All posts by Don Stephens

I'm a musician, teacher, and sheepdog with a passion for the Kingdom of God. Currently I work with Youth With a Mission, traveling and teaching on Worldview and the Kingdom of God.
News & Stories, Poetry and Prayers

First Post from Sarajevo

1 Comment

I returned to Sarajevo on February 7th after a humming three months in the States. It’s always amazing to me, when I’m in America, the opportunities God opens up for concerts, programs, and ministry. And this trip was no exception. It made me wonder if perhaps I ought to be taking my musical gifts more seriously. It certainly meant little rest at home, and a pace that kept me in constant motion.

But now I’m back in Bosnia, and the time for talking about these things has passed. My return was surprisingly smooth, with none of the despair and hopelessness that typically clobbers me before I’ve unpacked my suitcases. But this time was different. It’s not an external thing, as if Sarajevo has suddenly been hit with a surge of hope, but rather an internal posture of my own heart which seems to have found a deeper place of rest. There’s a new confidence in my spirit that God really can use me here. And it feels wonderfully good.

Recently I came across this quote that sums up something of what I’m seeing:

“The … work of the non-professional missionary is essentially to live his daily life in Christ, and therefore with a difference, and to be able to explain, or at least to state, the reason and cause of the difference to men who see it… His preaching is essentially private conversation, and has at the back of it facts, facts of a life which explain and illustrate and enforce his words… It is such missionary work, done consciously and deliberately, that the world needs today. Everybody, Christian and pagan alike, respects such work; and, when it is so done, men wonder, and inquire into the secret of a life which they instinctively admire and covet for themselves… The spirit which inspires love of others and efforts after their well-being, both in body and soul, they cannot but admire and covet–unless, indeed, seeing that it would reform their own lives, they dread and hate it, because they do not desire to be reformed. In either case, it works. (Roland Allen 1869-1947)

Bosnian friends appear to be doing well. Though most are still afraid of dreaming, I see them inching forward with provisional plans and trial hopes. My call, as I see it, is to resume my post of pointing out the realities of God’s kingdom and the unlimited potential of His dream .

Poetry and Prayers

In Pursuit of the Future

Leave a comment

“Neither a wise man, nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history and waits for the train of the future to run over him.” – Dwight Eisenhower

Last night I bravely attended the D-O-C, an “emerging generation” Bible study of Attention Deficit teens and early “twenty-somethings” jumping from hyperlink to hyperlink with breakneck speed, stunning creativity, and dizzy musings. Trying to keep pace with the discussion felt like I had a bowling ally in my brain.

We boomers sometimes find it difficult to balance tippy-toe on the edge of forward time. Comfort and safety don’t live in the future any more than childhood memories and Leave it to Beaver. But faith by nature looks at the future and walks boldly into tomorrow. This is why I choose to learn from the Gen-X-Y-Zers.

OK, they might have issues with orthodoxy and the accumulated wisdom of human history, but they do have something to say to us:

Honor creativity. Ask questions. Don’t close the book. And don’t accept it because someone said it was so. Move beyond opinions and sterile doctrine. Participate. Value art and subtlety. While we boomers get stuck with conspicuous images of our Sunday-School Jesus, the young are telling us He might also look like Superman, a circus king, or a “wrecking ball with a heart of gold.”

I’m keenly aware that the young are able to blow the dust off my faith and oil the gears of my convictions like few others. And they remind me that the ancient ways kingdom never stop pioneering fearlessly into the future. “Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already—you can see it now!” – Is. 43:19

It’s to my young friends credit that I’m being wrenched away from my “old school” home page into the great frontier of the blogosphere. Young minds need stimulation and this site will offer hyperlinks and interactive opportunities to participate in the action . So whether you’re a young upstart, or a middle-aged boomer, please feel welcome to join the conversation with your thoughts, comments and prayers.

-Don

Poetry and Prayers

Hello World!

1 Comment

I haven’t figured this out yet, but I believe this site will give you and me the opportunity to actually communicate, dialogue, and learn from each other along the journey rather than simply “catching up” on what I’ve been experiencing here in Sarajevo.

I choose the title “Dispatches from the Shadowlands” because I often feel like my life here on earth is so shrouded by questions and mystery. Yet God’s kingdom is emerging from the shadows day by day as we wrestle with questions of truth, eternity, justice, and the character of God.

My “dispatches” are simply memos of things I’m learning and experiencing along the way, or (maybe more often), observations I only suspect. Hopefully together we’ll find our way into a brighter understanding of the real world, the true world of the Kingdom which has been the dream of God since eternity past.