Links I Liked and Learned from This Week
- Pastoral Do’s and Dont’s on Twitter & Facebook
- A call to Edit – “When you communicate, pretend you’re playing golf (lowest score wins) instead of basketball (highest score wins). Fewer words, fewer frames, fewer slides, clearer meaning.”
- The Glorious Paradoxes of God Incarnate
- 200 Countries in 200 Years – Amazing Video & Technology!
- Mapping America Block by Block – Incredible tool for demographic hunting.
My Vote for the Worst Christmas Gift
When you open the fridge it says, “You again?!?! I’m going to have to get a lock for that door!” Uggh. I didn’t know I had enemies, but whoever bought us this must really not like me… Can’t wait for a White Elephant opportunity.
Kingdom Minded?
Christian leaders use this language often. What does it actually mean? Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson have a great discussion about the Kingdom in their book Externally Focused Quest. Here’s some highlights that may challenge your thinking:
How important is the kingdom? The word kingdom is mentioned 152 times in the New Testament and 116 times in the Gospels. By contrast, the word church is mentioned just three times in the Gospels – all in the book of Matthew. The first public words of John the Baptist and Jesus were to announce the kingdom (Matthew 3:2, 4:17). The first prayer request that Jesus taught his disciples was “Thy Kingdom come…” (Matthew 6:10). The first priority for the believer was to seek God’s kingdom (Matthew 6:33).
What is the kingdom? The kingdom of God is any place over which God has operative dominion. The kingdom is where the King is reigning. So if Jesus is reigning as king in your own life, “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
From Howard Snyder’s book Liberating the Church: “Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy, and truth. Church people think about how to get people into church; kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; kingdom people work to see the church change the world”
The church does not exist for itself. The church exists to proclaim and demonstrate that the kingdom is near.
What’s the difference between church thinking and kingdom thinking?
- CHURCH: local, internal, evangelism the goal, programmed, gospel explained, Sunday, growing MY church.
- KINGDOM: global, external, evangelism the starting point, organic, gospel lived out, Every day, growing THE church.
God’s kingdom work is accomplished by believers and unbelievers. See the stories of Artaxerxes, Cyrus, & Nebuchadnezzar (Isaiah 10:12-19, 45:1-6). However, kingdom work does not in any way merit our entrance into God’s kingdom (Matthew 7:21-23).
Thoughts? Check out the books Externally Focused Church and Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church For the Community.
Links I Liked and Learned from this week
- 10 Reasons Churches are Broke
- 31 Days to Become a Better Leader
- How to Grow A Church to 800,000 in Two Years – The Holy Spirit, Prayer, Personal Evangelism, Simple & reproducible structures, Miracles – signs wonders healings, Simple discipleship that makes every disciple a church planter
- No need to Freak Out about substituting X for Christ in Christmas – “There’s a long and sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its origin, it has meant no disrespect.”
- Top Iphone and Ipad Apps for 2010
He Loves Us Anyway
We basically have two choices to make in dealing with the mysteries of God. We can wrestle with Him or we can rest in Him. We can continue searching the unsearchable or relax in the reality. What exists at the end of all our searching will be a God who knows absolutely everything … and chooses to love us anyway.
Calvin Miller in The Christ of Christmas
Sergio and Beth Matassa – Chiapas, Mexico
I’ve been blessed to know Sergio & Beth Matassa for about 10 years now. We worked together as Apartment Church Planters at
Oak View Baptist Church in Irving, TX, where Sergio later became the Minister of Missions. From that post Sergio developed a heart for the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, Mexico, where today, he and Beth serve. Their work consists of raising up and training indigenous leaders to plant churches in the thousands of unreached, remote villages throughout Chiapas. Along with bringing the Gospel their organization G.L.E.D, Global Leadership and Economic Development, provides life-saving water filtration systems and takes on other empowerment projects for the villages. If you’re looking for a missions partnership opportunity, Chiapas is a great place to invest people and other resources. Sergio will be in Southeast Louisiana this week and he’ll be available to meet with anyone interested in partnering with him or hearing more about missions possibilities in Mexico’s interior. Three specific opportunities:
- Wednesday, Dec 8, Sergio will be speaking at Bedico Baptist Church, 6pm.
- Thursday, from 2-4pm, we will be at PJ’s in Madisonville for a meet and greet with Sergio & Beth. Come by for coffee and conversation.
- Sunday AM, 10:30, Sergio will be our Prayer Focus at Bridge Church and will share about opportunities in Chiapas.
- Bridge Church will return to Chiapas May 28-June 5, 2011 for a Medical & Evangelism trip. Jump on board!!!
Let None Despair
If you will select me the grossest specimen of humanity, if he be but born of woman, I will have hope of him yet, because Jesus Christ is come to seek and to save sinners. Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best. Pebbles of the brook grace turns into jewels for the crown-royal. Worthless dross he transforms into pure gold. Redeeming love has set apart many of the worst of mankind to be the reward of the Saviour’s passion. Effectual grace calls forth many of the vilest of the vile to sit at the table of mercy, and therefore let none despair.
… by that love looking out of Jesus’ tearful eyes, by that love streaming from those bleeding wounds, by that faithful love, that strong love, that pure, disinterested, and abiding love; by the heart and by the bowels of the Saviour’s compassion, we conjure you turn not away as though it were nothing to you
– C.H. Spurgeon
Links I Liked and Learned from this Week
- Trends in Church Planting by Ed Stetzer. “when churches plant churches, they model the principle of sowing and reaping and display a desire that God’s name and fame would be more widely known”
- Incredible pictures from Afghanistan!!! Wow!
- 31 Ways to Pray for Your Children
- Why I’m Deleting My Facebook – this one’s got me thinking. “I want to deepen in real friendship and community not chase dopamine bursts of false significance.”
- One Year To Live – A couple risk it all to revitalize a church in steep decline.
- Quest to be a Big Deal – “If you’re driven to become a ‘big dea’l missional pastor or if you’re driven to be a part of a church because it’s seen as a big deal chances are you have an idolatry problem.”
Give Presence: Living Out the Incarnation
The story of Christmas is foundational for understanding Christianity in so many ways. God sent his very best, his own Son Jesus Christ, the God-man, on a daring rescue mission. In need of rescue was the human race including you and I. The mission included a display of love that led to the willing death of an innocent Rescuer for the sake of those he loved. In the end, the Rescuer wins the day, defeating all the bad guys, including death, sin and guilt, and Satan (Colossians 2:13-15, Hebrews 2:14-15). Here’s the real kicker: Now God desires that we repeat the process of being sent, loving, sacrificing, and rescuing through announcing/retelling this story to all (John 21:20, Acts 1:8, Philippians 2:3-5). When God wanted to save the world, he sent himself. He GAVE PRESENCE. Today, he continues to GIVE PRESENCE to the world through those he has rescued.
Here’s three lessons we learn about Incarnational Living from God’s giving to us. These have become filters for our church as we seek to live with a missionary posture toward our community.
- God gave the gift of PROXIMITY. John 1:14 in the Message Paraphrase says, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” Jesus laid aside the privileges of deity to draw near to us, walk in our shoes, and die in our place. One of the great promises of Christmas is that we do not serve a God that’s distant, that’s removed from our problems and trials. He experienced them and He overcame them (Hebrews 4:15, John 16:33). Does your current lifestyle allow you to live in proximity to the needs of others? Does your church live out its mission in proximity to the needs of the community? Jesus went so much farther than, “they know where we are if they need us.” He was always touching those he wasn’t supposed to touch and sharing life with those he wasn’t supposed to share life with. In a world filled with lonely hearts, we need to give presence and live out the gift of proximity.
- God gave the gift of RESPONSIVENESS. God gave in response to our deepest need. To respond to the needs of others requires you to forget about yourself a bit. That’s exactly what Jesus did – Philippians 2:7 says, “he made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.” Jesus didn’t have an entitlement mentality, and if anyone was ever justified in feeling entitled to privileges and perks it should have been the Son of God, but he had a SLAVERY mentality. Becoming the lowest of the low in response to my need. Does your current lifestyle and church culture allow you to be responsive to the needs of others? The priest and levite in the story of the Good Samaritan most likely had legitimate excuses for not responding to the needs of the man lying in the road with huge needs. They had busy schedules, there’s no time for this; they were in a bad part of town; they had no training in basic life support. It was the Samaritan that demonstrated to heart of God and responded to the needs, laying aside self and becoming a servant.
- God’s generosity was RADICAL. In the Christmas story we learn that God is a RADICAL GIVER. John 3:16 says it best, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And we see in Philippians 2:8, that Jesus willing became a radical giver for you and I – “He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” God held nothing back for you and I. He gave it all. What aspects of our lives can be considered radical? Is it in the area of generosity? In desire for God? In desire for others to know the truth?
God’s Big Give: Proximity, Responsiveness, Radical Generosity. The story of Christ and Christmas.
In the next few weeks at Bridge Church, we’ll be talking about how we can give presence as we live out the storyline of Christmas. Check out the messages at http://www.bridgenorthshore.com or on Itunes.
