Advent Adventure

Last Sunday, Anita and I had the privilege of initiating the Advent season at our church by lighting the first candle of the Advent Wreath with the special help of all four of our grandchildren. Before the official candle-lighting, I had the chance to review with our congregation some of the history and meaning of this tradition.

Most remember that the roots of today's Advent tradition go back to the early days of the Reformation when Martin Luther and other church fathers sought practical ways to make the Gospel message clear and meaningful, especially to children. Along with the Christmas Tree, the Advent Wreath was a great way to teach such things as the circular wreath being a symbol of Eternal Life as well as a royal crown for King Jesus, the prickly holly a symbol of His crown of thorns, the pine cones of rebirth and new life, the candles of God's Word lighting the darkness, etc., etc.

But as I reviewed what to share at church, there was a new aspect that I had not thought about before. It had to do with the Latin word from which we get the English advent.The word is adventus which means arrival or coming. What I learned, however, is that the etymology of adventus shows it is actually made up of advenio (arrival) and tus (a suffix that turns it into an action noun.) This means that the concept of advent is not a ho-hum type waiting, like waiting for the school bus to arrive. It is a much more active involvement, like sitting on the edge of your seat with great expectation. Think of the word adventure, which is also derived from the same Latin root. You embark on an adventure with great expectation that something exciting, unexpected, and remarkable might lie ahead.

Another great way to capture this concept of active waiting is to think of the five candles on the Advent Wreath as similar to a NASA countdown toward a rocket launch: 5-4-3-2-1. . . Every second ticked away brings you closer to the exciting climax of a BLASTOFF! In the case of the wreath, the five candles count off the weeks toward the celebration of the most remarkable event in all of human history--the arrival of the Christ Child, Emmanuel, God-with-us! And just like NASA uses countdowns to remember critical action steps in a rocket launch sequence, so too, the five candles provide important reminders of what Christ's coming means to us. The first candle is the Prophesy Candle with a focus on the Hope the prophets told us about. The second is the Bethlehem Candle with a focus on God's Love demonstrated by the incarnation. The third is the Shepherd's Candle with a focus on Joy, since they were the ones who heard the "tidings of great joy." The fourth is the Angel's Candle with a focus on Peace, from the announcement of "peace on earth, goodwill toward men." Finally, the last one is Christ's Candle, lit on Christmas Eve when we celebrate His coming as God's Light to a dark world.

Just like the Advent Wreath is a great exercise in waiting expectantly for the celebration of Christmas, it is also a wonderful reminder that we all still live in the tension of waiting for Christ's Second Coming which is still in the future. May all of our waiting for that ultimate event be an active adventus-type waiting with readiness and great expectation--since without doubt, God definitely has more ADVENTURE waiting for all of us ahead!

Merry Christmas
Jon Lewis                          

Strengthening the Foundation

One of the most amazing stories of impressive church growth has been documented in the book by Jerry Trousdale called Miraculous Movements. Utilizing a methodology called Disciple Making Movements (DMM) that results in planting small house churches even in tough, resistant communities, the book tells about explosive church multiplication in various countries of Africa and Asia. I have actually been using this book as one of my required texts for the class I teach at Whitworth University on The Global Christian Movement.

I recently sat down for coffee in Addis Ababa with an Ethiopian friend, who shared some insights about how this strategy is faring now years later. As former director of a church planting organisation intimately involved with DMM, he and his staff have used it to plant literally thousands of small, house churches during the past ten years. According to him, it was some of these very "miraculous movements" that Jerry used as powerful illustrations in his book. 

He explained that most of those church plants are doing just fine, but that there were some, as might be expected, that have not stood the test of time.  "What do you think those that have not lasted were missing?" I asked. "I can't  give you a definitive answer yet," he told me, "but I believe it involves five key elements that were not present or emphasized enough. Today, as we continue to plant churches especially in larger urban areas, we are making sure that those five things become an integral part of the life of those churches with the hope it will help them be sustained indefinitely."

Anxious to hear more, I ordered another round of coffee macchiatos, pulled out my notebook, and said "OK, tell me what those five key elements are." Here was his reply:

1. People need to truly be in love with Jesus. This means a sincere desire to get to know Christ and imitate Him in their daily walk.
2. People need to learn how to study Scripture with real depth. This has to be more than just reading a passage and sharing what you think it means. It  means really digging in to learn the full truth God wants to reveal in His Word.  He also added that just listening to a preacher, no matter how gifted or popular, is also no substitute for committed personal Bible study.
3. People need to worship through singing that truly comes from the heart. It is not enough to sing songs other people think are neat. Singing from the heart, even composing personal worship songs, is a critical measure of someone's passion for God.
4. People need to develop a consistent habit of pray. It is not good enough to just go through the motions of prayer. They need to enter into a prayer experience that helps them connect personally and intimately with God.
5. People need to understand what true fellowship of the Body of Christ is all about. This cannot be for just an hour on Sunday morning, but a commitment to community that causes them to care for each other throughout the week.

As I jotted all of these down, I was struck with the fact that nothing here seemed to be earth-shaking or radical. But in every case, my friend kept emphasizing words like "truly" and "sincere." So, it appears that consistent discipleship that encourages these five habits just may be the bottom line "secret" to house church communities that are able to stand that test of time. 

I will be very interested to stay in tune with my friend and hear what reports he might have down the road about lasting impact of these efforts. In the meantime, it seems to me that all of us as Christians around the world could benefit from following the insights being learned and modeled by our brothers and sisters in Addis Ababa and the house churches they are planting.

(Note: This blog post has been rewritten from its original version and re-posted here on March 13, 2020. This is due to my misrepresenting what I had understood my friend had shared with me as well as lacking to request his permission for sharing his name and picture. For this I apologize to him and to all who read my original posting. Unfortunately, I also must delete some of the comments in order to preserve my friends anonymity.  I trust that this new edited version is now both more accurate and continues to honor my friend and his amazing work in advancing God's Kingdom through church planting.)

The Wisdom of Solomons

It’s not often that you get to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. But it is even more rare to benefit from the collective wisdom of two Solomons at the same time! Yet that is exactly what I got to do on May 4 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when I was able to introduce two friends from my past life as manager with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship.)

Solomon Gizau was assigned to my region in the early 1990s as the first Ethiopian national to qualify as an MAF pilot. At that time, he and his family lived in Uganda, but even then, I knew his heart was set on some day returning to fly in his home country. That is exactly what he did, eventually starting the Abyssinian Air Service business with one leased Caravan aircraft and over the years, expanding it to seven Caravans, a helicopter and ten training aircraft used for his flight school. Today AAS is second only to Ethiopian Airlines as a national aviation company that trains and hires all local staff to accomplish its mission.

About that same time back in the 90s, I first met Souleymane Kouyate when I was searching for someone to recruit  for helping to open up a new program. A handsome, six-foot-plus, West Africa, Solo, as we called him, brought along two things he had picked up along the way in France—a degree in electrical engineering and a five-foot-two, blond-haired, blue-eyed wife! It’s been a pleasure watching him grow in experience and capability over the years to the point where today he serves in the same position I used to have—MAF Regional Director for Africa.

Never having met each other, I felt it would be mutually beneficial to getting these two Solomons together to see what collaboration just might arise from their collective wisdom. Finally, this last May 4^th it worked out and for half a day, along with MAF VP of Operations, Dan Whitehead

 we shared experiences, lessons learned, stories, and also some outstanding enjera wat Ethiopian food. As I expected, the insights gained were many. Here are just some of the topics we covered:

• The state of aviation regulation in Africa and how it impacts a small business start-up.
• The future use of light aviation by the church and mission community.
• The challenges of maintaining a safety-conscious aviation culture in an African context.
• The margin of profitability for a small, commercial aviation organization in Africa.
• The importance of not submitting to expected bribes by government aviation officials.
• The possibility of giving Western MAF pilots an introductory internship with AAS before beginning their ministry assignment.

 If there is anything I came away with from our time together, it was the satisfaction of knowing that despite the challenges, Africa’s future is in good hands if outstanding national leaders such as these two Solomons are at the helms of their organizations.  And, they might even have some pretty good wisdom to pass on to the rest of us non-Africans as well.