When Jesus had finished washing the disciples’ feet, he asked of them, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” In other words, Jesus wanted to know, “Are you able to dig below the surface of these events and appreciate the implications of what has just happened here?”

I do not know if there is any scene before the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord that grips me quite like this one. I sense in these moments Jesus is asking his followers to dig deeper for a truth that is so easily missed, or at least dismissed. I am a product of the culture in which I live, and I continually buy into the fact that life is all about amassing possessions, money, and power. To the disciples who had just been arguing over who would sit in the places of honor, Jesus presented a new paradigm.

It is amazing to ponder the fact that in God’s economy, serving—even literally stooping at the feet of another person—places one in a position of ultimate “power.” The gospel is a frightening thing. If we fully understood it, at its deepest levels, we might take a step back and not be quite so confident about the maturity of our faith. It is so easy for us to live life on the surface and to strive for all of those things which on the surface make it look like we have it all together. Jesus’ message says, “Dig below the surface, and you’ll find that the person who ‘has it all together’ is the one holding the towel.”

I get the feeling that in this scene Jesus is wondering, “If they do not understand what it means for me to wash their feet, how will they understand what it means for me to hang on the cross? If they do not understand this act of service, will they comprehend that what is going to happen in a few hours is very parallel?”

The disciples wanted to be directors and vice presidents; they desired positions and titles, recognition and power. And Jesus kept showing them, “That’s not where it’s at!” In Christ we graduate to servanthood, and the disciples couldn’t understand that.

My father and brother live together in an assisted living facility in Pennsylvania. My father has dementia and my brother is retarded and I am responsible for their care. Over the last few years I have done things for these men that I never dreamed I would have to do. This past Sunday, after giving my father a bath, I knelt in front of him and rubbed lotion into the dry skin on his legs. My body was tired and sore from spending many long, hard hours that weekend cutting down trees and cleaning up damage caused by an ice storm that had ravaged the family farm. Dad never asked me about the farm or thanked me for the work that I had done. The land that he had once worked so hard to maintain has vanished from his memory. All that he knew was that moment, when he looked down and watched his son smoothing lotion on his legs. As I was finishing this task, I felt Dad’s hand on my shoulder. Looking into me with all the strength he could muster, he said, “Thank you, David. I do not know what I would ever do without you.”

Jesus asked, “Do you understand what I have done for you?” Oh, the power of the towel! I ask myself the questions—Am I serving people? My wife, my children, the neighbors, those I encounter in my job? Do I know what it means to serve? And then what I guess is the most important question: Do I really believe that it is in this act of service the true power lies?

Below you will find a sampling of the suggestions included in the results of a survey taken by David Mays of ACMC in which he solicited churches for their best mission emphasis idea. Click here to see the complete results as posted on our website. You may feel very uncomfortable with some of the suggestions, as do I, but the list will give you a very unique perspective on what churches consider their “best” mission idea. You may take away some good ideas to share with your churches, and might also find that it’s helpful to have a list of mission emphasis ideas “tucked away” for the next time someone asks you for suggestions.

[Our church] had a Missions Bazaar. We sent our foreign missionaries $100 well in advance and told them to buy stuff and send it to us for resale at the Bazaar. Some of the Market Place ministries sent things that they are selling. We re-priced them and sold them at a profit, and then sent the profit to each mission. We turned our Multi-Purpose room into a Market Place, complete with sidewalk café, live animals, foreign music, and all the missions team and missionaries dressed in costumes. Examples of our wares: CD’s from the Campus Houses, coffee from Panama, olive oil & baskets from Africa, cushion covers from Thailand, stacking dolls from Latvia, and handcrafts from two ministries in China. – B.G.S.

The best-attended event at our conference is what we call "Get Honest Night." This event was born out of the necessity of filling up the time one Wednesday night several years ago when our speaker cancelled. We asked four of our missionaries to speak from their hearts about things that had been hard during their last term. The missionaries are free to talk about their hardships, their disappointments, and their joy in spite of these things. Usually there are both laughter and tears—an emotion-packed evening of hearing about some of those things that would lead some churches to "drop" support of a missionary. - M.S.

Cat and Dog Theology from Unveiling Glory. It is perfect for the typical suburban church that is wrapped up in American Culture. About 12% of the congregation attended this two day seminar, and even the senior pastor was blown away with what we learned. The focus is on God, not us. It was very well done, excellent materials. People still refer to it after a year has passed. – P.K.   

What kinds of books do you like to read? My wife often shakes her head when she looks over my shoulder at what I am reading for pleasure. Allow me to list a couple of these for you and maybe you will be drawn to one. I share these with you for “fun.” (The first two books on the list are actually books I have recently read for a second time!)

1. Things A Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About by Donald Knuth Dr. Knuth—who has been nicknamed the “Father of Computer Science”—is a professor at Stanford University. This book contains a series of lectures he gave at MIT in the fall of 1999 at a conference on “God and Science.” If you are curious about how a church-attending computer scientist who, by his own admission had compartmentalized religion into a nonessential Sunday activity, found Christ, you will be fascinated by this book. As a sidebar, this volume reminds me how others may not think in “my categories” because they have been raised and trained to view things through a different set of lenses.

2. Longitude by Dava Sobel This is a short but fascinating book. In 1714 the English Parliament offered a large reward to any one who could solve the issue of measuring longitude, an age old problem that had plagued sea captains for centuries. John Harrison dared a mechanical solution by building clocks with the ability to withstand the rigors of sea travel. This is an enlightening book in that it tells the story of how a man stayed true to his convictions against all odds, never really receiving the recognition due him until after his death. This book is packed with great sermon illustrations.

3. Dava Sobel also wrote Galileo’s Daughter. I enjoy this book so much because I often find myself captivated by history. This book takes us into the life and times of Galileo and the church that excommunicated him because of his “incorrect” view of the earth. If you prepare sermons, you will find this book is also full of illustrations.

4. The Story of Square Root of -1 by Paul Nahin Now I’ve got to admit that my math skills have waned over the years and I only really understood a small fraction (no pun intended) of this book. My son read it and thought I would enjoy it. I did. It was fascinating. Not because I even pretend to understand imaginary numbers, but from a historical vantage point. It was intriguing to read about how the Egyptian mathematicians—from the first century AD through to present times—have been knowledgeable and conversant with this concept. One excerpt: “This example strongly suggests that the ancient Egyptians knew the formula [for a truncated square pyramid]. …One historical scientist has called this knowledge ‘breath-taking’ and the ‘masterpiece of Egyptian geometry.’ The derivation of this formula is a routine exercise for anyone who has had freshman calculus, but it is much less obvious how the Egyptians could have discovered it without knowledge of integral calculus.” And we think we are so smart!