Feb. 10, 2015 • Texan Digital • Issue #43

February 10, 2015 • ISSUE 43

EMBRACING THE LOST IN

LONDON Mansfield church embraces unengaged Greek Cypriots in Northern London AT THE MOVIES: AN ALTERNATIVE TO ‘FIFTY SHADES OF GREY’ HOW CAN SENIOR PASTORS HELP REFORM STUDENT MINISTRY?

Keith Collier

Get Your Popcorn Ready

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ew can deny the allure and power of movies in our world today. The silver screen’s influence has been felt for decades as movies both reflect and direct the ethos of our culture. As with all art forms, part of the draw comes from the fact that praises and jeers, thumbs up and thumbs down abound for nearly any film. Regardless, moviemakers simply want reactions, whether positive or negative, because the debates produce publicity and—most importantly—revenue.

Movies released in 2015 will be no exception. Fifty Shades of Grey causes tongue and finger wagging from individuals across the moral spectrum. American Sniper elicits patriotic cheers from those who admire Chris Kyle’s courage but also sneers from those who question the gritty details of war. Star Wars Episode VII sneak peaks and spoilers go viral within hours, causing stir among sci-fi nerds worldwide even though the film won’t be in theaters until December.

Even without scientific data, it’s safe to say that more people watch movies than go to church. Redbox machines and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have made the film industry ubiquitous among American households.

Additionally, the average church member likely spends more time watching movies in a given week than he does in church, in his Bible and in prayer combined. Hollywood’s tentacles In this edition of TEXAN Magazine, we’re introducing a new feature called “At the Movies.” Our goal here is two-fold.

First, we want to provide brief film synopses to equip pastors and parents with information about current movies. Second, we hope to spur Christians to evaluate what they watch through the lens of a biblical worldview.

We realize a myriad of convictions exist among faithful, God-honoring Christians regarding where lines should be drawn. Where one sees freedom, another sees a stumbling block.

We would never encourage a Christian to violate his or her conscience. We must all consider Paul’s admonitions to set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:2) and to think on whatever is true, honorable, just and pure (Philippians 4:8). Likewise, Jesus said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” (Matthew 5:29). All of us must evaluate ways in which our consciences have been seared by the culture—including through movies—and be willing to forego certain films for our own—and others’— sanctification.

These days call for great wisdom and discernment among believers in Jesus Christ. Christians cannot afford to be careless or dismissive about entertainment’s effects on our attitudes and behaviors. Pastors must expose the competing messages bombarding their congregations in the name of entertainment, offering scriptural guidance and warning where necessary. Likewise, parents must be diligent in protecting their children from inappropriate films (even on PG movies, sadly), and they must also train their children how to evaluate them as well.

At the same time, it’s easy to harp on Hollywood and fail to see the positive impact movies can bring. I’m thankful for the resurgence of faith-based films that promote biblical values. Even many films that are not specifically faithbased can be thought provoking and filled with redeeming qualities. And just think of the opportunities for gospel conversations that can arise from something as simple as a popular plot line.

So, let us not bury our heads in the sand or swallow hook, line and sinker. Instead, let us be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

CONTENTS

C O V E R

ISSUE

#43 AT THE M VIES

S T O R Y

EMBRACING THE LOST IN

LONDON Mansfield church embraces unengaged Greek Cypriots in Northern London A Baptist pastor, a retired police officer and a medical office manager from Texas walk into a Greek cafe in London. It sounds like the setup to a great joke. But nearly three years ago a small group from Mansfield, Texas, wandered the streets of northern London looking for Greek people from the island of Cyprus.

Their task—to identify the people, make relationships, share the gospel and plant a church—an assignment that seemed, at the time, much like a joke.

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What happens when a God-honoring romantic movie is released on the same weekend as Fifty Shades Of Grey, which is based on a series of sexually exploitive and popular novels?

We’re about to find out. The faith-based movie is Old Fashioned, a Valentine’s Day weekend film that turns everything America believes about dating on its head and proves that true romance is found in upholding biblical values, not following trashy novels. Other movie reviews include: Paddington, Project Almanac, and Black and White.

Ross calls for senior pastors’ attention to youth ministry in new resource

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Richard Ross, co-founder of True Love Waits and known for his passion for seeing young people come to know and serve Jesus, says while the youth minister plays an important role in raising up a generation of sold-out Christians, the senior pastor holds the keys to unlocking “true reformation” in youth ministry. He writes as much in his new book, The Senior Pastor and the Reformation of Youth Ministry.

Multicultural church plant aims to reflect Grand Prairie

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When Dante Burress and his family moved from Chicago to plant a church in the Dallas area, they were drawn to Grand Prairie because its multicultural population reflects the world. Burress is planting Trinity Worldwide Church, which is affiliating with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to reach the people from wide-ranging backgrounds who are moving in droves to the Dallas suburb.

C O L U M N : A Jolt from Jonah TEXAN Digital is e-published twice monthly by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 4500 State Highway 360, Grapevine, TX 76099-1988.

Jim Richards, Executive Director Gary Ledbetter, Editor Keith Collier, Managing Editor Sharayah Colter, Staff Writer Russell Lightner, Design & Layout Stephanie Barksdale, Subscriptions

Contributing Writers David Roach, Michael Foust, Marc Ira Hooks, Matthew McKellar, Erin Roach, Jim Burton

To contact the TEXAN, visit texanonline.net/contact or call toll free 877.953.7282 (SBTC).

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Southwestern Seminary preaching professor Matthew McKellar examines the book of Jonah, painting a picture of Jonah’s response to revival.

Rather than emulate the famous “unprophet,” Christians should, “Remember Jonah and herald with urgency the message of the One who said: ‘… and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’” (Matt. 12:41)

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FLOOD VICTIMS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA RECEIVE AID Severe rains have hammered Madagascar, Mozambique and Malawi in recent weeks, displacing more than 200,000 people and leaving hundreds more missing or dead.

Baptist Global Response and International Mission Board personnel rushed aid to vital areas, delivering food and supplies to families with critical needs across southern Africa.

Read the story here.

MORMONS ON LGBT RIGHTS CALLED NAIVE, UNHELPFUL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will support civil rights for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people if religious freedom protections also are ensured, its leaders announced Jan. 27.

Southern Baptist leaders, however, said the Mormons’ approach to the conflict between sexual rights and religious liberty is naive and unhelpful, as well as unacceptable to proponents of LGBT rights.

Read the story here.

FLOGGING OF SAUDI BLOGGER AGAIN POSTPONED Saudi officials have postponed—for a third time—the weekly lashing of blogger Raif Badawi, who was to receive 50 lashes 20 consecutive Fridays for insulting Islam.

No reason was given for this week’s postponement, BBC News reported.

Badawi, a 30-year-old husband and father of three daughters, received his first round of lashes Jan. 9 outside the Juffali Mosque in Jeddah after Friday prayers. The lashings were suspended the two following weeks because officials said he had not sufficiently healed from the first beating to endure another.

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ALA. JUDGES MAY ISSUE GAY MARRIAGE LICENSES A key judicial organization in Alabama said Jan. 28 that it believes a federal judge’s ruling striking down the state’s gay marriage ban could soon require probate judges to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Following U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade’s Jan. 23 ruling that the “Sanctity of Marriage Amendment” to Alabama’s constitution violates the federal constitution, the Alabama Probate Judges Association issued a statement claiming the ruling only applied to “parties in the case” and did not require its members to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

But a clarification issued by Granade Jan. 28 led the judges’ organization to change its mind. President Greg Norris said in a statement that the association now believes its members could be required to issue marriage licenses to samesex couples Feb. 9, when a stay of Granade’s ruling to allow time for an appeal expires.

Read the story here.

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The Obama administration has renewed its call for the release of imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini.

Meanwhile, the pastor has sent a letter thanking the president for visiting his family in Idaho, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) reported.

The renewed call came Jan. 29 about the time President Obama received a letter from Abedini thanking the president for meeting with Abedini’s wife Naghmeh and their two children in Boise, Idaho, Jan. 21.

Read the story here.

Read the story here.

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OBAMA ADMIN. RENEWS CALL FOR ABEDINI’S RELEASE

KANSAS BILL COULD BAN D&E PROCEDURE, SOME FIRSTTRIMESTER ABORTIONS A bill being considered in the Kansas legislature could ban dilation and evacuation procedures in the state and potentially lead to broader abortion restrictions. While most D&E procedures, during which fetuses are dismembered and then removed from the mother’s body, are performed in the second trimester when bones have formed, some are performed in the first trimester—a restriction not legislated in Kansas.

Currently, Kansas bans most abortions at or after the 22nd week of pregnancy.

Read the story here.

ABS TO MOVE HEADQUARTERS TO PHILADELPHIA After nearly 200 years in New York City, the American Bible Society has announced a relocation of its headquarters to Philadelphia. Though the ministry will “maintain a presence” in New York, it will open a 10,000-square-foot office in Philadelphia’s historic district this summer, according to an ABS news release.

Read the story here.

—Briefly section compiled from Baptist Press, other news sources and staff reports

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CITY OF FORT WORTH TO EXTEND SPOUSAL BENEFITS TO SAME-SEX COUPLES Beginning Feb. 1, City of Fort Worth employees who are legally married to a same-sex partner will receive spousal pension benefits, according to a memo the city reportedly released to employees Jan. 28.

Read the story here.

N.Y. MAYOR DEFENDS BAN OF CHURCHES IN SCHOOLS

TEXAS SENATE’S BUDGET PROPOSAL LIMITS PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDS

Although New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had said repeatedly he opposes a Bloomberg-era policy forbidding churches from renting public school spaces for worship services, his administration’s lawyers have filed a brief at the U.S. Supreme Court arguing for the policy.

De Blasio’s administration argues that the Bronx church at the center of the case has no standing to challenge the NYC Department of Education rule.

In the proposed Senate budget, less money will go to Planned Parenthood clinics than other state, county and community health clinics that do not perform abortions. While the funds in question are for breast and cervical cancer screenings, legislators say they’ve heard Texans express their desire that taxpayer money not go toward abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood. So, with that in mind, the proposed budget prioritizes clinics that do not perform such procedures but still serve low-income and uninsured women.

Read the story here.

Read the story here.

ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY FLIERS MAY BE DISTRIBUTED ON COLLEGE CAMPUS, COURT RULES

ORE. BAKERS’ RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ‘STEAMROLLED’

A federal court has ruled that activists may distribute literature opposing homosexuality on an Illinois college campus, following a letter from the college telling the activists they would not be permitted to do so. The court found the school in violation of the Constitution and that it discriminated against the activists based on the content of their speech.

A judge’s verdict against a Christian couple in Oregon has religious liberty advocates counting this as the latest loss in the escalating clash against sexual liberty.

Administrative Law Judge Alan McCullough ruled that Aaron and Melissa Klein—owners of a Gresham, Ore., bakery—unlawfully discriminated against a lesbian couple by declining, based on their religious convictions, the couple’s request for a wedding cake.

Read the story here.

Read more here.

CREATIONISTS MIFFED AT CARNIVAL’S EVOLUTIONSUPPORTING SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL Many creationists found Carnival Cruise Lines’ Super Bowl ad offensive, some of them saying so in blogs and on Twitter. The ad, which featured a voice over by former president John F. Kennedy, depicts serene ocean images along with Kennedy’s 1962 speech saying that the reason people love the sea is that they all came from the sea and have the sea in their blood—an estimation creationists found to be a blatant and unsavory endorsement of the theory of evolution.

Read the story here.

ANSWERS IN GENESIS FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST KY. Answers in Genesis is suing the government of Kentucky for alleged discrimination in refusing to extend a sales tax rebate incentive program to the Ark Encounter theme park the apologetics ministry is building in northern Kentucky.

The state’s decision to deny the tax incentive based on AiG’s status as a religious organization is against the law and violates legal precedent, the lawsuit asserts.

Read more here.

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FABRICATED: ‘I DID NOT GO TO HEAVEN’

MINISTERS’ TAX GUIDE RELEASED BY GUIDESTONE

LifeWay Christian Resources’ decision to stop selling a discredited book about a 6-yearold’s supposed vision of heaven is being cited as a reminder that followers of Jesus should rely on the Bible rather than subjective experience for their knowledge of the afterlife.

“Anytime you step away from the clear, revelatory, propositional statements of Scripture into your own experience, then you open yourself to every kind of weird existential idea out there,” Chris Osborne, a Texas pastor who believes books like this are unbiblical, told Baptist Press. “We want people bound to truth, not to what they feel or what they think they saw or what they experience.”

LifeWay decided Jan. 15 that it would stop selling The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven by the father-son team of Kevin and Alex Malarkey after Alex, now 16, said in a statement that he fabricated the supposed vision of heaven on which the bestselling book is based.

“I did not die. I did not go to heaven,” Alex Malarkey wrote in an open letter to LifeWay and other book retailers.

“I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.

When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible.

People have profited from lies and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough. The Bible is the only source of truth. Anything written by man cannot be infallible,” Malarkey wrote.

GuideStone Financial Resources has released its Ministers’ Tax Guide for 2014 Returns.

The annual handbook provides step-bystep instructions for both active and retired ministers, sample forms and detailed help in understanding the latest tax laws.

Additionally, church treasurers and other church leaders will find a valuable resource in the guide’s special section about important federal requirements for churches.

GuideStone participants can receive the free guide by visiting www.GuideStone.org/ TaxGuide or can request a free printed copy by calling 1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433).

Read the story here.

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S U R V E Y

YOUNGER SOUTHERN BAPTIST INVOLVEMENT RISING Southern Baptists appear to be defying the prevalent notion that young adults are abandoning the American church— at least by one measurement.

Attendance by younger generations reached a 10-year high at the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2014 meeting in Baltimore, according to an annual survey of attendees. The survey, conducted by the SBC Executive Committee, showed nearly onefourth (24.68 percent) of attendees were younger than age 40. That surpassed by more than 4 percentage points the previous best for the age group, recorded in 2013.

Read the story here.

Read the story here.

CP 3.25% AHEAD OF PROJECTION Year-to-date contributions to Southern Baptist Convention national and international missions and ministries received by the SBC Executive Committee are 3.25 percent above the year-to-date budgeted projection, and are 4.97 percent above contributions received during the same time frame last year, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President Frank S. Page. The total includes receipts from state conventions and fellowships, churches and individuals for distribution according to the 2014-15 SBC Cooperative Program Allocation Budget.

Read the story here.

EX-IMB MISSIONARY GETS 2-YEAR SENTENCE Former Southern Baptist missionary Brady Nurse has been sentenced to two years in prison for obtaining nearly $300,000 in mission funds by submitting fraudulent expense reports to the International Mission Board. Three years of supervised release will follow the sentence, handed down Jan. 21 by U.S. Eastern District Judge James R. Spencer.

Read the story here.

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A N A LY S I S :

Rape on college campuses

By David Roach | BP The horrific volume of sexual assault on U.S. college campuses is not only a reflection of the wickedness in individual assailants’ hearts. It is the fruit of a campus culture awash in sexual immorality.

Though perpetually an issue at colleges and universities, the blight of rape was highlighted Jan. 27 by the conviction of two former Vander-

bilt University football players for sexually assaulting an unconscious female student in 2013. Ultimate blame for this crime lies with the men who committed it. These men, having been found guilty by jury trial, deserve to be punished in accordance with the law.

But there is more that must be said. During the trial, one defendant’s attorney argued that the “university’s culture of hard drinking and easy hookups” contributed to his client’s behavior, The New York Times reported. Though the claim does not excuse his client’s behavior, sociological data and Scripture suggest that the attorney may be on to something.

In December, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report stating that the rate of sexual assault among

college-age females is three times higher than among non-college-age women. The National Institute on Alcohol, Abuse and Alcoholism found that four out of five college students drink alcohol, and half of those binge drink. Combine with that statistics reported by Ohio State University researcher Morgan Van Epp that 70 percent of college males and 60 percent of college females report becoming sexually active before age 17.

The Bible addresses rape as well, with sexual assaults often presented in Scripture as symptomatic of a wicked culture. Any lasting solution to sexual assault on college campuses must address the underlying culture in which drunkenness and illicit sex are viewed as permissible.

Read full story here.

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 5

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‘OLD FASHIONED’ FAITH ROMANCE CLASHES WITH ‘FIFTY SHADES’

By Michael Foust What happens when a God-honoring romantic movie is released on the same weekend as Fifty Shades Of Grey, which is based on a series of sexually exploitive and popular novels?

We’re about to find out.

The faith-based movie is Old Fashioned, a Valentine’s Day weekend film that turns everything America believes about dating on its head and proves that true romance is found in upholding biblical values, not following trashy novels.

It tells the story of a Christian single man who has developed “oldfashioned” views of dating, years after a promiscuous college life. But his theories about romance are put to the test when he meets a freespirited young woman who is new in town and who is taken aback by his “outdated” beliefs. For starters, he refuses to be alone with her at her apartment. There obviously is mutual interest, but can they make a traditional courtship work in modern-day America?

Old Fashioned was written and directed by Rik Swartzwelder, who said he wanted to make a movie telling the story of Christian singles who are swimming against the cul6 TEXANONLINE.NET FEBRUARY 10, 2015

tural tide in trying to find romance.

Most faith-based romance movies, he said, are either set in the 1800s or on an Amish farm.

He wrote the story at a time when he and his single friends were looking to find a mate. Swartzwelder stars in the lead role.

“No one had really ever seen a romantic drama that told our story,” he told the TEXAN. “We never saw a movie about a bunch of singles who loved God and wanted to honor God but were looking to fall in love and get married. I started thinking: What if you took two 30-somethings who had a history, who have baggage, and you have a character who was trying to honor God after the fact?”

The movie—well-received in audience screenings—initially was set for release in fall 2014. But when Universal announced it was pushing out Fifty Shades of Grey over Valentine’s Day weekend, Swartzwelder and others decided to delay the release of Old-Fashioned. Variety and Time magazine each have taken note of the David vs. Goliath worldview clash.

“We actually think this could be a gift from God,” Swartzwelder said of the timing. “This is a real opportunity to push the cultural discussion.”

The church, too, needs to hear the film’s message, Swartzwelder

said. He once did a survey of women—Christian and non-Christian—and asked them two questions: Could you describe your perfect date? Could you describe your perfect mate?

Both Christians and nonChristians gave nearly identical answers, he said. For a date, they wanted romance. But for a mate, they gave different answers: someone who is faithful, someone who is honest, someone who is good with kids.

“Everything about American culture trains us to be good dates, not necessarily good mates,” he said.

“We’re experts at wooing.”

Swartzwelder intentionally wrote the story to include singles whose sexual past was not pure.

“We wanted to hold up a godly standard. But we didn’t want to heap guilt on anyone who has made mistakes, who already feels broken and already feels like love has passed them by,” he said. “Life isn’t neat and tidy for everybody.”

Old Fashioned is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and opens in more than 30 cities across Texas.

It contains no language, nudity or explicit sexuality. It deals with adult themes but not in an exploitive way.

Visit oldfashionedmovie.com.

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ALSO PLAYING

PADDINGTON (PG) The loveable talking bear that got his start in a 1958 British children’s book and then a series of cartoons now has his own hilarious children’s movie. It’s a live action film with a (very believable) computer generated Paddington, and it features a cast of well-known names: Hugh Bonneville

PROJECT ALMANAC (PG-13) What if you could go back in time and change events in your life—that time you blew it during a job interview, that moment you said something you shouldn’t have, or even that day you had a major car wreck? That’s the premise behind Project Almanac, a film partially produced by MTV that brings back a concept moviegoers never grow tired

BLACK OR WHITE (PG-13) Appropriately titled, this provocative film starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer spotlights a host of mature and even hot-button issues—racism, child custody, alcoholism and drug addiction—as a well-to-do grandfather (Elliot Anderson, played by Costner) battles a black grandmother (Rowena Jeffers, Spencer) from the inner

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

Jan. 30-Feb. 1

(Downton Abbey) as Mr. Brown, Sally Hawkins (Happy-GoLucky) as Mrs. Brown and Nicole Kidman as Millicent.

Paddington is more popular in Britain than America—in 2012 he was named “Favorite Ever Animated Character” by the British Animation Awards—but he nevertheless has a solid following among U.S. families and even has made his way

into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As the story goes, a British family finds a homeless Paddington at a train station and essentially adopts him. It’s an enjoyable family-friendly, funny movie and—kudos to the writers—has no foul language.

(Could someone please explain to me why many movies aimed at small children do have language?)

of pondering: time travel. It follows a college-age teen who discovers a time machine in his basement that his deceased father had built but had been unable to power. This smart teen and his friends, though, get it working. They travel back in time, only to discover that time travel is far more complex than they wished—and that instead of fixing their past problems, they are making matters worse.

I enjoy time travel movies, but this one has far too much language and sensuality to make it even remotely family-friendly, although the movie’s message actually underscores the biblical worldview. That is: God is sovereign and has a plan for our lives, but if we think our lives would be better if we had the reins, we’re deceiving ourselves (Proverbs 19:21, Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 29:11).

city over custody of their granddaughter, a biracial girl.

Elliot’s wife was killed recently in a car wreck, and they had been raising the girl since day one after their daughter died giving birth. But Elliot begins drinking heavily after his wife’s death, and Rowena sees an opportunity to gain full custody, saying she is more fit and that the father (her son) had cleaned up his act after being

addicted to drugs. Moviegoers who have been involved in custody battles likely will find the plot stomach churning, and, honestly, those who have not had such an experience will, too. But custody battles take place in courtrooms every day across America, and—just like the movie—they’re often ugly and rarely clear-cut. The movie has mild sensuality but is heavy on language.

Movie Weekend Gross Weeks In Theaters 1. American Sniper (R)

$30,660,528

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2. Project Almanac (PG-13)

$8,310,252

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3. Paddington (PG) $8,267,864 3 4. Black or White (PG-13)

$6,213,362

1

5. The Boy Next Door (R)

$6,081,045

2

6. The Wedding Ringer (R)

$5,690,243

3

7. The Imitation Game (PG-13)

$5,010,913

10

8. Taken 3 (PG-13) $3,745,914 4 9. Strange Magic (PG)

$3,361,664

2

10. The Loft (R) $2,747,342 1

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 7

EMBRACING THE LOST IN

LONDON

THE PASTOR, THE PEOPLE, THE PLANTER

By Marc Ira Hooks | IMB LONDON

A Baptist pastor, a retired police officer and a medical office manager from Texas walk into a Greek cafe in London.

It sounds like the setup to a great joke. But nearly three years ago a small group from Mansfield, Texas, wandered the streets of northern London looking for Greek people from the island of Cyprus. Their task—to identify the people, make relationships, share the gospel and plant a church—an assignment that seemed, at the time, much like a joke.

Today, while the mission still feels overwhelming to the church, progress is being made.

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First Baptist Church of Mansfield was one of the first churches to respond to the International Mission Board’s (IMB) call to embrace the unreached people groups of Europe.

The Embrace program is an IMB initiative that challenges churches to adopt an unengaged, unreached people group (UUPG) and plant churches among those people. The people groups on the Embrace list do not have IMB church planters assigned to them. The concept is for the stateside church to be the church planters, the missionaries, to these people.

“We are not coming alongside a full-time church planter,” Dickerson said. “If something is going to be done here, we are the ones who are going to have to do it. That is very different from anything we have ever done in the past.”

Over the past three years the church has taken multiple trips to London, and one of their members, Stanley Griffis, has spent a significant amount of time in London meeting people and building relationships with Greek Cypriots.

Griffis, who has made more than a half dozen trips as part of this

mission, spent almost four months this past year living in northern London among the Greek Cypriot community. He now has relationships not only with members of their people group but also with other believers in the area who are doing ministry and outreach.

As a result, Griffis has been able to make connections between the Greek Cypriot community and the members of the church in Mansfield, as well as with a group of Brazilians who have a ministry there.

Through the work of FBC Mansfield, lives are being touched and changed. Believers are being connected with each other for fellowship, prayer and Bible study. And, people are coming to faith in Christ.

It is a long-term commitment, Dickerson said, and one that requires he and his church to continue to step out in faith and obedience.

“There is no safety net,” Dickerson said. “We are the ones who will reach the Greek-Cypriots of London, and we are committed to doing whatever it takes.”

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E M B R AC I N G

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The Pastor

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Johnny Dickerson (right), pastor of FBC Mansfield, Texas, asks for directions during his first visit to northern London in 2012. The church was one of the first to embrace an unengaged people group in Europe.

PHOTO BY MARC IRA HOOKS

By Marc Ira Hooks | IMB Johnny Dickerson admits that he didn’t know what he was getting himself—and his church—into three years ago when they agreed to come alongside IMB in a new program called Embrace.

“We didn’t know any better than to take IMB at their challenge to plant a church,” laughed Dickerson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Texas. “So, that has been our goal.”

But, as a pastor who is used to measuring progress by weekly head counts, baptisms and other tangible metrics, embracing an unengaged, unreached people group (UUPG) in a foreign country has proved to be a challenge.

Dickerson’s first trip to London was in spring 2012 for a hands-on training “lab” provided by IMB leadership in Europe.

“I came home from that first trip not even really convinced that we could do this,” Dickerson said. “I appreciated what IMB was trying to do, but I was just not sure how we were going to make it happen.”

Dickerson said he was overwhelmed by the task. “It is hard,” he said. “You can spend an entire day prayer walking, and at the end of the day you know that prayer is effective because you are a believer, but you have no real progress to show for what you have done. There is no real tangible result of you being there.”

However, over time, the groups from FBC Mansfield have seen progress. Since their first trip, more than 10 different groups have gone

to engage the Greek Cypriots (Greek people from the island of Cyprus) in the northern London community of Palmers Green.

“I believe that we are at the crucial juncture now,” Dickerson said.

“We’ve done some mapping. We’ve done some prayer walking. No, we’ve done a LOT of prayer walking. We have identified our people group. And, we have made contact with them. Now, are we going to fish or cut bait?”

And while measuring the success of this venture has proved to be difficult for Dickerson, this fall, during his last trip to London, he helped lead a Greek couple to the Lord.

“In three years we have come from not knowing anybody from our people group to seeing two people, a husband and wife, come to know Christ,” Dickerson said. “And, it happened in the home of a Greek Cypriot who was letting us stay in their London home while they were on vacation!”

Dickerson said their goal for this next year includes staging a 12- to 16-week Bible study for the Greek Cypriots in the north London community of Palmers Green.

“It is going to be different. This is something that will take the entire church to accomplish,” he said. “We are talking about having multiple people and teams who will be tagging up and passing it off to different people throughout that time.”

Dickerson added that having technology like Facebook and Skype allows church members to remain in constant contact with the people they have met in London, even when they are not there.

“There is no greater time in the world than right now to do what we are doing,” Dickerson said. “It is a time when a church in Mansfield, Texas, can plant a church in London, England, and have it be a church project, and not just have a church planter out there by himself doing this thing alone.”

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The People

By Marc Ira Hooks | IMB

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ary and Nicoletta had met years before.

Both Greek families emigrated a generation ago to the northern London community of Palmers Green from their home in Cyprus. And both were still connected very deeply with their Greek roots.

Nicoletta was a Greek language teacher, and Mary’s children were her

students. They were casual friends, but as time passed and the children stopped taking Greek lessons, the two women drifted apart—until the day a man from Texas reunited them.

“I got a call one day from Stan,” Mary recalled. “He asked me to come down to the cafe because he wanted me to meet another Greek woman who was a believer (in Jesus), just like me.”

The Greek Cypriot community of northern London is tight-knit and predominantly Greek Orthodox.

Nicoletta, who has been an evangelical believer for much of her adult life, explained that, if a person breaks off from the Orthodox Church, they are labeled as a heretic.

“You are someone who has left the true vine and have gone astray,” Nicoletta said. As a result, Greeks who become believers are often detached from family and friends because of the stigma connected with leaving the Orthodox Church.

“We were all living within maybe a twomile radius of one another.

Yet, before Stan, we didn’t know each other.

For me, this has been a miracle— something that only God could do.”

“We really did feel completely and utterly isolated,” said Nicoletta’s husband, Milton. “And, we were thinking, ‘Are we the only ones? We haven’t met anybody else. Are we in this struggle alone?’”

Mary shared similar feelings of being alone in her faith. So, when she entered the cafe to find her friend Stan Griffis—a volunteer missionary from Mansfield, Texas—sitting with Nicoletta, she was shocked and elated.

3Mary (left) was unaware there were other Greek Cypriots who were evangelical believers living in her community until she met Stan Griffis (right) of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Texas. As part of their church’s mission to embrace the Greek Cypriot community of northern London, Stan has been able to connect believers with one another. PHOTO BY MARC IRA HOOKS

10 TEXANONLINE.NET FEBRUARY 10, 2015

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3Nicoletta and Mary pose together at the Bookafe in Palmers Green.

The two have known each other for several years but recently discovered they are both evangelical believers.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT GREEK CYPRIOTS IN LONDON The people of Cyprus represent two main ethnic groups—Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The Greek Cypriots are primarily Eastern Orthodox, mainly referred to today as “Greek Orthodox.” The Turkish Cypriots are predominately Muslim.

This religious difference between these ethnic groups has lead to hostility and division among the Cypriots.

The migration of the Greek Cypriots to the U.K. began to take place while Cyprus was formally annexed

by Great Britain in 1914.

It is estimated that there are currently between 350,000 to 500,000 Greek Cypriots in London.

PHOTO BY MARC IRA HOOKS

Both women said they had no idea before that moment that the other was a believer. Now, because of the connection made by Griffis and the work of First Baptist Church of Mansfield, Texas, the women meet together weekly for prayer and Bible study, along with other Greek believers.

“That really helped because I no longer felt isolated in what I was doing,” Nicoletta said. “We were quite pleased to see there are other Greek Cypriot people who are breaking away from tradition and seeking to have a personal relationship with Christ.”

Milton said when Stan and the teams from FBC Mansfield started coming to Palmers Green three years ago, God used them as a “binding agent” to draw the Greek Cypriot believers together. “(Stan) was going out to where the heart of the community was. And, as he met (Greek Cypriot) believers, he would introduce us to each other,” Milton said. “We were all living within maybe a two-mile radius of one another. Yet, before Stan, we didn’t know each other. For me, this has been a miracle—something that only God could do.”

Now, as the Greek believers meet together, they talk and pray about how to reach their community for Christ, a task made more difficult

by the cultural Orthodox faith the Greeks share.

Another believer, Rena, explained that Greeks believe they have no need to hear about religions outside of the Greek Orthodox faith.

“Though they may have had the truth many, many years ago, it is not there any more. It’s just tradition and religion,” Rena said. “The difference from here (points to her head) to here (points to her heart) is the difference between death and life.”

Mary believes Griffis and the groups from Mansfield have been a catalyst not just for bringing Greek believers together but also to cast a vision for reaching many in their community.

“Stan has such boldness, but he needed help,” Mary said. “He needed other Greek ex-Orthodox believers to come and stand with him and to help him.”

The believers of Palmers Green said they want to keep the work going, even when the groups from Mansfield are not in London.

“They have spent a lot of time discipling us. Together we will make more and more disciples,” said Mary.

“Eventually we will have one massive team out there doing what the vision was to do in the first place … to plant churches.”

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 11

E M B R AC I N G

T H E

LO ST

IN

LO N D O N :

The Planter

5 Stan Griffis (center) of First Baptist

Church of Mansfield, Texas, prays with the staff of the Bookafe, a Christian coffee shop in northern London operated by Brazilian missionaries. Griffis uses the coffee shop as a neutral location to meet with members of the church’s adopted people group to make relationships and share the gospel. PHOTO BY MARC IRA HOOKS

By Marc Ira Hooks | IMB Retired police officer Stan Griffis is no stranger to walking a neighborhood beat. Little did he know, his experiences in Dallas would lead him to the streets of London.

Today, Griffis pounds the pavement of Palmers Green, a neighborhood in northern London, in search of people. But this time it is not criminals that he seeks; instead, he looks for opportunities to make new relationships, especially with Greeks from the island of Cyprus, who have settled here.

“It was overwhelming at first,” said Griffis, who attends First 12 TEXANONLINE.NET FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Baptist Church of Mansfield, Texas.

“But, it was an adventure.”

Griffis’ first trip to London was nearly three years ago when he joined his church in an IMB initiative to embrace an unengaged people group—to be the missionaries among a people group where IMB was not currently working.

While the church regularly sends groups to minister in London, it is Griffis who has been a constant in their efforts. He has now made seven trips from Texas, once staying for nearly four months. The policeman has been transformed into a church planter.

Standing well over 6 feet and wearing a bright red Texas Rangers baseball hat, Griffis is hard to miss as he walks down the streets of Palmers Green. He stops to talk with people on the street, and in the different restaurants and shops. And, as he does, he is warmly greeted by name.

“Looking back, I would say this has been successful. But God is not finished yet. I believe that we are going to see many more people come to know Jesus. And, as they become passionate about reaching their own people, we are going to see northern London changed for the glory of God.” “We began by doing prayer walking,” Griffis said. “And as we walked, God would allow us to meet different people. And that has been the catalyst to seeing this mission progress. Now, people have begun to open up and the barriers that we first experienced are gone.”

Griffis, as well as the others from Mansfield who have visited, have been accepted into the Greek community.

“I think the fact that it is not professional missionaries, or church staff people, but lay people—average church members—who are coming has given us an opportunity to have credibility with the people we are trying to reach because we are just like them,” Griffis said. He added that the task becomes even more difficult because England is considered a Christian nation and Greek Cypriots come from a very strong Orthodox tradi-

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tion. Therefore, they do not see the need for someone to talk with them about religious things.

“Sadly, those traditions (of the Orthodox Church) have kept many of them trapped in darkness,” Griffis said.

But, the unexpected happened as Griffis began to meet people in the Greek Cypriot community. He discovered that there were those who identified themselves as followers of Christ.

“When we initially came (to London) our outlook was that we

were coming to embrace a people group that was totally unreached … that they had no clue at all about the gospel or about Jesus,” Griffis said. “And yet, as we met people we began to locate a handful of believers. But because of the (Greek Orthodox) culture, they have been living isolated from one another, not knowing that each other were believers.”

Griffis explained that for a Greek Orthodox to openly embrace evangelical Christianity it would separate them from their commu-

nity, and they would be branded as a heretic.

However, now through the connections that Griffis has made, Greek Cypriot believers in London are meeting together regularly for prayer and Bible study and are having conversations about how they can partner together with the church in Mansfield to reach their community with the gospel.

“Looking back, I would say this has been successful. But God is not finished yet,” Griffis said. “I believe that we are going to see many more people come to know Jesus.

And, as they become passionate about reaching their own people, we are going to see northern London changed for the glory of God.”

A CLOSER LOOK

CLICK IMAGES TO WATCH VIDEO

5 Volunteer church planter Stan

Griffis of Mansfield, Texas, shares how God is using a Christian coffee shop, The Bookafe, operated by Brazilian missionaries in northern London to reach their community for Christ. Griffis uses the coffee shop as a neutral, non-threatening location to meet with members of the church’s adopted people group to make relationships and share the gospel.

5 Volunteer church planter Stan

Griffis from Mansfield, Texas, talks about the importance prayer walking played in making relationships with Greek Cypriots in the northern London community of Palmers Green.

VIDEOS BY MARC IRA HOOKS

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 13

Ross calls for senior pastors’ attention to youth ministry in new resource

By Sharayah Colter Richard Ross, co-founder of True Love Waits and known for his passion for seeing young people come to know and serve Jesus, says while the youth minister plays an important role in raising up a generation of sold-out Christians, the senior pastor holds the keys to unlocking “true reformation” in youth ministry. He writes as much in his new book, The Senior Pastor and the Reformation of Youth Ministry.

Unlike some of his other books geared toward youth ministers and parents—including 50 Core Principles of Youth Ministry, Student Ministry and the Supremacy of Christ and Accelerate: Parenting Teenagers Toward Adulthood—Ross’s new book is written with senior pastors in mind.

“I believe in youth pastors,” Ross says. “The vast majority of them are sacrificially investing their lives to see teenagers join Christ in changing the world. But they do not have the voice, the pulpit or the influence to lead the entire congregation toward a true reformation in youth ministry.”

Only the senior pastor has that kind of influence, Ross writes in the preface.

“That is why this book is targeted specifically to you,” he says to senior pastors.

Ross, who spent 30 years serving churches as a youth minister before joining the faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sees Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) as one of the major issues stifling revival in both teenagers and adults.

14 TEXANONLINE.NET FEBRUARY 10, 2015

The term, coined by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton in their 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, is used to characterize a common religious worldview held by many American young people.

When speaking at the 2014 Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Bible Conference in Fort Worth, Ross described someone who has bought into MTD as someone who would like to have a little Jesus figurine to carry around in his or her pocket. These people pray to Jesus when they are in a bind or when they need to pass a test, but when it comes to serving Jesus and revering him as king, the God-Man is simply a byword and less than a passing thought.

“A little Jesus is no Jesus at all,” Ross told conference attendees.

Part of the reason teenagers buy into this empty philosophy, Ross says, is that this sort of shallow easy-believism has been modeled before them by parents and even youth workers.

“Why focus on senior pastors?”

Ross asks. “Because some of the adults who have the greatest impact on teenagers are spiritually shallow. Church teenagers aren’t shallow because the pizza got cold but because some of their parents and even volunteer leaders are shallow.”

Involvement from the top and attention to solid teaching can help to rectify that, Ross says.

“As this book will make clear,” Ross continues in the preface, “the youth pastor can and should have a role in the spiritual transformation of parents and volunteer leaders.

But the senior pastor must take the lead role, and he has to know specifically how that role should look.”

The reformation of youth ministry, Ross says, will require change—some systemic and some more specific with the design of youth ministry itself. Hence, the need for a team effort that includes the senior pastor, youth pastor, parents, youth workers and the entire congregation.

“Some of the most needed reformations involve systemic change that will ripple through the entire congregation,” Ross said. “Even the brightest and most influential youth pastor cannot lead such change alone. That is why I am issuing a call to senior pastors.”

Ross points out that time is of the essence in the effort to demonstrate true faith before teenagers’ watching eyes.

“If we keep doing youth ministry the way we have for decades, we will keep getting these same results. That is why I am calling for a complete reformation and not business as usual.”

The Senior Pastor and the Reformation of Youth Ministry is available online at RichardARoss.com.

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Multicultural church plant aims to reflect Grand Prairie Trinity Worldwide Church hosted a couples night, Feb. 7, to encourage and strengthen marriages. Here, pastor Dante Burress officiates a recommitment ceremony during the event.

By Erin Roach GRAND PRAIRIE

When Dante Burress and his family moved from Chicago to plant a church in the Dallas area, they were drawn to Grand Prairie because its multicultural population reflects the world.

Burress is planting Trinity Worldwide Church, which is affiliating with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to reach the people from wide-ranging backgrounds who are moving in droves to the Dallas suburb.

Grand Prairie, in Burress’s estimation, is 30 percent black, 30 percent white, 30 percent Hispanic and 10 percent Asian.

“Our next door neighbors are Vietnamese,” he told the TEXAN. “Our other next door neighbors are Hispanic.”

Many churches express a desire to be multicultural, Burress said, but their leaders all look the same.

He is planting Trinity Worldwide

with a goal of assembling a core team that reflects the diverse population of Grand Prairie.

After Burress and his wife Naminya shared their vision for moving to Texas, three families moved with them from Chicago.

They’ve been working since the summer at organizing a leadership base and discipling new believers.

Trinity Worldwide gathers for Bible study at a YMCA on Wednesday nights. When the YMCA hosted a Trunk or Treat in October, Burress partnered with them and handed out a few hundred flyers about the church.

“There were 4,000 people that came out to that,” Burress said of the Trunk or Treat, signaling the potential for reaching many for Christ.

As a Christmas outreach, Trinity Worldwide hosted a gift-wrapping event for the community at the YMCA. From that, the church compiled a database of prospects

while interacting with residents of Grand Prairie, Burress said.

Burress also has been looking for opportunities to penetrate lostness in Grand Prairie by working with the parent-teacher organizations at his children’s schools.

“I use Luke 2:52, that I would grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man,” he said.

“It has been working.”

Burress earned a master’s in urban ministry and Christian studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., and now is working on a D.Min. in preaching at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill. His thesis for that degree focuses on assisting church leaders in biblical parenting in the DallasFort Worth metroplex.

As Trinity Worldwide interacts with Grand Prairie’s multicultural population, Burress’s doctoral work plays an important role in establishing a connection point.

“We know that the perfect picture of a family is a husband and wife, but that’s not what you see,” he said. “The perfect picture has been broken, but God can still use those pieces.”

If Trinity Worldwide can help residents of Grand Prairie raise their children with biblical values, Burress said, “It can affect the next generation down the line.”

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 15

Texas roots now planted in South Dakota

By Jim Burton | NAMB

M SIOUX Falls, S.D.

ore than 180 years ago, anyone living in the Mexican controlled Texas territory had to speak Spanish and could only attend a Roman Catholic Church. As Stephen F. Austin led the effort toward Texas independence, a friend of his, Josiah H. Bell, was equally resolute toward another objective. Bell helped form the first Protestant church in Texas.

Bell started a family tradition that today reaches to the Dakotas.

16 TEXANONLINE.NET FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Jonathan and Shelby Land moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., with their daughters, Harper (5) and Cora (3), to plant a church.

Jonathan Land is a 2015 Week of Prayer missionary for Send North America. The goal for the 2015 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is $60 million. To learn more about the Week of Prayer, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and how your church can be mobilized to push back lostness in North America, visit anniearmstrong.com.

NAMB PHOTO BY JOHN SWAIN

“I guess it’s in our blood,” said North American Mission Board (NAMB) church planter Jonathan Land. He is Bell’s great, great, great, great grandson, and they share deep Texas roots.

“I was born in Texas,” Land said.

“There’s a reason people don’t like people from Texas. They are just so arrogant about being from Texas. I used to be that guy.”

South Dakota has taken some edge off that arrogance.

Land’s father served Texas churches as a youth minister and pastor during Land’s childhood. At age 8, Land was asking the right questions, which led to a discussion with his dad about salvation. At the family’s breakfast table, Land prayed with his father and placed his faith in Christ. He remembers an immediate change.

“I remember the first few times it came out of my mouth,” Land said. “I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus.”

As a teenager, Land was studious, a self-described nerd. Still, he found time to get into mischief.

“I distinctly look back and remember there were some moments when my life could have gone in a number of different directions than it has now,” Land said.

By his late teens, Land felt a call to ministry. He helped serve in the youth ministry of a small church that even allowed him to preach.

After high school, Land attended McMurry University in Abilene on an academic scholarship and played baseball. He now realizes that during his freshman year he was worshipping baseball. Meanwhile, the pressure to keep a high grade point average and a new dating relationship with Shelby, his future wife, caused him to rearrange some priorities. He quit baseball and soon became the interim pastor of a small West Texas church during the summer break.

“They showed me mercy each week,” Land recalled.

Making the Connection Following college, Land enrolled at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey for graduate studies. He intended to pursue Ph.D. studies, but again there was a change of heart when he realized that classroom teaching might not be his thing. So the Lands returned to Texas. He became pastor in Groom and met Doug Hixson, who was a pastor up the road in Pampa.

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2015 Week of Prayer missionary for Send North America Jonathan Land (center) greets Siriah (left) and Lacy following services at Connection Church in Sioux Falls, S.D. The church launched Easter 2014. NAMB PHOTO BY JOHN SWAIN

Shelby Land leads a children’s Sunday School class at Connection Church in Sioux Falls, S.D., a church she helped launch with husband Jonathan. Jonathan Land is a 2015 Week of Prayer missionary for Send North America.

“We had a similar passion to reach people with the gospel, and we were actively engaged in it in West Texas,” Land said.

Hixson had moved his family to Spearfish, S.D., in 2010 to start Connection Church. His passion for church planting in the Dakotas grew to the point that Hixson sent a text to Land asking what he thought about planting a church six hours away in Sioux Falls.

“I had sent a credit card bill to Sioux Falls once or twice, but other than that I had no real knowledge of it,” Land said.

Through the Dakota Baptist Convention and with Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® financial support from NAMB, Land became a church planter apprentice with Hixon in Spearfish. Apprentice is one of the levels of involvement in the North American Mission

Board’s Farm System. The Farm System looks to assist churches in discovering, developing and deploying the next generation of missionaries.

“That was a big deal for Doug and me,” Land recalled. “Some guys can just jump out there and do what it takes. We needed some skills to know what to do.”

After the move, Land soon became the lead church planter and worship leader at Connection Church in Spearfish’s first plant, which was in Belle Fourche. But Land’s sights were on Sioux Falls. With help from existing churches, there was doorto-door canvassing and multiple block parties in Sioux Falls.

Those efforts generated a small group of interested people, enough for Land to drive regularly six hours across the state to lead them.

High religious IQ Sioux Falls is a thriving metropolitan area of 250,000 people where financial services companies help fuel the economy.

Once Land and Shelby moved there with their two children, they bought a fixer-upper home with meeting space and started hosting Bible studies.

“We aren’t walking into a place that has never heard the name of Jesus,” Land said. “They have a high religious IQ, (but) the majority have not been following Jesus.”

Connection Church in Sioux Falls launched on Easter 2014 with 43 in attendance at a local elementary school.

“We gave our entire offering away to church planting and Annie Armstrong,” Land said. The church now contributes 25 percent of its undesignated tithes to missions.

Within three months, they broke the 50-attendee barrier, which is a milestone for Southern Baptists in the Dakotas.

Connection Church in Sioux Falls has attracted many young, single adults.

Land’s passion for the Dakotas and the potential for church plants there has grown rapidly.

“If we had planters and money, we could equip people to plant on a regular basis,” he said.

Land looks forward to the day when Connection Church in Sioux Falls is helping other church plants, much like Mobberly Baptist Church in Longview, Texas, which supports both Connection Church plants financially and with volunteers.

That would make his great, great, great, great grandfather proud. Even better, Land is part of a multigenerational church planting legacy, one that will continue as Connection Church plants churches that will plant churches.

The goal for the 2015 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is $60 million. To learn more about the Week of Prayer, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering and how your church can be mobilized to push back lostness in North America, visit anniearmstrong.com.

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 TEXANONLINE.NET 17

Matthew McKellar

A Jolt from Jonah

I

n his book A Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Tim Keller quotes the noteworthy theologian Darth Vader, who says to a colleague, “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

When we turn to the Old Testament book of Jonah, we encounter a lack of faith that is devastatingly disturbing.

We are jolted to discover that the lack of faith, in this case, belongs to Jonah who himself may be identified accurately as the ultimate “unprophet.” He was an ancient form of Archie Bunker, the closed-minded character from the famous All in the Family sitcom of the 70s. Note to millennials: save yourself the time and trouble of googling Archie Bunker. Just think intolerant bigot with a capital “B.” Most readers of Jonah’s story focus on his being swallowed by a great fish and subsequently being “deposited” on dry ground. Yet, that sequence of events is only the precursor to greater intrigue. Clearly aware of the trauma of facing another “fish-swallowing,” Jonah goes to Nineveh, the great city and center of Assyrian cruelty, and preaches the God-assigned message of repentance to its inhabitants. The result is a mass revival perhaps unparalleled in history. One would think that all is well at this point and that a neat bow could be affixed to the story of Jonah. However, as Jonah 4 indicates, this is not the case. Jonah’s response to revival in Nineveh jolts the reader and evokes yet another “shaking my head” moment. Rather than rejoicing in a mighty movement of God in which he is an ordained instrument, Jonah turns theological advisor to the Almighty and rails against Him for the very attributes that form the foundation of his own deliverance from disaster.

Surely, the jolted reader thinks, Jonah will move beyond his narrow and nationalistic conception of Yahweh and relish the reality of his lavish grace. Sadly, Jonah still needs more schooling in order to begin to grasp the sovereignty of God and that, indeed, “salvation belongs to the Lord.” After expressing his desire for divine euthanasia for himself, he takes a seat east of the city of Nineveh and moves into full spectator mode.

Graciously, the Lord provides for Jonah while serving up to him a powerful dose of applied theology. First, he “appoints” a plant to give the spectator-prophet shade from the scorching heat. Jonah is exceedingly glad about this turn of events. However, the Lord proceeds to “appoint” a worm to “strike” the plant so that it withers.

18 TEXANONLINE.NET FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Then, to top things off, there is an “appointed” wind that is so distressing to Jonah that he pleads yet again for divine euthanasia.

At this point in the narrative, the Lord delivers the ultimate “jolt.” He notes Jonah’s attachment to and affection for a very temporary plant he didn’t create or sustain. Then, the sovereign Lord of the universe drives home his divine lesson when he queries: “And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city … ?” Jonah is exposed!

He values a temporary creation that brings him pleasure more than he values people created in the image of God and sustained by the hand of God. Sinclair Ferguson, commenting on the dramatic events in Jonah, rightly observes: “The reputation of the God of grace in Nineveh necessitated the loss of the reputation of Jonah in Israel.”

We can shake our heads at the clueless obstinacy and insensitivity of Jonah. Yet, the truth is that there is often more of “Jonah” in us than we would care to admit. Two years ago, author Danielle Kurtzleben, in a U.S. News and World Report article, noted that Americans spent 61 billion dollars on pet food and supplies in 2011! Please don’t misunderstand me. I have nothing against our “Fidos and Fluffys.” I simply am pointing out that we can be so attached to our fleeting pleasures and pastimes— think stuff and sports and sex—that we marginalize and minimize what really matters,namely God’s glory and people created in His image who will all spend an eternity in heaven or hell. This is the “jolt” we ought to receive from the story of Jonah.

As the Lord’s pilgrim people on this planet, we desperately need a renewed enthusiasm for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and a renewed commitment to love as he loves. Andrew Murray hits a raw nerve when he writes: “As we seek to find out why, with such millions of Christians, the real army of God that is fighting the hosts of darkness is so small, the only answer is lack of heart.

The enthusiasm of the Kingdom is missing. And that is because there is so little enthusiasm for the King.”

Where there is enthusiasm for the King, there will be an enthusiastic embracing of his agenda. That agenda involves the passionate and relentless pursuit and rescue of sinful rebels like you and me. In his classic poem on Jonah, Thomas Carlisle brings the prophet’s story fullcircle: “And Jonah stalked to his shaded seat and waited for God to come around to his way of thinking. And God is still waiting for a host of Jonahs in their comfortable houses to come around to his way of loving.”

Need a jolt? Remember Jonah and herald with urgency the message of the One who said:”… and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matt. 12:41) — Matthew McKellar serves as Associate Professor of Preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.