Monthly Letters (Page 2)

I recently saw the photo below with the caption, “Online Dating in the 1930s.” You’ve got to laugh at that! But this photo also reminds me about what is NOT true for our ministry and our CCW team. We are NOT just hanging on provisionally, or in any other way. And that doesn’t mean we haven’t had a lot of last-minute deliverances, but something much more profound. Let me explain. Pam and I just finished reading through Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual…

For many of us, the Christmas/New Year season is a time not only to think about Jesus’ incarnation but also to enjoy our relatives and friends. Perhaps we see them only at this time of the year. Some time ago I wrote this short article to guide us about speaking the gospel to those relatives we love. Take a few moments to ponder these ideas: What About Your Relatives? In the New Testament, we find new believers confronting their own…

The old ways. Do we want them? Some of you are older (though I’m glad that hasn’t happened to me). And all of you are older this year than you were last. Was it better before? Do we have the right perspective about the way it used to be? There is something charming about what things were like before smartphones and social media and so much public anger…..the pace of life, the emphasis on relationships, the steadiness of it all. …

Here are a couple of reports from recent trips by Steve and Patty, and Pam and me. Christ is Building His Church: Steve Burchett’s Report from Austria and Lebanon It’s one thing to think “in theory” about Jesus’ promise to build his church (Matthew 16:18), but it’s another thing entirely to actually hear first-hand accounts and to see that promise being fulfilled. On a recent ministry trip with Patty to Salzburg, Austria, and then Beirut, Lebanon, I got to hear…

My grandmother Elliff was a presenter of the gospel. Are you? She looks harmless, but in the case in this photo was a sawed off gospel shotgun! One day a tramp came to her screen door asking for food. Grandmother and her pastor husband lived close to the train tracks and this was not an uncommon experience during those days. Always accommodating, she asked the man to remain at the front door while she went back to get him something…

Do you realize what an amazing thing it is that God has supplied everything we have needed for our ministry and our personal needs and the needs of our team for over 32 years? He has an ocean-like supply to meet all our needs. This means that many tens of thousands of dollars have come in to this ministry every year without solicitation to anybody but God alone. He did it again this year, providing over $210,000 for our living…

California Christmas! We just returned from sunny California, where the Christmas season is, frankly, a whole lot more like Israel than Kansas City. Years ago, I pastored a church in Orlando, Florida. Warm Decembers were part of the mystique, yet I never quite got used to it. But now it seems VERY appealing to live in such a place. We’ve already had a couple of snows here in KC and will see much more than that, I’m sure. We arrived…

Just a couple of weeks ago, Steve Burchett and I loaded up his van and drove to Oklahoma from Kansas City for retreat with the leaders of a well-known international ministry I won’t name. The trip was pleasant, but when we arrived after several hours, the gate of the retreat center was only partially opened and unmovable. Steve decided to slip through the gate on foot to see who could help us. He found no one to help. So, returning…

Dear CCW family, Those kids! Pam and I have three older ones, along with their two spouses and two grandchildren. Steve and Patty have three in the mid-range. Kole and Rachel have two that are younger. Through the years we have often taken our family with us as we travel.  We believe this is important for them and for the churches and conferences when at all possible to do. It’s been our desire to promote both fear of God and…

Greetings! We’re working hard on completing Bryan Elliff’s book called SURPLUS: FEARLESS GENEROSITY IN 2 CORINTHIANS 8-9. Here’s a portion of the introduction: I can remember when I first took seriously the Bible’s teaching on money and possessions. I was a college student at home for the summer and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was a topic of vigorous discussion among my friends. As I read and talked about those fascinating and memorable words of Christ, I realized just how…

We are in a new day of hatred and demeaning language. I’m sure you see it. One US senator said that he had just come off a seven month fast from social media and realized that he had forgotten that people were supposed to hate each other. Believers must do better. I have often been shocked by spiritual leaders, along with otherwise faithful Christians, spending so much of their public speech in vitriolic, accusative language about political issues, at the…

I’ve just listened to a young man named Marcin Patrzalek playing Nicolo Paganini, “Caprice No 24” and “El Colibri” by Julio Sagreras. I’m shocked to hear this young man play as he did, and with such difficult pieces. Look him up on YouTube. He could not be more than 15 or 16 years of age. I love classical guitar, but it isn’t just the music that makes it for me, nor the quality of the guitar—as you know, it’s the…