In an interview with ‘Greater Than magazine’, Brian McLaren talks about ‘Making God’s Dreams come true’. I feel this is a frightening insight to Brian’s real view of the Gospel and the Bible. I will let it speak for itself.

Brian McLarens view is that the Bible is to be viewed as Library rather than a Constitution

“I grew up in an evangelical home. The church background I come from would be on the fundamentalist side of evangelicalism. We loved the Bible and we studied the Bible and I made a personal, deep commitment to Christ in my teenage years and so the Bible has been such a deep part of my life ever since. I noticed that, on a lot of the issues, the Bible presented multiple viewpoints. It wasn’t contradictions: we were always told to be careful about saying “the Bible has contradictions.” I just saw the multiple viewpoints. For example, if you ask a question like “What is the attitude of the Old Testament toward the monarchy?” Meaning, the period of Jewish history when they had a king. You can pick out a whole set of verses that would say the monarchy was a terrible thing. For example, I believe it’s Samuel, God says through Samuel, “Israel has rejected me because they wanted a king. “So, there is a very negative view of having a king. But, there are other Scriptures that really see “the king” as a great thing. For example, at the end of the book of Judges, it says, “in those days, everyone did what was right in his own eyes because there was no king in Israel.” There are places where the king is seen as a great gift from God. So, what that started helping me realize is that the Bible is not a univocal book. It was not a book dictated by God that was only giving one perspective. The bible itself is giving us multiple perspectives. That, actually, is a better thing than something univocal because, if you were to think today what our attitude toward government should be. Well, I think there is a sense that government is a gift from God, we should appreciate it. But there is another sense that government can become an idol and we can have a misplaced trust in it. So, when you live with that kind of tension, when the bible itself gives you multiple perspectives that put you in tension, I think is actually a richer gift than to have a black and white, one-sided answer."

What is the Gospel then?

Again Briam says: "The gospel is the good news that the kingdom of God is available, it’s at hand, it’s in breaking, it’s oncoming, and we can be part of it. If we wanted to understand what “kingdom of god” means, I would say: God has a dream for creation and we don’t have to be part of turning that dream into a nightmare. We can actually join God in creating something beautiful and good that makes God’s dream come true."

I don’t know about you but, it seems that the Bible, in it’s univocal, uniform and Spirit inspired teaching doesn’t speak of God as a dreamer but rather as the Sovereign God who is in control.

God Bless you, Tim

Candidate Orientation

Hey everyone.

Well the time has arrived. Starting tomorrow we will have the privilege of hosting a church team for an orientation. This team is preparing to engage in immigrant ministries in Europe, reaching the lost through evangelism and church planting.

Please be in prayer as we seek to guide them with humility, wisdom and grace. Pray the Lord will give us the endurance and focus as we run this part of the race with each of the candidates.

We are excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to see what the Lord is going to do.

Thank you so much for standing in the gap with us, Tim and Jennifer

Harvest

Hello all.

I just wanted to pass on a thought. I’ve been reading a book by the name of “I want to bear fruit” (Chuck Quinley). It’s a bit off the beaten path but I like some of the challenges within.
This morning as I was reading I came across a statement that I thought was genius. Yes, it’s simple, yes most of us would say, “well sure”, and yet, we don’t live it.

“He (Jesus) walked each day with harvest eyes, connecting with people everywhere he went.” ‘Harvest eyes’, what a concept. Are your eyes, are mine looking through harvest lenses? When we encounter someone, is one of the many thoughts we have about that person relative to their eternal status?

Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost….. are we engaging the same way?

Just a thought….

Sermon

Thanks to everyone who prayed for Tim this weekend. Though he was nervous about preaching his first time to this congregation (in English non the less), he really enjoyed it immensely. It was wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit knit the entire service together from the music, the prayers and the sermon.

Tim really misses being able to preach. If you think about it, ask the Lord to provide more opportunity for him to do so.

Also be in prayer as Tim is working with another church to start up a brand new youth ministry in town. We have a number of young people in town who have no direction, absent parents, poverty and going in the wrong direction.

We want to reach out to these kids, give them a place to go, a place to encounter God, a place to be safe and experience life change through the Gospel.

We will keep you updated as we continue to work toward our grand opening in September.
Finally, please continue to pray for our financial situation which continues to weigh heavily on us.

Thanks and all our love, Tim and Jennifer

Hello everyone,

many of us love talking to others about Jesus Christ. Many also love finding new ways to engage people in these conversations. This T-shirt will definitely open doors. The coordinates on the front of the shirt point to the location where Christ was crucified. You’ll be surprised how many people become curious and ask about the meaning of the shirt.

In an effort to raise funds to help our monthly deficit, we are selling these T-shirts.
If you would like to order one, please let me know what size you would like and I can send it to you.

Also tell all of your family, friends and study groups about this opportunity.

Thanks, Tim and Jennifer

These are premium screen printed T-shirts. 100% Cotton Premium Weight Tees 6.1oz. and are retailing for $10 (Plus sizes add $2).

Update

Hey everyone.

Well the weeks of summer carry on and my children are lamenting the fact that it’s almost half way over. Last week we had Tim’s little sister and family for a visit. It was great to spend time with them hiking and eating good food. Thanks to the car situation we had two good cars to cart all 9 of us around, safely.

Jennifer continues in her therapy for her neck and back and is showing slow improvement. In the mean time Tim has had a conversation with his orthoped and is slated for total knee replacement in September. They were considering a double knee replacement but due to a preexisting issue with his left leg, they thought they would do one at a time. Time wise this works out as well as Tim has a Candidate Orientation the week of August 14th and then will hopefully heal up in time for the orientation end of October.

Tim will also have the opportunity to preach at our church on July 25th, which he’s really excited about. He has really missed preaching since his return to the US and would covet your prayers as he prepares for this message. May it be from God, to His people in grace and humility.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and love, Tim, Jennifer and the kids

Coaching

Allow me to share with you about some of the people I have been coaching.

FourforFrance is the name of Dave & Jen’s blog.
Over the past year and a half I have had the privilege to walk with them as they have been appointed, through to preparing a trip on the Queen Mary bound for France in July. Over this time our conversations have been many, ranging from discipleship, to prayer partners, to family adjustments, whether or not to sell the house, support raising, marriage, ministry etc.

During this time we have become good friends too, prayed for one another over the phone and I’ve been able to answer a myriad of questions; What about schooling in Europe, what about team, what about language, what about packing, travel etc. We’ve also addressed things like connecting with neighbors, discipling others, processing through church planting and more.

While the journey of coaching is designed to be of assistance to our appointees, to getting them to the other side well, I benefit so much from these relationships as I get to watch God do some incredible things. This family of four is excited about moving to France and becoming a part of a team that will engage in the north of Paris, in an area of lower economic income. The teenage boys own this ministry as much as their parents and Dave and Jen will be a long serving family to the French.

Another family, is headed to the same area in France and we are targeting this fall to get them there. A dynamic family with 5 children and an inner city ministry in Philadelphia, B. and K. are the kind of people we want on a team like this. Their experience will bring a flavor to the ministry that will move right to the hearts of the people.

Coaching has it’s easy and it’s challenging aspects. While on our road together I have been able to walk them through some more difficult times and been blessed to see their humble responses to life’s issues.

Thank you for your continued prayers that allow me to continue preparing the hearts and the paths of those God has called to impact Europe for His Kingdom.

Tim

Sharing good news

As you can see from our progress bar the Lord has done some amazing things in the past couple of weeks. We have seen the Lord raise our support through some genrous donations and get us out of the red. Praise the Lord for His mercy and we thank Him always for you and your generous hearts and prayers.

Another praise is that while we still do not have our car back yet, we have received additional gifts, from fellow workers that will cover ¾ of the cost of the repairs. WOW God!

I hope you can rejoice with us as we do in you for all of your continued faithfulness in His work to Europe.

Please keep praying for Tim as he continues to revamp GEM’s training process for new missionaries. Next week we are launching GEMView, a six week online course, introducing new and prospective candidates to who GEM is. Each week the candidates will view a 5 minute video and then be able to converse with other candidates and the facilitators about the material. This has been in the making since January and we are thrilled to be launching it now, for our June Orientation class.

You can view Tim's Video on Prayerwalking being used in GEMView here Prayerwalking

May God bless your day, Tim, Jennifer and the Kids

Car trouble

Hello dear praying friends.

Well, we took a few days off to visit the mountains while our children were off for spring break. On our way back out of the mountains our engine ceased up. We waited on the side of a busy highway for 2 hours before we were able to get a tow. We praise the Lord for the safety of being able to maneuver the car safely off the highway to the roadside and then while we waited on a 75 mph highway. We are now waiting to find out how soon they can repair the car. Please pray for us as we do not have $4,000 dollars to replace the engine. There is no way we can replace the vehicle for this amount and we really depend on the car to get around in the snow of the mountains.

Thanks for your prayers, Tim and family

Greetings everyone.

Life continues to press forward non-stop. Last week Tim had the opportunity to run a pilot orientation with the newly developed program. We served two families who have now been appointed to France. The time together was incredibly encouraging and the couples were very positive about the new format. Praise the Lord.

Please pray for us as we continue to work on developing the orientation process. Tim and a co-worker are about to launch a 6 week online course as well, designed to help our candidates become familiar with GEM before the arrive for orientation. Each week includes a 5 minute video and a discussion forum.

Beginning with the launch of the online course we begin a season of processing applications, inviting individuals and running a number of orientations. We will have two orientations running consecutively end of May and into the first week of June, another in August and another in end of October. Mean while we will be starting up the online class every couple of months.

Tim will be taking a few days off next week to spend it with the family while the kids are on spring break. We’re all looking forward to a little down time.

Tim’s achillies finally healed again and then the whole family got the respitory flu that was going around. Jennifer had it for 6 weeks and did two rounds of antibiotics. But, thankfully, we’ve all healed in the mean time.

Jennifer is connecting with a lot of school moms and has made some good contacts into the home school groups here, where she may be able to serve with her music. Please pray for us as we seek out the ministries God would have us engage in. We long to connect with unbelievers and bring the light of the Lord to them.

The kids are doing extremely well and we thank you for your continued prayers for them. We’ve heard a couple of times that they miss Austria, but their transition has been better than textbook.

We do appreciate your continued prayers.

From our family to yours, Tim, Jennifer, Connor, Katya and Marika J

Reinventing the wheel

Hello everyone.

It has been a time since we last posted, but this does not reflect how much we have thought or prayed for you.

Our whole family decided it was time to share that pesky cold flu that’s going around. Jennifer was hit the worst and is still trying to bounce back.

Work has been very busy as we are continue to redevelop the whole preparation process for all our candidates and appointees. We would covet your prayers for March 10-14 when we launch our first pilot-orientation. This means we have a small group of people we are taking through the new format. We are eager to see how it will equip our appointees in a more effective way. Please pray for this time that Christ will be the center and receive the Glory.

Coaching is going well as I have the privilege to engage with those who are in the process of getting to the field. This is proving to be an incredibly helpful tool in strengthening, preparing and launching our new missionaries. Please continue to pray that the coaching will be God centered and that He might raise others to serve in this capacity.


We have another update for you financially.

While we ended the year needing to raise $12,000 to make it through 2010, we are sadly in a different situation. Due to the continued economic issues, we have had a number of individuals who have had to necessarily stop giving and some churches that have had to reduce their giving. This has left us with the situation to have to raise $21,000 in order to make it through 2010.


Of that $21,000 we have already received $3,000 ad praise the Lord for it.

Please continue praying for this with us that the Lord will provide for our needs.


May God bless you and your family today.
All our love, Tim, Jennifer, Connor, Katya and Marika

Ministering to the Community

A quick update from Klosterneuburg.

One of the areas that I really worked to see the church in Klosterneuburg become involved in was, in the community. We had taken up conversations with the mayor and others in the community. Well, our co-workers and the church have continued down this path and the Lord is opening doors. Read what Joe and Brenda have reported on this. I was very excited to read how the Lord is going before the church and giving His church a growing presence in Klosterneuburg:

“I´m sure you remember before we came home on Home Ministry we started building a relationship with a children´s home near our meeting place. The home is actually a house that´s been fixed up and has eight children living in it along with two or three workers at all times. The home is very nice and is just what you would wish for children that have been removed from their families. The girls have canopy beds and the boys have rooms decorated for boys. We were very pleased with how well the children are cared for. The children are all 10 and under.





My friend, Margit (right), and another woman from the Kagran church are working at the home. It was amazing to all of us that they found work at the Klosterneuburg children´s home that´s so close to the community center where we meet for Sunday worship. It made us all feel that God must have some purpose in mind. The home just got a male director, who Margit found out once attended an evangelical youth group. Joe went with Gabi and I this time when we went to the home and was able to have a nice long talk with the director. He´s religious and open to talk about God. In fact he wants moral and religious exposure to be a part of the children´s lives. He has encouraged the workers to talk with the children about God and pray with them. You can bet we were all happy to hear about that.





Joe came up with the idea that we could pray for each child in our weekly group on the child´s birthday and give them a birthday present. The director thought the idea was good and was open to us visiting the children every once and a while. Above is a picture of the director (left) and a few of the boys in the home.




Please continue to pray for the ministries of Klosterneuburg.

Hello dear family and friends

Hope you had a great step into the New Year. We ended the old year with Katya emptying the contents of her stomach on mom and dad’s living room floor and Marika joining her later at the great white bowl.

However, by the next day and into the New Year they were fine again. We really enjoyed our visit with ‘Oma and Opa’. Our kids loved being with them and Connor was ready to put down roots right there.

Mom is doing well through her Chemo, though tired from it, she presses on and continues to be a help to my dad as he continues to battle his Parkinson’s. Her latest tests revealed a good prognosis and so we are rejoicing with her that things are going in the right direction.

We also got to spend time with Tim’s brother and family in Hide Park. It was great to connect with Jim as he is working toward full time ministry as well. In addition the cousins were able enjoy each other for a few days. While there, Tim was humiliated by his Nephew in a Video game but seems to have recovered.

Our visit with Tim’s older brother was sadly short-lived as he came down with a sinus infection. Our kids love uncle Dan and so missed him.

We are eager to see where the Lord takes us this coming year. Tim has been tasked with redeveloping the whole process for preparing our new appointees for the field. I am working with a team to reimagine this process and we will launch it for church based teams, short term and long term in March.

We are also developing a broader coaching process throughout GEM with a vision to train toward coaching in Europe as well.

As promised we want to update you on how our year

end support raising effort is going. At this point we have

received $1,375 I special gifts toward our need for 2010.

We would appreciate your prayers as we look, in faith, to

how the Lord continues to provide for our needs. He is

good and He is trustworthy.

Prayer requests:

Please pray for…
Tim who has torn his Achilles and will be seeing the doctor on Wednesday. We’re hoping he does not need a surgery.
Jennifer as she seeks out some pain management doctors to deal with the chronic pain she has been living with for over a decade.
Pray for Tim’s friend Hadschi in Austria who is really struggling with his relationship with God as he deals with his wife having left him to not return.

Also check out http://marburgerexperiment.wordpress.com/