March 1 Blog

March 1!  Hard to believe that we have been in Israel almost a full month now.  We are so grateful for the opportunity to be in Nazareth and to have developed the friendships we are forming.  It is indeed a most life changing and transforming experience.

To date most of my blogs have dealt with our road trips and I will include a little at the end of this blog.  But let me start on a different note.

The spiritual challenges here are tremendous.  First you have the dynamic between the religious and the secular Jews (most are secular).  Then between the Jews and the Muslims.  Then between the Jews and Christians.  Then between the Arabs and Christians.  Then the Arab Christians and the Arab Muslims.  Plus between the Traditional Christians and the Evangelical Christians.  I am working with Israeli, Arab, Palestinian, Evangelical, Baptist Christians!  A minority of the minority of the minority of the minority.  Almost all of the Evangelical Christians in Israel are Arab-Palestinian in background.  Many come from families that have been in this area for hundreds of years.  Many of their families have been Christian since almost the first century.  But there is a real challenge today for Christians.  A century ago 10% of the population were Christian, today it is 2%.  Some excellent books have been written discussing the history of Christian presence in the Holy Land through the years:  Narrow Gate Churches by Atallah Mansour is a good place to start.

Last Saturday I had the privilege of speaking to the mid-year meeting of the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel.

The Association is made up of about 20 churches with 800 members.  They are primarily located in Galilee and are all Arab Christian churches.  They have a passion for starting new churches and a burden for reaching the lost.  Tomorrow I will join in a monthly prayer meeting with the pastors of the Association.  My translator in the photo above is Pastor Saleem from the Baptist Church in Turan just outside of Nazareth.  I introduced you to Pastor Afif in the last blog.  He pastors the Good Shepherd Baptist Church near our apartment.  Pastor Afif has invited me to preach at Good Shepherd on March 10th.

At the Association meeting I was introduced to Pastor Rizik.  He is a 1983 graduate of Golden Gate Seminary, while there he started the Arabic Baptist Church in San Francisco.

A key partner in the development of pastors and church leaders has been the Nazareth Evangelical Theological Seminary.  In the photo above Azar Ajaj, Vice President of NETS is on the left.  Dr. Bryson Arthur, a native of Scotland, founded NETS about 8 years ago.

He is an outstanding visionary leader and a brilliant theologian.  I am learning a great deal from him.  Every church I have attended has had numerous members who have been trained through NETS.  They are in the process of transitioning to more indigenous leadership for the school.  They have a real challenge financially, due to the limited resources locally and the high cost of living.  They have asked me to help them develop a fund raising strategy.  If you would like to know about ways that you could partner with NETS please contact me. 

The building housing NETS was the mission house for Dwight Baker, an early SBC missionary to Israel.  There is a warm regard by the Association of Baptist Churches in Israel for the relationship and legacy of Baptist mission work in Israel.

An exciting new development will begin tomorrow (Saturday).  I will be joining a team going to Tel Aviv to launch a Certificate of Theology program at a Filipino Baptist Church!!  There are 40,000 Filipinos in Israel and Pastor Aries Paduga wants to develop his church leaders so that they can start other churches across Israel.  I will start a five week course on Leadership next Saturday.  Pray for this program and for the vision and leadership of Pastor Aries.

Let me close with a little travelogue.  Our road trip this week included a visit to Megiddo.  On this mountain top a lot of past history has taken place.  This was a royal city for the tribe of Manasseh.  Solomon made it one of his chariot cities and administrative centers.  Barak defeated King Hazor here.  King Josiah died here.  But also Revelation refers to the Battle of Armageddon (in Hebrew Har Megiddo) the Hill of Megiddo!  From this locale you can see across the Jezreel Valley for miles.  It is a dramatic and powerful image, that reminds us of the ultimate victory of our Lord!

We also stopped at Mt Carmel, where Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal..   It was a blustery day but we could get an image of what it must have been like when Elijah challenged the people, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions?  If Yahweh is God, follow Him, But if Baal, follow him."  We were joined by a Baptist pastor and his wife who are also fellow colleagues in the work at NETS.  We gathered in a prayer garden near the chapel near the top of Mt Carmel and had an incredible time of worship.  We read the biblical text about what took place at Mt Carmel, sang some hymns of praise and then prayed.  Among our prayer we joined with Barry Whitworth and the Multiplying Churches Team in Pennsylvania-South Jersey who are in the midst of 40 days of prayer for church planting in Pennsylvania-South Jersey.  We prayed for the fire of God to fall on Pennsylvania-South Jersey even as Elijah prayed for the fire of God on Mt Carmel!