6 Ways You Can Support Missionaires

From The Gospel Coalition:

"What can we do to help? Can we send you a short-term team?"

As a missionary on furlough, I have often been asked these questions by supporters, home churches, and missions committees. Understandably, some supporters want to be as hands-on as possible in helping their missionaries. Sending a short-term team may look like an attractive option. But even when these offers stem from sincere motives, sending a short-term team may not always be the most helpful way to support missionaries. In fact, sometimes missionaries feel pressure to accept short-term teams even if they do not actually need them—especially if the request comes from a major supporting church. Furthermore, some missionaries are drained by hosting short-term teams. The planning often requires them to deflect significant amounts of time and attention away from ministering to locals. This is especially true if short-term team members have not been properly trained or informed prior to the trip, are not culturally adaptable, lack overall maturity, or do not speak the local dialect.

1. Pray for your missionaries regularly. Then tell the missionary you're praying for specific prayer requests.That said, overseas missions would be impossible without the committed, consistent support of well-informed people and churches back at home. Here are six alternative ways to support missionaries and take part in God's mission to the world.

One missionary shared recently that he ran some statistics on his outgoing prayer emails. He discovered that a large portion of his prayer emails—possibly more than half—weren't even opened by the recipients, the people he was counting on as his prayer warriors. This is disconcerting. Writing quick emails to your missionary to tell them you're praying for specific requests assures them that, no matter how isolated they might be, their ministry is being covered in prayer. Being specific about your prayers will help them know you are looking over their requests carefully. If your address or contact information changes, be sure to let your missionaries know; this applies to missions committees as well as individual supporters. Nothing is more discouraging to a missionary than returned prayer letters and unanswered phone calls to supporting churches.

In the busyness of life, it can be difficult to pray diligently and regularly for missions work. The task can be aided by organizing a prayer group for your missionary; if you do this, be sure to let your missionaries know so they can be encouraged and maybe even Skype in during one of the prayer meetings.

2. Commit to regular financial support.

One-time donations are welcome, but regular support shows missionaries that you are committed to their ministry in the long haul. It also provides missionaries with a more consistent source of income, so they do not have to be overly concerned about whether they will be able to maintain their support level year to year. Most missionaries dread the prospect of being sent home to raise funds if their supporting churches or individual supporters drop them or forget to give.

Missionaries have a lot to worry about already—cultural and linguistic adaptation, running ministries with limited resources, resistance, persecution, harsh living environments, and more. Though support-raising might be a necessary reality, you can make the process easier for overseas Christian laborers by being consistent in your support. It's a shame that many people avoid going to the missions field, as the Great Commission mandates, because they fear support raising.

In Philippians 4:15-19, Paul commends a church that supported him financially when he was overseas:

When I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Financially supporting missionaries not only blesses them—it also blesses you.

3. Help combat homesickness.

A simple care package can communicate a great deal. Ask your missionaries if there is anything they particularly miss from home—books, worship or sermon CDs, foods, spices, toys, games, or TV shows. If receiving mail is not possible for them but using the internet is, offer online goods like downloadable music credit, magazine subscriptions, or e-books.

4. Help missionaries during their "furloughs."

The term furlough can be deceiving because it suggests the missionary is taking time off or enjoying a long holiday. For this reason, some mission agencies such as ours dub this time as a "home assignment." Don't assume that "furloughs" are entirely restful for the missionary. In fact, many missionaries return home with a dose of reluctance, not because they don't love their home churches, but because of the cultural transitions and logistical hassles that "furloughs" entail.

We know that war-torn soldiers who return from tours of duty need special support. Recent statistics about the high suicide rate among U.S. troops remind us of this reality. Like returning soldiers, missionaries on "furlough" often return home similarly confused. Some might detect a widening emotional gap with friends back at home because they've traversed entire seasons of life apart. Some have suffered the death of relatives while they were overseas, resulting in a loss of intimacy in their family networks. Some have endured trauma overseas and might need counseling but cannot afford it at regular rates.

You can assist your missionaries during their "furloughs" in many tangible ways. You can help them acclimate by greeting them at the airport or by asking them intelligent questions about their life and ministry. You can volunteer to help them with housing or setting up a mobile phone. You can let them borrow vehicles or furniture. Since visiting home churches often requires a fair amount of travel, you can offer to help with childcare or donate your frequent flier miles. If you are a counselor or physician, consider offering your services free of charge. Finally, you can help spread the word of their return to others and keep up with what they might need throughout their "furlough." Befriend them; encourage your children to get to know theirs.

5. If you do want to visit the missionary overseas, be mindful of their point of view.

Sometimes, short-term missions trips are not as helpful to missionaries as vision trips, where people go overseas to acquaint themselves with an area they are committed to pray for and otherwise support long-term. People who visit the field with this mindset can then spread their passion for missions with churches at home and serve as long-term advocates for missionaries. 

If you would like to go overseas to visit a missionary or lead a short-term team, be sure to dialogue with the missionary beforehand and try not to bring to the table any preconceived notions about what you think would be helpful. Ask for the missionary's honest opinion about what would be best for them. Go with a clear mindset of serving and learning. Missionaries who have worked to build up a ministry over a period of years may not want advice from short-term visitors who are only in the country for a couple of days or weeks. Similarly, if a Chinese Christian visiting the United States for the first time immediately confronted a pastor about how the entire American church should be run, that person—no matter how well-meaning—would probably be disregarded.

Even so, visits from supporters and church representatives can be helpful. Once, when we were on the field, a pastor from our home church came to visit us. We wanted to show him our different ministries, but due to typhoons, we had to cancel most of our events. Still, the pastor remained flexible and even volunteered to help my husband mop up an area of our new gospel center that had flooded because of the torrential rain. One night, a local woman came to our house to chat, and it became evident that we would soon enjoy significant gospel conversation. My husband and the visiting pastor went upstairs and started to pray for us. The woman received Christ that night and became our first convert.

The pastor's visit encouraged us because he came with the goal to pray, watch, and learn. Throughout his stay he expressed compassion and concern for us, and he did not jump to making rash conclusions about anything he observed. The whole experience helped him better understand what our lives were like overseas.

6. Send a "medium-term" missionary to help be part of a long-term vision.

People willing to commit one to two years to the missions field usually have enough time to learn the local language and contribute to the ministry in a significant way. "Medium-term" missionaries can build meaningful relationships with locals and support long-term missionaries in a way that can help sustain a ministry in the long run.

For instance, one young woman came to Taiwan specifically to help a long-term missionary couple with the education of their special-needs son. Perhaps many people in the church have the ability to teach missionary kids, which could free up more missionaries to minister in completely unreached areas of the world that lack missionary schools. Other people might have the capacity to teach English overseas. Still others work well with children, are gifted in evangelism, or have professional skills that can be employed in a particular project.

If you know someone interested in "medium-term" missions, ask the missionaries you support about what kinds of opportunities might be available.

Little Act, Big Effect

I remember one point in the early stages of our ministry when we wanted to let local children play with American board games during our outreach events. After sending out a quick email to our supporters, many of them immediately offered to send us games. Having these supporter gifts on hand eventually helped us launch several children's ministries that led families to seek Christ.

"How did you get these games over here?" one curious local asked while watching her children play with the games.

"They're from Christians around the world who believe in the Good News so much that they sent us here to share it," I replied.

She smiled. "That's really moving."

Sometimes, little acts of support and commitment can go a long way.

Reclaiming a Pool Hall to Renew a Neighborhood

Beautiful story about what God is doing in Chicago. I love this guy and what he is doing. Truly inspirational. 

HT: By Faith

In a smoky pool hall in an undisclosed urban ghetto, Tom Cruise, playing a young billiards protégé in director Martin Scorsese’s 1986 film “The Color of Money,” bends over his cue and shoots impeccably, not only winning the admiration of his challengers but provoking their jealousy. Almost 20 years later, a young pastor takes a hammer to the walls of that same pool hall; blood, sweat, and prayers now at work transforming the once notorious pool hall at the corner of 64th and Cottage streets into a common ground — a haven for the downtrodden, the once-forgotten street kid, and the weary intellectual.

When Brad Beier Came to Town

On Sunday morning, July 15, 2012, the windows are flung open to let some breeze into a muggy library room at the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes Hall. Ivy creeps along the building’s exterior and sneaks through the windows, as a roomful of congregants cluster for prayer during a church meeting. A group of young people — two African-American men, an African-American woman, and a Caucasian man — share prayer requests. One, an incoming chemistry graduate student, asks for prayer for her studies. Twenty-year-old Pierre Carr, wearing braids down his neck, tells the others he is going to school in the fall to become a chef, a future he couldn’t have imagined five years prior.

Growing up without a father in Woodlawn, one of South Side Chicago’s roughest neighborhoods, Carr didn’t have a lot of direction. His mother feared that her adolescent son was destined for a life of gang activity, jail, even premature death — paths that many of his friends would take in years to come.

Beginning in the 1950s, Woodlawn — like many urban American neighborhoods at the time — began to decline economically as the white middle class fled to the suburbs. With them went many businesses, although through the 1960s, Woodlawn’s 63rd Street was known for its jazz clubs, many just down the road from a certain well-frequented pool establishment. The deterioration continued through the ’70s,’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s, with the average household income hovering at just over $23,000.

In 2003 Brad Beier, a skinny, young, white pastor from Louisiana, showed up in Woodlawn with a basketball and words that offered hope to a few floundering teenage boys.

“At first, I thought he was a cop,” admits Tee Nimely, one of Carr’s close friends. But something about Beier eventually secured the boys’ trust. Maybe it was because he called them throughout the week to see how they were doing. Or because he didn’t give up on them. Or because he was the father figure they didn’t know they needed.

Louisiana-born Beier attended Louisiana Tech with the intention of becoming a doctor. But early in his college experience, he began serving as a youth minister at his college church, and by the time he graduated he was headed to Reformed Theological Seminary (Jackson, Miss.) to prepare to go abroad as a missionary. His wife, Shannon, on the other hand, had a passion for working with the poor a bit closer to home.

“We put our heads together,” Brad recalled, “and eventually God gave us this unified desire to stay in a city in America and [to] make sure we were in a very big city where there was lots of diversity and lots of opportunities to reach unreached people.”

After an apprenticeship with an urban church in Baltimore, the Beiers moved to Bethel Christian Church (PCA), a multiethnic church in Chicago, with the mandate to plant a church among students at nearby University of Chicago. Not the type to plant a church by the book, Beier also began working part time as the chaplain at a county jail and facilitating an aftercare ministry to men being released from prison. While developing relationships with undergraduate and Ph.D. students in Hyde Park, Brad was also getting to know the families of the men he had met in county jail; many lived in Woodlawn, just five blocks south of the university.

In the world of academia, he found skeptics, atheists, and some genuine believers. Some of each began trickling into the Sunday morning worship at the new church — dubbed Living Hope Church — that met in a university library room. In the culture of gangs and poverty, he met fatherless children, confused young men, and single moms just trying to make it. Some of them came, too.

Crossing 61st Street

It took Carr and Nimely a year or two before they came to church, but in the meantime they were hearing the gospel as part of a basketball ministry — a team that Beier had put together as a way to meet youth in the neighborhood. Here was a white guy from a privileged background who willingly moved his wife and four young daughters to a majority African-American area that most middle-class folks had fled long ago.

“In my life, he’s an example of what a man looks like — not just a man, a godly man who knows how to take care of his family,” says Nimely.

As the young men went through high school, some of their friends from the basketball team started falling off, joining gangs, using guns. One ended up in jail. Another ended up dead.

“When I lost one of my friends, that’s when my whole view changed,” Nimely reveals. “Everybody’s thinking that when you die you just go to heaven and everything’s OK.”

But Nimely wasn’t so sure. This uncertainty led him to accept Christ and to start hanging around the Living Hope community more often. At first, he was skeptical that he would have anything in common with Ph.D. students, but he soon got over that.

“You come to church with people who have degrees and resources. … [And you think] ‘OK, I don’t got that stuff; I don’t got that background. Will they think of me as just some street kid?’ But at Living Hope it don’t seem like that. You see people trying to build their relationship with Christ. You see their love for other people.”

Ph.D. biochemistry student Kathryn Scherpelz likes Nimely. She likes the hard questions he asks about faith. Before coming to Living Hope, the only place Scherpelz could have imagined meeting someone like him would have been at the hospital where she worked during medical school.

“In medical school, you come to regard Woodlawn as patients, like they’re an ‘other,’ and you treat them, and they get sick and get in gun fights,” she explains. Now they’ve become people and not just patients.

Both Kathryn and her husband, Peter, a graduate student in physics, have felt challenged and changed by the perspective they’ve discovered at Living Hope. Peter recently overheard someone at the university tell a newcomer never to go south of 61st Street — the line that separates Hyde Park from Woodlawn. He felt compelled to intervene. “I told [the man] it wasn’t that dangerous,” Scherpelz said. “There are a lot of worthwhile things and worthwhile people to get to know.”

And for that matter, the Scherpelzes have discovered there are just as many needs — albeit of a different sort — in the university culture. Spiritual apathy is primary among them. With dozens of traditional church buildings scattered across the historic campus, faith would appear to be booming. But, as Kathryn explains, many of these buildings house a smorgasbord of spiritual offerings — New Age religion and Christianity sprinkled together. “At its best [the university] is very open [to all spiritual things]. At its worst, it considers traditional Christianity as passé,” says Kathryn.

But every year a few atheists and agnostics join the Living Hope community, soon finding life truth and new life.

The Future of an Old Pool Hall

Several years ago, Beier began to feel the drain of not having a permanent building for the growing church. A tutoring and discipleship program Living Hope had built for children in Woodlawn was at the mercy of whatever local church would rent it space. A few times, they even got locked out of the library before church on Sunday mornings.

So Beier began poking around, looking for a place that Living Hope could call its own. He first noticed the empty storefront at 64th and Cottage in 2010. A big “Cash Loans” sign was painted along the side of the building, which had stood empty for several years. Beier didn’t know why the property was selling for $570,000. It seemed steep for a place that had once been “Chicago’s Finest Billiards,” a notorious local hangout that offered gambling on the first floor and prostitutes on the second. Maybe it was because “The Color of Money” had given it a reputation. Beier didn’t know. He just knew that it was the spot he wanted.

Through a providential turn of real estate fortune, the price plummeted, and in February 2011, Living Hope was able to purchase the property for just under $100,000.

During the past year, volunteers from churches and RUF campus ministries have poured in from across the country, donating time and effort to transform the pool hall into a church with a sanctuary, office space, plenty of room to run the children’s ministry, and four second-floor apartments that Living Hope plans to rent out for additional income.

Just nine years into Living Hope’s story, Beier is hopeful. He likes that when he looks out at his small congregation every Sunday, he sees black and white, young and old, seekers and growers. He sometimes grows weary of the transience that comes with college-student and low-income populations, but he’s seen a few folks stick around for the long haul and hopes more will follow suit.

Sometimes people advise him to find an easier calling in a safer neighborhood with a less transitory group. But for Beier, you don’t argue with a calling.

“We don’t disparage anybody who says they’d rather be a part of a more homogenous group, ’cause that’s fine. We do try to challenge people and say this is really the vision of God’s kingdom. … We’re all gonna be one family in heaven, so let’s get a taste of it!”

No Not One!

Sung this hymn in church on Sunday. Music to the sinners ears!

1. There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   None else could heal all our soul’s diseases,
   No, not one! No, not one!
2. 
   
3. Refrain:
4. Jesus knows all about our struggles,
5. He will guide till the day is done;
6. There’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus,
7. No, not one! No, not one!
8. No friend like Him is so high and holy,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   And yet no friend is so meek and lowly,
   No, not one! No, not one!
9. There’s not an hour that He is not near us,
   No, not one! No, not one!
   No night so dark but His love can cheer us,
   No, not one! No, not one!
10. Did ever saint find this Friend forsake him?
    No, not one! No, not one!
    Or sinner find that He would not take him?
    No, not one! No, not one!
11. Was e’er a gift like the Savior given?
    No, not one! No, not one!
    Will He refuse us a home in heaven?
    No, not one! No, not one!

Welcome to the Church of Brand Jesus

"A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God."

Romans 2:28-29

Commenting on these verses, Tyler Wigg Stevenson, author of Brand Jesus, asks, "...why are so many self-proclaimed Christians buying into the religious lifestyle, image, and identity, but not making the radical spiritual-ethical commitment to discipleship? How is it that there is so much Christian hypocrisy?"

The heart of these verses is that being part of God's family (Jew in the Old Testament, Christian in the New Testament) is not primarily an external matter, but is rather an internal matter with external fruit. In these verses, the Apostle Paul is critiquing the Jews of his day who claimed God, but did so only externally. They were good Jews because they were circumcised. Paul counters by saying that the external act of circumcision is ultimately meant to be an external mark of an inward reality, namely a life that has been transformed by the Spirit of God. 

Stevenson applies these verses to the contemporary Church by pointing out our tendency, much like the Jews in Paul's day, to rely on external marks as the evidence of our faith. For example, we might believe ourselves to be Christians merely because we belong to a church, or were baptized, or align with the religious right politically. We have external badges of honor, but our hearts are far from God. 

The problem, according to Stevenson, is that the Jesus we claim to believe in, is in fact, not Jesus as all:

"The startling question is, then, is Jesus Christ actually the one whom many self-proclaimed Christians have accepted? Or, as seems to be the case,  have consumer-minded Christians been led from the narrow road, drawn by the promises of an impotent spiritual commodity masquerading as the power of God? Welcome to the church of Brand Jesus." pg. 101

Stevenson's point: External badges of religion are insufficient. As Paul stated in Romans 2, the mark of a true believer is a circumcision of the heart, or, a transformed life. External badges (church membership, political affiliation, occasional acts of charity) are insufficient because they don't have any power. They give the mere appearance of Godliness, but are just as Stevenson describes 'impotent spiritual commodity masquerading as the power of God." These badges are not the result of a radical internal transformation. They are not the result of totally new, born again life in Christ. No, they are the rather feeble attempts to construct our self-justification. 

The only solution to this problem is the true gospel of Jesus Christ; namely, that our attempts to build our own kingdom, wherein we attempt to build our own identity, our justification, and our very sense of life before God is completely insufficient. But, in his great mercy and love, Christ came to give us life. Through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has come to free us from this death sentence of self-sufficiency. 

But herein lies the problem. Stevenson's point is that if you look at the life of the American Christianity, it is clear that we are not living or preaching this true gospel, wherein lives are truly transformed. Rather, we are preaching and living a different faith; the faith of Brand Jesus. 

And this Brand Jesus fits in perfectly with our consumer mindsets in that it gives us exactly what our sinful selves want, all the while wearing a mask of true spirituality:

"Brand Jesus takes the promise of the Kingdom of God and offers another pseudo-Christian vision instead...Brand Jesus takes the tragedy of sinful life and without asking us to change our behavior in the plot, promises a happy ending. Brand Jesus takes everything our species' depraved imagination wants to believe is true about the world and feeds it back to us." pg. 104

"We are in fact, wholly conformed to the pattern of this world. So, while Christians should be radically different from everybody else, we find that Christians are no more different from practitioners of other lifestyles than those folk are from each other. We've made discipleship into one option among many, when it ought to stand separate, as different from other ways of living as Christ was from the world." pg. 103

In short, the American Church has submitted to a form of Christianity (Brand Jesus), wherein they are allowed to continue in their current desired lifestyle without any real transformation. Although they may have external badges, there is no power behind it. There is no real knowledge of the God. There is no real experience of God's grace. It is a pseudo-Christianity, giving the people enough religion to soothe their spiritual conscious, but denying the very nature of Jesus Christ. 

The only answer is to run to the gospel of God's grace. 

Tyler Wigg Stevenson, Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumerist Age (Seabury Books, New York, 2007). 

Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, through his poverty might become rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9

The only response to such love is worship. Here is a moving hymn we sung at church  (New City South) this past Sunday: "Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour"

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,

All for love's sake becamest poor;

Thrones for a manger didst surrender,

Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,

All for love's sake becomes poor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,

All for love's sake becamest man;

Stooping so low, but sinners raising

Heavenwards by thine eternal plan.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,

All for love's sake becamest man.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,

Saviour and King, we worship thee.

Emmanuel, within us dwelling,

Make us what thou wouldst have us be.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,

Saviour and King, we worship thee.

Jig-A-Boo

A rather provocative title for a blog post....check out this video from Jackie Hill of P4CM. Amazing stuff.

Martyrdom of Polycarp

Here is an account of another hero of the faith's martyrdom. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna when he faced his death in 155. He was one of the three chief Apostolic Fathers (along with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch). Once again, I am inspired by the faith of these men, and thankful for their sacrificial deaths that were building blocks for the Church. Here is the account of Polycarp's martyrdom written by Justo L. Gonzalez:

"When the old bishop learned that he was being sought, he followed the advice of his flock, and hid for several days. But after having moved to another hiding place, and still being discovered, he decided that his arrest was the will of God, refused to flee any further, and calmly awaited those who came after him. 

The proconsul who presided at his trial tried to persuade him to worship the emperor, urging him to consider his advanced age. When Polycarp refused, the judge ordered him to cry: "Out with the Atheists!" to this Polycarp responded by pointing at the crowd around him and saying: "Yes. Out with the atheists!" Again the judge insisted, promising that if he would swear by the emperor and curse Christ he would be free to go. But Polycarp replied: "For eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no evil. How could I curse my king who saved me?"

Thus the dialogue went on. When the judge threatened him with being burned alive, Polycarp simply answered that the fire that the judge could light would only last a moment, whereas eternal fire would never go out. Finally, we are told that after he was tied to a post in the pyre, he looked up and prayed out loud: "Lord Sovereign God, I thank you that you have deemed me worthy of this moment, so that, jointly with your martyrs, I may have a share in the cup of Christ......For this...I bless and glorify you. Amen."

Martrydom of Polycarp, 14. 

Confession and Community

Following text is from Defiant Grace by Dane Ortlund...

"The fundamental distinction between churches is not that some of them have sinners and others do not. The fundamental distinction is that some churches have honest sinners and other churches have self-protecting sinners. The question is not whether we are sinful or not, but whether or not we are honest about it. James 5:16 was not written to a segment of the church but to all members: 'Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.' "

....

I think the more fully we know the Lord's loving desire to forgive us, for the sake of Christ's work on the cross, the quicker we will fall on our knees in confession and repentance. I believe it is in that place where His grace manifests itself most complete in our lives.

Let us pray to that end.

The New Ethnics in Christ

"In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us." Colossians 3:11

Such a powerful verse. The gospel completely shatters ethnic superiority, racism, classism, socio-economic elitism. It shatters geographical boundaries separating the rich and poor, the haves and the have-nots. I long to see this verse realized in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is unfortunate that in most churches, as Dr. Martin Luther King once said,  Sunday morning is the most segregated day of the week. In the evangelical church, we love treating the gospel as a personal devotional to make ourselves feel comfort and security. Yet, we fail to let the gospel penetrate deep enough into our souls, to realize the social implications; to realize that Christ is reconciling ALL things that were broken in the fall. Ethnic superiority, racism, classism, socio-economic elitism etc, are all a result of the fall. The gospel transforms society. Christians are part of a new ethnicity, one in which we are all one in Christ, where no person is above or below the other. Here is a quote on this verse (Colossians 3:11) from Leonce Crump in a sermon he preached at The Journey this past summer. I love this vision. 

"We long to become a new race all together; a beautiful tapestry of God's creation, called and chosen by Him for something bigger than ourselves. As such, we are deeply committed to being intentionally trans-cultural"

Have We Made The Church Too Safe?

An interesting video with Gabe Lyons. One of the reasons young people leave the church, according to Lyons is that it is too safe. There is a disconnect between the way people in the church are living their lives and the risks and lifestyle that the Bible calls them too. Those growing up in the church are protected from the world rather than being allowed to engage it. This is why a lot of younger people who are creative (artists, musicians, writers) and desire to engage the world end up leaving the church. This is a tragedy because God is the ultimate artist, with his creation being his masterpiece. He delights to have us engage the beauty of his creation in a way that glorifies him. Christians, of all people, should be the most involved with the arts. However, as Lyons points out, this isn't the case in most contemporary churches, and it is a reason why many young people leave the church.

   

"When we talk about faith and the idea of living on mission for Christ, and what he calls us to give up, and they don't see people in their churches taking the kind of risks that they actually see in the pages of Scripture, they say Christianity is too safe, it's overprotective for the things they want to engage"

Thy Will Be Done

A great hymn we sang in church today @ the Journey: West County

My God and Father! While I Stray by Charlotte Elliott

My God, my Father, while I stray
far from my home, on life's rough way,
O teach me from my heart to say,
Thy will be done!

Though dark my path, and sad my lot,
let me be still and murmur not,
or breathe the prayer divinely taught,
Thy will be done!

What though in lonely grief I sigh
for friends beloved, no longer nigh,
submissive still would I reply,
Thy will be done!

If Thou shoulds't call me to resign
what most I prize, it ne'er was mine:
I only yield thee what is thine;
thy will be done!

Let but my fainting heart be blest
with thy sweet Spirit for its guest,
my God, to thee I leave the rest;
thy will be done!

Renew my will from day to day;
blend it with thine, and take away
all that now makes it hard to say,
Thy will be done!

Then, when on earth I breathe no more
the prayer oft mixed with tears before,
I'll sing upon a happier shore,
Thy will be done!

You Alone Can Rescue

A great contemporary song we've been singing @ The Journey

Missional Community?

With the recent resurgence in gospel-centered church plants from groups such as ACTS 29, Sovereign Grace and Redeemer, the word 'missional' has become exceedingly trendy. Churches love to label themselves as 'missional', or love to call their small groups 'missional communities'. All this really means is that the church sees itself as part of God's mission. A missional church is a community of Christians who live and experience life together, who are united together in the gospel, meeting regularly to worship, speak biblical truth to each other, to build up, encourage, rebuke, and to partake in the Lord's Supper together. It is also a group that considers its purpose not only to inwardly build each other up and experience life among each other, but to share their lives with those outside the church. Missional churches are serious about living and proclaiming the gospel outside the church walls. They long to see the redemption of all things, and being indwelled with the Holy Spirit, are partakers in this mission. Yet, they do this together. They do this as a community of believers.

The reason I am posting this is because this term 'missional' seems to be so modern and trendy, but it is really an ancient idea. In fact, Israel was called to be a 'missional' community. They were to be a holy nation that mediated God's presence to the rest of the world. They were called to be a blessing to the rest of the world. Also, Saint Augustine mentions the idea in his Confessions. In this quote, Augustine had just recently become a Christian along with a few of his close friends. The next step? They were to move back to Africa together, live together in 'missional' community, so that they be of whatever service the Lord saw fit for them. That is 'missional' community.

"'You make people to live in unanimity' (Psalm 67:7): So you made Evodius a member of our circle, a young man from my home town. When he was a civil servant as an agent in the special branch, he was converted to you before we were. He was baptized and resigned his post on taking up your service. We were together and by a holy decision resolved to live together. We looked for a place where we could be of most use in your service; all of us agreed on a move back to Africa."

Saint Augustine, Confessions, pg. 166

5 Ways to Make your Kids Hate Church

A post from the resurgence blog.


1. Make sure your faith is only something you live out in public.
2. Pray only in front of people
3. Focus on your morals
4. Give financially, as long as it doesn't impede your needs
5. Make church community a priority, as long as there is nothing else you rather do


This list highlights things we do that would make a child or teen see Christianity as a bunch of religious morals that a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites are telling them to follow. On the contrary, here is a list of 5 things we can do that would make kids not understand what the real Christian church is.

1. Make sure your faith stays a private matter
2. Have a non-existent prayer life (private and public)
3. Morals are only for Sunday's
4. Give financially, but be emotionally and spiritually detached from the actual church
5. Church community is just for an hour on sunday's

Concert Hall or Banquet Hall?

Sweet video about worship and community...

Bifrost Arts from josh franer on Vimeo.

My Everything or My Nothing

Motivational football clips like this may seem kinda corny, but I love them. I particularly like this one because I think it is pertinent to the Church.

When I played football, before every game, my position coach would hand out a 'tip sheet'. This tip sheet usually included the plays we were going to run for the game, different looks the opposing defense was going to throw against us and things we had learned from watching film. It also usually had some kind of motivational quote. One week, the tip sheet included 1 John 3:16,

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

What a great verse. That's why I love football. Because, at its core, it is a team of individuals, who are forced to rely on their teammates. It's 11 guys collectively laying themselves down for their teammates, for the greater cause. The team fails if it's 10 out of 11. It has to be 11 guys giving everything, sacrificing for the need of the team. It is 11 guys fighting together no matter the circumstance, whether things have gone to hell or things are fine and dandy. It is a team of guys picking up where other guys lack. When someone gets knocked down, their teammates pick them back up and keep on fighting together. It's a team of guys giving their everything because they know at the end of the day, that the guy next to him would do the same for him.

I wish the Church was more like that. I love the picture in the video with the team linked together, arm and arm, with Tashard Choice saying, "It's my everything or my nothing". I think the Church should look very similar. It's a team of sinners who have been loved by God, who are now called to collectively glorify him. I have such an individualistic view of Church and of Christianity in general. I view church as a place to be served rather than a place where I can joyfully give myself and sacrifice my time, money, comfort and gifts. I think it should look a lot more like the team in this video. A group of people passionately laying down their lives for each other because they know they have been loved by Christ. A group of people fighting sin together and encouraging each other with the Gospel. And when we fall, we are surrounded by our brothers and sisters to pick us up, and help us keep fighting. Just like a football game can be compared to a battle, even more so, the Christian life is a battle. The Church should be people doing battle together. We are fighting sin, we are fighting for our joy, we are fighting for the Gospel! And in battle, people receive wounds. The Church should be people who are heavily invested in each others lives. A place where wounds are openly shown and where Gospel healing takes place. The Church is on mission together. It should be a group of sinners sacrificially loving each other and loving the world because they know they are loved of God.

But, we can only do this when we come to a clearer understanding of Christ's finished work. When are living in the knowledge of God's ridiculous grace shown to rebellious sinners, when we know that Christ accomplished Redemption and that we have gone from fatherless slaves to adopted children, when we are secure in this, only then, will we be able to lay down our lives for each other as 1 John 3:16 tells us to do. As Christians, our commitment to Jesus' bride aka the Church should very much be "My everything, or my nothing".

The Gospel is about God, not Us: Part 2

I can't resist sharing another awesome passage from Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt.

....

"If you were to ask the average Christian sitting in a worship service on Sunday morning to summarize the message of Christianity, you would most likely hear something along the lines of "The message of Christianity is that God loves me." Or someone might say, "The message of Christianity is that God loves me enough to send his Son, Jesus, to die for me."

As wonderful as this sentiment sounds, is it biblical? Isn't it incomplete, based on what we have seen in the Bible? "God loves me" is not the essence of biblical Christianity. Because if "God loves me" is the message of Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity?

God loves me. Me. Christianity's object is me.

Therefore, when I look for a church, I look for the music that best fits me and the programs that best cater to me and my family. When I make plans for my life and career, it is about what works best for me and my family. When I consider the house I will live in, the car I will drive, the clothes I will wear, the way I will live, I will choose according to what is best for me. This is the version of Christianity that largely prevails in our culture.

But it is not biblical Christianity.

The message of biblical Christianity is not "God loves me, period", as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is "God loves me so that I might make him -- his ways, his salvation, his glory and his greatness -- known among all nations." Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is."

....

The truth is that God loves us unbelievably. He created us in His image, rescued us after our betrayal of Him, lives in us and will one day spend eternity with us. But we are not the end of God's plan. The end of God's purpose in the world is God, and the supreme glory of His grace, which we have been graciously given our lives to find joy in, proclaim and treasure more than anything else.

May the Lord extend his grace on us as we seek to do so, resting in Jesus and what He has done for us.

Where Sin is Hidden, There is No Healing

Gospel community: The type of community where you can bring the full weight of who you are (sins, struggles, burdens, joys, failures, brokenness, issues, addictions, hidden sin, etc...) and be loved unconditionally

Now, I'm not one to quote secular rappers, but listening to this song by Kid Cudi reminded me of the universal nature of shame and our tendency to hide the darkest part of our souls by putting on a mask or putting up a persona. But in the end, we all know that deep down we are messed up.

"But they all didn't see, the little bit of sadness in me,

I've got some issues that nobody can see,

And all of these emotions are pouring out of me

I bring them to the light for you,

it's only right" ---Kid Cudi

Where sin is hidden, there is no healing. In Christ, we are unconditionally loved. He knows our deepest darkest thoughts, he knows our hidden sin, He knows who we are underneath our coverup. The more we realize this on an individual level, the more Gospel community will be cultivated. When we know we are jacked up sinners, it frees us from having to go out into the world and prove ourselves. More so, it allows those around us to take their masks off as well. It frees us to be open. It frees us to be real with sin. And when we are open with each other about our sin, when we are real with our brokenness, the grace, mercy and restoration will start to pour out. We will taste redemption in a whole new way. Healing happens where sin is fully disclosed.

In the end, I think it's what we all long for. For someone to see us for who we really are (sin, failures, struggles, issues and all) and love us. The Gospel says Jesus fulfills that. Gospel community calls us to live this out by being real with each other and to love each other unconditionally in a way that reflects God's unconditional love for messed up sinners. Let's bring the full weight of who we are to Christ, and experience the marvelous healing that is in Christ. Let's cultivate a community of grace that encourages each other as fellow sinners to fully disclose our sin to the Light of the World.

Power of the Word

My senior pastor, Josh Moody, once said in a sermon that a bible-preaching church is "like a piece of apple pie with whipped cream on top." I love this simile not merely because apple pie is my favorite dessert (especially from Grand Lux Cafe), but because bible-preaching churches are becoming more and more of a rarity. I strongly believe in a pulpit that simply preaches Christ-crucified from scripture every week with the confidence that God will give faith. There is no burden to persuade and no burden of life and death, but rather, a joy in knowing God is sovereign in calling His children to faith by the preaching and hearing of His Word.

The following quote comes from The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer...

"The Word of God seeks a Church to take unto itself. It has its being in the Church. It enters the Church by its own self-initiated movement. It is wrong to suppose that there is so to speak a Word on the one hand and a Church on the other, and that it is the task of the preacher to take that Word into his hands and move it so as to bring it into the Church and apply it to the Church's needs. On the contrary, the Word moves of its own accord, and all the preacher has to do is to assist that movement and try to put no obstacles in its path. The Word comes forth to take men to itself; the apostles knew that and it was the burden of their message. They had seen the Word of God for themselves, they had seen how it came and took flesh, and in this flesh the whole human race. Now the burden of their testimony was simply this - the Word of God had become flesh, it had come to take sinners to itself, to forgive and to sanctify. It is this same Word which now makes its entry into the Church. This Word makes flesh, this Word which already bears the whole human race, can no longer exist without the humanity it has assumed. Furthermore, when this Word comes, the Holy Spirit comes, showing to Christians, both individually and corporately, the gifts of the incarnate Christ to man. He produces faith in his hearers, that they may discern in the preaching the entry of Jesus Christ. He opens their eyes to see Christ coming into their midst in the power of his Body to tell us that he has received us and will receive us again to-day."