Watching God

Western Christians (in large part) don't believe in the power of the gospel to change lives. I’d like to do my part to change that. I sometimes feel like I’m living on the edge, aware of God’s power, dipping into it here and there, but that somehow I could be plugged into it more. Even so, I’m in it and want to be in it more. And it’s messy.

Are you ever tempted to be involved in sterile Christianity? You know, the clean kind that isn’t very controversial and doesn’t really have to depend on the power of God? What? You’re in that kind. Well I hope you’ll step out and get into the messy stuff.

Isaiah 49:6 He says, "But that's not a big enough job for my servant-- just to recover the tribes of Jacob, merely to round up the strays of Israel. I'm setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global!"

This is a prophecy about Jesus being the light of the world. He is the Servant God is anointing to take God’s glory even to the nations. John said in his gospel that Jesus is the light shining in the darkness (see John 1). Jesus is the light of the world. Then in Matthew Jesus tells his followers that they (we) are the light of the world.

The only way we are the light is the degree that we reflect him, or let him empower us.

And then the fun begins. Then God changes lives, heals bodies, sets captives free, breaks people’s chains.

And we get ridiculed, made fun of, and scoffed.

But it’s real. He changes people. He shows himself to people. His arm has not been shortened that he cannot heal and deliver.

Whatever it takes

We'll be taking communion in church this week. (By the way, I wonder how many of you would rather share communion every week rather than once a month? Or maybe twice a month?) I'm going to try and teach about the impact of Jesus' suffering and how it affects us. It's a huger (word?) topic than I could possibly do justice to. I hate when I feel passion to communicate something and I know I can't possibly convey that passion . . . but somehow we've got to get it. Without his suffering for us, we wouldn't have the life we have, wouldn't have the Spirit, all the grace that gets us through life, all the hope we have for eternity.

So then Paul brings it home even more for us whenever he tells the Colossians that his suffering for them filled up what was lacking in Christ's affliction for the church. That phraseology was used several other times in the bible, always referring to someone lacking something because of the absence of people who could meet the need. So Paul understands any suffering he does for the church is simply him filling in for Jesus since Jesus is no longer bodily present to suffer for them himself. Any suffering that has to be done for the sake of those who need it, anyone who will believe if only someone will be willing to hang in there, or go through a bunch of crap, or take some verbal abuse, or just never ever give up; well that suffering is filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Since Jesus isn't here to go the distance in person, he sends us to do it.

You want to do evangelism in this culture? There is no price that is too high to pay for the sake of the gospel. How much of yourself are you willing to pour out?

Not much, huh?

Gee whiz, I was hoping for a nice message in church this week about how to have a happy marriage, or maybe how to believe God for a new car.

Faith + Life

So here you are, living life, probably spending most of your day working, making a little money, so you can go home and relax, maybe go out with friends. Your faith is designed to permeate your life, work, friends, relatives. It's an authentic faith in Jesus, isn't it? You're not the kind to just play the game on Sunday. Why waste your time doing that? No, the trust in Jesus you are increasingly experiencing is life affects how you live and causes you to do stuff, even at work and out with friends. You start finding purpose in life besides money, relaxation and entertainment.

So here's a literal translation of Philemon 1:6 -
"(I pray) that the sharing/fellowship of the faith of you might become powerfully effective in the knowledge of all the good in us unto Christ Jesus."

So? Well, there is an assumed sharing of our faith. It means more than telling someone, in that sense of sharing. It is SHARING, or letting our faith be shared. It's not keeping it private, or secret. There is an outflowing of real faith. Paul prays that for Philemon, it will have it's inherent power and effectiveness.

Tie that in with Galatians 5:6 (ESV) -
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Yes, that's right, working. Works. Stuff to do. Life to share. Things we're supposed to DO. IT COUNTS!

Outreach

I've been teaching lately about outreach. We're doing the Inward Upward Outward thing, and are currently talking about the outward. Here we live in America where the country has been saturated with the gospel. According to Patrick Johnson of Operation World the US is the most evangelized country in the history of forever. Even if people don't really understand the gospel, they at least have a personal idea of what evangelism is, that Chrisitians want to convert them to Jesus, and they have feelings about that - probably not favorable for the most part.

On top of all that, the church has been slow to adjust her outreach methods for a changing world. We've used encounter evangelism methods for the past 60 years, meaning that we have seen ourselves like salesmen trying to close a deal. We push for a response. We've often been pushy and confrontational.

It used to work. I think it worked because the culture was largely Christianized and the evangelism methods tended to bring people home to the church - but people knew the language, they already knew enough about Jesus that they had fewer questions. That world is disappearing. Now those methods are more offensive than helpful.

The problem, to me, is that evangelism may not be like the 'glory days' again for awhile. At least not in the USA. So we are teaching people to embrace process conversion. That means that we anticipate conversion to Jesus to take more time. And in that process, we expect and anticipate questions - and we value the questions - and we let people belong before they believe. That's pretty different from the 'old days' that I was trained in. We wanted to debate the questions on the spot, try to 'win the day' and even if we didn't get a convert, we at least could give each other high five for winning a debate point for Jesus against an evil unbeliever. sigh

I have made a commitment to see all our events at AV as outreach events - part of the process. I intend to create events to propell the process, like Alpha groups and small groups geared toward evangelism. I am also going to regularly invite people to Jesus in every one of my messages, very intentionally. I want AV attenders to know it will happen and to be encouraged to bring their friends because they will be given an opportunity to sign up.

That's what I intend.

I think God is in it.

The story most on my mind? The pastor who prayed for months asking God what he should do for outreach. Finally he got an answer.

"Just do something."