Prevenient Doctrine and Merienda Evalngelism

Greetings all. I hope all are well back home and elsewheres. Things have been pretty busy down here so here's a little of what's been going on! -Oh, and my cold's completely gone, so no worries and thank you for the prayers!

Last Tuesday we had dinner at a burrito place (Argentine Tex-Mex). What was especially fun was hearing the American's behind us talking and recognizing their accents. I ruled out most of the south and determined that the had to be from North Carolina. As it turns out, they were! One of them went to UNC and the other graduated in my very same class at NCSU in 2007. They have been down here for two years working with Campus Crusade at the University of Buenos Aires. One of the translators looked at me and asked if I knew Jared and Karina, and followed by asking "are you Bob!?" I was a little surprised, but as it turns out, she was one of Jared's students and he had told her I was in the country. Aside from the interest of this all, it was a bit of a comfort to me that in a city of 13-20million people, 6,700 miles away, it's still small enough to not feel an alien, and to not be too far from home. God's family is spread out (as it's supposed to be!).

Speaking of far and away, please be praying for Tom Torpy and for those to whom he is ministering. For those that don't know him, he is a dear friend and minister of mine, and he is presently teaching Bible classes at Mapepe Bible College in Zambia. He returns ~23rd of July.

Jared and I had lunch on Wednesday with one of his contacts named Diego. Diego seems a unique fellow who spoke slowly enough for me to understand a decent portion of what he was saying. He sort of typified the dating culture down here. Jared said he was "a little girl crazy." It seems though, that that is how the culture is though. Dating is pretty frequent, changes often enough, and is pretty worldly. I can't really count the times I've seen people randomly kissing in the streets and subways. Also, it was a little discouraging walking around with the Lipscomb girls as I would often be the only guy in the company of 3-5 young ladies and groups of boys would often cat-call and stare as we walked by. I tried to walk towards the back or outside, to act as a small barrier, but I know this sort of thing happens all the time here. That is the way the culture is. Frances Green mentioned one time that in Venezuela (I think), if a girl doesn't wear pants that are tight enough to see her lines, people deride her and say she is homosexual. Fortunately for me, it's not as tropical here, it's the middle of winter, and God's been blessing and guiding me a lot.

I talked a little with some of the guys here about "what I knew about Argentina before I came" and I mentioned the high rates of human trafficing, prostitution, and crazy-high prevalence of pornography. They didn't really understand what human trafficing was, but laughed a little and said 'yeah, that's how it is here.' They said that Argentina is somewhere around #2 in the world for pornography and again, laughed a little. I wasn't laughing. They noticed and they stopped laughing too. We talked about it a little more yesterday (Sunday) and I'm hoping we will be able to have some good conversations about it soon. Please be praying that we can bring up a new generation here that sees the world as it should be, and not as the culture pushes it.

On Thursday, I went with Carlos (one of the youth, about 26 y/o) to a festival called "La Feria de los Mataderos." It was July 9th, the Argentine independence day. Carlos became connected with the Caballito congregation a few years ago and shows up from time to time and then disappears for months at a time. I went so he could show me around and teach me some of Argentina's culture and history. I also went to get to know him better as a person, and to get to know where he was in his walk with Jesus. The festival was nice, food was great, and there were many people dressed as gauchos and townspeople from the early 1800s. We settled down for some asado (grilled meat) sandwiches on a sidewalk and I asked him where he was in his relationship with God. He told me that he was doing okay, but was having some troubles with the divisions in the church. We talked a little about how people often place the denomination or the building at the center of their faith, and how the actual center and focus should be on Jesus. This would also do a great deal to unify many divided bodies. -Apparently Wesley Shutt had also talked about this with him 3 years ago, so thank you Wes, if you read this. You made an impact and Carlos remembers what you said. Carlos and I talked for a while and I invited him to the Berryman's house-church on Sunday evenings. I told him about how the Alpha course is designed to teach who Jesus was and what Christianity is all about. I also mentioned that the group not only taught, but also fellowshiped in each others' lives and prepared for leadership. He said he was interested and will hopefully join soon.

I would like to ask you to stop for just a minute and pray before reading the next 3ish paragraphs. Pray for the church down here and pray for our own churches and our walks with Christ, that we may see where we are serving Him, as well as where we need to improve. We deal a lot with what I'm talking bout back home and it's a tough topic that often causes dissension. I've done my best to convey my thoughts and the situation here, but I would like you to ask the Spirit to help you understand what I'm trying to say. I think it would help a lot. Thank you.

Doctrine is everywhere here and it varies greatly from place to place. There are "churches" of all sorts ranging from Catholic, to Evangelical, to Church of Christ and Baptist, and even Universals. There are even a great number of Satanic churches, Voodoo gatherings, witch doctors, Buddhist temples, meditation schools, and of couse, cults. Some churches preach the prosperity gospel (love God and get rich), others teach psychology as religion, while others still teach that everything goes, so long as you show up on some Sundays and tithe. People have mixed up and twisted the Gospel in so many different directions that it's quite hard to keep everything straight. The benefit of a solid doctrine here is that people need to be aware of truth and if we only have watered down semblances of truth, then what's the point, who are we serving, and how committed are we anyways?

The negative side of a hard-emphasis on doctrine here is that it often becomes a means of division and distance from other portions of the body, rather than a means of unity in joining in a collective pursuit of Christ. We come to identify ourselves by who we are not, or by comparing ourselves to others that are are less RIGHTeous than us. I I really can't tell you how many times I've heard the words 'baptism' and 'plan of salvation' while I've been down here. I can, however tell you that it is significantly more than I have heard people talk about grace, authentic discipleship, and living in a relationship with Jesus. When I tried talking with someone about how Carlos was having trouble understanding divisions in the church, the person I was talking with spent about an hour explaining to me what the doctrine of their church was, why it was right, why others were wrong, and how we cannot compromise it for anything. Carlos' problem was not with the doctrine. His problem was that he couldn't see us loving each other.

I know that doctrine is important and am certainly not saying that we don't need it. However, I think we sometimes put a little too much emphasis on it. Randy Harris compares doctrine to 'a ship's rudder. It steers the ship in the direction it's supposed to go and stays the course.' However, the rudder is only a part of the ship. The vessel needs a good rudder, but a rudder without the vessel itself is just a floating plank. Don't get me wrong, the Church down here is really great in a lot of ways. I just get a little anxious that a lot of people (especially newcomers to the faith) may be missing some of the centrality of Christ in the Gospel.

I really like the Berryman's house-church/small group format for many of these reasons. Also, it seems to be a little surprising and disarming to many Argentines because to the culture here, the Church is a building and the buildings are all at war with each other, are irrelevant to anything, and all want people's money. People living in Christian community is incredible and powerful.

A man named Walter invited Osvaldo, Laura and I to breakfast at the restaurant where he works. We attended on Friday morning and had a tasty continental-style breakfast. In conversation, Walter mentioned that he was never disillusioned with God; only that he was disillusioned with himself. Walter attends one of the English Let's Start Talking groups, and his English is pretty good. I am hoping that either I, or someone else here will be able to get together with him soon and perhaps talk a little about Romans 6-8. I think Paul pretty well covers an appropriate perspective of ourselves, God, the Law and Grace in these pages. Grace was a large portion of what I talked about yesterday in the Sunday assembly worship gathering.

That afternoon (Friday), Abel and I finally got to spend some time together. He took me to a parilla (sort of like a grill) in Palermo SOHO (the Argentine equivalent of New York's SOHO. In the picture to the left, we sat at the table farthest to the left. Over lunch we were able to talk a little about Argentine history, about sociology, anthropology, and about psychology. He talked a little about his interest in psychology and we discussed the role of psychology in people's lives, and with respect to faith. I've learned that Argentines focus a bit more on psychological theory, where as we in the USA focus a bit more on practical elements of psychology in helping people. For you psychology people, Argentina's about where we were in the 50's and 60's with competing perspectives etc. Anyways, I was finally able to talk with Abel about how psychology isn't the answer to life's problems. It can help people cope with life and life's problems, but ultimately the only thing that can truly heal and can truly make us whole is faith and a relationship with God. We used the illustration of people as having holes in them. We can try to fill them with coping mechanisms, junk, psychology, etc. but anything short of Christ will not fill the hole. Anything else acts only as a bandage to make our problems not seem so bad. Beneath that bandage though, we don't heal or we get worse, until we remove the bandage and humble our wounded selves to a resurrected savior; a physician that heals and fills. Abel seemed somewhat thoughtful at this. I'm not sure how much he knows or has thought about Christ as being able to really solve his problems and give him strength and peace. He seems exceptionally knowledgeable about many things; I hope he knows that "God is sovereign and Jesus is enough." If you would, keep praying for Abel, and for God working in his life. Losing his job has been a bit of a blow, but it may actually be a bit of a blessing as Abel's been able to discover some of the things he was missing in life. I hope a new/renewed faith may be a part of this time of new discovery.

Abel showed me around Palermo SOHO, which was pretty grand. We looked at some old book stores and saw the old buildings that now house fashion boutiques and art-nouveau furniture. Eventually, we went to a very nice place called Las Violeta for merienda. We had coffee and talked a bit more; mostly about Argentine culture, the history of the Americas, and politics. I'm still not a fan of politics, but with Abel it really isn't so bad. We talk a lot about different world-views and such. Interestingly enough, most of Central/South America is/was on Santa Anna's side in regards to the Battle of the Alamo. Following coffee, I went over to Jared and Karina's apartment to pray for the small group, and prepare for the coming Sunday. As it turns out, only Karen showed up this Sunday. Everyone else was either traveling, busy or sick. Hopefully next week will be more fruitful.

I call a lot of what I am doing down here: "Merienda Evangelism." Merienda is sort of like Argentina's version of afternoon tea. People get together and drink coffee or mate (an herbal drink), eat a few pastries, and talk. As groups speak quickly, and in Spanish, I do better one-on-one. A great blessing is that I am in a merienda culture and people love getting together one-on-one or in small groups and talking for hours! As we spend time together, sharing bits of ourselves and our lives, I'm able to talk with people about Jesus. I'm being blessed to hear where people are in their faith, and blessed to share where I am and some things that I've learned. We are able to talk about our lives on a non-superficial level, and wonderful conversations ensue. I know God is blessing me with these "Jesus appointments," and I hope/pray these conversations are being effective. Please pray that they are.

Saturday I mostly finished and prepared for the lesson on Sunday. In the evening, I was able to walk around for a while with Roberto and Martin, from the Zarate group. They are not as interested in soccer as most here, so we walked around downtown, through a couple of malls, and along the Puerto Madero -the river walk. We got to talk a good bit and share in a really nice walk. The guys are pretty great. Roberto is "mi tacallo," which means friend with the same name as me. Also, the city here is beautiful; especially at night. The title photo is from the river walk. The ones to the left here are as well. After our walk, we caught up with the rest of the gang for the tail-end of their soccer game and then we all went over to Ugi's Pizza. It's good and it's cheap! It's about $4 (US) for a 12" cheese pizza. No wonder it's the favorite among the youth! Part of our rag-tag gang is here to the right. The sermon itself went pretty well, I think (expertly translated by Osvaldo, of course!). I gave a little of my own testimony and talked a bit about how God's grace is greater than our sins, and how we are called to be an actual family and help each other through struggles and trials. People responded well and I'm hoping that good will come of it. I'm not too worried because it's been given over to God and He is, and already has been working on it in His own way. A big challenge came when the mother of "Elisha" came up to me and asked if I could talk to her older son about living in the world versus following Jesus. If you remember, Elisha (to my left in the picture here) was the one who's mom was quite ill (she's doing amazingly better now... thank you for your prayers and praise God!), and who's older brother was not the best of influences in his life. His brother is about my age, is fully ascribed to the world, and fully opposed to Christianity. Also, I'm pretty sure he doesn't speak any English. Please be praying that God work in this. My hopes are that I can somehow communicate with him, perhaps with Pedro, and hopefully we can break through a few of the world's lies. Elisha heard a bit of my testimony. Pray that he and I can grow together and that he can finally make that commitment that Jesus' way is the example, and not the path his brother and comrades in the world so loudly promote.

Today was our day off and I spent it with Marissa, Maria Laura and Pedro in Barrio China (China Town). We walked around a bit, had Chinese food, and more-or-less relaxed. Tomorrow, we'll be working in the building a little, and then I have an English Student in the evening! If you would, pray that things go well between Samuel and I. Samuel is my new student in the Let's Start Talking program. Thank you for your patience in reading, as I realize this was a bit of a lengthy post. I hope it's been encouraging. Thank you also, and especially for your continued support and prayer for the things going on down here, the lives being reached, and for myself as well. I love you all and hope to talk with you soon! Grace and Peace.