as much as I can when I am in Guadalajara.

Please be praying for the leaders, Albert, Marlon and Rebeca, their ministry and their outreach in Zapopan, part of the greater Guadalajara area. 

Here's a short video with Albert and Marlon sharing their vision...

Practical Love in a Suspicious World... living Paul's words out loud!

Dios es Amor Summer Camp 2013

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. 13:1

Thank you Paul, those are great words, but just what exactly do they mean in the real world?

That is the question many in the mission community are struggling to deal with as churches work to better connect with people in their communities, be they in Las Vegas, China or Mexico, where I serve.

It used to be that evangelism and showing love was understood as knocking on someone’s door and sharing the Gospel with them.  Whether that was through a program like Evangelism Explosion and their 2 important questions or a sharing of one of the famous Chick Tracts, saving someone from hell was seen as the ultimate expression of love.

Now we are seeing a different view as people strive to give their love a practical expression that was often missing in the types of encounters mentioned above.  One of the churches I work with, Dios es Amor [God is Love Church] in Ensenada is doing a good job with this.

8 years ago we helped this church, known locally as IDBEA, realize a dream of having an overnight camp for the children of the community around their church.  I remember the staff feeling overwhelmed at the thought of taking care of meals and programming for the 15 kids we had back then.

Now that little idea has morphed into a month long day camp that has almost 100 kids in attendance from 7:30 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon.  And this year we kicked off the month with a 2-night camp that was attended by over 75 kids from the local community.

You want to talk about love?  Hugs, games, exercise, good food, field trips, laughing, crying, caring adults and young people helping all contribute to an atmosphere that oozes love and compassion for the families of this little corner of God’s world in Ensenada.

What is even better is that everything that happens at this day camp is a result of the family of God saying to the community that we love you and we want to be a part of your lives.

Critics call it a social Gospel approach that seldom yields people praying the prayer, as if that is our sole hoped for response.

I call this approach, especially in a society that is wary of Christianity, earning the right to be heard.

You see, where I serve, the evangelical church does not have a very good reputation.  People are suspicious of us, sometimes rightfully so.  Communities have been split, families destroyed and relationships abandoned.  What’s worse, these results are somehow celebrated in the evangelical church as evidence of a “true” relationship with a loving God.

I’ll admit, this approach is not for everyone.  IBDEA has lost some members because they are not more aggressive in trying to get kids to pray the prayer to accept Jesus.  And like a lot of churches that try this type of ministry, the change into a fully devoted follower of Jesus can at times, be painstakingly slow.

But it is happening. 

I’ve watched some of those kids who came to our first camp take leadership positions as they’ve grown and we are seeing families get connected to IBDEA because of this vital ministry.  I’ve also seen the community respond and offer to help in ways unimaginable just a few years ago because they see the church as a valuable asset to the colonia.

There is still much to be done. 

IBDEA has to think strategically about how to better integrate camp participants into the daily life of the church and they need to continue their work towards financial self-sufficiency, but those will come.

Right now they are focused on living out the love of Jesus in real and practical ways here in Ensenada... just as the Apostle Paul would have wanted.

Missional? Yes! Missionary? Maybe Not... despite the rhetoric, not everyone is called to be a missionary...

Being a missionary is hard work.

Maybe that’s why not everyone is not called to be a missionary.

Please hear me out on this before you dismiss me as not knowing what I am talking about or as someone who is going to undermine your preaching that we are all called to go, evangelize and make disciples of all the nations.

I believe that everyone in the Kingdom is called to be missional in this great world of ours.  It is my sincere belief that God has set apart the church, in whatever way you understand it, to be living examples of His hands, His feet, and His skin.  All of us are called to be about Christian relationship, community and love in this broken world
where we live.

However, that does not mean everyone is called to be the ends of the earth kind of person that leaves his or her home, gets on a plane and travels to some f
ar off land to proclaim this truths to other cultures.

I have served in Mexico for over 20 years.  For those of you who are not aware, Mexico has historically served as some sort of gateway mission drug for the US church.  Since Carolyn Koons of Azusa Pacific University essentially jump started the short-term mission industry almost 50 years ago, millions of people from the United States have gone to our neighbor south of the border on mission to help “evangelize” people.

I was one of those millions and a little over 20 years ago, I Co-founded an organization called Adventures in Life to facilitate short-term work in Mexico.  Like many back in the day, I got my first taste of what I thought was being a missionary in Baja California.  Our ministry also started just north of Ensenada, in a little area called La Misión.

Over those 20 years I have become pretty good at navigating the local culture, proudly feeling comfortable moving from one part of the country to another.  It did not matter if I was enjoying a fish taco with friends in Ensenada or building a greenhouse with my Christian brothers in Oaxaca, I was at peace and content.  Frequently I have been told, by Christians and non-Christians alike that alongside my love for Christ, I had the heart and soul of a Mexicano.

One night recently I found myself on a road to a new area of Oaxaca.  I did not choose this area, rather God sent me there, using some respected ministry partners to issue that call.

After a long ride, we arrived late in the city of Tlaxiaco, tired and hungry.  When we called our hosts for the week, we were told where to meet and soon found ourselves seated in a blue painted taco stand.  As plate after plate of food was being brought to the table, Roberto, our host, told us to eat, that the food was not simply there to be admired.

The extrañeros with me, one a Christian from another area of Oaxaca and Brother Joe Ramirez from San Diego were digging it.  Great food, new friends and lots of stories to share and to hear.  As relationships were reignited my mind started to race.

How would the average short-term missionary enter into this area.  Some of the best people who have ever served with me would have struggled that night.  None of our hosts were Christians.  We had mountains of deep fried food, and when I say deep fried, I mean in lard.  Not that 100% vegetable stuff we use in the states. Fat... and when we finished the fried food, the grilled tacos arrived.  That great Oaxacan cheese mixed with mushrooms and jalapenos, topped with a smoking hot habañero chile salsa and then the classic flor de calabaza.  All of that was wonderful, and a sort of a prelude to what was next.

Tacos de sesos.  Cow brains.  Served just for you by people who are watching your every move.  And that’s when I was reminded that being a missionary is hard and that not everyone is called, equipped, or ready to be a missionary to another culture, in spite of all the books and literature out there saying otherwise.

Things like your ability, or even desire to relate to non-Christians on their turf suddenly come into play in this type of setting.  Is the missionary versed enough in the culture to even carry on a conversation about secular stuff like economics, education and politics with locals?  Is he or she aware enough to pick up on social cues as they are being offered on how to eat and act around the table?  Is it possible to look at a plate of food you’ve never eaten, not frown or look disgusted and take it all in without a clue that you are scared stiff at the prospect of eating the brains of a cow or a bowl of pork skin soup and chile?

Have you thought about how to not run from your faith when you are confronted with some of the ugly realities of previous missionary outreaches to the very people with whom you are sharing a meal?  Do you have the skills to navigate a conservation that can be very critical of your home country and do it in a way that allows a budding relationship to continue?  Can you decline a shot of tequila, or scotch or vodka, depending on where you are serving in a way that does not offend your host?  Or perhaps even more difficult, can you drink a shot of mezcal or a glass of wine that is served for you by your hosts and newfound friends?

These are the questions that have been coursing through my veins the last couple of weeks as I have struggled to reflect on the rhythm, culture and ethos of this new place where I am serving.

Yet there is another question that is also dogging me and that question is this.  Given the reality of the above types of situations, is there a role for short-term mission work in the life of the long-term missionary?

I believe that there is, but only if we are willing to acknowledge and accept certain realities and make some changes in our approach.

The first place we need to start is with the sober realization that not everyone is called to be a missionary.  I know this goes against the current rage that we are all missionaries, but hear me out.  We are all called to be missional in our approach, but not everyone is called, or gifted to be a “ends of the earth” missionary person.

Here’s what I mean.  As you live your life day in and day out in your normal sphere of influence, you need to be living Christ out in an incarnational way that draws people to the Kingdom.  It needs to be part of who you are and how you live your life, where you are planted.  So what I am talking about here is being living witnesses for Jesus in your school, work, house and neighborhood.

For me, when I speak of being missional, I am talking generally of how we relate to and serve others in the name of Christ where we spend 90% of our lives or to put it bluntly, our home country.

When I speak of being a missionary, I am talking about getting on a plane and crossing borders of culture, geography, language and understanding.  I am talking about someone who essentially lives within the culture to where he or she has been sent. Naturally, there are exceptions to these broad strokes, but that is how I see things.

It is this reality, that not everyone is called to the “ends of earth,” that has led me to conclude that while short-term mission [STM] should certainly be in the tool box for any long-term missionary, most people on these mission experiences are simply not equipped to be incarnational on the foreign mission field.

Missions is hard.  Being a missionary is hard, requiring a skill set few young people with no cross cultural training will ever have.  Short-term mission participants are by their very definition, only in a country for a few days or months.  This is hardly enough time to get their feet wet, let alone begin the laborious process of assimilating into another culture.

Should we abandon short-term mission in favor of an approach solely tilted to long-term work?  Only at our peril because I believe that short-termers do indeed bring many needed assets to the work of the log-term missionary.  But we must live in reality and make sure we are not expecting more from short-term work than it is realistically able to give, or do.

What are your thoughts?