I Guess It Could Be Worse This Morning
Grateful for the sacrifices of a great generation. Remembering D-Day.
“We have as much of God as we actually want” ~ Tozer
“He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” http://bible.us/Ps107.9.ESV.
“He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him” http://bible.us/Prov30.5.ESV.
What am I hungry and thirsty for? What do I take refuge in? These are the questions that determine how deep we go with God. Do we travel to church hungry to feel good about ourselves, to relieve a sense of obligation, because it’s what we do on Sunday, or out of a deep desire/hunger to know God and have him more active in our lives? Do I take refuge in my ability to provide a safe lifestyle for my family? in my home, behind my privacy fence? in my education? in my possessions? an addiction? or in a God that controls all of the above and more anyway?
The entire Tozer quote found here:
The degree of fullness in any life accords perfectly with the intensity of true desire. We have as much of God as we actually want. One great hindrance to the Spirit-filled life is the theology of complacency so widely accepted among gospel Christians today.
A Few Links I Liked and Learned from Lately
- “Is your church more interested in quality programs or quality people?” Excerpt from On the Verge by Dave Ferguson & Alan Hirsch. Reading this book right now. Incredible. “The promise that church programming alone will make your life better has been exposed. It doesn’t work. Everyday living is where spiritual development is worked out.”
- Learning from the Bible’s Unsung Heroes.
- Church Growth vs. Church Seasons. “Healthy churches go through life cycles of growth, pruning, decline, and blessing.” “You take care of the depth of your ministry; let God take care of the breadth.”
- 22 Ways to Overcome Discouragement.
- Are events killing the church? “If you keep people busy at your events, you may be preventing them from investing in their marriage, their children and their relationships with other people including people outside the faith. They think they’re becoming more Christ-like by going to church, when you could actually be pulling them away from what God has called them to do.”
- The Ultimate Guide to Twitter.
Finding Meaning
A 40-year study was conducted by the wealthiest man who ever lived, of every pleasure known to man, to see what would bring real fulfillment. His full report is known to us as the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. We’ll be studying through this book together this Summer at Bridge Church. Join us for our Worship Gatherings, Sunday’s, 10:30am at the West St. Tammany YMCA. Find the messages on our website here or look us up on Itunes.
Faith In Action Update
Another great Faith in Action Weekend last weekend with Bridge Church, including Friday night serving at the Columbia St. Block Party, then Faith In Action Sunday. Needs met across our area including at Oak Villa Mobile Home Park where our guys installed handicap bars and fixed a leaking roof for elderly residents, and cut problem tree limbs around the park. Some of our ladies completed projects for the Northlake Crisis Pregnancy Center. Then our Celebration for around 40 men, and their families, who completed our Recovery & Re-entry Program at the St. Tammany Jail.
A few things I overheard last weekend:
- from a community leader, “Every time I see Bridge Church you are blessing somebody.”
- from a FIA participant delivering baked goods to public servants, “You should have seen the tears running down her face when we prayed for her and told her how much we cared.”
- inmate family member at the St Tam Jail, “After you guys were here last August, this entire place was changed. I can’t thank you enough for investing in our lives.”
- Party Rental guy, “I think I’m the first person to ever deliver a bounce house to the jail!!!”
Church is a family On Mission together. I enjoyed being on Mission with my family last Sunday. Find pictures and watch for videos from Faith in Action Sunday on our Facebook Page.
Next Faith in Action Sunday will be August 28th and we will be participating in the National Faith In Action Sunday on October 9th.
And of course we topped it all off, with 6 Bridgers taking off on Monday for Chiapas, Mexico on a 10 day mission trip in the Lacandon Jungle. Can’t wait to hear how God will use them.
Bridge Church to Chiapas, Mexico
A team from our Church took off this AM bound for Mexico’s southern most state to work with missionaries & church planters, Sergio & Beth Matassa. Their work consists of raising up and training indigenous leaders among the Tzotzil Indians to plant churches in the 9,000 or so unreached, remote villages throughout Chiapas. Our team will go deep into the Lacandon Jungle to support the Church Planting movement there with free medical clinics, installing life-saving water filtration systems, and sharing the gospel via film and other means. Pray for our team. Chiapas is considered a Voice of Martyrs Restricted Nation (check out my personal picture that made it onto Voice of Martyrs cover in 2009) but much is needed to provide the gospel for many unreached peoples in Mexico’s southern most state.
Chiapas is a great place to invest people and other resources. You can learn more about partnering with the Matassa’s at their website gled.net. To partner with them on a Mission Trip check out there East-West Ministries page.
The Best Church IN the Community or The Best Church FOR the Community?
The Externally Focused Quest by Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw is another thought provoking book about changing paradigms for
church and how we see it in North America. In their book The Externally Focused Church they asked the question, “If your church were to close its doors, would anyone in the community notice ?” In The Externally Focused Quest the deeper question is, “How can we be the best church FOR our community?” As opposed to the internal, competing for market share, religious goods and services approach of being the best church IN the community. Not that anyone of us church leaders would admit to this attitude or say it out loud, but our program driven, service oriented, competition driven economy has opened the door for this thinking in the church. A slight preposition change, can change our thinking drastically. The book is well-researched, offering real-life examples of churches making this shift and statistics about the changing culture around us. How do you make the shift in thinking?
- Choose the window seat, not the aisle seat. Be an aisle seat church, focusing on what’s outside not just inside.
- Practice weight training, not bodybuilding. Don’t just grow to show off your size and strength. Purpose to expand the potential for serving and transforming the community.
- Live in the kingdom story, not A church story. The church doesn’t exist for itself, but to demonstrate the kingdom. Maybe the highlight of the book is the charts that compare church thinking with kingdom thinking.
- The few send the many, not the many send the few. Sending the whole church, not just the staff or super Christians.
- Build wells, not walls. Partnering and collaborating with other churches, ministries, and organizations for the good of many.
- Create Paradigms, not programs. Programs begin and end. A paradigm is a pattern or model that create a movement.
- Innovation, not replication. Seeing the opportunities, not being satisfied with the status quo, attempting difficult things leads to creativity and innovation.
- It’s about the game, not the pre-game talk. What happens once the sermon is over is as important as the sermon itself.
- Church is more than just a worship center or a mini-seminary. Rather church is the visible and visceral expression of jesus living among a people.
- Service has always been the DNA of Christianity, but for most people, it is a recessive gene in the gene pool.
- Quoting a 2006 Tom Rainer study – “nearly 95% of the churches’ ministries were for members alone…many churches had no ministries for those outside the congregation.
- we don’t grow until we begin loving, serving, and giving ourselves to someone outside of friends and family.
- real spiritual growth occurs when the physical, relational, spiritual well-being of our neighbor is as important as our own.
- Quoting the Willow Creek Reveal study: “Church activity alone made no direct impact on a growing heart…a stunning discovery for us”
- Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world.
- For many Christ followers, service and ministry are sentiments but no values.
- Externally focused churches are churches whose effectiveness is not measured merely by attendance but also by the transformational effect they are having on the community around them.
- How will people, communities, relationships, and cities be different if God granted you the desire of your heart?
- we often want to be inspired more than we want to apply anything.
- Also, found this list about How to Measure Success in Church in the book as well.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work – rather, teach people the yearning for the wide boundless ocean”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Faith in Action Sunday!
Every fifth Sunday Bridge Church, scatters instead of gathers, for what we call Faith in Action Sunday. This Sunday, May 29th will be our second FIA for 2011. Looking forward to worshipping through serving senior adults, elderly widows, single mothers, inmate families, families in ICU, public servants, multi-housing residents, families at local parks, and more this Sunday AM. As a Pastor, Faith in Action Sunday is a way to be intentional about disciple-making (Mark 3:14; James 1:21-23) and transforming the community (Matthew 5:13-16; John 1:14-16). Here’s a few other reasons why:
- Because following Jesus includes putting our faith in action (Luke 6:46-49)
- Because Christianity is about more than just attending worship services
- Because Jesus said “Go…” (Matthew 28:19-20)
- Because if we love God, we will love people “in actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18, 4:7-8)
- Because if we love God, we do what He says. (John 14:21, 23; 1 John 2:3-6)
- Because success is community transformation, not just a big organization.
- Because proclaiming and demonstrating God’s love go hand-in-hand. (Luke 9:2)
- Because there are needs in our community that are going unmet.
- Because God cares for the whole person. (James 2:15-18)
- Because God desires individuals to live in healthy communities and just societies. (Jeremiah 29:7)
- Because everyone can serve.
- Because people follow examples better than they follow instructions.
- Because God has a special heart for those who are poor and vulnerable. (Jeremiah 22:16)
- Because God’s people are to be an instrument of blessing to the world. (Genesis 12:2)
- Because disciples are shaped through serving, not just sitting.
- Because the church’s ministry should be incarnational. (John 1:14; 20:21)
- Because God empowers us to participate in ministry. (Ephesians 2:10)
- Because God created us for good works. (Ephesians 2:10)
- Because it’s joining God in what He’s doing in the world.
- Because it’s fun.
While even a Faith In Action Sunday can become a meaningless ritual or an isolated event, our desire is that giving away will become a part of the flow of peoples lives as it’s part of the flow of Bridge Church.
Here’s a sample list of projects for this Sunday’s FIA:
- Handicap Bars in bathrooms of a residence for an elderly stroke victim.
- Cool Sealing a roof for the residence of two elderly stroke victims.
- Trimming Trees and cleaning up around an area Mobile Home Park.
- Visiting, praying with, & delivering gift cards to families in ICU waiting rooms.
- Delivering kids movies that we’ve collected for area Pediatric Units.
- Clean small yard and trim bushes for disabled, single mom in our city.
- Projects for Families w/Small Children – Deliver Baked Goods to Fire Depts and Police Depts and pass out snacks at area parks.
- Projects for those who want to/need to stay off their feet – Stuff baby bottles for Crisis Pregnancy Center fund raiser, Write notes of encouragement to community leaders.
- FAMILY DAY Block Party @ our local jail. This will be a time to connect with families of inmates and recognize the men who have completed our 26-week Addiction Recovery Program called Project 180.
Let me know if you know of other potential projects or ideas for making a difference in our community.
For other Faith In Action Ideas and resources check out http://putyourfaithinaction.org/.
