Utah Missions Trip Day Six!

Today we had the chance to learn from one of the foremost missionaries to Mormons on the planet, Bill McKeever from the Mormonism Research Ministry. Bill has given us training in the past and we partnered with him last year at the opening of the Newport Temple. He is extremely knowledgeable and experienced and he lectured for about an hour. He came at about 8:30, and by 10am, we were on our way to the city of Provo for another great opportunity to share the Gospel of Grace.

We walked door to door in Provo and shared the Gospel in a manner that was very similar to what we typically see Mormon Missionaries doing in our neighborhoods. The great thing about Provo is that it is a 99% Mormon Population and half of the young people who live in the neighborhood around BYU are ex-missionaries, now returned from their missions! They know what it is like to go door to door, and they know what it is like to be treated harshly. So they are very cordial for the most part and usually will invite you inside to talk about the things of God.

Today was no exception, and we had a number of LONG conversations and opportunities to share. It is very interesting to be able to hear what young Mormons believe about salvation, God, and the nature of Jesus, and we seldom encounter the same view twice. Today we continued to see that LDS believers have developed a number of diverse and personal ways to reconcile the contradictory doctrines of their faith. There seems to be a growing relativism within Mormonism (similar to the impact relativism has had within Christianity), and as believers move away from absolutes, they tend to embrace personal versions of their faith, ignoring completely the objective propositional claims of their religion. Sometimes it really doesn’t matter what their scripture says or what their prophet says. It’s all starting to come down to what is true for the individual believer. Times are changing and our approach to this lost people group may also have to change.

After spending the first part of the day going door to door in Provo, we returned to BYU to eat lunch with college students and talk to then about their faith. We returned o the food court for two hours and this time the conversations seemed to be much more spirited then before. Several of us also took some time to video tape some interviews on the campus, asking students the same survey questions that we have been using to initiate spiritual discussion all week.

Late in the afternoon we returned to the church, got cleaned up, then went for our special dinner of the week. We budgeted for this, so we took the team to the Spaghetti Factory! All 30 of us sat at one long table in a room o our own and had a great meal together. We even sang happy birthday to Trish (much to her surprise). It started to rain in a very dramatic way, but that didn’t stop us from trekking up to Robert Redford’s SUNDANCE resort. It cleared for about 90 minutes and allowed us to hike up to a peak where we could sit with guitars and worship in an incredible natural environment. We really wish you could have seen this amazing place. As we finished and walked back down the mountain, we dedicated the walk to the people we have already met on this trip, and we prayed silently for those who heard the Gospel of Grace this week.

We got back to the church at about 10pm, and did what we always do when we get back: sat around the table and read your posts aloud. Thank you so much for taking the time that you have to post each night. I read these posts to everyone and they have been such an encouragement. We love you, we miss you, and we have felt your covering. This trip has been incredibly PACKED with activity (by FAR the most active trip we have EVER taken) and in spite of the incredibly tiring schedule, we have NOT exhausted ourselves and no one has been injured or disappointed. God is answering your prayers each day…

jim

Utah Missions Trip Day Six!

Utah Missions Trip Day Five!

Today was a VERY busy day for us! We started with breakfast and worship, then got in our cars and drove out to BYU in the city of Provo. Here we had the chance to walk through the campus and enter the food court area, where we separated into groups of two or three. We bought lunch and sat down with students who were already there, eating at the lunch tables. This was a great opportunity for our team as we walked through our surveys and opened up a number of powerful discussions about the truth of Christianity as compared to the Mormon Gospel.

There were so many great stories from this time at BYU, and we also gave away a number of the “Bible vs. the Book of Mormon” DVD’s (praise God!). After lunch, we tore ourselves away from he conversations to spend two hours with one of the finest Mormon apologists, John A. Tvedtnes (M.A. in Linguistics and M.A. in Middle East Studies (Hebrew), University of Utah). John writes and researches for FARMS (the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies) and has an office at BYU. You can read some of his work here:

http://farms.byu.edu/viewauthor.php?authorID=62

John was gracious with us and allowed us ample opportunity to ask as many questions as we wanted about evidences for the Book of Mormon, internal textual problems and the history of the church, including the nature of prophecy and the practice of polygamy. Our people got the chance to see some typical tactical responses of LDS apologists on a number of difficult issues for Mormon believers. John did a wonderful job, especially considering the nature of the evidence he was trying to support. In the end, it was clear to all of us that there is NO archeological evidence for the Book of Mormon, and that many LDS believers are comfortable with very thin and poorly constructed rationale for the Book of Abraham. This latter book was supposedly translated from an Egyptian papyrus into the Mormon Scripture, and Joseph Smith translated it as an ancient account of Father Abraham in Egypt. But when the original papyrus was later discovered, Egyptologists translated the document and discovered that it said NOTHING about Abraham at all. It was interesting to see Mr. Tvedtnes respond to the evidence here, and we are better prepared now to be able to share the truth of this document, and the man named Joseph Smith. We walked away from the meeting broken for the way that the God of this world can so completely blind people from what is sitting right in front of them.

After our somewhat spirited meeting with John Tvedtnes, we drove back over to Temple Square and visited the Conference Center across the street. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was holding a practice there, and we used the opportunity to witness to people who were there for the practice. You would be amazed at how many people stopped to talk to us, and it was another night of excellent dialogue and opportunities to share the truth. Our students were amazing, even down to Lexi (11 years old) and Mia and Hannah (a couple of years younger!) It was a wonderful night (a bit cooler than earlier in the week) and a memorable night for all of us. We didn’t leave the Temple Square until about 9:30pm.

We came back to the church, talked about the events of the day, and prayed for the people who we talked to. Then we forced everyone into bed (I mean FORCED) in preparation for tomorrow (another big day that starts even earlier than usual)

We read your posts everyday and are SO encouraged by what you have written to us so far!!!

We love you!

jim

Utah Missions Trip Day Five!

Utah Missions Trip Day Four!

Today was another memorable day. We began again with another great breakfast, then we had time to sing and worship before starting our day. After a time of worship we drove out to Utah State University and visited the Institute of Religion. Last year we got the chance to tour this facility, and this year we actually got the chance to sit in on a class at the Institute. The Mormon Church has established “institutes” of this type on many college campuses across the country. They are classrooms or facilities that have been set aside for Mormon believers and others who are interested to study the Mormon Scriptures and other faith related topics.

Today’s class was a New Testament Class focusing on the last week of Jesus’ life. It was filled with Mormon college aged students. The professor, Gary Poll was an incredibly gracious man who took the time to open his classroom to us and invited (truly invited) as many questions or comments as we wanted to ask or offer. It was a wonderful experience. We typically try to learn from everyone we talk to; to see what they believe, and then to ask the defining questions that will help us to understand the differences and share what we believe to be true. This was a perfect morning for such an experience and learning opportunity.

Our team was able to talk about several doctrinal differences between the two faith systems and had great interaction related to the relationship between faith and works. Mormon Doctrine is very different than Christian orthodoxy on this issue. Over and over again we heard that works must be applied to faith in Jesus in order to be saved. Faith alone is simply not enough. This presents a contradiction to many scriptures in the Bible, and our team was able to share these scriptures with the class. Over and over again I was proud of our students who have come to understand the power and incredible FREE GIFT of salvation. As Christians we can KNOW TODAY that we are saved. We don’t have to wonder if we have done enough. We believe the testimony of God Himself when he tells us:

1John5:9-13
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Of course, the only way that we can KNOW that we are saved (in the present tense, just as the GREEK indicates here) is if we are trusting that Jesus ALONE saves us, without ANY contribution or payment on our part. We had GREAT and gracious conversations after class, student to student, adult to adult and group to group. We stayed for two hours, talking about our faith, talking about the nature of God, talking about true salvation!

We ate there at the Institute (sack lunches that we brought with us) and then drove out to the Temple (after a Starbucks Stop – True Christian PAGANS that we are) and spent the afternoon at the Temple Square, using our surveys to understand what people believe about Grace and Salvation and then sharing the Christian Truth on the street. Yes, we had the chance to share truth in a loving way, with broken hearts for the people of this community; and yes, a few people yelled at us and treated us poorly. It was a day of contrast in some ways, and we experienced a time of sharing in two very different settings.

At the end of the day, we returned to the church and had a great pasta dinner (thanks Susie and Linda!), then we debriefed our day and shared literally DOZENS of conversations and powerful encounters that we had during our day. This was by far the most powerful day of ministry so far. Many conversations, many divine appointments, many opportunities to share our faith with people who still can’t comprehend or accept this crazy notion of GOD’S GRACE!

We also had the chance to relax at the end of the day, but as usual, our people decide o use the time to study and do whatever they could to prepare themselves for the work tomorrow. So much to learn, so much to study, so much to surrender to the creator of the universe.

Until tomorrow…

Jim

Utah Missions Trip Day Four!

Utah Missions Trip Day Three!

Hello everyone! Today was our first day at the Temple in Salt Lake City. We began by getting up at 7:30 am, eating pancakes, bacon and eggs (thanks to Susie and Nari, Maggie and Gloria). We then drove out to Sandra Tanner’s Utah Lighthouse Ministry in Salt Lake. What an amazing woman. Sandra is the great, great, great grand daughter of Brigham Young. Her husband is from the famous Tanner family, one of the founding families of Mormonism. Together, their story is amazing. They came out of Mormonism and have become the most famous of “ex-mo’s”, providing source documentation that is used by just about every other Christian who seeks to work with Mormons. They are pillars to those of us who want to share the Gospel with Mormons. Simply incredible. You can imagine how they are despised by the Mormon community. I can’t even imagine how they can feel safe living in his city. But they stay, and they boldly continue to train and equip those of us who want to follow in their footsteps in a small way.

Every year, Sandra takes two hours with us to talk about her journey, about the history of Mormonism and about the Temple rituals. We get the chance to look deeply into the inner workings of Mormon Temple ceremonies, and see the temple garments that are worn in such ceremonies. Afterwards, we get the chance to visit the best bookstore on the planet that deals with the truth about Mormonism. And we usually spend a ton of money on a wide array of books and tools. It’s hard to resist. We also took the time to bless her work with a gift from the tithe we collected this month. She was very grateful.

Then we drove out to the Temple and spent the afternoon touring the temple grounds and facilities. We divided into teams of three or four and took all the tours separately. We tried our best to be open and kind and simply asked the obvious questions along the way, as the tour guides presented their version of Mormon history. We were well equipped. We have been studying Mormonism for some time, and we had specific questions we wanted to ask at each location. We also watched the new ovie about Joseph Smith, “Prophet of the Restoration.” It was a painful reconstruction of Mormon history, omitting many details from the life of Joseph Smith, including his polygamy, federal and moral crimes and contradictions within his first vision accounts. All that said, it was important for us to see the movie, and afterward, several from our team took time and shared with missionaries who were working in the lobby.

Our team also shared with tour guides on the temple grounds, people in the street, and in the evening, many of them took time at a local park concert to talk to visitors who were attending the concert. Everyone has been incredibly bold and fearless so far on this trip. There are a number of great stories. We ARE sharing the TRUTH and doing it in a bold way. You would all be proud of the young people on this trip who are so eager to learn what is true and then compassionately share that truth with the people here in Utah. Very amazing to watch. We finished at the Temple at about 9pm and drove back to the Church. We debriefed the day and are having lights out at 11pm. Nobody wants to go to bed, everyone wants to stay up all night studying. They always get really mad at me for putting enforcing the curfew.

Tomorrow we head out to Utah State to attend an Institute of Religion Class and then we are back to the temple.

We love your prayers!

jim

Utah Missions Trip Day Three!

Utah Missions Trip Day Two!!!

First of all, we all want to start off by thanking our family and friends for blogging and tracking our progress on this blog! We love you all, but I do think that we have been a bit too busy to think about home all that often. I wish you could be here with us becuase it is so hard to describe the environment that we are in. It is a tremedous opportunity here in this 97% Mormon rural community. It is a beautiful country and we expect that God is going to do a beautiful work here in this part of Utah through the people we are partnering with!

We spent the night at the Ehraim Church of the Bible in Ephraim and got up very early to start our day with breakfast and then worship in the sanctuary. Tim, Josh, Brian and David did a marvelous job leading. We then drove over to the city of Manti and met Junelle Jacobsen. Junelle was a Mormon for many years. Her great, great great grandmother was the third wife of Heber C. Kimball who was Joseph Smith's 1st counsellor. She left the Mormon church this year after many years of turmoil and struggle. She recently felt lead by God to purchase a property in Manti that she wants to use for Christian ministry. This property is a house directly across the street from the park where we stay when we are able to serve at the Manti Miracle Pageant. We usually camp at this park, and once a year for two weeks, Christians from all over the region come here to witness to Mormons who are attending the Pageant.

The house was completely overgrown and really dirty, even though Junelle and her husband have already worked very hard on the property. We had the chance to come in and hear her personal testimony, help her clear much of the property (including a tree that we got the chance to chop down) and clean the house on the inside. Her story was amazing and her gratitude for our work was heartwarming. We were impressed with her vision for the property. She wont be living on the property, she simply wants to offer it to God for Bible studies and to create a safe place for Christians to connect with Mormons who are questioning their faith and examining the truth.

Remember that there are NO Christians in this town. The Mormons here are watching Junelle and they were certainly watching us. They believe that Christians don't actually help each other like this, and they wondering what we were up to on the proerty. Several stopped by to say hello and check out all the hard work. After speding the morning here, we decided that this project is something that we want to invest in. It will become the second project toward which we will be investing our tithe from the last month. We gifted Junelle with a check before we left and she was touched, although not nearly as much as we were by meeting her and by being able to serve at the property.

We then went back the Ephraim Church of the Bible and were surprised by lunch that was prepared by two wonderful women who blessed us with a meal and a chance to hear yet another testimony from a Mormon woman who came out of the church. We then packed and drove out to Midvale in the afternoon. We unloaded at our host Church and got settled in what will be our home for the week. We shopped for food for the week and all the students got the chance to listen to Trish Rudenski and Rob Sivulka train them for tomorrow's BIG day of ministry at the Temple. That will be a HUGE day and tonight they got the best training they could get before the big day.

Please keep praying!

jim

Utah Missions Trip Day Two!!!

Utah Missions Trip Day One

Today we traveled out to the State of Utah to share the Gospel of Grace with Mormon believers! It was a very smooth trip, with many stops for the 'convenience' of our missionaries! We ate lunch in Mesquite, Nevada and eventually landed in the small town of Ephraim in the State of Utah. Along the way, we encountered temperatures of 113 degrees and managed not to drive each other too crazy.

The town of Ephraim is just north of Manti, where we have served in past years at the Manti Miracle Pageant. This year we missed the event by a single week. In Ephraim, we visited with Daniel "Chip" Thompson at the Solid Rock Cafe across the street from Snow College. I only wish you all could have been with us. Chip came to this state 15 years ago to establish the only Christian church in the area. He started in his living room and eventually grew the church to the size it is today, about 150 people meeting in a permanent building that sits in the community as an evidence that Christianity is finally making an inroad in this 90% Mormon community. Along the way he prayed to have a larger impact on the college community of this town, and through a series of God guided events, eventually came into possession of a house directly across the street for the college. Visit his new website (under construction) here:

http://www.trigrace.org/

The work that Chip is doing in this community is incredibly powerful and he has dramatic plans to expand his outreach. We have been watching his work for many years, and have been encouraged and amazed by what God is doing through this ministry. This is the first blessing that we wanted to offer to this growing Christian Community, so we gifted him with some of the funds that you have all contributed over the last month. He was blown away by our offering, and he said that it is coming at a critical time for the ministry. You made an impact here, even from where you are (by the gifts you have given!)

Tomorrow morning we are going to get the opportunity to help a family that just came out of the Mormon Faith last year. They are new Christians now and they are feeling tremendous pressure on all sides to re-join the church. We are going to go over to their house (a very old house) and help them to clean and repair a few items in the morning before we leave for Salt Lake city (about two hours north of us).

Please ocntinue to pray for us as we get ready to talk to Mormons and share our faith in the days ahead. Tonight, our students are BURIED in their Bibles and Book of Mormons, examining the truth of the Christian Gospel and comparing it to the LDS Gospel. They are completely devoted to the task. It is amazing to watch. We are going to make them go to bed at 11:30. I bet they don't study this hard for finals...

Until tomorrow,

jim

Utah Missions Trip Day One

We Leave Today!

Well last night we held a prayer meeting about our trip and took a look at past trips. We talked a lot about how important it is for us to remember why we take trips like this and how important it is to act as Christ would act in this situation: share boldly and courageously in a spirit of love and mercy. After all, we do this because we firmly believe that the people we are going to meet are seeking Christ with great energy and passion, but have jeopardized their search by trusting themselves for their own salvation. That Gospel of WORKS is dangerous because it offends God:

Galatians 1:6-9
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

So off we go, doing our best to share the true Gospel with people who desperately need to hear it. We leave behind part of our family in the process, but we know that they are praying for us every step of the way!

We Leave Today!

Getting Ready to Go Again

Well, we are about a week away from returning to Utah for our annual outreach to LDS believers. This is always a tough trip, for many reasons. It is often very difficult to reach LDS believers in the short time span that we have in Utah. Without long term relationships from which to build and communicate, we often find ourselves frustrated and overwhelmed. But we have come to understand that there are also a number of people who are still seeking the truth, even as they live either IN the LDS faith o OUTSIDE that faith, and we meet people like this in Utah every year.

These spiritual seekers visit the Salt Lake City Temple in an effort to understand its meaning and in an effort to understand the truth about God. They hope to find that truth in the LDS faith system. It’s an excellent opportunity to talk to people about God, His existence and His nature. Sometimes we talk to LDS seekers and believers; sometimes we talk to those who are truly undecided. In either case, we get an excellent opportunity to think, examine and discuss what we believe to be true.

Now there are many people who think we are out of line for even beginning discussions of this nature. They would argue that we shouldn’t claim to have the truth, when they believe that all truth is equal and relative. But, of course, that claim about truth is also an absolute truth claim and if it is true, then other truths about truth are false. For this reason, relativism as a truth claim is self defeating. Some would argue that our affirmative attempt to call something ‘true’ (and therefore something else ‘false’) is a form of judgmentalism that is against the nature and teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. But any version (or vision) of Jesus that describes Him as someone who navigated carefully and cautiously between the feelings and beliefs of the people in His world is simply a false view of Jesus. The Jesus of scripture is an intensely masculine, determined and principled figure who represents and defends the truth, regardless of the consequences. Jesus was so unafraid of defending the truth that he found himself angering many of those who sat still long enough to listen to Him. He was the most UN-politically correct person to ever talk about the truth. Jesus was bold and loving at the same time. He understood that when we compromise truth, we act in an UNLOVING way.

So we head out to Utah to proclaim the truth, and embody our Lord who stood firmly and courageously for what was true and right.

Jim

Please visit us at www.PleaseConvinceMe.com

Getting Ready to Go Again