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Alan Buterworth Family Update
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Newsletters - click "Get Resource" to see complete PDF version with photos and more
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Entries from
October 2004
October 2004 Newsletter
Friday, October 01, 2004 :: 365 Views :: Newsletter
RYAN’S HOPE By Steve Cohen
Recently I traveled to Texas to speak at Grace Lutheran Church in Arlington. Rev. Brad Beckman, the pastor, knew me from his time of ministry at Messiah Lutheran Church in St. Louis. He took his passion for reaching many nations with him to Texas to work with the people at Grace.
That weekend they hosted a special even called
Uno Voz (One Voice). This was a combined morning service outdoors under a big tent. The children had made some wind decorations with streamers adding a festive touch. After the service, there was a picnic meal served and several hours of games and fun for the young and young at heart.
Brad’s passion is for the congregation to be a reaching community. He wants to reach the many diverse nations that are in the immediate vicinity of the church property. A mural on the outside of the building shows the arms of Christ reaching out to people from many races and cultures.
In one way, Grace Lutheran church members were like their fellow confessors in Christ in the LCMS: the overwhelming majority of the members know someone Jewish, yet when asked how many had taken the initiative to tell them of Y’shua, only 5 hands raised up. The focus of my talk that day was one of urgency in reaching out before it is too late.
Many afterwards commented on the importance of that message and their desire to do something to reach their friends before it was too late.
While waiting for my ride back to the airport, a spindly young man with braces approached me. He told me how he appreciated the message, that His name is Ryan, and he is 12 years old. His father said that he had a question: I have a friend who is not a Christian, but Hindu and I want to reach her for Christ, how can I do this?
What a stunning question to come from the mouth of a 12 year old!...
Another Divine Appointment
Shalom once again from New York City!
A funny thing happened to me following an outreach in Forest Hills recently. As I was walking through the park from the Post Office back to my car, I stopped to watch a group of older Russian gentlemen playing chess. I always enjoy taking the last few minutes of my parking meter’s time to enjoy some chess. The funny part is; I didn’t get to watch any chess on this occasion.
An older woman sitting on a park bench directly in front of me read my shirt aloud, “Jesus is the Messiah”. I looked at her and said, “Yes, ma’am. What do you think?” She said, “They tell us the Messiah is still coming.” I asked how she would know whom the Messiah was or when he would come. She shrugged her shoulders indicating she didn’t know. I started to talk about Isaiah 53 and she interrupted me by asking, “Do you want to know the truth.” I quickly responded, “Of course, I’m always interested in the truth.” She said, “There is no Messiah or God.” I looked at her for a moment and asked her why she felt that way. She continued to tell how there couldn’t be a God that would let her watch her 38-year-old mother and four brothers and sisters killed in a concentration camp during WWII. We talked about the horrors of the Holocaust and how God saved her for a reason. At that, she leaned over to her ailing husband and scoffed – “Oh, God saved me.” Then she looked at me and said, “God didn’t save me. Not after what I’ve experienced.” I expressed how much God loves her and desires a relationship with her. At that she turned again to her husband and again scoffed – “Oh, God loves me.”
Finally, I challenged her to pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and ask for Him to show her who the Messiah is. She agreed that she could do that.
“If I Get Baptized, Will I Become a Gentile?”by Alan Butterworth
Many Jewish people struggle with this question, even as the Holy Spirit leads them to confess faith in Jesus. Recently, I met with Theresa, a friend of Erzsebet, a Hungarian Jewish college student. Erzsebet wants to be a doctor, but has leukemia and a new tumor. When I was there, she was not up to a visit. But, after reading the Hungarian New Testament I was blessed to send her, she asked the campus Chaplain at Concordia River Forest about getting baptized! Please pray that she is baptized soon, and that God will use her in a powerful way.
Saturday, I met with Pastor Kretschmar, a chaplain for the physically and mentally handicapped in the Chicago area. Through his devotions and Bible studies, a Jewish woman, Terrie, now openly and enthusiastically confesses faith in Jesus! Pastor K wants to baptize Terrie, who is in her 30’s. Her mother has seen how much joy Terrie receives from her faith in Jesus. But she is afraid that if Terrie is baptized, she will lose her identity as a Jewish person. Please give thanks for Terrie’s faith, pray that her mother will allow her to be baptized, and be willing to see for herself just how Jewish it is to believe in Jesus!
What does it mean to be Jewish? In the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, you find: “Of or pertaining to the Jews or Hebrews”. The Eber or Hebrew people were descended from Shem, one of Noah’s sons (Gen. 10:21). Abram was a Hebrew (Gen. 14:13).
Sadly,most Jewish leaders say you can’t be Jewish if you believe in Jesus! For many, like Terrie’s mom, Baptism would be the end of one’s Jewish identity. After all, when one converts to Judaism, the final step, after instruction and testing, is to be spiritually “cleansed’ in a ceremonial cleansing tank (“mikveh”). There may be another reason baptism is hard for Terrie’s mom to contemplate. The history of baptism and Jewish people is not pretty. In the middle ages, many Jewish people were given a choice between being baptized or killed!
We must remember that it is not easy for our Jewish friends to become believers in Jesus. Many families still hold funerals for those who accept Jesus. Often, Jewish believers are completely alienated from the Jewish community. Can you blame them given the atrocities committed by Gentile Christians against Jews? Would you give up your relationship with your family to believe in Jesus? This sounds impossible, and it is, humanly speaking! But as Jesus said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Luke 18:27.
Do the waters of Baptism change a Jewish person into a Gentile, as Terrie’s mom fears? Absolutely not! Paul writes, “I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Messiah for the sake of my own race, the people of IsraelÖfrom them is traced the human ancestry of Messiah”. Romans 9:3-5. After he was baptized, Paul was still Jewish and passionate about reaching his people.
Sarah - 21, going, glowing
and growing!
[A letter written to her home congregation] Well, hello…or I guess I should say shalom! Thank you for holding us up in prayer during the 2004 campaign with Apple of His Eye. Ellen and I spent two weeks participating in this campaign which most of you are probably pretty familiar with by now via personal experience, Steve Cohen’s visit to our church or my family’s endless chatter about it. We went to a number of main attractions around St. Louis including Fair St. Louis, the Muny, the Zoo, Busch Stadium, Barnes Jewish Hospital, the Delmar Loop and downtown Clayton where we were visible in either fire-fly orange or eggplant purple shirts with usually very corny tracts (which we call broadsides) and attempted to ask anyone and everyone the question “What do YOU think of Jesus?” Along with a lot of amazing conversations comes a bit of criticism, opposition and even anger along with some physical discomfort.
We call the outings “campaigns” because of their resemblance to a military operation. Many of the terms we used are military related; sortie, broadside, recruit, contact, the use of uniforms, and a host of abbreviations such as JB, GB, OJ, UG and UJ. These terms are not by accident but consciously chosen to be reminders that we too are at war; a spiritual war. Because we had been trained for war, we weren’t surprised when we were attacked, rather, we expected it. Whenever God is at work, satan is too. Obviously in St. Louis, there aren’t cultural or language barriers. There are a number of other issues to deal with. A couple of challenging areas include apathy (how to make someone care?!), over- exposure to a watered-downed gospel (everyone knows John 3:16!), and cults with a “look alike” message (I actually met a Jehovah’s Witness who readily admitted we believed differently!)
I dreaded talking with Moslems, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Atheists, New Age-ers, Post Modernists, Jews, on the other hand, are fun! Actually, I loved working with anyone hot or cold. It’s the lukewarm, or as I referred to them before, the apathetic, that are a real drain. One night, about 11pm, two guys from our team were debating ethics with a guy with dread locks named Donkey. Another guy from our team was trying to have a conversation with a guy on stilts who said he couldn’t understand heaven. Another couple people were sharing with a homeless man. I was with another member of the team and we were sharing with a Jewish guy and his African American fiancÈ who was close to tears. THAT’S the Loop!! Most of my favorite conversations were there.
This year I had the opportunity to “shadow” several experienced missionaries. That means I got to listen in on dozens of conversations and take notes on how to ask questions, get to the heart of the matter, and answer those tough questions. Hours of “classroom training” can’t even compete with all I learned first hand out there! I even learned a bit of Hebrew and Yiddish! : ) It’s hard for me to “rock the boat”. I would rather jump ship than bring up something controversial. And Jesus sure does have a way of being controversial!! (Matthew 10:34-36) But because of these two weeks, I can’t look at St. Louis the same. It’s not just my home- town. It’s a mission field just as much as Russia, China and Mexico. Street evangelism facilitates a conversation with someone I normally would never meet, much less talk with. It is more fun than anything I can think of and also one of the scariest. I feel like I understand the apostle Paul a bit better now, because after all, he was a huge street evangelist. (See Acts 17:17) In fact, I am SURE he was talking about street evangelism when he penned 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 because that is exactly how I feel about it!
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