Standing Shoulder To Shoulder Together As We Fight the Good Fight of Faith A personal letter of encouragement to You, written solely to "lift up hands that hang down". TO SUBSCRIBE send a blank message to shoulders-subscribe@... . TO UNSUBSCRIBE send a blank message to shoulders-unsubscribe@... . IN EACH CASE you will receive an automated request for confirmation which you must answer. FOR BACK COPIES go to http://associate.com/groups/shoulders . Get "HOPE4KYIV", a praise report and prayer request letter of the Tolliver's ministry as missionaries to Ukraine, TO SUBSCRIBE send a blank message to hope4kyiv-subscribe@.... FOR BACK COPIES go to http://associate.com/groups/hope4kyiv. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #309 ---- 11/10/03 Title: "Menopause Churchianity" My Dear Friend: Well! . . . I must say that I really was mentally dull when I wrote last week's letter. It's been a long time since I made so many grammatical errors! Spelling check doesn't catch those, and I just didn't take time to locate all the dangling participles and incomplete sentences. And, November is Not the 111th month in the year, but rather only the 11th. Oh, brother! Today I am writing you from what is often touted as being the most beautiful city in all of Europe ---- Prague in the Czech Republic. We arrived Saturday evening, got settled into our hotel, and began our four days of meetings on Sunday morning. What a joy it is to renew fellowship with a number of friends who were with us in training and orientation a little more than a year ago. Some of them we've not seen since then . . . friends from the Balkans, the Mediterranean, eastern Europe, and western Europe. In case you wonder, the missionary agency we are with has over 5,000 missionaries in over 275 countries world-wide. We are located in one of fifteen regions, covering twelve time zones and 28 separate countries. Some 400+ of us are scattered through that area. In 1992 there were only two. It is amazing what God is doing in this part of the world. This city is one of extraordinary significance in kingdom work. Yesterday afternoon as some missionary friends took us on a little tour of certain districts, we were reminded of all the many churches everywhere, the hundreds of statues of Bible characters and religious leaders, and the claim that nearly 40% of the people claim Catholicism as their religion. Yet, in spite of that, and in spite of a rich religious heritage, the vast majority of people consider themselves to be atheists. We were told that the Czech Republic is one of the two most atheistic countries in the world. And yet, as Jo Ann and I viewed the statue of John Huss, built on the site where he was burned at the stake, and then as we later walked by the famed Bethlehem Church where he preached to great throngs of people for so many years, I remembered the fire of the Gospel that once blazed in this place. I ask you to join me in praying for this great nation that once again the flames of revival will burn brightly. Pray for the missionaries who labor tirelessly here. Pray that the hearts of the people, long hardened by socialism and secularism, will be softened and that the hearts of stone will be replaced with hearts of flesh receptive to the message of redemption. MENOPAUSAL CHURCHES: Our first session with our colleagues yesterday morning was a three-hour time of praise, worship, intercession for one another, and encouragement. For me personally, the time was highlighted by three very special testimonies and two provocative Bible studies by Preston Pearce and his wife, Karen. Someday I hope to share some wonderfully insightful things with you that they communicated to us. Preston spoke from I Samuel 7:12 on the "Ebenezer's Of Ministry" when God calls us back to remembrance and challenges us to establish some spiritual markers to help us stay the course and continue on. Karen spoke beautifully of what God had taught here over the years as a missionary . . . . namely, that God had called her above all else to be an aroma of Christ to the world (based on II Corinthians 2:14-17) Somewhere in the process of the morning, some colleague made a remark about "menopausal churches" that was absolutely hilarious. The point was that there are churches that have reached a stage of spiritual menopause where they no longer produce new churches. After I quit chuckling over the thought of a church with menopause, I realized that there really are churches like that. In fact, I think I've been a part of some of them. While I'm certainly no authority on the subject, I am acquainted with a number of women who have manifested certain characteristics that are attributed to those changes that take place when a woman's biological clock begins to adjust. (I know I'm treading on dangerous ground, here . . . . but just hear me out on the subject, taking into consideration that my understanding of the deeper ramifications of this subject is clearly inadequate. My wife told me that I didn't have a clue.) She should know. So, with fear and trepidation, I take great risk today in trying to communicate a spiritual principle with a totally inadequate knowledge of the issue of menopause, or the spiritual applications thereof. However, I do know of five products of the phenomenon that can be clearly seen in a church that is suffering from the spiritual side of such a condition. I'm sure that any woman who has endured that biological pilgrimage could name at least a hundred more. Please don't write me . . . . and don't have your wife write me . . . . to point out all that I overlooked. So, I point out, with great apprehension, the five which I see in my limited understanding. (Boy, can I get myself in trouble here!) 1. Emotional Turbulence: Have you ever noticed . . . . some churches are outright cranky, angry, or filled with self pity? It seems that some wear their emotions on their sleeve, and any other church that crosses into their territory, schedules a meeting at the same time they do, or gets some of their church members, sets them off into a tirade of reaction and emotional upheaval. You never know what to expect from those churches. One day they're on fire for the Lord and excited over what's happening, and the next day they're in a knee-jerk reaction about something or they're in the middle of an internal squabble. That's a church that has become menopausal. They're in the process of losing their spiritual youthfulness, vigor, and vitality. 2. Unrealistic Imbalance: Some churches have begun creating expectations of themselves, or of others, to the point that they have gone to extremes on some program, some doctrine, some spiritual gift, or other thing. They have gone to such length in getting out of balance, that they have become unrealistic. They have become so infatuated with spiritual gifts, last days teachings, healing, submission, eternal security, etc. that they no longer can find their way because they're constantly staggering around from the imbalance, and they are no longer a realistic expression of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And, the more they become that way, the more things they try in order to compensate. However, that just increases the problem to the point that they end up as a "fringe" group so far off course that only the most fanatical will follow them. 3. Irrational Unpredictability: Similarly, other churches are totally unpredictable. You never know from one day to the next what to expect from them. There seems to be no logic or sense to their actions, their strategies, and their message. They bring in big name speakers in order to make a name for themselves, but there is no sense of purpose or direction that you can detect. They're like the guy who said, "a man who shoots at nothing, hits it every time", or "someone who doesn't know where he's going will get there every time." Not only do you not know what to expect from them, but what they do makes no sense either. 4. Erratic spiritual temperature: A woman (and I might add, men also have similar symptoms as their metabolic changes hit) in menopause is commonly known to have extreme variations in body temperature . . . . from unbearable hot flashes to feelings of extreme cold. Churches can be the same. They have hot flashes of fervor, hot flashes of zeal, hot flashes of fighting, and a host of other spiritual spikes that could be either good or bad on the surface, and the next week they'll be colder than an ice house in a northern Minnesota winter. There is little or no stability to the spiritual condition of the church. They're either having a hot flash or a cold shoulder . . . . or cold feet. 5. Ultimate fruitlessness: Probably the most obvious consequence of menopause for a woman, and sadly so, is the ultimate acknowledgement that she can no longer bear children. The child bearing era of her life has ended. Apart from a miracle of God, she will no longer give birth to a new life. All she has left is her children born long ago . . . . and the memories. Likewise, the saddest fact of a menopausal church is also barrenness. No great preaching, no wonderful music, no new program, no multi-million dollar building project will change that fact. Because the germ of life has died within itself, the church is barren. No new souls, no new churches, no spiritual fruit. Nothing but death remains. Like in Samuel's day, "Ichabod" has become its name because the glory of God is gone. FINALLY: Of all the characteristics I've mentioned, my friend, the one that saddens me most is the last one. While emotional upheavals may keep things in turmoil, doctrinal or focal imbalance may keep her from faithfully walking the straight and narrow, while unpredictability may constantly haunt a church's integrity and influence, and while spiritual cycles of hot and cold may generate destructive habits, the most heartbreaking of all is for a church to no longer give birth to new churches or no longer see lives being born into the kingdom of God. And, it is an ominous thought to realize just how many churches in the world, some that are decades or even hundreds of years old, have never birthed a new church. If I were to try to identify the three greatest tragedies of western Christianity, it would be . . . . 1. Trying to build the Church without a solid foundation of strategic, authoritative praying, 2. The separation of members into "laity" and "clergy", and 3. The failure to emphasize church planting as the essential and primary way of evangelizing. To be as honest and frank as I know how, and yet as loving as possible, I have to say that if your church has not planted a new church in the past five years, it has outlived its usefulness; and if it has never planted a church at all, it can only be far, far away from God's purpose. I'm currently reading Steve Saint's book, The Great Omission, in which he expresses his thoughts on missions. He says that the purpose of missions is not to evangelize the world, but rather to plant churches who will evangelize the world and plant other churches to do the same. So, even though I'm a missionary living in a strange and confusing land, I know my role is not to evangelize this country, but it is to help my church here plant new churches everywhere we can. Do you know any menopausal churches? Is there hope for such congregations? What about people . . . . do you know any believers who have entered spiritual menopause? Is there hope for them? Apart from a mighty act of God, the answer in both cases is, "No." But . . . . just as God intervened for Abraham and Sarah, and just as He acted for Zacharias and Elizabeth, He can do the same for others. Join me in praying that God will regenerate such churches, and the blight of barrenness will be broken, and churches will once again bear children. In His Bond and For His Kingdom, Bob Tolliver -- Psalm 2:8 Copyright November, 2003 Life Unlimited Ministries lifeunlimited@... www.reachukraine.org/kiev/team/tollivers.htm (Personal ministry) www.reachukraine.org/kiev (General team ministry) If this letter has blessed you, feel free to forward it, with proper credits, to any and all you wish. Subscribe to "Hope4Kyiv", a monthly praise and prayer report of our work in Ukraine by sending a blank message to hope4kyiv-subscribe@.... Please do NOT hit reply to this letter. This is an automated unmanned system. If you want to write Bob, send directly to lifeunlimited@.... Replying to "Shoulder To Shoulder" mailer gets you nowhere. REMEMBER ---- "We will not Work where we have not prayed." (Todd Golden) Online Resources on Ukraine are . . . . www.uazone.net www.hope4cee.org www.ukraineinfo.us www.peopleteams.org/ukrainians www.reachukraine.org May I Recommend . . . . If you have a heart for God and would like to be encouraged in your life and ministry, and you have a burden for your church, your community, and the world, then you may want to receive . . . www.worldprayerteam.org ---- A world-wide network for praying together. www.watchword.org ---- excellent resources on revival, prayer, missions. www.waymakers.org ---- resources on prayer, evangelism, etc. www.operationiraqcare.org ---- To adopt and pray for a special historic city in Iraq. http://www.nppn.org ---- "National Pastors' Prayer Network" newsletter. ~ email: phil@.... Register your PPG: http://www.nppn.org/ppg/ . Usprayercenter@... ---- U. S. World Prayer Center. www.cityreaching.com ---- City Reaching/City Impact Roundtable. fridayfax-subscribe@... ---- Wolfgang Simpson's "Friday Fax" from New Zealand. www.LifeAction.org ---- "Life Action Outreach". www.revivalcsa.co.za ---- "Bulletin On Revival" by Francois Carr in South Africa. www.yifa.org ---- "Youth Interceding For America". www.missionamerica.org ---- "Mission America" . www.lighthousemovement.com ---- "The Lighthouse Movement". Click on "Lighthouses". Other Great Resources Are: www.e-sword.net (one of the best free download Bible study site I've ever seen!) "Christian Communications Toolkit" (using internet wisely) at http://associate.com/camsoc/ctt/ Free software or shareware listings, http://www.associate.com/camsoc/crop/software.html#freewin. "Christian Computing Magazine", www.ccmag.com. CCMag discussion newsletter, ccmag-subscribe@.... Thousands of Free Christian graphics at http://www.christiangraphicdesign.com/premierinfo.htm Secular News on Kiev and Ukraine will give you interesting views at . . . www.kyivweekly.com www.kievpost.com www.kyivpost.com www.ukrainenews.com