Life2gether

Check out this interview my brother had with a Christian radio station which broadcasts to about 5 states including Ontario. Mark shares a little about his life and ministry in Japan including the effects of the recent earthquake upon the Japanese people.

Jonathan Dodson was recently interviewed by Joe Thorn on the topic of discipleship.  Here’s one excerpt from the interview:

What is the biggest mistake the church is making when working to make disciples?

I can’t answer that question definitively. However, the dearth of suffering, the absence of hope, the trivialization of the Spirit, and the lack of mission among disciples of Jesus is terribly concerning. We have tried to minimize suffering through convenience, eliminate hope through self-made retirement, reduce Jesus to redeemer of the past, and surrendered any sense of discipleship as a call to die to ourselves that others may live. Instead, discipleship has been reduced to having a good marriage, handling finances well, raising good children, securing a future, and knowing your Bible. Our mission is very different than Jesus’ mission, our lives very different than Jesus’ life. This should scare us.

Tim Challies recently interviewed my friend, Justin Taylor about his life and family, blogging, and publishing.

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend but an enemy multiplies kisses.”  This is such an important verse in our pursuit of sanctification.  I’m convinced that one of the big reasons why many of us lag in our spiritual growth and maturity is a direct result of a lack of community and accountability.  We need each other.  We need to get in each other’s faces and lovingly wound each other from time to time.  That’s hard to do.  It’s hard to speak the truth in love. 

My wife is reading a book entitled, No More Christian Nice Girl.  In it, the authors take us back to the early days of American Idol to make a point about how we approach each other as Christians.  Many of us are like Paula — you remember Paula Abdul.  Passive Paula.  Always passing out cordial comments but scooting around the truth so everyone would like her.  We can’t be like Paula.  And we certainly can’t be like Simon Cowell.  Cutting Simon Cowell.  Speaking the truth like a surgeon without the anesthesia.  We can’t be like Simon.  But we can be like Randy.  Big Dawg Randy.  He graciously spoke the truth in love and stayed true to himself.  We can be like Randy.

We need more of this in the church — approaching each other humbly, gently and prayerfully.  And giving permission for someone else in our life to confront us and ask us the difficult questions.  We can’t always see our own sin.  And we can’t always see our own growth in Christ.  We need friends who can wound us and encourage us in this fight of faith.  

If you’re interested in living this out, I would recommend these resources. 

• Are You a Real Friend? by Keith Simon
• Are You a Real Friend? Part 2 by Keith Simon
• Fight Clubs: Gospel – Centered Discipleship by Jonathan Dodson
• Check out this interview I had with Jonathan on his book

The following is Part 2 of a conversation I had over email with Dr. Eric Johnson, Professor of Pastoral Care at Southern Seminary.  Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know Eric personally and greatly appreciate his friendship.  If you missed it, here’s Part 1 of our conversation.  

Doug:

I fully agree with conversion, in a sense, being a life-long process (and the new birth being the beginning of this process).  And I like how you brought out the idea that children can only grasp a simpler reality of their sin and how this deepens as they age. 

One more question:  How do you interpret the verses where Jesus holds up children as an example of the way we adults must come to him?  And how does this mesh with what you said about a simpler, superficial grasp of reality?  Again, I quote Spurgeon:

How the blessed Savior turns the tables and says, “Say not, the child may not come until he is a man, but know that you cannot come until you are like him.  It is no difficulty in the child that he is not like you.  The difficulty is with you, that you are not like the child.”  Instead of the child needing to wait until he grows up and becomes a man, it is the man who must grow down and become like a child.  (BTW … I’m getting these quotes from a great little book called, Spiritual Parenting, by Spurgeon.)

Dr. Eric Johnson:

There’s something so precious about childhood that Spurgeon is tapping into.  But surely Jesus isn’t suggesting that children are to be emulated in all ways? He’s using children as a metaphor, alluding to some features of childhood (their relative innocence, trustfulness, dependence, and so forth) and suggesting that in adulthood, there is the necessity of us returning to something like that in spite of our more advanced capacities. But we wouldn’t want adult Christians to be like children in every way. Children can be petty, that can’t grasp the big picture of things, they don’t know as much, they tend to think and experience life in all-or-nothing categories. Overall, maturity is a good thing; it is a created/spiritual good that glorifies God and it results in a genuine advance in human life.

My overall concern is doxological, that is, since God created us for his glory, we are to consider how that glory is manifested through human life. I would argue that adults have a greater capacity to glorify God, because of the enhanced capacities to do so that emerge in adulthood. Consider, e.g., a 7-year-old child singing a worship song in a children’s choir. It is precious and God receives glory (“out of the mouth of babes”!). But the child does not have the capacity to deeply “enter in” to the words. In contrast, consider the 30-year-old who has suffered a great deal and is painfully aware of his sinfulness and also of God’s holiness and then of Christ’s love and compassion for him, dying on the cross. For that person to praise God in that song, mindful of all these complex realities—doing so as a little child—is to do so with a greater depth of heart, perhaps with bittersweet tears of joy, so that the older person is able to glorify God more, is able to be an image of God more fully, than the child. We might consider this the existential quality of Christian faith that in part is what distinguishes adults from children.

Doug:

Well said.  I agree.  I was just curious how your mind wraps around these ideas of personal agency and conversion as it relates to little children.  Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions!

The following is Part 1 of a conversation I had over email with Dr. Eric Johnson, Professor of Pastoral Care at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Dr. Johnson also studied child development and psychology for his PhD work at Michigan State University.   

Doug:

After reading your article on personal agency, a question arose about this particular section under responsibility and accountability:

Confession is very important (and only mature persons can do it well) because it is supposed to be a deep acknowledgment that no one else is to blame for what I did; only I am responsible for what I did. Something like confession must happen for a mature adult to become a Christian; they must own that they are sinners. Because young children and mentally impaired people have certain mental limitations, they have difficulty understanding how they are responsible for what they do.

Here’s my question: Are you saying that it’s not likely for a child to be converted because he or she cannot really come to a proper understanding of his or her own sin and thereby confess it in the deepest sense? Do these mental limitations as you say keep a child from understanding his or her sin and trusting Christ as their Savior?

I agree that we grow in self-awareness and that God is in the developmental process, but I also agree with Spurgeon’s words here and I wonder what your thoughts are:

Talk not of a child’s incapacity for repentance! I have known a child weep herself to sleep under a crushing sense of sin. If you would know a deep, bitter, and awful wrath of God, let me tell you what I felt as a boy. If you would know joy in the Lord, many a child has been full of it as his little heart could hold. If you would want to know what faith in Jesus is, you must not look to those who have been bemuddled by the heretical jargon of the times, but to the dear children who have taken Jesus at his Word, believed in Him, loved him, and therefore know and are sure they are saved.

We grow less rather than more capable of faith: every year brings the unregenerate mind further away from God and makes it less capable of receiving the things of God. No ground is more prepared for the good seed than that which as yet has been trodden down as the highway, nor has been as yet overthrown with thorns. Not yet has a child learned the deceits of pride, the falsehood of ambition, the delusions of worldliness, the tricks of the trade, the equivocation of philosophy; so far, the child has an advantage over the adult. In any case the new birth is the work of the Holy Ghost, and He can easily work on youth as on age.

Thoughts? I am eager to learn from you!

Dr. Eric Johnson:

Great questions! And far be it from me to challenge Spurgeon!

I believe God deals with each of us according to our capacity, so I think a child can be saved if they surrender their whole life to the Lord with as full a faith “as their little heart could hold.”  That’s a great phrase.

But along with the greater simplicity that Spurgeon is pointing to –in fact one of the reasons for it–is a simpler, more superficial grasp of reality, including the reality of my sin and my obligations to God. Soren Kierkegaard suggested that true Christianity is characterized by “inward deepening,” so that, as people develop and grow older, they deepen in their understanding of themselves, God, sin, and salvation. So children who were truly converted at age 6 or 7 should be expected to go deeper in their teenage years, so they should have a deepening of their sense of conviction for sin at points during those years, based on their fuller understanding of what’s involved. In that sense, conversion is actually a life-long process, and should not be seen as a once-for-all event (though being born again is the beginning of this process.  Reaction?

Part 2 coming soon …

Here’s a conversation between Justin Taylor and Nancy Guthrie about her new book that she’s edited—a collection of classic and contemporary essays, called Be Still, My Soul: Embracing God’s Purpose and Provision in Suffering .  She also tells her own story of suffering here.

(HT: JT)

My friend, Jonathan Dodson, just launched a new website jonathandodson.org heretofore known as Creation Project.  I have learned so much from this man about the gospel, community and mission.  He is the real deal.  I encourage you to bookmark his blog and tell others.

BTW, Jonathan has a great series of posts on How Not to Be a Missional Church at the Resurgence.  You can also check out an interview I had with him over his first book, Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

The video above was made by Rudy Vaughan of LBC

How do you deal with being so far away from family and friends?

I am still trying to figure that one out!  I thought that after over nine years in Japan that I would be used to being away from family and friends.  I am not.  I think this is just one cross that I am called to bear for the glory of God.  And that is exactly how I fight the temptation to go back to the states…  I recall that my desire and goal is the glory of God and not in temporary comfort and ease.  As with all Christians, my real home is heaven, not America.

What are you believing God to do through you and Maki in the coming years?

We are believing that God will use us to raise up young people who can be great leaders for Japan’s future.  In many ways we are like the scaffolding for the building.  It isn’t a very glamorous job, but we are happy to do and it have many faithful – faith-filled people joining with us in prayer and support.

How can we pray for you and partner with you in reaching Japan for Christ?

I’m glad you asked, because we can’t do anything without a team!  For most people, we will not continue in laborious, passionate prayer unless we are economically tied to a mission.  I encourage everyone who is able, to give even a little bit of one’s money or resources away to a foreign mission or missionary in order to really engage in a meaningful way.  We need personal engagement through finances, encouragement and prayer.  More than specific prayers, we need prayers of faith and prayers of passion to move the Father’s heart.  It will take many miracles to change Japan and get Japan above 1% Christian.  We are so appreciative to all of our state-side friends who sacrifice for God’s kingdom right along with us!

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Thanks for your words, Mark.  May God bless you and your family and your gospel witness in Japan.

Many of you know that I have a twin brother who serves as a missionary in Japan.  He is married to his beautiful wife, Maki, and they have 2 little boys, Noah and Taka.  I thought it would be fun to do an interview with Mark so you can get to know more about his ministry in Japan.  I encourage you to ask Mark a question or give him a word of encouragement in the comments section below …

How did God lead you to become a missionary, specifically in Japan?

Divine intervention.  No, seriously, I wouldn’t be where I am today without some profound things happening in my life – without God working powerfully.  Growing up, I never dreamed of living overseas or becoming a missionary.  I wasn’t interested in “manga” or Japanese culture whatsoever.  However, as God changed my heart and life during college, and as I grew in Him and in my knowledge of His will as revealed in the Bible, I wanted to share that with others.  God’s heart for the nations, and the need here, was something I could not get around.  God finally showed me that in following Him, wherever He would lead, would be the place of greatest blessing and joy.  My specific calling came while reading and praying over Isaiah 58:10-12 back in 2002.

What does a typical week of ministry look like for you?

 After coming to Japan I realized that I had an overly romantic view of the situation.  Being a missionary means that my aim is to bring the gospel to a lesser reached area of the world.  The strategies and means we use differ from place to place, but really all Christians are called to do the same work where they are placed.

The particular strategy that God has called us to is in building up the foundations of the next generation (see Isaiah 58:10-12).  I spend most of my weekdays at our bilingual Christian school where I teach 2nd-5th graders about God and the gospel through science, social studies and English classes.  About 70% of these kids are not from Christian homes.  The rest of the day I spend in preparation for Sundays, where I lead worship, teach ESL classes, preach, and teach Sunday school.  (Obviously I don’t do all of these every Sunday!) We also enjoy spending time with individuals at our home who are seeking, such as college students we meet at church.  We also try to make significant time with our two boys.  We see them as our main investment for the future of Japan.

What are the biggest cultural differences between the U.S. and Japan?  Give us a funny example too!

Where to start!  I think these two cultures may be two of the most different cultures on the planet!  I think most Americans don’t believe that, since outwardly Japanese seem quite westernized, but it is true.  Here is just one huge difference:  Japanese value politeness more than friendliness, and seriousness more than frankness or humor.  America is the exact opposite!  (Which is maybe why you asked the question the way you did, Doug! : )

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Look for Part 2 of this interview tomorrow.  Until then, check out Mark’s blog here.