Plan B Ministry

​Dear Friends,
A few months ago I wrote about a new course I was teaching in Malaysia, entitled, “Ministry in a time of COVID.” In that course we looked at a number of Biblical leaders to gain insights into their ministry and leadership choices during crises. One leader we looked in the course at was the apostle Paul, in a series of Bible studies I entitled “Plan B Ministry.” Plan-B Ministry is, as it sounds, the ministry choices and opportunities that emerge when Plan A, for whatever reason, is made impossible. Much of Paul’s story in Acts can be described as “Plan-B Ministry.” One short passage caught my eye:
ACTS 16:6-15: They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8 so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.
11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

What are some of the elements of Plan-B Ministry in this passage?

• Closed Doors vv6-7: Paul had strategic reasons and hopes to go deeper into Asia, but God closed doors and made that travel impossible. God had other things in mind for Paul.
  
• Revelation v9: Having received God’s “No” repeatedly and having knocked on doors that remained closed, Paul was attentive to a “Yes” from God in the form of the invitation from this “man of Macedonia”.
  
• Cultural Analysis v13: Paul’s typical Plan-A was to teach first in the local synagogue. But in cities where the Jewish population is too small for a synagogue, Jews would gather by the river for prayer on the Sabbath. Paul trusted that he would find his likeliest God-seekers here.
  
• Responsiveness v15: Paul followed Jesus’ guidance for the apostles: “where you find a welcome, stay there.”
  

Now, far be it from me to too-quickly make the comparison between Paul’s “Plan B” ministry and our own, but…

• Closed doors: Lisa and I also had an intention to go to Asia, and started in Thailand, hoping to make it to Malaysia where we felt called and had good ministry to do. But closed doors made even staying in Thailand or going on to Malaysia impossible.
  
• Revelation and Invitation: As we were pondering what God could be saying to us with the closed doors, we also received invitations to go to Eastern Europe, not via dreams but via email. Like Paul, we found ministry opportunities abounded as we said yes to this new direction.
  
• Strategic Analysis: Our ministry partners in Moldova, especially have been struggling with finding new students in a time of COVID, when the usual opportunities to publicize gatherings have been limited. They identified places where I could speak to groups that would open the doors for them in ways that even they would have difficulty going. For better or worse, a seasoned American teaching on leadership is novel in some situations that a Moldovan Christian student worker might not be, both in university classes and secular contexts and in some churches.
  
• Responsiveness and further opportunities: As I began to do this ministry with my Moldovan partners, we found other opportunities coming, as people who heard what I was teaching in one setting invited me to their own churches, which were usually new settings for the student ministry workers. And new settings brought the local staff new opportunities to connect with students.
  

​Moldova is one of the smaller former republics of the USSR, territory that during the Ottoman Empire was for a while part of Romania. The citizens of Moldova speak Romanian and also Russian. While here, we both have had on-going teaching (Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, China, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus). I have taught in Bălţi (pronounced “Bults”), Comrat, Tiraspol (in the breakaway region between Ukraine and the Dniester River –hence called Transnistria), and on Saturday I will be in the town of Ungheni. These cities, and the place we’ve spent most of our time, Chisinau (the capital) are highlighted in red points on the map at the top.
Lisa's Update:
Lisa has found many ways to serve the team at the St. Paul’s Theological College in Malaysia. She attends the weekly staff meetings and recently offered a mini-workshop for them as they think through transitions to online learning, considering the pros and cons of hybrid, asynchronous, synchronous, and blended in-person/zooming options. She has seen it all, in her years at Fuller, and it seems they found this quite helpful.
Lisa and I have also really enjoyed co-teaching the gospel of Mark to students in Malaysia. She brings a scholarly perspective on a theological or historical theme in the gospel in the first hour, then I take students into an inductive, close look at a passage. It's a great blend of our strengths!
I am also proud to announce that a book Lisa has been working on in the cracks of our nomadic lives has a publisher, Wipf and Stock, and is nearing completion! The tentative title is Resonate: Preaching that Reconnects Us after a Season of Distance. We hope it will be a gift of encouragement to pastors who have toughed it out through this long stretch of the road.

Prayer Requests:

• Despite our twisting detours, we do still hope to enter Malaysia in 2022. We see promising signs that at least 90-day tourist visas will begin to be issued by the new year. This would coincide nicely with our hopes to help lead a Mark Camp (studying the gospel of Mark; we would help with the international students' track, which will be in English) in Ukraine in mid-January. Our audacious hope would be to go from there to Malaysia. Please pray with us for this!
  
• I will be leaving Monday, October 25 for a week in Armenia, to engage with the IFES work there much as I have here in Moldova. Lisa will stay in Chisinau working on her course grading and her book writing. For obvious reasons we do not like traveling apart, but this felt like the best use of time for each of us. Please pray for the work I will be doing in Armenia (Oct 26-Nov 1) and for Lisa’s productive week here in Chisinau.
  
• We have been invited to teach two conferences the first two weekends of November back in Ukraine. The ministry there and the staff continue to appreciate what we bring. We will be back in Lviv looking at the book of Habakkuk Nov 5-6, and I will be teaching a group of IFES graduates in Kiev the following weekend. Please pray for travel, unsettled logistics including housing, and for fruitful teaching and ministry partnerships in our short time back in Ukraine.
  

Thank you for your faithful friendship and partnership in the gospel. We will be back in the US starting in about a month’s time, and we always enjoy hearing back from you and look forward to Christmas family newsletters and photos, which of course we appreciate especially when it comes electronically, though we are set up to receive them physically as well.
With Love and gratitude,
Rich and Lisa