“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” ~ Psalm 46: 10 – ESV

The phrase “be still” literally translates “cease striving”. In today’s American culture, “cease striving” seems to be an impossible task. In today’s Mexican culture, that task is equally difficult. We started off this morning with a time of worship and prayer, which reminded me of the Lord’s words in this Psalm that He “will be exalted among the nations.” Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi echoes the same thought that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth” (2:10). At times, we are so bound in our narrow view of the church. Its borders do not end in NE Ohio or the U.S., but spans globally beyond cultural, political, and ethnic barriers that we have been accustom to hide behind. His fervent love for His church is not just American affection and the causes we like to get wrapped up in, but it includes every people group, every culture, and every language.

The heavenly worship that John describes in Revelation 4 and 5 is a worship that is focused on the Most High God, His holiness and those giving glory, honor and power to Him have no concern to such barriers. These were just some of my impressions of our time of worship this morning.

I will attempt one more post before our return flight on Friday. This will contain a brief overview the final training strategy and giving them their books.

We are looking forward in getting home, though leaving this gorgeous weather will be difficult. Today’s forecast: 68 degrees and sunny.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

The singing of corporate songs which pleases and honors God rests solidly upon the teaching of truth and how that is displayed in the life of the church and whether or not the lyrical content of those songs are accurately reflect this Truth and teaching about God. This will be my last worship post this week while I am in Ensenada.

It has been a busy of couple days and will give you a brief update regarding yesterday, Tuesday, February 25. I also apologize for the poor grammar & spelling in this post. I have limited time.

The topic of discussion and training was the post-conversion follow-through in the development of a Christian. An article by Corcoris’ on Biblical Follow-Up and Acts 2: 42-47 were key elements in our Socratic discussions. Acts 2:42-47 outlined those elements:
1. Baptism
2. Instruction (vs. 42 – “…they continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine”)
3. Fellowship
4. Breaking of bread/Lord’s Supper
5. Prayer

Discussion headed in the direction of the centrality of the local church and how para-church organizations cannot fulfill all of the functions and biblical mandates, especially the area of baptism.

Our afternoon discussion was centered on identifying the cores elements of the Gospel and how many of these elements were presented to us at the time of our conversion. Scripture references that were central to this discussion were 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 and Ephesians 2: 1-10.

Though these sound like elementary teachings, these are basic foundation blocks is on going establishment of the church, not only in Mexico, but in the US. As time together progressed through this material, I became more evident to me that our churches in the States in state of repair, much like the condition of wall that Nehemiah found upon his arrival to Jerusalem.

When doing ministry in a foreign setting, planning is necessary, but so is flexibility. (We have given Mexico the nickname of “Flexico”.) We made an unplanned stop at Pastor Ernesto’s new church plant, which is currently going the First Principle study, Becoming a Disciple. This study followed a study on How to Know God. We spent about 20 minutes with them, encouraged them to continue in the faith and prayed with them. That definitely was a highlight thus far to our trip.

Lastly, we had the opportunity to have a late meal at a local restaurant with Octavio Jimenez and his wife. Octavio is a very godly, Biblically minded man who is the very glue that has held this movement of churches together in Ensenada. Octavio has been nothing but encouraging and helpful as we prepared for this trip as well as previous trips. We will be have dinner again with them prior to our departure, this time at their home.

I hope to make another up regarding our training today later this evening or early tomorrow morning before our day begins.

Grace & Peace

Scott

Yesterday was an eventful and busy day as lengthy and productive conversations in establishing a training strategy took place, fish tacos were consumed for lunch and a visit to Ron’s favorite taco stand – Tacos el Poblano…. another Ensenada jewel. The food at the stand was delicious and the ambiance, well, let’s say it was unique.

Doug Shiplett from BILD International was extremely helpful in help us formulate a training strategy. One of his concerns throughout the day was that the Mexicans take ownership in this project and whether or not certain techniques would function well within the Baja culture. The last thing we want to do is replicate an “American” program within a culture that has no chance of working. Our goal is not to “Americanize” their ministry (much like the colonial missions of the 1800s and1900s), but to give them quality biblical tools that will transcend the Mexican culture and further establish and strengthen churches in Ensenada. On a couple of occasions, these pastors help guide us over some of the cultural hurdles to give us better clarity as this strategy was being developed. It was pretty awesome to see this unfold. I will avoid the details of this strategy in this blog, but a detailed written report will be made available to the congregation at Grace Church, Lord willing.

As a side note, over the past several years and now with my second visit to Ensenada, I am now more convinced that “missions” is best conducted by indigenous leaders/trainers rather than sending someone foreign to the culture and language. The sooner a work can be transferred into the hands of local pastors, the better. That is why I like this set up we have here in Ensenada. We are in for a week or two, couple times a year, to work along side of the Mexicans, who have a better understanding of their culture and language than I will ever have with my two years of high school Spanish language.

Today, we begin our training in Becoming Established in the Gospel and this afternoon we will present each pastor with four MacArthur books, in Spanish of course, as a gift from Grace Church congregation. I definitely will post on this.

Grace & Peace-

Scott

Being one who has been schooled as a musician, I have often said some of the most pompous, arrogant, and self-serving people on the planet are musicians. Those are qualities that are often part of the pedagogy of musical instruction. Bob has some great insight regarding the Christian musician and the purpose for using his talent and ability.

Here is quick run down of our time thus far. We left CAK about 20 minutes late due to the de-icing process, therefore we had a very tight layover in Denver. We arrived on time in San Diego and were picked up at the airport by Doug Shiplett from BILD International. After a quick stop to In-N-Out Burger, we crossed the border and arrived in Ensenada at 10:00 pm (1:00 am Monday in Ohio).

Unlike our visit in July, we are unable to access the internet from were we are staying. We just acquired wi-fi access at the church in which we are holding these trainings, so my updates will take place during the day here in Ensenada

Today (Monday), we have been conducting a daylong strategy meetings with a group of pastors in Ensenada. I will report back on this in a future post.

On a personal note, I was able to Skype home briefly a few minutes and talked to LeAnna and the boys. That was good for me. I know it was good for them.

Now that we now know where to get internet, I know that we will be able to update my readers and Grace Church of our activities.

Blessings-

Scott