Casely about global faith
Hi everyone. Welcome to 40 Minutes of Faith. My name is Barbara Cox and I host this weekly podcast to explore God's word and our relationship with God.
Barbara: I'm here today with guest Casely Essamuah to talk about faith around the globe. I met Casely in Massachusetts 22 years ago, and our families have traveled the globe separately since then. So we don't get to see each other often in person.
Growing up in Ghana, Casely was a pastor's kid and he was ordained in the Methodist church, studied at Harvard and Boston university school of theology, where he earned a doctorate degree. He and his family are now in Maryland, and Casely serves at the global Christian forum (GCF), which is an international group.
Caseley, how are things in Maryland these days?
Casely: Well, thank you very much, Barbara. This is a joy to be able to connect with you and through you to all those that will be listening to this podcast. We are doing very well in Maryland. We thank God that things are tapered off a little bit. We are still very conscious of those that have lost lives and those that are still safe, and none of us knows what the new normal will be, but we are leaning into it slowly every day.
Barbara: Indeed. Thank you for that update. Our Bible passage today is from second Corinthians, which is a book in the new Testament, almost at the end of your Bible. I'll read second Corinthians chapter five, verses 16 to 20 from the message version:
“Because of this decision, we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong. As you know, we certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone. A new life burgeons, look at it. All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.
God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he's doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them.
We're speaking for Christ himself. Now become friends with God. He's already a friend with you.”
Casley, this passage talks about new life from God. And I wonder if you experienced God calling you in a way that you didn't expect?
Casely: Yes. It's so refreshing to read and to be reminded again, that who we are is as a result of what Christ has done on the cross to settle the relationship.
that We have with God and we also enjoy and encouraged because of what God has already done, that we will settle out a relationship with each other. Each of us has this fresh start. I like that fresh start. And in the last, 25, 30 years, I've had the privilege of being a global missions pastor at two big churches.
One was in Boston, Park Street Church. And then also, here in Maryland Annapolis Bay area, community church. And I was fairly content with what I was doing, doing global missions all over the world, whether it is sending people to go to places like South Sudan or South India in leadership development, in, training of pastors in church planting, or going to Ghana to do evangelism and discipleship, go into Uganda to do HIV AIDS ministries.
We're going all over the world, ESL programs in El Salvador, in Poland. Wow. And I thought I was all set. And then the Lord redirected me a phone call came through. They were looking for a secretary for the global Christian forum. And the friend said, I think you'd be a very good candidate for that. And I said, I don't think so.
And she said, why don't you pray? And I committed to prayer. And after praying for two weeks and after consulting with so many different people, I was at a point where I was like, it doesn't hurt to make myself available.
And I think that's a good place to be. when you say I'm available for God to use me, I don't know what the future is. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm just going to be available. And there's been one thing after the other, just confirming just the willingness to be open. And I feel very confident that I am doing exactly what God wants me to do at this time.
I'm in my life. So I'm grateful that the Lord redirected me to this new calling.
Barbara: I have a hunch that many of us experienced redirection, and sometimes it doesn't feel fun, but that's irrelevant- the new path can open itself up to us. Sometimes, maybe we feel stuck, but that's not today's conversation.
Casely: Yes
Barbara: this is also talk about judging people by how they look or what they have. I know that there's still persecution of Christians taking place around the world today, along with persecution of other faith groups. Casley, what have you heard during your travels around the world about persecution?
Casely: That is the sad aspect of our lives. These days, that Christians in many, many places where they are minorities are being persecuted, whether it's discrimination in housing or employment, or even family issues and marriages. And then sometimes sadly Christians lose their lives all over the world. we are told that this century we have lost more than all the previous centuries combined.
So it is a very sad occurrence. It goes on every day. I think as Christians, there are four things we can do. I think the first is to pray for perseverance and for faithfulness, for those that are going through periods of persecution. But secondly, also to pray for protection for them, we know that nothing comes to any of us without going through the gracious hands of our sovereign God.
But we also know that he calls us to pray that we'll be protected from the evil one. So we should pray that Christians who are in all parts of the world should pray for brothers and sisters. The third thing I think we can do also to use legal means- government to government advocacy, whatever ways that we have, especially those of us in the Western world, where we have freedom of religion, enshrined in our constitution is respected by all other non Western countries. Also, most of them have freedom of religion, but they don't respect it, especially they are Christian minorities and we can use our influence in government, in policymaking to us that they just respect the constitution that they have, especially because we respect and allow everyone who is in the Western world to practice their religion, that they have.
The fourth idea is that, Christians in the Western world do feel marginalized. they will not call themselves persecuted, but they sometimes consider ourselves as being irrelevant to the societies in which we live in because people don't really appreciate the values that we have because we are more pluralistic in a more secular society.
And just as we find ways of allowing all faiths and all religions to practice in safety in the Western world, we should also, of course not discriminate against the very Christian heritage of the Western countries. We should have a balance where we can celebrate our Christian heritage as well as allow others to practice their religion.
And I think that will be a good witness to the whole world.
Barbara: Thank you. We're in times of strife and pointing fingers at each other these days. Do you have thoughts on how Christians can celebrate connections as we face common challenges?
Casely: One of the things that we all know about COVID-19 is that it shows us that we are all in this together. It doesn't matter where you live in the world, how resourceful you are, whatever it is. We are all in this together. And this is a global challenge. And, it also has revealed that we really don't know each other very well. Most times the knowledge that we have of other Christians or people in other denominations is based on caricatures and the weak parts of their behavior. We assume. We always highlight our best parts. That's human. That's what we do. When I visit many parts of the world, I ensure that my network gets together, church leaders, and more often than not church leaders who would consider themselves evangelical will have a fellowship.
And then church leaders who consider themselves ecumenical or their main line church, they will have a fellowship, but very rarely do they interact, very rarely do they intersect and through the GCF, as people get to know each other better, as they realize that they actually have much more in common than that which divides them.
As they get to know the roots and the foundations of how they came to faith and how they came to be people who love Jesus Christ and the before and the after. And what are the heroes of the faith that they have? You realize that they are just building bridges and they're tearing down walls that defined divide us. More often than not, when you pray with someone, when you share a meal with someone, when you look into another person's eyes, it's very difficult to fight them. It's very difficult to fight them after you do that. Now, let me just give an example. After one meeting, one of the leaders of the Orthodox church in Europe, and I mean a Greek Orthodox leader, said thank you very much for this, at which, my, previous, secretary retorted, You're welcome. And Nita said, I need to confess that this is a first time I've spoken with her Pentecostal. And the secretary said, Oh, that is wonderful. And then the Orthodox leader said, usually I am fighting with them. I'm not speaking with them.
And most of us can resonate with that, that a lot of our ideas about people of other faiths, it's more, confrontational than really getting to know them and getting to know the ways that we can build bridges together.
So we need to break down the barriers that we have constructed around ourselves and reach out in building bridges. For the sake of the kingdom of God, for the sake of the kingdom of God. Let me just say one other thing. Someone has said that the great commission, whether it is Matthew 28:18, or Acts 1:8, or the great commandment where Jesus says love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and then love your neighbor as yourself, or even what is called the great collaboration, which is John 17:21, which is: that they all may be one just as a father and I are one; or even the metaphor of the body in first Corinthians 12, Paul talks about all of these are just to being an idea for one church or one denomination to do it alone. And at the same time, they are too important for us not to try to do it with others.
It's too big to do it alone, too important, not to try to do it without us. And the only way that we can enter into that is humility. It's really recognizing what you said right at the beginning, that God, to be initiative in settling the relationship between us and God, and we need to take that initiative and settling relationships with each other, especially those that named Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.
Barbara: So more one on one conversations and less caricatures and looking at the worst and others and thinking the best of ourselves. My best time of meeting people of other faiths was the five years we lived in Germany participating in military chapel and military Bible studies because my Lutheran congregation has lots of folks and we don't all agree about everything, but we agree about many foundational items and you get a chance to travel all around the world and meet people. How about just in our own towns or in our own counties? Any thoughts on just meeting with each other individually?
Casely: Hospitality is always a great thing. Don't stop just asking people, how are you doing. If you go to a restaurant or a gas station or, a place where you go frequently, just have one or two questions, cultivate a relationship. And it doesn't take very long to actually gain a friend. And when you show that you are interested in them and you invite them, or visit a church every now and then the Lutheran should visit a Baptist church, the Catholic should visit an Anglican church and go with an open spirit, go not to see what doing wrong.
That's all necessarily different, but how can God speak to me even as I go there? Reach out. And you're very right. People who are immigrants, people who are not rooted in the area are sometimes very, very open to spiritual conversations- reach out, befriend them. It may even just be as a result of just trying to teach them some American cultural practices.
When we were in Boston, we were part of the focus ministry that just reached out to international students in Boston and. It was such a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to meet with people from all over the world. And you could have it, the spiritual conversation with them without any barriers at all, over a meal, talking together, listening to what it is they are going through and caring by praying for them.
All of these things, open many great doors for us to be able to be church, not just go to church, be the church, not just go to a building the church. Yeah.
Barbara: Thank you so much. Those are some optional homework assignments for listeners or viewers. I would always rather talk about the elephant in the room.
I have a question that is really close to my heart. I wonder if you have some thoughts for us about how we connect with God through music and worship, because I absolutely love to visit other faith communities. And had that opportunity more often with military chapels. I have some struggles when I think about vibrant ministry, what does that mean?
It means something different to all of us. And I'm not saying one way is right, or one way is wrong. You probably wouldn't say that either. I'm wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about, maybe some of the more traditional services might be a little more white, and that might feel very vibrant to some people.
I love organ music, but I also love praise music and lively music, and lively preaching, too. So I guess that's a really open ended question about, just honoring God in different ways and how can there be perhaps more of a broader welcome.
Casely: I think that's a very important question because one of the blessings that I have is I almost have a ringside seat at global Christianity.
So I get to go to different worship services from different traditions, and I enjoy the Gregorian chants when you go to places that they do it very well, but I also go to places where there are loud shouts and the Pentecostal services, and everyone is shouting at the same time and everything in between.
But of course you and I know that what's really at stake in a worship is a condition of our hearts. And are we really adoring the creator as created beings? Are we really giving honor to our savior as grateful recipients of his grace? Are we really joining the heavily host singing Holy, Holy, Holy?
And, the Lord is giving me such a sense of openness of spirit. So I go in praying Lord, speak to me. I am here at this place and I need you to speak to me and it's just been wonderful. I would call myself an evangelical Christian. And when I'm working in Europe, usually I go for two, three weeks because there's a meeting the first week and then the meeting the third week.
So I have the second week and I don't want to come back to the U.S. and then go back. So more often than not our last. friends who are in monasteries and convents and all these, spiritual communities who will invite me to go and spend four or five days there. And when you are with them, you have to enter into whatever is going on.
And I, when I go there, you have at least three times a day when you have worship. And each is about an hour long and 67, 80% of what you're doing is either singing the Psalms or reading the scriptures. While you do that for a week, I realized that, Oh my goodness, as an evangelical, who believes in reading the Bible every day, who believes in praying every day, this is actually a very rich feast that I get to participate in.
And it gives you a better appreciation for those who are doing it on a daily basis and a better appreciation for the fact that you can really enjoy that one of thing, which I really enjoy when I'm in those settings. In present day Europe, a lot of these monasteries and convents and spiritual communities have people from all over the world.
It's not only Europeans who are there. So when you enter into worship, you are worshiping with people from all over you. Just a little bit of a slice of heaven, when you go there. One example is that of Taize. The thousands and thousands of young people who would come for two, three days.
And it's not the most comfortable place to be, but they're not for the comfort. They there for the serenity, for the silence or the opportunity to be with each other to worship. And it does something to you. If you go there, you will have a different perspective of Europe.
sometimes we think that Christianity is flourishing in this part of the world and not doing so well. You need to go to some of these places to see how God is moving among young people in these places.
Barbara: I really appreciate you pointing out that vibrant worship can be silent. It can be very meditative- some of the Taize music is really peaceful or in the monasteries. So vibrancy doesn't equal volume they're not synonyms.
Casely: No, they're not, the level of meaning fullness that you put into all of that and sort of an intentionality to it.
Of course we all know that if we do it without heart, if it becomes a rote repetition of something, God says it's not even useful to him. But if we do it with heart, then we really are connecting with God.
Barbara: And I know for sure that some people feel that their familiar prayers the liturgy that's the same every single week, is a tremendous comfort to them.
So I don't want to throw that under the bus, but to honor that there's different ways of worshiping that maybe engaging and welcoming to different people in a variety of ways. Yes. I like to ask who is missing from this conversation from the broader conversation of global faith and inclusion and welcome?
Casely: Thank you very much. one of the ways that we work at the GCF, the global Christian forum, which is basically. A gathering of church leaders, we have what we call the four pillars, the world evangelical Alliance, the Pentecostal world fellowship, the world council of churches and the Roman Catholic church through the Pontifical council for promoting Christian unity. These church leaders, whether it's on the global level or the national level, when we meet, we meet for only two or three things: we meet to pray.
Then we need to share faith stories. What is God doing in your life? What is God doing in my life? What is God doing in the life of your ministry? What's God doing in the life of your nation? And as we do that, we build bridges so that we can come to a place where we can confront common challenges together.
But whenever we meet, we also ask ourselves this question- who is missing at the table here? And who are those Christians who are not able to join other Christians in a fellowship such as this? And we ask that question because we believe that even though probably these four pillars will be, maybe 80, 90% of the Christian world.
They believe there's others that need to be part of that conversation. The second meaning of what we do is also to, let us remind ourselves that the church exists for those who are yet to receive and benefit from the grace of God. The church is not primarily just a country club for saved.
The church is a gathering place. We come together for encouragement. We come together to get our marching orders, to go out and share the good news to a world that so desperately needs to hear the good news. They need to see these words in action, words like, love, hope, forgiveness, joy reconciliation.
These are not mere words. We are Christ's ambassadors, representatives, as the message put it. And we go into a needy world and we embody these values until the world will then ask, why are you doing this? And then we are doing it because. God has settled the relationship as, a relationship with us.
And so we go out and we share what Christ has done with others. We always have to ask ourselves, even at a church, we have. 10% of the people in this community, 90% are not in church. They may not necessarily be in our church. They might be another church, but who is not in church and like the parable that Jesus gave of the shepherd who leaves the 99 behind and then goes to find the one that is lost, who do we need to go after and bring them to come and enjoy the fellowship that we have.
Barbara: And it could be something like inviting someone you know to come with you, but then there's more to it than that inviting someone you know to come with you is wonderful. I'm not dismissing that. but there's other ways to show that love and that forgiveness and sometimes actions speak louder than words too.
Casely: Absolutely.
Barbara: How can we work on that during COVID when many churches have their doors closed and some are starting to meet again. And then with social distancing, wearing masks, with safety precautions, what are some interesting ways to reach out?
Casely: That's a very good question because every church, everywhere in the world is grappling with that.
Most churches offer online services, some call them e-services, during this season you take the church outside the walls, but also a lot of churches are thinking of ways of serving the community. Some big churches have made available their childcare departments, to host, the children of frontline workers who have to go to work, they have a safe place to leave the children.
Churches are sharing ways of encouraging their members even to go out and do life with each other, even though they have to do it at a social distance. And we know that in some places, there are more people who have tuned into online church services than ever.
So it's been a great opportunity to serve a larger community, but COVID has also revealed that there are so many inequities that we have in life. So many who are vulnerable, especially those who are Seniors. And especially those who don't have health insurance and minorities.
Some churches have realized that we cannot just limit ourselves to preaching about evangelism and discipleship. We need to be present in the public space, whatever form that we take, we need to be seen to be present. Not necessarily needing to take political sides, but we need to be active and we need to make sure that we address some of these issues.
So they're discovering new ways of ministry being bold, innovative. I see more and more people who are considered "lay" leading things.
Barbara: you don’t have to be ordained or go to seminary or be a minister
Casely: no, leading Bible study and putting it on Facebook for others to see it.
It's not always once a week, sort of the pastor comes and preaches, but more and more people are. So in a sense, it's something that we've had some sort of a silver lining. Of course we are sad. So many people have lost their lives, but silver lining in terms of ways that. people have been able to innovate in ministry.
Barbara: Thank you. And what I hear you also saying is that many people might think of this fancy word evangelism is sharing the good news, but you don't have to sit next to someone and open the Bible. You can. Absolutely. That's incredibly powerful, but just doing volunteer work to help with practical needs can be a way of showing God's love to people that will be recognized. Ultimately, you don't have to always talk about Jesus to people.
Casely: A quote, which, sometimes gets a little bit, controversial says, preach the gospel. sometimes with words. Not everybody likes that, but there is some truth to it.
Barbara: Thank you for that information and those suggestions. I feel like sometimes the world might seem like there's a lot of doom and gloom, especially for folks who know someone who has died or someone who is sick, all our frontline workers and things like that. But I suspect that you have some good news about faith communities around the world that you've seen in your travels. Do you have any stories or anecdotes about sharing the good news around the world?
Casely: Yes. A lot of churches around the world of course, are putting their programs online. Yesterday I preached to a Ghanian Methodist church in Washington, DC, and it was on Facebook. About an hour after that, the first call I had came from New York city, someone from New York city watched it. So, people are reaching out in different ways and just trying to be present in the lives of others during this very, very difficult time. I know of stories of a seminary in India, decided that because they are sort of an enclosed community, they could, be a little bit more active, but they reached out to the community outside of the seminary, with some of the stored food stuff that they had over the years. They shared some of that with people who are outside, just making a witness with a gospel in a very, very, needy place.
Barbara: I looked at the global christian forum website and all of these resources will be on www.Fortyminutesoffaith.com as well as a transcript of the conversation. Is the information accessible for say ordinary folks to take a look at and to put into use? Any tips on, resources that folks might want to take a look at?
Casely: absolutely- we have a very good website, the global Christian forum and we have a Facebook page, which is also updated fairly regularly. So I'll invite people to just go and watch that. And we have YouTube interviews that I've had with people from India, Sri Lanka from, Brazil, from Italy, from Finland, from different parts of the world that they can get a sense for what is happening in that part of the world and how people are responding in this time of coping. So I invite all your listeners and viewers to go there and even have more information on these things.
Barbara: Thank you. And I would consider you to be a subject matter expert in global missions with your education and even your growing up years, all of the jobs that you've had, and I very much honor that. My church in many other congregations are so small that it's really up to folks who are there. They're not in a position to have one designated person to specialize in mission. So I'm wondering if you have any thoughts for regular folks, or even if they're not part of a church, what does outreach mean for folks who might not have a designated employee in their faith organization to focus on that?
Casely: I want to put in a plug for another organization is called Grace Bomb. The two words, as unusual as you can ever imagine, but grace bomb, which started with the pastor from our church, pastor, Pat Linelle, the idea is it's almost like I'm doing good for someone without expecting anything back.
It's like, you are in line, the grocery shop and then you pay for the person behind you and then you leave, just, a bookmark or something showing that this was done as a result of grace bomb. And then the person goes on that website and reads about the gospel and the fact that. You are just doing that in the name of Jesus Christ.
it's a very accessible way of sharing your faith, of blessing somebody else. I know a lot of people who, when these stimulus checks came in for COVID used that to bless others. They did not keep that. everybody can do that. You always find a way to just bless someone in the name of Christ.
And I think we do it or they ask us, why are you doing this? And then we have the opening to share the love that Christ has put in our hearts.
Barbara: I see that as pay it forward with a Christian twist.
Casely: yes, absolutely. You have it. It is pay it forward with the Christian twist.
Barbara: I bet you have 10 million other websites or books to mention. Do you have just a few favorites on any topic of your choice that you'd like to recommend for anyone who's got time to check something out online or read a book?
Casely: I would recommend read books by C. S. Lewis. It's a favorite because he came to faith sort of, in midstream. He did so as an intellectual and did so wholeheartedly- it's a good one to read. And also J. I. Packer, “Knowing God”, which is probably the standard literature we have on the theology of who God is and how, an ordinary person can understand God in a way that is accessible language. It's not very theologically high language. whenever you see anything written by John Stott, Definitely. It's good. It's unfortunate I think all three of them are British, but that is what it is.
And they have had a great influence on the Christian faith all over.
Barbara: Thank you so much. Anything else on our Bible passage today? I know you referenced a few other Bible passages, any other thoughts in closing that you'd like to share?
Casely: I want to just highlight the last sentence we are speaking for Christ himself now.
And it's like he's making an appeal, become friends with God. He's already a friend with you. I think in this season where there's so much discouragement and depression and people are going through so much hardship. It is good for us to know that God has our back. God has our back. God goes with us. Yesterday, I preached on Genesis 28:16, where Jacob came to a realization after the dream. And he saw a stairway from heaven to earth and angels ascending and descending. And Jacob just comes to a conclusion and says, surely this is a place where God is. And it's as if God is saying Jacob, it doesn't matter where you are in life.
I am with you. My stairway goes with you. I have your back. I will protect you. I will watch it for you. I think those are words of comfort that I say to myself. I say to my family, I say to my friends and I share it with all the world: at this time, God is watching over us. Let us lean into him this season.
Barbara: I really can't help myself. I find almost every episode, I'm mentioning one of my favorite Lutheran tenets and that's law and gospel. People might feel either in their past, or even now they've been in a season of just law. You know, God has rules and we can't keep them. It's impossible.
So there's a concept of sort of punishment. But then on the opposite side of that is grace. That salvation is a free gift and sometimes people judge each other harshly the way they've maybe been judged or sometimes the Bible can be read as just judgment, judgment, judgment. So yes, there is judgment.
There is law and then there is gospel. And you just gave us that wonderful gospel message that even if you can't feel it right now, it's still there and hopefully you can feel it.
Casely: I think the sermon yesterday preached to me, myself, because I felt that if God could call himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, Jacob, with all his shady qualities and everything, then there's room for me too, then it is totally by grace.
It is totally by grace that God chooses us. And then he uses us the way that he designs.
Barbara: Yes, our biblical ancestors were not perfect. They did not have their acts together. They didn't always do the right thing. So there is absolutely hope that no one is beyond redemption that there's room for that grace and for that hope.
Casely: Thank you very much for doing this and thank you for inviting me. Wonderful.
Barbara: This has been terrific. Thank you for your time also.
Resources:
2 Corinthians 5: 16-20
1 Corinthians 12
Genesis 28:16
C. S. Lewis
J I Packer, “Knowing God”
anything written by John Stott
Casely travels the globe in support of Christian unity