To all the Single Ladies (and Men)
Just got done reading the following article. If you’re single or don’t have kids or both, read it and then I have a few thoughts for you.
Most people without kids don’t realize the stress and time that is envolved with raising children. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to a single person and wanted to smack them when they say, “I’m so busy! I just don’t have time to __________.” Normally their excuse is that they are working a part-time job and taking the bare minimum of credit hours at school. Then for some reason they feel they have the right to look down on their married friends who only have a job and a kid to raise.
The reality that this article presents is that raising children (especially a stay at home mom) is probably one of the hardest “jobs” out there. It is a strenuous joy that you can never truly understand until you get to undertake it yourself.
So here is my challenge. Instead of living in your bubble, step back and evaluate how you could serve and sacrifice for your friends who have kids. When the next great movie comes out, watch your friends kids so they can see it instead of seeing it yourself (it’s called sacrifice). Show up randomly and do some household work (cleaning, dishes, dusting, laundry, etc.). Take their kids out and let them have a quiet night at home. Hang out with mom and give her some adult conversation during the day.
I can tell you from experience, these are some of the greatest blessing you can give to parents.
God Still Uses Prayer
I’m kinda emotionally overwhelmed/drained from yesterday. The sermon was really heavy and life giving, but more than that, I found out that two guys that I was praying for accepted Christ yesterday. The crazy thing is that I didn’t know either guy at all.
The first guy had posted something on our church’s web site a few weeks about life struggles. It was clear that he wasn’t a believer. God put it on my heart to pray for the guy’s salvation. I had never met him, and had no plans to ever meet him. The next thing I know…his girlfriend is attending out community group. Then yesterday he attended the service with her and God saved him.
The other guy I still haven’t met. One of my volunteers during the 7pm service asked if I would pray for his friend that was attending the service. The guy (not the volunteer) was addicted to drugs and decided he wanted to come to church again. I prayed a quick prayer and didn’t think to much about it afterwards. I saw on Facebook this morning that the guy met Jesus and God saved the guy last night.
I know that God saves whoever He wants. So I think it’s so cool that God allowed me to be a part of these guys’ story. It just goes to show that one of the most powerful tools for evangelism is prayer.
Asa is a Stud
Asa was in a wedding a few weeks ago. The dude was a stud. We got him a haircut and a new outfit. Yes I put a chain on him.
Great time in the park today.
Had a great time in the park tonight with Asa. The boy is fearless. He was climbing thing the 4-year-olds were scared of. We better buy some more health insurance.
Missions v. Missional Part 4
This perspective of a missional church starkly contrasts the typical church today that sees itself as a church that has missions. In these churches, missions are always done by a specially called person who is a missionary. Missions is always done in a foreign country. Missions is a program or ministry that is run by a committee in the church. The church goes on mission trips, has a missions fund, and has a missions bulletin board in the foyer with a map of the world with colored pushpins in it. Missions is completely separate from the church and exist out of the church. The church has missions.
Whereas a missional church understands the opposite—the mission of God has a church. This perspective changes everything. This means that the mission field is where the church is. We are all missionaries. There is no missions program. Instead, every program and ministry is a missional program. The church doesn’t run missions—the mission runs the church. The church doesn’t have a mission. The mission has a church. This is what it means to be a missional church. Being missional isn’t the next catchy fad, but instead it is being caught up in the mission of God.
Missions v. Missional Part 3
The word missional also gets its meaning and understanding from John 20:21 when Jesus tells his disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” We must understand that the Father sent Jesus. God is a missionary God. God is on a mission to reconcile the entire world to Himself. Therefore, the Father sent Jesus into the world to usher in the Kingdom of God in order to begin this reconciliation. This is what theologians call the Missio Dei (Latin for Mission of God).
Jesus then tells his disciples that he is sending them on the same mission. Jesus calls his church to go into the world and to share that the King has come and that we can be reconciled to the Father. Being a missional church means that you understand that the church is sent on mission as an instrument and as a sign of the Missio Dei. Although the word missional has only been used for a few years, the concept has been around since the 1950s. Darrell L. Guder and Lois Barrett tell us the following:
By mid-century, the emphasis in mission thought shifted toward a theocentric approach that, in contrast, stressed the mission of God (Missio Dei) as the foundation for the mission of the church. The church became redefined as the community spawned by the mission of God and gathered up into that mission. The church was coming to understand that in any place it is a community sent by God. “Mission” is not something the church does, a part of its total program. No, the church’s essence is missional, for the calling and sending action of God forms its identity. Mission is founded on the mission of God in the world, rather than the church’s effort to extend itself.[1]
A missional church exists because of and for the mission of God.
[1] Darrell L. Guder and Lois Barrett, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1998), 82.
Missions v. Missional Part 2
The word missional’s meaning is rooted deeply within the understanding of the church’s purpose. This purpose displays itself in three different ways. The church is a missionary sent on mission as a sign and instrument of the Missio Dei. The first area in which we are called to be missional is as a missionary in our own culture. The general idea of a missionary is a person in a foreign country in a completely non-Christian culture. But in reality, today all Christians live in non-Christian cultures. Tim Keller gives insight into this reality by focusing on the missionary Lesslie Newbigin:
The British missionary Lesslie Newbigin went to India around 1950. There he was involved with a church living ‘in mission’ in a very non-Christian culture. When he returned to England some 30 years later, he discovered that now the Western church too existed in a non-Christian society, but it had not adapted to its new situation. Though public institutions and popular culture of Europe and North America no longer ‘Christianized’ people, the church still ran its ministries assuming that a stream of ‘Christianized,’ traditional/moral people would simply show up in services. Some churches certainly did ‘evangelism’ as one ministry among many. But the church in the West had not become completely ‘missional’—adapting and reformulating absolutely everything it did in worship, discipleship, community, and service—so as to be engaged with the non-Christian society around it. It had not developed a ‘missiology of western culture’ the way it had done so for other nonbelieving cultures.
Even if you are in a “Christianized” culture, the reality is that we still need to view ourselves as missionaries. Every culture needs some amount of contextualization of the gospel. This means that you have to be missionary to do the contextualization needed to present the gospel.
Yeah he has cowboy in his blood….
Haven’t shared anything about Asa in awhile. So I thought I would put up a quick video. The boy is talking and being his typical awesome self. I love how he says “cow.” It’s like he’s from Boston. Enjoy.
Missions v. Missional Part 1
What is the difference between a church that has missions and a missional church? This seems to be the question that everyone is asking lately, and it has been one that I’ve been developing a personal answer to for a while.
There always seems to be a new buzzword in Christian circles every few years. The words enter our vocabulary quickly and leave just as fast. People reword mission and purpose statements around them, and some even restructure their entire church around them. “Seeker-sensitive,” “purpose-driven,” “organic,” and “emerging” are just a few, but the newest to be added to the list is the word “missional.” It is the new buzzword of our day. There are missional churches, missional small groups, missional preaching, missional books, missional degrees, and even missional missiology.
But what does “missional” mean exactly? Most people use it without even stopping to determine what it means. Worst yet, some simply make it mean what they want it to mean to give themselves license to do idiotic and irrelevant acts. This is a sad thing, because the word missional has a deep and beautiful meaning for our churches today.
What is the local church?
For one of my classes last semester, I had to define what the local church is. Fo the fun of it, I thought I would share with you what my definition came out to be.
This definition is heavily based on Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 38. I took a considerable amount of time studying the different elements of their definition and added where I personally thought it might be lacking. Since I am a member of Mars Hill Church, I wanted to stay as close to Mars Hill Church’s definition of a church and only tweak it a little bit.
The local church is a community of confessing and covenantal believers of Jesus Christ who are organized under Biblically qualified leadership. They regularly gather physically for preaching and worship, and scatter in the unity and power of the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission of God by evangelizing and caring for people everywhere. They observe the Biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, and are disciplined to maintain the purity of the church in order to live out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission to the glory of God.
What do you think? Would you change anything? Do you have a working definition of the church?
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