What would the gospel have us do?

When 14-year-old Manna ran away from her abusive home in South Asia, she met a woman who offered her job selling fabric. She accepted the position, and the woman provided her a place to sleep for the night. When Manna awoke in the morning, the woman was gone, and Manna discovered that she was in a brothel.

Manna attempted to refuse the first three men who had paid to rape her. She was physically assaulted by the brothel keepers until she lacked the strength to resist.

For the next two years, she was held in the brothel and raped by customers for the profit of the brothel owners. She was freed when IJM investigators discovered her captivity and alerted local authorities, working with them to release her and three other young girls from the brothel. The brothel owners each received five-year sentences.

from INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION

Sex trafficking is a massive global enterprise based upon force, coercion and deception. Traffickers transport or detain their victims for the purpose of exploitation and profit through acts of sexual violence. This trade in rape for profit victimizes thousands of women and children every year.

THE FACTS

• Human trafficking is the world’s third largest criminal
enterprise, after drugs and weapons. (U.S. Department of State)

• Worldwide, there are nearly two million children in the
commercial sex trade. (UNICEF)

• There are an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 children, women
and men trafficked across international borders annually.
(U.S. Department of State)

• Approximately 80 percent of human trafficking victims are women
and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. (U.S. Department of State)

• The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to
be in excess of $32 billion. (U.N.)

• Sex trafficking is an engine of the global AIDS epidemic.
(U.S. Department of State)

PART 2: Interesting insights on the relationship between the gospel and our call to mission

From Darrin Patrick, lead pastor for The Journey in St. Louis, MO.

A Gospel-centered, missional church is one that recognizes that:

1) Authentic heart-transformation cannot happen apart from the Gospel;

AND

2) Culture is not the enemy of the church; rather it is a broken treasure God has gone to great lengths to restore.


Today, part 2: Missional

We are missional because we consider and engage culture as we communicate our core message, the Gospel. We find the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection to be so compelling and life-giving, that we are willing to let it shape everything we do -our methodology- in order to communicate the Gospel in a way that makes sense to the culture around us.

1) Primarily, a missional church recognizes the centrality of the Gospel as its people live out the calling to be "for" the culture. This means a church must derive its purpose from the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); it must be a servant of the Gospel that glorifies God by telling people the story of Jesus through word and action (1 John 3:16-17). A Gospel-centered church's ministry cannot be separated from the person of Jesus, nor can its mission be defined or performed apart from the Gospel. The Gospel is the ultimate guide and authority for how we function and minister as a church. Said another way, a missional church embraces God's call to be a sender of missionaries to its own culture (Matthew. 4:19; Acts 16:20; 17:6).

2) Because the relationship between "the world" and the church can be difficult to navigate, a missional church absolutely must be grounded in the authority of the inerrant and inspired Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:14-17). Indeed, the Scriptures provide the foundation for and inform all God-honoring mission work. After all, what is it except God's truth that we are communicating to culture anyway?

3) A missional church is willing to boldly adapt its methodology, while holding firmly to the core truth of its message, in order to participate in God's transformation and redemption of culture (Luke 7:34; Acts 16:20-21). Note the distinction: the method does not drive the message; rather the message propels the method. In other words, the solid, unchanging foundation of the Gospel renders the method of communication flexible, so long as that method does not contradict the Gospel as articulated in Scripture and illumined by the Holy Spirit.

4) A missional church expects every member to be a missionary to the people they come into contact with (family, friends, co-workers, etc). Therefore, a missional church spends a large amount of time and resources equipping members through Bible study, community groups, worship services and forums so that they can engage their specific contexts with the Gospel (Ephesians 4:11-16).

5) A missional church seeks to understand the stories of culture (through popular film, music, literature, etc) in order to better understand the hopes, dreams and fears of people, so that it can re-tell culture's story in the light of Jesus. One of the primary ways a missional church honors God is by creatively and fearlessly taking Christ into the broken world that needs Him most (Matthew 28:18-20). It does not see church as an end in itself, but rather a means to an end. That end is "Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2).

6) A missional church worships God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). We worship in truth by communicating God's truth in a way that makes sense in our day and time, avoiding pious religious language that creates an "us" vs. "them" mentality. We worship authentically, not relying on sentimental religious language to set a "spiritual tone." We worship in spirit by relying on God's Spirit as we help people discover the truth of the Gospel in their own way and timing, trusting ultimately that God is sovereign and working ceaselessly toward restoration of the created order (Romans 8:26-30).

PART 1: Interesting insights on the relationship between the gospel and our call to mission

From Darrin Patrick, lead pastor for The Journey in St. Louis, MO.

Today, part 1: GOSPEL - CENTERED

A Gospel-centered, missional church is one that recognizes that:

1) Authentic heart-transformation cannot happen apart from the Gospel;

AND

2) Culture is not the enemy of the church; rather it is a broken treasure God has gone to great lengths to restore.

Gospel-Centered

We are a Gospel-centered church because:

1) The Gospel is the engine that propels our mission.

The Gospel is the good news that God, the only perfect and righteous being, lovingly entered a broken, sinful world in order to bring us into right standing with himself. God has revealed himself to us through the person of Jesus and the Bible. The holistic purpose of the Bible (both the Old and New Testaments) is to glorify God by telling the story of Jesus (Luke 24:25-27; 1 Corinthians 1:22-24; 2:2): his life, ministry, death and resurrection, and to communicate God's desire for people to experience him through Jesus. It is entirely accurate to say, then, that the Bible is the Gospel, and that the Gospel is Jesus himself (Luke 24:44-47; John 1:1; 14:6).

We affirm with Colossians 1:17-18 that Jesus is "before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Since Jesus is the Gospel, and since all things find their purpose and meaning in him, we recognize that we are only accomplishing "ministry" when Jesus is the driving force of our efforts.

2) The Gospel is the primary lens through which we view the world and the people and things in it.

The Bible, which is the Gospel story, is our ultimate authority on matters concerning the world and everything and everyone in it. This means that a right understanding of the world and the people in it, and how to address all needs and problems, will emanate from the Gospel.

Like the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:2, we profess that there is nothing in life more important than knowing "Jesus Christ and him crucified." If, by the aid of God's Spirit, we view all things through the lens of Christ, if we submit all our decisions and ministry to Jesus, we will bring glory to God through our living.

3) The Gospel is the only message we are called to teach.

Being a Gospel-centered missional church is not a strategy for growth or a self-help philosophy aimed at being a "better Christian." It is in large part an awareness that the only hope we have for transforming the world is Jesus and the Gospel that bears his name. The fundamental need of every person, Christians and non-Christians, is to hear and know the Gospel at each moment in their life. As Pastor Tim Keller has written, "All our problems come from a failure to apply the Gospel." Therefore, the primary calling of our church is to equip Christians and inform and encourage non-Christians through the teaching of the Gospel in our worship services, sermons, community groups, classes, so that they will live out the Gospel of grace in all of their relationships and contexts (family, friends, career, leisure, etc). Our desire is to uphold the essentiality of the Gospel both as the means to salvation and the pathway to sanctification.

Those Who Lack Imagination

The church has certainly had her share of failures throughout the years. I think of the German church’s stance during Hitler’s rise to power. In the United States I think of the Southern church’s silence during Civil War or worse yet their vocal support of slavery and racial views i.e. Robert Louis Dabney. (One of the great challenges we face as a denomination could be seen in how we come to terms with some of our greatest theological minds actually being blinded to sins of their cultural settings.) I think also of the conservative, white church’s relative silence during the civil rights movement. And this is only in the recent past. I won’t go back far enough to address The Crusades or the “evangelization” of the native populations of the New World.

Granted, I am painting with admittedly broad brushstrokes. I do not mean to ignore the amazing contributions of men like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others who stood boldly for righteousness at the risk of their own reputations and often their lives. But the point remains that we are faced with glaring failures of the church to address what was happening in the culture around them at times of great significance.

Of course this should come as no surprise, especially to those of us whose theology addresses directly the sad state of the human condition post-Fall. We are a broken people living in a broken world operating under a broken system until all is made new again. “Come quickly, Lord Jesus,” we say. This brokenness invades all aspects of creation including Christ’s church. Even within the church, we are a fallen people living under the implications and limitations of that very fallenness.

This leads my admittedly “green” and immature mind to wander to a seemingly obvious question. Where is the church today, either through willful disobedience or through passive ignorance, turning a blind eye to grave injustice? Could it be in our lack of attention to the poor and the needy? Could it be in our lack of engagement with those who we would consider to be “less than”, regardless of whatever categories we would consider that to entail? What about the fact that there are legions of young girls (and a growing number of young boys) across the globe being sold into the sex trade annually? Could it be in our callous acceptance that there is much suffering in the world, but that there is seemingly little that we can do about it? We throw our hands up and declare our inability to effect any reasonable change, so why bother?

Among many other possible answers, I believe that one of the greatest failures of the church today, one thing that hinders her from being the voice of Truth and the very hands and feet of Christ is this. Christ’s church today is suffering from an overwhelming case of a complete lack of imagination. One of the most underutilized tools in our endeavor to foster growth in the redemption of all of this brokenness is the simple phrase, “Why not?

“We can’t cure poverty,” we say. Why not? Granted, the poor will always be with us until Christ returns. But let us not fall into the trap of abusing good theology. The fact that the poor will always be with us is not an excuse to ignore the poor! We cannot completely do away with the issue, but we just might make a difference for one family.

“We can’t erase racism and classism.” Why not? Again, the fact that falleness will be with us until our Savior’s return is not an excuse to ignore blatant injustice! We may not do away with prejudice and bigotry completely, but we might be able to change the tone in one community. And if there are other communities of brothers and sisters in Christ doing the same thing, then who knows what can happen?

“There is no way to completely eradicate the global sex trade. It’s just too massive. What can a house wife in Brook Highland do about 11 year old prostitutes in Thailand? I can’t make a difference.” Why not? What if our engagement meant that there could be just one less child being raped for profit? Would it be worth our effort then?

The call to follow Christ is so much more than having our worldly troubles replaced with warm fuzzies by a grandfather Santa Claus in the sky. The gospel of the spectacular grace of God in Christ not only calls us out of sin but it calls us into action. Nothing less than the redemption of all of creation is the ultimate goal and we have been given a spot on the front lines! So go forth, repent deeply, live boldly, enter the fight wildly. Be willing to ask frustratingly subversive questions like “Why not?” Ask God to move, and expect him to.

The Chapel

While Susie and I were in St. Louis, we attended a unique PCA church downtown. It was unique for several different reasons, one of which was that it met in a 140 year old gothic cathedral. (For a denomination that is not quite 40 years old, that is a feat in its own right.) Another reason that this church was unique was ..... well read the following article from byFaith magazine and you will see.



The Chapel

Digging at the root of hunger

Digging at the root of hunger

Watch the video linked directly above. Watch this video and think about the following article in todays Birmingham News.

"The incidence of heart failure among young adults is strikingly higher in blacks than in whites, according to a study being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of California San Francisco, Hackensack University Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Researchers looked at the medical histories of 5,115 whites and blacks ages 18 to 30 at the start of the study. Over 20 years, 27 participants developed heart failure, and 26 of them were black, the study reported. The researchers found that high blood pressure, obesity and chronic kidney disease - early signs of heart malfunction noted in early adulthood - were more often found in participants who developed cardiac failure.

The findings underscore racial disparity in the development of heart failure and have implications for strategies aimed at the prevention of the disease, researchers said. Dave Parks -- "

If You Give a Man a Mission

This house is for sale. That is not news. This house is for sale, right now… for $1,900. On www.realtor.com there are actually 76 homes for sale in Birmingham for $10,000 or less. “Yes”, you might ask, “but who would want to live in a house you can buy in full for one of our average monthly mortgage payments?” You see, we ask that question and then assume the answer is that no one would want to live there, because many of us are looking through our comfortable, protectionist, evangelical, suburban glasses. But indulge and dream with me just a bit.

What if, for just a moment, we take those glasses off and put on the glasses of the single mom with three children sleeping in the local women’s shelter at night because the wage she earns from her housekeeping job at a local motel barely pays for the combined cost of her groceries and her son’s asthma medication? What if we put on the glasses of the young man who wants to provide a stable home for his wife and newborn, but is facing eviction from his apartment because the warehouse he worked at downtown just shuttered its doors? He now realizes that, because he dropped out of high school several years back, he is basically looking at having to resort to homelessness or “hustling”, neither of which are great options. A slight shift in perspective can be a truly valuable thing.

What if there were a group of individuals who were just crazy enough to pool their resources and buy a house for $1,900 in downtown Birmingham. What if this group of individuals was then unwise enough to put $10,000 (admittedly a large amount of money, until we begin to add up what we spend on a combination of cable TV, personal ringtone downloads, Bruster’s ice cream, cool applications for our i-phones and spa treatments for our toes) into needed repairs to bring this house up to livable standards. What if this group of individuals then sold / gave this house to one of the people through whose glasses we recently gazed?



Have you ever read the children’s book, “If You Give a Moose a Muffin”? It is a great story about how one kind action by an unsuspecting mouse leads to a swirling mass of chaos and of snowballing needs and requests. I have a confession to make. That kind of sounds cool to me. Sometimes I think that we could really benefit from a grace-filled dose of chaos. Maybe I am a little biased. After all I am a calm, orderly Southern boy who married into all of the chaos that is a Puerto Rican family, and is actually better off for it.

If you give a house to an unemployed father, then how does he pay for the upkeep that will inevitably come? What if, along with giving away the house, men in this group began to enter into a relationship with this young man, discipling him both in faith as well as in life skills, aiding in his employment search?

If you give this family the house, then the flop house down the street becomes a safety issue for the kids living there. What do you do? What if another group of individuals catches the vision for what is going on and then buys that flop house to do the same thing?

If you allow this family to move in, the children begin to grow older and the pressing issue of where they will attend school grows larger. Does the father who dropped out of school want his children involved in an educational environment that is clearly failing them? What do you do? What if this growing group of individuals then catches a vision for starting a grace-based, Christ focused school in this neighborhood that offers to meet the spiritual, relational, emotional and academic needs of the children who live there?

By now you kind of get a glimpse of where I am going with all of this. Before long you have an entire neighborhood that has been renovated, a school built, a church planted, and the fog of countless generations of poverty, abuse and hopelessness have begun to be burned away by the clarity and heat of the gospel. A community influenced by the transforming power of Christ is born from the ashes that once existed. Drug dealers and prostitutes that once frequented the street corners move away. Or better yet, the woman on the corner finds hope in Christ through the hands of faithful individuals who are able by the grace of God to see past her “profession” into the heart which Christ cares deeply for. What if, because of this care and attention, she begins to sell chips and soda at the corner gas station rather than peddling her own flesh?

What if we believed the gospel could do such a thing? Then we begin to see a community that looks suspiciously like the one Phil drew our attention to this past Sunday from Acts 4:32-37. Wow.

What if………

The Strategery of the Mundane

I mentioned in my last post that I have a favorite coffee shop here in town. When I was living in St. Louis, it was Kaldi’s. Not the Kirkwood location, but the one down on Demun Avenue between Forest Park and the Lutheran seminary. It was a great little hole in the wall shop with a labyrinth like feel and not enough seating. Although rather than being frustrating, the fact that there was never enough seating kind of added to the appeal. In part because when you did get a seat you really felt like you were somebody. “I have a seat in Kaldi’s. I must be important!” Okay, that was little window into how incredibly easy it is for me to suck significance out of the slightest little thing. Sorry if that is too much transparency for you. (How did I get off on that rabbit trail?) Anyway…

If you are like me, you probably have a few places in your neighborhood that you prefer to drop in for one thing or another. For example, my coffee beans always comes from O’Henry’s, the meat for my grill comes from Mr. P’s up in Bluff Park, and as of a couple of weeks ago, my chicken wings come from Wings Plus #5. Lest you think I am purely a creature of habit (which I actually am, but that isn’t the point of this post) I will attempt to explain why I actually believe the choice of where I get my chicken wings carries with it the potential to have eternal significance.

You see, I choose to frequent these places in part because I really like the product and or service they provide. But there is another reason. I frequent certain places because I actually desire to build relationships with the ownership and other clientele who shop there.




For example, two weeks ago I walked into our local neighborhood wings place. While placing my order I struck up a conversation with the guy behind the register. I had two goals, well actually three. First, get the wings. Second I wanted to let him know of my desire to support local neighborhood business like his. (It became clear that the guy behind the register wasn’t just some dude on a register, but his family ran the whole operation, which consisted of other wings places throughout the Birmingham area.) Third, to remember his name.

This past Saturday, I returned to the wings place, both because my family was hungry and my cholesterol was too low. When I walked in the door and saw the same guy, I called him by name and told him his wings had been calling me back. Through our conversation we got to know each other a little better and a fledgling friendship was strengthened. With each conversation I am remembering details of his life which I then ask him about in subsequent conversations. Basically, I am seeking to display to him the fact that he is important, that he and the details of his life actually matter to me. Why? Because he matters to God.

When I go to O’Henry’s for coffee, I see familiar faces. I begin to recognize the people who work there. When I go into Mr. P’s and the guy behind the counter recognizes my kids, there are relational ties to the community that are strengthened, friendships are born and a foundation solidifies in which the seeds of the gospel have a context to take root and grow.

So why is this important? First, my unabashed goal is to pursue people in my neighborhood and love them well, through building friendships, supporting their livelihood and simply allowing them to see that they are worth more to me than simply how well they can cut a pork chop. Why? Because the grace of the gospel should impact much more than simply how we view our relationship to our church community. The gospel of Jesus Christ should affect all of life, including where we buy our coffee and our pork chops and our chicken wings. If we value people enough to purposefully alter where we shop and where we spend time for reasons of pursuing relationships for the gospels sake, then when we are able to have conversations about Christ and his gospel in a relational context through which those truths are filtered.

And what if those individuals whom we are purposefully pursuing relationships with never respond to the gospel? Well, first of all lets make sure we don’t hold too tightly to our ability to discern what the power of God’s grace is doing in the recesses of someone else’s heart. But even in light of a lack of outward evidence of a heart change in those individuals then at the very least, by our gospel-based efforts, relationships are built, a community is developed and a neighborhood is strengthened. This is the power of the gospel breaking forth with light where there was formerly darkness. This too is to the glory of God as well.

He just wanted to meet these kids before they came across his ER table with 4 bullet holes in their chest.

I was having coffee with a guy recently at my favorite local coffee shop. He and his wife have relatively recently joined our church and we were just spending some time hanging out, getting to know each other a bit. So there we were, just talking, when I was reminded again that the gospel calls us not simply to transformation in our personal lives but to action in our culture. It is amazing as a pastor that I actually have to be reminded of these things, but along with being a pastor I am also slightly (or more) mentally and spiritually challenged, so I guess it figures.

Through the course of the conversation, I learned that Ted (not his real name) was going through the process of adopting a “little brother” through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Program. I was intrigued. As the conversation continued, he shared that he was tired of seeing kids cross his path due to gang related violence. You see, Ted is an ER doctor at a local hospital in downtown Birmingham. In effect he said that one of the reasons he was so interested in doing this is that he wanted to meet some of these kids before they ended up on a table in front of him with four bullet holes in their chest. Wow!

Ted is a believer. That’s great. The South is seemingly full of believers. But what makes him so unique is not just that he has walked an aisle or even belongs to our church. (Although don’t hear me minimizing either of those things.) No, what makes Ted unique is that here is a guy whose life and outlook have been so transformed by the power of the gospel that he is no longer content to soak up spiritual knowledge and do nothing. Here is a guy who is convinced that the grace he has been shown compels him to walk forward into life and, through using the power only the Holy Spirit has on tap, attempt to make changes in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation.

This is it! This is what we are called to as followers of Christ. This is the power of the gospel moving us out of ourselves and into mission in God’s world. Now I cannot say that every follower of Christ at Oak Mountain Church is called to adopt a little bother or a little sister. But I can say with a pretty high probability that some of us are. It really is a great program. And I can categorically say with no hesitation at all that none of us have been called out of darkness and into light, out of death and into life so that we can sit and soak up all of the spiritual goodies on the smorgasbord before us and then go forth and do nothing.

You see, the gospel just doesn’t work that way. What we are talking about is not just a “special” calling of a select few “super” Christians like Ted. What we are talking about is a lifestyle that is the normal Christian life. Men and women, transformed by the power of the gospel and moving in an outward direction, in and through culture, with a mission of pushing back the kingdom of darkness, proclaiming the gospel with boldness both to ourselves and to those we come into contact with. We are talking about adopting little brothers and sisters, serving meals to the hungry, planting gardens, inviting neighbors into our homes, going out to eat with work associates, painting houses, cutting grass, crying with the hurting, rejoicing with the joyful and binding up the wounded. This is missio dei, the mission of God.

(If you are interested in adopting a little brother or sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham, please contact Jason at jtucker@ompc.org)

Am I raising a racist?

That is the question I was asking myself as I listened to my daughter’s commentary on the people walking by our front porch. You see, we are from white-collar suburbia. However, several years ago when we were moving to St. Louis to attend graduate school, we made a decision that drastically affected our outlook on life and people in general. We decided that A) since we were very familiar with what we were coming from and B) since we were only going to be in St. Louis for a few years that we would take this opportunity to experience something different. So we ended up renting a duplex in downtown St. Louis, on a busy street, next door to the corner 7-eleven.

Being in an urban neighborhood, we were able to sit on our front porch and watch the myriads of people walk by on their way to and from the convenience store in pursuit of their orange crush slushy’s and crispy tacitos. One thing was evident and our children quickly picked up on this. These people look different than us.

The neighborhood that we were in had quite a unique ethnic mix. St. Louis is home to one of the largest Bosnian populations in the world. (Who knew?) Also, downtown St. Louis is a largely African American city. It has followed the majority of large U.S. cities in the pattern of “white flight”.

Here is the question posed to me by my oldest daughter, who at that time was around 4 years of age, while we were playing outside on our front porch. “Daddy, why are brown people so mean?”

I stopped dead in my tracks, first to make sure the guy walking down the sidewalk hadn’t heard what she had said. Second because I was interested in where she would have come up with such a conclusion. (I was also somewhat entertained, because she herself would be considered to be a “brown” person by many, since my wife is Peurto Rican.)

Here is what I discovered. She daily played on our front porch and waved at the people she saw walking back and forth to the corner store, but very few ever waved back. Therefore, in her 4 year old mind, “brown” people are not friendly.

Now here is what slapped me in the face. I was allowing my children to grow up in an environment where their only interaction with people different than them was waving at them from a distance. They had never seen an African American in our house, much less at our dinner table.

In Christian thinking, we say that there are sins of commission, sins which we actively commit through our actions, say for example stealing a purse or a car, and sins of omission, things which are sins because of our lack of action, such as not speaking truth into a situation where it would be required. What I realized was that I was teaching my children, thru my lack of providing positive interactions with people who are different than us, to see those individuals as somehow “less than”. While my wife and I were certainly not actively teaching our children racist or bigoted thought patterns, we were laying the foundations for racist and bigoted thinking because of what we were not doing.

So we began proactively having friends from various ethnic backgrounds over for dinner, in our home, providing a new framework thru which our children could view and discern that people are people, loved by God, therefore worthy of our affections and our attention.

Today, years later, by God’s grace, one of my daughter’s best friends in our neighborhood is a young girl from a vastly different ethnic, religious and cultural background than her own. She has singled this girl out for friendship, in part, because she is so different and because she sees her as a person to be valued rather than ostracized. Because of this relationship, our families have been able to spend some time getting to know each other as well. It has truly been amazing to have our children leading us into relationships in our neighborhood! (Thank you God, for letting us see something we may have actually gotten right in this whole parenting experiment!)

It is so easy for me to see how my actions are affecting the formation of the next generation and the expansion of God’s kingdom. Yet what I truly fear are those things I do not see. Those things that I am passing along, those affronts to God and his gospel which I am communicating thru my lack of paying attention or my failure to live life in a state of Spirit-directed awareness.

Father, open our eyes, expand your kingdom, and come quickly.

To invite or not?

Susie and I were discussing the other night whether or not to invite friends over for dinner. Both of us were tired and the house was a wreck.

(We have been remodeling our house, including a full kitchen gut job, since November.)

Sound familiar? Here is a little glimpse “behind the curtain” into our thinking.

Principle 1: All people have intrinsic value by virtue of being created in God’s image. Therefore all people should be honored and valued as bearers of this image. See post “Outreach and the Image of God”)

Therefore, as a reflection of the character of God, relationships with others are to be highly valued and pursued, even above our personal desires for peace and retreat.

Principle 2: There is no ministry switch to turn off and on, there is only life. The issue is whether we are going to live life in light of the mission we have been given to glorify God by loving God and loving people. We are either living on mission or we are not.

So as people who highly value others and who also highly value the command of God to build relationships for the purpose of gospel expansion, (and as people who have been gripped by the power of the gospel to such an extent that a guest bathroom with no door is not a deterrent from having people over) we had a great and chaotic time over dinner with neighbors.

You see, we don’t really get to choose when “ministry” happens. We say that there is no sacred / secular distinction. A musician playing music to the glory of God is just as pleasing to God as the pastor who is preaching for the glory of God. Yet when it comes to our lives we are all too ready to draw lines and set up walls separating “ministry” from the rest of “normal” life. (Of course I recognize that proper boundaries need to be set. But those boundaries are probably being overworked in most of our lives.)

Well, we can’t have people over because the kids are crazy. We can’t have people over because the dog hasn’t been washed. We can’t have people over because the hallway hasn’t been painted. We can’t have people over because the table has homework and tax information all over it.

So the God of the universe is establishing and expanding his church, which he says that the very gates of Hell cannot prevail against it, yet a messy kitchen table can stop kingdom expansion in its tracks? ;-)

We are called to live lives that are out in the open for the purpose of coming into contact with others for the sake of the gospel, eating dinner, playing sports, rubbing shoulders with those God, in his overarching plan, has placed in our path, in our neighborhood. We say God is sovereign over all of life, yet we live life as if the non-christian moving in next door chose that house by happenstance. Let us embrace the mission that we have been given as we seek to pursue relationships with those around us.

“Fire up the grill honey, ________ is coming over for dinner!”

Interesting Commentary

In the past 25 years

• Playing cards as a social activity is down 25%.

• Frequenting bars, nightclubs and taverns are down 40%.

• The number of full-service restaurants has decreased 25%, and the number of bars (including coffee bars) and luncheonettes has decreased 50%, but the number of fast-food outlets has increased 100%, as more people eat alone and eat more meals in their cars.

• Having a social evening with someone from one’s neighborhood is down 33%.

• Attending social clubs and meetings is down 58%.

• Family dinners are down 33%.

• Having friends over to one’s home is down 45%.

• From 1980 to 1993, participation in America’s number one participant sport, bowling, was up 10%, but the number of bowling leagues decreased 40%, as more people bowled alone.

• From 1985 to 1999, the readiness of the average American to make new friends declined by nearly 33%.

• From 1992 to 1999 the amount of time spent caring for a pet increased 15%.

• From 1992 to 1999, the amount of time spent for personal grooming increased 5 – 7%.

Isn’t it odd that we are apparently becoming a nation of attractive people who sit at home alone at night with our pets, watching television shows about relationships and taking medication for depression brought on by our loneliness? Meanwhile, our neighbors, whom we do not know, are spending their evenings in much the same way.

(Statistics from Harvard professor Robert D. Putnam’s 2000 book, “Bowling Alone”)
(Commentary from Mark Driscoll “The Radical Reformission”)

It Takes 3

Gospel + Culture – Church = Parachurch

Culture + Church – Gospel = Liberalism

Church + Gospel – Culture = Fundamentalism

Gospel + Church + Culture = Reformission

~ from Mark Driscoll’s The Radical Reformission

Driscoll may most certainly be a little rough around the edges, but dude is brilliant!