Gospel Identities: Missionaries

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Reconciliation Church's teaching on our identity as missionaries.

thoughts from the break.

this has been quite an interesting break so far. i went from busy all the time - carefully planning my schedule so as to not get burnt out - to very little going on. especially since christmas, not much has happened all. i've had a few things to do here or there, but its totally opposite to just a few weeks ago.

one of the things that i have been learning over the past couple months is that a sabbath is absolutely necessary. i have been taking one day a week in order to relax, spend time with God and friends, reflect on my past week and also map out what changes i need to make in the next week in order for my time to align with my priorities. this has been one of the best things i could possibly do. one of the things that i've been challenged with lately is my time with God - things have drastically changed since planting this house church. speaking on sundays adds a totally different dimension to my life. it's weird because sermons must come from the heart and are deeply personal, but my study time for sermons, if it makes up the majority of my time with God, is absolutely detrimental to my personal relationship with God. this is what C.H. Spurgeon calls "ministerialism" - devoting all of your time with the Lord to studying the Bible for the sake of preparing a sermon, praying for the church - doing ministry rather than being a man of God.

i have felt my fall into ministerialism, and God has really been reviving me this past month or two...he's reminded me of things before we planted the church - my desires, my personal prayers, my affections and old habits that have faded due to pressures from the house church. it has been so, so good to spend time with Jesus, especially this break. lots of time for reflection and growth in him. my affections have been stirred for him, and my desires are fully set on him...which is awesome. so good...

at the same time, though i've had time by myself with God, i haven't had time with my friends as much as i would like. this has meant too much thinking, too much alone time...and this has been frustrating and annoying. both my roommates have been gone, and i've been pretty much living alone, and that is such a struggle...on top of this, i feel like i'm in a weird spot with all my friends. old friends that don't live here have come back, and yet i've made new friends that are living here in salem...so my desires are split between wanting to be with both sets of friends...especially since addie falls into one category and not both...


there's really no point to this other than to let you all know where i'm at. life is a journey. there's always breathtaking sites as you walk along the trail, but sometimes that trail can be pretty strenuous. and these can both happen at the same time. deeper than all of this, God is using circumstances to continue to refine me into the man of God that he wants me to be, and i'm very eager for that...i want him, and i want to be his servant.

moses wasn't quite as cool as i thought...

this morning, i've been reading in exodus and thinking about this idea:

God always seems to call us to things that we cannot do on our own strength.

we tend to idealize the life of moses...spoke to God face to face, led Israel out of egypt...etc. but, as i've been reading this morning, i've seen a bit of a different picture.

we see moses encounter God at the burning bush, and God calls moses to do something that he's never done before and is not able to do. God says, "Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." (3:10). Moses replies by saying, "Who am I that I should go..?" God doesn't say that Moses is anything special in his response. He simply says, "I will be with you..." (3:12)

so...after a long conversation with God where Moses brings up more and more excuses and worries about what God wants him to do, Moses finally agrees. On his way from the wilderness back to Egypt, God gets so angry with Moses that he "sought to put him to death" (Ex. 4:5). Moses doesn't seem like the perfect leader if God already wants to kill Moses and he hasn't even made it to his first task...

then, Moses gets to Egypt and talks with the elders of Israel. everything goes great! it couldn't have gone any better...Aaron and Moses speak, do some cool miracles, and "the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped" (4:31). things couldn't be any better. i'm sure Moses was so blown away by God's provision and the cool things that God allowed him to do. i'm sure he was filled with confidence as he went to talk with Pharaoh, expecting Pharaoh to agree and then the Israelites would be out of slavery and everything would be awesome...

but that's not what happens.

after things go so well, everything seems to completely fail. not only does Pharaoh not listen to Moses, he mocks him and steps up his oppression of the Israelites. the Israelites begin to complain, and they actually call down judgment from God upon Moses for putting them in this situation (5:21).

discouraged, Moses cries out to God, "O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all" (5:22-23).

i can see why Moses would have this reaction. everything was going so well! and then it all got so, so much worse.

several more incidents of failure occur - moses is obedient to God and no one listens...and then...as everyone knows...God demonstrates his glory through the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel are freed from slavery to the Egyptians.
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i can relate to this story right now with things with the church. at the beginning of this past summer, we were obedient to God, and things went better than we could have ever imagined. we learned the gospel together and had all sorts of opportunities to demonstrate the love of God to our neighbors and friends. things were going so well! we felt the blessing of God as we were obedient to him.

more recently, however, i've felt like Moses coming to Pharaoh for the first time. i've tried to do what God has called me to do, but it has been met with more opposition than i could have anticipated. there's been more "failure" over the last couple months than i'd like to admit (it's not like God hasn't been moving - i've learned lots and there's been little signs of God's grace everywhere, but i've also been very frustrated with some stuff that i thought God was calling us to do).

like Moses, i've cried "Why did you ever send me?...you have not delivered your people at all."


why did God allow Moses to go through such stinging opposition, failure and discouragement? why not have the Israelites released the first time Moses goes to talk with Pharaoh? i think we all can see it in the story of Moses, because we know the ending. we know that if Pharaoh would have let the Israelites go the first time, there would have been no plagues, no parting of the Red Sea, no brilliant display of God's glory.

we can see that in this Bible story, but can we see that in our own story? it's hard, because we don't know the ending...or do we?

God wants to take our lives and transform them into a display case for his glory. he desires to demonstrate his glory in his people - in you and me, individually and corporately. without opposition, that would be impossible. without struggle, without a fight, without discouragement...well that just wouldn't make a very good story, would it?

so, i have two points:

first, have faith. look to the example of Moses. if you're in a season of opposition, you're not alone. God is doing something bigger than what you can imagine, and he wants to display his glory in your life, in your community. take hope, have faith.

second, this doesn't mean that all of us will experience this grand, awesome victory. we shouldn't hold out for that. instead, we should hold out for the glory of God in our lives. if that comes through suffering and "failure," but your heart is changed to become more like Jesus, then so be it. if it means that you lead hundreds of people to Christ and all of that crazy awesome stuff that we have dreams about happens, so be it. either way, let God be glorified. for that's the point. no matter what the outcome.

What is a Missional Church? paper

i found this a few days ago, and i figured i'd post it....a pretty basic paper defining the missional church. hope its of some benefit to you.

Statistics show that the church in America is in serious decline these days. Although still looked at by the world as a “Christian nation,” the American people are drifting further and further away from the faith that this country was founded upon. In fact, President Obama said to reporters in Turkey earlier this month that America is no longer a Christian nation. “I’ve said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation.”[1]

In 1954, 71% of Americans identified themselves as Protestant Christians. Today, only 55% say that they are Christian.[2] More shocking is that, as of 2003, actual attendance of evangelical churches in the United States accounts for 9% of the population.[3] The church in the West is struggling and becoming irrelevant to a society that does not see any use for Christianity. Thousands of churches close their doors every year, and instead of multiplying, many churches are turning into museums.

Faced with the secularization of society and the shutting of church doors, what should the church’s next move be? How can things turn around for Christianity in the West today? Is there any hope? Alan Hirsch, a leading missiologist and church planter says, “What is becoming increasingly clear is that if we are going to meaningfully reach this majority of people, we are not going to be able to do it by simply doing more of the same.”[4] The philosophy and ministry of the church in the West is proving to be ineffective in reaching people today. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle writes:

Leaders…[began to see] that many contemporary evangelical churches had slipped into an attritional ministry philosophy focused almost solely on bringing people into church buildings and events. Such churches lacked a missional philosophy focused on sending Christians out of the church into the world to evangelize and disciple people. Subsequently, the Western church had, sadly, become overly attached to and defined by buildings, programs, staff, services, and institutions that only strategize ways to do “attractional” ministry.[5]

What is needed is a change in philosophy – from attritional to missional. In order for the church in the West to survive and flourish, churches need to become missional. In this paper, we will cover three concepts. First, what does it mean to have a “missional” church? Secondly, we will give the reasons why every church should be a missional church. And, lastly, we will cover the practices of a missional church.

Darrell Bock said it well in his commentary on Acts: “The church exists, in major part, to extend the apostolic witness to Jesus everywhere. In fact, the church does not have a mission; it is to be missional and is a mission.”[6] In order for the church to be effective once again in the West, we must recover our identity as missionaries.

Defining Missional

Lesslie Newbigin is the father of the missional movement. After returning to England from a lifetime of missions work in India, he came back to Western culture and was shocked to observe its radical secularization and departure from Christianity. Seeing this problem, Newbigin began to articulate the view that we need to see the Western world as a mission field and that we need to adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture – just as we would in overseas missions.[7] From this, the idea of the missional church was born.

Darrell Guder coined the term “missional” in some of his research work. He said, “We chose the term because it was not defined, and we wanted to find a way to convey with an adjective the fundamentally missionary nature of the church.”[8] So, key to the idea of the missional church is the concept of a missionary. Ask anyone in evangelicalism what comes to their mind when they hear the word “missionary,” and immediately images of white men and women sent to tribal people groups abroad will pop into their head. Instead of limiting the idea of missionary to contexts overseas, the missional church sees its all of its members as missionaries to their own context, their own city. Therefore, members of a missional church ask the question, “What would a missionary do to reach my co-workers, my neighbors, and my peers with the gospel?” When we begin to look at ourselves as missionaries sent to proclaim a message rather than members an organization, things begin to change.

Alan Hirsch defines a missional church as “a community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world.”[9] Just as each member of a missional church sees itself as a missionary, a missional church orients itself around mission. So often we see the church as “the house of God” and a place where we come to worship. Everything in church seems to be oriented around buildings, services, and events. A missional church, however, sees the mission of God as the organizing principle for ministry. Therefore, everything that the church does should be passed through the filter of mission.

What is the Mission of the Missional Church?

If the missional church orients all of its practices around mission, then what is that mission? Our mission is the very mission of God, the Missio Dei. As seen in the Scriptures, God’s mission has been from the beginning of time the restoration and healing of the world. Only through Jesus Christ can this restoration be achieved. God’s mission climaxed with Christ, who was sent into the world. Jesus, the greatest missionary, left the context of heaven and came into earth, speaking our language, wearing our clothes, and eating our food. He did this to preach the good news of the kingdom of God – the gospel – to a lost people. In the same way, we as Christians (little Christs) are to be like Christ and be a sent people, bringing the gospel to lost people. The missional church has its roots in the mission of God to humanity.

Mark Driscoll says, “the mission of the church is nothing less than bringing the entire world to Christian faith and maturity.”[10] This is seen in the Great Commission that Jesus gives just before his ascension. He says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[11] Jesus gives the command to his disciples to make disciples by going into the world and preaching the gospel. The missional church embraces this commission by God and organizes all of its practices around it.

Therefore, the church itself is not an end. It isn’t God’s mission to plant or grow churches. God’s mission is to redeem lost people and restore them to right relationship with Him. The church is a vehicle for this – a means of making disciples, fulfilling God’s mission for this world.

The Biblical Basis for the Missional Church

Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, describes his experience growing up in evangelicalism. “A lot of us were hearing ‘don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t sleep around’ and naturally started asking, ‘Okay, well, that was pretty much my life, so what do I do now?’ Where were the do’s? And nobody seemed to have much to offer us…[it] just didn’t seem like the fullness of Christian discipleship.”[12]

It seems like there are a lot of “don’ts” in the Bible, but what are we to do as Christians? Answer: participate in the mission of God!

There is no one single passage that instructs churches to be “missional.” However, mission is seen as an integral piece of God’s character. Ed Stetzer says, “God is a missionary God in this culture and in every culture. His nature does not change with location.”[13]As mentioned above, Jesus is our example, and he was the greatest missionary that ever lived. In John 20:21 he passes that identity onto us as his followers. Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Inherent in our identity as Christians is the idea of being sent. We are to be like Christ, sent into the world to preach the good news. “There is no participation in Christ without participation in His mission to the world. That by which the Church receives its existence is that by which it is also given its world mission.”[14] The biblical basis for the missional church is inherent in the gospel itself.

Alan Hirsch identifies a helpful formula for the basis for missional churches. The formula is this: our Christology determines our missiology, and our missiology determines our ecclesiology. He writes, “Christian mission always starts by Jesus and is defined by him.”[15] We see the basis for missional churches in the founder of Christianity. When we view Jesus in the Bible, this affects how we approach mission. And how we look at missions affects how we organize our church. “Start with the Church and the mission will probably get lost. Start with mission and it is likely that the church will be found.”[16]

So, the missional church is biblical because it is inherently linked to the identity of Jesus Christ. As his followers, we must imitate his practices and let his Bride function in line with his will.

The Need for Missional Churches

Mark Driscoll writes, “To understand the missional church one must first understand the cultural shift from a thousand years of Christendom and the way that culture is created in the post-Christian world.”[17] Since the reign of Constantine in AD 300, Western culture has operated within Christendom. During this time, nearly all people that lived were both influenced by and familiar with Christianity. This made preaching the gospel much easier because one did not have to leave his or her own culture in order to communicate the message of Jesus. However, this all but eliminated the missionary impulse so critical to the Missio Dei. Mission was associated with geography rather than daily life. Stetzer says, “The Church of Western European Christendom was a church without mission.”[18]

Now, Christendom is mostly dead in all of Europe and most of the United States. Instead of having a common worldview and understanding things like sin, righteousness, and Jesus, the world has become fragmented. People no longer identify themselves with “grand stories” or ideologies. Instead, they form small pockets of affinities. This is what sociologists are calling the “tribalization of Western culture.”[19]

The problem the church is facing today is staggering. Our methods for doing church are still based on Christendom. Hirsch says, “The problem we face is that while as a sociopolitical-cultural force Christendom is dead, and we now live in what has been aptly called the post-Christendom era, the church still operates in exactly the same mode.”[20] What mode is this? It is an attractional method. This was perfectly effective when everyone thought the same, acted the same, and lived the same. However, with the tribalization of culture, the attractional method is not working nearly as effective. Thus comes the need for a missional church. Since people are not coming to church, we as the church must bring the church to them. Just as Jesus came into our culture as the Incarnation – God in flesh – so we also must adopt an incarnational approach as the church.

How do we have a missional church?

There is no one easy answer for how to become a missional church. More than anything it is a shift in thinking that transforms the way the church operates. This shift in thinking starts with Jesus.

As said previously, in order to become a missional church, we must first look to Jesus. This will affect the way we view mission, and the mission will affect the way our church looks. Ed Stetzer and David Putman lay out several key shifts that must take place in order to have a missional church. They say we must make the transition:

· from programs to processes,

· from demographics to discernment,

· from models to missions,

· from attritional to incarnational,

· from uniformity to diversity,

· from professional to passionate,

· from seating to sending,

· from decisions to disciples,

· from additional to exponential, and

· from monuments to movements.[21]

Instead of being isolated in its own Christian subculture, the missional church realizes its identity, goes into culture, and contextualizes the gospel to the people that they come in contact with. They are intentionally engaging culture and bringing the gospel into society rather than waiting for society to come to them.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” Inherent in the identity of the church is the mission of God, and nonmissional churches are neglecting their identity and misrepresenting the church. The American church must become missional in today’s post-Christian society. We must return to the DNA that defines the church and rediscover the missional impulse that God has written on our hearts. Tim Keller said it best: “Evangelical churches…will have to learn how to become ‘missional.’ If it does not do that it will decline or die. We don’t simply need evangelistic churches, but rather ‘missional’ churches.”[22]

Bibliography

Bock, Darrell L. Acts. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.

Claiborne, Shane. The Irresistible Revolution. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.

Driscoll, Mark and Gerry Breshears. Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2008.

Edwards, David. “Obama to Turkey: We are not a Christian or Jewish or Muslim nation.” http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_to_Turkey_We_are_not_0406.html. (accessed April 14, 2009).

Garrison, David. Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World. Bangalore: WIGTake Resources, 2004.

Hirsch, Alan. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006.

Keller, Tim. “The Missional Church,” June 2001. http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/missional.pdf

Newport, Frank. “This Easter, Smaller Percentage of Americans Are Christian.” http://www.gallup.com/poll/117409/Easter-Smaller-Percentage-Americans-Christian.aspx (accessed April 14, 2009).

Stetzer, Ed. Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church That’s Biblically Sound and Reaching People in Culture. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006.

Ed Stetzer, “Meanings of Missional – Part 1” http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2007/08/meanings-of-missional-part-1-1.html (accessed April 14, 2009).

Stetzer, Ed and David Putnam. Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006.

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[1] David Edwards, “Obama to Turkey: We are not a Christian or Jewish or Muslim nation,” http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_to_Turkey_We_are_not_0406.html.

[2] Frank Newport, “This Easter, Smaller Percentage of Americans Are Christian,” http://www.gallup.com/poll/117409/Easter-Smaller-Percentage-Americans-Christian.aspx.

[3] Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006), 35.

[4] Hirsch, 37.

[5] Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods, (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2008), 217-218.

[6] Darrell Bock, Acts, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 66.

[7] Hirsch, 81.

[8] Ed Stetzer, “Meanings of Missional – Part 1” http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2007/08/meanings-of-missional-part-1-1.html

[9] Ibid., 82.

[10] Driscoll and Breshears, 217.

[11] Matthew 28:18-20

[12] Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 38.

[13] Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church That’s Biblically Sound and Reaching People in Culture, (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 27.

[14] Ibid., 28.

[15] Hirsch, 142.

[16] Ibid., 143.

[17] Driscoll and Breshears, 220.

[18] Stetzer, 28.

[19] Hirsch, 61.

[20] Hirsch, 61.

[21] Ed Stetzer and David Putnam, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community, (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 48.

[22] Tim Keller, “The Missional Church,” June 2001, http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/missional.pdf

the gospel in the midst of tough times

this has been a tough couple months for me and many of my brothers and sisters. it seems like its all been coming to the surface the past couple weeks. with the house getting broken into and the turmoil that has followed, things have been stressful and burdensome there. for me, i haven't had a chance to rest until God answered my prayers and forced me to rest by making me sick. for others its relationships, doubts, lack of purpose, busyness, dryness, loneliness, and silence.

i'm very blessed by matt chandler. i know he's just a human being, but God has used him a whole lot in my life through his podcast. this morning i was praying and then a couple things happened. first (and i know that i will probably get made fun of for this reference to twitter), i saw matt chandler's twitter update: "Working on a series of blogs for pastors...My heart is heavy for them...isolated, lonely, frustrated, overwhelmed...you don't have to be!" those four words - isolated, lonely, frustrated, overwhelmed - really describe me as well as several of my friends at this moment. his comment, (you don't have to be), exposed the idolatry that was in my heart.

i then listened to his podcast from the week - a short, 20 minute reminder of the gospel.

see, i've always seem to operate under this fallacy. i think that if i am lonely, tired, frustrated, overwhelmed, busy, etc....then i'm pleasing God. i'm working hard. i'm being obedient to God. this is a lie that i continue to fall into. i think that if i spend myself for God, he will be more pleased with me. this isn't true because God is already pleased with me! he loves me so much that when i was at my worst he died for me. I don't need to earn his love! he's already given it all to me in Christ. all these things that i get to do now are blessings, not burdens.

ministry is not a burden that i must carry but a blessing that i get to steward.

this reminder of the gospel frees me. it gives me new joy and a new energy. though things in this world may not be ideal, the God who created this world loves me so much that he's called me his friend and has made me a co-heir with his son Jesus.

in the sermon i listened to, chandler ended it like this:

"we're celebrating that while we were at our worst Christ died for us, and that something happened when we became aware of that. Something happened in our minds and our hearts when we became aware of that that changed how we live day to day - not perfect, still busted, still fail, still are drawn to the flesh, but God slowly but surely making us more and more and more like him, and less and less and less like the distorted-viewing person we were - all the while letting us keep a little of our individuality...its the greatest story ever. "

this is the greatest story ever...and what a blessing it is to be a part of it.

need your prayers for myself and for the house church. pray that we'd be reminded of the gospel and that in the midst of these tests that God would saturate our hearts even more with this good news.

being robbed for jesus

last night the guys' house got broken into. nearly $3000 worth of stuff was taken from my brothers...none of my stuff was taken (most of my stuff was moved out just one week ago). i found this out early this morning from a phone call from jesse. his heart amazes me. he asked for prayer for wisdom on how to respond in the gospel. that is evidence of a heart changed by Christ's love...

i've had a little time to reflect and pray through things, and i've come to a few conclusions:

first, God knew that this was going to happen. we all knew this was going to happen when we moved into the neighborhood that we're in. so...he's in control, and i really do think that this happened for a purpose. God wants to bring some sort of good from this.

second, what an honor to be stolen from for the sake of the gospel! what an amazing opportunity to show our neighbors and the world that our treasure is not in the things of this world but is in Christ. how awesome is it to be able to be reminded that all of these things are temporary...

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." mt. 6:19-20.

third, i think of what we went over in 1 corinthians 9 just a few days ago....paul says that he's become a servant to all. we are servants of this world, ministers of reconciliation. how can we serve the people who stole from us and show them the gospel? do we now have a connection with the gang scene in Salem and an opportunity to take the gospel into this dark place?

maybe i'm too optimistic or hopeful, but i do think that God could do some sweet stuff in this situation...lets be reminded of Jesus together as we bear each other's burdens in this.

this video seems to fit with what just happened:

having Jesus as your mentor

all my life i have had a lot of interaction with pastors...i think it probably has to do with the fact that i want to be one.

through my interaction, i have been "mentored" by several different people. today, i had an experience that reminded me of my interaction with doug over the past couple of years.

many times, i'll meet up with a pastor and be eager to talk about ministry because i like ministry. i don't meet many people who actually enjoy talking about what commentaries are good for studying the book of first corinthians, biblical church government, contextualization, dispensationalism...or any other -ation's or -ism's. i realize that i am a huge nerd when it comes to that. so when i get a chance to talk with another pastor nerd guy, that's usually what i have questions about and what he wants to talk about as well.

i have had many experiences with pastors that are all about going through a book together or working through a series of questions or accomplishing something during our meeting...but i have met few that will share their life with me.

many of you know the impact that Doug Murphy has had on me. i remember being so excited to go to credo my freshman year of college, wanting to get involved in a deeper way. i asked doug if i could start helping him with some stuff with credo. he agreed and told me to come into the office every monday afternoon for a couple hours.

i was so excited at first - getting to help doug with ministry at credo and get more ministry experience. i remember very distinctly the first time that we got together. doug had his feet up on one of the several chairs in his office...i walked in...he pounded my fist...and he says, "how's it going? what's going on? what's new and exciting?" i told him some of the things that were going on with me and asked the same question of him. he replied with some of the things he was wrestling with with ministry and in his relationship with God.

after doug finished this, i expected for him to have something for me to do or for us to talk about some sort of cool new ministry strategy...but we never did. we just talked about life, about the things that we were both wrestling with. and that was it. i went back to school after that.

the next week, the same thing happened...doug there sending friend requests to random people on facebook and with his feet up on one of the chairs in his office...another fist pound...and the same question - "anything new and exciting?" i told him what had been going on, and then he went into how he'd been wrestling with a similar thing...and once again. no talk about cool ministry strategies or things that he wanted me to do for credo.

this continued to happen, and i honestly was a little frustrated. this was not my normal experience with pastors. they were supposed to make me busy with things to do for ministry...not actually talk to me and know me and share their life with me! i was legitimately confused as to why this wasn't happening.

but, we continued to just share life experiences week after week. some weeks we would go through a passage that doug was preaching on at credo. other weeks we would listen to a podcast and talk through it...but nothing all that structured, and it wasn't like Doug had this grand idea of all these things that he wanted to teach me. he just shared his life with me - his struggles with God and family, his heart about ministry, his stories of ultimate fighting...



i'm in the middle of networking with some pastors around here, and it makes me sad that it seems like every time we meet we talk about ministry more than real life. i don't know a whole lot of them. they don't know a whole lot of me.

it makes me think - what would it be like if Jesus was your pastor and you were to meet with him? how would those conversations go? would he talk about what he wanted you to do, or would he share stories? would he go through the Bible with you? would he tell you how he was feeling and what he was struggling with?

i think that meeting wtih Jesus would be a lot like meeting with doug...that is, meeting with doug would probably be a lot like meeting with Jesus. and i think that some of us would react in the same way...a little frustrated with him and wondering why we were talking about things.

a little while after doug's been gone, and i appreciate him a whole lot more...but more importantly...i appreciate Jesus a whole lot more.

living in our identity - servants, part 1

"Paul, a servant​ of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God..."
Romans 1:1

when we began studying first corinthians as a church during the summer, we spent several weeks talking about our identity in Christ. we spoke of all the glorious facets of the new identity that God has given to us in Christ Jesus - we've been "enriched in him," "not lacking any spiritual gift," etc. we talked about what our lives would look life if our primary identity, the identity by which we thought of ourselves as, was the identity given to us by Jesus.

i was struck by Paul's primary identity as i started reading Romans yesterday. he refers to himself as, first a servant, then an apostle, and finally as set apart for the gospel. this is not the only time that Paul starts out a letter with these words. just look at the introduction to any of his other letters and these will pop up. therefore, it seems reasonable to think that Paul first thought of himself in these three manners.

these three words are loaded with meaning...

first, Paul refers to himself as a servant. this is the response to the gospel that we must all take on. Jesus came among us as one who serves (John 13). he came off of his glorious throne, and instead of hearing the songs of angels, he chose to endure the taunts of his creation. he came to serve us all in the greatest way by dying for our sins on the cross and giving us new life through his resurrection.

Jesus called Paul to the same life that he lived. he gave Paul a new identity. instead of being a slave of religion and a slave of sin, he became a slave of righteousness. this is the only reasonable response to the one who bought us out of slavery to sin by his blood. we become servants of God.

do you see how that carries over for us? when we repent and submit to God as Lord, we are his servants. this isn't a burdensome affair but instead a great joy.

think of your dream job, whatever it may be. for me, one of the things i have always wanted to do is play soccer professionally. well, that didn't work out, but i now am a coach...and that's my job. i get paid to coach. in one way i am a servant of the club that i work for. i serve the players on my team and the parents of those players. this is no burden. it is an incredible honor to do the thing that i love and get paid for it. i look forward to practices and games, and i enjoy the time that i am working.

in the same way, being a servant of Jesus is way better than anything else we could ever even imagine. think about having a master that literally died in your place so that you may live. and now he wants you to do his work! this is how it worked for Paul.

it wasn't his glory that he was working for - it was the glory of God.

it wasn't his work that he was doing - it was the work of God.

it wasn't even his strength by which he was doing the work - it was the power of God.

what would it look like if the way you thought of yourself most often was as a "servant of Christ Jesus?" how would your motivations change, and what would your attitude be toward prayer, evangelism, service, etc.?

my prayer is that my life would be marked by the identity of servant....that i would be "collin, a servant of Christ Jesus..."

epic date fail.

this was something i didn't have time to finish a couple months ago (7/29/09) that i figured i'd get done tonight. i hope you enjoy it.

so...let me tell you about my ridiculous date with addie today. we had planned to go to the coast to get out of the heat, and the weather said it'd be 85 and sunny in pacific city. we left this afternoon. just a little before reaching lincoln city, we hit lots of traffic and so i decided to try a different route to pacific city that i was pretty sure would work. i became more and more doubtful as we continued to go but not see any signs for pacific city...only tillamook and astoria. addie and i were contemplating going to tillamook when we did find a sign for pacific city...but since the weather looked a little sketchy and we thought it might be warmer up north, we went to tillamook.

once we got to tillamook, we realized there was no beach there...neither of us had ever been to tillamook before, and we just assumed that it would be easy to find somewhere to hang out on the beach. well, we were wrong. so, we just decided to head back to pacific city.

after 3+ hours of sitting in the car, we finally reached pacific city. when we got there, it was crowded, cold, and cloudy. because it took til dinnertime to get there, we went to a restaurant...it was packed. we ordered some fish and chips to go since the wait would have been a little ridiculous. a few minutes after placing our order, the waitress came to us and told us that they were out of fries...just our luck. we opted for "fish and salad" instead.

after receiving our fish and salad, we climbed to the top of the dune at pacific city. it would have been pretty cool except that we could hardly see the ocean because of how foggy it was. also, it was crowded...and addie was getting goosebumps because of the cool breeze. after sitting up there for a while (our plan was to watch the sunset, but it never cleared up enough), we decided it was time to head back. it was earlier than we expected to be back, so we figured we'd get a simple dessert - frosties from wendy's. well...wouldn't you know that their chocolate frosty machine was broken. addie and i decided we'd give the vanilla frosties a shot, and after a few bites we threw them away...

still, the night was young, and there might have been a chance to redeem it if we did something fun. so, addie and i went to mckinley and stargazed in the middle of the field. it was going well...a good, clear, warm night in salem...until....the sprinklers came on. addie and i scurried out of the way onto the path and were admiring the series of unfortunate circumstances that plagued us during the day, watching the sprinklers do their thing. well...wouldn't you know that the sprinklers didn't stop at the path - they just kept going....so, to conclude our night, we got soaked by the sprinklers. perfect ending to a perfect day;)

i would consider this the most epic date failure i've ever heard about. i mean, it was a good attempt, right? but, just about everything that possibly could have gone wrong...did. i'm laughing as i think about it....how could that have possibly gone so wrong!? haha...ah man.

in light of all the mishaps of the day, addie and i spent much of the day laughing and smiling. that's one of the reasons that i like her a whole bunch. we're able to aimlessly sit in the car for several hours, arrive at an undesirable beach situation, eat fish and salad, shiver on top of a crowded dune, try terrible vanilla frosties, and get sprayed by the sprinklers in the middle of stargazing....and still laugh through it all. there's a phrase that i heard from one of my teachers a lot in high school. she said, "it's not about the destination; it's about the journey." that almost had to be true for addie and i today...i'm very thankful for her and her patience. it's a huge blessing to get to walk through life with her...and laugh along the way at what life throws at us.

back to corban and frustrating christian culture

well, i've completed my first several days back at Corban, and it has been quite the experience. honestly, it has been very difficult. i had an amazing summer getting to live things out with my closest friends and enjoying Jesus together...it is hard to go back to school and see things change so dramatically.

the way that i think about life, about God, and about ministry has been transformed. God has been so gracious and loving to me by teaching me more about himself and what it means to follow him this summer. therefore, coming back to Corban has been a bit of a shock. i honestly was dreading it...

here's a few of the things that i've noticed/several experiences that i've had. as you read them please remember that God has been graciously teaching me these things...what i will describe about Corban is what i was just a few short years ago. praise God that he has been teaching me his gospel these past years.

first, Corban is such a bubble. the predominant view of church is that it is a refuge from the ills of society and culture. even though the mission statement says that Corban is trying to educate Christians to make a difference in the world for Jesus, it isn't practiced on a daily basis. that time of making a difference nearly always seems to be off in the future and not right now. therefore, we are content to do what we want during these four years of our lives rather than being obedient to God's call.

secondly, Corban is information and knowledge centered. this isn't wrong, especially since it is a school. the problem is that it is incomplete. like i said, Corban's mission statement is to educate Christians to make a difference in the world for Jesus. if this is purely cognitive education and information transfer, is this possible? is that even the way that Jesus taught his disciples?
let me give an example to illustrate this. in my class on world religions, the professor said that he hoped that we would use the information we gather about religions to someday teach a seminar or a sunday school class. now, wait a minute. i was under the impression that we would learn about other religions in order to more adequately share the gospel with others...yet, one of the goals of the class was to continue the information transfer to other christians instead of bringing the gospel to the lost.
i am not saying that seminars and learning are bad - just incomplete. many times it is a word of information, a sermon, or a book that creates change - but the goal behind teaching and eduaction must be life change and action. without action, learning dies. its sphere is limited to the brain and it never has the chance to demonstrate itself in changed hearts and lives and cities. action must accompany knowledge...and teaching must not be limited merely to knowledge transfer. it must be expanded to experience - that's why i appreciated Apologetics class with Anderson last year. we learned it, but we were actually required to practice it by interacting with unbelievers a few times over the semester. we need more of that at Corban. more experience. more action...

third, i've seen this individualistic, self-better ment sort of Christianity prominent in Corban's thinking. this, in fact, is all over evangelicalism, but i feel like i see this better in contrast to what we had the privilege of doing this summer. the attitude that i am speaking of goes like this: i am a Christian; therefore, in order to be a better Christian and be more joyful, i read my bible more, pray, go to chapel, serve in some way, etc. now, this looks harmless on the surface, but this is such a self-centered view of what it means to be a Christ follower. so much of what we do in Christian culture is all about ourselves! bible studies, spiritualized self-help books, experience oriented worship services, and even some mission trips are all about ourselves! how can i become a better Christian, be happier, feel less guilt...etc.

this attitude is deep within all of us. the past summer i came to a much deeper realization of how self-centered i really was. planting the church, i started out by using Jesse, my partner in the plant, to serve me and help me accomplish my goals for the church. i can't count how many times God exposed the ugliness of my selfishness in my interactions with him, especially that first month or two. God impressed upon me that a leader has to be the greatest servant of all by reminding me of his interactions with his disciples - and that means just giving and giving and giving....its not easy, but God has given us everything in the entire world - can't we give some of that away?!

this attitude is contrary to the gospel. if we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must learn to humbly, selflessly give all that we have. this goes against our flesh - even Christian culture. Jesus was the greatest, most selfless giver of all. he gave his life for his enemies - us! the gospel is inherently outward focused. it is good news that must be preached to those who need it. the gospel always goes out, just like Jesus stepped out of heaven and off of his throne in order to die our death for us on a cross. now, if we are going to follow Jesus and be his disciples, then we must do the same. we must step out of where is comfortable for us and go into the darkness. we must give of ourselves to the point that it hurts. that's what Jesus means when he says that we must lose our lives for his sake....and the beauty of that is that we actually find life when we lose our own.

so, Corban, we need a change. forget the way that we've always done things and what we're used to. much of it doesn't really look like Jesus. yet he loves us so much that he continues to pursue us dispite our idolatry and self-centeredness. he wants to change us. he desires to use our little city on a hill in order to transform Salem...not sometime in the future after we have our education, but right now. God is calling us to be a part of his glorious and life-giving plan right now. will we accept the invitation?

always an adventure...

i've said it many times, but this summer i have learned so much through reconciliation and living out the call of the gospel together with others. one of the things that has been on my mind a lot lately is this idea of losing my life for the sake of Christ. i've wanted this and heard it talked about for a while, but now i'm actually seeing this happen in my life and in so many people around me. i'm seeing my friends and family actually give up things (time, money, school, approval of parents, etc.) in order to be obedient to God's calling in their lives....its ridiculous, but so exciting.

i read a blog yesterday titled "adventures in church planting." here's a quote from it:

The church that I've been privileged to help plant, Grace, is approaching the two year mark in September. It's been a journey of ups and downs, despair and joy, setbacks and progress. I've learned more about myself and my strengths and weaknesses than any Keirsey report could ever show. My idolatries of being successful or important are constantly exposed by the tossing waves of weekly attendance or offerings. Yet in the midst of this cauldron of insecurities and challenges, I feel more alive than ever.

Church planting is epic. By that I mean that church planting is a series of adventurous and heroic acts over a long period of time. It's not like a two-hour movie where everything is resolved conveniently in time for dinner. This is an epic marked with miraculous provision, lives being transformed before your very eyes, and twists and turns that you could never have imagined. In short, it's the adventure of a lifetime.

i can attest to the fact that this summer has been quite the adventure...ups, downs, setbacks, breakthroughs, changes, and transformations. i have been blessed to be a part of it. i feel like God is just beginning to take me on this grand adventure that he has in store for me as i lose my life for the sake of the gospel.

take last night for example. i met with several church leaders from some new church plants in salem. we shared the stories of how God has worked to create these communities of Christ-followers that he's letting us lead. as i was listening, i saw lives that had given up better jobs, careers, comfortability, time, and preference all for the sake of Christ. one lady that just helped start a church for the homeless said, "my life is crazy right now. i can't believe i'm actually living this." others had given up jobs, chosen to move somewhere they didn't really want to be, or put themselves in a position of financial uncertainty...because of Jesus.

man, nothing makes you more bold than seeing others actually live out what the pages of the Bible say. that's how transformation happens so often...seeing someone just lose himself for Christ and experience the deep joy that comes from that. at the end of our time last night, one person read habakkuk 1:5 - "look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told." at first, i heard that and was a bit skeptical...like, "oh, that's a cool verse to read...quaint and inspiring but not really true." then, i began to think about my life these past several months...couple years...and think about if someone told me this is where i'd be at right now a few years ago, i would have definitely have told them, "yeah right..."

God is moving. he always is. he's always beckoning us to himself and inviting us to join in his glorious plan for the redemption of humanity. its a privilege, not a gulit-ridden duty, to be a part of this. i'm excited (and slightly scared) about the adventure that he's taking me on...

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glor in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
ephesians 3:20-21

reflections on summer so far

this summer has been one of the best summers of my life.

at the beginning of may, six of us moved into this house on 15th street with a vision to live out community and reach out to the neighborhood around us. shortly thereafter, 10 people came together to launch a house church - reconciliation. the vision for this quickly expanded beyond what i ever could have imagined.

i can't explain the incredible feeling of living with purpose alongside brothers and sisters. yes, there have been many difficult things this summer...including conflict, discouragement, depression, apathy, and exhaustion. but, wow, its been so worth it.

you wouldn't think that using your free time to do yardwork for your neighbors on a weekly basis or hang out with people that you wouldn't normally hang out with would be the most fun...but i have found that it really is. i can't explain it, but when you do things selflessly and forget about what you'd like to do, you find that it is the most satisfying thing in the world.

the reason this summer has been so great isn't because we've done all these incredible things or anything....it is because of the relationships that have such depth to them. for example, we've been doing yardwork at cindy newman's house all summer, and i value the relationships with her and savannah so much. we're family, and we look out for each other, laugh with each other, and get to experience Jesus together. or take relationships in the church - the depth of my relationships with carter, jesse, brad, brent, randy, elliot, my dad, ian, dan, david, addie, sam, juli, maig, marianne, sarah, brianna....ah. there's nothing like it. seriously. it is so cool to be able to come together with people around a common vision and see God work to accomplish it. these are my brothers and sisters, and i'm blessed so much by them.

obviously we've got a long ways to go. we don't know how to really live in community or reach out together. we all need more boldness. we're not sure how to show the gospel to a community....but, God is moving. things are happening. i look back upon this summer so far and see the many ways that God has moved to mature us and make us more like him.

so, i just am sitting here this morning after going on a walk amazed at God's faithfulness this summer. i want more of him. i want for him to take all of us...he's so great!

the idol of ministry

this summer is flying by...so fast that i've hardly had many chances to write anything. i have been consumed with things at the house and with the church. i have been pouring my energy into preparing sermons and dreaming of what things could be.

tonight is a sabbath rest of sorts. i have been doing my best to take time away from doing things and trying to simply be in God's presence and rest in the knowledge that his work will go on even if i am not busying myself to the point of exhaustion. however, i am still not very good at this...i feel like i have rested a good amount, and yet i know that tonight i am in need of more rest. this weekend was pretty chaotic - birthday celebrations with family and friends, as well as more hours than usual at work. and, in the midst of going through life, somehow my attention was turned away from the gospel (yet again...i'm sensing a pattern) and inward toward myself. an overwhelming wave of depression of discouragement overtook me and i began to see all the trees in my life that are not bearing fruit, conveniently overlooking every evidence of the grace of God in my life. i felt justified in my discouragement and frustration, and, while hanging out with addie today, i finally lost it. praise God for her and the truth that she was able to speak to me, reminding me that the weight of the world actually is not on my shoulders. what God is doing in this city is God's work and not mine...i need to rest in that.

so often i make ministry into an idol, something that actually obstructs my view of the substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. at the church planting conference i went to, one of the speakers said, "ministry is the only acceptable idol in the church." how true this is. if someone is "doing ministry," often they are actually encouraged to sacrifice relationships with their family, ignore the broken world around them, and even forsake time with the Lord. i have definitely encouraged someone in their pursuit of this idol before...

the gospel becomes distorted like this when i replace Jesus with the idol of ministry: instead of being justified by Christ's work on the cross and resting in his finished work, walking in good works in view of God's grace, i forget Christ and try and justify myself through ministry. i try to contribute to my salvation. i forget God's grace and work for it rather than working out of it.

i can't name how many times i have made ministry into an idol and felt justified because of the great work that i was doing, meanwhile looking down on those that weren't quite as "committed" as i was. how stupid am i?! how sinful is this flesh! and yet i continue to return to the idol of ministry...even this weekend.

its a tough balance for me to try to find out how to walk in good works without making ministry an idol. on the other hand, its hard to rest in God's work without being lazy and unfocused. we're all trying to find that balance, and by God's grace with the help of the Spirit, we can walk in the grace of Jesus Christ.

that's what i'm praying for tonight.

pray - a letter to the church.

Brothers and Sisters,

i don't know about you, but so much of my personal relationship with Jesus has been interwoven with all of you and this whole church thing that we're trying this summer. every time i come to God, i can't help but pray for all of you and ask God not only what he wants me to do, but also what he is calling all of us to do as well.

this morning i have been spending time with God in prayer, and i've been very frustrated. honestly, i feel like we're losing the vision that God has given us. i feel like we've been attacked with the small beginnings of disunity. i feel like i have no clue how to live out what God has called us to. i look at what we are doing right now, and i see some cool stuff. yet when i look at the word of God and the kind of life that it calls us to be living, i see so much more. i have spent the morning searching my heart and realizing how many areas i have fallen short in leading all of you as well as just in my personal relationship with Jesus.

already, although we've only been doing this for a month and a half, there have been numerous times where thoughts have come into my head of giving up. at times i have felt attacked, burdened, and alone - and i've told God that this is too much to handle. yet every time these questions come into my mind of quitting this, God seems to quickly answer.

i'm convinced that, although things aren't ideal at this point, God is behind what we're doing. if it weren't for him in the first place, we'd be done for by now. i see many evidences of his grace in our meetings and in things surrounding what we're doing. yet i know there's more. there's got to be so much more that God's calling us to. i read this verse as i was on the plane flying back from chicago: "For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe." 1 Cor. 1:21 as i read this, the idea of worldly wisdom stuck out to me as so stupid. we cannot know God through our own wisdom, and i feel like God is also telling me that we cannot know God's will for this church through our own wisdom either.

this morning, as i've been praying, i have been asking God for his wisdom for what we're doing. i flat out asked him, "what do you want us to do?" because i'm kinda clueless at this point honestly. i felt impressed upon my heart one word: pray.

honestly, i don't want to pray. i'd rather start doing stuff and seeing people come to know Jesus. i feel like for years the church as i know it has used prayer as an excuse for inaction. and yet, i feel like God is calling us to pray - because its not by our wisdom or effort that anything will be accomplished in this city. it's not our strength. it's god's. God's power for God's work. and i feel like if we set aside what we think we should be doing and begin to fast and pray for God to move in our hearts and in this city, this would be the best way of giving God the glory. i trust him when he says that whatever we ask for in his name he will give to us. and when we ask for things to be shaken in the city of salem, i believe that God will hear us.

therefore, pray. when you find yourselves with one another, take a moment to pray for the church in salem and for God to bring people out of darkness and into light. pray for each other. pray for God's spirit to move. sit and wait in God's presence. listen to him. we can't do this with our own strength. it's got to be him.

this week, i will be at the house of prayer every night from 10pm to 11pm praying for all of you and for this city. if you can, please come and join me. let us pray in the belief that God can and will do something great within this city.

blessings,

collin

my journey to where i'm at right now

since school has been out, things have been pretty crazy. i’ve been out of town a lot, and i moved into a house with five other guys. but the thing that has been the craziest is this church that we started. let me tell you a little bit of the story…

i have known for a while that i wanted to be a pastor, but just over the past year, god has been giving me more direction with that. especially over the break, i began to feel more and more of a call toward church planting. so, by God's blessing i was able to go up to seattle in march for the Acts 29 Bootcamp (church planting conference). being up there gave me more of an affirmation on my call toward this, and talking with other church planters was one of the coolest things to do. in my mind i was thinking that planting a church would be a long way down the road. during a Q and A session with some of the planters, one person asked, "what is your advice for a person who wants to plant a church, but doesn't think they will be planting for a few years?" that was me, and i listened intently as they advised me to get plugged into a healthy church and intern there for a bit. so, once i got back, i began attending an Acts29 church in monmouth (which has been awesome). my plan was just to get involved and learn from the pastor over the coure of a couple years...

after the conference, i just continued to try and follow Jesus and reach out to the people at Corban and in Salem. i remember many a conversation that i would have with one of my brothers in the dorm, jesse, that ended with him saying, "man, we should just start a church..." i continued to think that we couldn't do this for a few years.

then, through addie i heard that some people that went to college outside of salem but would be coming back for the summer were frustrated with the fact that they only had about three months to try and get plugged into a church in town...and by that time, they would have to leave. so, i just heard little whispers from sam, addie, and juli about starting something this summer.

the more i thought of this, the more i realized that i would try and do this in the summer even if we didn't call it "church." i have been wrestling with the question of what makes a church a church for some time now, and one of the things that i am convinced of is that church is full of people who have this purposeful relationship. what sets apart a church service from chapel at corban? or a prayer night? there are several things, but i think one of the biggest ones is the relational factor.

thinking about this as well as reading in the bible about how the church really did live in community convinced me that even if we weren't going to call it a church or whatever, i would still be trying to do something similar.

after talking with God, some pastors, and many friends i decided that we should just give it a try - try living out this deep community on mission to salem this summer. my conviction from the beginning was that i wanted for us to do something - not to just sit and talk about Jesus, but to really be Jesus to salem...meeting needs, seeing people's lives transformed by the gospel, and living by faith. so, one day i was sitting there thinking about some stuff and i wrote a date down on the calendar, invited some friends, and began to think about the vision for this thing.

as i thought and prayed about the vision for our church, the words just came to me. literally i was praying for a bit, and then i picked up my pen and wrote this out:

Reconciliation is a missional community sharing, showing and living out the gospel.


i feel like this vision was given to me from God. and the further we get into this thing, the more i see the evidence of the grace of God and his work in creating this.

last thursday night, we kicked things off with an amazing group of 13 people sitting in our living room. as i was in the act of explaining the vision and answering people's questions, the weight of everything began to hit me. we are actually starting a church...what am i doing? i'm 19 years old. this is not how they said to do it at the conference. and now we are almost a week and a half into it. already so much has happened. 

i don't feel at all equipped to lead this. i don't know what i'm doing. i wake up in the morning and just know that i need to pray and read my bible...i need God's wisdom to lead this. i don't feel old enough. i don't feel experienced enough. we don't have any money. we don't have a building. we don't have a church backing us. not very many people even know about this...

but we're going for it. 

we're trying to live this thing out. see, for too long i have been too timid to challenge the norm. i haven't been willing to question things, and instead i have decided to comfortably sit and do things as everyone says they should be done. yet, when i look at the bible, i see church as so much different than we seem to do it...they loved each other so deeply that people couldn't help but want to join in. their lives were transformed by the gospel, and they gave everything they had for it. service, evangelism, giving, etc. wasn't an obligation that the pastor's guilted people into - it was something that they wanted to do because they were so overwhelmed by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. people didn't go to church - they were the church...and they gathered together for celebration and encouragement on a weekly basis. and...people were coming to know Jesus all the time. 

this is some of what i see in the bible, and i want that. i want to live in a community that sacrificially serves each other and that reaches out to the lost together. i want to be surrounded by people that are head over heels in love with Jesus and excited to obey him- not just apathetic. i want to really live in the freedom and joy that is inherent in the gospel.

so, our church (Reconciliation - taken from 2 Corinthians 5:18-21) is going to try to take God at his word and give this thing a try. i realize that we're not doing this right according to the world's standards or according to the christian community's standards - but i think that that is just the reason why God might use us to bring change to this city. the verse that has been playing over and over again in my mind is, "God uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong." our weakness is his strength. i believe that God can use some young, clumsy, bold lovers of Christ to magnify his name in the city of Salem. again, his strength perfected in our weakness.

so, we'll see what God does. its his story, and it is a privilege to be a part of what he's doing. 

vision for summer church

here's the mission statement for "Reconciliation"

Reconciliation is a missional community sharing, showing, and living out the gospel.

and an explanation...

Missional Community – Two elements to this thing. We are a community of redeemed people, which means so much. Community has been insightfully defined as the place where the person you least want to live always lives. Yancy says, “Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community.” As the community of Christ, we love and serve one another sacrificially. Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples” (Jn. 13:34). This is the love that the people of God are called to – loving like Christ loved. This means that we lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters in the church – literally loving them as if they were our own family. This will be difficult, but I believe that by the Holy Spirit’s power, God can form a deep, loving, and authentic community of people in Reconciliation.
The second aspect of this – missional – is inherent both in the nature of the God and the nature of community. To be missional means that we view our context (where we live, play, work, etc.) from a missionary standpoint, embracing the Great Commission of Jesus and obeying his command to be sent into the world (Jn. 20:21). “God is a missionary God, and God’s primary missionary method is his covenant people,” writes Tim Chester. We see God reaching out as a missionary to humanity first through Israel – a community. Now, we see God reaching out through the church. And this is what Jesus said, as mentioned above – “By this [your love for one another, i.e. community] all men will know that you are my disciples.” The community God creates in the church is a missional community – it must be. Therefore, we don’t have community for community’s sake. We must share this community with others, and our focus has to be on carrying to message and love of God to all the places that we go.

Sharing – We share the gospel through proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to those we come in contact with. This goes hand in hand with showing the gospel, but it is more important. If we really love those like Jesus did, we will be concerned with both their physical needs and their spiritual needs. Since spiritual needs are more important and last forever, sharing the gospel with those who don’t know Jesus is of utmost importance. Sharing the gospel means making disciples, not just converts. It is in obedience to the Great Commission Jesus gave just before he ascended to heaven – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Mt. 28:18-20).

Showing – We show the gospel through our actions – how we serve and reach out to those in need. Not only does Jesus die for our sins, he also heals the sick and reaches out to the poor, providing for physical needs as well as spiritual. Over and over again God commands us in his Word to care for the poor, orphaned, widowed, needy, and helpless. Showing the gospel means bringing physical and tangible healing into places of brokenness. Reconciliation Church will seek to show the gospel to the city of Salem, making it so that the city and the neighborhood are improved because of the work we do.

Living out – We live out the gospel by growing in holiness – walking in our identity as redeemed children of God. Christ has died for us so that we might live for him and become conformed to his image. Therefore, the Reconciliation community will grow in obedience and live out a life marked by the gospel of Jesus. Instead of having to obey God out of compulsion because of religion, we get to obey God out of joy because of grace. We grow up in our spiritual walk to become conformed to the image of Christ, taking on the perfect characteristics of the Jesus that we follow.

The Gospel – Simply put, the gospel is Jesus Christ. Gospel literally means “good news,” and this is the entire theme of the Bible. At its most basic level, the gospel message is that though we as humans are enemies with God, God sent Jesus to die on our behalf. In Jesus’ death, he took upon himself all of our sin and he gave us his righteousness. We gave him our sin and failure; he gave us his righteousness and perfection. This is unmerited grace. Through Jesus, the way was opened for us to come to Jesus by grace through faith, and just as Jesus was resurrected, so we also have the hope that we will one day be resurrected to find ourselves united with Christ. This gospel, Jesus, is the motivation for why we live, the message we proclaim, and the means by which we can actually live out God’s commandments.