Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E50 | Everyday Eurasia | Joshua Haun

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S1-E50 | Everyday Eurasia | Joshua Haun · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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  him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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  reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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  This week on the Everyday Eurasia podcast, we are grateful
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  to be joined by Tester Joshua Hum.
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  Joshua and his wife Katie have been serving for the past four
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  years as pastors and church planters with the Church of the
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  Nazarene in Sofia, Bulgaria. Throughout this week, Joshua
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  will be reflecting with us on the topic of church planting.
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  Why does church planting still matter?
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  With so many churches already around the world?
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  What makes this work so important today?
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  If we listen together this week, Joshua will help us explore
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  these questions and discover God's heart behind planting new
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  churches. Hello again, my name is Joshua
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  Hahn and I serve as a church planter and pastor in Sofia,
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  Bulgaria, and we are on a short journey together in which we are
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  talking about why we should be passionate about church planting
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  and what it looks like to plant intentionally Nazarene churches.
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  But when people ask me why I am a member of the Church of the
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  Nazarene in particular, holiness and mission are my answer.
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  I'm not sure how we can be passionate about planting any
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  type of church, but a truly holiness church.
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  This is because first, holiness is at the heart of our identity
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  in the Church of the Nazarene tradition.
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  It's one of our core values. We are a holiness church because
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  we believe that this God who is holy calls us to a life that is
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  holy and furthermore, we believe that this holy life is personal
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  and communal. In fact, John Wesley said that
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  quote, there is no holiness but social holiness in quote.
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  In other words, holiness is about how we relate to Christ,
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  to individuals, and to our community.
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  How do we love and relate to others as individuals and
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  communities based upon the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
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  These days I'm really challenged by the preaching of Phineas
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  Brzee. His preaching and passion for
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  holiness, both personal and communal, are everywhere to be
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  found in his missional preaching.
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  For example, in his sermon on the certainties of faith, he
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  extends an invitation to every believer to quote, Look about
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  you. But do more than that.
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  Take the proffered key, Jesus Christ revealed by the Holy
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  Ghost, and put it into the mysterious lock of your own
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  being. See how it fits and it
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  transforms you, how it becomes a living fact in your own being.
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  And know that Jesus Christ in the person of the Holy Ghost is
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  the great fact of these ages. In quote, I believe that
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  holiness only happens through intentional discipleship
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  relationships. I believe it happens when we
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  invite others not merely to confess that Christ is Lord and
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  attend our church meetings, but also to invite them into a
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  journey where we walk alongside them as we allow the Holy Spirit
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  into our being to see how it fits and transforms us.
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  Now let me ask a tough question. How do people in our churches,
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  in your church, and how will people in our respective church
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  plants move from being a new believer with a new confession
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  of faith to becoming a believer who is holy, entirely
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  sanctified, and a scent follower of Jesus Christ whose life and
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  being are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit?
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  What if, when we begin to consider priorities, planning
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  and strategy for a new church plant, we were more concerned
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  with the way in which we will invite people into a journey of
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  holiness than other things that we might consider like facility,
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  music, finance, or even events? Remember, church mission and
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  faith and culture and identity never just happens.
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  And this is certainly true of discipleship and the journey to
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  holiness. We have to be intentional about
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  praying and planning and strategizing and acting in order
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  to invite people into a life of holiness.
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  And we should have a really clear holiness mission from the
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  outset, because this is perhaps the most fundamental question if
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  we measure church planting success according to
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  faithfulness to Our Calling and not just something like
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  numerical growth. I want to finish by sharing a
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  bit about what communal holiness looks like in church planting,
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  especially in my particular context.
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  And we've got to remember that to be a holy church will mean
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  being a church that is unique in particular, but also maybe even
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  peculiar in our community. For instance, in the Mashna,
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  that's our church here in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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  We don't drink alcohol in our church life or allow alcohol in
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  any event of our church life. We have a passion to find ways
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  to meet the needs of others that is fundamental to the life and
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  rhythms of our church. And we are a church also that is
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  fairly diverse in comparison to other churches in our city.
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  Once we had started the church in Sofia, I had several people
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  come to me and say things like, now that you have a church
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  started, you should know that here in Bulgaria it's normal to
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  drink alcohol all the time. It's not a problem here to drink
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  alcohol, and you really might offend people by not allowing
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  alcohol at the church events. But actually the latest studies
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  in Bulgaria show that 7 out of 10 deaths of adult men under the
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  age of 50 are directly linked to alcohol abuse.
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  And these are our beloved neighbors.
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  And we now have recovering addicts, several who are a vital
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  part of our church family and whose lives are being
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  transformed because of the work of the Spirit that they've
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  discovered in the life of the body of Christ.
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  I've had people say to me, you know, pastor, you'll never be a
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  real Bulgarian church as long as there are so many foreigners
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  that keep being invited into the church.
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  You need to focus more on the Bulgarian people to be sure that
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  the church is really Bulgarian. Well, although our worship is in
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  the Bulgarian language and most of our church body is Bulgarian,
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  our church family is also now Dutch, Afghani, American, and
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  Cuban. You see, the fact is that
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  everyone is in need of Christ, the key to the mysterious lock
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  of our being, as Brzee says. And we're not merely an affinity
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  group for a single ethnic or linguistic community.
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  We're an expression of the diversity of all God's children
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  in our community. I've had people say to me, you
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  know, Pastor, it's such an American thing to want to do
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  charity stuff all the time. We Bulgarians, we don't think
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  about these things. We just take care of our own
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  families. Well, our church family helps
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  refugees, we take care of orphans, we clean community
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  playgrounds and contribute to the World Evangelism Fund,
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  Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, and even the
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  Bulgarian Red Cross in order to meet many needs from disaster
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  relief to poverty. And this is because we believe
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  there is no holiness but social holiness.
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  And we know that Christ tells us that when we care for the needy,
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  we care for our Savior. We've been criticizing question
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  for all of these things that are a part of our holiness identity,
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  but it is who we are and the church is growing and lives are
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  transformed and we expect to be different, even peculiar,
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  because we're not just passionate about planting
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  churches, but about planting holiness churches.
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  I want to finish with a scripture and a prayer.
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  One of my favorite passages concerning holiness is from
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  Ephesians chapter 4 verses 22 through 24, which says quote.
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  You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put
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  off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful
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  desires, and to be made new in the attitude of your minds and
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  to put on the new self created to be like God in true
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  righteousness and holiness. What an adventure to be made
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  holy, like God together. What an adventure to live to
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  discover the new self, the new mind, the new community, the new
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  church that God by the power of the Holy Spirit is creating in
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  our world, in our cities, in our communities.
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  I want to be a part of that adventure.
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  Let's pray together. Dear Lord, help us to see you
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  and accept You. But do more than that.
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  Help us to take the offered key, Jesus Christ revealed by the
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  Holy Ghost, and to put it into the mysterious lock of our own
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  being. May we see how it fits and
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  transforms us, how it becomes a living fact in our own being so
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  that we know that you, dear Jesus, by the power of the Holy
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  Spirit, are the great fact that is making us a holy people in a
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  desperate world. We pray in the name of our Holy
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  Savior Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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  Thank you for listening to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Fate for everyday. For more Everyday Stories,
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  region, visit our website, eurasiaregion.org.