First world problems

There really isn't a "third world" today. The term comes from when people characterized the world as developed nations, nations behind the "Iron Curtain" and the undeveloped "third world." It's more like the "two-thirds" world. THAT world doesn't worry about Wii remotes; it worries about clean water, where their next meal will come from, and diseases. THAT world CAN CHANGE if we here have the will to make it happen. Already global severe poverty has been cut in half, and organizations like World Vision, Amazima, Compassion, and the like are working to give people in THAT WORLD a chance at a better life.

Bunny and I sponsor a child in Rwanda. Sean sponsors a little girl in Ethiopia. Several others at New Hope also do individually as well as classes also sponsoring children. We've sold bags made by women in Malawi to help families climb up out of poverty. We've purchased the Universal Nut Sheller to help raise production of peanuts - again so people can climb up. There are others we've done, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of what a small group of people in THIS WORLD can do.

What are YOU doing?

Friends, we may not be able to fix the world, but we can DO SOMETHING! - and we ought to. That "least of these" comment Jesus made? He meant it.

Priceless

Wednesday's at New Hope are a blur usually. Cooking, practicing, teaching - starts at 2:30 and ends at 8:00. All good things, but it's a lot.

But this Wednesday just past is one of those moments I'll remember.

The fellowship as we did all those things together as family - as New Hope...

Was incredible. It was like Thanksgivings I knew growing up, where you knew each other so well that you laughed about the differences - celebrated them - and were enveloped in warmth - in love.

I would not take anything for being a part of that.

If you miss intimacy like that, may I recommend a place called New Hope?

A Week In the Life

Was sitting here thinking about last week at New Hope and wondering if anyone else realizes just how different we are. Most churches now are employing large staffs to be able to get things done and then hiring professionals to take care of their facilities. Many also employ outside help to staff the nursery or pay their musicians. The New Hope family does all that and more.

Just in the past week -

Monday we had several women take on cleaning up the kitchen. They did an awesome job. If you aren't involved in the fellowship meals you might have missed it. Thanks Carol, Diane, Jimmie, and JoAnn.
Scott did his usual great job at making sure our finances were in order.

Tuesday the band met to rehearse Sunday's music. They are putting in a couple extra hours a week trying to get better at leading in worship. Thanks Amy, Pam, John, Sean, Taylor, and Bunny.

Wednesday night we had several people helping make sure everyone was fed and that everything was cleaned up. Oh and Allan's birthday was taken care of. Thanks Carol, Diane, Frank, Joe, JC, Brenda, Mack, and Larry. The praise team rehearsed with all the band plus Jessica, Danielle, Emily, and Jamie - oh and JoAnn helped with the power point. Then Hector and Jessica helped clear the stage for the memorial service Friday. Thanks everyone.

Thursday - Jim Quinnell was going on vacation the next day, but made sure his church's yard was cut and trimmed. Thanks Jim. John Anderson came and programmed the A/C for the memorial service Friday. Scott came up with Sean and they began working on filling holes and low spots in the fellowship hall floor. It took several trips as they had to let it dry between coats. Thanks John, Scott and Sean.

Friday - Craig and crew (don't know who else) made sure the materials were ready for Saturday's work day. Craig cleaned the fellowship hall to make sure the flooring would meet no problems.

Saturday - At 6:30 AM, the work crews were at it in the fellowship hall as well as outside. Both crews did an amazing job. Thanks Carol, Joe, JC, Frank, Larry and Brenda, Scott and Sean, Craig, Mack and Hector.
Sunday - at 5:15 AM, John Anderson comes up to double check the A/C. At 9M, Larry and JoAnn, and Mack show up to open the buildings and provide the donuts that New Hope loves.

That doesn't include the preparation and teaching time that all our teachers in RAs, girls ministry, Kidmo, youth and adult Bible study put in. Thanks Joe, Larry, John, Bunny, Mary, Harriet, JoAnn, Pam, and Jessica. Or the service in the nursery done this week by Frank and Diane. It also doesn't include the folks taking care of Robert and Jewel, checking on Evelyn Brown, and who took food over or helped Thelma Rhinehart through the loss of her sister.

With all the above, I've still probably missed something and someone. There's so much work that goes on behind the scenes.

But what I am trying to help everyone see is that New Hope is unique and special because of people who give their time, talents and resources to make her all God is calling her to be and to do. I have never seen a church like ours. I think there need to be a lot more like her though. Did you realize just how much your friends did for God and His church last week? Give thanks to God.

Would you do one thing more for me?

If you are one of the people listed above - keep doing what you are doing. You matter to our mission - to God's plan.

If your name isn't listed and you'd like to find a place to serve, see me. We've got more we could do if we had more people to serve. Maybe you'd like to make followup calls to visitors or send cards to people we've missed seeing. Perhaps you are a keyboard wiz who could help input data for Scott. Or maybe you can cook and would be interested in helping out one week a month with the meal. If you want to serve alongside others, we'll find a place.

And if you have a friend whose not serving in their church but wants to make a difference, invite them to come and visit. The only way to grow a spiritual muscle is to use it. We can help them with that. :)

I thank God for you.

David

How Close Is Too Close?

 

Pretty cool. You are in a safari park and a young male lion walks right up to your car. Once in a lifetime event that you'll tell your friends about for years, right? Getting that close to a top predator is awesome. Something to tell the grandkids.

But sometimes, close is too close. :)

When you come to New Hope, you step into an extended family. You are known - over time - in a way and to a depth that may be uncomfortable to some. Having attended a mega-church years ago and knowing friends who still work in them, I know their constant focus is not just growing bigger, but also growing smaller through small groups. Still, those small groups are optional. You can still walk in and out of worship every week and not make those connections should you choose not to.

Not really an option at New Hope. And that can be off putting. I've seen that kind of reaction a few times here. In teenagers who are blown away that their teachers and yes, even their pastor will speak up when they see their actions in public aren't matching what they are professing at church. In adults who bolt when people start to get too close to who they really are - not their carefully crafted "church persona." There's close, and there's too close for comfort.

With youth, if you have 20-50-100 kids, it's easy to escape the attention of your youth leaders. Just keeping the organization on track takes a lot of time, and many weeks it's a win just to finish an event with the same number of kids you started with. Spending time on Facebook, or MySpace (remember that place?) and calling each other out often doesn't happen. Showing up at band concerts, school plays and the like might not either. Even if it does, when there's 12 kids you showed up to watch it's a bit different than a couple of people yelling out one kid's name and "Woo Woo!" (Not saying that actually happened... well... okay... it did :))

With adults, as the level of intimacy gets deeper and the circle of influence widens it can really get difficult to maintain the separation they need to remain unchanged and unaffected. To drop years of walls you've constructed is hard. You can evade for a while, pull back into your own family, and try not to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit to just be who you really are around your brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet you are missing God's best in exchange for an extended but fleeting period of comfortable status quo life.

The "too close for comfort" deal... Is following Jesus in community supposed to be comfortable?

Is being conformed by that community into the image of Jesus Christ supposed to be pain free?

Not in my book.

And not in this one either.

So, About the Mega Church

As the pastor of an average sized church, I feel the effects of the mega church on a pretty regular basis. The immediate temptation is to push back. And that's wrong. We need every functional community of faith we can find. Well actually we need a bunch more. Go plant one. Or two.

But I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge a tendency to try and find fault with things the local mega does. As a marketing professional for many years, it is easy to see how well they use the tools of that trade. And as an amateur student of culture, it is apparent that they do seem to replicate along homogenous lines. Lots of programs, lots of buildings, lots of lots of things.

Personal preference, and personal belief in what a church should look like runs in the opposite direction for me.

But I am open to instruction from all.

And in the clip below, Erwin McManus, "futurist" (his term) at Mosaic in LA works through the mega church issue. It starts about the 8:15 mark. He gets a wee bit aggravated, is a bit disingenuous concerning what a mega is, but makes some good points. But then at the end, "he shoots... He scores!"

He says that if you disagree with what the megas are about, then render them irrelevant by creating communities of beauty and authenticity.

My take-away - Don't spend any time thinking about what they are doing, spend your time listening to what God wants you to do. Then do it.

I'm all over that.


The Idea Camp - Erwin McManus and Eric Bryant from The Idea Camp on Vimeo.

Big and Little

So we're coming up on Halloween. I know, some of you ignore it. Some try to make it a Harvest festival. We just happen to love two of the essential ingredients for Halloween - kids and candy. So we have since the first year I have been here had some sort of outreach/fellowship activity for the neighborhood kids.

The first year it was setting up two tables in the parking lot and having a "costume contest" where we took Polaroid (yes, it was 9 years ago -pre-digital)pictures and oohed and aahed over the cute kids and gave massive amounts of candy away. When they got their pictures taken, they also registered to win a Veggie Tales video. Such was outreach 1999. At the time, we were about it. No other church really wanted to touch Halloween with a ten foot pole.

Now "Orange Night" takes place in the city next door between the ginormous Methodist franchised mega church and the not too shabby sized First Baptist across the street. The production befits the size of the churches, and they manage to get some of the other smaller local churches to combine their efforts too. They'll have a couple thousand or more over there.

But we're still going to do our own thing.

Why?

Not everybody likes big.

Big is loud. Big is hard to park at. Big means worrying about your kid getting lost or eating something you'd they'd rather not. Big is great if you like it. But not everyone likes it. Bunny had a Mom ask her today "Are Y'all doing anything for Halloween?" Bunny mentioned we were going to show Monsters Inc outside and roast hot dogs and give away popcorn, sno cones, and candy.

"That sounds nice."

There's a place for all size churches friends. Just like there's a place for chihuahuas and Great Danes. Here's our friend Henley. :)

With One Voice Missing

25 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. 26 If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27 You are Christ's body— that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.

1 Cor 12:25-27 (MSG)

In a lot of ways, yesterday was a great time of worship at New Hope. We focused on Jesus, and His love for us, and tried to give Him back our praise. We had a great group in the praise team, including two "big people" - Craig and Joe, who added some male voices among the girls' higher tones.

I had an offer from Ian Anderson, after his awesome presentation speech complete with bouquets of flowers to Ellen Fannon and Jewel Hughes, to step in and preach. If it had been last week's message on Hell, I might have taken him up on it.

We have such a great Savior, praised by a great group of people when we gather.

But when we got to the end of "Call Upon His Name", there was something just not right. For two years or more now, when we have arrived at the end of that great hymn of praise, after the booming verses ebb and the praise team and congregation have gone silent, we've heard the small but beautiful voice of Kira Stoy singing...

"Come and drink again
Be filled with living water
Call upon His name
He is the King of Glory"

Kira has come from a shy little girl who would barely speak to anyone, to someone you make an effort to seek out, just to see her smile. Of course you have to make sure she's not pulling a prank on you. She's especially fond of rubber snakes.

And she's come from not wanting to sing in front of anyone, to singing alone and as a part of the praise team. I don't know why Bunny decided that Kira should sing the end of "Call Upon His Name", but she always has. And every time she sings it, I think "and a little child will lead them." Yes, straight to the throne of Grace.Her child's voice is perfect for it.

But Kira was out of town on vacation Sunday, and we sort of hesitantly finished the song.

The one thing I know for certain about life in the smaller church was proven once again Sunday. Every single voice matters. No matter what age, no matter what gender. When we're not together, the Body of Christ is less than it could be.

Whether you sing, pray, preach, usher, serve in the nursery, do children's church, make coffee, buy donuts, change paper towels, unlock, lock up, fold bulletins, or teach - you have a place in God's work and worship.

With one voice missing, you can hear the difference.

Tread Softly

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

By W.B. Yeats

This is a follow-up to my post about "the Walmart Effect" and isn't any effort to delve into the underlying causes of small church mega internecine squabbles. Yeah, consumerism is rampant everywhere, in every social setting. True, emerging generations are massively enmeshed in that trap that we boomers built. Got that. And no, I'm not whitewashing every mega. I don't know them and maybe somewhere a mega is doing a better job at being a small church than we are. Unlikely, but I could see it happening, and I'd do everything in my power to make it happen if I was say Bill Hybles.

Oh but wait. They were doing that, going to neighborhoods, and now they are not and Randy Frazee is gone. Back to doing what megas do best I guess. But no. That's not why I'm here typing today. I want to get to the heart of the matter. Why I wrote the first post. And this goes out to New Hope's workers, and every other youth worker who reads this.

What I really wanted to write about was youth worker's hearts.

15 Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for Christians everywhere, 16 I have never stopped thanking God for you.
Eph 1:15-16 (NLT)

That's so true for me when I think of you and your families. I know you are serious about your pursuit of Jesus' call on your lives, and passionate about what He has given you to do. That naturally flows into your relationships with everyone, but especially with those God has given you to nurture and to care for.

I want to tell you thanks. Thanks for being there for them. Thanks for putting your heart on the line again and again. Thanks for caring so much that one 13 year old girl's decision that you feel (as do I) is a step away from a walk with Jesus, hurts your heart.

I'm honored to serve alongside you. All of you.

The Walmart Effect and the Smaller Church

I can vaguely remember when we were in a big church during one of our periods of searching for a church home in Macon. Our family was one of hundreds. Our Sunday school class was huge. The church had great facilities - a separate children's building with a check-in like in a hospital. Every service was televised. The church really had a lot to offer, but we never really connected. This was in the 80's, before the world woke up to the mega and before I became a pastor. Back then, that size church was a rarity. Now there are three that size between 5 miles of my smaller church.

Irony. Most of my secular career was spent with huge multinational corporations selling to other huge multinational corporations - including Walmart. I personally called on Eckerd HQ, K-Mart regional, Publix, Brunos, Big Star, and yes, Walmart. My efforts helped them succeed, often at the expense of smaller chains and independents.

Shoe - meet other foot.

Last night, our youth volunteers were rocked by a 13yr old girl's comment that she might not be with us tonight. When asked why, she said her friend had invited her to one of the local mega churches, and that her family might be going there. This is a girl and a family that we have poured love into again and again. Our volunteers have sacrificed for her large portions of time and money to help her find her way. We've reached out to her and her siblings - to her family. They live around the corner from us. We give them rides home when it's raining. We hug them even though once the little one said "I think all the lice are gone."

She's a teenager. Friends are at the top of her values. She'll always have more outside New Hope than inside. And the mega will always offer more of the glamour of today's youth ministry than we will. But the thing about the people we have working with her and all the ones like her is that we love these kids fiercely and want with every fiber of our being to see Jesus formed in them and in their family.

In the old days, people wouldn't invite other people to church if they were already attending one. It was considered in bad taste. If you were already "churched" then that was great, because it was the "unchurched" that everyone wanted to see find salvation and be included in the church. But today, all of that is by the wayside as big churches try to stay big and get bigger. We are within 5 miles of three megachurches. Like Walmart, they grow by putting the competition out of business. And those three actively market to other church's members.

That's not the way God grows His church. So I do think there's a spiritual battle going on here as well.

I think New Hope is a hard place to be if you don't want to be convicted of your sins and shortcomings with God. We care about souls. Not "nickles and noses" (money and numbers) like big churches do, but the state of people's relationship with God. In Sunday school, Pam is about as passionate as anyone I've ever known and challenging too. On Wed night there's a buzz saw of challenges to your commitment if you are her age. And I hope what I do on Sunday adds some to that mix.

You can't fade into the background, you can't float in and out, and you can't pretend at New Hope. But you CAN where you are one of hundreds or thousands. The devil doesn't like that. So he'd love to see her in a place where if she doesn't come for a week - two weeks, no one will notice. Like we do.

So what does the smaller church do?

Well first, we pray. Pray that God is at work in the life of this girl, even if we can't see Him. Pray that He is at work in her family - the one we have prayed for so often, invited so many times, reached out to. Pray that God will guide us to do what He wants us to do in a way that will offer Jesus' way to every youth and adult.

Then we step back and evaluate what we are doing. It may be that no change is needed. But it may also be that the other 100 or so kids in our city that don't go anywhere are the real target and just maybe we need to be about the business of reaching them. We have assets and liabilities based on our size. So do the megas.

Ours are passion, flexibility, community, and missional purpose. We let kids and youth lead in worship. We invite them to participate to the extent they feel led. We can turn on a dime and get 12ct worth of ministry out of it. We are fierce in our love for one another and passionately purposeful about what we do. We don't just fire up the Xboxes and plasma screens and let the kids play and call that youth group. We're about spiritual transformation. I absolutely believe that's God's plan.

So we'll do what we can do best and let the Good Shepherd place His sheep.

Then we pray and go back to work.

But yeah, I can completely understand why people picket Walmart - today. When our youth people - who put themselves on the line for the youth - hurt - you better believe I do too.

How Much Should We Expect?

If you've been reading the last few weeks you're probably aware that I have been seriously questioning the current discipleship model that we and most every other church is using. I've been investigating what has been and is being used in every nook and cranny of the internet as well as on my shelves.

Day before yesterday, I was thinking and praying about our youth and it suddenly occurred to me that I could not confidently call on any of them to give a sincere, coherent, and unforced testimony of what God had done in their life.

So last night with the permission of the husband and wife leading the current youth study, I stepped into the room and basically told the youth that they needed to step out and step up.

Told them it was time they ramped it up and became part of the Body. That every Christian should be able to give a testimony of what they were, what Jesus did, and what He's doing in their life to make them more like Him. That I wanted to see them lead this church out and into service and not just sit back and let everyone else do the work.

Last thing I did was issue a challenge for them to tell their story on Sunday morning to the whole church. That I would make time available anytime one of them wanted to tell the rest of us what Jesus was doing in their life.

Then I was out with a quick look at the leaders and a "let me know who's willing to do what a Christian does."

Craziness. Totally unplanned. Not from me. So we'll see what the HS is up to.

But dear readers, shouldn't we expect every follower of Christ to be able to tell their story of what Christ has done and is doing in their life? I feel as though we've lowered the standards to met the population at large and walked away from what a disciple really is.

What do you think?

A Blank Sheet of Paper - Discipleship

I've been discussing this with my friends on a pastor's online forum all week. Thought I'd toss it over here and get some feedback. I'll drop come of the comments from over there in too.

Got home from another Wed night and Bunny and I had a long talk about what she perceives the kids and youth know of faith and the Bible, combined with my little talk with the adults last night on functional atheism.

So I went to bed praying about changes and woke up with it still on my mind.

I have a blank sheet of paper in front of me. Limiting this to discipleship and not veering off to preaching, fellowship etc...

What programs/structure/benchmarks/times and venues would you draw up if you were starting from scratch?

For children

For youth

For adults

And what would you use for a curriculum in large or small group situations?

I'm really trying to get a handle on what I need to see getting done wherever God has me in this area.

I know, I know - but this is really important to me. I got to the point in Romans 4 last night and realized that precious few have anything like the faith of Abraham.

Just a note, if you are looking for info on Bill Martin, formerly at FBC McMinnville, or need to contact Bill, LMK by email.

Status

This license plate, because of its low number, cost a wealthy Dubai man the equivalent of 6.75 million dollars. The lower the number, the more expensive the plate because it is believed the owner is of a high "status".





I had the privilege earlier today to participate in a funeral for a dear saint of God Viola Phelps. I'd be stunned if you had ever heard of her. In our celebrity saturated culture she'd be rated a "nobody". But not to Jesus. To Him she was somebody who loved Him. And who He loved.

I was reminded of Billy Graham's quote when asked about whether or not he'd get a front row seat in heaven. The humble man of God replied thoughtfully, "No, I don't expect to. I expect that some widow woman who has been praying on her knees all these years for me and for my ministry. No, I believe she and others like her will receive the honors due them."

Viola Phelps would be one of those Billy was speaking about. I went in one day to see her in the CCU of our local hospital. I figured I'd go in for 5 minutes or so and encourage this elderly woman who must certainly be in dire straights. Sometimes I just go in and pray if they are asleep.

But Viola was very much awake. We talked about her family and how much she loved them and how much she was hoping to get to go home again to be with them. Then we talked about Jesus - how much she loved Him and how much she hoped to be one day going home to Him. I got ready to leave, my 5 minutes having become 35 and before I could pray for her, she prayed for me. She asked God to bless me and my family, to show me His will and give me the courage to do it, to bless our church and its people, and to make our ministry prosper.

I left shaking my head. I was supposed to be encouraging HER. :)

We gathered at the city cemetery today, to pay our last respects. The pastor I was sharing the service with has served this community for almost 50 years. He looked over the fields and said, "I've buried a lot of people out here." We left one more friend there today.

The mortality rate - I just checked - is still 100%. And regardless of your riches, it's still ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Why is it some people feel the need to make sure others know that their lives mean something by displaying their wealth or their position in a way to get people to notice?

It was one of those days as a pastor that clarify why it matters what we do. To keep people attentive to God's offer of salvation. To help them up and point them in the right way - to help them follow Jesus. To encourage and comfort, to instruct and rebuke.

And to help them realize that what matters the most to this world is of absolutely no value in the next. The pastor gets a pass into people's lives just at the times they need someone who knows what really matters is Jesus. It is His love that can meet every need.

It's such a great honor to be a part of God's plan.

Maybe Viola will save a seat up front for Billy. Now that's status.

Shalom,

David

Yes I Do

Sunday I hope to see God working in the lives of people as they open their hearts and minds to the possibility that God wants to use us - yes, us. The whole "Blessed are..." leads into "You are salt... You are light..." where Jesus is explaining to those who have followed Him that we are NOT who society says were are, and we are NOT what our frailties and failures would mark us as. The Kingdom of Heaven has come and is coming, and the new reality is that we are who Jesus says we are.

This clip is from the movie "Kingdom of Heaven". The skeptic in the scene is ironically, a priest.

"You don't fix faith - it fixes you"

Those of us with an analytical mindset are sometimes lured by this siren song, aren't we? The idea of walking across to our fellows in the "hard sciences" and coming up with "the answers" to everything that at first blush just doesn't make sense about what the Bible says.

The actor in the scene tells us no - "you don't fix faith - it fixes you."

Oh, I do like that line.

Right now it is Monday, the day I try to rest and recuperate and yet all day long I've been trying to "work the problem" of how to reach more people with the good news. That search has lead me to read about youth initiatives and adult outreach ideas, media initiatives...

... as if.

Oh, Jesus. Hear my cry. Let Your glory fill Your people. Let Your love overflow out of lives surrendered to You. Keep us from anything we'd do outside of your clear will. Help us wait on the Holy Spirit's call before we "fix" anything.

Fix us.

Begin with me.

A Hat Tip to "One for the road... by Paul Mayers", where I found the clip

Just to remind everyone where the blog title comes from

Yep, greatest job ever. Living the dream.

Newhopian of the week

The man in the center of the picture is named Joe Stoy. He's a deacon, an RA leader, children's church worker, and general all around good guy. Each week, Joe touches the lives of children as he does a children's sermon. No one, including Joe, ever really knows how things will turn out. Many times his props work great. Other times, not so great.

But the kids love Joe, whether the props work or not. And every week, he tells them about God.

When Joe gets to heaven, I'll bet someone else who loves kids will tell him, "well done, good and faithful servant. Well done."

What a blessing to serve alongside servants like Joe Stoy.

On This Date In 1984

Apple introduced the Macintosh personal computer - and everything changed.

Well... Not really.

But it did have an impact on the future of personal computing - and still does. I'm a veteran of the computer wars, and have operated Basic, Geos, C/PM, MS-DOS, Win 3.1 and every one following (except Vista), SCO Unix, Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux, OS2 and OS2Warp, and now OS X.

To my right sits an IBM Thinkpad with XP, and I type this on a Mac. So I've been around and in this revolution since the beginning.

The tasks I do on whatever computer sits in front of me are still pretty much the same as they were at the beginning, though as software has progressed, certain tasks I used to have to do on other platforms are now integrated within the PC. It's all good. I love technology - when it helps.

I've been reading lately about the different ways Christianity has approached culture. As I've studied modern approaches, I had this feeling that I was missing something by not looking back at the way Christianity was able to spread in the earlier centuries despite (or perhaps because of) no support, or even hostility towards it from the people and governments it related to.

In that search I stumbled across a book called "The Celtic Way of Evangelism" by George Hunter.

Wow.

So much of what Hunter shows of Patrick's model for evangelism is exactly the model we could use today.

Funny how at times we need to go back, to move forward. Hunter quotes an ancient Chinese Poem in the book's conclusion.

Go to the people.
Live among them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Start with what they know.
Build on what they have.

On this day in 2007 - that makes a lot of sense.

The final paragraph in the book is this one:

The supreme key to reaching the West again is the key that Patrick discovered - involuntarily but providentially. The gulf between church people and unchurched people is vast, but if we pay the price to understand them, we will usually know what to say and what to do; if they know and feel we understand them, by the tens of millions they will risk opening their hearts to the God who understands them.

With all my heart I pray that millions of us will wake up in time to reach millions of those who live not far from God.

"...but I also want..."

10 One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11 For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12 When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. Romans 1 NLT 2.0

I'm teaching the beginning verses of Romans tonight, and I come to verse 12, and I realize that what Paul was hoping for - what he wanted to have happen - had for me. As I looked around the room, I saw many people there (and thought of others who were serving as well, or absent tonight) who by the way they have lived out their faith during the time I've been the pastor at New Hope - have encouraged me.

There's the person who was on the search committee that brought me here, whose faithfulness to the vision of reaching out and loving people just as they are always energizes me. And her husband who may be the person who lives in the state of thanksgiving more than anyone I have ever known.

Or the one whose gentleness is evident to all who know him, and whose quiet and authentic faith is worthy of anyone's emulation. His wife who bears her physical affliction with grace.

The guy who continually checks on Bunny and me, prays for us, and who comes up with new ways to reach out while supporting anything I come up with that will reach people. Or his wife, who is as humble a person as I have ever known.

There's the young man and his wife who both exemplify what it means to live out your faith in every area and trust God no matter what.

And the man who has given his adult life to working to produce godly boys out of hooligans - and his wife who sometimes tries to do too much by herself.

There are more I could cite, but you get the point.

Somewhere I read today that after a certain number of years a church begins to take on the personality of its pastor.

I wonder if the opposite isn't equally true.

It certainly seems as if Paul hoped to see that happen.

I know I do.

I thank God that He placed me with people who I could help grow in Christ even as they helped me do the same.

Why Can't We See?

I'm typing this on a Mac today. It's the first blog post I've ever typed on this quirky device that was gifted to me by a friend who felt my computer universe could use some expansion.

So in the past few weeks I have been diligently trying to make it work for me. Instead of... against me.

For the most part, I've succeeded, but there are still things it does and doesn't do that drive me nuts.

I know that if my friend, who has decades of experience with Macs were here, he would patiently instruct me in how to achieve my goals. But he's not. And even simple keyboard tasks can quickly escalate into war, and my decision to walk away for a while.

This morning I was thinking through some names. Names of people who were part of our fellowship for a while, but just walked away. It would be so easy to decide that it's all on them - they weren't committed, they didn't care enough, or even that they really didn't have a saving relationship with Jesus.

But what if...

they just didn't know how to make it work?

What is it about us that we can't even see that option?

And see it before their walk carries them too far away?

Thoughts for Tuesday

Very interesting post by Bill Lollar on The Babel Conspiracy :: Religion DNA Remix

Really good post, filled with insight. Having Ray Steadman quotes never hurts IMHO. :)

Here's what got me:

What if we start by acknowledging…

* That knowing, believing, and walking with Father is sufficient…anything else is a distraction or an idol.
* That simplicity (coming to Him as little children) is desired far above innovation.
* That Father is not impressed with size or structure: two or three get His attention and His presence.
* That He's the builder, putting together a temple of living stones.
* That Father has not asked us to build anything tangible, because He knows the damage it will bring.
* That pragmatic, zealous, religious strategies can never replace a living relationship with Him.
* That joining others in the journey does not require what we've been programmed to think it requires.

What if God loves small, weak, and feeble?

Could it be?

Yes.