Culture and the Biblical World

When we first moved to Thailand, multiple people in Thailand told us that Thai culture is closer to Biblical culture than American culture is. It was preached that way and widely spread in the church we serve. Multiple reasons were given: first, Thailand is an agricultural society, even if Bangkok is not, most people come from small towns/ villages or have family there. Second, the Thai people are highly aware of the spiritual world and how spirits interact with this physical world. From these basic tenets, it was then assumed that Thai people would have an inherently easier time understanding the Bible and what Jesus taught.

While I love the heart of what these people said, I have to respectfully disagree with them. After living in Thailand for over 4 years, I believe that American culture, foundationally, not superficially, is closer to Biblical culture. Yes, we don’t understand farming very well, if at all. Most Americans try to ignore, or deny, the existence of spirits.

We have many problems with our culture that are not Biblical, and we need Jesus to transform. But the foundation of our culture is built from the same foundation that made up the world Jesus lived in. Today we call it a Judeo-Christian worldview. On the other hand, Thai culture is built on a Buddhist worldview and it effects all parts of life and how people interact with each other.

Let me example this for you with a story. In America we have an axiom, do to others what you would want them to do to you. It is a Biblical principle, but it is a pervasive idea. People think of others and how they might feel or think when they interact with them. I know it’s not every time, but Americans tend to think about other people’s feelings and reactions. In Thailand, that is not so. I recently rode the bus to visit some friends up north with Ellie. On the way back, the lady in front of me decided she wanted to take a nap so she laid her chair as far back as it would go. She never turned around to see if someone was behind her or how much space I had. Well, I was so squished that I couldn’t even move my legs or get out of the chair. People will regularly come up to Ellie and get in her face or grab her, even if she’s trying to say no or stop. They’re not thinking of her feelings, but what they want.

Ultimately, we God to transform us from whatever culture we are in to be Biblical in the way we live.

 

Face Time Matters

At some level we all understand ministry flows out of relationship. We are able to serve people through relationship and influence out of the relational equity we have with people. Relationship underpins everything in mission and ministry. Yet how relationships play out varies from context to context.

Building relations and connecting through social media helps, but I still like a pat on the back…and a kick in the pants conveyed digitally doesn’t ever go well.

I find that in a nation like Thailand, face time matters so much more. As I assumed the lead pastor role at Our Home Chapel, I found immediately the importance of face time. As soon as I walk into the office, people come in wanting to seek advice, ask questions, give advice, share stories, ask for money, and the list goes on. We could accomplish much of this work over the phone or on email, but nothing really happens until you can meet face to face or in person. The Thai literally say your body is there with you when you talk together. Maybe we take for granted the nonverbal parts of communication and enjoy the phone and other digital means of communication as Westerners, but in Asia, presence matters. Maybe we miss how observant Thai people are to the subtle nuances of the nonverbal may exist.

People call Thailand the land of smiles due in no small part to the varied smiles a Thai person can have. In Thailand, there are said to be nine kinds of smiles, including the smile that means I am going to kill you. When we realize how much gets lost in translation over the phone or via secondary modes of communication, I get why face time is so important. I have come to find that decisions don’t get made or deals don’t get finalized until you meet in person with people. I have seen the power of being present with people when we went south to visit a couple that we want to coach in church planting. We just need to be present with each other. Maybe this limits our future growth potential numerically, but a greater potential for deep discipleship, leading to a multiplication of growth.

How do you see the presence of in person in relationship valuable?

 

Children’s Day

Children’s Day is an important day of celebration in Thailand. Everyone pauses to think about the future, and those that are the future of the country, children.

There are fun celebrations to take your kids to, many of them free for children, as well as speeches from politicians. Thailand wants to have a country that their children will be able to be successful in and proud of. Children’s Day is a day to look forward to the future, and honor those who will make it great.

For Ellie’s first Children’s Day, we took her to the park and then to Toy’s R Us and bought her a small toy. We then went to dinner at her favorite restaurant in Thailand, Sizzler, where fruit and veggies are plentiful and she can drop as much as she wants and get new for an entire meal.

At church we wanted to honor and bless the children. The service revolved around them with games, clowns, and many object lessons. The service finished with each child pairing up with one adult praying a blessing over them. After service, “Jack” was baptized and each child received a gift. As you might have guessed, no holiday could center on children without having gifts.

Do you think that the United States should have a Children’s Day?

 

Our Story

Our mission sending agency/ denomination, The Foursquare Gospel Church, wrote a missionary spotlight on my wife and I. It tells about our ministry and what we are doing here in Bangkok, Thailand. You can read it here.

 

Standing Alone

I wanted to share this story from our newsletter here on the blog. It is a story of a young boy, we’ll call him Jack. Jack, at age nine, has already faced difficulty beyond our wildest imaginations. He has grown up in a nearby slum to the church, been given to a foster family when his mom no longer could care for him, and abused by his caretakers. His rough upbringing caused him to in turn act out and hurt those around him. Yet this is not even a glimpse of the child I know now. When his extended family no longer wanted him nor could handle him, the church stepped in and took him. The church is trying to find a good orphanage, but the only available ones are state run places with unlivable conditions. For years, the church has gone into the communities around us in Bangkok to bring hope and love through skills training, after-school tutoring and other examples of tangible love.

When Jack received the genuine love and mercy of the children’s ministry, it took him little time to also accept the saving work of Jesus in his life.

His slow transformation came to fruition the other day at school. The second term of the school year began late due to the overwhelming flood crisis, so when the children finally got back to school, they needed to get reoriented. Jack still attends school near his family’s slum in which there are a number of Muslim families as well. At the beginning of the school, the teacher wanted to make two groups of students for daily religious activities. She began by having the children make two lines, Buddhist and Muslim. Jack found himself standing alone after all the other children found their place. Perplexed, the teacher asked Jack why he hadn’t chosen a side, thinking maybe he was a bit slow in the head. Jack gained his composure and said, you called for the Buddhist students and Muslim students, but you never called for the Christian students. I am a Christian, and I have no line to get in.  He stood alone in the room as the only one of his classmates who belonged to Jesus.

When is a time you had to stand up for your faith? What happened then?

 

Emmanuel- God With Us

This week, a good acquaintance of mine asked this question at a post-Christmas dinner. How do you need God to be Emmanuel in the New Year?

In 2012, I see Emmanuel, God with us, being a driving prayer of mine in Thailand. We want the Thai people to see God as real and accessible. We example Jesus to them in our life, but we want them to have an encounter with God. As I think toward 2012, I cannot help but be captured by the prayer I made when we took over Our Home Chapel, the Foursquare Church in Bangkok, Thailand.

When we stepped in, we found the church in a difficult situation with a lot of moving parts. I began praying with a fervor like never before knowing that there was no way for me to succeed unless Jesus met us in this place and time. I know strategy has its place, but I purposed to clear my mind of ideas or tactics.  I began to ask for nothing but Jesus. I made the Fernando Ortega song, “Give Me Jesus” my theme song as it helped me guide my prayer time. I had no grand ideas of success, but merely wanted us as a church to get back to the basics and cling to Jesus in the midst of everything, including a flood that displaced many including us.

As we look toward 2012, I cherish the sense of how a new year allows us to turn the page on the old. We can open to a new chapter, blank and ready to be written in by the author of our life and all creation. The new beginning brings hope and anticipation for a new future God has for us.

Even in a nation where less than one percent of the Thai people know God, we are hopeful for the good things God will do in and through this church.

We want to see Jesus be Emmanuel with us in drawing this church together to be family. A family centered on Jesus that grows in the way of God together.

We need Jesus to be with us, present in this time to make us renewed and reborn into the church he has designed us to be. We want him present with us in power.

We hope to see miracles of changed lives, healings, and wonders in this city that draws people to know God. We hope to see many more people this year see that God is real.

Finally, we need to see God real in our life regarding the ministry to children in the nearby slum communities. We want to see long term, sustainable help to give these children a hope and a future.

How do you need God to be Emmanuel with you this New Year?

 

Christmas Leaves a Mark

Every year we hope Christmas leaves a mark in our hearts and the hearts of others. This year Christmas left a mark on me as I see the church in Asia rising up.

The church here loves to seize the opportunity of Christmas to reach into people hearts during this season of tender-heartedness. The Burmese church sees this as a golden opportunity to build toward a climax of outreach. In the villages throughout Myanmar, the Christians go house-to-house singing Christmas carols for at least a week leading up to Christmas. They sing throughout all hours of the night spreading Christmas cheer and bringing a glimpse of the joy that Jesus placed in their hearts when he entered our world.

In Bangkok, the Burmese pastor who works with us used Christmas as an opportunity to follow up on flood relief in an area where many of his members live by the factories outside of the city. His members were a source of mercy and hope to their friends that work in the factories with them. For Christmas, actually an off day for the workers this year as it fell on Sunday, created an opportunity for the people to celebrate together and sing traditional songs and eat yummy Burmese food. So many were touched by the generosity and love shown by the church that they invited them back for a New Year’s celebration.

For the church in Bangkok, the story of Christmas keeps trending upward each year. People are more and more interested in Christmas. We even had a completely unconnected Thai guy come check out the church service to find out what this thing is all about. Churches throughout the city were packed wall-to-wall with newcomers. The conflict of what to do at Christmas with the church service and Sunday meeting at the same time never arose. All the people wanted was more, because the church is the only place Christians can celebrate the story of God coming to our world as a vulnerable baby born in a barn.

Living in Asia, I know Christmas has left an indelible mark on my life and the life of many on this side of the planet.

How has Christmas affected you this year as you reflect a day or two after the hectic celebrations and obligations?

 

Christmas Is Taking Over the World

Whether by commercial success or quaint traditions, Christmas keeps marching along as it envelopes the world in its grasp.

Every year we are in Thailand, we see more of a Christmas presence here…not so much Christmas presents, but more of that too. I am reminded of Paul’s thoughts toward the gospel…whatever their motivation…as long as the story is told, and people come to Jesus. The booming success of Christmas crosses every barrier and continues to grow in its enormous take on our imagination. Yet with the grand festivities and overwhelming scope of Christmas, we can still use this season as an opportunity to tell the story of Jesus. More and more people are being introduced to the person of Jesus in Thailand every year as Christmas grows in popularity. Christmas is a story that transcends language and culture. No matter whether the ancient era of the Biblical world or the modern era of Twitter and Google, the story still rings true and draws on our heart strings. What an amazing story that God would empty himself of his transcendence and enter our world as a baby boy. And this baby boy would grow up to be our savior and king.

I thought I might share this video this video to help us see another way the story of Christmas can be communicated this year.

Let’s be creative and find ways to let the story of Christmas, the true story of Christmas enter our heart and spill out to others this year.

 

Christmas Away from Home

How do you know that Christmas is near? Is it the cold winter weather? The festive Christmas decorations everywhere you look? Or is it the crowded malls, with Santa taking pictures, Christmas music in the air, and great deals on potential gifts?

When you live in a tropical country, the weather is warm. Top that off by living in a country where they don’t celebrate Christmas (I think they are just trying to help out Santa as he races around the world delivering presents…), and you can’t tell December apart from November or January.

When we first moved to Thailand, I really struggled with it not feeling like Christmas. I decorated my home and we played lots of Christmas music, but we still wore summer clothing and preferred iced drinks or hot chocolate or cider. This is our fourth Christmas in Thailand (we spent one in the US), and I realized that it feels like Christmas this year. The weather and outside things haven’t changed, but it feels like Christmas.

Why? I have been asking myself that question for a few days, and I think I just figured it out. Traditions. It was as I went about our normal Christmas traditions that made it feel like Christmas. Some are from when I was younger, like baking cookies and making peanut brittle. But others are distinctly here in Thailand, like going to take pictures of the Christmas decorations at one of the big malls.

When we first moved, I did the traditions that I could, but missed many others (big Christmas parties, snuggling in front of the fireplace while sipping hot cider, etc.). Christmas has different traditions when we are in Thailand, and I have come to look forward to them. They are also what helps me know that Christmas is coming.

What traditions do you have that make it feel like Christmas to you? Would it be Christmas if you didn’t do them this year?

 

The Baby Jesus

I was talking to my daughter, as we like to do at the dinner table. Mind you she is only 9-months, so the conversations are pretty one-sided at this time. But sometimes she looks at me and makes sounds her baby language. Today’s conversation centered around the Christmas story. As a new dad celebrating Christmas with his daughter for the first time, I wondered what she thought about the Baby Jesus.

She is so close to walking on her own now, and determined to figure out how to get moving and on her own. She has places to go and especially people to see. I asked her when she thought Jesus took his first steps. We wondered together if Mary had a book like Ellie’s mommy has to keep track of all of Jesus’ firsts.

When did Jesus get his first tooth?

When did Jesus begin to sit up?

When did Jesus start crawling?

What was Jesus first word?

We took the conversation a bit further too as Ellie does a compromised version of Elimination Communication (or click here). We look for her cues and then take her to go poopy. I asked my daughter if she thought Jesus gave the perfect cues to Mary to let her know when he needed to go.

We were blown away just thinking about how the Son of God, the almighty who was here at the beginning of the universe playing a role in creation also sat on the floor and played like our daughter does. The king of the universe allowed himself to go through all the same processes as any other baby. Talking with my daughter about Christmas helped me get a new perspective of Jesus’ humanity.

How does thinking of Jesus as a baby change how you picture him?