At this point, I've been in Istanbul for a week. So far, I love it! I'm living with a guy from Kazakhstan and a local from Istanbul. The Kazak is a Christian and the Turk is a Muslim. Maybe the first or second day I was here, the prayers from the Mosque went off. The Muslim just sat there and did nothing. Curious, I asked him if he was supposed to pray towards Mecca, as I thought this was what Muslims did. In response, he said he wasn't a good Muslim. A couple days later, he returned from the gym and was talking about the chicks he saw there. He has a girlfriend from Poland who lives here, and when my other roommate brought it up, he said, my religion allows for 4 wives. He said he's religious in the right situation. I wonder how many people in every religion are only religious depending on the situation. A lot of Christians in particular say religion is a bad thing. Personally, I couldn't disagree more. Whenever I hear the word religion, I always think of the verse in James that says pure and faultless religion is looking after the widow and orphan. I don't see how that is at odds with the way of Christ.
So far this week, I've had many new experiences, all of which have been good. I find myself in the minority for once, which is a very good thing to experience in order to have empathy when I'm not in the minority like back home. On Thursday night, I had Turkish club followed by English club. At Turkish club, there was a Kazak, a South African, a Turk, a Brazilian, and myself the American. The next night, I had dinner with the same Kazak, a different Turk, a Pole, and again myself the American. I love that type of diversity. And I'm grateful most of the rest of the world speaks English so I can understand. It reminds me of my school that I teach at back home. Some friends of mine once said that Sarasota has no diversity. To this, I instantly thought of my school. It's true that most of Sarasota is not diverse, but there is a hispanic pocket as well as a black pocket. My school is located in the hispanic pocket. 65% of my students speak English as a second language. This presents its own challenges of course, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Today, I went to church with my Christian roommate and really enjoyed it, although I obviously didn't understand the sermon since it was in Turkish. What was really cool was that a young woman was baptized today. They said it was the first one in about a year. The reason is that it's taken a lot more seriously in a nation such as Turkey. It is truly saying that you're dying to yourself and living for Christ. To be Turkish is to be Muslim, so in a very real way you're giving up your identity for a new identity with Christ. It is not some add on like it can often be in the states or other countries that have true religious freedom.
Something else that is really interesting that I learned this week is that the word 'missionary' has a very bad connotation here. Turks associate the word with the Crusades I think. There was a team here a while back who was evangelizing at a mall somewhere and people started yelling "Missionaries, missionaries" and they were asked by the police to leave the premises. The head guy here said it's fine to evangelize here, but you have to build a relationship first. I really like that anyways. My roommate was working with that team and said they didn't feel like they were 'doing ministry' unless they were specifically evangelizing or handing out Bibles or something like that. To this, my rommate told them, "Do you just walk up to strangers in your own country and start sharing the gospel like that?" The scary thing is, some people do, like people who do the whole "Way of the Master" nonsense. Meanwhile, back home in the states, there is a growing movement for Christians to start thinking of themselves as missionaries in their own contexts. This is certainly something to keep in mind if we decide to go overseas and become missionaries to another context that might have a really bad idea of what a missionary is. Yesterday, I started watching a video online by a church planting network titled "Getting people from consumers to missionaries." So far, it's really good and I look forward to watching the rest of it, maybe tomorrow.
Back home, I am part of a church plant in Sarasota/Bradenton area. I miss it dearly. This trip has made me think a little more critically about it. We are looking to plant more churches very soon. The church's purpose is to bring glory to God. This is not a private matter, but one that must penetrate every area of every society. What can a church do to bring the good news to a location? The possibilities are endless. What we must not forget though, is that there must be a proclamation of the gospel. At the same time, we must not forget to meet the other needs of the people around us that we are serving. Are physical needs only physical, or are they somehow intertwined with a person's spirituality? Christ says we are serving Him when we serve the least of these.
While we're talking about the poor, I have to ponder something here, maybe some of my conservative Christian friends can help me out. Why does it seem that many conservative Christians, including the CEO of Crown financial ministries, are more concerned with defending the rich than worrying about the poor? Just something I've been thinking about. If tax cuts for the rich are supposed to result in them creating more jobs, then why were more jobs created during Clinton's presidency than during Bush's presidency? Just something to think about.
So far this week, I've had many new experiences, all of which have been good. I find myself in the minority for once, which is a very good thing to experience in order to have empathy when I'm not in the minority like back home. On Thursday night, I had Turkish club followed by English club. At Turkish club, there was a Kazak, a South African, a Turk, a Brazilian, and myself the American. The next night, I had dinner with the same Kazak, a different Turk, a Pole, and again myself the American. I love that type of diversity. And I'm grateful most of the rest of the world speaks English so I can understand. It reminds me of my school that I teach at back home. Some friends of mine once said that Sarasota has no diversity. To this, I instantly thought of my school. It's true that most of Sarasota is not diverse, but there is a hispanic pocket as well as a black pocket. My school is located in the hispanic pocket. 65% of my students speak English as a second language. This presents its own challenges of course, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Today, I went to church with my Christian roommate and really enjoyed it, although I obviously didn't understand the sermon since it was in Turkish. What was really cool was that a young woman was baptized today. They said it was the first one in about a year. The reason is that it's taken a lot more seriously in a nation such as Turkey. It is truly saying that you're dying to yourself and living for Christ. To be Turkish is to be Muslim, so in a very real way you're giving up your identity for a new identity with Christ. It is not some add on like it can often be in the states or other countries that have true religious freedom.
Something else that is really interesting that I learned this week is that the word 'missionary' has a very bad connotation here. Turks associate the word with the Crusades I think. There was a team here a while back who was evangelizing at a mall somewhere and people started yelling "Missionaries, missionaries" and they were asked by the police to leave the premises. The head guy here said it's fine to evangelize here, but you have to build a relationship first. I really like that anyways. My roommate was working with that team and said they didn't feel like they were 'doing ministry' unless they were specifically evangelizing or handing out Bibles or something like that. To this, my rommate told them, "Do you just walk up to strangers in your own country and start sharing the gospel like that?" The scary thing is, some people do, like people who do the whole "Way of the Master" nonsense. Meanwhile, back home in the states, there is a growing movement for Christians to start thinking of themselves as missionaries in their own contexts. This is certainly something to keep in mind if we decide to go overseas and become missionaries to another context that might have a really bad idea of what a missionary is. Yesterday, I started watching a video online by a church planting network titled "Getting people from consumers to missionaries." So far, it's really good and I look forward to watching the rest of it, maybe tomorrow.
Back home, I am part of a church plant in Sarasota/Bradenton area. I miss it dearly. This trip has made me think a little more critically about it. We are looking to plant more churches very soon. The church's purpose is to bring glory to God. This is not a private matter, but one that must penetrate every area of every society. What can a church do to bring the good news to a location? The possibilities are endless. What we must not forget though, is that there must be a proclamation of the gospel. At the same time, we must not forget to meet the other needs of the people around us that we are serving. Are physical needs only physical, or are they somehow intertwined with a person's spirituality? Christ says we are serving Him when we serve the least of these.
While we're talking about the poor, I have to ponder something here, maybe some of my conservative Christian friends can help me out. Why does it seem that many conservative Christians, including the CEO of Crown financial ministries, are more concerned with defending the rich than worrying about the poor? Just something I've been thinking about. If tax cuts for the rich are supposed to result in them creating more jobs, then why were more jobs created during Clinton's presidency than during Bush's presidency? Just something to think about.
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