Prayer Request: Jack Nkandu

This morning, I received some very discouraging news from our German overseer. Jack Nkandu (pictured to the left) is Education Coordinator for the region of Central Africa and is based out of Zambia. I've known Jack since 1996 when he came to study at EBS here in Rudersberg. At the General Assembly, he is to be appointed as Regional Superintendent for Central Africa.

Jack was passing through Germany on his way to the States later this week. He was not feeling well when he arrived. However, his condition worsened so much that he had to be delivered to the Heidelberg University Hospital where he was immediately placed in ICU.

The shock is the diagnosis: Stage four cancer. I don't know the particulars of the cancer (this is simply the best information I have.

Jack is currently in a coma and is on life-support. Please pray for Jack, his wife and three children.

School's Out, Ranger Camp, and a Funeral

The past week has been a very busy one for our family. Finally on Wednesday (yes, July 23), the kids had their last day of school. Before school let out, though, there were plenty of good-bye parties and school festivals which was complicated by the fact that our three kids are in three different schools. Grades?

As soon as school was over, the twins left for a week long Royal Ranger camp. In fact, I'll pick them up next week in Bavaria on the day before we fly to the States.

Speaking of flying to the States, we are schedule to fly with Lufthansa airlines. Unfortunately for us, several of the unions have voted to go on strike next week. On Monday, the airports in in Frankfurt and Hamburg wil be affected. (And we fly from Stuttgart to Dusseldorf to O'Hare).

And today we said good-bye one one of Claudia's aunts - Frieda Schäfer. Although she had been ill recently, her death this past Tuesday came as a surprise. In fact, she was to be transferred out of the hospital to a nursing home - her bags already packed. She and Uncle Jakob had just celebrated their 50th anniversary. The death affect Claudia's family in two ways: Frieda was the sister from Claudia's mother (Lisl) who married the brother of Claudia's dad (Robert Schäfer). On the positive side, Frieda was a committed Christian who was very active in her church - and we have the confidence of seeing her again in heaven. It was also a good chance to see many relatives whom we had not seen in a while, too.

EBS Alumni Visit Rudersberg

This weekend, I had the privilege of translating an EBS alumnus (the forerunner of the European Theological Seminary). Victor and Nahed Sadek from Egypt were students here in Rudersberg from 1989-1992. Although he is ordained in the Church of God, he works as a chaplain in a German Evangelical hospital in Aswan. And on the weekends he pastors and leads outreaches into minority ethnic areas of Egypt. While in Germany, he visited congregations in Plüderhausen, Allmersbach and Rudersberg. In fact, he particpated in the baptism service in Rudersberg in which his own daughter was baptized.

In his presentation, Victor presented the need of the Nubian people. Just recently they have received the Bible in their own language. Just recently, Victor was able to help the group produce their very first worship song in their native language (and not in Arabic). Ironically, Nubia is a biblical land - for many Christians more commonly known as Cush. Remember - Moses' wife was a Cushite.

It's Official - We Have Our License

The little picture to the right of one sheet of paper has been the occasion for blood, sweat, tears, and lots of prayer. ETSM officially received the licensed on July 14, although the date of validity is May 21, 2008. Thank you for your constant prayers that have helped us navigate the murky waters of Russian bureacracy. Throughout the past year, we have seen time and time again how the Lord gave us divine favor in the eyes of various governmental offices.

Of course, lots of thanks also go to our rector, Dr. Ilya Okhotnikov, who did much of the legwork, and made sure that we had dotted all of our i's and crossed our t's.

With this license, we are now able to publically advertise for the school. But more importantly, it prevents us from being closed down by federal authorities. Already a number of church schools (some purporting to be on a college level) have been closed down and charges have come from the State's Attourney's office. In fact, we had to asked twice for an extention to federal deadlines. But thankfully this threat is behind us.

The Plight of Denominations

George Bullard has posted an entry on his blog about the demise of many denominations. Have a read and think about what it might mean for our church, or even your local congregation.

Here is an illustration of why I believe we are in a denominational transformation era rather than a post-denominational era. What makes it seem like a post-denominational era is that denominational organizations, much like Old Age stage congregations, are in deep denial that they must transform or die, may refuse to believe how deep the changes and transitions must be, and keep making accommodations in policies and structure to give buy a little more life.

The March of Dimes organization was started to combat polio. Once polio was substantially eliminated from North America, it might seem the purpose and focus of the March of Dimes had been eliminated. Perhaps the Mother’s March was no longer needed. Not so. What happened to the March of Dimes is that they realized they had misunderstood their mission. Their mission was not to fight polio. Their mission was to fight birth defects. Polio was simply their first major cause or project.

Denominations must realize their real mission is to expand and extend the kingdom of God through the basic building block of various congregational forms and movements. It is no longer to do for congregations what congregations cannot do for themselves. It is to increase the capacity of congregations to reach their full kingdom potential. It is no longer to represent the cosmic Church to congregations because networked movements allow this to be a direct connection. World denominational forms are connecting directly with congregations now. As such this calls for a major rethinking of institutional expression of denominations, and what is in the box versus what is outside the box in the overall congregational movement that needs networking.

In a certain sense it fits the motif of a continual spiritual strategic journey. Denominational organizations are on a journey. They can now see beyond their original horizon. In fact, they have been discovering new horizons every generation or two. However, their response has not been nimble or agile. So, they have fallen several horizons behind. Now the gap between the expectations and capacities of leading edge congregations and their denomination is painfully big. Therefore, incremental transition and change in no longer enough. Transformation is essential. What are your thoughts?

German National Pastors Conference

On July 6-9, the national pastors conference for our German church was held at the Theological Seminary in Kniebis. Tom was able to attend most of the conference, although responsibilities back in Rudersberg forced an early depature. The main speaker for the conference is a relatively new member of the Church of God - Professor Dr. Michael Dieterich, who is also the leader of Biblical Therapeutical Counseling in Freudentstadt.

Dieterich is a specialist in personality profiles and therapeutical intervention. The topics he facilitated with the pastors were (1) burnout, (2) marital counseling, (3) and counseling and sexuality. These seminars were complemented by workshops with Erich Schneider (barriers to church growth), Christian Krumbacher (water baptism) and Karl Schneider (church organization).

Of special interest in the discussions was the ramifications of a recent change in German law. For over 100 years, churches were not allowed to marry any couple that had not previously gotten legally married. (Typically, a couple would legally marry on Friday and hold the religious ceremony on Saturday.). The new law now allows churches to hold a religious wedding ceremony even if the couple has not gotten legally married. (And no, the church or pastor cannot marry a couple in the legal sense (juristically) - in contrast to the American practice.)

So, does the church marry a couple that is not willing to make their commitment legally binding? And what about widows/widowers who would lose their spouses pension or widow's pension if they were to legally remarry?

Celebrating July 4th with Kung Fu Panda

Living in Germany, it is not always easy for us to celebrate American Independence Day. After all, it is not a holiday in Germany or any other place in the world. Fortunately, Independence Day fell on a Friday so that our kids could stay up late (i.e., not a school night).

Through the American Armed Forces Radio, I learned that there would be a fireworks display on Patch Barracks which is located on the western edge of Stuttgart. But the fireworks weren't schedule to start until 10:30 pm. (We live so far north that it takes that long to get dark in the summer.) So here was the plan...

The kids and I picked Claudia up from work. We then drove to Stuttgart-Vaihingen where there is an English based cinema that was showing Kung Fu Panda, a fun animated kids film. After the show, we drove the Patch Barracks and found the best spot we could outside of the military base. (Only Dept. of Defense card holders were allowed on base. And we have very few contacts to American community in Stuttgart.) It took us a while to find the right spot. But we did see a good fireworks show that ended just after 11:00 pm.

The dangers of not having a license for educational activity in Russia

Assist News Service has an interesting, but lengthy article on various legal procedures facing several churches and Bible schools in Russia. The common motif is that these churches allegedly operated an institution without a license. As many of our readers know, this has been a major concern of our seminary in Moscow throughout the past year.

The main item in the article was about how Methodist Church's Sunday School was deemed illegal educational activity. They, however, won their court case.

A second case involves one of a Church of God in Samara. They rented their facilities to an organization that taught classes on a Bible institute level. This case is still pending.

For more detail about these cases and others like them, follow this link.

Tatiana Gorbacheva Successfullly Defends Dissertation

I just received an SMS (text message) this morning. Tatiana passed successfully defended her dissertation. While she was with the doctoral/professors committee, no one was openly against her dissertation. But in secret voting, the tally was 13 yeas and 4 nays.

We were quite concerned because she does not really know most of the professors on the committee. (The composition of the committee was beyond her control.) And most of the professors were deeply shaped by the official atheistic ideology that was promoted by the communist Soviet Union.

Most excellent! The Gorbachevs (and I) are thankful for all your prayers.