Off to Asia!!!

Well, today has finally arrived and we're off to Asia. For a little background, I'm traveling with Patrick Calhoun, President of Christians Sharing Christ, a missions agency for which I serve as a member of the Board of Directors. Our goal is to establish 12 new film evangelism teams. We will be traveling to the Philippines, Nepal and India. We had planned to go to Pakistan but there is much unrest in the city we were to visit (Lahore) so we have arranged for the Pakistani brothers to meet us in Nepal.

The map above shows the route we'll be taking on our 3 week travels around the globe. We left Central Louisiana this afternoon driving to Dallas. We had originally planned to fly but bad weather forced the airlines to cancel all flights to Dallas. Graciously Jon Martinez volunteered to drive us to Dallas and we have safely arrived and are in the hotel room, getting ready for our departure early tomorrow. Jon will stay the night with us and drive home tomorrow.

Our flights will take us first from Dallas to Tokyo (13 hour flight) where we will change planes and head to Manila (4 1/2 hour flight). Oddly enough, because we cross the International Date line we will leave on Monday and arrive on Tuesday night! We'll spend the night there and the next morning catch another flight to the southern city of Cagayan de Oro, the capital of Mindanao. Saturday we head back from Cagayan de Oro to Manila, then on to Hong Kong and finally to Katmandu, Nepal. We'll be there thru Thursday then it's off to New Delhi. We'll fly to the southern state of Kerala to meet with the majority of the CSC missionaries in India. Then finally we'll head back to New Delhi to catch a 15 1/2 hour flight to Chicago, then to Dallas and finally back home to Alexandria on July 20th! Whew!

In each of the countries we're traveling to, we'll meet with brothers who Patrick has been in contact with for several months. We'll be interviewing them, sharing the heart of CSC, purchasing equipment, training the brothers in the use of the equipment and in effective Gospel presentations using films. One of the important decisions that we'll have to make is to confirm that each of the brothers should be appointed as CSC missionaires, and even more importantly, which should serve as national director, our primary contact for the missionaries in each country. We would deeply appreciate all your prayers.

I'll do my best to update this blog with info, pictures, etc, as the trip progresses. Thanks again for your prayers and support!

Blessings,
Nathan

When We Ask Why

This has been one of the toughest weeks of my 20-plus years of ministry. On Sunday, April 29, Chase Murphy, a twenty-one year old member of our church, was killed in a tragic vehicle accident. He had recently publicly professed his faith in Jesus, which was great comfort to his family, many of whom are members of Christian Challenge. Yet even though I am confident he is safe in the arms of Jesus, I still grieve with this family that has suffered the horrific loss of an only child.

One of the questions I have heard the most over the past few days is “Why?” This is the most human of all questions, one that rushes to our lips when we see or experience unexplainably difficult situations. In fact, Jesus Himself asked this question in the midst the darkest hour of His life. Matthew 27:46 tells us that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “My God, my God, WHY have You forsaken me?”

We know that Jesus was fully God and fully man. In this moment it appears that the fullness of His humanity cried out “Why? Why am I alone? Why are You turning Your back on me when I need You the most?”

If you’re a student of your Bible you know that Jesus was quoting from Psalm 22, one of the most often quoted Psalms in the New Testament. Psalm 22 describes the cruelty of the cross hundreds of years before it occurred. It begins with that most vexing of questions, “Why?”

But Psalm 22 ends on a different note. After speaking of unspeakable agonies, it begins to turn into a praise chorus to the Lord. The psalmist begins to encourage himself through his agony that when he cried to the Lord for help, the Lord heard. And it ends on a note of promise, that future generations will hear of what God has done for the suffering one.

So Jesus’ question of “why” was not an empty question. In fact, in the midst of the “why” question there is hope. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus was able to endure the cross because there was a joy set before Him. He understood that God had a purpose, a plan and His agony would have meaning – and that gave him hope.

I can’t erase the pain of the grieving family. But I can tell them that God causes all things to work together for good (Rom 8:28). I can assure them that God has not lost control (Ps 46:1-2), that He has a plan (Jer 29:11) and that He works all things according to that plan (Eph 1:11). The point is, it’s ok to ask, “Why?” We may not get the answer right away and we may never understand. But the question doesn’t offend God.

I believe that God is weaving our lives like a tapestry. We look at life from the underside of the tapestry and we see loose threads, knots and tangles. So we ask, “Why? Why did you do it that way? From where I’m looking it doesn’t make sense.” But if we could only see it from God’s side of the tapestry! Then we would understand what He’s doing, how He’s weaving the colors and the threads into a marvelous masterpiece!

One day we will see things from the right side of the tapestry. Until then, we hold on … and trust that He does indeed have a plan. And like Jesus, just knowing that helps us endure when we ask why.

Awesome weekend!

We had a great weekend as a church this past Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we finally got to do our "Water Outreach" that we had originally planned to do back in March. We had to bump it back because of weather, Easter weekend, etc, but on Saturday, April 21, about 30 members of our "CARE Team" gathered to give away free bottles of ice cold water at the intersection of Hwy 28E and the Expressway. And it was great!

We met at the church first for a safety briefing and prayer and then carpooled to the water distribution site. We divided into three teams and started handing out the iced down bottles of water and the colorful cards that read: "We hope this small gift brightens your day. It is a simple way to say God loves you - no strings attached. Let us know if we can help you." In under an hour we had given out 600 bottles of water (including the original 500 we had purchased and 100 that were donated by Pepsi when they heard what we were doing.)

It was very rewarding. We got a lot of positive comments and most folks gladly accepted the free cold water. A lot of people offered us donations but when we wouldn't accept their money you could see drop their defenses and become less suspicious. When asked why we were doing this we would respond by saying something like, "We just wanted to let you know Jesus loves you ... and He cares that you're thirsty."

It was a great day and everyone who participated really enjoyed it. Our group was easily recognizable with our yellow "CARE Team" T-shirts and our "FREE WATER" signs. We've already received phone calls and comments from people who either received water or saw what we were doing and were impacted by the outreach. We're definitely looking forward to doing it again!

Then on Sunday we had another great day! After a wonderful time of worship and teaching we headed out to the Buhlow Lake Recreation Area where we had reserved a softball field. Lane Fletcher, Warren Spurgeon and a new member, Fred Mennerick, had everything set up and were cooking hamburgers, hotdogs and sausages when we got out there. We had a wonderful time eating together - Fred cooks offshore and really enjoys it ... and it shows!

Then a bunch of us headed out to the softball field. We had about 40 people who wanted to play so we divided into two teams and everybody played ... and I mean EVERYBODY! It's tough to get a hit when there are 20 people out in the field playing defense! But it was great, especially the spirit of commradery and fellowship. When any of the little ones would come up to bat we'd make sure they got a hit and got to first base, even if it took 10 strikes and a dropped or mis-thrown ball! We did the three outs per inning routine but no one kept score ... it was just great fun.

We were also joined by friends from Sharp Baptist Church which we had invited to join us for the afternoon. It was great to see some old friends who came out to fellowship. Some of our newer members were able to be there and I think they enjoyed it as well.

Everyone pitched in to clean up the site so we could leave it in better shape than we found it. Then we headed back to the church for AWANA, tired and sun-burned, but happy!

I want to give a special thanks to Lane Fletcher for his help with the water outreach in supplying the ice and for ram-rodding the softball outing. The softball/cookout was his idea and he really made it happen (in more ways than one). I appreciate the way our members are stepping up to serve others ... Jeff Murphy in organizing the water outreach, Rita Zito in making up the giveaway bags, Warren and Fred for cooking and all the CARE Team who gave up part of their Saturday afternoon to bless others in the name of Jesus. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful body of believers!

I LOVE serving Jesus with you!
Nathan

Celebrating 31 years! And an update on CCI

On Sunday, March 25, 2007 we will celebrate 31 years of ministry with our annual "Jubilee". (See our bulletin.) It's an anniversary/homecoming with special music, a special speaker and dinner on the grounds. Alan Stroud, who was a member for 11 years and now is helping raise up a church in San Antonio, will be speaking Sunday. That should be a blast! We also have some special music, a musical drama as well as an awesome slideshow of CCI through the years. The meat is being cooked by Pineville City Marshal Larry Jeane who always does a wonderful job. All the families are bringing delicious side dishes, desserts and drinks! It's going to be a great day!

This past week someone asked me to give an update on how things were going in the leadership transition at Christian Challenge. I thought I might share my response here. Here's the question and then below is my response (written on Wednesday night, 3/21, after church):
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I want to ask you a question Nathan, if you don't mind.
When I was helping at a small church in WV, a nearby
larger church had recently gone through a change in
leadership with a new pastor. They started making some
changes. Boy, was there a lot of mumbling and grumbling
going on (for various reasons).

So how has the change gone over with your transition to
Senior Pastor and has there been any murmurings over
changes (even in decor)?

Interesting question, Lois. And I don't mind, at all.

The short answer is that the transition is going very well. I think it helps that I have been on staff for 16 years so I'm not just a "new pastor". I know the people and they know me.

Another positive is that my dad (Bro. Buddy) has always allowed me to minister and be myself and not try to fit his mold or be a "little Bro. Buddy." So the people were already aware of my distinct style of teaching and leadership. That has been helpful.

We are going through some significant changes both in style and decor. We have modernized the look of our platform, which has caused some discussion but not a lot of grumbling (that I'm aware of). There have been a couple of questions but when I explain my heart for outreach and our desire to make the entire facility as inviting and welcoming as possible, they seem to agree. I also explain that I don't want us caught in a "time warp" of looking stale. It's not change for the sake of change, but it's change for the sake of allowing us to be more accessible, more inviting, more engaging.

There has been a significant change in our view towards the community. Christian Challenge has always been (and always will be) a discipling congregation. In the past our focus has been on discipling the ones the Lord brings to us. We have done some outreach but it hasn't been a primary focus.

I feel strongly that the Lord is leading us to become more outreach oriented. So in building on our tremendous foundation of discipleship, we are now actively pursuing "out of the box" avenues of reaching out to our community. We strongly desire to demonstrate the love of Jesus in tangible ways.

For example, next Saturday, March 31, we will be handing out 500 bottles of ice cold water on one of the busiest intersections of town. With each bottle will be a small card that says:

We hope this small gift
brightens your day.
It is a simple way to say God loves
you - no strings attached.
Let us know if we can help you.

The opposite side of the card has our address, phone number, website, service schedule and map. I'm having 2,500 cards printed up to use in future giveaways and outreaches. The goal is to impact our community with the idea that "Christian Challenge Cares".

We've started the idea of a "Care Team" and encouraged everyone who wants to be involved in outreach to get a "Care Team" t-shirt. On the back in small letters it says "Christian Challenge" then in HUGE letters it says "CARE" and underneath that it says "Team". We will wear our shirts whenever we mow lawns, rake leaves, clean highways, give out water, serve at public functions, etc. When I shared the idea with our church last Sunday we had 3 times as many shirts ordered as I had anticipated! So it appears the people are really catching it!

We've had quite a few visitors since the transition and have had a few indicate a desire to officially join. I don't think we've lost a single member since the transition! So all-in-all I think it's going well.

The Lord is indeed doing something deep and real in our hearts. We're seeing reconciliation happening between members who may have been holding some resentments. Last Wednesday night we had a testimony of forgiveness and reconciliation. Tonight we had two different people publicly ask forgiveness of someone they had held resentment towards. It was an incredibly moving service.

I believe the Lord is healing us so that we can reach out with His healing to our hurting community. The vision I'm sharing with the church is that we need to serve our community with an open hand ... holding nothing back and expecting nothing in return, except to honor God. There are a lot of hurting people who want to know if anyone cares. We don't have answers for everyone's problems, but we do care. And we're going to demonstrate it.

I shared the illustration with our people that we should constantly have the smell of singed hair about us - because the hair on our hands and arms is singed from us reaching into the flames and rescuing those who are perishing.

Our congregation is palpably excited about what's going on. We are being given the opportunity to be real and we don't want to waste it! So we're building on the tremendous foundation that has been laid for 31 years. We will continue to disciple and train ... we're just going to have more people to do it with and more opportunities for them to put their training into practice!!!

Thanks for asking. I know this is a much longer answer than your question and if you've read this far, congratulations! (Or condolences! ) But seriously, I hope this answers your question.
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Well, I know that was long ... sorry 'bout that! But it gives a good overview of where we are as a congregation, going into this celebration of 31 years of ministry in Cenla. I'm looking forward to what God has in store for us!

I LOVE serving Jesus with you!
Nathan

What an Experience!

Last week Jeff Murphy and I attended a conference for church leaders at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge. The conference was called the "HPC Experience" because we got to experience the way Healing Place does things. They're a fast growing church that's doing a lot of things to impact their community. They get asked all the time to share how they do some of the things they do and they've created this conference to provide some hands-on experience. It was a wonderful conference.

In addition to the ideas we picked up and the inspiration we gained I also got to visit with an old friend from my Mexico missionary days. Joel Dyke and I served in south Mexico as missionaries during the late 1980's. I returned to Pineville in November of 1990 and Joel now pastors Life Church West Monroe. We got to spend a lot of time together, including a wonderful evening with HPC Pastor Dino Rizzo in his home.

One of the things that came out of this conference was a deeper understanding of our vision with regard to the community. I had a clear understanding of how we were to relate to one another within our four walls, but I wasn't clear on what Christian Challenge was supposed to look like to the larger community. The HPC Experience helped me gain a clear perspective of how we are to relate to our neighbors. And it can be summed up in one word: CARE. Christian Challenge Cares. We want to reach out to our community with an open hand, seeking to serve without expecting anything in return.

Out of this is coming an exciting outreach philosphy. We are forming the "Christian Challenge CARE Team". Whenever we have an opportunity to touch our community with the love of Jesus, we want to do that as part of the Christian Challenge CARE Team. We've ordered yellow t-shirts with that phrase on the back, with the word "CARE" being the largest. We want to demonstrate with our actions that Jesus cares for those around us. He cares for the thirsty, the hungry, the poor, the hurting. We desire to be a tangible demonstration of that very real care that He has towards all people. The Lord said it best through the prophet Ezekiel when He said, "As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered..." (Ezek 34:12 NASB)

I'm excited about what the Lord has for Christian Challenge. I look forward to demonstrating the love of care of Jesus. I thank God for Jeff Murphy who went with me. He has really caught the vision and is providing valuable leadership to our efforts. I appreciate my friend Joel Dyke for telling me about the HPC Experience and for being a friend who always believed in me. I thank God for Dino Rizzo for inspiring me to believe that we really can touch our community. Fasten your seatbelts, Christian Challenge! It's about to get exciting!!!

Blessings,
Nathan

Simply Amazing

You MUST see this movie!

I just returned from 2 1/2 days in Baton Rouge at the Healing Place Church attending a leadership conference for a small group of pastors. I got in after midnight this morning and we had a Habitat for Humanity work day scheduled so our day was pretty full. At the end of the day we decided to go see the movie "Amazing Grace" and I'm so glad we did!

The movie is the story of William Wilberforce's tireless efforts to end slavery in the British Empire, entertwined with the writing of the much loved song, "Amazing Grace," written by former slave ship captain John Newton. William Wilberforce has long been a hero of mine and, in fact, I preached a sermon about him back on April 19, 2002. (Unfortunately it's not available on our website as we didn't start recording on computer until July 21, 2002.) Nevertheless, his story had a strong influence on me and he has always been a personal hero.

Wilberforce impacted me in two areas. One was his desire to be used by God in the public arena, in shaping public policy and opinion. He had considered entering the ministry and visited with the 60-year old John Newton to discuss this option. Newton urged him not to cut himself off from public life, to use his gifts to serve the common good. Newton wrote him a letter in which he said, "It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation." This has been one of my motivations to become involved in the public discourse and even to enter politics in an attempt to serve both the body of Christ and the community.

Another area in which Wilberforce impacted me was the cause of abolition. He saw it for the evil it was. Even though he was born into a wealthy family and much of the wealth of those days depended on or came directly from cheap slave labor, he saw it as an evil on society. He wrote in his diary, "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Morals." It took him 20 years of untiring work but on February 24, 1807 the British Parliament voted 283-16 to abolish slave trade. Even then he had to continue to fight to outlaw slavery itself, which didn't happen until July 26, 1833, just 3 days before his death.

It is both his perseverance and his passion to fight for the cause of justice that inspire me. His passon is what gave him his perseverance. Because he had a true cause, a true calling from God, he was able to persevere. When John Wesley was 87 years old he wrote Wilberforce and said, "Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of man and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you..." God had indeed raised up Wilberforce for this very thing and as a result he was able to rely on that fountain of strenth to pull him through the discouraging days of failure. He truly had a marathon mentality.

I've asked the Lord to let me be a blessing to both His church and our community. I thank Him for the opportunity to serve the community through the City Council. And I am most honored by the incredible privilege of pastoring such a wonderful local church. Now, may I have both passion and perseverance in doing the Lord's work in every arena of influence. And may I always remember that it's only done by God's "Amazing Grace!"

I LOVE serving Jesus with you!
Nathan

P.S. GO SEE THE MOVIE!!!

Introducing a new blog

I know, I know, it's been awhile since my last post. I'm supposed to update this regularly so people will keep coming back and reading. But I'm so busy living life that I don't have time to update my blog! Good problem to have, no?

The thing that prompted me to write today's entry is that I wanted to introduce you to a new blog written by my father. It's called "Pastor Buddy's Blog" and it's hosted at our church's website. Dad was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and is beginning to walk through the journey of dealing with this disease and the treatment. I convinced him that it would be a good thing if he were to keep a blog about his experience, to sort of let people "look over his shoulder" and "peek into his heart" as he walks through the journey of healing. I feel like it will help our church as well as potentially help others in the future who may stumble across it.

The good news is that NHL is treatable, although the treatment is difficult (4-6 months of chemo). The 5 year survival rate is over 60%. Dad's being treated at the Cabrini Cancer Center by Dr. Halewani who is very upbeat about his prognosis. (Of course, Dr. Halewani doesn't have to go through chemo ... he just prescribes it!)

Dad has a great attitude about NHL and this journey he's embarking upon. His greatest desire is that God get glory out of this somehow. He knows God could heal him instantly. He also knows God could use medical science to bring healing. Beyond that, he knows that whether he lives or whether he dies, he is the Lord's so he wants the Lord to be honored through this journey.

I hope you'll check out "Pastor Buddy's Blog". I think you'll be blessed. While you're there remember to register or subscribe so you can be automatically notified whenever he puts a new post there.

That's all for now. Blessings!
Nathan