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.

"summer church"

for those of you that are going to be in salem this summer, a few of us are going to start up a "church." we honestly have no clue what is going to happen, but this could be quite an exciting and bumpy ride. I wrote out sort of the vision for the church. you'll find that below. also, we are thinking of calling the church "reconcilation" ("recon" for short)...the idea in this comes from 2 Corinthians 5 - that God reconciled the world to himself through Jesus, making it possible for us to know God. he has also entrusted to us the message of reconciliaton to bring to a hurting world. that's the idea behind the group of people that we'll get together this summer.

basic vision i wrote up:

Here’s the idea. We’ll get a small group of committed people together to live life together this summer with “gospel intentionality." This will be our “church.” We are the church, and we will meet weekly to exalt Christ through hearing the Word of God, praising Christ in music, praying together, taking communion, and encouraging one another. Apart from the weekly meeting, we will simply be living life together – hanging out with each other, serving with each other, caring for each other, and looking to spread the gospel in word and deed with our unsaved friends/other people we meet.

Goals for the summer:
- Glorify God and experience his awesome love
- Grow in our love for Christ and for each other.
- See our group grow from 10 to 25 at Sunday meeting
- Have opportunities to share the gospel and, by God’s grace, see some friends/coworkers come to know Christ
- Serve the poor, hurting, and wounded in the city in a real way.
- Send each other out at the end of the summer and continue to pray/encourage each other through the next year

Core Values: Gospel Focus, Community, Disciple-Making, Service




currently I am not sure when or where we will meet weekly, but that isn't really all that important. the more i look at church in the Bible, the more i think that the emphasis have to come away from events and services and return to loving relationships in the rhythms of daily life.

and, i said gospel a lot in the vision stuff. what is the gospel? it is the good news of Jesus Christ entering into our broken world and redeeming us - realizing that even though we are weak and frail, God chose to love us anyways and has made it possible for all men to come to him. therefore, the gospel is for us, but it is inherently for other people and focused on them. read this article if you're still confused: what's in a name?

please don't mistake this for some cool new thing. its probably not going to be all that cool. but, i'm praying that God will use our foolishness and our often misplaced desire to please him this summer and just do something incredible to affect the city of salem with the gospel. i pray that God will use us weak, ignorant, inexperienced people for some great work of God this summer...and i have faith that he will. he loves to use the weak things in this world to bring glory to his name...

feel free to leave comments/questions/ideas/etc. this is only in its very beginning stages.

women in ministry paper

so i've been writing lots of papers this week...and this one honestly has sparked a lot of conversation. i have written a brief overview of common beliefs on women in the church. i realize that this is in no way comprehensive. thus, i would love to have some discussion on this issue. feel free to leave your comments.

In an era of feminism and political correctness, one of the questions that continues to confront the church is what to do with feminine leadership. For a long time, tension has been very hot on this subject. Pastor John Coleman, in response to the question of if a woman should be a pastor, writes, “No Female Pastors!  No!  No!  No!  Never!  Never! Never!  Does this offend you, (sic) guess who does not care about how you feel.  Get a life in God and all of your problems will dissipate.”[1] Women have reacted to such attitudes, not surprisingly, with their own beliefs and practices. Recently, the United Methodist Church, the second largest denomination in the United States, “will start a campaign to get more woman pastors to lead large churches.”[2] One camp vehemently supports women pastors, and the other fiercely denies them a voice in church. Who is right? What does the Bible have to say about this subject? In this paper, we will look at the biblical evidence concerning female church leadership. Three main views emerge, and I will argue the following: according to the order established at creation, women, as well as most men, are biblically unqualified to be elders. Although they may not be qualified for biblical eldership, women are commanded to and should be involved in nearly all areas of ministry.            The first view that some scholars subscribe to is called “traditionalism.” The basic idea of traditionalism is completely patriarchal. Women are not allowed to be pastors, teach or exercise any authority over man. This includes any form of speaking at church, such as praying or giving announcements. They should literally remain “silent,” and these people cite 1 Corinthians 14:34 for their support, which says, “The women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.”^[3]

The biggest problems with a traditional view of a woman’s role in the church come from Paul’s commands given to women. The silence that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians should not be taken as absolute silence. Keener writes, “…[Paul] cannot mean complete silence, because earlier in the same letter he allowed women to pray and prophesy (1 Cor. 11:5).”[4] If one were to look at the whole of the Bible, he would see that women take roles as prophets, apostles, and “fellow workers.” They were even involved in ministry on a verbal level (Priscilla taught and Philip’s daughters prophesied). Hamilton says that women are given examples, authorizations, and commands to participate in some sort of teaching ministry.[5] Therefore, according to biblical evidence, women should not remain completely and absolutely silent.

            A second view called egalitarianism is gaining more and more strength as a reaction to traditionalism and with the feminist movement. This view holds that there are no differences between men and women. Although in the past, males were only allowed to be priests and were the only ones in leadership roles, “there is no male and female,” as Galatians 3:28 says, “for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”^[6] Another argument presented is that “…if we can accept women as prophets and other ministers, there is no reason to exclude women from the pastoral office.”[7]

            Unfortunately, the egalitarians fail in their interpretation of Galatians 3:28 and write off other commands of Paul as being culturally bound. When Paul speaks of us being “one in Christ,” he is referring to standing in salvation as opposed to a universal indicative. This verse, therefore, has nothing to do with a woman’s role in the church. Also, we cannot write off 1 Timothy 2:11-12 as being culturally bound because Paul appeals to creation order established from the beginning of humanity to support his command (verse 13). So, an egalitarian position on women in ministry must be ruled out.

            The last major view, and the one that I hold to, is called the “male leadership position,” or complementarianism – that men and women have different and complementary roles in church and life. This view recognizes the commands of Paul prohibiting women from teaching (see 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2) as applicable today. It also takes into account the fact that women in the Bible were undoubtedly involved in ministry – even in verbal ministry. In light of this, complementarians believe that women can and should be involved in ministry but not as elders or pastors.

Three main lines of argument are taken. First, Jesus’ example is worthy of noting. He chose twelve men as his apostles and leaders of his church. His apostles followed his example by continuing to appoint male leadership to the churches they established.[8] It seems logical to follow the example of Jesus in appointing only males as elders and leaders of the church.

Secondly, the idea of male headship presented in the Bible points to male eldership. It is clear from Scripture that God designed men to lead their households, and this principle should have some carry-over into the issue of church leadership. Alexander Strauch says, “Since the family is the basic social unit and the man is the established family leader, we should not be surprised that men would be the elders or fathers of the larger, local church family.”[9]

Last, and most convincing, no clear examples of women in church leadership offices are given in the New Testament. Susan Foh writes, “Obviously women had an active role in the spread of the gospel, and it included verbal help…Yet, the New Testament gives no examples of female apostles, evangelists or elders. There are no examples of women teaching in public. The primary figures in the advance of the gospel were men.”[10]

In light of the biblical evidence, it seems most appropriate to limit the eldership to only men – but we must keep in mind that not all men are qualified for eldership either. This is not a misogynistic or chauvinistic biblical concept. It is important to remember that men and women are equal in the image of God and have equal access to the Father through Christ. Moreover, women are to follow the example of Christ in this issue of male headship: Christ was subordinate to the Father as the woman is subordinate to man. This is how God has decided for his Bride to function, and we will find fulfillment and satisfaction in following all that he has commanded us. We must also realize that there are many scholars who disagree on this issue, and we should therefore approach this with humility and an open ear to the arguments of those who do not hold a similar view.

---

[1] See http://www.johnecoleman.org/FemalePastor.htm

[2] See http://www.churchsolutionsmag.com/hotnews/methodists-launch-female-pastors-initiative.html

^[3]1 Corinthians 14:34

[4] James R. Beck and Craig L. Blomberg, ed. Two Views on Women in Ministry, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 50.

[5] Husbands, Mark and Timothy Larsen, ed. Women, Ministry and the Gospel: Exploring New Paradigms, (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2007), 37.

^[6] Galatians 3:28

[7] Beck and Blomberg, 46.

[8] Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership, (Littleton: Lewis and Roth Publishers, 1995), 52-54.

[9] Ibid., 58.

[10] Bonnidell Clouse and Robert G. Clouse, ed. Women in Ministry: Four Views, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 79.

some of my favorite resources

i've had lots of people ask me about books to read, websites, etc. so, while procrastinating writing a paper, i figured i'd put a few of my favorites down for you guys to take a look at:)

Good books:
- The Bible - got to start there;)
- The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning (also check out The Ragamuffin Gospel by him)

- The Prayer Life by Andrew Murray (changed my life, seriously)

- Humility by Andrew Murray (so good that I let a bunch of people borrow it...someone lost it...bought a new copy...someone lost it again. if you are reading this and have my copy...i want it back now).

- The Pursuit of God and The Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer 

- Death By Love by Mark Driscoll (helps you understand the significance of Christ's sacrifice)

- The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence (if you can get through the old-style language, its worth it)

Good websites:

www.blueletterbible.com - an incredible study tool 

www.monergism.com - great articles on pretty much anything

www.bestcommentaries.com - this is an awesome website that recommends the best commentaries for you to check out...so helpful.

www.bethinking.org - apologetics website with some sweet articles

www.theresurgence.com - i read this every day. so good it shouldn't be free...

www.edstetzer.com - ed stetzer always has very perceptive info on contemporary issues in the church in america

Good podcasts:

PREACHERS:

Mark Driscoll - Mars Hill Church

Francis Chan - Cornerstone Simi Audio Podcast

Matt Chandler - The Village Church

Darrin Patrick - The Journey St. Louis

Judah Smith - Generation Church

Erwin McManus - Mosaic

John Piper - Desiring God Audio

APOLOGETICS:

William Lane Craig - Defenders Podcast

Ravi Zacharias - RZIM

OTHER:

TheResurgence Podcast - tons of resources from film and theology to biblical parenting

Acts 29 Podcast - church planting

this is most of the stuff i recommend to people when they ask.

if i'm missing something that i need to check out, what is it? leave a comment and let me know. 

the gospel is our motivation

Click to Play

titus 3:3-8

why would a loving God send people to hell?

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sermon preached in response to the question - why would a loving God send people to hell?

holy discontent

well...its late, but i feel like i really need to write this down.


with my brothers on the trip to utah last week, i experienced something that i have never experienced before - a group of guys getting together to unashamedly live out the gospel and share it with the people they encountered. i have never quite lived in a community that was able to pray throughout the day without feeling like it would be a christian cliche...men who blasted worship music out of the car speakers and sit in awe of Christ's love together..who were eager to share the good news with everyone they came in contact with and actually looked forward to those opportunities.

i have been dwelling on this all week - longing for more of this in my life here at corban.

one other thing has been on my mind and in my prayers - a desire to let God have his way in me like never before. i feel like i pray this often, but this is different. i find myself every day pleading with God to change my heart, to take me deeper, to move me into the world, and to truly die to myself.

wednesday night, i laid down in my bed listening to a message by francis chan (i often fall asleep to sermons). it wasn't much of a sermon honestly. he read a passage, and then he began to share story after story of people in his church that were actually living out the gospel and making huge sacrifices to follow Christ. he began to share from his own life how he has lived by faith and God has provided. i was so captured by these stories that i couldn't fall asleep. i laid awake, praying in my heart that God would really move me into living a life of faith like the people i was hearing about.

something one of the guys said at the acts29 conference has been on my mind all day. he shared a story of billy graham during college. he said that at a prayer meeting, billy and some of his friends were praying, and at some point, graham was so overwhelmed with the grace of God that he laid down and began to pound his fists into the ground, crying out, "Lord, let me do great things for you!"

and then today, ah...in every other person's eyes, today probably looked like a great day for me - got school done, played some basketball, hung out with friends, watched a movie, and even had time to pray - but i sit here tonight feeling dissatisfied, empty and convicted - wanting so much more of what Jesus offers.

there has to be more, doesn't there? i mean...this christianity thing - there's so much more than just having fun with friends and spending a little time in prayer. isn't it about giving our life away, about dying to ourselves, about living some faith-filled rollercoaster ride of a life that God is writing from above? isn't it about participating in his kingdom, about being like Christ and giving the gospel to a world in dire need of good news?

and i'm not just saying that we need to do this - that we need to hunker down and try harder to be like Jesus because that's what the Bible says for us to do. i'm saying that the grace of God that i continue to encounter in the Scriptures and in my daily life demands this sort of response. that Jesus would go through hell for me so that I might live stirs my soul and moves me to become like him. this is my longing for a proper response to Jesus' great mercy and love.


before going to sleep i picked up one of the books i'm reading for fun - total church (awesome book by the way). one of the first things i read is this:

"Eighty percent of Christians live in the top 20 percent of the wealthiest areas in the country."

is this what Christ died for? that's me...my whole life. and i barely associate with anyone that is in need of anything. take tonight - not bad, but who was i with? people that are all like me and that have already encountered the grace of God. Jesus said that whenever we have a party, we aren't supposed to invite our friends. instead, we're to invite the poor, the crippled, and everyone who could never pay you back.

i mean, come on - Jesus had a reputation of being that guy that went to parties and skipped class to hang out with the weed smokers in bush park. i don't feel like me or any of my friends have that sort of reputation. later in the chapter, the authors said, "The grace of God meant that Jesus hung out with unrespectable people...If our congregations are full of respectable people, then it may be that we have not truly grasped the radical grace of God."

i want to be like my Christ. i want to be where he would be and have a reputation like his. honestly, i'm sick of this comfortable, self-centered "christian" life that i'm living, and i'm praying that the grace of God will move me from my comfort into a life of radical sacrifice. it scares me, a LOT - but i want it so, so badly.

i've heard it said that Jesus came to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. Jesus, i'm praying for you to disturb me tonight...