On February 21, while on a family vacation in Bonita Spring, FL, our family got word that Isobel June was born to Dave and Emily who are dear friends of ours and Covenant Members of Missio Dei Church.  Isobel has been diagnosed with spina bifida, which has been complicated with periodic (and very scary) episodes of apnea. Since her birth, we as a church have journeyed with them through the ups and downs of surgeries, turns for the better as well as the days, which no one wants to repeat, changes in hospitals, and eventually home where she is receiving loving in home care (here is her blog).

Over this past Memorial Day weekend, while I was in Council Bluffs, IA to officiate a wedding, my wife Laura (who is the Executive Director of Manitoqua Ministries) was “loaned out” out to them for 24 hours of hands on support. Here is the text I got back from our friends after I got back:

Thank you a million times over for givin your wife up so she could help us.  I am so thankful that God had our paths cross and hope to one day to be able to serve your family the way you have served us.  Love you guys

My immediate response: “No problem whatsoever! That is what friends and family do!” And its true, when calls for prayer come up, we answer them. If financial issues arise, we come alongside. We grow deeper in our walk with Christ together. Our lives are often interrupted, as we get involved in each other’s lives.

As a church plant pastor in the southwest burbs of Chicagoland, I have found it very easy to get caught up in the busy, day-to-day ministry in the local church while quickly forgetting or maybe not giving enough attention to the fact that we are connected covenantally to a bigger family. For the past couple years, I have taken a mild interest in the goings on of General Synod. As we move closer to  “organizing” (not a big fan of this terminology as it infers that church plants are "unorganized", but that may be another post) I am finding myself taking a deeper interest in General Synod in particular.  Probably the greatest reason for my interest is so that I can take a deeper glance behind the curtain into the life of the denomination as a whole.

Am I really looking forward to six to seven days away from my wife and kids and ministry to the Missio Dei Church family? Honestly, not really. However, I am looking to forward to an interrupted life as I offer my ears and voice and get more involved in the life of the RCA.

Written by Elder Brandon Jacobson

God’s word says in 1 Samuel 10:21-22 "He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot.  But when they sought him, he could not be found.  So they inquired again of the Lord, “Is there a man still to come?” and the Lord said, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.” 

As the Israelites had rejected God in their hearts and asked for a King, God chose Saul to rule as the first King over Israel.  Saul’s response to this calling was to hide among the baggage.  Something scared him enough about this call to leadership that he hid from it amongst some bags.  I am convicted of this act by Saul because at times I have hid among the baggage, instead of being faithful to lead.  Do you ever feel this way? Sometimes we hide from small acts of leadership, and sometimes large.  Some are formal, and others informal.  Examples of areas of leadership might be speaking a word of truth when needed to family or friends, standing for your convictions, making decisions, leading in your marriage or relationship, or taking a formal role as a leader in church or an organization you serve in.  

The way Saul tried to hide from being proclaimed King was among the baggage.  So where do you go to hide from areas God is calling you to?  Is it by spending more time than you should at work, justifying the fact that you are needing to provide for your family, or by spending too much time watching tv, or by immersing yourself in video games or the internet.  None of these are innately bad, but when chosen over being faithful to God by immersing yourself in things over Him, these can lead to apathy in our leadership. Maybe, instead of struggling with one of the areas above, you believe that you do not have the capacity to lead or that God hasn’t put you in a position to lead.  Remember, leadership isn’t always formal, and God has given all of us areas of influence to be leaders within, whether in work, at home, or with friends.  All of us are people of influence.

So how do we become the leaders that God has called us to be?  Ultimately, Saul was rejected by God as king over Israel because he had turned his back from following God and performing His commandments (1 Samuel 15:10-11).  We see an alternative to Saul’s leadership in the man of David. David was called a “man after his (God’s) own heart” (1 Sam 13:13-14).  Ultimately, this commitment to God, and his desire to seek God’s glory, brought David to leadership.  I want to be the type of man who, when the opportunity comes to step up, does like David.  

The example of David and Goliath, though familiar, is starkly different than what we see with Saul.  When trying to be discouraged from fighting Goliath, David responds “Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”  And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”  (1 Samuel 17:36-37).  David understood that it was not by his power alone that he was able to succeed, but by God’s.  

David was certainly not a perfect man, but his heart’s desire for God, along with his knowledge that it was by God’s strength that he could lead, was a powerful combination.  What would it look like for you to grow into this type of leadership?  It is most likely different for each of us, but here are some thoughts to meditate on:

- Are you a man after God’s heart?  The primary way to seek God is through his word.  Do you have a regular time of study of God’s word?

- Are you in an encouraging relationship with other Christians who you can pursue God with? This might be a small group, one-on-one discipleship, or men’s ministry.

- Do you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ?  The most powerfully transforming truth in our leadership, and all of life, is the Gospel.  If you have believed in Jesus Christ, and repented of your sins, then the Bible says that you have the same power in you that raised Jesus from the dead, and that power will give you life (Romans 8:11).  It is through the power given to us in the Holy Spirit that we are able to lead as David did.

Brothers, I love you and want to encourage you along whatever path of life you are in right now. I hope that we can all be men that step up to be leaders by the power of the Holy Spirit instead of hiding among the baggage!!

Brandon

"there are so many false metrics out there in which we try to measure our worth.. (thats what I am thinking about)."

Now I am not totally sure what my Facebook friend was referring to in his status update, but as a church planter/pastor something inside me resonated. What are the metrics by which we determine success? 

• In our denomination, we have a goal of starting 400 new churches by 2014. If we do not reach the goal of 400, does that mean that the denomination has failed?
• Is the metric for success the number of attenders in a given worship service or is new believer baptisms over the course of a year?
• Is success found in our weekly offerings? Does operating in the black necessarily mean that a church is 100% healthy? Or is it how much we give away to local and/or international missions?
• Is it determined by how many programs a church has to offer? Does the church have a rockin' kids' ministry with a play land and full band? Do you have a VBS program? A men and women’s ministry? How about a thriving social justice chapter?
• Do you have a building? Hmmmm…
• Is success determined by how we line up with our denominational standards (use or non-use of liturgy, egalitarian or complementarian leadership, conservative or liberal theology, adherence to the Book of Church Order, etc.)?

How would you define “success”? 

P.S. - Is success even the wrong word to use?

God willing, on Sunday, June 13, we are going to be ordaining three of our Covenant Members to diaconal ministry (deacons) for the church.  Honestly, as a church we have spent a lot of time looking at who and elder is and what an elder does, but we have not spent much time on who should be a deacon nor asked the question about the difference between and Elder and a Deacon.  One thing that I want to talk about to get us thinking about Deacons is a common mistake in many churches’ and denominations’ polities (government) in the misappropriation of spiritual authority to a plurality of deacons instead of to a plurality of elders. Too often, I have seen and heard of deacons put into positions where they are determining (whether collectively or individually) the spiritual direction which the church is taking. Today I want to work towards dispelling the myths behind this error. 

Deacons have no spiritual authority over the church.

Why were deacons (or “the diaconate”) created in the first place? During the ministry of the apostles, it was determined that individuals needed to be selected for meeting the physical needs of the local church. In Acts 6, the apostles noted,

 “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:3–4, ESV)

The disciples then selected men to function as servants in the church. These men were the beginning of, or a precursor to, the diaconate.

Have you ever compared the different qualifications for elders and deacons? 1 Timothy 3 is a great resource for this because Paul lists some of the qualifications for deacons immediately following his list for elders. Some of the qualifications in these lists explicitly overlap each other: each is to be above reproach, the husband of one wife, respectable, not a drunkard, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. However there are other requirements that differ significantly.

The first difference I would like to point out is in the titles themselves: in this passage, elder is translated as “overseer” and deacon, in the original language, means “servant” or “helper”. Only elders are required to be “able to teach” (v 2) and “not be a recent convert” (v 6). Paul says that an elder must not be recent convert because “he may become puffed up with conceit.” I don’t think people typically become puffed up because they now have the title of “servant.”

Let’s consider one qualification more closely. A requirement for elders is that “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.” (1 Timothy 3:4–6, ESV) but deacons have a much shorter version requiring that they “[manage] their children and their own households well” (v 12). The requirements are the same, but the implications are different: only the elders’ management of his household is brought over as indicative of his care for the church. Perhaps this is because there is no need for the church to be submissive to deacons as they are to elders.

Can women be deacons or, more properly, deaconesses? Ahhhhh… the question of the day!  Scripturally, I do not believe that there is a clear “no” to this question. This is, of course, assuming that deacons have no spiritual authority over the church. If deacons had spiritual authority over the church, then the answer would be more obvious, but that is not the case.

Consider with me one requirement for deacons that is not listed as a requirement for elders: “Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things” (v 11 ESV). It is very interesting that this requirement would be explicitly defined for deacons’ wives, but not elders’. The same verse in the NASB reads “Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.” Perhaps this verse is not written to the wives of the deacons, but to female deacons themselves. It is reasonable to think that Paul offered this sentence to be specific about something women deacons would struggle with more than male deacons, namely, gossiping. In the original language, the word used could be rightly translated as “women” or “wives,” which allows room for both interpretations. One must consider, however, that the noun has no possessor (their) in the original language (Gunaikas), therefore, rendering a translation like “their wives” a bit of a stretch.

Consider also, Romans 16, where Paul writes in his salutations, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae…” (Romans 16:1, ESV). As you may recall “deacon” simply means servant, and that is the word used of Pheobe here. There is room for either translation, but both are valid renderings. If it is possible for women to be deaconesses, then the spiritual authority given to deacons should be considered carefully.

In closing, I should note that I mean what I say in this article, but I do not mean more than I say. When I say that “Deacons have no spiritual authority over the church” I do not mean that the work of a deacon is not spiritual in nature. Although a deacon is to primarily serve physical needs in the church, we Christians know that, inherently, something on a spiritual level is being given and received. I also do not mean that deacons are undeserving of respect. There are qualifications for deacons because the role is important and worthy of respect!

I say what I say to emphasize that it is not the role of the deacons to shepherd the church – that responsibility lies solely with the elders.

What do you think? What has been your experience been when it comes to deacons within the church? How should deacons be led or lead within churches? Is the diaconate an inherently masculine group? Make some noise below!

DOWNLOAD THE PAX VOBIS

I know when some of you hear the word “liturgy” you start breaking out into hives, so let me explain what liturgy really means. With its roots in λειτουργία (leitourgia), liturgy means "public work" or "public servant." In other words, all that we do, think, say before others... others in our homes, in our places of work, in our communities.... we humbly offer that this is our liturgy, our public service, before people, and before our all encompassing God. In no way is liturgy to mean rote, empty ritual, but rather

...liturgy is a school where through sign and symbol, word and music, our minds and hearts are formed to be in union with the movement of God, with God Himself. ~ Fr. M. Basil Pennington

Liturgy is our daily, vibrant movement with God Himself through the reading, memorization, and meditating on Scripture, the singing of hymns, through the cup and the bread. Liturgy is our pressing into the heart of God and moving with Him. Days, wild and crazy days of family life, need order, scaffolding, sacred rhythms. If we say God is at the center, so we order the tangle of our days around Him: we commune with Him through the liturgical, sacred everyday rhythms of our public work, our daily service, our vocation. And He untangles us.

My prayer is that Pax Vobis will be the place where we are stretched in how we think about and live out our everyday worship/service to Jesus Christ, the one who has redeemed us.

Peace be with you…

(Read Pax Vobis in its entirety by downloading it here!)

Honestly, I was scared that the same might be true for Missio Dei Church, but it hasn’t been true so far.

On a weekly basis, every Thursday morning from 5:45 – 7:30 AM, Nathan and I meet together for the purpose of shepherding the church that God has entrusted to us.  This is not just a light meeting of friends but as elders who know that we will have to give an account for the church.

For the past four months, Nathan and I have been wrestling with vision, direction, refocus, redirecting, and remembering what it is that God has been and still calls us to as a local church. The process has been intentionally long, but has been a tremendous blessing to us as we even need to be reminded of the call that God has placed on us.

Out of those conversations, has come a document: Missional Vision ’10.  This document will serve as a tool and guide (for the Elders, future deacons, ministry leaders, missional community leaders, Covenant Members, and MDC family members) as we talk about the here and now and the what is to be.

At Leadership Community on Saturday, March 20, we will talk in more depth about what this really means for all of us.  In the mean time, we want to encourage you to slowly read and pray through this document, post questions or comments here in The City, and then join us on March 20 for Leadership Community (RSVP here if you haven’t already).

Peace be with you,

Paul

VISION DOCUMENT

This Sunday will be the start of Missio Dei’s fourth year of public ministry in the Lincoln-Way community.  Since the church’s earliest days, I have been extremely excited to see what God might have in store for this area if this young church would live fully devoted lives to Him (Matthew 22:37-40).  In my prayers and dreams, I was caught up in just thinking about what it would look like for the church that I pastor…

Then, it became personal.  As I have preached through Ephesians, the Gospel of Mark, and as we are walking through the Sermon on the Mount, I have come to discover in richer, more profound, Technicolor ways Jesus Christ. My life is now far more joyful and satisfying than it has ever been. In the past three years, through leading this church, discipling men, preaching through Scripture, failing at my own personal initiatives and agendas, and being found in deep meaningful community, I have found my deepest satisfaction in the fact that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me (Romans 5:8). 

As we look forward to the future that God has in store for us, I echo John Piper: “…and I want to have my sails unfurled to every movement of God's Spirit upon the deeps.” May I (we) be the type of disciple whose has been transformed and is constantly being transformed by the Gospel where my life catches the wind of God’s continuous redemptive and restorative movement in our world.

According to one website, one of the major reasons pastors are largely silent on the topic of money, possessions and giving is that there is the fear that members of the church will misconstrue the pastor's motives for talking about giving. Honestly, that is a non-issue for me.  So, here we go…

This morning, Nathan Phillips and I wrestled with a couple of things around the biblical principle of stewardship: we wrestled with how to continue encouraging the church (each and every person – member and attender) to be generous in its giving without guilting or badgering people. We wrestled with whether or not continue receiving offerings for the ongoing work in Haiti after a month of offerings totaling $2450. How do we spur the church on in its generosity for the sake of the Gospel?

As I left the meeting, I asked aloud, “God… will we ever reach the goal of 50% of whatever comes in goes right back out?  Will we?”  Immediately I was reminded of Ephesians 3:20 – 21, where Paul just breaks out into a doxology.  Just listen to these words:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

You see, God has, with sovereignty, built His church and will never let it expire (Matthew 16:18). It is through the work of church, through the work of  Missio Dei Church  (our songs of worship, our works, our giving, our whole selves), that he is glorified.

For this reason, as your leaders who love the Gospel and you deeply, we want to continue in encouraging you to remember God's generosity: Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the many blessings God has poured into your life. We all need to seek to express our thankfulness to God by giving as an act of worship, and allow His love to flow through us to others as we act in generous ways.

Missio Dei Church, the work is never over...

"...the Word of God is not intended to teach us how to chatter, or make us eloquent or subtle, but to reform our lives" - John Calvin

Last week in The Gospel Class, we went through an exercise (timelines) which was designed to help us listen carefully and pay attention to what God has been doing in each of our lives. Since Sunday evening, I have had a number of discussions with some of you about this very topic. There have been revelations, reminders, aha moments, tears, etc.

What I am finding out, as Eugene Peterson also notes, is that as we look at the stories that God has and is writing that we:

...find ourselves listening and answering matters that most concern us: who we are, where we came from, where we are going, what makes us tick, the texture of the world and the communities in which we live, and — most of all — the incredible love of God among us, doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

As a pastor who is privileged to hear some many stories, I am constantly encouraged to hear how this "incredible love" is shaping so many of you. I hear through tears how God is has taken and is taking painful situations and deeply teaching and forming you. I see smiles come across your face when you talk about from where God has rescued you and is changing you. I love the stories!

As we more fully participate in God's mission, his Spirit brings our attention to those areas of our lives we have not yet fully turned over to to his control, those areas that need God's transforming grace, and reminds each of us of the deep transformative work that has already taken place. 

The story that God has written for me and for you "calls us to personal communion with the loving Lord himself" (J.I. Paker) Paying attention to the work of his Spirit in my life has been well worth my time. It has been a constant reminder for me of God's care and provision during every single dark night of the soul, bump in the road, and joy that I have encountered. 

If you are interested in hearing how God has been working in my life, shoot me an email and I'll share my story with you in print form or in person. My Gospel story is something worth sharing and paying attention to... and so is yours.

==

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. — 1 Corinthians 2:1—5

It's pastor appreciation month and, as usual, churches around the United States take Sunday, October 25th to their pastors. I have no idea if the church that I have the privilege to lead is doing anything, but I want to take the opportunity to be the first to share my deep appreciation and love for them. 

In my mind, when I think about the church I think of a local expression and the church is specific. I want to express my love for my church even though I understand that it is far broader than my local context. I know the church is not mine in the possessive sense. When I say “my church” I mean the local church with which I live and that has captivated my heart. If you will graciously indulge me, I will speak of my love for that church, for it is all I know.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:1-4)

I love my church because:

It may seem that I see no error in my church and, for that slant, I make no apologies. The error I see, I see between nails and wood. It is my privilege and it is His command to focus on my church's beauty:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Without apology, I love my church.

Bread truck Mondays become part of my spiritual journey of relying more fully on Christ and his complete work in my life. They aren't just the crappy parts that you want to discard or forget about, but they become necessary reminders for needing the Gospel in increasing and daily ways. My prayer for myself and Missio Dei Church is that we as broken but redeemed individuals and as a broken but redeemed community make the commitment to daily re-discover the power of the Gospel in our day to day lives.

When Laura and I were being trained through Acts 29 for planting Missio Dei Church, I remember hearing Mark Driscoll talk about “bread truck Mondays.” I chuckled out loud and stored the phrase away thinking that it would never be true of me. For Driscoll a "bread truck Monday" usually comes after a week or a Sunday that was so emotionally/spiritually difficult or draining that the day after makes a pastor wish he was anything but a pastor – he would even consider being the driver of a bread truck.

For some reason I am finding myself in a season of "bread truck Mondays." Now, I don't want you to get alarmed and freak out thinking that Paul is on his way out or Missio Dei Church is taking a nose dive. I believe that every Christian goes through discouragements in their faith and the pastor is not exempt from those experiences. Jonathan McIntosh on his blog called Rethink Mission wrote an article called "It's Monday & Your Pastor Wants to Quit" where he outlines many of the reasons why pastor particularly experience these kinds of times.

I can identify with many of the things that McIntosh shared. They all ring true to one degree or another. I would be a fool to deny it. There are many long days and weeks of frustration where I ask myself, "When will the Gospel take deep root in the life of Missio Dei Church and where I will see deep, lasting transform?" I find myself frustrated with what I would consider petty arguments, apathetic attitudes, or double standards. 

So, how does a pastor deal with days, weeks, or seasons like this? This week I reread an article by Tim Keller called "The Centrality of the Gospel." In it he wrote something that was a much needed reminder:

"The main problem, then, in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not “used” the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that most people’s problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel–a failure to grasp and believe it through and through."

Here is the beautiful and redemptive part of this all. It is speaking to me just as much as it is speaking to you. As I look more deeply into the Gospel and apply it it more fully in all the parts of my life, the "bread truck Mondays" take on a different role in my walk with Christ. I find that when I get frustrated with squabbles and apathy and want out of it, I need to cling more closely to the cross "for it is the power of God for salvation"(Romans 1:16). "So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival," according to Keller, "is the continual re-discovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel - seeing more of its truth. This is true for either an individual or a church." 

Bread truck Mondays become an essential part of my spiritual journey of relying more fully on Christ and his complete work in my life. They aren't just the crappy parts that you want to discard or forget about, but they become necessary reminders for needing the Gospel in increasing and daily ways. My prayer for myself and Missio Dei Church is that we as broken but redeemed individuals and as a broken but redeemed community make the commitment to daily re-discover the power of the Gospel in our day to day lives.

God calls us to help those in need, to be in community, to use our gifts, and above all else to love others. God gave our family a heart for the broken and a heart for children. For our family, Lydia Homes was God's way of opening up our eyes to the perfect opportunity to use our gifts for His glory. We have been blessed and challenged by the recent placement of Denica (two years old) into our home.

When people hear about what we are doing we hear them say, "That's so awesome,” or “You guys are so great." Hearing those things make us both uncomfortable. Of course the people who are saying these things mean them as encouragement, but we really don't want to be "recognized" for doing something that for us seems… natural.

God has blessed us with a community of people called Missio Dei Church, a fantastic family, and a supportive work environment. We stepped out in faith to help a little girl, but we did not step out alone. As we felt God BANGING on the door to take this foster care placement, we took a step knowing we had a group of people with love to give stepping with us (even if they didn't know it at the time). Others have felt called to help out and walk beside us on this journey. It's been amazing to see this community of faith come together to help during the day, offer clothes, diapers, and food. It's our prayer that Denica may remember this time in her life, as brief as it may be, as a time when she felt loved by many; where she gathered a glimpse of God's love pouring out for her.

God continues to encourage us each step of the way with the people He touches through this experience. It is everything from a PE teacher's daughter giving up one of her favorite dollies to a stranger giving from his pocket book. God is moving. When we talk about being in Mission for God, for our family this is the most natural way, right now, to act.

• Lydia Homes


• Safe Families for Children

For the past three summers we have "cancelled" worship on Sunday morning here in Mokena!  Instead we transplanted our church for the weekend to Potatoe Creek State Park in North Liberty, IN.  Sixty-five people roughed it in tents and/or campers.  We were able to laugh and eat together, build community, and start an impromtu choir. We built memories!  The weekend was capped of by the church preaching the sermon!  That's right!  We encouraged each person to consider what God has been doing in their life over the past year and to share it with the church!  It was incredible!  (Check out the pictures of this great trip!)

Missio Dei came alongside the Strong Tower Ministry of Roseland Christian Ministries by providing the staff and residents a great day at Camp Manitoqua.  With the help of the Social Work Department at Trinity Christian College we were able to offer a workshop for the Day Staff (Reflect and Rejuvenate) and the mothers (Envisioning the Future).  The day was filled with building relationships, eating great food, playing games, and swimming.  An amazing team pulled this day together that blessed the Strong Tower Ministry.  Check out the pictures from that great day!

We have built a connection with Grace Fellowship Church who is also located in Mokena. Last summer we worshiped together for seven weeks.  This summer we did only one week, but it was great!

On Thursday, July 30 we found out that Mokena Elementary School would not be available for our use. That's right, three days before Sunday. We got to see Missio Dei Church to punt and be flexible! Since MDC values community (one of our three core values) we had an open-house style breakfast/fellowship at the Vroom's home from 10:00-11:30 AM! It was a great morning of community and amazing food!  Again, a great team of people made it all happen!

One of the things we are working hard at is building intentional and authentic relationship with Roseland Christian Ministries and Roseland Christian Reformed Church. Because of that we participated in corporate worship with them (leading part of worship and tag-team style preaching).  Additionally we built relationships with them by having a potluck lunch after worship! After our potluck we handed out backpacks (Click here for that exciting story!)  Check out the pictures from that day!

Are there things that we learned along the way... absolutely! Here they are:

• Length and Breadth: The Kingdom of God is broader than my own personal world! Worshiping with other churches teaches you a lot about the Kingdom of God, other cultures, and leadership and worship styles.  It has shown me the beauty of the urban church as well!
• Uniqueness: Each church is called to be a part of what God is doing.  There are no cookie cutter patterns that church plants should fall into.  Each one is diverse as its location, its leadership, and God's particular call on them.
• Restraint.  Although there are many very good things to be a part of, there are also seasons in each church's life.  As much as we would love to do it all, we can't. That is why there are many different expressions of the Body of Christ.   
• Reflect: What is it that God is calling us to do or to be about?  Why are we doing what we are doing? What will it cost (time, talent, treasure) us if we do it?  What will it cost us if we don't do it?  Are we being faithful to Scripture and to the call that God has placed on us?
• Rest.  Slow down.  Enjoy.  Take the time to breathe.  Without doing this, you will die.

It's quiet in my house this morning. Both girls are sleeping and I finally have a moment to sit in peace and write down my experience and my thoughts that have been circling in my head. When I agreed to take on the Backpack project for Roseland, my expectations were that I would send out some emails, wait for the backpacks to come and in and then deliver them to Roseland on Sunday, August 16th. I knew it would fulfill an important purpose, but honestly, I must confess that I thought it would be a simple project.

John and I come home with 17 backpacks. We already had 3 at home and I knew we had 5 - 6 out there that had not been delivered. Today was the deadline and we had 25 - 26 backpacks. What happened? We had sent out the emails, put it on Facebook, put it in the bulletin and made an announcement. Our goal had been published at 75. Just a few weeks ago, we easily met our goal of 47 games for Roseland. Why didn't people respond to this one? Excuses of being a nomadic church, the economy and others surfaced in our conversation.

I talked with Paul. We agreed to send an email explaining where we were at in the process in order to try to get a few backpacks. We can't show up with 25 backpacks for 70 plus children!! Then I get a phone call - "I have 5 backpacks plus 13 empty backpacks!" Wow, I have not even sent out the email and we have 31 plus 13 empty. How am I going to fill 13 empty backpacks? Idea: If people donate, I can go shopping!

6:00am - I send Paul the email and within 15 minutes he sends it on to his list. By 7am, we get our first $25 donation. That was quick! Throughout the morning, I receive phone calls and emails asking questions or telling me they have backpacks or supplies. I continue to get texts and emails from Paul saying more donations have come in. I realize - I have to keep track of all of these details or I am going to have no idea what we have for Sunday. So I start a list and I also start to get excited about the response. Wow, people are coming through. At 4:45pm, I load my car up with 20 backpacks from one donor alone!! What are you doing? He responds, "You asked!" I laugh and drive my full van home!

John and I sit down at 5am to figure this all out. I have to go shopping today and I have to be organized. I start to add everything up. We received $425 in donations - Praise God! Plus backpacks. I realize I now have 51 completed backpacks! I still have 13 empty backpacks to fill. What a change from Monday. Then, item by item, I write down what I think each thing costs. I figure out what I need to purchase to fill the 13 backpacks. I still have over $250 left. If each backpack is $20 - 25 a piece, I can get an additional 11 complete backpacks. Did you do the math yet? 51 + 13 + 11 = 75!! Do you see? Do you get it? I could not have organized it this way. There is no way that any of us could have known that each response would lead to exactly 75 backpacks - Our goal!! John and I sit there in tears at the awesome power of our God and Saviour. We are going to have 75 packs to take to Roseland.

Now I can't wait to go shopping! I call Laura TenClay, the volunteer coordinator and our contact at Roseland for this project. I wanted to make sure that we were buying appropriately. What happens if we go over 80 packs - can they use this number? We agree they can use that many packs as well as additional supplies for older students. With their different ministries, they use the supplies in various ways for these students in the community. Shopping is over and I come home totaling my receipts. There were some good deals - notebooks for a penny at Staples! I know we didn't spend everything - in fact, we only spent $300 ($299.77 to be exact!!). I still had $125 to go - Wow! More packs to come. I find out that 9 more packs were brought to camp on Wednesday also!

I show up to camp and there is another check in my box with a donation. What is going on? People who do not even attend Missio Dei continue to respond. About 3pm in the afternoon, I get a call from another person outside of Missio Dei interested in helping with the project. We discussed what has happened and I honestly explained that we have reached our goal so I understand if she chooses to not donate. She still responds and sends in a sizeable check. I am in awe! But what do we do. She has expressed her flexibility in what we do with the money so I know that perhaps we need to do something besides buy more backpacks.

After talking with Nathan Phillips and Paul Vroom, we agree that I will call Laura Ten Clay again!! I explain to Laura that I have 90 backpacks plus $500 in donations that Nathan and Paul agreed we shouldn't spend on backpacks. She asks "How many backpacks can you buy for that money?". "Probably another 30 packs since I actually averaged under $20 per pack." She laughs and giggles in excitement. Then she explains her ideas of what we could do with the money. We can purchase more expensive items for the older students or they have an after school program that they do not have funding for. She explains it is about $750 to fund for the year! I said, "Did you say $750?" Then I explain to her that I not only have $500 but I also have $150 that I was going to still spend on supplies. That is $650 of your funding! She says to me "Leah, that would be an answer to prayer. I was just struggling today wondering if we were going to be able to continue that program for this year!"

Again, my heart leaps through my chest as I realize how God has prompted everything this week: from each person responding with a donation, a backpack and supply to the details of my shopping. I could have spent every penny. But no, He prompted me to wait! This can't get any better! At the end of my work day on Thursday, 2 more completed packs show up and 1 bag of supplies for a complete pack - but no pack. I think, well I could go buy another bag. But I remember my promise to Laura. "I won't spend another penny." Bummer I think - it would be nice to have another pack. My thought continue to "maybe John and I can buy another one."

I go shopping for groceries and think "I could buy that pack." But I really feel that I should not buy it. I sense that either God will provide another pack or we will just have loose supplies to take. In the afternoon, I get a call from Julie at camp. She says, "Hey, another empty backpack was just dropped off. How can I get it to you since Matt and I are leaving tonight?" I smile - another detail covered by God!

I guess this wasn't such a simple project after all!

My wife says I need a prayer filter. You see, I pray that God sends us messy people and He always seems to answer and often it is uncomfortable. Sometimes God sends us new people on Sunday mornings whose lives are messy and are looking for hope that the world cannot offer. Sometimes it is from within our church family… we finally are honest with our own mess and we allow the good news of Jesus to penetrate those closed off areas. 

Messiness = Gospel Opportunities

In our earliest days as a church, we wrestled with the question, “What does the church look like when it is being faithful to the Gospel?” We wondered and continue to wonder two years into this life together with that question. 

• What does it look like when the people of God are continually transformed by the Gospel and truly live into it?
• What happens when we are deeply affected by the live giving power of the Gospel? Do we hoard it? Do we share it?
• How does it affect our free time? Our relationships? Our world view? Our relationships with our neighbors? Our use of our time? Our finances?
• How does it affect how we love and care for those who are deeply wounded by the Fall (Genesis 3) and have not given their life to Jesus Christ?

Even our mission statement reiterates our longing to Missio Dei Church “to be a church with passionate faith in Jesus Christ that sacrificially loves, serves those in need, and draws people into an ever-deepening relationship with God.” 

So, how do we practically do this? Who are those in need? Well, how about considering this for starters? This week, I took the opportunity to attend the Exodus International’s Freedom Conference which was held on Wheaton College’s campus. Exodus International is known for its gospel ministry to the gay and lesbian community. 

Hmmm… gospel ministry to the gay and lesbian community. Where are you bringing us Paul? Trust me, I can read some of your minds! Some of your hearts have started to race, palms are sweating, and you want to run for the hills. I need you to hear from me, as your pastor, that I understand. Even today, as I was interviewed by Julie Roys from WMBI Radio, I publically admitted that in my heart I was homophobic and am continuing God to transform my heart and mind. 

Where those fears come from, I don’t know, but I believe that God is calling us as a church to be faithful. God has given us (corporately and individually) the Gospel and it is a tremendous gift. Are we willing to live into the gospel in such away that we share it with those who are struggling with homosexuality?

Graham Cole, Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, lead a workshop at The Gospel Coalition called “Homosexuality and the Bible: Texts, Hermeneutics, and Pastoral Wisdom.” In the question and answer session, he said something that has stuck with me:

Gay and lesbian folk will, humanly speaking, will have a hard time seeing the good news of the Gospel unless they meet Christians who are actually a living hermeneutic of that Gospel by the way in which they model care, forgiveness, new creation and so on.

Am I, as a follower of Jesus Christ, a “living hermeneutic of that Gospel” by the way that I live? Are we as followers of Jesus Christ living hermeneutics? As we gather and scatter, are we sharing and modeling the power of the Gospel? I’m not so sure. Don’t get me wrong. I think that some of us are really living and breathing hermeneutics of the Gospel. We offer love, forgiveness, and share how Jesus has rescued us. We look beyond the outer shell of a person and see the pain beneath. We offer our hand of friendship and walk with people towards Jesus. Yet, there are others of us who like playing it safe. We prefer to keep our hands clean and our homes locked up tight to keep our families, time, finances, relationships, etc. safe and secure. 

But here’s the reality, this isn’t just about ministering to those who struggle with homosexuality. It is much bigger than that! We can take that same quote from Graham Cole, remove the phrase “Gay and lesbian folk” and we can insert any phrase in its place and it will still be true and the need is just as great!

______________will, humanly speaking, will have a hard time seeing the good news of the Gospel unless they meet Christians who are actually a living hermeneutic of that Gospel by the way in which they model care, forgiveness, new creation and so on.

As I listen to stories here at the Freedom Conference, my prayer for Missio Dei Church is that we can confess with the Apostle Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). I pray that we will all (and that includes you) become a “living hermeneutic” that God will use to minister to all who are lost (heterosexual and homosexual, old and young, wealthy and poor, educated and uneducated, married and single etc.) so that God will be glorified and that the body of Christ may be more complete. 

As David Livingstone once said, "If we wait till we run no risk, the gospel will never be introduced into the interior." Are you willing to take every God-given opportunity and make the most of it?

Week after week, I pour hours into my sermon preparation. I spend time reading, re-reading, reading different versions of the text, reading what other faithful and historical expositors and pastors have had to say about the Scripture for the week. I spend time praying through the words. I wrestle with what these very words are saying to me well before I consider my hearers.

This week, in preparation for preaching on Mark 10:46 - 52, I read through a sermon called “The Blind Man’s Earnest Cries” which given on August 20, 1865 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Newington, London by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. One particular sentence early on jumped out to me regarding my hearers:

“The preacher is responsible for the faithfulness of his preaching, but hearers are also responsible for the earnestness of their hearing!"

Our daily lives are filled with millions of things and each thing is telling us that it is more important than the next. Our kid’s soccer game or ballet recital screams at us for our attention. Our daily duties at our place of work or in our homes are often places of inordinate amount of pressure for performance or, dare I say it, self-induced perfection. We are early to rise and racing out the door then dragging ourselves to bed exhausted. All the while, starving ourselves, begging for bits when we can have nothing but the best.

Bartimaeus was blind and a beggar by trade. Since his eyes were blind, his ears were highly trained to hear what others might not hear. Daily he would sit along the road wrapped in his cloak, seeking the generosity of passerbys, hoping they would remember what is required of them by law. Day in and day out he would find his spot where he would listen to the shuffling of feet and for voices, praying for a coin here or there. 

However, today was different for him. His eyes were darkened from his blindness, but his ears perked up because heard that Jesus of Nazareth was coming near. Through the din of the crowd, a voice was heard calling out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

I wonder how often we miss hearing Jesus even in our corporate gatherings because of our rat race lives. I would dare say we miss him a lot.

To help the church in her mission, I as the Lead Pastor (founding elder) have been intentionally slow in the process of identifying, training and ordaining elders as I want to make sure that we have the right men, in the right places, for the right reasons, with the right training all for the glory of God. These elders need to lead the church, teach and preach the Word, protect the church from false teachers, exhort and admonish the saints with sound doctrine, visit the sick and pray, and judge doctrinal issues.

This Missional Elder Development has been a long and difficult process that started in September of 2008 and will be finished at the end of May.  Every week at 6:00 AM, we would meet together for an hour and a half to wrestle through many things in this training and discernment process.  This upcoming Wednesday morning (April 1), the Elder Candidates will be sharing with each other whether or not they have been called to the ministry of being an elder for Missio Dei Church.  The three men are Andy Birk, Matt Boomsma, and Nathan Phillips.

For these three men pondering a call to ministry, a firm grip on the Gospel is vital. Edmund Clowney gets it right:

There is no call to the ministry that is not first a call to Christ. You dare not lift your hands to place God’s name in blessing on his people until you have first clasped them in penitent petition for his saving grace. Until you have done that the issue you face is not really your call to the ministry. It is your call to Christ.”

When God calls a man to ministry, a man will do well to remember that both his salvation and his service come from God and are aimed at returning us to God. As Os Guinness says, “First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not to something (such as motherhood, politics, or teaching) or to somewhere (such as the inner city or Outer Mongolia).”

These men also need to consider these words from notable men of God regarding the importance of the Church which is the Bride of Christ.  Dr. R.C. Sproul has called the church “the most important institution on this planet.”  A century earlier, Charles Spurgeon called her “the dearest place on earth.” John Stott warns, “More than ever we need to catch the biblical vision of the church.”  Elton Trueblood wrote, “Perhaps the greatest single weakness of the contemporary Christian Church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all and, what is worse, do not think it strange that they are not.”

The Reformed Pastor, Puritan divine Richard Baxter says this regarding a man’s call and his view towards the church:

Nor is a man fitted to be a minister of Christ who does not have the proper public spirit towards the Church. He needs to delight in its beauty, long for its happiness, seek for its good, and rejoice in its welfare. He must be willing to spend and to be spent for the sake of the Church.

The ultimate test of a called man is whether he desires the advancement of the gospel more than the advancement of his own ministry or even his own ego. This is the constant, daily test for the called man. Thomas Watson in  The Godly Man’s Picture wisely said,

A humble man is willing to have his name and gifts eclipsed, so that God’s glory may be increased. He is content to be outshone by others in gifts and esteem, so that the crown of Christ may shine the brighter. This is the humble man’s motto: “Let me decrease; let Christ increase.” It is his desire that Christ should be exalted, and if this is effected, whoever is the instrument, he rejoices. “Some preach Christ of envy”  (Php 1:15). They preached to take away some of Paul’s hearers. “Well,” says he, “Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice” (v 18). A humble Christian is content to be laid aside if God has any other tools to work with which may bring him more glory.

This is my prayer for these three men as they discern God’s leading.  May they be content to be laid aside if God has any other men to work with which may bring him more glory.  Would you join me in praying for and with them in this process?

Edmund P. Clowney, Called to the Ministry (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1964) p 5

The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville, TN: Word, 1998) p 31.

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (Portland, OR: Multnomah, 1982) p 69

The church of our day urgently needs to heed the message of this second letter of Paul to Timothy. For all around us we see Christians and churches relaxing their grasp of the gospel, fumbling it, in danger of letting it drop from their hands altogether. A new generation of young Timothys is needed, who will guard the sacred deposit of the gospel, who are determined to proclaim it and are prepared to suffer for it, and who will pass it on pure and uncorrupted to the generation which in due course will rise up to follow them. – John Stott (p. 13)

This stuff just sends chills up my spine! It is my hope that each Sunday you hear the good, pure, and pure Gospel proclaimed and are urged to again give your life to the the faithful pursuit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because of those deep convictions, three elder candidates have been meeting weekly at 6:00 AM since September '08 and will be concluding their preparation for ordination this May.  The framework I developed came from the Acts 29 Boot Camp that I attended in 2006 and from the book Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church by Mark Driscoll.  It has four components:

Christology:  Our Christology is really the starting point for everything. This really is the centerpiece of it all.  Who is Jesus, what has he accomplished and what has he sent us to do?  In this section we looked at what really is this Gospel? What is propitiation?  What is Gospel-repentance?  What is our Gospel-story?  What does it look like to have a biblical (reformed) worldview that has Christ in the center? 

We started out keeping the main thing the main thing!  Church health is not about unique systems of doctrine, or the promotion of special interest groups that defend the right issues. Furthermore, a healthy church does not make human wisdom, or even pulpit eloquence, the centerpiece of its ministry. The church is at its best, and thus is the healthiest, when it keeps "the main thing" the main thing, that is when it makes Christ primary.

Ecclesiology: Naturally, we had to ask the next question, "If Christ is to be primary for the church, then how does the Bible tell us to structure our church leadership so that our church can most effectively be God's missionary to our culture?"  We have been defining what biblical eldership is by going in back to the only God-given, authoritative source of authentic Christianity, text of the Holy Scripture. 

Missiology: As a church, we are entrusted with the gospel and are motivated by it to share its hope-filled message with others. A church on mission primarily understands the centrality of the gospel when it is scattered into the places of work and recreation, in our day to day lives. John Piper in Let The Nations be Glad (p. 17) said, "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever." With a proper understanding of why we are on mission we can answer the question, "How can we most effectively expand God's Kingdom where we are sent?"

Ministry: Finally, each elder candidate and every other believer for that matter has to ask the questions, "How does Jesus want me to help serve his mission our culture through our church?"   Each candidate must write out a self-analysis of their gifts and passions and how they will be used as an elder.

So, as we come to the close of their time of preparation and discernment, your prayers are coveted!  Below are some ways that you can be praying for them:

• For wisdom and discernment in these final months
• For the elder candidates and their wives and children:  Andy (Tara and Carsten) Birk, Matt (Julie and Logan) Boomsma, and Nathan (Sarah, Abigail, and Mia) Phillips.  
• For what the next phase. Once ordained, what does the ministry life of a missional elder look like? How do we spend our time as elders?  How do we shepherd those who God has entrusted us with?  How do we continue to keep Jesus Christ primary in all that we do?
• For that next round of Missional Elder Development which will start this upcoming September.  Who is "aspiring to the office of overseer"?

As always, your prayers are coveted!

Peace be with you...

Paul

Author Will Miller posted these thoughts on his website, fridgerights.blogspot.com. He’s the author of the book, Refrigerator Rights, in which he challenges us to have such hospitality that people feel free to open our fridge to find something refreshing... without the need to ask and without either of you feeling awkward or uncomfortable. How many people in your life have “refrigerator rights”? 

Miller’s contention is hospitality is a lost art in American society, today. We have grown increasingly private. In the past, our homes were places where community gathered. Now, they are fortresses protecting us from the others around us.

So, what is hospitality? Basically it is being a “lover of strangers.” That’s the full meaning of the word hospitality. I think too often we undersell the concept of hospitality within the church or even in our homes. We say to our friends after a summer BBQ, “Thanks for hosting the party! You’re so hospitable.” You may say something similar to a family member who opened up an extra bedroom for you as you passed through their town on vacation. Don’t get me wrong, this is a form of hospitality. But, it’s easy hospitality. Friends and family should always have a place in our home. But consider these questions:

• What about strangers?


• What about people you don’t know who cross your path and have a need for food, shelter and care?


• Have we isolated ourselves from such people or have we prepared our lives and homes to embrace them when God brings them our way?

It is my hope that Missio Dei Church is known as an authentically caring and inviting community of followers of Jesus, but I know for a fact that is probably isn’t a 100% true. In fact, the very word “hospitality” scares some of us because it requires that we allow people into our space or comfort zone. For others of us, we quickly write it off thinking that other people have that gift… not me!

Because of this, we will be having an ALL CHURCH TRAINING at our next Leadership Community (Saturday, January 17, 9:00 – 11:00 AM). We have invited a guest speaker, Nadia Swearingen-Friesen, to come in to walk us through some basics in hospitality so that we all can become “lovers of strangers.” Plan on being there!

In the meantime, start thinking through what true Christ-like hospitality could and should look like when practiced when we gather on Sunday mornings for corporate worship and when we scatter to our neighborhoods and places of work. What would it look like if your house group practiced this kind of hospitality? Dream a little bit with me here!

One of the things that brought Luther to the point of posting his 95 thesis was his love for Scripture. This Sunday, you will find in our aisles new English Standard Version Bibles.

I have been using the ESV over the past year for my personal studies and sermon preparation. I have found this translation to be nothing short than a blessing.

You might be wondering, "Why make the change from the New International Version (NIV) to the ESV? Is there something wrong with the NIV?" The short answer is no. The ESV is an "essentially literal" translation thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original.

This Sunday, there will be brochures for you to look through if you want more information as well as order forms. If you would like to place an order with the church and have it delivered the following week to church, you may do so. You will need to fill out a provided order form and have a check or credit card ready. Order forms will be due Sunday, November 9.

However, I would encourage you to check out the Good News and Crossway's website ahead of time to peruse through the different styles. Children's Bible and an Illustrated Family Bible are available as well.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said:

It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your spirit is flavoured with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is Bibline and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.

I hope that this becomes true for all of us.

Because of the Cross,

Paul Vroom

This word - community - that we throw around (sometimes cavalierly) is, in practice, pretty tough. Part of what Jesus was teaching his twelve disciples by calling them to join an itinerant ministry for three years was that they would have nothing to depend on—stable jobs, comfortable homes, or guaranteed meals—but each other. Collectively, they would have to call on God and wait for him to answer, with no other options. Can you imagine them clutching each other in fear as they were out on that boat with the waves violently crashing against them, and just hoping that Jesus would show up? 

Community demands vulnerability when independence would otherwise excuse it. These chosen twelve would have to be vulnerable in front of each other. They would have to, despite all masculine fears of intimacy, share with one another. They'd have to stick their necks out for the other. And at the end of it all, Jesus tells them that how they love each other is how the world will know that they are his disciples. They leave their families and get a new one, a band of brothers covenanted together until the end .

That is, until they fled. Until they forsook the Master and hid, wept, or tried to catch some fish.

It wasn't easy for these guys. But Jesus was building a church, and one that would stand up against the gates of hell would need to be tested. What better way to test a bond than crisis situations: a storm, 5000 hungry people, or your teacher dying? Of course they fell apart. That was the point.

Brokenness is a necessary part of the process to become a community, a true fellowship. That's why we see them arguing for seats of honor or for who will be the greatest in the kingdom. A transition from governing oneself to submitting to each other is stressful. And that's also why we see ourselves rushing out of church on Sunday morning, because we already have the rest of the day planned. We haven't left room in our schedules for community. We are scared of intimacy, not just men, but everybody. It's the scariest thing there is in human relationships.

Although, just as it was "not good for man to be alone" in the Garden of Eden, it is not good for us to go through life without someone to share our burdens and hurts and to encourage us. I'm trying to figure out what this thing called community really looks in the 21st century when we don't necessarily need each other. 

Maybe I think that our worldview and that of first century Palestine are far too different in this matter. Perhaps it was a choice for them to enter into such sacred communion with one another, and it remains so for us. Maybe we need to be creative with community, but at the same time, foolishly reckless. In a society where our comfort walls us in, interdependence doesn't make sense. But it's necessary.

It's what our souls are crying out for.

========

Missio Dei Church is planted in the midst of a world where homes are porch-less, where activities are kept to the fenced-in backyards and private backyard pools, where few people know their neighbors let alone their struggles. We live a world where we show up to be entertained (movies, concerts, etc.) or we go to places to be pampered (all inclusive resorts - my personal favorite!, nail salons, etc) Some how that entertain me, love on me, just let me show up mentality has moved into the church's times of corporate worship.

It is easy and probably preferable to just kind of show up in our Sunday best (jeans and a button down shirt for most) and briefly do our Sunday morning best by bowing our heads, singing a few songs, throw in some offering, eat a donut hole or two and get out quickly before we have to really participate in the life of the church. But I think that God is calling Missio Dei Church to something else, to sharing life together in real and intimate ways.

Last May, I got an email for my friend Ryan Flanigan who is a blogger at Reform Worship and the Associate Pastor of Worship at River Valley Church in Mishawaka, IN. In this email called Becoming Participants, he struck a chord in me about what our worship life together during Sunday worship could look like as full participants instead of consumers. Here are some elements in our worship service that will be helping us move from mere consumers to a body of believers that more fully participates in each other's lives.

It is easy to allow those prayer warriors to pray for the prayer requests that come, but it is a whole other thing for the covenant community to corporately pray together each other. According to St. Augustine, "True, whole prayer is nothing but love." Prayer is the loving work of the whole church. For this reason, we are dedicating a good chunk of time to publically sharing prayer requests and praises during our worship service. Like I said last week, I love this part of the service! There is a real sense of authentic community as we share our greatest concerns and fears as well as those encouraging "God sightings" in our lives.

Another change that we will be experiencing is weekly communion. Weekly? Why celebrate weekly? It is impossible to answer this question without understanding why we receive the sacrament in the first place. In the sixth chapter of John, Jesus tells his followers, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).

This is only one of several places in Scripture where Christ is said to nourish us and we are said to feed on him. At the Last Supper Christ instituted the sacrament as a visible reminder of this nourishment and as a means by which to communicate his grace to us. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it beautifully:

He wants to assure us, by this
visible sign and pledge, that we,
through the Holy Spirit's work,
share in his true body and blood as 
surely as our mouths receive these
holy signs in his remembrance (Question and Answer 79).

But won't a weekly celebration of communion cause this sacrament to lose its special character? Won't it become routine and humdrum? This is probably the most frequently voiced objection to weekly communion.

First of all, it should be pointed out that I never have heard anyone objecting to sitting through sermons on a weekly basis (maybe questioning the length of a sermon, but never a sermon). Yet what we receive in the sacrament simply confirms in a vivid, Technicolor and direct way what we have already received in the proclaiming of Scripture in the sermon. Both sermon and sacrament are means of grace that affirm and enrich our faith.

As for the Lord's Supper itself, we should begin to think of it as it was meant to be: a meal. We eat meals three times a day. And the most pleasant and meaningful of these are eaten in the company of family and friends. Fellowship at table does not lose its significance simply because it is repeated two or three times daily. The same, I would argue, is true of frequent reception of communion.

Did you notice that there were school-aged kids in worship last week? What is up with that? Children are disruptive aren't they? They make noise, they fuss and may even make comments during the sermon. But, didn't Jesus say something like "let the children come"? Didn't He dismiss the cries of the adults who didn't think children were worthy of His attention. What are we to do with that?

No easy answers here. The reason why there are no easy answers is that, historically, the church has been defined as the gathering of the baptized for the purpose of praise, prayer and proclamation. So, those who baptize infants believe that children are part of the church and typically include them in worship. Those who do not baptize infants tend to separate children from the baptized gathered for worship.

As a church family, we are going to be learning how to be a family and how to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of being family. It's something we are going to have to learn to get used to as we go. As for me, I have always enjoyed having kids in the sanctuary, even if they acted up while I was preaching - except when they were my own kids!

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As I am writing this it seems that so much is changing, but I love and can rest in the fact the Jesus that we worship is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  If in all of this, you have questions, please feel free to give me a call at the office (708-478-4656) or email me.

I would also love to see some MDC style blogging below!  Login and chat it up!

And finally, as we are gearing up for the fall, here are some things to consider in the upcoming days:

• Roseland Backpacks and BBQ: On Sunday, August 31, following our last worship service with Grace Fellowship Church, a group will be going down to Roseland to hand out backpacks filled with school supplies and have lunch with some of the residents. Ways to serve:

• Backpacks: If you are willing to commit to creating one or more backpacks, please download the supply list and email any of the team members listed below!
• Grilling:  Help with flipping hamburgers and hotdogs. If you are a master on the grill, your help is needed!
• Contact: Steve, Kristy, or Kendra to help out in any way!

• Financial Peace University: Starting Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00 PM, we will be offering Financial Peace University (FPU) which is a 13-week video curriculum taught by financial expert Dave Ramsey.  Come preview a class on Tuesday, August 26 at 7:00 PM at the library of Mokena Elementary School.

Again, I love you more than you know.

Because of the Cross...

Paul Vroom

But it hasn’t without fruit! Last week Sunday (August 10), Missio Dei Church was able to experience two young men confess their faith in Jesus Christ and be baptized for the first time. Friends and family gathered at Camp Manitoqua for a worship service that ended with the celebration of baptism! Both of the young men resonate with Shane Claiborne when he writes: “Being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life.”

We are learning as a body that most of the truly defining moments of our lives take place because we are willing to step out and trust that God has more for us. Rarely do we find new life by holding back or retreating into our familiar, comfort zones, but sometimes that does take time.

In March Missio Dei Church celebrated its first year of being in existence. There was a lot of excitement surrounding this celebration as we looked back at one year of doing ministry in Mokena, but there was something bubbling under the surface for many of us. Some of us were asking questions like, "Why are we doing what we are doing?" or "Was this what we originally dreamed about doing?" Don't get me wrong, we were doing some great stuff, but part of me was feeling like we were slipping down that slippery slope of becoming comfortable and just content with what we were doing.

We had been suckered into believing that we had arrived on the church scene by having a kickin' band on Sunday mornings and good preaching (if I could say so myself). People were connecting in Bible studies in homes, we had been helping the homeless, and we were loving on the Village of Mokena by raking leaves in the fall, offering free coffee to commuters on Tuesday mornings and picking up trash at 191st and LaGrange. We had been doing great stuff, but for many of us we have been sold a bill of sale that says that is all that it means to be a Christ-follower. All I have to do is show up on Sunday morning for my hour and a half, throw a couple bucks into the offering basket as it goes by, behave and I am set.

There has got to be more to this thing that American call church. It has to be more than just showing up on Sunday morning, doing a couple good deeds, and, if time permits, join a Bible study. I couldn't sit back and be silent and just do church. Sunday morning worship attendance was just not enough for me. As a church we decided it was time to really look back and recalibrate to what we believe that we were called to be about. We sensed that God was calling us back to our original vision of the church. We looked back to our early meetings where we were led to be a church that wasn't centered on Sunday mornings, but used Sundays as a launching pad for sending the people of God into His Kingdom on His mission (John 20:21). We desired to be a church that impacts our communities in real and authentic ways and to be a church that generous with all its resources. It is even our desire to create a plan that will make sending out 50% of everything that comes into the church a reality. This kind of thinking in most Christian circles would be considered pure lunacy, but we believe that this is what faithfulness looks like for us in our context.

To put this kind of ministry into motion requires us to really re-look at everything that we have been doing and reconsider why we were doing it and ask for a commitment from every member the Missio Dei Church family. No one can sit idly on the side and just watch. As a church, we are coming to understand more and more that the church is not here for us. We are here for the church and the church is here for the world. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "The church is the church only when it exists for others." The church is not focused on its facility, but is focused on living, demonstrating, and offering biblical community to a lost world. As we look at Scripture we see in Acts 1:8 that our mission is not about maintaining status quo, and not about entrenching ourselves in a safe Christian sub-culture, but about constantly going out into the "highways and byways" in search of those who are searching for lasting hope and true meaning which can only be found in Jesus Christ.

In a way, it sounds a lot like a marriage, huh? You see, I really believe that my wife wants nothing less that a marriage that helps her grow deeper and richer in love and that love would be incomplete if it just terminated on her husband. I know that she would want a kind of a growing love that must be shared with others. My wife doesn't want to just be in a one-day a week kind of relationship that might give her warm fuzzies for a little while, but what she wants is a marriage that is a 24 hours a day 7 days a week kind of marriage. She is not looking for the Hallmark commercial kind of marriage, but a marriage that has a spouse who is committed to walk with her through mountains and valleys, laughter and tears of life.

In my marriage and in my church, we have had to be honest for the sake of true growth. Are you willing to be honest about your spiritual life? Are you willing to get down and dirty with others in milling through the junk of life to find lasting hope and true meaning? Can I encourage you to do something? Find a church who is committed to walking with you. Find a group of people who are honest with themselves and willing to be honest with you about where lasting hope and true meaning can be found.

Just over a year ago Missio Dei Church was birthed with the vision that it would be a church that is all about impacting lives, work places, cities, states, and countries with the gospel of Jesus Christ. From day one we have desired to be a missional church that is all about being tuned into the very heart beat of God and acting without reservation.

Last month a group of people who attended the May Leadership Community heard firsthand about the state of Missio Dei Church. We talked candidly about the church's finances, dreams, and the realities of that original dream for the church. They heard that:

• House Groups: Nearly 40 people are currently in house groups with a group of people waiting to start!
• Missional Activities: Free Coffee Tuesday, Garbage Pick-up, Art Gallery, upcoming conversations with Roseland Christian Ministries, and a variety of personal missional activities
• Benevolence: We have blessed two families with our benevolence
• Outside Funding: Missio Dei has been blessed with help from outside sources to help jumpstart the church:
  • $160,000 for 2007
  • $63,000 for 2008
  • $34,000 for 2009
  • $5,000 for 2010

• Tithes and Offerings and Attendance:
  • $53,190.85 ($86,993.16) and Benevolence: $1,381.00 ($2,149)[1]
  • Average per week: $ 2,417.72 ($2,071.26)
  • Sunday Attendance: Total average attendance for ‘08: 96 (100)
  • Average contribution per attender: $25.18/person ($20.71/person)
• Financial Reality:
  • Missio Dei's total budget for 2008 is $202,000.
  • If we continue on the path that we are one for 2008, we will come up short $17,000. If we continue on the same path for 2009, we will be short $71,000.

On Tuesday, May 27, the Advisory Team (Chad Lawman, Nathan Phillips, Dave Schissler, and Paul Vroom) met for the purpose of hearing from God. Below you will find two scenarios that the Advisory Team have come up with to be put into effect October 1 to help Missio Dei Church overcome the budget deficit. These scenarios are "soft scenarios" as they can be massaged and tweaked as we continue to pray and seek wise counsel from outside sources and from you.

Before you jump down to them, please know that we realize that this will be as much of a leap of faith for you as it is for us, but we believe that God is leading us in this direction. We don't view this as the ship is going down or a way of keeping our doors open, but that God is calling us to be faithful stewards of all the resources he has given to us.

Scenarios

Pros

Cons

Paul will remain at 100%

Chad will go to 0%

Keep the Ministry Center

- Budget for '08 and '09 will be made

- Physical presence will be kept by keeping the Ministry Center

- Every member must become a minister

- The look and feel of Sunday worship will change as Chad will have to find full-time job

- Extra work for Paul

- Perception or sense of loss of momentum

- Elder development slowed down

Paul will go to 75%

Chad will go to 25%

Keep the Ministry Center

- Budget for '08 and '09 will be made

- Physical presence will be kept by keeping the Ministry Center

- Every member must become a minister

- The look and feel of Sunday worship will change as Chad will have to find full-time job

- Paul will need to find a part-time job

- Extra work for Paul as Chad would only focus on worship

- Perception of or a real loss of momentum

- Elder development slowed down

As you might imagine, this will be difficult shift for many parties that may bring up many fears and questions. For those of us who call Missio Dei Church their family, there will be changes that affect how we steward all of our God-given gifts. It will also affect the look and feel of Sunday mornings as responsibilities of paid staff will be changing. Obviously, Paul and Chad are affected by this decision as well. Both families will need time to recognize what God is leading Missio Dei to, and try to reconcile that with what God is saying to each family unit.

Another outcome of the meeting came after an extended time of prayer, which in reality is a big part of the work of the church. We started talking about what it is that God is calling or re-calling Missio Dei Church to be about. We were not set on maintaining the status quo or preserving jobs, but seeking God's good and perfect will for the church.

We sensed that God was calling us back to our original vision of the church. We looked back to our early meetings where we were led to be a church that wasn't centered on Sunday mornings, but used Sundays as a launching pad for sending the people of God into His Kingdom on His mission. We desired to be a church that impacts our communities in real and authentic ways and to be a church that generous with all its resources. It is still our desire to create a plan that will make sending out 50% of everything that comes into the church a reality. This kind of thinking in most Christian circles would be considered pure lunacy, but we believe that this is what faithfulness looks like for us in our context.

To put this kind of philosophy into motion requires us to really re-look at everything that we have been doing and reconsider why we were doing it and ask for a commitment from every member the Missio Dei Church family. No one can sit idly on the side and just watch. It requires every person that calls MDC their family to participate as a family member by stewarding their time, talents, treasure and the Gospel for the sake of the Kingdom.

On Saturday, June 21, we ask that you make it a priority to come to the next Leadership Community which will be from 9:00 - 11:00 AM at the Ministry Center. This will be your opportunity to hear about what we believe God is calling us to as a body. You will an opportunity to ask questions, voice concerns or encourage the body. There will be a two week window after the meeting for feedback so that you can meet with, call, or email any of the Advisory Team with your thoughts. Childcare will be provided, but you must let Paul (paul@mdchurch.us) know how many children will be needing care no later than June 15.

The church will also be called to a time of corporate prayer and fasting every Wednesday starting June 25. Beginning on Wednesday, June 25 from 7:00 - 8:00 PM, we will be meeting at the Ministry Center for corporate prayer and fasting. We know that Wednesdays are not ideal for everyone. Please come. So much is at stake. Also, please don't wait until June 25 to start praying. There is no time like the present!

We can't wait to see what God has in store for us in this next leg of our journey. And we can't wait to do it with you. We love you and pray for you constantly!

For the joy of all people,

Paul Vroom

Lead Pastor

paul@mdchurch.us

Chad Lawman

Worship Pastor

chad@mdchurch.us

Nathan Phillips

Advisory Team Member

talus_cab@yahoo.com

Dave Schissler

Advisory Team Member

davidschissler@hotmail.com

[1] The above numbers reflect January 1 - June 4, 2008. The numbers in the parenthesis are representative of March - December 2007.

"In all of my years of service to my Lord, I have discovered a truth that has never failed and has never been compromised. That truth is that it is beyond the realm of possibilities that one has the ability to out give God. Even if I give the whole of my worth to Him, He will find a way to give back to me much more than I gave." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92)

If the average Christian hears that their pastor is going to starting a series on being good stewards, one of the first things they consider is if they can justify missing that series. They book a month long vacation, break out into hives, feign illnesses, or just jump ship because the pastor is getting in "my business." Well, Missio Dei Church is going to be starting a series called "Mind Your Own Business" where we will be asking the question, "What does God desire from me?" During this treacherous series we are going to be diving into some very personal areas in our lives by looking at our time, our talents, and our treasures.

During this time, we are going to be hearing stories people for different people at Missio Dei who are struggling with the same very issues we all are when it comes to managing God's trust fund (time, talent, and treasure). I am pretty stoked for you to hear the stories of common, eceryday folks like you who have been struggling and searching with what it means to be found faithful in God's eyes.

Until that time I would like to you participate in an anonymous survey to help your prepare your heart for this series. It will also give me some great insight into the lives of Missio Dei'ers. Please consider completing the below survey as we together consider what God desires from Missio Dei Church!

Thank you!

Paul Vroom

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2a2amhsff300bzw/start

• Does he wonder how deep our love for each other runs?
• Does he wonder why we think our personal passions and agendas run deeper than that of the family's?
• Does he see a growing sense of family with God?
• Does he see a joyous sense of family with his servants?

What do you think? What questions come to mind?

Watch and listen to the video before you read on

One year. In some ways it has been one of the most fast paced years of my life, but in other ways it has been one of the most lengthy, tedious gospel-packed years for me. Recently I took the time to really look back and think about everything that has gone on in our new church family and it really is amazing! Check this out:

• Leadership Community: This is a monthly gathering of all MDC staff, house group leaders, apprentices, and anyone who contributes somehow to God's work in the church. It occurs on the third Saturday of every month.
• All church camping trip: We "cancelled" church and did life together by camping at the Kankakee State Park.
• World Wide Day of Play: MDC helped the Mokena Park District host the World Wide Day of Play by leading all the games for the families that came.
• Raking Leaves: We gave one Saturday up by adopting First Street in Mokena to be the recipient of free leaf raking
• Catalyst Leadership Ministry: This is an intensive leadership development ministry that meets weekly for two hours and includes a lot of homework. Twelve people are participating in the ministry.
• Adopted a Roadway: We adopted the four corners of La Grange Road and 191st Street as our responsibility to keep clean
• New Ministry Center: Due to the gracious donation of a Christian family in Mokena, we were able to move into the our Ministry Center at 11041 Front Street
• Ladies Night Out: The women of MDC had a Ladies Night by going to an event at Crete Reformed Church
• Snowboarding Trip and a Men's Mountain Biking Trip: Terra Souls, our outdoors ministry, hosted two activities for those who love the great outdoors.
• Social Justice meetings: Missio Dei hosts monthly social justice meetings to bring awareness of social justice issues, and strategize how to offer justice to those in need.
• Alternative Worship: Twice a month we offer learning/discussion about different expressions of intentional worship (dance, video, different types of music, prayer, painting, etc...) and worshipping through those unique avenues as a community.
• Free Coffee Tuesday - A ministry where starting at 6:15, we hand out free coffee with no strings attached to the commuters at the Mokena Metra station
• Baptisms: Seven children were baptized and patiently waiting for our first round of adult baptisms!
• House Groups: We have over 60 people in our House Groups. This is great considering that we have an average of 98 people in worship on any given Sunday!
• Art Gallery: We will be having our first Missio Dei Art Gallery Opening where art from various local artists will be showcased.

Now, I realize that it is very easy to get sucked into the numbers game, especially as a new church plant. In fact probably one of the first questions people will ask on a Monday morning is, "So, how many people did you have on Sunday?" We have very quickly decided that we will not measure success according to the traditional principles of measurement.

What will success be? John the Baptist said it best in John 3:30. He said, "Jesus must," what? "Jesus must increase, and I must become less." What is success? Success is less of us and more of Him. More of Him in our relationships, more of Him in our thought life, more of Him in our pursuit, not pursuing the things of this world that we want and desire, but pursuing the things of the kingdom of God that last and bring transformation. Less of me. More of Him.

That is a little bit more difficult to measure! It will force us to ask more questions like: Is God being glorified? Are we being true to God's Word? Are people being saved? Are peoples' priorities being changed in accordance to Scripture? Are people developing purposeful relationships with unchurched friends? If MDC would close her doors, would the community sense that something important and viable is missing?

Want a real life example? Missio Dei Church is not about the glitz, glamour and hype, but more about being a church that is embedded in our community that is always looking for ways to love on our community in very real ways. Todd Paben from New Lenox is a sophomore at Trinity Christian College. Todd is one of the many members who has really caught the missional DNA of the church.

Todd has spearheaded two ministries of the church: Adopt A Road and Free Coffee Tuesdays. This young man gathers teams of people to pick up trash at the four corners of 191st and La Grange Road. This is just a way to care for the world that we have been entrusted with as well as a way to love and beautify the Village of Mokena. Also, Todd and others get up before the sun is up to offer free coffee with absolutely no obligation to the commuters at the Mokena Front Street Metra station. Free Coffee Tuesdays is just a way to help commuters stay warm and save a buck or two. Todd gets it!

We are excited to see what God has in store for Missio Dei Church in the years to come. Everyday is a new day filled with excitement as we join God in His great mission! 

We all have different talents and passions that are waiting to be unleashed-waiting to advance the vision, build the dream, or create the next thing that will change the world. How many of us sit parked at yellow? What are we waiting for? A green light.

Every story of influence and impact has a "once upon a time." There has never been a world changing idea that was already happening, there has never been an epic story without a beginning, and there will never be a person of influence without a starting point to the journey. This is the story of creation. This is your story.

Let me talk about my story. For many years, God has been birthing within me this thing. For quite a while I can honestly say that I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but there was this tension building deep within me and nothing could quench that internal fire. One day it all came clear through a simple conversation with Laura. God has been preparing me in advance (Ephesians 2:10) to start Missio Dei Church. I couldn't sit on my hands any longer. There was nothing that was going to stand in our way. I had to move with or without the blessing of our families, friends and the leadership of Peace Community Church. We had to take that first step out in faith. We have had to retrace some steps, ask and re-ask some tough questions, but none of it would have happened if we would not have been faithful in our stepping out into this dream that God has given us.

So, let's talk about this story of yours. Many of you have this thing that has been growing in your heart for sometime. Not acting on it will leave you with this terrible sense of incompleteness and dissatisfaction that could grow into contempt, disillusionment and bitterness towards God and the Church. To do something about this dream, you have to start somewhere. But starting isn't easy; often it's the most difficult part. Why? You don't know where or how to begin. Artists will tell you that the first word, color, or image chosen to be placed on a blank canvas is the hardest part of an entire piece. At the same time, great writers will tell you that the only way to begin is to start writing whatever you think.

Then there is fear. Fear of failure - that you might take a wrong step. Yet, you must begin by taking a step - it's not hard to retrace a step or take a different step if the first one didn't work. It's only one step, forward motion. Behind every great piece of art we see hundreds of others. The masterpiece was not the first creation by the artist. It takes work and sweat to make masterpieces but it starts with one step. You may be paralyzed by the fear of success. What if it works? Then what? Then take the next step. Then the next and the next. I know you don't know all the steps yet, you can't know all the steps yet. You've been given a vision or a dream for a purpose. Take the steps and trust that God will guide the process. After all it was God who planted that dream in your heart. Don't let fear of the unknown taint the future of your story.

So, what is the deal? Are you waiting for a pastor (me) or ministry leader or just plain old anyone to give you the green light? That's a little safer, isn't it? Then you're not out there on the starting line by yourself. There's someone else to lean on, someone else to paint the next stroke for you and someone else to blame if things go wrong. But is that really any way to live? Always waiting on someone else? My friend encouraged me with this advice: "Just do something!" The needs are so great in our fallen world that even if what you do doesn't work out, you are setting a new personal standard. You create a personal ethos of beginning and learning in the process. A well planned out project that never happens is nothing more than a fantasy written in your journal. So what if you screw up? An idea that is acted upon and fails has its own place in your developing story. Give yourself the green light and begin a journey of influence.

Bobby Bailey, Jason Russell, and Laren Poole understand the green light. They stumbled upon injustice happening in Uganda and took that responsibility on as their own to share the story with America. They created the Invisible Children documentary that millions of people around the nation have seen. They sent four tour buses to every major city in America. They showed the film on Capitol Hill with the support of Congressmen. They were on Oprah. And now there are children in Uganda with lives being restored. All this from three college students learning how to make movies. How did this happen? Three guys just did something. People are drawn to people that do. The motion of stepping out and stepping forward attracts others.

Understanding the era and context that we currently live in is essential to beginning your new journey. We are moving to a new age where authenticity is the basis for every experience. Remember back to the last intense movie that you viewed where the lead actor was acting in a studio and you could tell the backdrop was super-imposed or graphically enhanced behind them. On the surface it appeared he was accomplishing a death defying feat, when in reality he was held up with wires 8 inches off the floor. That's a green screen sequence. We all make fun of those scenes because they are not real. The Disneyland approach only lasts until a certain age, then it wears off. A good story impresses immediately or may even bring emotion, but a lack of authenticity will be exposed by those who take a closer look.

Every new idea that is developed must be done without selfish ambition. If you are trying to create something for selfish gain, you will not be truly successful. Dr. John Stott uses the phrase "the smell of hypocrisy" when referring to those who help others for personal gain or inappropriate agendas. We all know from personal experience how much a selfish persona distracts us from what is being presented. On the other side, we've all experienced people that have such a vision and calling for their work, that we can't help but be attracted and get involved.

Don't search for influence. Search yourself. Find what moves you. Look around you. Discover a place of need. Last week while in San Antonio, I heard Alan Hirsch say, "Empires of the future are built upon the empires of your imagination." Authentically pursue a vision that helps humanity. Use the gifts you have been given. Influence will follow at the moment when you can handle it.

To have influence in our culture and see God move in and powerfully transform our families, our work places, and in our community and world, you must begin now. Every time you put yourself out on the line and try something new, you gain influence. I've never seen a Christian at home by himself talking about an idea gain cultural influence or see God powerfully transform lives. The product of doing something will result in a positive continuum of lives being changed by the Gospel.

I thank God that He has brought us on this wild and crazy journey with you. It has been a daily challenge in listening to God and our community of faith as we lay down some of those first brush strokes and not knowing what God is fully calling us to be and do. And just so you know, we (you and me) will always be in this process of listening and changing and wondering and attempting and experimenting and revamping and tossing it out and starting it all over again. But it required us trusting God, the Author of our story, and taking that first step and doing something!

So here it is, "Do something. This is your green light."

The list could continue on, but I wanted to limit it to my top five. I’m hoping that you’ll add your own priorities to the list by leaving a comment. What are your primary concerns?

How many people do we have? How much was the offering?

But rather:

What kind of people do we have?

In other words, qualitative growth is more important that quantitative growth.

If we as leaders are faithful teachers of the gospel, attuned to God's will, spiritually vibrant, passionate worshipers of Jesus who are, in the words of Brother Lawrence, “Practicing the Presence of God,” the fire will spread, and, by the Spirit, our people will mature in the faith. The key to measuring our success and ministry effectiveness is making sure our people are maturing. So, it's as simple as that. Not quite, consider what the Scriptures say in Hebrews 5:11-14.

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

I believe much of the American church can be identified by this passage. The writer had just finished talking about Jesus the Great High Priest, who learned obedience through His suffering (suffering – a thing American culture teaches us to despise). We live in a milky culture. Think about it, all we’re getting from every direction is milk: TV, entertainment, shopping, Starbucks (fig. and lit.), prescription drugs, child idolatry, travel, longing for retirement, and even church. Every time I watch a talk show on television, the theme ultimately is “If it makes you happy, do it.”

This is what is constantly pounded into our people day in and day out. What fruit should we expect from them? The responsibility of leading our people into maturity is incredibly difficult, often with little return, considering everything they are up against. There is hope, though. After the writer of Hebrews spills out some of the milky things his readers ought to move on from, which, sadly, to us may seem pretty solid, like the doctrine of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, he then gives us hope:

Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:9-12)

Our people are Christians. They do have faith in Christ, moral convictions, and love for the saints. There is a desire in every one of us to serve the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The exhortation here is “to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” This is basically a call to get off our butts and imitate Christ.

This morning, I woke up, and the first thing that came into my mind was “I am a sluggard.” I get so enraptured by the tasty caramel macchiatos flooding my soul that I forget the call of Christ. I sink into seasons of little communication with God, lose my footing and fall from prayer and Scripture reading and other disciplines. It’s not that I don’t love God and the church, but my problem is I am trying to fit God into my life, my plans, instead of finding my place in His. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that other leaders and church people struggle with the same thing.

We need to identify the evil powers at work in our lives and the lives of our people, pray against them with fervency, create a very visible awareness of these milky delights, as well as their danger to the soul, give our people hope, remind them daily of the gospel and Christ’s commission, listen, encourage, practice the presence of God unapologetically in our lives of worship, setting an example for the community around us to see Jesus, both inside and outside the church. Then we will be maturing, eating solid food to train “themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Then we will obtain the “better things – things that belong to salvation.” Then we will be able to measure true success (not Osteen success) and see our ministry effectiveness.

What inspires you? Better yet, what stirs your affections for Christ, truth and holiness? If we can fill our lives with the things that stir our affections and avoid and flee those things that rob us of inspiration we have a better shot at dwelling deeply.

What are you doing with your life that will last forever?

I heard this quote earlier this month when I had the opportunity to head down to Atlanta, GA for a conference called Catalyst. Catalyst is a gathering of young, talented, and highly creative leaders. It was an event that addresses the unique needs of next generation leaders, their vision, and their unique revolutionary spirit. It was there where I heard Francis Chan for the first time. Here is what he said:

If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger. People would leave his church to attend mine because I call for an easier commitment. I know better how to cater to people’s desires so they stick around. Jesus was never really good at that. - Francis Chan

What do you do with a quote like that? In the church world where church growth strategies are a dime a dozen and where we are willing to do whatever it takes to keep the ship afloat, quotes like this haunt me and force me to wonder if that is true of me now, here in Mokena. Is there some thing deep inside of me (or you) that wants a big, fast growing church with a great budget where we have a building that is bursting at its seams and has five satellite campuses to boot?

As I look at Missio Dei Church, it doesn’t always fit into the typical church world. We meet in an elementary school where the temperatures border on sub-arctic at times, our worshiping community is mostly comprised of those in between 18 – 29, we aren’t all about the lights and glitz, we don’t know what kind of job we are supposed to have even though we (or our parents) have spent thousands of dollars on our college education, we are starting to be honest with our junk in our lives, and the list goes on and on. We are messy, very messy at times. Our lives sometimes reek of a type of spiritual leprosy that requires the healing touch of the Savior who requires our everything, but we also know that we have been adopted as sons and daughters “in accordance to his pleasure and will.” (Ephesians 1:5)

The people that are joining in this journey of faith are looking for Jesus, the real Jesus, the Jesus who “chose us to be in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Ephesians 1:4) We are also seeking the Jesus who is difficult and requires us to leave and cleave only to him because of the lovely bloody sacrifice he gave on our behalf to make us lovely.

As we trek together and call people to same commitment that Christ called them to, I pray that we will constantly be surprised at what God is doing in our midst. I pray that we will continue to hear stories of how God is calling people to a new way of living and interacting in the communities that we already live in, in our places of work, and in our relationships that we have with others. I pray that God will heal the broken and painful places in our lives and help us see that we are truly a new creation in Christ. Will you join us in these prayers?

For me as young pastor, there is nothing quite like a high calling from God who loves me tremendously.  Figuring out what it means to live Christianly is for all of us.  I am glad to have a church body that is willing to journey with me in discovering who God is and who I am.

In church history, no major renewal has ever come from forms and formats, and so it is today. The great need of the church today is neither to cling to the old or to create the new forms and formats. Our greatest need today is to recover the priority of God in our worship and in the whole of life. The crisis in worship today is not a crisis of form but of spirituality (Bruce H. Leafblad, "Worship 101," Worship Leader Magazine, November/December 1998, p. 25).

The essence of our worship is a focus on God - to love him, to know him, to desire what he desires and participate in what he is doing. We need to rediscover a hunger for the presence of God in every aspect of our lives. This is not something that happens only on a Sunday morning. It is something that must happen in all facets of our lives. Our worship of God - our recognition of his activity among us - must be intertwined into all we do.

How do you think this works out in your life?  In the life of your house group? in your work place?  Any ideas? 

Now, I need to preface the following thoughts, allow you an insight into my life's context behind this verse.

This previous summer, I served at Camp Manitoqua in the capacity of being a counselor for high schoolers. Being a Christian camp, we led devotional studies with them, and had some intense Bible times.

The high schoolers are at camp for two weeks, during which they function as volunteers -- cleaning the bathhouse, garbage duty, helping out in day/residential camp, whatever. The point is, they're there for two weeks, and every evening, we have devos. Our Jesus time.

Well, there were four of us counselors, but the first night, the first Monday, was my turn, my first turn, their first experience, for devos. I chose to do it based on the story of Ehud (Judges 3:12-30), emphasizing its theme on how God uses people that society rejects to further His Kingdom. It's an awesome, awesome parallel to the struggles that many teens/young adults go through, in terms of finding themselves, not "fitting in," yet being assured that God not only has a spectacular/wonderful/beautiful/significant plan for them... but our Lord specifically uses our weaknesses, our flaws, our quirks, etc.

So, it's an empowering messages that we can all relate to, feel good about, and be inspired to go out and live for Jesus with everything we have, and shake this world's very foundations with our hands, as instruments wielded by an Almighty Father. Blah blah blah.

I love that imagery, of being a tool in God's hands. Like Jesus as a carpenter -- maybe Jesus didn't have the most modern or best tools available, but in the hands of a Master Carpenter, it doesn't matter. He can drive those nails home with a dull rock if He wants to. Same with people. Jesus uses the dumbest, ugliest, poorest, most wretched, unworthy, dirty, evil, broken kinds of people to do the most significant, worthwhile, glorious, beautiful, wonderful things.

... that's the mindset I'm usually in, in thinking of how each of us fits into the intricate workings of God's will/kingdom. Then I stumble across Nehemiah 3:8.

"... Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs..."

So, wait, wait... let me get this straight...

For years (YEARS! THOUSANDS OF DAYS! THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF THOUGHTFUL, CONSIDERATE HOURS OF STUDY AND INTROSPECTION AND LIVING OUT MY FAITH!), I've been preaching and adhering to this belief that God uses us for our gifts, our talents -- that God provides us with these gorgeous, complex, mighty abilities to further His work.

I've believed and taught that God uses us, each of us, specifically, for our individual quirks, characteristics, traits, ideas, thoughts, feelings, habits, talents, gifts, etc. We are each a unique tool in the toolbox, a distinct part of the Body.

I have emphasized and elaborated upon the idea, the thought, the theme of each of us being special, and unique. That every, each and every, every single person is the most important thing in this universe. There is nothing more important in this universe than you. You are the most significant anything anywhere. You are the crowning achievement of God's creation.

... Then I read Nehemiah 3:8.

"... Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs..."

Hananiah.

Hananiah was a perfume-maker. In a culture that was bloody with war, rugged with travel, brutal in its survivalistic tendencies and nomadic wanderings, Hananiah was... a perfume-maker.

In my mind, he's this prissy guy who gets made fun of by the other Israelites. "Ha! And there goes Hananiah, the perfumer! He smells better than my wife! He's a flower! A patsy! A pansy!"

The 99-pound, "girly man" weakling among the other men.

So here's Israel, and they're building this wall, and...

"... Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs..."

... what?

The guy makes perfume. ... The man makes smelly stuff. He is not a carpenter, a stoneworker.

All throughout the Old Testament, when Israelites are building stuff, verses will mention so-and-soichim the carpenter that worked with cedar from Lebanon, and so-and-soiah the stoneworker that cut the foundation from Joppa rock. Etc. These hardy, specialist workers/buildings/constructioneering folk; these big, burly men that gave their blood and sweat to build Godly monuments and buildings and structures.

... and here's this perfume-making prissy boy in the mix.

This is not his gift! This is not his arena, not his scope, not his potential, not his talent, not his comfort zone, not his purpose, not his usual way of things, not his livelihood, not his specialty, not his vocation, not his calling! It isn't! It just isn't.

It flies, hard and fast, in the face of this paradigm I've been living under for years, these framework I've set up in my head of how we, as imperfect beings, fit into pictures.

This verse, this one little tucked-away verse, seems to say:

It doesn't matter.

It really, just really, doesn't matter what you're good at, what your job is, what you enjoy doing, where you are, who you are, what your talents are, what your name is, how much money you make, what your education is, what you're familiar with, what you're used to, what your history is, what legacy you'll leave, where you're going, where you've been, who you hang out with, who your family and friends are, what tribe or clan or group or label you belong to, what others think of you, what you think your purpose is, what you believe, what you know, what you don't know, or anything else.

If you accept the call, God will use you.

For any reason He sees fit.

No matter what.

Missio Dei Church has been presented with a tremendous opportunity to have prime office space in downtown Mokena (southeast corner of Front and Mokena Street). This property is owned by a godly Christian couple that lives in Mokena whose children I taught and had in a discipleship group. The owners "truly feel that God has crossed our paths and we hope something can be worked out that benefits both of us and serves God properly and appropriately" and "...very much feel that Missio Dei is the right tenant for our building. We have prayerfully considered this opportunity and know that God is guiding our thoughts, decisions and choices."

The rent for the 1,550 square feet suite is normally $2,200 per month with a prorated share of the real estate taxes which would be $490 per month. The owners are in the process of appealing the real estate assessment they just received, trying to get the assessment back to a value prior to the bank moving into the building. This would move the prorated share of the taxes to $390 per month.

The owners will reduce the rent by $1,200 to $1,000 per month for the first year and if necessary, we would consider doing this longer. They are also willing to have a year to year lease with MDC. The church would be responsible for its own electrical service, phone service and natural gas service, as well as refuse removal.

The owners are also approaching the previous tenant (Old Plank Trail Community Bank) to see if they would be willing to let us move into the space rent free for a period of time with the only requirement that we pick up the utilities and if necessary the real estate taxes. The current tenant's lease ends March 31, 2008.

As you can see, this is a tremendous opportunity for Missio Dei Church to be embedded in the middle of the community that it is targeting. This space will provide a ministry center for the pastoral staff and ministry leaders. It can be used as an "after hours" spot for any kind of evening outreach activities that we may host. The suite will also provide a much needed visual identity in the downtown area.

However, this opportunity also presents a financial challenge for this young church (six months old). As we look towards 2008, we realize that financially things are going to be very different. Currently MDC has $9,700 available for ministries all existing ministries to share. There is no "extra" money in the budget for this opportunity.

This is an exciting time for Missio Dei Church and God has placed an exciting opportunity for us all to consider! Prayerfully consider how you can continue to further the mission and vision of Missio Dei Church. If you would like to make a generous donation, you can make checks out to Missio Dei Church and specify RENT on the memo line.

Here are specific ways you can contribute towards this need:

All donations are tax deductible. Send checks to:

Missio Dei Church
130 South Route 45
Frankfort, IL 60423

I often find my life so cluttered with extraneous stuff as well as good things (often church and ministry responsibilities) to do, that I miss great opportunities for the true Gospel life. But because of the rat race of life, the Gospel life soon is brushed under the carpet or is strangely transformed into “Christian duty.”

Our world of Martha-like churches/lives are dangerous. They create a culture of doing, and going and running, and creating, and equipping, and… and… and _____ (you fill in the blank). I wonder what would it actually look like to be a Mary-esque church where we are so in touch with the voice of God that we become a people and a place where the weak, the marginalized, the misfit, and the prodigals are embraced. What would it look like if we, the Body of Christ, would slow down long enough to see and hear the needs of the communities that we are embedded in?

Maybe we need to ask ourselves if it is necessary to add more ministries and responsibilities or clutter to our already super-sized plates or if it is time to down size and really begin to focus on “what is better.” (See Luke 10:41 – 42). I have to believe that God is saying to the Church, “Martha, Martha, Martha… when are you going to get that it is not about all those things that fill up your calendar and life, but about that one thing: sitting at my feet and hearing me with attentive eyes and ears.”

Maybe this is pie in the sky and I just need to come to terms with the fact that I am the eccentric church planting type who is always dreaming of the ideal life, but there is something deep inside of my soul that resonates with this beautiful life of slowly inhaling and exhaling.

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, has written extensively on the gospel as it relates to both the believer and the unbeliever. He writes:

Religious repentance is selfish. In religion we are sorry for sin mainly because of its consequences to us. It will bring us punishment and we want to avoid that. So we repent. The gospel tells us that sin can't ultimately bring us into condemnation. Its heinousness is therefore what it does to God; it displeases and dishonors him. Thus in religion, repentance is self-centered; the gospel makes it God-centered. In religion, we are mainly sorry for the consequences of sin, but in the gospel we are sorry for the sin itself. (cited)

When I pause to consider these words, I am reminded of how much I learn about the gospel from my own children. Have you ever caught your child doing something they shouldn't have been doing? Let's take coloring on the ottoman for example (not that my children would ever doing anything like that, ha). You walk around the corner and find your child coloring with a marker on the ottoman. As soon as you enter the room, the child throws the marker down and says, "I'm sorry daddy." The truth is that the child is not really sorry for the ottoman. She is not sorry for the fact that you worked hard to earn the money for the ottoman and the money for the cleaning supplies that must now be purchased to clean the carpet. She is not sorry for the waste of time that his mother will have to spend cleaning the ottoman. What she is really sorry for is the fact that she got caught. She is sorry for the consequences.

Most of us are typically like this ottoman-coloring child in our relation to God. When we sin against God, we typically say we are sorry out of fear of what might happen if we don't. We assume that repentance exists to remove the consequences of sin from our lives. Religious people live this way. They repent because it is a religious duty that is necessary to remove the consequences of a holy God.

However, when our lives have been changed by the gospel we understand repentance in a much more profound way. The main reason for this is because we have come to a true understanding of both the nature of God and the nature of sin. God exists for his glory and in turn created man to glorify Him. Most people live with the assumption that sin is bad because it makes you go to hell. That is very man-centered. A biblical view of sin is that it robs the glory of God. Therefore, repentance of sin is not for the sake of removing the consequence of sin from our lives (man-centered), but removing the stain from God's glory (God-centered).

Gospel repentance is when we realize that our sin has robbed God of his glory because we have chosen not to glorify God and by doing so declared that there is something more worthy of glory than God himself. The gospel tells us that we were desperately enslaved to this pattern of sinful living and that God reconciled us to himself through the death of Jesus on the cross. Because of the gospel we are now free to repent of our sin in such a way that we understand that the condemnation of sin has already been removed from our lives in the life and death of Jesus and therefore our repentance is not about our problem, but God's glory.

There is real beauty in this kind of repentance.

"A church which pitches its tents without constantly looking out for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling. ...[We must] play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, and live by improvisation and experiment." Hans Kung,The Church as the People of God

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Every day the world is constantly changing around us: the weather, seasons, politics, the world affairs, our relationships, jobs, our children, construction on the Dan Ryan, and whether we like to admit it or not, we as individuals even go through daily changes because of the aging process. It is the very nature of the world we live. However, embedded deep in our nature we have the tendency to cling to what is known, safe and secure. We love our safety and the protection of the harbor, don't we?

I am discovering that when I am sensitive to where God is moving and I join Him in his mission, life gets complicated, messy and often unpredictable. Having eyes and hearts and ears that are sensitive to God's movement is risky and even dangerous business. It requires that my trust be placed not in my talents and gifts, but in the very nature of God which will propels me to movement. It puts me in situations, places, and relationships that often take me out of the comfort zone and forces me to ask myself, "Do I truly trust God?"

Put yourself in the sandals of Abram(ham). According to the standards of North America, he was well into his retirement years (75 years old), cashing in on his 401k, living in a pretty nice neighborhood, taking early morning walks with his bride Sarai, and probably had a camel or two with all the bells and whistles on it.

Enter God.

"Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1) What? Where is this land? What am I going to do when I get there? Why now? Couldn't you have done this when I was a little younger? I really like where I am right now God.

It was a call that ran deep into his heart, that called his affections and values into question, and asks him whether or not he trusted God even when he was not given specifics. How trustworthy is God? Am I willing to have ears that hear the whispers of a God who is constantly calling his people to look out for new horizons, and to continually strike camp and join him? In the same way, that very call is for us to day. Trust me and join me.

Missio Dei Church desires to be all about being highly tuned into what God desires for the church. We believe that we are called to train missionaries to GO into our culture and be the gospel to their spheres of influence. I am finding that this call is not an easy call to be this kind of community of believers. It requires us to do a lot of internal work, value shifting, life-style adjusting, etc. I/we constantly wrestle with questions like,

• Do we have ears that hear the whisper and call of God?
• Do we really trust God?
• How do we move from complacency and safety to movement and potential danger?

As I/we grow into this call to join God in our neck of the woods and set our sails into the unpredictable and often unchartered waters, it is my prayer that we will hear God say to us, "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

Scot McKnight has a continuing series at his blog, Jesus Creed, called "Letters to Emerging Christians" (http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=2138). His latest letter deals with this issue, and it got me thinking about my church culture and how it is too truncated in its understanding of the gospel.

Evangelicals have been fearful that if we create too broad a category for evangelism that would include such actions as stopping injustice, then we will lose the importance of proclamation. So we have insisted (especially in light of the social gospel movement of the past century) that there are two categories: "Gospel proclamation" (telling people about Jesus), and "social justice" (doing Kingdom work).

What we need, however, is a bigger view of Kingdom living. The purpose of living as a Christian is to live authentically as Christ's disciples in every aspect. We need to rid our lives of the dualist thinking that one thing (gospel proclamation) is what's really important and everything else is some sort of second-tier Christian living.

Of course, our sinful nature will tend to push us toward thinking that "if all I do is help people, I'm doing gospel work," and then quote Francis of Assisi ("Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words") to rationalize our point. Christians can easily fall into the mode of "I'm living my life as a testimony" without ever saying a word about their testimony. That is not the legitimate holistic Christian life - it is not living the fullness of what it means to live as Christ's disciple.

But the other side of the coin is just as illegitimate. We may think, "if all I do is proclaim Christ to people by explaining the cross, then (and only then) am I doing gospel work." That separates one part of my gospel-living life in a way that makes it lose its power.

I want to drive home this point: When everything that we do is seen as gospel work, then evangelism by proclamation becomes a natural part of who we are. It no longer feels forced; it no longer feels like an imposition on others; it flows from the core of who we are. We live it; we share it.

So it is no longer a debate between "Gospel Proclamation" versus "Social Justice." Why can't we live in a way that embraces both as one holistic gospel life?

I am a product of a Christian subculture. There it is. I've said it. I was born and raised in a Christian home with two loving parents, sent to a Christian school, and went to a Christian church. I lived in Pella, IA, a town that was predominately reformed in its theology. I went through Sunday School and catechism and even made my profession of faith.

As a product of this subculture, I am finding myself aching for something more than a Christian subculture. I find myself really wondering what it could and should be like to be a part of a movement of God as opposed to being a part of a subculture. This aching has caused me to question who we really are in Christ and how is that worked out in a Christ-saturated community.

Many who heard and followed Jesus found their lives transformed. Others found his presence too radical and threatening. He stirred up controversy in the religious community when his followers no longer observed the cherished tradition of fasting. Their aberrant behavior challenged the daily ritual which had been an expression of faithfulness for generations. This change was a dramatic demonstration of Christ's message: this new community cannot be contained by old patterns, or be defined by past rituals, no matter how treasured they are. God is indeed doing a "new thing." The Messiah is here, and business as usual, even spiritual business, needs to be interrupted.

I am convinced that that to become a Christian changes the way one looks at everything; it leads to a radically examined life. It means that the gospel and truth of God will lead me to look at all of my relationships, my family, my work in the world, my racial and cultural identity - all in a new light.

This also means that the church itself is a "new generation" - a whole new people, a counter culture. In it, our economic, racial, social, and psychological relationships are distinct and different from those in the surrounding culture. The church is not simply a collection of individuals who are saved, but it is a "pilot plant" of what humanity would look like under the Lordship of Christ. We are to show the world a whole new way of being human.

We have been worshiping publicly now for seven weeks. It is a blast to be able to participate in a community of Christ seekers and Christ followers who are willing to join me in asking questions, taking new risks, and corporately discovering what it the "new generation" looks and feels like in our context. This journey can release a God-inspired ingenuity and open doors to new ministries. It will reconnect us with God's dynamic, transforming movement within each of us.

If you had an opportunity to introduce Him?

Last week, I read an article called "Preaching in a Postmodern City" from Tim Keller, the Senior Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.

"At the heart of Redeemer's ministry and its philosophy of preaching to post-modern audiences is the conviction that "the gospel" is not just a way to be saved from the penalty of sin, but is the fundamental dynamic for living the whole Christian life--individually and corporately, privately and publicly. In other words, the gospel is not just for non-Christians, but also for Christians. This means the gospel is not just the A-B-C's but the A to Z of the Christian life. It is not accurate to think 'the gospel' is what saves non-Christians, and then, what matures Christians is trying hard to live according to Biblical principles. It is more accurate to say that we are saved by believing the gospel, and then we are transformed in every part of our mind, heart, and life by believing the gospel more and more deeply as our life goes on."

As I read that it just resonates in my heart! YES! You've nailed it. The Gospel is not just for the non-Christians! The Good News of the Gospel is also for me...today! The Gospel still changes me after hearing it time and time again.

So, as I prepare the messages for Missio Dei Church, I need to be mindful of reminding every person that comes to worship, joins a house group, serves our community... anyone who breathes, that this beautiful Gospel is for them.