the church and the kingdom
Earlier this year
I wrote this about what God has been teaching me: "I'm understanding in the smallest way the Kingdom of God. God wants to enter into, redeem and reign over every person, every culture, every community, and all creation. Come thy Kingdom in my life." Personally, I don't want to reduce God to just the church, and sadly that happens all too often. While he is (and should be) greatly involved in the church, there is a larger domain - one that includes every domain/area of society, including the church. And as the body of Christ, we have been released, mandated, and commanded to carry Christ and His Kingdom into the world.
Reposting this from
Alan Hirsch today.
In my writing I came across this quote today by theologian Richard Neuhaus (who died earlier this year). It is worth considering because of the implied association of the Church with the Kingdom of God.
"Alfred Loisy the 19th century historian was right in saying that Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God but what appeared was the Church. The disappointment was and continues to be severe. But the great irony is that today we alleviate our disappointment with the contemporary Church by pointing back to the New Testament Church --which was the great disappointment to begin with!
Our restless discontent should not be over the distance between ourselves and the first century Church but over the distance between ourselves and the Kingdom of God to which the Church then and now is the witness.(my emphasis added)" - -- R.J. Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry, 33.
Labels: christianity, churches, theology
creating personal spiritual momentum
This is my last set of notes to post from
Catalyst One Day. I appreciate
Craig’s heart and attention to this topic, especially a “leadership” conference. It really is the foundation to be used in the fullness of God’s Spirit. I’m slowly learning to put this thought into consistent practice.
- “I will do today what I can do, to enable me to do tomorrow what I can’t do today.”
- The long-term vision will be accomplished through today’s contribution. (While I know this is true, I sometimes have a hard time practicing this, especially when I can’t/ don’t see the correlation between now and then)
- Do something to defeat your dark side.
- Create artificial deadlines.
- Delegate what someone else can do.
- Do something only you can do.
- You are the only one who can stay broken for Jesus.
Labels: conferences, leadership, ministry
busting barriers with mindset changes
Organizations love to settle because it’s the easy thing to do. They settle not only in practice, but in paradigm as well. You sometimes have to change the way you think to get something different. Here are some notes from
Craig Groeschel, session 2 at
Catalyst One Day last week.
1. Think differently about your church culture.
- If you don’t like the culture, it could be your fault. People are a reflection of the leader.
- Do you need to do something privately to gain credibility publicly? (This is a principle I had to learn this past year)
2. Think differently about programming.
3. Think differently about the mission.
- We can’t allow someone to hold back the mission of the church. Will we give priority to people pleasing or the mission?
4. Think differently about people leaving the church.
5. Think differently about limitations.
- Old mindset-We can’t because we don’t.
- New mindset-We can because we don’t.
- One of the greatest gifts to your ministry may be what you don’t have.
Labels: conferences, development, leadership, ministry
deep in the heart of texas
When I came to Dallas in 2003 to go to
SAGU, I never imagined I would still be here in 2009. So much has happened that I wouldn't know where to start, but looking back I do see God's hand guiding. I didn't always see it in the moment, especially over the past 2-3 years, but I certainly do now.
In all the chaos and in all the mystery, I have found God revealed more. One of my core prayers is for God to continue to reveal the mystery of the Gospel of his Kingdom in my life. And he has done so.
This past year we have had a great opportunity to serve alongside some of our closest friends and help them start a
church. When we made the decision last year to move to Frisco, we knew it would only be a short season and did our best to communicate that to them up front.
Zach and
Mandy have been so gracious and supportive in allowing us to discover God's immediate plan for our lives, and we wish them and
The Crossing nothing but God's best.
Lacey's already written about it, but on June 1 we embark on a new journey, although it's not all that new. The culmination of preparation over the past 6 years (
SAGU/
The Oaks,
Harvest Time,
The Crossing, and the
Glocalnet Internship with
Bob Roberts) has led us to this point. Through mutual friends,
Nathan and
Ricky, I connected with
John. We will be joining the
Gateway family in San Antonio/ Helotes to lead the student ministry and facilitate their new church planting internship.
What a challenge, but we are anxiously looking forward to our new endeavor. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around some of the possibilities. I would appreciate your prayers as we take the next step in our journey.
Labels: personal
gaining and sustaining momentum
The first session of Catalyst One Day in Dallas kicked off with Andy Stanley hitting on momentum. One of the things I appreciate about Andy is that his approach is both systematic and spiritual. - Momentum creates a new set of problems that makes it difficult to sustain.
- What will my level of tolerance be for a lack of momentum?
- Andy’s definition of momentum: Forward motion fueled by a series of wins.
- Components of momentum: new, improvement, and improving.
- Momentum is never triggered by tweaking something old. It is triggered by introducing something new.
- People have a hard time letting go of bad ideas, so the new must be noticeably better than the old.
- Good stories can support bad ideas, but everything must be evaluated, including the good and the great. The clock is ticking on its success.
- If momentum is slipping, you can rarely regain it by simply doing what you did to create it in the first place.
- What is God blessing and can a specific reason God is blessing it be identified?
Labels: conferences, development, leadership
catalyst one-day in dallas
Super excited about Catalyst today for a myriad of reasons: - Andy Stanley- never heard him live, so I can't wait.
- John and Drew- first time to officially hang out with them while a part of Gateway.
- Steve Fee- I first heard Steve lead worship at a Passion One Day in 2003. Incredible then and incredible now.
- It's in Dallas- actually about 20 minutes from our apartment. What a short trip to a great conference.
- It's Catalyst. Never been, so I get a little taste today.
Craig Groeschel and Andy will be sharing some thoughts about church, leadership, momentum, and more. And Craig has bit hittin' on some core questions on his blog lately that I'm glad someone in his position is publicly asking, because a lot of other people are. I'll post some notes later. Labels: conferences, development
when will jesus be enough
As I sat in
Bob's house for our second
Glocalnet internship meeting last October, Bob was describing his story of God's work in his life. As he told us that God had asked him this question several years before ("When will Jesus be enough"), God whispered it to my heart in that moment as well.
Honestly, I knew my answer; but I wasn't completely prepared to deal with the question at that time, so I pushed it out of my mind. It just kept resurfacing though over and over again within the past several months during the course of my daily time with God.
Jesus wasn't enough for me. I wanted him to be, but he wasn't. It wasn't that I didn't love him; I did. But I wasn't satisfied with what he freely offered, grace and love. At the depths of my heart, I wanted significance, fulfilled ambition, and recognition. The irony is none of this is really free. For the first time in my life, I feel like I understand what God's grace is. Nothing I can do will ever be enough, because it's not about doing enough. I can't earn it by sinning less or diminish it by sinning more. That's the beauty of it. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (
Romans 5:8) He already gave everything to love me at my worst, so his love for me is not contingent upon what I do or don't do. It just is. He loves me because I am his creation; he loves me for who I am.
The more I go after God, the more Jesus is becoming enough. And it’s a liberating process. E
. Stanley Jones was right when he said these two things: "The very heart of the Kingdom of God was a losing of oneself in order to find a larger self," and "Self surrender is the door to abundant life, and there is no other door." I'm walking through that door.
Labels: christianity, development, leadership, ministry
