The Wright View of Salvation

Two years ago I picked up N.T. Wright's controversial book, Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. I read through it in preparation for Easter. Since then I've reread many chapters within it, there is much to absorb and contend with.

Essentially Wright is picking apart the common Western Christianity assumptions about salvation, heaven, and the role of the church by comparing it to the writings of the New Testament authors (and the Old Testament ones as well). A main point of contention: what is the Christian hope? Is it that I can go to heaven when I die? Or is it that I will be resurrected and live in the New Heavens and New Earth? This is not two ways of saying the same thing, either.

This theological conversation may strike you as uninteresting or picky or irrelevant. That's okay. I'm going to write down for my sake some of the paragraphs from chapter twelve: Rethinking Salvation - Heaven, Earth, and the Kingdom of God, which initiates part three of the book: Hope in Practice: Resurrection and the Mission of the Church.

We have now reached the point where we must ask: So what? Is all this talk about God's ultimate future, about "life after life after death," simply a matter of tidying up our beliefs about what will happen in the very end, or does it have any practical consequences here and now?

What I want to do is to show what the New Testament says by way of answer to the question, What's the resurrection of Jesus got to do with anything else? and to point to some conclusions from this for the life of the church and of Christians today.

Jesus' bodily resurrection marks a watershed. It may look like only a few steps this way or that to move from one side to the other, but if you accept the bodily resurrection of Jesus, all the streams flow in one direction, and if you don't they all flow in the other direction.

And, to put it kindly but bluntly, if you go in the other direction, away from the bodily resurrection, you may be left with something that looks a bit like Christianity, but it won' be what the New Testament writers were talking about.

Mostly, Jesus got himself a hearing from his contemporaries because of what he was doing. They saw him saving people from sickness and death, and they heard him talking about a salvation, the message for which they had longed, that would go beyond the immediate into the ultimate future. But the two were not unrelated, the present one a mere visual aid of the future one or a trick to gain people's attention.

The whole point of what Jesus was up to was that he was doing, close up, in the present, what he was promising long-term, in the future. And what he was promising for that future, and doing in that present, was not saving souls for a disembodied eternity, but rescuing people from the corruption and decay of the way the world presently is so they could enjoy, already in the present, that renewal of creation which is God's ultimate purpose - and so they could become colleagues and partners in that larger project.

How does believing in the future resurrection lead to getting on with the work in the present? Quite straight-forwardly. The point of the resurrection, as Paul has been arguing throughout the letter, is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die. God will raise it to new life. What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it.

Mention salvation, and almost all Western Christians assume that you mean going to heaven when you die. But a moment's though, in the light of all we have said so far, reveals that this simply cannot be right. Salvation means, of course, rescue. But what are we ultimately to be rescued from? The obvious answer is death. but if, when we die, all that happens is that our bodies decompose while our souls go on elsewhere, this doesn't mean we've been rescued from death. It simply means that we've died.

As long as we see salvation in terms of going to heaven when we die, the main work of the church is bound to be seen in terms of saving souls for that future. But when we see salvation, as the New Testament sees it, in terms of God's promised new heavens and new earth and of our promised resurrection to share in that new and gloriously embodied reality - what I have called life after life after death - then the main work of the church here and now demands to be rethought in consequence.

Salvation, then, is not "going to heaven" but "being raised to life in God's new heaven and new earth."

For the first Christians, the ultimate salvation was all about God's new world, and the point of what Jesus and the apostles were doing when they were healing people or being rescued from shipwreck or whatever was that this was a proper anticipation of the ultimate salvation, that healing transformation of space, time, and matter.

The future rescue that God had planned and promised was starting to come true in the present. We are saved not as souls, but as wholes.

The point is this. When God saves people in this life, by working through his Spirit to bring them to faith and by leading them to follow Jesus in discipleship, prayer, holiness, hope, and love, such people are designed - it isn't too strong a word - to be a sign and foretaste of what God wants to do for the entire cosmos.

What's more, such people are not just to be a sign and foretaste of that ultimate salvation; they are to be part of the means by which God makes this happen in both the present and the future.

In other words - to sum up where we've to so far - the work of salvation, in its full sense, is (1) about whole human beings, not merely souls; (2) about the present, not simply the future; and (3) about what God does through us, not merely what God does in and for us. If we can get this straight, we will rediscover the historic basis for the full-orbed mission of the church.

We have seen at several points in this book that the normal Christian understanding of kingdom, especially of kingdom of heaven, is simply mistaken. "God's kingdom" and "kingdom of heaven" mean the same thing: the sovereign rule of God, which according to Jesus was and is breaking in to the present world, to earth. That is what Jesus taught us to pray for.

This, as we have seen, is what the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit is all about. They are designed not to take us away from this earth but rather to make us agents of the transformation of this earth, anticipating the day when, as we are promised, "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

When the risen Jesus appears to his followers at the end of Matthew's gospel, he declares that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. When John the Seer hears the thundering voices in heaven, they are singing, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

And the point of the gospels - of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John together with Acts - is that this has already begun.

But underneath that again, when we stand back, is the meaning of God's kingdom, to which the hope of Israel was designed to contribute - or, to put it another way, the meaning because of which God called Israel in the first place. Faced with his beautiful and powerful creation in rebellion, God longed to set it right, to rescue it from continuing corruption and impending chaos and to bring it back into order and fruitfulness.

God longed, in other words, to reestablish his wise sovereignty over the whole creation, which would mean a great act of healing and rescue. He did not want to rescue humans from creation any more than he wanted to rescue Israel from the Gentiles. He wanted to rescue Israel in order that Israel might be a light to the Gentiles, and he wanted thereby to rescue humans in order that humans might be his rescuing stewards over creation.

That is the inner dynamic of the kingdom of God.

But when we reintegrate what should never have been separated - the kingdom-inaugurating public work of Jesus and his redemptive death and resurrection - we find that the gospels tell a different story. It isn't just a story of some splendid and exciting social work with an unhappy conclusion. Nor is it just a story of an atoning death with an extended introduction. It is something much bigger than the sum of those two diminished perspectives.

It is the story of God's kingdom being launched on earth as in heaven, generating a new state of affairs in which the power of evil has been decisively defeated, the new creation has been decisively launched, and Jesus's followers have been commissioned and equipped to put that victory and that inaugurated new world into practice.

Atonement, redemption, and salvation are what happen on the way because engaging in this work demands that people themselves be rescued from the powers that enslave the world in order that they can in turn be rescuers To put it another way, if you want to help inaugurate God's kingdom, you must follow in the way of the cross, and if you want to benefit from Jesus's saving death, you must become part of his kingdom project.

Heaven's rule, God's rule, is thus to be put into practice in the world, resulting in salvation in both the present and the future, a salvation that is both for humans and, through saved humans, for the wider world. This is the solid basis for the mission of the church.

With these excerpts, I've highlighted thoughts I found to be intriguing, provocative, and illuminating. They have been helpful to me in digging through Scriptures again, putting pieces together, seeking clarity in my understanding of salvation, the kingdom of God, and the work of the church in the world.

Church, Community, and the Court System

What's it take to make a neighborhood a better place to live? Lots.

It takes all sort of key people within the community to care, to collaborate together, and to be helpful. The churches in a neighborhood ought to be the most obvious place for this kind of helpful, collaborate care. Well, that's the attitude that Anchor has, along with a bunch of churches in our neighborhood.

I have to say, I was very, very, very proud of Anchor - nineteen of us showed up for the first of four meetings with Judge Charles Pratt and our neighborhood churches. We're meeting together to learn more about how Judge Pratt's Family Court operates, as well as how the court system works for juveniles and adults. By learning how the courts work, we better learn what role the church can play - to be helpful to the courts and to the community.

Our church is becoming home to more and more individuals and families that are currently dealing with the courts and/or prisons. Or it's a part of their past, and is still yet affecting their life. As the church embraces and disciples more people with this stuff going on in their life, more and more wisdom is needed to be more and more helpful.

It's an honor to have Judge Pratt so eagerly partner with our coalition of neighborhood churches, to instruct us and invest in us. And we are eager to help him be more effective as a judge.

Yesterday First Mennonite Church hosted our meetings, led by Pastor Peter Janzen. Judge Pratt introduced us (some of us for the second or third time...) to the 40 Assets, a key component to helping families actually change for the good. He then walked us through a case study of a little girl who was allegedly molested by her father. Judge Pratt explained how his court worked, how DCS gets involved, how foster care gets involved, and how different decisions by the parents create different potential outcomes. Sad and fascinating stuff.

It's important for churches to be emotionally supportive of families involved with DCS, but to not enable them, or to nurture any kind of disregard for DCS. There are many sides to one story, and it's always wise to accumulate facts before making decisions to "help."

Next week Dr. Steve Cain of Trinity United Methodist is hosting, then Anchor, and then Rev. Laura Sherwood of Grace Presbyterian. Rev. Hal Thomas of Faith United Presbyterian is also involved. Rev. Dave Altman and North Highlands Church of Christ, Rev. Larry Maddox of Three Rivers Wesleyan, and Rev. Don Sandman of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran are also interested and involved in our coalition, willing to find ways to help make our neighborhood a better place to live.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

This is the kind of work we are doing. The Same Spirit that was on Jesus is at work within and amongst us. As churches, we want to be good news to the neighborhood. We're getting there...

Anchor's Neighborhood CleanUp Day

Anchor had a lot of fun cleaning up the alley that runs behind our church. We partnered with the city of Fort Wayne and the Great American CleanUp that they sponsor on May 16th (the third Monday of May every year). The city will mobilize hundreds and hundreds of volunteers to clean up parks, alleys, riverbanks and streets on that Saturday. It didn't work out for us to volunteer on that day, but the program will include anybody that volunteers for a project in the month of May. Through the city and their cleanup project Waste Management delivered for free a huge dumpster for us to use. We filled it in a couple of hours, and we only cleaned up half the alley.

Not only did we partner with the city and the Great American CleanUp, but we also partnered with NeighborLink FW. They help connect people with a need with people who can meet that need. Anchor has committed to trying to meet the needs of anyone from our zipcode that posts a need on NeighborLink. On Saturday we tackled one of the projects in our zipcode. We got the yard cleaned up, but we still have a few more projects on the house to complete.

If you want to see some more pictures, you can visit the Anchor blog or see Steve Dennie's Facebook page.

The Way of Anchor and Newbigin's Thoughts - Part Four

Newbigin applies his missionary experience gained during his decades in India to the ministry experiences of Christians in the neighborhoods where they live. In chapter 18 of his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, he asserts that the only interpretation "of the gospel is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it." He comments that, "Jesus did not write a book but formed a community."

He goes on to describe six characteristics of this kind of community that believes Jesus and lives by his words and deeds. The first one I wrote about in a prior post: it is a community of praise and thanksgiving, the second characteristic: it will be a community of truth.

The third: "it will be a community that does not live for itself but is deeply involved in the concerns of its neighborhood."

There is a danger for a local gathering of believers (aka "church") to fall into one of two dangers: they become too focused on living for themselves and view the neighborhood as an obstacle to their growth, or view the neighborhood as a potential customer to fuel their growth; either way the neighborhood is viewed through the lens of a church living for itself. The other danger is that the local church becomes so identified with the needs of the neighborhood that they abandon their faith in God for values and practices of their surrounding culture; they buy into the strategies and slogans of the powerbrokers and dry up their spiritual roots.

What "if the local congregation is not perceived in its own neighborhood as the place from wich good news overflows in action...?"

Anchor is a diverse church according to age, socioeconomic status, education, gender, family stage, and cultural peferences; we have over twenty zipcodes represented in our church directory of almost ninety family units. Which neighborhood does Anchor focus on? For awhile we focused heavily on the neighborhood in which our facility is located. We are glad to have ministered to so many of our neighbhors, but we realized we were neglecting all the other neighhborhoods where our people lived. How to think of the neighbhorhood where our facility is located and the neighborhood where our church (aka fellow believers) are located?

Here's how I think of it: the neighborhood in which our facility is located should be blessed as a result of almost a hundred families gathering each week for worship and service in that location week after week, year after year. There should be an overflow of grace that spills out of what occurs in our facility into the homes surrounding our "house of God", just as one would envision the twenty other zipcodes having neighborhoods being blessed by the homes of believers who worhip and serve where they live and work and play and learn and shop. The emphasis is not so much on which neighborhood should we focus on, but how do we help each believer focus on the neighborhood in which they spend their lives and have concerns and plan for a better future.

Anchorites should look around their neighborhood and ask God to help them see with his eyes, and then ask Him to give them the energy to work and walk with His hands and feet, so that we can fulfill his promises for the Ones He Loves where we live. God has placed us amongst people that he wants to rescue and restore and reconcile to Himself and One Another, and he does that through his followers who live in a neighborhood.

Who Is A Disciple?

Anchor has been refocusing on the vision Jesus set out for his Eleven Apostles: "go into your world and make more disciples." - Matthew 28:19 Here's the thing though, the more I delve into the actual words and practice of Jesus, and the closer I examine the recorded praxis of the early church, the more I am uncertain of who is a disciple according to modern standards.

Dallas Willard has written hundreds and hundreds of pages on the idea of being a disciple according to the praxis (implementation of ideas into action) of Jesus. On one level, what he writes is inspiring:
"Jesus is actually looking for people he can trust with his power. He knows that otherwise we remain largely helpless in the face of the organized and disorganized evils around us, and that we are unable - given his chosen strategy - to promote his will for good in this world with adequate power." - pg 16, The Great Omission.

He ends the chapter with this fascinating insight:
"But someone will say, can I not be 'saved' - that is, get into heaven when I die-without any of this (being a constant student of Jesus)? Perhaps you can. God's goodness is so great, I am sure that He will let you in if He can find any basis at all to do so. But you might wish to think about what your life amounts to before you die, about what kind of person you are becoming, and about whether you really would be comfortable for eternity in the presence of One whose company you have not found especially desirable for the few hours and days of your earthly existence. And He is, afer all, One who says to you now, 'Follow me!'" - pg 17

I like what Willard writes, but it is difficult for me to see how it plays out in the normal life of the normal Christian that I know and see in the world around me. The kind of focus, intensity, and commitment that Willard implies is necessary for the disciple to put forth as a response to the invitation of Jesus to follow him, well it seems overwhelming and extremely scarce. Not only in my modern times, but also within the pages of the New Testament, and Hebrew Scriptures for that matter. Being faithful to God on the kind of level that Willard outlines seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

In the Hebrew Scriptures it was the rare man and woman who was Torah observant; Israel was decimated in 722BC and Judah was deported in 586BC for their lack of commitment and love - and these are the people whom God dwelt amongst in a might way. In the Gospels the disciples commonly misunderstand the teachings and actions of Jesus; many of them walk away from him in the hard times, and the Twelve abandon him at the End. In the Epistles it seems that a few men are greatly skilled in making disciples and living out the way of Jesus, but the disciples they make usually stray soon after the leader has left. So is what Jesus calls forth, is what Paul calls forth, is what Dallas Willard calls forth the ideal for which we strive, but reality reveals that all will fall short - so therefore...what?

The reality of discipleship for most people who actually publically affirm belief in him (which is a minority of the population anyway) is that they barely have time for "church-stuff" in the midst of their regular life. They barely have time for reading Scripture, praying, or confessing sins. They try to do what is good and right in their own eyes, they confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, and they participate in church at some level. And always there are people around (the famed "20%") who are more devoted, more comitted, more spiritual, more observant, more etc. Are they the ideal, or is everybody different, is it just personality?

Who is a disciple? Is it only the one who constantly integrates all the teachings of Jesus into every fabric of his life? Or can a disciple also be the one who confesses with their mouth that Jesus is LORD and believed that God raised him from the dead; and then requests forgiveness when they sin and try to live as good as life as they can. What is someone if they have not completely integrated all the teachings of Jesus into every fabric of their life? Willard, Paul, and Jesus make it sound like the cost is high, the commitment 100%; but what are you before you get to 100%? How long are you allowed to take? What if you are not 100% committed when you die?

Maybe these are arcane questions, but the closer I look at the details of discipleship in the Scriptures, the less clear I am on who is a disciple. Willard adds great insights, Paul has good stuff to say, and Jesus' teachings are essential, but an initial read doesn't clear things up. So Who is a Disciple?

Anchor's Vision: To Make Disciples Who Make Disciples...

Nine years ago we held our first worship service as Anchor Community Church. Today is our anniversary, a good day for reflection; these are also good days for refocusing.

I was 23 when we started Anchor. I turn 33 in a couple of weeks. Anchor is such a different church, and I feel like I am a different pastor.

Plenty of people had lots of confidence in me to lead Anchor into existence and into the future, unfortunately I lost most of mine about a year into it, maybe less. A couple of weeks ago the confidence began to return.

What changed? For the first time I feel peace about our vision/purpose/mission/direction. I feel like it's something that we can really own as a congregation, that I can pour energies into without constant reservations about whether it is the right direction for us, whether it will bear fruit, whether it is sustainable, etc.

Not that our focus on making disciples is a totally new idea for us, I think most everybody would say that we have always had an interest in making disciples. But in my perspective, it was not something that we embraced as a church and committed ourselves to as a group. I do feel that our church is gaining momentum in committing wholeheartedly to making disciples.

We still need to work out our understanding of a disicple and how we will make those disciples; not that we have no idea, but we need to work through it together so that we have ownership together and can then commit together.

Some ideas that I hold strongly:
* being a disciple of Jesus is a way of life - an intertwining of orthodoxy and orthopraxy (right belief and right actions).
* part of being a disciple of Jesus is helping others be a disciple of Jesus- either becoming one for the first time, or helping them mature as a disciple.
* being a disciple of Jesus is mostly about doing and saying and believing what Jesus would say/do/believe if he were me as I go about my regular life in my home, in my career/vocation/job, in my school, my church, etc.
* being a disciple of Jesus is not primarily about worshiping each week in a local sanctuary, of being in a small group, of reading the Bible everyday.
* being a disciple of Jesus is not something that I can be/do by myself, it must be lived out with others; just as I must be helping another be a disciple of Jesus, I must be letting someone else help me be a disciple of Jesus, and I must be around others who are doing this as well.
* being a disciple of Jesus is something He calls us into; He calls through His Spirit, through Creation, through His Word, through fellow Humans and Disciples.
* making a disciple of Jesus is not meant to conjure up notions of industrial manufacturing, but rather of helping the people in your life who are responsive to Jesus to take their next step with him - which requires the need for understanding, of patience, of authenticity, of gentleness, of truth, wisdom, etc. We make disciples by helping people learn to trust Jesus with their whole life; this is not something done in a one-day seminar or a thirteen week program, it is done during the weeks and years that you go alongside them in their life.
* being a disciple of Jesus is for everyone who wants it, it is not best done by trained professionals, by over-educated theologians, or highly-committed moralists; the way of life that Jesus calls his disciples into can be done by anyone, since the only way anyone can live it out is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, how does Anchor go about being a "church" as we help one another be the kind of disciples that Jesus calls/commands us to be?

That's what we have to work out together...

So You Want to Become a Christian?

There is an interesting blogpost at Out of Ur about the consequences of our Gospel presentation upon the life of our church in our culture. Scot McKnight, theologian, blogger (Jesus Creed), and writer, has thought deeply about what is written in the Scriptures about becoming a Christian and living Christianly. In the blogpost he contrasts two forms of "Gospel Presentation"; what people "sign up for" when they become Christians often profoundly shapes what the rest of their Christian life is like. Thus, if you want a robust Christian life, one needs to consider what kind of Gospel is initially offered to them.

Below is an extended quote from the Out of Ur blogpost concerning this issue:

"Scot McKnight summarized the “Standard Gospel Presentation” this way:
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Your problem is that you are sinful; God can’t admit sinners into his presence.
Jesus died for you to deal with your “sin-problem.”
If you trust in Christ, you can be admitted into God’s presence.

"He went on to say that the problems with this popular evangelical gospel include:
1. No one in the New Testament really preaches this gospel.
2. This gospel is about one thing: humans gaining access to God’s presence.
3. This gospel creates an individualist Christian life.
4. This gospel sets the tone for the entire evangelical movement.
5. This gospel leads to spiritual formation being entirely about “me and God.”
6. The evangelical gospel has created a need for evangelical monasteries.
7. The evangelical gospels turns the local church into a volunteer society that is unnecessary.
8. The evangelical gospel is rooted in Theism or Deism, but not the Trinity.

"In contrast to this anemic gospel, McKnight believes a more accurate and “robust” gospel presentation would include the following features:
1. A robust gospel cannot be “tractified” (meaning, reduced to a formula).
2. God made you as an eikon (Greek for “image”) to relate in love to God, to self, to others, and to the world.
3. The “fall” cracked the eikon in all directions.
4. Bible readers cannot skip from Genesis 3 to Romans 3.
5. Genesis 4-11 reveals the “problem” of sin: the climax is a society of eikons trying to build their way to God.
6. Genesis 12 begins to restore the eikon by a covenantal commitment and forming the family of faith. The rest of the Bible is about this elected family of faith.
7. The “problem” is finally resolved in “four atoning moments”: the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
8. The “locus” of resolution is the family of faith: three big words in the Bible that describe this family of faith are Israel, the Kingdom, and the Church.

As I reflected on this article, I was particularly struck by Problem #7 "The evangelical gospel turns the local church into a volunteer society that is unecessary." Lately I've been wondering about the point of the church gathering on Sundays, of recruiting volunteers to serve during these and other church gatherings...does it matter if people do this stuff? What about all the other people who have gifts and desires to serve Jesus - but who aren't a good fit for Sunday School, ushers, greeters, music stuff, mowing, and general event volunteer opportunities. Even if people do all of that stuff, does it really matter? Does it matter why people do that stuff, or just that they do it? Does it matter how they do it, or just that it gets done? I think of our regular Sunday gatherings and often despair: not that our gathering is a painful experience, but rather that something significant is not embraced by most of those gathered. There is little sense of how gathering together is essential to the ongoing following of Jesus Christ in everyday life. Some get it, but even then it is amongst a distraction of duties on Sunday morning.

The line in the nineties used to be "unchurched"; if you were unchurched, the goal was to get you churched. Thus we redesigned the purpose and activities of churches to get the unchurched involved in events, tasks, programs and experiences. But becoming churched did not necessarily mean becoming a Christ-follower. It could, but not in most cases. From my perspective, I'm not that impressed with churches as an institution; I know they have a role in the kingdom of God and in our culture. But when it comes to Jesus-followers gathering together as part of their following of Jesus, I'm just not convinced that what we do on Sunday morning contributes to that sense.

I'm striving to find words for what I sense; I'm striving to understand what I'm being led towards. The New Testament word for church is ekklesia; of which the common translation was often "assembly" or "gathering". For obvious reasons, the ekklesia of God has become primarily understood as an institution; but at its heart, the ekklesia of God in Jesus is about people devoted to the apostles teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer; to providing awesome miracles and meeting the needs of all. Obviously if people organize themselves to better live out this kind of life, their is an institutional determinism that results.

But rather than focus on the virtues or vices of institutionalism, I think it is more fruitful to focus on the Scriptures Gospel Presentation: what is Jesus proclaiming to us, and how do we proclaim it for our culture? Institutions that get God's Gospel right are powerful; local gatherings of Jesus-followers who get God's Gospel are potent. I want Anchor, our ekklesia, to get God's Gospel.

Anna's Update

Anchor is glad to support Anna Geivett in her mission work through Food for the Hungry in the South American country of Peru. She is a UB sponsored missionworker, and comes out of Emmanuel Community Church (so did Anchor)! Recently she sent her friends an update following a Huntington University (her and my alma mater!) team's missiontrip, it included this piece:

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The members of the Huntington team greatly encouraged our promoter within this particular community (Betty). Food for the Hungry has a promoter in each community that focuses on building relationships, discipleship , offering a variety of programs, meeting with and training mother leaders and community. Through the team, Betty was given a fresh enthusiasm for her community and her daily work (which at times feels discouraging and unsuccessful). We always pray that teams will be an encouragement to our staff and we saw that occur in Betty’s case. It’s been a few weeks since the team has left and she’s still talking about them.

This community is truly embracing the Vision of a Community that Food for the Hungry desires to see accomplished. Leaders are serving their people, men are becoming more actively involved in the community and initiating prayer, and families are working together to see their community progress beyond meeting their basic needs. They have vision for a better life. They have a vision for the future of their children and community.
****

Anna is a team coordinator for groups like HU students. She is a vital link between those called to do mission work, and those communities that could use some loving. Anchor supports Anna along with the other churches in our cluster, it's neat to see what teams can do, and it is neat to see what Anna can do through teams. What Anna is working towards in her Peruvian neighborhood is similar to what we want to do in ours: serve, strengthen, save kids, youth and their families - in the name of Jesus. It's one of the reasons why we're so glad to be a support to Anna. If you would like to support Anna, let me know and I'll get you connected to her.

Vinh Phuc's Beauty & Tabbie's Blessing

Tabbie, one of the fantastic mission-teachers that Anchor loves and supports, sent out this letter and pictures. The pictures are beautiful and the description of the trip she took is fun. Being a mission-teacher in Vietnam requires courage, trust, and endurance...and Tabbie inspires me. It is hard to be immersed in mission, yet there are moments where it all comes together...and you just know that no matter the doubts, the fears, the wearisomeness, this is the right place.

Enjoy the story, enjoy the pics, and continue to cheer on Tabbie.

**********

I was invited a few weekends ago to go with one of my classes to Vinh Phuc, a small province south of my city.


It was a long and tiring day, but a gift from my students. I learned a lot about them, and a lot about my ability to walk six kilometers into His creation and back out into "normalcy" again. I came home and literally slept for the next 14 hours! It was that tiring of a day.

We woke up at 4:30 am, traveled by bus for three hours, walked literally all day, traveled back by bus for three hours, and arrived at our school gate at 8pm that night. What a day!

Add in the fact that I get car sick, and that I had to help carry another car sick girl up a mountain when we first arrived --- and you get mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted Tabbie! It was a great experience, and one I will never forget. However, probably one that I will never do again either ;)

Actually, I am taking a rather long day trip with that same class this weekend, but I don't have to go by bus. I get to go by bicycle this time, and not nearly as far. :)

So, the pictures attached are from the Vinh Phuc trip. I hope you enjoy them and you enjoyed this...update. I am thinking of you all, especially right now. Blessings to you!

A Note from Tabbie

Here's a note that one of our missionaries sent us. Tabbie serves in Vietnam teaching English. At the end of the note is some pics that she sent of herself with some friends.

If you don't currently support a missionary, and you think God is prompting you to do so, please contact me and I'll help you get set up to support Tabatha or one of our other four missionaries.

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Hey Tim,

Thanks for the words of encouragement. They really are appreciated. I learned recently that I feel the most loved when I have words of affirmation from those around me. Techniqually you aren't around me, but you get the idea ;)

Things to convey - There are really so many things I could say, but there are just four main points to express.

One - I am so thankful for the support that I already have from Anchor as a whole and from the individuals. My Anchor family has been with me from the beginning and has always been an encouragement.

Two - I am where I am called to be. He has put the people of VN on my heart, and it has only become more and more clear - the longer that I've stayed.

Three - I couldn't be here without His hand guiding me along the way. He is my reason for being.

Four - I need more people joining me and my vision to be here. VN doesn't know about Him, and that's the reason I'm here. I can only stay - if people join me and Him where He has placed me to be.

Thanks Tim. I also attached a few pics from over here. I titled them reasons - 'cause these are the people who have touched my heart and increased my desire to stay in this beautiful country I love so much. I hope you continue to have a blessed spring! I'll talk to you soon.

Blessings.

In Him,

Tabatha M. Lamb
Team Vietnam -- Thai Nguyen

(Please remember the Correspondence Guidelines when replying back to me)

A Tasty Soup Supper with our Presbyterian Neighbors

Sunday evening featured our third church hosting neighborhood congregations for tasty soup and plenty of great desserts - oh, and real warm hospitality as we get to know each other better. Grace Presbyterian on Fairhill Avenue hosted, and it was very enjoyable. I've not known many Presbyterians in my life, but Barb and her church are very likable folks with a wonderful committment to Jesus and blessing the neighborhood with the Gospel. It is refreshing to sup with believers of that calibre.

I walked away from the evening encouraged by their solid roots, but also impressed by their ongoing creativity and eagerness to partner with other churches, to reach their neighbors with the love of Jesus, and to have such a gracious spirit about them. Hence their name, I guess! Anchor will be a better church because of Grace, and I hope the relationship is mutual; and not only between our two churches, but all five churches involved. But this is not only for our sake, but for the sake of those who don't follow Jesus yet, for those that will get to know Him because of what He is doing amongst us and through us.

Here's some pics at Grace - mostly of some Anchorites!

Anchor and Money

Our church is not composed of many wealthy people. Though everybody has discretionary money, not many people consider themselves to be people of means. And I could take this as an excuse to not expect people to be generous. But I don't.

I am convinced that people at Anchor want to be generous, in fact many of them are - more than they realize.

Often people need a compelling cause, a specific need, towards which they can lavish their generosity. You would think that with all the non-profits out there, people would already be convinced of places/people to give towards. I heard today on NPR that the average American gives about 2% of their income to "charity"...I've heard that stat before, and apparently, when compared to the rest of the world, 2% is alot.

One time I guesstimated the level of giving at Anchor, and I think it settled somewhere around that number. But I keep inviting people to generosity. God doesn't call us to 2% giving. Nor 10%. He calls us to the kind of generosity that he pours out on us...!

And God keeps giving us really neat opportunities to be generous.

Our church is helping families and individuals get great Christian counseling. This is expensive ministry, but it has very rich rewards. But it takes money. Generous amounts.

We have five missionaries we support. And more possibly on the way. What a beautiful opportunity - all these missionaries are beautiful, engaging, Christ-following single women who have become apostles - "sent ones" for the sake of the Gospel - Macau, Azerbijian, Vietnam, Haiti, Peru - and possibly Uganda and Russia. And they need generous amounts of money to do their amazing ministry.

We have families in dire need for home repairs, car repairs, health needs and crisis help. And those responses, while requiring empathy, time and energy, also require money.

And Anchor could really benefit from hiring an Associate Pastor to really help care even more deeply for those in our neighborhood, helping more and more people follow Jesus and his Way of life. But that would take money.

Maybe Anchor should just accept the fact that we don't have much money at our disposal, and do ministry/life accordingly, live within our means.

But I have this strong sense that God is giving us opportunities to be sacrifically generous - in order that great things might be done by Him through us. And I know that I am resistant at times - too many times - at being sacrificial or generous. But there are those moments when I am - and others are - and we feel really really alive...like this is part of what is best about following Jesus.

Anchor has opportunities to help more people follow the way of Jesus - and our generous giving of money will reveal our trust in God, our compassion for our neighbor, and where are treasures are stacked up.

So where are your treasures, Tim?

Neighborhood Churches & A Soup Supper at Anchor

Tonight was a lot of fun.

Five neighborhood churches gathered together in our Fellowship Hall for a smorgasboard of soup and homemade bread, lots of chatter and making new friends, along with some good music and sharing of our Anchor story.

The five churches: Grace Presbyterian on Fairhill, First Mennonite on St. Mary's, North Highlands Church of Christ on Archer, and Trinity United Methodist on Putnam, along with us - Anchor on 3rd Street. We're doing a soup-circuit, traveling during five Sundays to each church, sampling their soups and enjoying their stories about their background, their denomination and their mission in the neighborhood.

I think about seventy-five people got together...and a bunch of them, though they come from different churches, already know each other as neighbors, classmates, or community events. And now we're pulling together, uniting as One Church - letting the Spirit bring us together for something special.

In speaking for the group, I would say that our main objective for our churches coming together rests entirely on the Gospel: that more neighborhood families would choose to follow Jesus for the rest of their days. What we want to do together is bring the Good News of Jesus to our community by being the Good News - through community service, through fun events, through grace-filled caring and meeting of needs.

Next week is Dave's church - I can't wait!,

Be sure to check out Steve Dennie's blog for his review of the fun event:
http://www.randompokes.org/pokes/