A very new phenomenon for me took place this week, and I guess has been taking place. The Lions have a reporter, Dave Faries, from the Prague Post (the main English print paper in town) working out and training with us and writing a series in the vein of a book entitled Paper Lion. Here is a quick run down of the series Dave is writing and the book that inspired him:

In 1963, at the age of 36, American sportswriter George Plimpton joined the Detroit Lions football team in training camp, ostensibly to try out for a position as third-string quarterback. The resulting bestseller, Paper Lion, chronicled the misadventures of an average man competing against some of the finest, most fearsome athletes of the day — guys like Alex Karras and Dick “Night Train” Lane — through the punishing National Football League pre-season.

Plimpton’s book has become a classic of participatory journalism. It was turned into a film that was recently released on DVD.

Inspired by Plimpton’s example and the upcoming CLAF (Czech League of American Football) season, Prague Post writer Dave Faries is working out with the Prague Lions in pre-season training with the same goal in mind — winning a spot on the team as third-string quarterback.

So Dave’s first article in the series was released this week. I enjoyed the article, but I will be honest it has been different for me having someone in on every practice, knowing that he is chronicling his journey, our journey and what he sees. Because let’s face it, there are ups and downs and when you get 20-30 guys together you never know what will happen. This week was especially interesting as tempers heated up a bit and there were some distractions of sorts as we were working on getting faster, quicker and etc. But all-in-all, I am so excited to have Dave with the Lions! I’m excited to see how this will help us as a team and also how it will help football as a whole here. Dave has a great heart to see us, that if football as a whole, thrive here, like it does in Germany or Austria. Dave and I are hopefully meeting this week. Please pray that God would use this to make His name great and continue to help me pursue my vision of why I’m here, that is to, “Transform American football in the Czech Republic for the glory of God and the good of the Czech people!” I’m sure Dave would appreciate your prayers too for his body too! I know he has been working hard and Ibuprofen has been his best friend as of late! CLICK HERE to read the first installment of Dave’s Paper Lion story!

This is probably the oddest zhtv episode yet! I enjoy it though. I laughed pretty hard while throwing this one together. I hope you laugh as well. This week was a week were I needed to step back, take a deep breath, and laugh. So this brought some much needed laughter. By the way, please pray for my visa process. I have to go to Dresden on Tuesday and hopefully get a short-term visa that will keep me legal until, Lord-willing, my long-term comes in! Needless to say, I’m not a fan of the Schengen Agreement and how it has made this process more difficult than it already was. Praise God, I’m learning dependency through this!

By the way, here is a picture of Krakonoš, the mythical Czech character I was being told I look like prior to this episode of zhtv.

Many of you that know me personally, have heard me talk about Czech culture, and/or have read this blog for some time know how hard the soil is here in the Czech Republic. Meaning that the spiritual soil, and/or the hearts, of Czechs are extremely hard and dry. In other words, if you want to see “big numbers” and etc. don’t come here! We have likened it to trying to plant and maintain a garden on an asphalt parking lot. Not an easy task, right? You may be wondering, “Then why are you there Zach?” I would respond with one of our team’s verses that gives us hope and drives us Acts 26:28-29:

And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?” And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains.” [italics added]

Paul says to Agrippa, “short or long” and we realize some places you can go to and see fruit falling off the trees and see people responding to the Gospel in “short” but other places, like Czech, it takes much longer. But it is worth it! It is worth it! Because I believe what Jesus said to Paul of Corinth is true of Prague and Czech:

“Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” Acts 18:9-10 [again, italics added]

Jesus has many in this city and in this country and I really feel it is only a matter of time. I come back to these two sections of Acts frequently for encouragement and refreshment and direction and vision! Which is utterly important with whatever God has called each of us to!

Well, the past week these verses have been revisited in my mind, heart and prayers. “Why?” you ask. Because I had a conversation recently that has made me think a lot about contending and contextualizing within the Czech culture. Let me explain, what I mean by contend and contextualize.

Contend - Jude 3 - “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you(B) to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
This means there are things about Christianity, the Bible, God and Jesus that we must contend for at all costs. There are many things that could be said we must contend for but a few majors that come to my mind immediately are; 1) The divinity of Jesus, 2) The resurrection, 3) The validity and relevance of the Bible to every age and every culture, 4) The Trinity, and 5) Salvation by Grace through Faith alone. I’m sure you, or I, could add to the list, but those are a few that came to my mind right away. We must contend for truth amongst cultures, because “right thinking” leads to “right living”! But we need to be careful because we need to contextualize as well. Ed Stetzer puts it well:

Preaching against culture is like preaching against someone’s house—it is just where they live. The house has good in it and bad in it. Overall, culture can be a mess—but (to mix metaphors) it is the water in which we swim and the lens through which we see the world. And the gospel needs to come, inhabit, and change that and every culture (or house). [for whole article click HERE]

This brings us to contextualizing the Gospel within a particular culture.

Contextualize - 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 - “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that(C) by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
Now most Christians have no problem with the first one (contending), but they do have a problem with the second (contextualizing). I have caught flak for this in the past because people could not understand what I was doing. Why would I use examples from pop culture, instead of just preaching “The Word” to people? There are a couple of reasons; 1) It’s biblical, see verse above but SEE Paul’s example of using pagan poets, and 2) The people I’m trying to reach don’t speak “Bible” they speak “Pop Culture” of some kind, so I can see how God is using and communicating to them in their language and through it bring them to the “Bible Language”. I would love to write more, but to read more on it click HERE for a great article or pretty much read anything about it over at theresurgence.com. I say this in brief because I want to get what led to this post.

So I recently had a conversation with a young man here in Prague that has led me to wrestling with contending and contextualizing. The thoughts in my mind have gone a bit like this, “Okay God how do I do this? What does this look like? How can I contextualize this truth for him to hear it? What would you have me say? Help please!” This was on the heels of one of the best convos I’ve had since I’ve been back. This young man said some encouraging things about the Bible, Jesus, and desiring to follow Jesus BUT he still has reservations. I was so excited to see him be real with me, and it was an eye opening convo for me.

“Why?” Well because it gives me some insight into working here. It would seem his biggest hesitation is that he is Czech, that he lives here, and how the majority of his culture views Christians - which isn’t positive, to say the least. So I have been thinking and praying about this. What does he need to see and hear? Because he does need to see and hear! Not one or the other, but both! What would God have me say to him to encourage him to stand out in the midst of a culture who thinks Christians are “nut jobs”? What actions must I take to help him see this? Because to him it is okay for me to stand out in the midst of it all because I’m an American and to him “Americans are supposed to be Christians”. How do I help him see that God will help him stand out in the midst of this all if he merely trust Jesus with everything? The questions are many and right now the answers are few! But I trust that God through His Spirit is moving to bring change. On a quick side note, this has also made me think a ton about this very issue in general here and how it will change the way I communicate and live to help Czechs see an alternative.

There you have what is going on in my mind and heart. I pray that it moves you in your context as well. Please pray for this young man and that we would have more sincere Czechs like him and that God would move them along! May God move in us to bring His Revolution in Word and Deed!

Okay, I really don’t “stalk” this blog, but I read it regularly and Carlos (a.k.a. Ragamuffin Soul) is in the middle of something beautiful. Check out the video below and his site and then make a difference!

UPDATE Okay so I got back from school and checked Los’ blog to see if he put anymore vids up and he did! Little did I know it would be this amazing and moving! Check it out and as I said early, go make a difference!

Good morning from Prague. I pray as you read this you are seeing God move in your life. I’m back from Athens and fully back into “normal” life here. I must apologize about the blog silence this week. I have a couple of videos and a ton of pics from my holiday that I haven’t got up yet. It was a needed break. But anyway… This morning as I ate breakfast (or eating) I had a “hmmm” moment as read the Desiring God blog about a subject close to my heart, Understand and Appreciate Cultures. The Desiring God bloggers quoted the Lausanne Willowbank Report: Consultation on Gospel and Culture and this is what gave me the “hmmm” moment:

We believe that the principal key to persuasive Christian communication is to be found in the communicators themselves and what kind of people they are. It should go without saying that they need to be people of Christian faith, love, and holiness. That is, they must have a personal and growing experience of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, so that the image of Jesus Christ is ever more clearly seen in their character and attitudes.

Above all else we desire to see in them, and especially in ourselves, “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1), in other words, the humble sensitivity of Christ’s love….

First, there is the humility to acknowledge the problem which culture presents, and not to avoid or over-simplify it. As we have seen, different cultures have strongly influenced the biblical revelation, ourselves, and the people to whom we go. As a result, we have several personal limitations in communicating the gospel. For we are prisoners (consciously or unconsciously) of our own culture, and our grasp of the cultures both of the Bible and of the country in which we serve is very imperfect. It is the interaction between all these cultures which constitutes the problem of communication; it humbles all who wrestle with it.

Secondly, there is the humility to take the trouble to understand and appreciate the culture of those to whom we go. It is this desire which leads naturally into that true dialogue “whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand.” We repent of the ignorance which assumes that we have all the answers and that our only role is to teach. We have very much to learn. We repent also of judgmental attitudes. We know we should never condemn or despise another culture, but rather respect it. We advocate neither the arrogance which imposes our culture on others, nor the syncretism which mixes the gospel with cultural elements incompatible with it, but rather a humble sharing of the good news—made possible by the mutual respect of a genuine friendship.

Good stuff, especially because of a conversation I just had with a Czech friend. I’m wrestling with contending and contextualizing within this culture. I’m grateful though, because I know God is moving in my heart and the hearts of Czechs. More to come… Blessings. By the way, I think the above quote is for each and every Christian seeking to live missionaly in the worlds He has placed us! GO BE A MISSIONAL REVOLUTION TODAY!

Just letting my faithful readers know that I’m heading out the door to spend a week in Greece for holiday (a.k.a. vacation)! I have friends on staff with Campus Crusade there that I met this past summer while I particpated in our international training in Fort Collins. Most of the week I will be crashing at Paul and Catherine Wheatley’s! This is a much needed break from life here in Prague! I’m very blessed to be making this trip. So I will not be blogging for the next week or so. I pray you have a great week and in all you do that you would live in the steps our Revolutionary King, Jesus! Oh yeah, I plan on reenacting Paul’s speech from Acts 17:

22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the worldin righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33So Paul went out from their midst. 34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.