We drove 40 minutes to Stavy, a small village just west of us to visit Mark and Masha today. They are living in their parents massive, old school house which their family lived in for several years before moving back to Ontario, Canada.
They are open to using the property for hosting some retreats, or however the Lord might use this wonderful space. We call our guest house the big house, this makes our big house look like a small house! It’s probably 6000-7000sf of space, and was designed for a fostering / orphan ministry. Masha used to live next door, at the big house for a couple of years. It’s so cool to see how God provided her a wonderful Canadian dude, and now a baby!
I loved seeing this combine bouncing down the road. I used to have a toy combine sort of like this as a kid, so it brought back memories. I stopped my truck, swung around and chased it down the road to get this photo. The driver must have thought I was nuts.
We no longer use our beach much since the tourists rolled into town a few years ago, it’s just too small and gets packed quickly. Plus the water is rather unclean..Kyiv actually shut down their beaches last week due to pollution. Well, the girls didn’t mind a quick visit .. just don’t drink it!
In studying hermeneutics and interpretative practices in my final semester at Fuller, it’s been wild to consider the many ways in which we all, from varying point of views and contexts, approach and attempt to make sense of the Bible.
In this week’s focus on inter-textuality (how the biblical authors draw upon outside sources), the professor stated something a little shocking, but refreshing to hear.
Don’t fret about injuring the Word; it’s more resilient than we are. Don’t worry about making a mistake or about leading the rest of us astray. “Sin boldly,” as Luther used to say. Pursue your task honestly and energetically. The entire concept of learning entails our being wrong about something! Keep learning and trying to apply what you learn, all the while in willingness to listen to your peers. Trust the rest of us — no matter what century or what nation we come from — to call you out if you step off the road, and we know you’ll do the same for us. When it works, that’s how it works; it’s a community thing. For it is we the Church, the totality of us, whom the Spirit leads into all truth, rather than any one of us all by ourselves.
R. Erickson | Biblical Studies Professor +30yrs at Fuller
How often we are told, as believers, to hold tightly our beliefs concerning doctrine and faith. Little encouragement is given to the pursuit of learning, it’s so often the pursuit of certainty, as if Christianity is about possessing the right cognitive information. Learning requires unlearning. Ignorance in the NT is not simply the lack of information or data, but the possession of hostile or foreign ideas that aren’t native to God’s revelation in Jesus.
As I spoke with my son Clark last night, we mused over the ideas of knowing vs growing, of the dangers of thinking we are the sum of our beliefs. We are so much more than what we think, we are loved, valued, and pursued by the God of the Universe not because we think rightly, but even as we don’t, because our God is love. I used to think you need to think rightly to be know God rightly. What folly. We are, all of us, coming from imperfect perches, shaped by our culture, our context, our biases.
What if we approached knowing God as a collective, exploration up a mountain? It’s peak too high to ever reach, but up and forward we climb. What if, instead of assuming battle positions around the Word of Life, we admitted our narrow views, limited exposure and learning, and came to God as children, mining His Word as our kids might hunt for treasure in the forest? What if we all just admitted we are wrong, in so many ways, in thought, attitude, and that but for God’s deep mercy and loving posture towards us, we’d be quite lost and alone in this world?
God’s revelation in Christ is solidified, communicated, and clearly seen in Scripture. Start, and define God through the lens of the Son, and let the Spirit guide you through the rest of the formation process. All the other pet ideas of God and the universe, allow them to be aligned under the illuminating Son of God, align within the wake of His perfect mediating revelation. If we construe a God that cannot harmonize with Christ, we can be sure we have bigger problems than injuring doctrines in the Bible, for then, we’ve assumed God is something other than the Word become flesh.
On Saturday, July 31, we are hosting a mid-year, open Zoom prayer time for supporters, friends and family. We would love it if you could join us from your location!
Please message me on FB or by email for the link!
Times:
7pm Ukraine 12pm Eastern 11am Central 10am Mountain 9am Pacific
Mission Building Update
Last fall, we bit the bullet and demolished our old garage pantry with the dream of creating an expanded space for missional training and service to our region. That dream is well underway, block by block!
If you have a minute, I’ve compiled a short 1 MINUTE time-lapse video up until today.
In Phase 1, we raised $50,000!
These funds allowed us to demolish the old garage, dig the basement, pour a new foundation, complete the basement, waterproof, and first floor walls. We’re currently preparing to complete the second floor, and still on budget to complete the roof by August if we can find wood – Ukraine is fresh out of dry wood!!
In Phase 2, our goal is $35,000 before winter.
Why before winter? When we demolished our old garage, we lost all our storage space, and our 2nd floor at Lighthouse is now crammed to the gills. If we can utilize some of our building before winter, even if its not heated yet, we can immediately free up creative space like our sewing room.
Items included in Phase 2:
Windows & Doors
Electric & Plumbing
Stairs & Flooring
Basement Pantry Zone Finish
Labor & Permits
Please consider a donation of any amount towards our Phase 2 and help us unleash more ministry space!
Thank you Pastor Steve and Risen Life Church in Longview, Texas for your generous gift that helps us launch Phase 2!
As soon as we can find dry wood beams, we will be starting the second floor and finishing the roof by the end of August. Phase one at that time, will be complete and our shell will be ready for Phase 2.While our final materials will not be exactly like this, this is the general shape of our mission building. The basement has a pantry, large youth room/studio area, the main floor is an open space for serving meals/classes, and upstairs 3rd floor will be an upper room dedicated for prayer..
To give to our building project, please click the link!
This past weekend we hosted a new program by YWAM for teenagers. Their new Jr Discipleship Training school is a pilot program in Ukraine for 13-18yr olds over a 5 week period.
Got my fill of teenagers as we hosted interactive workshops designed to get them asking good questions around what makes the Gospel so good? Most of the students 10yrs ago in YWAM were foreigners. Today, 80% of the students are Ukrainian – a generational movement in taking place in Ukraine, steadily, quietly.
Clark is conservative, careful, responsible, analytical, and a great big brother to his little sisters. He’s the man of the house now at 15yrs.
Noah dreams of playing in an 80’s rock band, thus the hair. He’s wildly creative, in some ways the exact opposite of his brother Clark. He loves guitar, and hates it when I play DC Talk or Newsboys to show him what I listened to at his age – Dad fun!
Abigail – we thought she was the last, we really did! She loves life, and has learned deep patience from growing up with her little sister who adores her. She’s super flexible and wants to be a contortionist, but I think it’s mostly because I freak out when she does the splits. She’s super tall for her age.
The three amigos about to board the 12hr HOT train ride across Ukraine.
This is the Kyiv central train station. We said goodbye to the kids, and Claire was beginning her adventure as the only child. We’ve started apologizing to her concerning our energy levels, trying to convince her that when we were in our 20’s and 30’s, we were super fun! Now our idea of fun is eating cheese.
How hot is it? Ask Cocoa our lab. It’s been over 90F all week. Thankfully the summers are short.
Claire’s first photo of us. Look how relaxed we look after dropping off the kids!
I often drive by some of the coolest art. I snapped this one the other day. The Soviet system was an enigma to me. On one hand, it systematically suffocated individual expression, and yet throughout the culture there are these moving pieces that solicit humanity to a higher reality. I don’t know what this one is about, but my first reaction was the battle we are in as believers – while the cosmic kingdoms rage, behind the warring, lies John’s revelation of the lamb, slain. This lamb has won, is restoring us as we lay down our weapons and celebrate God’s reality in the Son. This victory is settled, even as we are tossed within it’s resolving wake. Let us fight the right battles, with the kingdom weapons of faith, hope and love.
Walking to the Cafe the other day I thought you might like this photo. Berries grow all over Ukraine villages, and you know they are ripe when groups of kids are all huddled under a tree. There’s no such thing as “your” tree here.. if it grows something to eat, it’s communal food. Deb fits right in, she has no shame in eating neighbor fruit … I just keep walking and pretend I don’t know her.
On behalf of our family, I would ask that you please pray alongside us this July and August. We sense some changes. We’re learning to not be so impulsive with major decisions, but lean into the body of Christ that surrounds us for Spirit designed support and affirmation (or correction!). With that, I ask that you allow me to lay a few things in my heart before you, that you might consider praying alongside our family.
I will be graduating this September from Fuller. An incredible three and half year journey for me, personally, is coming to an end. This sense of closure is filled with so many interesting feelings! Part of me sees the extra bandwidth that I will have coming soon and I get excited to see how I might serve Christ with the extra 15-20hrs per week. Then, there’s this sense of being patient, that less is more, and deeper over wider. I’m a pioneer at heart. I’ve always enjoyed initiating change, starting things and exploring. Sometimes, the hardest thing for me is to stay still, to truly wait in a posture of open surrender. Deb is much better at this than I am!
We have, for the better part of 28yrs, been nurturing a calling from the Lord to the Russian speaking world. This calling, to be honest, has often felt at odds with our surroundings. Whether it’s finding myself submerged for 15yrs in the business world, or living in Central Ukraine where people now scorn Russia and Russians. I’m continually sensing that I’m being led somewhere, for something, and everything before me is not quite it. Do you know what I mean? I’ve come to believe part of this is the nature of faith itself; the journey of faith that Abraham first started, slowly finding its way into all of our hearts.
As believers, we sense the silent movement behind the scenes. If we listen with faith intently enough, we’ll come to hear our own name, our own invitation to participate in God’s unfolding plan. I believe this. God’s calling, His invitation is not for a select few, but towards the entire world, for the entire world. Ok, getting off track, sorry. But God’s invitation is real, what an adventure to live guided by His loving Spirit!
The past three years for both Deb and I have been incredibly formative, and we’re increasingly sensing, preparatory. We are confident the Spirit is up to something, a transition, a convergence, something for a new phase of life, those new chapters that take on new characteristics. We love our town and have become deeply committed to the believers among us. Slowly, faithfully, we are growing in number, and experiencing a unique Slavic form of being, living in Christ, united by His authorship in our lives. I want to see this community fly, to blossom into what the Spirit desires, for our community, to theologically re-imagine the beauty that Jesus perfectly reveals as our Father’s heart towards us all.
Yet, we do feel our hearts drifting Eastward, becoming a little more mobile once again.
Instead of rambling any more than I am, I would like to lay down three things- statements that I could make with a measure of confidence, and that bring me life when I contemplate them:
#1 – We both have a deep desire to be immersed in Russian language. Part of this may be that our Russian is, well, still quite terrible. We know a bit of Ukrainian, a bit of Russian, and a bit of ‘village’ language. We are survival speakers, but not able to share the depths of our convictions and heart without translators, still after all these years. It’s humbling, but we’re not giving up. God has resurrected an anticipation for language learning coming up.
#2 – We would like to transition to being in the US annually for 2-3 months each year. Part of that is maternal and paternal, of course. We want to be there for those children and grand-children anchored in North America. Yet, there’s something else at work in our hearts. It’s a nudging thing, a “it would be good if you did this” belief, that while our hearts and trajectory remains towards the Russian speaking world, we are living in such interesting times. There’s much more I could obviously share here, but much would be speculative. The nature of faith isn’t knowing what God is up to, but trusting primarily in His goodness when little makes sense. I think God is up to something good in this direction, but it’s a challenge to remain open and present.
#3- Exploring Russia. As difficult as it might be for our family to move into Russia for any extended period of time, I want to remain open to the Spirit’s leading. There’s a combination of wanting to encourage believers around various parts of Russia, and also connect kingdom resources as God provides. Holding this before the Lord. We see the Lord drawing some interesting people, with a unique and similar impulse to the Russian speaking world. What does this mean, and how can we serve those around us along the way?
So, transitions. Aren’t they interesting things? We are optimistic, hopeful, but also cautious and sober-minded. Thank you for reading, for praying alongside us. Feel free to email us an encouraging word, scripture, or anything that you feel the Spirit deposits in your heart for us.
With love, Bruce & Deb Crowe
Thank you for friends and family for your support!
Matthew’s gospel is in historical narrative form. Before I can consider the about-ness of the text (Green 1.5), I must first consider the internal development and external boundaries presented (1.3, 1.4).
Preceding our text, chapters 14 and 15, Matthew records several miracles of Christ that he witnessed, including Jesus walking on water (14:22-33), healings performed (14:34-36, 15:29-31) and the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000 respectively (14:13-21, 15:32-39). These miracles garnered much attention towards Christ. As we begin chapter 16, Matthew turns our attention to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were not easily impressed by the miracles themselves.
In 16:13, our self-contained pericope begins as the disciples have moved to a new location in the district of Caesarea Philippi. We can verify the text’s end boundary because in chapter 17:1, Matthew specifically records the transfiguration taking place six days after our passage.
Concerning intertextuality, Matthew’s narrative is also included in Mark’s (8:27-30) and Luke’s (9:18-21) accounts respectively, and share the general selection, arrangement, and composition of Matthew’s pericope, with the exception of verses 17-19.
Internal Development of the Text: 16:13-27
Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” (13-15)
Peter’s response declaring Jesus the Messiah (21-23)
The church and it’s authority (18-19)
The suffering Messiah (21-23)
The path of discipleship (24-26)
Coming kingdom (27-28)
What’s it about? (Co-Text, Situation, Development)
At first read, our passage seems to recount a series of disconnected stories in the life of Christ and his disciples, particularly Peter. However, when I consider the larger context, and the internal development of the text, I begin to see that Matthew is moving in three basic stages. He begins with the miracles of Jesus (activity), then moves to the revelation of Jesus as Messiah (identity) and concludes with the nature of His sent purpose as Messiah to suffer, and the call to participate in this as disciples (purpose).
The preceding miracles work to affirm the faith of Jesus followers, simultaneously stirring up dissent among the religious powers that aren’t impressed and in whom will eventually become the instruments of persecution. The revelation of Peter, given by the Father, becomes the symbolic rock on which all believers will be gathered into this new, mysterious entity called the Church. This Church will participate in God’s kingdom mission, but not exactly as the disciples might suppose. Christ’s kingdom will come through His own suffering. Those who wish to follow Jesus from this point forward, will need to embrace Christ’s divesting way themselves as well!
The transfiguration, perhaps, should be included in this pericope because this is where Peter, James and John are witnesses to a fulfillment of the “Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (16:28), to which the entire passage concerning the church and its authority is alluding to.
Q2 What is culturally situated?
The entire text is culturally situated, however I must work to “identify carefully what separates our worlds to which the biblical materials give witness” (Green 2007, 12). Some of the immediately foreign concepts (to me) include:
Son of Man (13:13). The Son of Man, and God, are messianic terms which the ‘world behind the text’ would understand in the 1st century among Judaism.
Changing of names (16:18). What is the significance and practice of this? Was this common among Jews, Romans? Why did Jesus choose essentially Rock as Simon’s new name and why did the church historically interpret this as literal?
Keys to the kingdom, binding and loosing (16:19) are Monarchical terms relating to what exactly? Binding and loosing would mean “the carrying of a key or keys was a symbol of the delegated power of opening and closing” (Zondervan Bible Dictionary). How would original reader understand this metaphor?
Q3 Are there any mute assumptions?
Church: This is, I believe, the first use of the word ἐκκλησίαν in the Gospels. The world, and most original readers behind the text would suggest that God’s people would be Israel. Jesus is prophetically declaring a new people that he will assemble. This must have been at the time, impossible to understand, like speaking of the internet in the 15th century! This could be a mute assumption that we, as 21st Century believers, fail to consider in Matthew’s account. Perhaps at the time the disciples all looked at each other and whispered, “what’s a church?” Could this mute assumption have an important role in understanding the text?
Conclusion:
As I look to consider any fusion between a historical-critical analysis, and my own contemporary situation, I’m encouraged to know that Jesus saw His suffering coming and wanted to prepare his disciples. Matthew, Mark and Luke each inform us of the same account which could mean it also made a strong impression on them as they too each found their lives by giving them away (16:25), and Jesus’ kingdom has continued to come through the divesting way of its members.
