Last Blog Until June

The Air Conditioner went out this week and I can't get my laptop to open Outlook. It is time for an international ministry trip. Maybe it is my paranoia but every time I leave for Asia, Russia or Scandinavia some major appliance or ministry machine breaks down.

But living with heat and humidity brings back many memories of our childhood. Karen and I both grew up when there was no AC and neither got indoor plumbing until our teen years. As we talk about the "Good old days" we have many good laughs but let's face it, we do not want to go back to them for very long.

Living and overcoming Adversity is an essential ingredient of joy. Far too many of us have ADD: Adversity Deprivation Disorder from rarely if ever facing and overcoming difficult times. One of the reasons international travel does not overwhelm me is due to the fact that I grew up in poverty and had to work hard with my hands to get out of the situation.

The Russian people face many difficulties and challenges. Pray that Steve and I will be able to help them face and overcome them through the Lord.

Russian Trip Itinerary
May-June, 2006
Gary Sweeten and Steve Griebling

I was mulling over the past 15 years of ministry in Russia and thanking the Lord for allowing us to be involved in a global revolution of democracy. The Bolsheviks raped, pillaged and stole everything they could from the people they dominated after the 1917 Revolution. The march toward democracy has just begun and it will take many more years of godly, compassionate and strategic interventions before Russia will gain its rightful status as a modern nation.

The Russians have suffered from all three levels of emotional/ spiritual assaults.

Shock: An occasional intervention of an assault
Trauma: A pattern of assaults
Abuse: A chronic series of assaults.

Level 1. Shocks leave Victims with ice cubes in the soul that are frozen in fear, anxiety, depression and a desire to deaden their pain with alcohol and drugs.

Level 2. Trauma leaves Victims with souls likened to a block of ice; deadened and numb and looking for relief though any emotional, spiritual cult or drug remedy.

Level 3. Abuse leaves its Victims in an inner state of “Perma-Frost” that never thaws without the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

The Russian people, especially Christians, were chronically abused, leaving millions in a state of Perma-Frost”. Life Way Ministries establishes partnerships with groups to train leaders to “Heal the broken hearted and setting the captives free.”

One of the most powerful insights to come from my years of travel is seeing the awesome response of the Christian community to tragedies around the globe. Every plane to Asia, Russia, Africa and the Gulf is packed with Christians paying their own ways to minister to hurting people they do not know and from whom they expect no reward.

In Russia alone Christians send billions of dollars each year in goods, money, spiritual support and travel. If it were not for churches small and large, ordinary Russians and their small churches would be in terrible shape. Were it not for compassionate Christians almost no good orphanages, drug treatment or prison ministries would exist.

The same is true in Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, India, etc. It was also true for Ground Zero and the Gulf. In none of these places do we see food, ministries, hospitals and workshops sponsored by “The American Atheist Society” or “The Free Thinking Assoc.” Neither Playboy nor Penthouse sponsor the orphans they help produce.

It is Christians and only Christians that reach out to a troubled world in massive numbers. Of course there are bad church leaders who abuse and misuse their power but the Lord has a plan for them. The tiny minority of believers spread evil while millions from every denomination spread the good news in word and deed.

On my high school Internet chat there are several atheists who arrogantly and ignorantly argue that faith is always destructive. Their self-deceit has few bounds and it is useless to tell them the truth. I do pray for them. However, we who follow Jesus Christ ought to thank God daily for the way He is constantly and increasingly sending compassionate Christians to spread the love of Christ through word and deed.

Life Way’s Mission in Russia

We establish centers of training and healing so the local believers can reproduce themselves and spread the good news of Jesus as the Great Physician to every corner of that huge nation. We also speak at large gatherings but focus mainly on equipping pastors, psychiatrists and counselors how to integrate the love, truth and power of God into their work.

Several hundred groups, churches and ministries from all around the USSR have attended our training over the past 15 years. They use our materials and training throughout the year.

Take a look at my blog to get some ideas about the people and places we will see and have seen before. http://garysweeten.blogspot.com/ Go to http://www.liferoute.ru/ to read in both English and Russian about the team and a very small bit about what they are doing to establish a Christian attitude in the former USSR. They recently changed their local name from Lifeways to Liferoute. The new name sounds better in Russian, they say. It also keeps them safer by making no connection between them and our American ministry.

Monday, May 29-Flight on Delta to Rome, arriving Tuesday.
Tuesday, May 30-Flight on El Italia to Moscow.
Tuesday, May 30, arrive at SVU Airport and go directly to the Retreat Center
Wednesday, May 31 Rest and preparation for training retreat
Wednesday evening-Saturday Noon June 3 Training Retreat on Christian Counseling
Sunday, June 4-Preach (Perhaps twice)
Monday, June 5-Leaders Team Meeting
Tuesday, June 6-Meeting at Moscow Evangelical Seminary
Wednesday, June 7-Men’s Group Ministry
Thursday and Friday June 8-9 Myers-Briggs Training @ St. Damian Orthodox Church
Saturday, June 10-Steve Returns to Cincinnati via New York on Delta
Sunday, June 11-Preach
Monday, June 12-Leadership Meeting
Tuesday, June 13-Gary Returns to Cincinnati via New York on Delta

Pray for our stamina, wisdom, protection, health and God’s power.

Guard Your Heart

It is very difficult to live a transparent life when we are in a church "leadership" situation. In my last piece I mentioned the Jimmy Swaggart problem from several years ago. Jimmy, I once read, came to the Lord as a youth of 10, was "filled with the Spirit" at 11 and was "called to be a preacher" at 12.

This means that he was placed in a position of moral and spiritual "leadership" as a pre-teen. That is contrary to good sense, scripture and psychological wisdom.

1 Timothy 3
1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)

6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

The part here about "rearing his children with respect" uses the term that means "a balance between assertiveness and servanthood". In order to rear children with semnotes or dignity we must have it ourselves, and that takes a lot of time and experience. This means that we need to be in our forties or fifties-elders- before we become leaders.

By that time a spiritual person has an opportunity to develop transparent, open, mutually vulnerable relationships with others, including his wife and kids. This means that he is able to share his temptations and carnal desires openly so God can change them. Keeping our hearts covered and the soul hidden is the most dangerous thing we can do.

Find someone you can trust to speak with. "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." James 5

Duplicity

In a Postmodern world facts do not seem to be very important, even to many Christians and some Pastors. Do you remember the scandal about Jimmy Swaggart? He was a famous TV preacher who took a very hard stand against sexual immorality, drinking and other moral indescretions. Then he was caught with a hooker in a sleazy motel. Duplicity!

As a therapist I have been trained to watch for the telltale signs of duplicity, avoidance, denial and defensiveness in people. When I heard Jimmy Swaggart vehemently preach against psychology, counseling and therapists I smelled a rat. As Will Shakespeare said, "I think he protests too much." He was afraid of being found out.

One day I was looking at a magazine advertisement for the Jimmy Swaggart Bible College and noticed a photo of text books, one of which was written by a prominent Christian psychologist. I asked a friend who worked for the college about the Freudian slip and he answered that they taught couneling and psychology at the school but Swaggart had to deny it on camera lest he lose financial supporters. Duplicity.

Many years ago the famous pastor Gordon McDonald wrote a best selling book called, Ordering your Private World. We discussed it as a staff at College Hill Pres. It was awful. He proposed a rigid, legalistic self control that had a hard edge on it. I smelled a rat. A short-time later his mistress went public and exposed his immorality. He protested too much. He and his wife later wrote a book telling about their wonderful family life and parenting skills but failed to mention his adultery at the same time. Duplicity.

Duplicity leads to death, especially when we deceive ourselves.

I can remember a bit of an old rhyme.

What a web we all do weave when at first we do deceive.

The truth shall set you free.

Has it set you free? Do you have a testimony?

Mr. Putin's Speech

From the Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114825039030459010.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep

In the State of the Union speech, Mr. Vladimir Putin focused on a critical issue in Russian life.The key problem he addressed was the decline in the Russian population, which has dropped from 148.7 million in 1992 to 143.5 million in 2003. The U.N. estimates that it could fall to 101.5 million by 2050.

Earlier contractions of Russia's population were brought about by the massive losses associated with World War I, the civil war, famine, the repression and purges of the 1930s, and World War II. The current demographic decline is the result of a declining birth rate and a high mortality rate.

To address the former, Mr. Putin announced income subsidies of up to $9,200 for women following the birth of a second child, beginning in 2010. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the money could be used for taking a mortgage, paying for a child's education or adding to a pension account.

This will not work. With so many people of child bearing and rearing age doing drugs and alcohol the number of healthy adulst is falling rapidly. Additionally, many of the parents are truly unfit to rear children due to excessive use of drugs and alcohol.

We have been helping change this situation ever since the Lord told Steve Griebling and Tom Fruth that we were to move toward the East from Norway to minister. Now there are several hundred people that are sober, straight and living responsibly. Their numbers grow every month and multiply every year.

Pray for Steve and me as we return to Moscow to take the Liferoute team deeper into ministry and healing. (www.liferoute.ru) They have turned a corner in organizational and ministry structure but have some distance to go before they are able to be totally self supporting.

During our prayer time last Friday the Holy Spirit spoke with Ada Halter and said to emphasize the "Royal Blood Line" so we will do just that.

Inflation and Gasoline Prices

When I was a kid my dad liked to reminisce about "The good old days". He nearly always concluded his stories with a pithy comment that, "The good old days, weren't...Good."

He was fond of saying that back in the depression we could buy a bushel of corn for a quarter. When we said that the corn was cheap he would laugh and reply, "No it wasn't. Nobody had a quarter. Now everybody does."

Dad was a rabid union man who was constantly talking about the need to improve the working conditions and pay of blue collar people. But he also understood that inflation was the cruelest tax of all for it secretly robbed poor and middle class families of their hard earned pay. It is not possible to compare the price of corn from my childhood with today's price unless we also look at inflation.

Gasoline prices today are about the same as they were when I began to drive in the 1950's.

There's also the question of affordability. Adjusted for inflation, gasoline prices today are roughly where they were in the 1950s -- but per-capita real income then was no more than half of what it is today. Which means that for a typical driver 50 years ago, gasoline was really twice as expensive, in terms of the bite it took out of his budget, as it is now. (Jeff Jacoby)


We in America are very fortunate to live in such a rich nation. The folks in Europe pay a lot more for gas than we do and it is all because of taxes to the governments that do not want the people to drive.

So, enjoy your automobiles and trucks and SUV's. Gas is cheap.

Things My Mother Taught Me

My Mother taught me LOGIC... "If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me."

My Mother taught me MEDICINE... "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way."

My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD... "If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job!"

My Mother taught me ESP... (Extrasensory Perception)"Put your sweater on; don't you think that I know when you're cold?"

My Mother taught me TO MEET A CHALLENGE... "What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you... Don't talk back to me!"

My Mother taught me HUMOR... "When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT... "If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

My mother taught me ABOUT SEX... "How do you think you got here?"

My mother taught me about GENETICS... ?You are just like your father!"

My mother taught me about my ROOTS... "Do you think you were born in a barn?"

My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE... "When you get to be my age, you will understand."

My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION... "Just wait until your father gets home."

My mother taught me about RECEIVING... "You are going to get it when we get home."

And my all time favorite thing- JUSTICE... "One day you will have kids, and I hope they turn out just like YOU. Then you'll see what it's like."

Our Goal

Life Way's purpose is to Create a vibrant learning/growth community that models and empowers others to be competent in character, relationships, thinking, family life and leadership.

We want to see lively, healthy, growing families and communities pursuing mental, emotional and relational wholeness through the release of truth, talents and character leading to wisdom that blesses the people around them.

We envision transformed communities, families and individuals that build healthy relationships, a renewed mindset and continued growth to be a channel of love, mutual respect and commitment to care for one another.

God by His grace is moving among the churches of all kinds. Many people are coming to Christ and experiencing eternal life and profound relief from guilt and shame. However, Jesus warned in Luke 8, that the seed may fall on rocky soil withless fruit than we had expected.

The words of Jesus to His disciples point us to the way forward for the 21st Century for God's truth is as relevant now as it was 21 centuries ago.

The seeds that fell among the thorny soil are those who have heard the word of God but go on with life chocked with worries, riches and pleasures of this life. The result is that we cannot bring them to fruitful maturity. Luke 8:14

Bringing believers to fruitful maturity means that they multiply themselves a hundred fold. The Greek term for this process puts the pressure directly on church leaders. It is not the responsibility of the new born Christian but our pastors, teachers and minister to show us how to deal with those worries, riches and pleasures of life.

We are in the midst of a crisis of these three issues. Unless the church learns how to deal effectively with them we shall never bring people to mature fruitfulness and multiplication.

Several years ago I was discussing evangelism and church growth with an Asian leader who noted that only 20% of newly converted believers actually stayed in the church for six weeks. This meant a dropout rate of 80%! The church would more quickly if we put as much energy into discipleship, pastoral care, and pastoral counseling/healing as we do with preaching about outreach.

We look at outreach and healing as well as growth into mature multiplication.

• 
  The theology
  1st Century - The Equipping Paradigm is established
• 
  Luke 4: 18 Jesus' Call and Mission
  Luke 6 Jesus chooses the 12 to continue His mission
  Luke 8:4-15 Parable of sowing and maturity in good soil
  Luke 9 Jesus sends the 12 out with Power to do the Mission
  Luke 10 Jesus sends the 72 out with Power to multiply the Mission
  Matthew 28: 18 Jesus sends the apostles out to make disciples of all nations
  Acts 2 The Mission is activated in small group fellowship
  Ephesians 4: 11 The universal Equipping Process is outlined
  Early Church history-The process impacts the ancient world

Constantine -The church march with organic marchwith an "Organizational" paradigm. There is great order but much less ardor. Safety is assured but excitement and growth are stifled.

The Reformation-Theology is renewed but ecclesiology stays mired in the same tired, dead bureaucracy. It is half-way there.

A New Reformation-All God's people do both word and works by returning to the First Century paradigm that integrates both order and ardor.

What Do We Do?

There is great confusion about our work and our ministry and I can understand why. We do several things, or, I ought to say, we keep our focus on doing things that develop whole persons and that requires that we do many different things.

Steve Griebling and I set off for Moscow on May 29 for about two weeks of personal ministry, consulting and training. I have been involved in developing a "Whole Person Ministry" in Russia since 1992. I get a lot of question about what kinds of things we will do.

Do you preach at local churches? Yes
Do you help set up healing ministries? Yes
Do you help set up counseling ministries? Yes
Do you help set up evangelism ministries? Yes?
Do you help set up ministries for families? Yes
Do you help set up Alcohol and drug treatment centers? Yes
Do you take medical assistance? Yes
Do you minister to pastors, priests and leaders? Yes
Do you help churches develop the structures necessary to educate and counsel people? Yes
Do you teach Listening, Rational Christian Thinking, Family systems and Breaking Free? Yes

A focus on the whole person requires that we establish ministries in and outside churches that target every dimension of concern to God.

Leaders come from all over the former USSR to learn and return home to establish groups, classes, ministries and outreaches in mission groups, Bible Schools, Seminaries, churches, prisons, etc. Thank God for the courageous men and women who are giving everything to serve Christ in a difficult situation.

We need your prayers and support. Ministry in Russia is getting more difficult and expensive.

Crash

I watched the movie Crash on DVD this week. It is powerful, violent, racially shocking, surprising, disturbing and very revealing. I think every Christian leader needs to watch it and think about its implications.

The people in Crash were fragile, defensive, reactive to the slightest slight, angry, racially divided and away from God. They blamed others, jumped to conclusions, refused to take personal responsibility fot their own sins and accused others of being to blame.

Some were heroes, some were crooks, some were courageous some were scared, no one was pure. All were weak and all were strong. All were human.

Many years ago the book Lord of the Flies showed what would happen if a group of kids were lost on a deserted island. They became hardened, selfish, punitive and heroic, courageous, bitter, defensive, gracious and merciful. All at the same time.

Crash is the modern version of that book. It shows the human condition without Christ, the love of God and the redemption of a caring community.

Anyone associated with ministry will recognize themselves and others in this film. I could see my sins, fears, prejudices and anger in the characters. I could also see my hopes and faith.


Watch it if you have the courage.

I am human and I need God's constant attention to forgive, strengthen and make me better.

Gary Sweeten

God is Still Working Today

I sometimes post an article or remarks about God's present ministry among us. I am constantly amazed that there are many Christians that firmly believe the scripture but refuse to acknowledge God's miraculous power in contemporary day to day activities.

Because my life and ministry focus on healing and growth I am surrounded by sickness, pain, dysfunction and difficulties. If I could not call upon God to bring relief and hope I would leave this field. Thankfully I call upon God daily for myself, my family and my friends. He answers in His own way but He answers in a good manner.

I received the followinng e mail from an old friend as a follow-up to his request that I pray for his cousin. His good news is exciting and faith-building.

Gary Sweeten

Praise the Lord! God is still doing miracles. Thank you Lord!

On Monday, May 1st, 2006, Jeff got word from his doctor that tests show no cancer in his body. We have been praying in many ways for a cure for Jeff.

Jeff's body has been revaged by the Multiple Myeloma and still needs a lot of healing and strength. He has been lovingly and skillfully cared for by a wonderful staff of medical doctors and nurses. Even they have been praying for Jeff's cure. And we will continue to pray for him--but it's time to thank the Good Lord and all those who have been praying.


With love and appreciation for all your concern and prayers,

Jeff's parents _________

Can you stop for a moment to thank God for His mercy and grace to this young man and his family? I do not know him but I rejoice because he is rejoicing.