Extreme Expansion

I have been absent from this blog for too long.

And you know how when you avoid something for a while, you dread returning to it. Like if you take a break from working out, it seems so much harder to start again? Or if you try to keep a daily journal, and miss a few weeks, you know you could never catch up, so you just don't even want to try?

Or, you try to keep a blog, and you forget to write about HUGE things happening, so you just stop?

My apologies. Seriously. Because I forgot to tell you about the AMAZING short term volunteer project we had the last two weeks of June.

Incredible. We built two churches. We did tons of impact. And God moved so powerfully.

And I forgot to tell you about leaving Cusco. And how incredibly hard it was to say goodbye. And how I already miss the people from our churches. My hermanos.

And I forgot to tell you how WEIRD it has been coming back to the States. Ask me about it, and I'll tell you how I feel.

And I forgot to tell you how BUSY I am with speaking engagements. Really. Every week. So, shoot me an email if you would like to hang out while I am home.

And something important that I also have forgotten to mention, is how much I need your support. I know, this may be the thing people dread from missionaries. And missionaries don't particularly like to talk about it either. But I have to tell you, because I want to give you the opportunity to partner with me in this ministry.

I need PRAYER PARTNERS. Please, pray with me as I set out to serve God in the way he has called me to. Prayer must be the foundation of everything. It is a mighty weapon against the enemy's attacks. It is our connection to a gracious Spirit who intercedes for us. We need to pray. And I need prayer.

I also need FINANCIAL PARTNERS. Allow me to be honest: I have a huge chunk of money I need to raise. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to support myself. I need you. And I'll be even more honest: the one time gifts are great, but I have expenses every MONTH. (See, I have grown accustomed to eating every day, and having a place to sleep, and not walking from town to town to do my job. I know, spoiled!) I need people to partner with me in monthly donations. That is the ONLY WAY I can serve the Lord the way he is leading me.

Please pray about being my partner in this ministry. See, I believe that God did not JUST call ME into ministry, because he knows I can't do this alone. I believe he called YOU TOO. So seek out earnestly what God would ask of you. I didn't plant churches by myself. Every person who has prayed and given was part of that.

So I won't mobilize South Americans into mission work by myself either. You are part of this.

We are ALL a part of the extreme expansion of God's kingdom!

www.extremenazarene.org/stevens

Sucked In to the Mutuality Debate

This is my take on "One In Christ: A Week of Mutuality, dedicated to discussing an egalitarian view of gender—including relevant biblical texts and practical applications. The goal is to show how scripture, tradition, reason, and experience all support a posture of equality toward women, one that favors mutuality rather than hierarchy, in the home, Church, and society. You can read the rest of the posts here."

How sad…but it is only recently that I have begun to realize that there are so many Christians who don’t believe I have any business preaching.

Sure, they don’t call me out by saying, “You, Cailyn, have no business in the pulpit. Get out and go home. Let your husband do the spiritual leading.”

I don’t have a problem with my husband (whom I don’t have yet) being a spiritual leader.

I DO, however, have a problem with being told I am of no worth in ministry. Although I guess they wouldn’t phrase it that way. I CAN do ministry, but limiting myself to working with women and children. But my voice pretty much has no business reaching the ears of men in the congregation.

Which poses a slight problem, since I have been teaching, preaching, and discipling men AND women for the past two years.

But growing up in the Church of the Nazarene, I never really realized it was a major issue. At some point of my young Bible study, I stumbled upon 1 Timothy 2, and didn’t really know what to do with it. This is where I first realized that not everyone would be okay with my call to ministry. My call to reach the unreached at the ends of the earth. My call to teach the Word of God to anyone who will listen to me.

Because apparently, my chromosomes might be the only factor to take into account.

I have (obviously) been sucked in to the mutuality debates lighting up the blogosphere.

And a few things have jumped out at me:

1. It is a VERY personal issue to women with a call to ministry. If God says that a patriarchal system is what he had in mind for the Church that bears the name of Jesus Christ, well that kind of changes everything for me.

2. Reading the entire Bible from a lens of complementarianism feels inconsistent. I get that just opening up certain sections of the Bible, and reading them at face value, you pretty much have to draw the conclusion that women are to be silent in the church. But what about the times when they very clearly don’t. When female church leaders are praised by the Apostle Paul. When he even tells women that WHEN they prophesy, they need to cover their heads. Jesus even commissioned a women to be the herald of the resurrection story, the very definition of an apostle. And in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, egalitarianism is the only thing that makes sense.

I also believe it is extremely important to remember that the Bible was not written to us. We absolutely have it as a resource to apply to our lives, but we are not the intended audience. We are eavesdropping on a conversation that Paul had about Timothy in his specific church. We are eavesdropping on Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. We are eavesdropping on Peter’s conversation with the early believers. This REQUIRES us to investigate the context these things were written within. And Rachel Held Evans has already done a fantastic job of that on her blog.

In light of the cultural and historical contexts, and in view of the entire canon of Scripture, egalitarianism just makes sense. It is the more consistent position. It makes no exceptions.

3. I was really blown away by what Evans stated, “For patriarchalists, the power struggle between men and women will only end when men win. 

For egalitarians, the power struggle between men and women can only end when, like Christ, we both choose to lose.”

Here’s the thing, Paul’s call for the universal church isn’t about gender; it is about submitting to one another in love. EVERYONE is called to submit to one another. EVERYONE is called to stop looking after his or her own interests, but to put others first. We are ALL called to love our neighbor as ourselves.

That command has nothing to do with gender. That command has EVERYTHING to do with loving my brother or sister more than I love myself. It actually requires me to forget about myself and seek the interests of others. I choose to lose, because I am not seeking my own interests. And if we are ALL putting everybody else first, we are actually loving the way Jesus Christ did, who made himself nothing, and gave himself up for us.

In the kingdom that Jesus Christ came to establish on earth as it is in heaven, gender is just NOT part of the equation.

We are all ONE IN CHRIST.

And perhaps the most disturbing part of this debate is not the issues raised themselves, but rather the fact that we don’t really seem to be representing one body. We are definitely lacking the unity that Jesus earnestly prays for his followers to have.

So part of me wants to keep my mouth shut, but the thing I just don’t like, is that they want to silence half of the followers of Christ, half of his disciples, and half of the followers who need to be making disciples of all nations.

Ladies, we can’t keep quiet, because the Great Commission is not finished, and we need to go. We need to teach. We need to baptize. We are Christ’s ambassadors too. So until the last tribe and tongue is reached with his saving message, silence is not an option. We have an equal share in this.

I like this...

Christians have been imitating the spiritual drive behind bands like U2 and Sigur Rós in worship settings for years now. Whether it’s Phil Wickham's "Cielo" or Fee’s “All Because of Jesus”, it should be obvious enough that there is something that speaks to the deepest part of our souls about the music itself‚ not just the “Christianese” we choose to throw on top of it. Because like all of creation, music is earthy and fleshy. It's pure physicality: sound waves moving from hollowed chunks of carved wood, vocal chords tightening and loosening. It's all just notes on a page. We know how it works. We have theory for this kind of stuff. Even still, when taking a moment to bask in an album like Valtari, it's hard not to view music—and even life itself—as a deep spiritual experience as well.


(From a Review of Sig Ros's new album on RELEVANTmagazine.com.)

Oswald was really great today:


“The Lord . . . is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish . . .” (2 Peter 3:9). I should look within and remember how wonderfully He has dealt with me. The knowledge that God has loved me beyond all limits will compel me to go into the world to love others in the same way. I may get irritated because I have to live with an unusually difficult person. But just think how disagreeable I have been with God! Am I prepared to be identified so closely with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness will be continually poured out through Me? Neither natural love nor God’s divine love will remain and grow in me unless it is nurtured. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained through discipline.


--Oswald Chambers My Utmost For His Highest, May 11

Today, I'm reflecting on this:


Matthew 9
³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.^(AP) 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,^(AQ)because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.^(AR)37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest^(AS) is plentiful but the workers are few.^(AT) 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”


Any thoughts?

Check it out here.

It's Over...But Not Really

I am writing this from a basement in Arequipa.

"What?" you ask? "Why are you there?"

Well, BIG news for you:

I am DONE being a 40/40 in Cusco!

That's right, my 27 months are up.

Now you ask, "So why aren't you home?"

Well, I am sticking around Peru for a couple of months.

Do you want to hear some even BIGGER news?

I am CONTINUING with Extreme in South America!

I will be working as Mobilization Coordinator for South America. "What does that mean?" you want to know? (My goodness, you ask a lot of questions!)

Well, it means that I will be working to find and deploy South American missionaries to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria figuratively, and hopefully eventually LITERALLY to the ends of the earth.)

So, if you have more questions, feel free to ask me! (cstevens@extremenazarene.org)

But back to Cusco...

We have a short term team coming down in June. They will be building TWO churches, doing outreach with children and adults, showing Jesus films, and holding medical clinics. Since I am kind of a Cusco expert (or at least the best we have), I will be helping out with the planning and execution of this project.

Then it is home to Cincinnati!

And wrapping up life in Cusco was surreal. Seriously, it didn't even seem real. We sold all of our stuff. We visited all of our people for one last time. We ate with a lot of them. We had our last church service. People stood up and thanked us for what we had done. We took lots of pictures.

And we said goodbye...

But what is goodbye, really? If we did our jobs right, and the Holy Spirit continues his work, then we'll see them again.

So I want to tell you, THANK YOU for your prayers and support. WE did this!

Please continue to pray for me, and the people of Cusco. And please consider partnering with me financially during the next phase of my calling. We are ALL part of advancing God's kingdom.

So if you would like to donate, or sign up to be a prayer partner, visit www.extremenazarene.org/stevens

This journey isn't over. The movement is still just beginning!