Video "What is the Bible Basically About" by Tim Keller.

Class  Here is an entire Seminary Class by Tim Keller and Ed Clowney for free on iTunes. You can also download the 189 page course syllabus which is solid gold.

Book  The Unfolding Mystery:  Discovering Christ in the Old Testament, by Ed Clowney

Kids Bible  The Jesus Storybook Bible:  Every Story Whispers His Name, by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  I firmly believe every kid should read this.  I also firmly believe every adult should read this.  No really.  It is that good.

Archives  Listen to any you may have missed.

We started Missio Dei two years ago with a kids ministry of 3.  And all 3 had the same last name... Gonzalez.  Two years later we have an increasing number of people toddling around the back of Thew on a Sunday morning.  And that is not to mention the 5 Missio Dei Babies in the oven!

Last night’s MD:Kids meeting was really encouraging for me.  For one, I was shocked to realize that close to a third of our adults help disciple kids on Sunday mornings!  Also, I loved how dedicated all these volunteers are to loving and discipling the kids.  This isn’t just babysitting!

Here are 5 core convictions we have at Missio Dei about children’s ministry:

1. The Great Commission mandate to make disciples applies directly to children as well as adults.

2. Parents, not youth workeres, are the primary disciplers (Deut 6).  The Gospel Community is the secondary disciplers.  Anything we do on Sunday morning, should serve to enable the parents and Gospel Community to disciple the kids.

3. We will actively battle against the Religion/Moralism Lens every opportunity we have.  I recently heard someone say, “The moment the gospel is assumed, it is lost.”  This is so true!  How wonderful would it be if the children in our church grew up so soaked and surrounded by grace, that it becomes their default lens!

4. We are more concerned that children learn the story and stories of Scripture than that they learn moral truths. The moral truths will come, to be sure. But if you had to choose, would you rather have a 3-year old who can recite the 10 Commandments (good thing)?  Or would you rather her know the story of the Great God who rescued His helpless people out of slavery and redeemed them from slavery and brought them to a mountain in freedom where He met with them face to face?

5. Wherever possible, we want the teaching to strategically utilize language common to MDC (Identities, Rhythms, True Story).  We don’t think this is the only biblical language to use.  However, we do think it is wise and strategic to use a specific set of verbiage in the disciple-making process that can instill a transferrable DNA into people and communities.

Which of these 5 convictions resonates with you the most.  Why?

2.  What God is doing now in your life and our church is a current expression of faithful followers of Jesus  being empowered by the Spirit and sent to the nations in Acts 1-2.  The Church was empowered and commissioned In Acts 1-2 and has been going further and further through the years.  We are the current torch-carriers of the message and power of the gospel.

Geographically:

 1. Globally.  God is at work across the globe.  Christianity is not an American or a Western Religion.  Christianity is universal.  You wouldn’t know it from hanging out in American Evangelical circles, but the gospel is alive and well across the globe.  The center of Global Christianity is no longer in North America or Europe.   It is in the Southern Hemisphere.  A friend of mine who is studying theology abroad says, “American Christianity is a virtual cesspool.”  By that he means that we sit in the waste of our own thoughts and methods.  We read each other’s books and blogs.  Go to each other’s conferences.  Podcast each other’s sermons.  And retweet each other’s thoughts.  What God is doing in Tempe, is only a small part of what He is doing throughout the globe.

2. Movement Networks.  The reason people love Missio Dei is that it is about something.  There is a robust gospel-centered theology which propels us to live radically missional lives.  We are not alone.  There are growing networks like Acts 29, Soma Communities, GCM, and others who are planting the gospel across the country and world with us.

3. Local Network.  Many people don’t know this, but you need to.  Missio Dei is a part of a growing network of young pastors and young churches who are working together to plant the gospel in our city. We are linked up with more established churches who are committed to gospel-centered missional ministry.  The network is called Surge.  Surge is a leadership training school that many of you have been through.  And it is a network of pastors seeking to lead a gospel-centered missional resurgence. 

I have this natural proclivity to make everything about... ME.  if I am honest with myself, it seems as if I am hardwired to think and act as if the entire universe revolves around, is about, and exists for... ME.  I seem to be so utterly Me-centered!

There are myriads of ways this plays out in my life in everything from marriage, to kids, to ministry, to finances, to time.  Every decision and relationship is made Me-Centered.

And there is another way this plays out.  As sick as it may seem, it plays out even in the way I read my bible!  I so tend to read my bible Me-Centered.  I come to it asking what it says to and about me.  I read the stories of the Old Testament and I think:

How can I be have a relationship with God like Adam?
How can I be a good builder like Noah?
How can I be a leader like Moses?
How can I endure trial like Joseph?
How can I face the giants in my life like David?
How can I be brave like Esther?

But, each of these questions makes me the hero.  Each of these applications tells me what I need to do.  Each of these presupposes a Me-Centered world not a God-Centered one.

So, this Summer I want to ask us, is there a way to read these stories of the Old Testament in a God-Centered way instead of this Me-Centered way.  We are going to teach a series called "True and Greater".  The idea is that they hero of each of these stories isn't the biblical character.  Jesus is the hero of these stories.  We are going to look at how Jesus is the true and greater Adam, Noah, Moses, Joseph, David and Esther.  

The goals of the series are to:
1.  Help the Missio Family learn a God-Centered way of interpreting their bibles.
2.  Inspire the MIssio Family to live all of life less Me-Centered and more God-Centered.
3.  Show the Missio Family how Jesus is the truest and greatest that our souls are longing for.

If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, do so for some context. This is fleshing out my 3rd point.  if you don't read and embrace all three points from yesterday, this will be simply an offensive legalism. 

1. Actively Engage in Gospel Formation.  Learning the gospel, living in the gospel, smashing idols, embracing Christ.  Pursuing a wife is an outflow of engaging the Savior who already pursued you.  Ask yourself the question and sit with it:  Am I actively engaged in gospel formation?  Am I simply passively attending on Sunday, passively attending a missional community, and passively stumbling along aimlessly?

2. Grow up from a Boy to a Man.  My 3 year old son David is a boy.  He lives in his mother’s house and basically spends all day playing and doing whatever he wants.  He is a boy.  But I am training my son to be a man -  to take responsibility:  He knows that he needs to protect his mother and sisters.  He opens doors for women.  He can take the trash out.  He helps me pump gas.  He prays over his sisters and mom.  Little things, but he is going from a boy who serves only himself and his fancies to a man who serves others.  Just as I give David some really practical steps to maturing into manhood, let me give my 20-something friends some practical steps to continue maturing into manhood.

- Get your own place.  Move out of your mother’s house.  I know it is cheaper, more comfortable, you do your own laundry, and it is “where you are at in life”.  It is retarding your growth to manhood.  I promise.

- Get a job.  My daughters are 6 and 4 and they know that in order to marry a man someday, the minimum standard is “Love Jesus.  Have a job.”  

- Get another job.  If you can’t make enough money at your current job or are only working 40/hrs maybe you need another job to supplement your income and give you something to do?  Work hard.  You were created to.

- Get out of debt.  Pay off your bills.  Get your debt under control.  Start a savings account.  What about starting a college account for your future children.  As Mark Driscoll has said, that will be a plus for you when you get to tell your girlfriend you have that going already.

- Get a trajectory.  I know the urge to call “Legalistic Moralism” is starting to mount.  Relax.  You don’t have to do all this today.  It is not about checking all this stuff off the list.  But, are you on the trajectory from “Boy” to “Man” or are you flatlined at your current maturity level?  The gospel should ever set us on a trajectory towards “Responsible Man” since it is the man who took the ultimate responsibility of the sin of the world on His shoulders who we are freed to follow.

3.  Pursue a woman.  Get to know a girl as a friend.  Don’t just ask her out because she is hot.  Get to know her.  Know her around her friends.  Then, ASK HER OUT!!!  You aren’t asking her to get married and have your kids.  You are asking her to dinner.  Be a dude.  Put yourself out there. As Kevin says, “Time for a cup check.” Treasure Christ and get over your fear of rejection.  If she doesn’t want to go out with you, take the shot to your ego, lean into Christ, and go back to #1 and #2.


4.  Lead.  If you want to be a husband and a father, you are essentially saying you want to be a leader.  Why not get some practice and hone your leadership skills.  How can you lead in gospel community?  I’m not saying you have to lead one right now.  But it would seem like it would be a good idea to lead somehow and learn to lead before you take on the leadership of marriage.  How can you lead and take responsibility in your community?

5.  Pray.  Do you pray for a wife?  You should.  “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).  Pray for a good thing, for favor from the Lord.  Pray that the Spirit would give you the strength, wisdom and courage to change and become the Godly husband she needs.

We operate lean.  We operate on less than 80% of everything that comes in.  10% goes to Church Planting.  10% goes to Global Gospelling.  We spend next to nothing on buildings.

We get it out.  93% of every dollar that is given to the American church stays in America.  We have 10% going directly out as our baseline and have every intention to go higher and higher.

Support our Local Missionary.  Your giving frees Chris up to create a culture and equip a body that will live the cross-saturated, spirit-empowered mission across the city and world.

Have everything together.  While starting in the middle of the greatest economic meltdown since the great depression, we have had everything together and time and again we have used the money you give to pay each other’s rents and mortgages when money is short, jobs are lost, and medical emergencies come.  

Invest in Training.  You are investing in the training of guys like Mark Durben who is taking seminary-level counseling classes to better be equipped to counsel our body.  You are investing in the training of over a dozen leaders in the Surge Leadership School.

Have ridiculously enormous gospel impact in a small church.  Earlier this month, we sent 2 of the top leaders in the country of Estonia to Soma School.  We paid to get them an opportunity to learn on the ground for a week about the centrality of the gospel, the True Story, and living in missional community.  Your money also goes to having the bible translated into 3 languages in India where hundreds of thousands of people have never heard the bible in their heart language.  Luke 1-9 is done.  Already.  Really.  

Invest in a battle ship not a cruise ship.  I can honestly tell you that our every intention for the last two years has been to figure out how to invest every dollar that comes in to equip people for gospel mission.  No expense has been to entertain and build a cruise ship.  Every expense has been to equip and build a battle ship.

1.  Bibles - Do you have a good bible?  Here are some good options if you don't.

ESV Bibles

ESV Study Bible

2.  Books

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ (John Piper)

Any Book By John Piper

The Cross of Christ (John Stott)

Gospel-Centered Life (CJ Mahaney)

Salvation Belongs to Our God (Chris Wright)

Delighting in the Trinity (Tim Chester)

3.  Articles

Expulsive Power of a New Affection  - PDF of a sermon by Thomas Chalmers (heavy)

The Excellency of Jesus Christ - Sermon by Jonathan Edwards

The Transforming Power of the Gospel (PDF Chart that will blow your mind)

True Story - Read our 14 page summary of the True Story of the World

The Gospel Coalition

4.  Websites - Spend some time around these three guys and it will rub off.

Tim Keller Page

Desiring God (John Piper)

Enjoying God (Sam Storms)

5.  Sermon Jams

Treasuring Christ (YouTube)

Boast (mp3)

That's a question I've answered a lot over the past few weeks: "Why did you leave Arizona?"   Everytime I show my ID, open a new bank account, or even order the internet- the person taking my information usually asks almost incredulously, "Why would you leave there for here?" 

I'd be lying if I said there haven't been moments when Kay and I have looked at each other and asked each other the same same exact thing.  The answer we keep coming back to is that our gracious, loving Father has sent us here. We have been sent here to faithfully declare and demonstrate the gospel with the people God has called and is calling into his church. That may sound like a theologically dense rationale, but I guess that's because it is.  We didn't move to NJ because it was the most comfortable thing to do, the way to increase personal success, or to gain approval- it was to live in light of the True Story.

I wanted to give the MDC fam a brief update as to what has been doing here the past few weeks. First off, the tour de America went smoothly.  Other than almost hitting a toilet (yes, a toilet) on the highway at 80mph we didn't have any close calls during the 43 hours of driving. After two weeks of sharing a house with my mom and two sisters we moved into our rental house.  It took a weekend of painting and some slight remodeling, but God has given us a great place to use as a center for hospitality.  We've already put our larger-than-life table to use and had the church over for a bbq.  It was so sweet to fill up our home with new friends, people I didn't know, and a few people searching for Jesus.  The back porch was filled with the smell of fresh seafood and bbq and reverberated with laughter. It was refreshing to hear from everyone how they are stoked to move forward and start living out the mission of God together in community.

On Sunday's we've been teaching through the DNA of a gospel community.  That may or may not sound familiar.  Glory. Gospel. Mission. Simple yet profound. You can be praying for me as I contextualize the truths of the gospel to a new people. People here are worshipping different cultural idols and I can easily find myself exposing the idols of PHX instead of those that are being worshipped here.

Kay and I have been praying that God would teach us how to be missionaries here.  Through the next few weeks we are going to continue to do some "research" eating at the local food places, hanging out where locals are, and driving around praying for the neighborhoods as we ride through. We've met two of our neighbors, they are both named Bill, hopefully I can remember that.  Be praying that the Holy Spirit empwers our lives and works powerfully to form a church here in NJ.  

I'm going to try to stay better connected via the blog than I have these first three weeks, but as always feel free to call/text/e-mail.  If you want my new phone number shoot me an e-mail and I'll get it to you.  I'll try to post a pic or two each time I update so you can get a feeling for where we are.  The one I'm posting today is the view from our back deck.

We love you guys and miss you like crazy.  I'm identifying so much more with the words of Paul when he wrote to various churches saying that he longed to be with them but the Spirit had sent him to another people.   We are praying for you often- asking our glorious God to continue the work he has started in your lives.  Hopefully we will be back soon to visit.

On Sunday morning I gave people a card that said, “Missio Dei Communities is…”  Below is a sampling of what people turned in.

• All 3 people who drew pictures had crosses in the middle of the picture.
• A group of gospel centered communities on mission with Jesus.
• A community of people where the leaders are committed to equipping the saints for the work of ministry, which is being overwhelmed by the gospel and being propelled out by it’s implications.
• A foretaste of Heavenly restoration in the form of a family being continually redeemed and living out that redemption among believers and unbelievers.
• A group of people that know they are part of God’s story. (Drew a picture of the True Story Symbols)
• A loving, safe place- you can feel the presence of God <3.
• A community of gospel-centered Christ followers living out the true story.
• Teaching us the true meaning and implications of the gospel.
• A group or family of people whom the gospel and the God of the gospel is about and wants to see people in Tempe and the surrounding area do the same.
• A gospel-centered community that is built around groups of people founded in God’s truth.
• Gospel intentionality in community with the purpose of going out into the world to make disciples.
• The church like it should be- not just meeting on Sunday, but being a community that loves Jesus and shows that through encouraging each other in the gospel and serving our communities.
• More than a Sunday service.
• A community of believers learning and practicing the rhythms of a gospel centered life together and on our own.
• A group of believers, who don’t claim to have it all together, but continue to seek after the one who does make us right.
• Family
• Committed to applying the good news of the entire story and its implications to every aspect of our lives.
• The people of God coming together to tangibly bless each other and everyone else made in his image.
• Growing in and towards Christ (fire fall down).
• Family that is gospel centered.
• My second family! And my home away from home!!!
• A community of people who have been saved by Christ and now live out the gospel as Family, Servants, Learners and Missionaries.

I’d say its sticking!

And last, but not least, here is what Amy, my daughter wrote:

I found a doc I made in August 2008 of all the people in MDC just as we first broke down into Missional Communities.  I worked a few stats out.

We started with 58 people.
5 have moved out of state.
4 have moved to a different church.
2 no longer attend a church
2 are being sent out to plant.  

Including Kevin and Kayleanne, we still have 81% of our core group still with us 2 years in.  From what I have read, that is pretty remarkable.  

Also, we have gone from 5 Missional Communities (each without a mission) to now having 9 missionally engaged communities with perhpas 3 more in an infancy stage.

When we first started meeting in Thew, we had about 40 people attending on a Sunday night.  
We currently are averaging around 80 on a Sunday morning, I think.

What is your flinch?  Where are we Excelling, Improving, and Lagging?

• Be a listener. Don't be a fixer.  You don't have to immediately offer a solution. Sometimes what a person needs is to be heard. Let them vent.

• Don't stop listening. Don't check out after a while. Stay focused in the conversation.

• Let them finish what they are saying. Don't interrupt. Don't finish their sentences.

• Provide some input to show you are listening.  “The Head Nod”, and “The uh-huh.”

• Care about the person you listen to. Show that you love them.

• Listen over time and respond over time. [Build relationships that show you care.]

Which do you find hardest to do?

Two years ago when God called us to plant Missio Dei, Kay and I felt a strong call to plant the gospel in this community.  Now, two years later we know God is sending us to do that again.  The good news is that the church is growing.  Our depth, width, and breadth of understanding the gospel has been increasing and as a church we are seeing leaders equipped and lives transformed.  The “other” news though is that this time instead of Tempe, we are feeling God sending us to southern New Jersey to plant the gospel in another community. 

When we started Missio Dei as a family of missionaries we simply got together and asked, ”What does it look like to declare and demonstrate the gospel in this city?”  Chris and I started dreaming immediately about what the national and global implications could be for churches, not just a church, that lived out the core identities we hold so dearly.  Throughout the life of our church we have kept the idea of being a church that plants the gospel in new communities integral in how we develop and equip.

About a year later, my dad was starting a church in New Jersey, in my hometown.  He based the new community on the True Story, gospel identities, and rhythms. They flew me back to help train some of the leadership, give some counsel on starting a new missionary work, and while there, I was able to see once again how the northeast has very little gospel presence.  There are plenty of churches, but very little gospel.

While it seems like almost everything in AZ is less than 40 years old, in the Northeast so much is based on hundreds of years of tradition.  This makes gospel planting and missionary movements much less frequent.  People are experiencing so much brokenness, and there is very little gospel presence to point people to the peace that the gospel brings.  Out here in AZ, it seems like I could drive a few miles in any direction and hit a gospel-centered, mission-oriented church.  We all live it out a little different, but the core doctrines and practices are being taught all around the valley, back in New Jersey that is simply not the case. It’s a beautiful part of the country right on the shore, but sin has a death grip on so many people’s lives and the most common remedy given is the religion of try harder, instead of the freedom offered in the gospel.

The region that my dad’s church, Great Bay Gospel Fellowship, was lining up to declare and demonstrate the gospel to was not only in great need, but it was also the area that everyone lived in and had lived in for years.  They were fired up to live out the mission in their home town and not just on “missions trips.” 

Four months after my dad started getting that church together, he had a seizure while out surfing and that event started a crazy two months.  It turned out the seizure was caused by a cancerous tumor in his brain.  Words can’t express how much the Missio family meant to me while I was going through those months leading up to my dad’s death in October.  While back in New Jersey off and on for those months I saw once again how dead, moralistic legalism gives no answers that lead to life.

When my father passed away, the families that had gathered to live lives on mission back in New Jersey called to ask me if I’d consider going back to New Jersey to plant the gospel with them.  They had a keen understanding that if they were not careful their “church” would go from being a missionary people, to another service on Sunday.  They knew my dad and I had been dreaming together about what a church in their area could look like and didn’t want to end up back where they had started, simply attending services.  They wanted to know the gospel deeper and live out it’s deep implications in community. 

After praying, Kay and I both felt that God was possibly sending us back to southern NJ to live life with gospel intentionality with this new group of people.  We came humbly to our MC, to Chris and Leslie, and Don asking if they’d discern alongside us whether or not God could be sending us there.  When no one discerned the Spirit leading us another way, we started the process of praying with the families in New Jersey about what it could look like for me to move there and lead them.

Over the last five months I’ve flown across the country once a month to meet with the leaders back there, do some teaching, and dream on the ground about what Jesus wants his church to look like there.  Those five-hour flights will seem like nothing compared to tomorrow when we pack up the truck and drive the 42 hours to New Jersey. 

We are not leaving because something has gone wrong in Missio Dei.  It’s actually quite the opposite, we are being sent because something went right.  The glory of God, the gospel of Jesus, and the Spirit driven mission has birthed men and women who are living lives oriented around the True Story and that frees us up to go and love others.  We are going back to this area because it’s a people I love who want to know the gospel better and long to lives lives on mission together.  We are going back there because the God who has sovereignly been on his redemptive mission throughout time is sending us to declare and demonstrate the gospel there and to build up His church in New Jersey.

We love you all so much and pray that the God of peace continues to direct our lives so that together we will glorify Him no matter where he sends us around the globe.

• Has your toilet not been cleaned since the Clinton Administration?  This says something about the God you serve.

• Does the makeup on your vanity cost enough to feed a small army?  This says something about the God you serve.

• Do you have enough drugs in your cabinet to medicate Banner Desert Hospital?  This says something about the God you serve.

If you answer yes (or “Well, kind of, but…”) to any of these questions, let that be a wake-up call.  But not just a wake-up call to clean your John, ease up on the Maybelline, or flush your meds.  The mission issue is that you aren’t reflecting a truth about God.  But beneath that mission issue is a gospel issue.  The answer isn’t to try harder to reflect God’s image (mission).  The answer is understand how Jesus has set you free from gaining your value from your looks (makeup), having to numb the pain (drugs), and from a life of purposeless laziness (stained toilet).

How is Jesus good news for your bathroom?

God’s mission throughout history has been to redeem a people and restore His creation for His glory.  Therefore, as His missionaries we have been sent to  demonstrate and declare the good news of the God who redeems and restores.

We’d love to get your input on it.

What jumps out at you?
What would you add or change?
How does this definition inform or influence you?

Here is the link to read it. 

I'd love to see some more MDC people give their experience with "not seeing church as a building or 70 minute service."

(Also, if you comment on the post, FB reccomend it, and/or Retweet it, you can help me win something.)

While I believe that the gospel is far more broad and deep than several bullet points can express, I think it would be helpful to start by stating the truths that give the gospel a backbone.

• There is one God who has always existed. This God created the earth and everything on it, including humans which were created in his image.
• While these humans (and the earth in general) were created perfect, without blemish or sin, they almost instantly chose to rebel against God and not believe his truths.
• This initial sin caused the perfect harmony between God and his creation to be fractured. Sin, death and decay was now in the world and could not leave without a sacrifice of epic proportions.
• For thousands of years, humans have tried to use their “good works” to enter into right standing with God. Yet, no matter how hard they tried, every person was still sinful and could not do anything on their own to earn forgiveness.
• God, because he is full of grace, mercy and love, decided to send his son, Jesus (who is also God), into creation in the form of a man. Jesus’ mission on earth was to live a sinless life, to proclaim the Kingdom of God, to provide glimpses into what this Kingdom would look like, and finally, to be sacrificed on a cross. This act of self-sacrifice meant that a perfectly innocent Jesus gave himself up in order to take the wrath of God that was due to all of mankind and to place it on himself instead.
• Amazingly, though Jesus died and was buried in a tomb, he rose the 3rd day having conquered sin AND death. He would ascend to heaven, but before he did, he promised to come back soon in order to fulfill his promise of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth and restoring all of creation to how it was intended.
• Because of his life, death and resurection, Jesus made it possible for us to be forgiven from our sins and released from the judgement of God. If we believe in Jesus as our ONE true savior, we are welcomed into the family of God. Our sins past, present and future have been forgiven.

These are the basic, simple truths of the gospel. However, the implications of these truths are vast. The gospel is not meant to be viewed as a set of doctrinal fact that one must memorize. Rather, it is a belief in the true story of the world. It is also a power. The true story of the gospel has the power to change hearts, from cold and hardened to regenerated and full of love. With these changed hearts and new worldview, the gospel compels us to demonstrate our appreciation to and reliance on God in everything we do. We are also compelled to declare this amazing true story to the people we live with in hope that God may open their ears and give them the faith to believe.

You’ve washed my feet

You’ve set me free

Though equal with God

You gave Yourself to be a slave for me

So that I can see

You knelt down

And dwelt with us

Sinners to teach us how to live

And to serve like You

Our Saviour

Teach me to be a servant of Your mercy

To walk in Your glory

Serving others as I pray

Teach me to give with gratitude and thanksgiving

To serve sacrificially

Just like my Saviour did

May we now live where

The greatest will be the least of these

Dwelling here among us

He who would be first

Will be a slave to all

For You did not come to be served

But to serve the children of the fall

Teach me to be a servant of Your mercy

To walk in Your glory

Serving others as I pray

Teach me to love without condition

We turn our eyes above

We see the Father, Spirit, and the Son

In perfect unity

Teach me to be a servant of Your mercy

To walk in Your glory

Serving others as I pray

Teach me to give with gratitude and thanksgiving

To serve sacrificially

Just like my Saviour did

Let love be our service

Let actions take flight

As we take in the warmth

Of Your beautiful light

1. We are adopted by God as beloved sons and daughters.

The gospel says, good news you can stop trying to prove yourself (to God, others, yourself, but because of what God has done through Jesus you are adopted into his family regardless of your performance.  Or more specifically in spite of your inability to perform perfectly. You are made a son/daughter not a slave. Soak in that truth. (Ephesians 1.5; Romans 815-16; I Peter 2.9-11) 

By faith in Jesus we are adopted into God's family, with God as our perfect heavenly Father.

2. We are adopted by God into a family with brothers and sisters.

The gospel says, good news you don't have to prove yourself to each other, but are adopted into a family with brothers and sisters.  This means we exist in meaningful relationships that are based on who God is and what he has done instead of who we are and what we do.

By faith in Jesus, we are adopted into a family with brothers and sisters with Jesus as the perfect older brother.

3. We are adopted by God into a family who together enjoy and glorify him.

The gospel says, good news you don't just exist for your own enjoyment.  There is purpose and direction to this family that God is adopting.  We are freed from the slavery of trying to prove ourselves, to humbly tell others who our Father is, and to together demonstrate with joy what he has done, is doing, and will do.

Go ahead and post some of your thoughts as you reflect on your ID as family. What questions/thoughs are rolling through your head as you contemplate that you are:

    -  God's beloved child with God as the perfect heavenly Father

    -  Adopted into a family with brothers and sisters with Jesus as the perfect older brother

    -  Part of a family that exists to delight in who your Father is and to make him known throughout this  world.

I'll post some resources tomorrow that can help you continue to process this identity that is yours in Christ. 

It's so easy for us to be active because of guilt, shame, or performance-driven hearts.  At it’s core even the “mission” that we were acting out was based upon their belief that we needed to justify ourselves before God or man (the leadership, friends, family, or community). While this is a sure way to get short term commitment in the long run, the dichotomy between the gospel message and our actual lives ultimately leads to burnout, disillusionment with the gospel, and to deadly moralistic actions, which lack any supernatural power.

While studying the book of Colossians we saw how Paul motivated the churches he wrote letters to. In all of Paul's letters, he starts with who God is, what he has done in and through the person and work of Jesus, and only then moves on to who we are in Christ. He does all of this before he ever instructs them on how they should live.

This is the pattern we see throughout the Scriptures. First comes the Indicative, which is followed by the Imperative (You even see this in the very beginning - In the beginning was God...He creates...We have our existence as Image Bearers...then he tell us what
to do.  It's also in Exodus 20 with the ten commandments to name another OT example of this pattern.) The Eternal God and His work precede our existence and our obedience. Our

doing does not justify our existence or give us identity. Rather it is his work that gives us our existence, identity and meaning -

It looks like this:

WHO GOD IS --> WHAT HE HAS DONE --> WHO WE ARE --> WHAT WE DO  (INDICATIVE BEFORE IMPERATIVE)

These realizations caused us to found our church on who God is (gospel truths) who we are in Christ (gospel identities) and finally how we live that out (gospel rhythms.) Our motivation for what we do must come out of who he is and what he has done or we will be leading people into lives that are not grounded upon the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus’ accomplishment for us does not just give us a new law or a new direction.  It gives us a radically new identity.  It is essential we understand that  “our doing flows out of our being.”  To reverse this flow leads to a dead moralistic religion that does not embody the gospel.  Over the next 4 weeks we are going to be learning how our gospel identity informs us that we are his…

Family:
Learners
Servants
Missionaries

The fact is that sin and evil constitute bad news in every area of life on this planet.  The saving work of God through the cross of Christ is good news for every area of life touched by sin- which means every area of life.  Bluntly, we need a holistic gospel and a holistic mission because the world is in a holistic mess.  And by God's grace we have a gospel that is big enough for all that sin and evil has touched.  And every dimension of that good news is good news utterly and only because of the blood of Christ on the cross.  Ultimately all that will be there in the new and redeemed creation will be there because of the cross.  And conversely, all that will not be there (suffering, tears, sin, corruption, decay, and death) will not be there because they have been destroyed by the cross.)  Pg. 189

We are three days deep in Haiti. The state of Port au Prince has confronted us with the question of “how could God let this happen?” The particular question immediately draws this poem by William Blake to my mind. In light of what I have seen in Haiti,  the Tyger and the Lamb that Blake contemplates have been brought to a vivid clarity in my mind.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & What dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain

What the anvil what dead grasp

Dare his deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

The Tiger

A city afraid to go in their home for fear their house will collapse on them and crush them. A coalition of displaced, distraught, disease ridden people living among the rubble, refuse, and wreckage of their own homes fighting daily for money to buy food so they can eat for the first time in a week. Children bathing in ditches on the side of the road, children who lost both of their parents in the earthquake, children who have skin rashes, and severe stomach pains, and fevers, children on top of children on top of children on top of children with no where to go but hopelessness and depression. Stress like a suffocating blanket draped over the city and choking the will to live out of the people. Stress pressing and bending the will and the spirit like the trusses buckling under the weight of a collapsing building.

The Lamb

“This is the day that the lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it”

So to get your copy you can simply right click here and select Save As. Enjoy!

Here is an update from Kevin after their first day working in Haiti:

Today we saw over 300 people, at the makeshift medical clinic.  The strangest part of this trip is that the city lies in ruin but the people walk around almost normally.  It's like they are getting used to the fact that it's going to be a long while before everything is in some semblance of "right."   Seriously, there is nowhere for the rubble and almost every single house has either been demolished or severely compromised by the quake. We haven't seen any crazy traumas medically speaking, but lots of people who are suffering and who are finding some relief.  Almost every person that I've talked to has PTSD to some degree.  Not all are dehabilitated, but most are either hyper-aware of anything that moves or are having intrusive (Dreams, eating patterns, ability to sleep in a house) effects of the earthquake.  On Wednesday we are going to a village that refuses to move back into homes because they are terrified.  Most people in Haiti didn't know what to do when an earthquake hit, so after the earth shook they ran INTO their houses.... and then they collapsed.

It's tough to look at a kid who tells you that he lost both his parents in the earthquake.  There aren't words for that.  Most people who come through say they want to pray with a pastor or talk to a counselor.

Cool story:  About 10 kids were circled around a proclaimer listening to the story of Luke.  Yes that happens.  Michael Parker had the idea to bust some out so people listened to the stories as they waited for the Dr's to come.  One little girl was just eyes wide open with a huge smile and hugged the box tightly.  She was amazed it was in her language and absolutely loving it.  Even when it was slow and no one was coming through the clinic the kids still circled around the proclaimer. Pray for wisdom as we discern who to leave the 25 audio bibles with.

Team Update:
Tim was an all star.  Everyone calls him MacGuyver.  He is putting things together and making it happen all over the place.  He goes from putting up tarps to shelter the elderly from the sun to praying with people as they told stories about their lives being shattered. 

Cori was in stride as well.  She was working in the pharmacy then dove right in with the kids and is going to teach the people in the city how to purify their water using discarded plastic bottles tomorrow.  She is going to be clutch in sharing and showing the love of Christ to hurting women- that's been a huge answer to prayer.

Brad has been able to implement some of his management skills and also playing gatekeeper aka bouncer to the clinic.  We might as well have given him a security T-shirt and set him up at a club. It's cool to see him be able to use his gifts and seeing people in the body being used in different ways.

You can be praying for the gospel to be shown in these areas:

Medically:  The doctors are demonstrating the healing effects of the gospel and modeling God's redemption as they seek to restore things broken by the fall.  They are showing how God's love bridges cultural, economic, and social boundaries- pray that they stay healthy, wise, and encouraged as they treat hundreds if not thousands of patients this week. It can be rugged and soul straining to engage with such brokenness. Pray for these doctors and nurses.

Counselors:  There is a team of us who are serving the people by listening.  We need to be equipped with the wisdom that only the Spirit can bring and to be encouraged as only He can do.  It's straight up hard to hear these stories, see these people, and continue to stay engaged in their stories. There is a profound openness to God though.  I can't explain it, but people want to talk- pray that we follow the spirit on when to talk and when to listen.

Safety: The reality is that at any time the situation could get ugly and we would have to bail on the clinic.  So far God has granted safety in our travels and in doing the clinic.  Pray that he shows his sovereignty over this mission by protecting us so that we are able to treat and talk with many more hurting Haitians.

Thanks for checking in and I'll post an update in a day or two.

Keep up with the team at Dr. Beyda’s Blog and Twitter Feed.

Pictures are online HERE.

Also feel free to e-mail me- we have internet (sketchy at best) at the hotel.

Haiti makes my heart pound and my pulse race. Thinking of the magnitude of suffering that human beings are experiencing shatters my heart.  My eyes feel like they begin to burn as I picture that intense suffering.  I haven't experienced anything even close their situation, and that is overwhelming.

What do I have to offer?

Who am I to God?

Isn't there someone more qualified?

To each of those questions the gospel both screams and subltly whispers an answer.

I have the good news of a risen deliverer who conquered Satan, sin, and death.

I have the Spirit of Jesus in me.

I have the authority to represent the true King.

I am a child of God.

I have the hope of a God who is bigger than any disaster.

While I'm not "qualified", I'm sent.  The One who commissions me makes me worthy.  It's not because of who I am or what I've done, but bcause of who He is and what He has done. Not because I have a degree, but because he has risen from the grave. Salvation does not belong to me, but it belongs to God. 

Jesus use us to make you famous in Haiti.  Break our hearts, stir our souls, let us feel the compassion you felt as you looked on Jerusalem- another broken city.  May your Gospel compel us to love, and give us the humility to serve. 

- This Saturday (March 20th) we are sending a team to Port au Prince, Haiti for ten days.  As a Missio wide family we set aside most of our January offering to BLESS Haiti in whatever way God chose to use.  That money will be used to both send people, but also proclaimers (audio bibles) to the people of Haiti.  You can be praying for Tim Westbrook, Cori Oversby, Brad Rule, and Kevin Platt as we are sent to Haiti.

- Saturday March 27th we are having two Saturday Sessions.  Every few months we want to be providing alternative learning experiences for the MIssio Body.  That could sound creepy, but what we are doing, is teaching on specific topics that have emerged as theological questions from within the body.  In the Saturday Sessions we teach through those topics in an interactive  classroom setting.  So on the 27th we will be teaching a Gospel Centered approach/theology to Spiritual Disciples from 8-10am and a Biblical Theology of The Kingdom of God from 10.30-12.30.  Please RSVP to Chris (at) missiodeicommunities.com so we know how much space to have available. 

Teaching Review:

As we are coming to a close on the book of Acts there were three core convictions that Paul held that we long for us as a church to be gripped by as well.  These convictions led Paul to be an effective and faithful witness to the gospel throughout his life.  Here they are:

Who God is:  Sovereign.  (Acts 26.1-11) Paul's life and words showed that he was utterly convinced of the Sovereignty of God.  Whether he was experiencing the gospel renewing a city or locked away in a Roman jail he was convinced that a loving God was orchestrating events. Our hearts and minds do not need to be wracked with anxiety or false pride because it is God who is in control not us.

What God Has Done For Us: Forgiven our Sins and given us a community. (Acts 26.12-18)  Paul had a resolute conviction that it wasn't his morality or his upbringing that put him right with God, it was the fact that Jesus had opened his eyes and delivered him from Satan's power.  Our hearts and minds do not need to be slaves to guilt and alienation, through faith in Jesus God has forgiven our sins and placed us in a community of others who are freed as well.

What we do for God: Faithfully Declare and Demonstrate the Gospel.  (Acts 26.19-30)  The order to this is crucial, the first conviction is rooted in God's character as sovereign, the second in his ability to save, and because of all that God is and what He has done our hearts are moved to worship filled service.  Our service no longer has to be done in order to earn or deserve God's approval, but as beloved sons and daughters who are already approved we are liberated to serve God gratefully not out of compulsion.

So we prayed.  We waited.  We took most of our offering from January and set it aside for gospel work in Haiti, and then we prayed some more.

Last week a trip that had been off and on for a few weeks solidified.  After a lot of e-mails, text messages, and phone calls we have a team from Missio that is joining up with Mission of Mercy and heading to Haiti next Friday (20th of March.)  The full details of what we will be doing aren't solidified yet, but as of now we will be heading into a tent city in Port au Prince and counseling people who need someone to listen and speak the gospel to them, setting up and staffing a portable medical clinic, praying with/over injured Hatians, and however else we can serve.

We will be praying for the team this Sunday, but need your prayers as we prepare to be sent as ambassadors of Jesus to these people who are wrestling with very real physical and spiritual questions about the goodness of God.

Please be praying for Brad, Tim, Cori, and I (Kevin), as we join with the rest of the Mission of Mercy team and together seek to be a community of Jesus followers living out the gospel in tangible ways with the people in Haiti. 

We wanted to make that resource available for everyone, if you wanted a copy DOWNLOAD IT HERE.  Here's a tasty tidbit from the section discussing "re:align":

I think this becomes the most painful step for many.  Leap seems like a big risk.  But, there is adrenalin and excitement around starting something new.  Re:Jesus is so liberating and mind-blowing to see how much bigger the gospel is than you’d previously thought.  But Re:Align is tough because these new ideas and worldview you have with the gospel is still sinking in.  Our old religious habits are still so ingrained.  But the nuts and bolts of your everyday life starts getting challenged.

Thanks to everyone who has been coming out and learning through the Saturday Sessions.  We want to keep on doing them, but here's the deal, we are going to be mixing it up a bit. I know, add sarcastic "Kevin and Chris always mix it up" comment here. Instead of gospel counseling 101 we are going to be peeling the wrapper off of two fresh teachings.  The question is which ones? 

For the Saturday Sessions we want to be teaching what you want to be learning, and are setting the arena in theology.  So are there doctrines, themes, systems of theology, etc.. that you want to learn about?  POST them here, and we will sift through them, pick two, and then be teaching on them March 27.  

Sidenote: If you want to learn the content of the Gospel counseling text, post, e-mail, or yes maybe even talk to Chris or I and we'll set up a time to make sure that happens.

The Big Red Tractor from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.

How are we using the tractor at Missio Dei?  Thoughts?

Have you learned anything about the Holy Spirit?  I hope so.  It has been quite eye opening and transforming for me to be soaking in the Holy Spirit over the last few weeks.  

This Sunday we will finish up our Pneuma Series by asking the question, “How does the Holy Spirit change me?”  

In the meantime we thought we would throw some resources your way on the Holy Spirit:

Forgotten God,  Frances Chan (Book) (Audio)

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Hendrikus Berkhoff (Book)

Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement - read the whole thing, but the part on the Spirit is really good and concise. 

Jubilee Church Sermon - randomly found this sermon on Twitter from a church in England.  Listened to the first part of it this morning.  It is really good. 

Soma Communities Sermon - Soma Communities in Tacoma, Washington just started a series through Acts.  Here is a link to a Sermon on Pentecost. (iTunes Podcast)

"Come over to New Jersey and help us." Over the last couple months Kay and I have had, not a vision, but actual people in New Jersey asking us to plant the gospel in New Jersey. The Spirit seems to be saying the same thing to us and many of you as we seek discernment.

Last week they flew me out to New Jersey to do meet with their community, pray together, and be able to share some meals getting to know them even more. This isn't a band of strangers asking me, but rather families who have been influenced by what we are doing here in AZ, and are desperately longing to live out the gospel in community, not just go to church.

Here are some highlights from my trip.

On Saturday night I sat down with the guys who have been trying to hold this small commuinty of people together faithful to the gospel. They are in the place we were about 1.5 years ago as we sat in the Bacon's basement and asked Jesus what it looked like to live as his church. The three of us met upstairs Jeff's, one of the local elders, garage and talked through the disappoinments of the past year (my dad's death was at the top of the list) as well as the rays of hope that have been shining through (God has been stretching them in ways they never would have seen coming.)

On Sunday I was able to preach to the church as a whole (About 20 people) and share with them how there are two ways to run from God not just one. You may have heard of a little thing called irreligion, religion, and the gospel. It was beautiful. But it was hard. Standing in the place that my dad "should" be hit me harder than I thought it would.

As i sat on the beach and prayed before teaching that Sunday I had an overwhelming peace that freezing at it was at that moment, this was the place God was directing. It's going to be hard leaving AZ. You all have been our family, are the embodiment of the dreams the gospel birthed in our hearts, and are those we have been growing alongside of for years. Yet the call to follow Christ no matter where he leads, to follow the Spirit no matter how hard the path may seem, and to trust the Father with our very lives outweighs those fears and pains.

Monday, I drove around and looked at places to live. It's such a diverse area. I can drive two miles one direction and be on Wisteria lane with it's manicured lawns and 3,000 sq. ft houses, or two miles the other direction and be in one of the areas most effected by drugs and crime in the 609 area code. We are asking God to direct us to the neighborhood he wants us to plant our first gospel community in.

Kay and I desperately need your prayers as we follow where the Spirit is leading. We are asking him to sell our house, or else we will be renting it out, asking Him to bring alongside of us the people who will be planting with us, and also begging him to show us where he is working in NJ. Be praying for MIssio as we learn together what it looks like to plant gospel communities around the country, not just the city. We love you all so much. Thanks for sending us where the Spirit is leading.

ps. i've been asked this. No the contextualized for NJ is not MDC:NJ. But as with everything in church planting that is "for now."

    - Missional Communities are a mess. 

    - They are all realigning.

    - The majority of people are no longer in an MC, but rather in a state of dismay.

    - Most people don’t think the ideal of “missional community” works for them.

This perception has come out in comments I have made up front at Thew and in private conversations with people in MDC. That perception has become my reality, and I would assume the reality of others.

Last Monday morning, Kevin and I sat down and ripped a sheet of paper out of my yellow legal pad. I drew a line down the middle. On the left side we wrote all the people leading MC’s and the names of all the people in them. On the right side we wrote down all of the free agents. On the top were free agents who are unsure of where God is calling them. On the bottom are free agents who aren’t really looking to be in missional community.

As we started, I figured we would need a lot more space on the Free Agent side and especially at the bottom. By the time we were done I was extremely surprised. Here are some things I learned:

We pray these two weeks focusing on the Holy Spirit will help open our eyes to the Holy Spirit and His work and ignite a fire within each of us.  

Yesterday, we tried to zoom out and get a bigger picture of the Holy Spirit.  How and where does He show up throughout the unfolding biblical drama?

This coming Sunday we want to get really specific.  We want to wrestle with and answer the questions you are asking.  So... What do you want to talk about on Sunday?  What questions or insights do you have?  

(This is the part where you click below, get an account, and leave a comment)

His message was a story, the True Story about Jesus.

Instead of just Kevin or I teaching, we brought Mike Baumert into the teaching mix.  He and I team-taught.  The idea was to give Mike some experience up front equipping the body. 

Coming Up…

The next two Sundays at Thew will be focused on vision.  These will be important meetings for all the MDC family.  Please be there!

Saturday Sessions are coming up on Saturday 16th.

The Rundown:

If you missed the teaching it should be online soon, apparently we have some issues recording and uploading content, but I promise we are trying to make sure all the sermons get online. Keep checking back to see if they are up.

Don brought it, teaching us through the life of Peter. Download the teaching and listen to the whole message, but heres the Cliffnotes version. In the year 2010 will you be spending your time "temporal fishing" or investing in Christ exalting, God glorifying, Spirit empowered eternal fishing?

Spend some time this week thinking back over the evidences of God's grace in your life, how has he taken you further and deeper in your understanding of the gospel? Any thoughts?

The 411:

1. Saturday Sessions are back. On January 16th we'll be teaching Gospel Counseling @ 8am and Practical Missional Living @ 10.30am. Please RSVP to info,Chris, or Kevin @missiodeicommunities.com Check out our events page for more details for GC101 or Practical Missional Living. The cost for each session is $5 for materials and light snacks.

2. Next Sunday, January 3rd we will have an MC leaders meeting at the Gonzalez house. This meeting will be for current MC leaders as well as those who are taking steps towards starting up a new MC. We will be meeting from 5-7pm. RSVP if you plan to attend.

3. Missio Dei Kids is growing! That can be taken two ways. The first is, yes the kids are getting bigger. But secondly as Missio grows so are the number of kiddos that are coming on Sunday mornings. That being said we would love to have some more people teaching and playing with the kids as we teach them the gospel on age-appropriate levels. If you aren't helping out with MD:K yet, and would like to please fill out this form and give it to Kayleanne Platt. She'll put you on the rotation and you be blessing the Missio family approximately once every 2-3 months by teaching the kiddos the gospel with two other teachers.

4. Be at the Sunday Gatherings on January 10th and 17th. We will take those two Sunday morning gatherings to spend time discussing how we see Missio Dei moving forward this next year. We will talk through where your (our) money is being invested locally and globally, the basic DNA of Missio, as well as some ways we feel God leading us as a church in the next year. We'd love to have as many of our family there as possible so that we can directly communicate to ya'll.

• Helping three families in January with their rent or mortgage payment.
• Don will give Dareth $2000 in cash to buy bedding and supplies for the newly finished orphanage in Cambodia when he sees him next week.
  

Hope God's gift of Jesus brings even more joy and excitement than this!

I took a present from under our Christmas tree on Sunday and  brought a present to Thew.  The tag said “To Amy, Kailey and David.  From Momma and Daddio.”  It is a big box.  I had some issues with getting one piece of wrapping paper to cover the whole thing.  There were no bows.  But the contents were hidden from site.

I asked people what they could tell about me from the present. 

• You don’t pay attention to details.
• You don’t embellish stuff.
• You took more care than just putting it in one of those bags.
• You love your kids.

It isn’t hard to see where this is going.  This week we celebrate Christmas; the incarnation of Jesus; God’s gift to us.  We can learn a lot about who God is from his gift of Jesus.

The Christmas gift shows us God’s love, joy, peace, humility, hospitality and glory.  We can see all this by dwelling on the story of Christmas.  Will you dwell on the coming of Christ this week?

But we can’t stop there.  We keep seeing more about the gift-giver by unwrapping the present.  Underneath the sloppy blue wrapping paper was a box containing a Belgian waffle maker.  I explained how the kids love waffles and I am so excited to make waffles with the kids on Saturday mornings.

You learn even more about me as a father when you see the rest of the story behind the present.

You learn even more about the Heavenly Father when you keep reading the rest of the story behind the present. 

Take some time this Christmas season and follow the story from Cradle to Cross to Crown.

Merry Christmas!

Announcements:

Find the perfect gift for the "reader" on your Christmas list HERE. Read this blog post if you want to know which book would be a solid choice for them (or you.)

Saturday Sessions are back. On Saturday, January 16th we will be teaching Gospel Counseling 101 again, as well as another session on Practical Missional. GC 101 will be at 8am and Practical Missional will be at 10.30. The cost is 5$ for materials. RSVP at info @ missiodeicommunities.com.

This Saturday (December 19th) from 11am-2pm we will be meeting at Thew serving Christmas dinners to some people who can't get out to get one. Connect with Mark Durben or e-mail info @ missiodeicommunities.com if you want more information.

Sorry I had to cut some of you off yesterday as we were discovering the implications of the story in our lives. I love that our "problem" is that the gospel has so many implications in our lives that we don't fit them all in on a 2 hour sunday gathering.

If you want, feel free to post your reflections coming off of the teaching time yesterday. How has the Spirit been using the story of Acts 10 to further orient your life around the True Story? Which truth from Peters gospel informed life has been rolling around in your brain since yesterday?

- A Prayerful Dependence on the Spirit? (Pray. Listen. Obey.)

- A growing awareness of the implications of the gospel in his life? (Gospel is a new lense to see all of life through.)

- His life had a compelling mission (demonstrate and declare the gospel so that others may see and experience the glory of God.)

If I don't see you this week- See you Sunday @ 10 as we get the whole famly together to celebrate Christmas.

For that person who keeps bouncing back between “Irreligion” and “Religion”…

Prodigal God by Tim Keller. This short and readable book looks at the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 to see that there is a third way to live: Gospel.

For the person who doesn’t know the stories in the Story of the Bible…

Drama of Scripture by Michael Goheen. This book is essential reading to understand the Bible as one unfolding story. For a shorter read, try The True Story of the World, by Goheen.

For the skeptic who won’t even consider Jesus because, “how could there be a good God when there is evil?”…

Reason for God by Tim Keller

For the person who is utterly uninspired by the thought of a floating featureless cloudish heaven…

Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright.

For the dude who needs to get off the couch and find some adventure…

Into the Wild or Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

For the person whose prayer sounds like a robotic recitation…

A Praying Life by Paul Miller

For the person who says, “You are being religious”, every time you call him out on something…

Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

For the parents with children who need to know the True Story…

Big Picture Storybook Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible

For the people counseling in situations where they are confused...
How People Change by Lane|Tripp

For the person longing to be overwhelmed with a hefty resource on the mission of God

The Mission of God by Chris Wright

1.  Sacrificial and Generous Giving. God has blessed Don and Marcia tremendously with finances.  And I know of no one who is more excited about being generous and sacrificial with his money.  Don and Marcia have played an enormous role in the finances of Missio Dei.  But they also give their money and time all around the globe. 

2.  Vouching With His Voice. I was a 27 year old punk college pastor who knew the church had to change from “doing church” to “being the church”.  And I knew that the gospel was a lot bigger than most of us were realizing.  I just didn’t know if anyone would take us seriously.  I will never forget sitting down at Nello’s for lunch and Don saying, “Chris, I believe in what you guys want to do.  I think this is a movement of God happening all over the world.  What can I do to help?”  Having Don on board with us has given us clout and legitimacy we never could have had.  He has used his voice, earned from years of leading with integrity to vouch for me, you and Missio Dei.

3.  Going Alongside. What I love about Don is that even though he travels a ton, he is always right there alongside us.  He is never the old guy pulling us back.  Rather he is the constantly confirming our vision and calling us forward into the craziness that is Missio Dei.  I have wondered about a lot of people, if they would make it.  But, Don has never wavered.  He is fully invested in what we are doing.

Don-abas.  Thanks for all the encouragement!

1.  Sacrificial and Generous Giving.  Chapter 5 begins with the bad example of Ananias and Sapphira.  They were stingy with their money and lied about it.  We all know about them.  But we often overlook the fact that we were introduced to Barnabas at the end of Chapter 4 simply because he was the positive example of a sacrificial and generous giver. 

2.  Vouching With His Voice.  After Saul, the persecutor of the church, is converted he goes down to Jerusalem.  However, as you can imagine, none of the Apostles want to have anything to do with him.  They are scared to death of him!  But Barnabas uses the voice that he has in the community to vouch for Saul.  “But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them...” (Acts 9:27). 

3.  Going Alongside.  In Acts 13, Saul is going to be sent off.  The rest of the book of Acts will be largely about Saul/Paul and his crazy ministry to the ends of the earth.  However, what is often overlooked is that it is Barnabas who is sent off with Saul.  Saul does not go alone.  He has Barnabas alongside him for the journey. 

Who do you see as the “Barnabas” in your life?  What about in Missio Dei?

Ever miss a Sunday gathering at Thew and feel like you are out of the loop?  Or what about when you make a Sunday gathering at Thew and still feel like you missed something?  I know there is so much we try to pack into the time that it can be overload.  Our gift to you is the Sunday 411

Announcements

On Saturday, December 19 we will be distributing 200 traditional meals to the neighborhood around Thew.  If you would like to help out, talk to Mark Durben next week.

Vision

We are now full swing into the Christmas season.  We took a few minutes just to stop and catch our thoughts.  What does the Holy Spirit need you to hear as you celebrate the Incarnation this year?  On Sunday we spent a few minutes in silence to contemplate this, discussed it in small groups and prayed in small groups together.  (By the way, how sick is it that we can spend 5 minutes in silence in our worship service, then turn to the people around you and dive into prayer with them!?!)

Acts 9

We came to the point in the unfolding drama of Acts when Saul goes from persecutor of Christ’s church to the primary proponent of the gospel.  He gets smacked upside the head by Jesus in verse 3.  Then he gets his life’s mission in verse 15. 

The quote that stuck out to me was from Scot McKnight, “Genuine conversion is conversion from opposition (or even neutrality) to participation in the mission of God through Jesus Christ.” 

What in your life is opposed to the mission of God?

What in your life is neutral to the mission of God?

What in your life is participating in the mission of God?

READ THIS from Matt Chandler. 

Matt is an Acts 29 pastor at the Village Church in Texas.  He had a siezure on Thanksgiving morning.  He has brain surgery this morning.  Read and pray!

And you are alowed to be honest!

‘First we form habits, then they form us.’ Rob Gilbert

‘No man or woman has achieved an effective personality who is not self-disciplined. Such discipline must not be an end in itself, but must be directed to the development of resolute Christian character.’ John Sutherland Bodell

‘You cannot have freedom without discipline.’ Ricardo Montalban

‘Men are anxious to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound. The man who does not shrink from self-crucifixion can never fail to accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is true of earthly as well as heavenly things.’ James Allen

‘You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.’ Jesus

So, here is a taste of what is to come.

STUDY- a setting of the mind or thoughts upon a subject.

The intent of study is to renew or transform our minds. What better to study then the Word of God, but we also study those things God has created including nature and man, to discern who our God is. How do we do that so it isn’t pantheism? Also included will be a reference sheet for many spiritual classics.

PRAYER- ‘Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble. Prayer is a life attitude.’ William Mueller

How do we practice ‘unceasing prayer?’ What prayer forms are there besides petitioner prayer?

What does it mean to pray ‘in the name of Jesus?’

SOLITUDE- Are you kidding me, be all alone and be quiet? ‘Be still and know that I am God.’

‘The essence of meditation is a period of time set aside to contemplate the Lord,  LISTEN to Him and allow Him to permeate our hearts.’ Charles Stanley

Yes, meditation is in the bible. It appears over 200 times in the Psalms alone.

SCRIPTURE MEMORIZATION- UGH. ‘Some regard memory as being no more than one of nature’s gifts, and this view is no doubt true to a great extent, but like everything else, memory may be improved by cultivation.’ The Memory Book. So what can we do to cultivate it? Is there a method  to memorize scripture that might work best for me?

SIMPLICITY- I wish my life were simpler but it seems impossible. Can I really learn to simplify my life and in the process experience greater joy and freedom then I am now experiencing? YES

WORSHIP- Isn’t that when we sing on Sundays? Partly. But worship is really a lifestyle choice.

‘Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness’ sounds a little deeper than a song. ‘God is Spirit and his worshippers must worship in spirit and truth.’ John 4:24. Wow. Kind of sounds like prayer, a life attitude. Yup.

An Irreligious look would be:  “Disciplines, yeah right!”

A Religious look would be:  “If I get these down I’m in.”

The Gospel view:  “How do I best remind myself of the work God has begun in me so He can bring it to completion.” (Phillipians 1:6)

Spiritual Disciplines don't earn us God's favor.  They are how we create space to remember and feast on God's favor. 

Jesus states in Luke 6:40 ‘ a student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.’ Trained is the condition of something being suitable & ready for the designed function. 

Musician, athlete, artist, accountant, all are trained or disciplined to be suitable and ready for their designed function.  So we too as disciples of Jesus train and discipline ourselves, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be suitable & ready for our designed function, to be conformed to the divine nature.  Paul tells us to fight the good fight, to run the good race, to train ourselves to be Godly, to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Now I hated English in high school. I actually took senior English twice just so I could graduate but one thing I learned is that verbs are action words.  Run, fight, train, persevere, these require action on our part. This is not a race where once we are saved we lay back in Jesus’ arms and he carries us around the track.

Okay, so what are the spiritual disciplines?

We will be looking at some of the following: studying, prayer, worship, simplicity, fasting, meditation (yes, that is really in scripture), solitude, and service.  We will be looking not only at what they are and why we do them but also at how we can incorporate then into our living.  Sort of like learning to be ‘living letters’.

So, what is this discipline and how do we step into the middle of it and co-operate with what God is already doing in us? The Greek word paideuo , used in  Hebrews, means to discipline in order to educate someone to conform to divine truth.  So, spiritual disciplines are activities, or practices, that have developed in the church to help us conform to divine truth.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul states we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. This is certainly God’s work, but spiritual disciplines are the means by which we ‘choose’ to participate in that activity. 

Richard Foster, in his book “Celebration of Disciplines” ( a book from which you will hear much over the next few weeks), writes this  ‘Neither should we think of the Spiritual  Disciplines as some dull drudgery aimed at exterminating laughter from the face of the earth. Joy is the keynote of all the disciplines.’  Joy is the keynote of all disciplines. As we conform to divine truth, it only makes sense that the fruits of the Spirit become more evident in us.  It was once mentioned to a great scholar that a certain man had indicated he was once a student of the scholar. He responded ‘He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.’  William Barclay writes in his commentary on Luke. ‘It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the Church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.’

Disciples are marked by discipline. Are we the few real disciples?

Secondly, his life is a reminder that the Christian life is not an easy life. The disciplines prepare our heart & our mind to be obedient to God’s calling, even when He calls us somewhere we would rather not go.

We often think of the heart as the seat of the emotions but it is really the seat of the will.

The disciplines help us prepare our heart so we can in truth say ‘ not my will but yours be done.”

I grew up in a home that was very disciplined. I remember my dad never missing work or church, even if he was sick. He was always under control (although one look could let me know that could change if it needed to).  So even though I rebelled against that discipline in my teens the scripture that reads ‘train up a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it’ proved itself true as I turned from all the rebellion and looked for truth.

I started with an austere diet to train my body and mind, practiced Zen meditation for 4 hours a day as well as a day and a half of silence and fasting, learned Hindu meditation, and finally joined a cult where we studied daily, practiced chanting, and lived a simple life of hard work.

One of the best pieces of advice I received after becoming a follower of Jesus was to not throw out the good that I had learned in my other experiences.  I was challenged to learn how to take those disciplines and apply them to the Christian life.  I used that to start immediately studying scripture and through that I began to learn connections between studying, prayer, meditation, fasting, worship, and simplicity in living out my calling to follow Christ and bear witness to His resurrection.

I sought out a spiritual director for help in  the disciplines, eventually becoming trained and certified to be a spiritual director.  Through spiritual direction I learned how Christian meditation seeks to fill us with the presence of Christ rather than emptying our mind as in Buddhism.  I learned many methods of prayer, the purpose of fasting, and what a life of simplicity brings.

I have had the joy of teaching spiritual disciplines and providing spiritual direction to others, and witnessing their growth. God has not only awed me by revealing what He can do through a broken vessel like me, He has revealed how even in dark times He is working in us a good work for later use. ‘Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs sinners in His way.’ Psalm 25:8

We want to introduce you to a man in our community who has been asking that question, and answering it in some pretty remarkable ways.  His name is Mark Durben.  If you don’t know him, you should.   Mark is a regular guy with an inspiring story.   Mark is a struggling sinner just like you and me, who has been redeemed and transformed by a great Savior. Mark is as normal as you get with a passion and devotion to Jesus that is stunningly abnormal. We’d like to introduce him to you over the next couple of weeks on the blog.

We’ve asked Mark to share some of what he has learned over his years following Jesus.  Our prayer is that this series of blog posts will:

• Stir our affections for Jesus.
• Put some flesh on what it looks like to follow Jesus.
• Ignite a passion for prayer and the spiritual disciplines in MDC.

Yesterday we saw that the first key ingredient to a Missional Community is a Leader.  Here are the next two.

2.  A Mission. It can’t be stressed enough – it is absolutely essential that every new MC has a specific people or place they are choosing to declare and demonstrate the gospel with. The organizing framework of any MC has to be gospel-informed Mission.  This puts the mission in Missional Community. That might be a lame line, but it id amazing how often this is the piece that is left out. It’s a non-negotiable.

3.  A Community of People:  One of our elders likes to remind us that, “If you think you are leading and no one is following – you are just taking a walk in the woods.” This means that MC’s have to be made up of more than a leader who is fired up.  There has to be a committed community of people choosing to live the gospel out together. MC’s are made up of communities of people who are growing as prophets, priests, and kings- not just people passively surrounding one charismatic personality.

There are a variety of different ways an MC can form.  So far we’ve seen communities birth from other MC’s, people new to MDC have had a calling to a specific place, and we trust that there will be many more diverse situations that birth new MC’s.  That being said, there are three essential elements to starting up a Missional Community with Missio Dei.  As with anything there are a lot of “good” things that will help you as you start a MC up, but these three are essential.  These are not hoops to jump through, but elements we have found essential in starting MC’s.

1.  A Qualified Dude Leading:  We design the Missional Communities to posture themselves as church plants.  They aren’t the churches on their own, but do operate as extensions of the whole of Missio Dei.  We want men who are committed to Jesus and to His mission. The leader is responsible to be shepherding with the gospel those in the MC. The qualifications are based around areas of character, competency, and compatibility.  No one is perfect, but it is essential that those who are responsible for the communities are firmly grounded in the gospel, faithfully living lives on mission, and committed to MDC.

Check back tomorrow for #2 and #3.

This Sunday we have a special guest whose life puts flesh on what it means to live out this radical/normal Christian life.  His name is Dareth.  He grew up in the killing fields of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge in the 1970’s where they killed over 2 million people.  He has an incredible story and is now living this stuff out in an unbelievable way

My prayer is that we would be inspired by someone who has been utterly transformed by the costly grace of Christ… and whose life shows it.  Will you pray with me this week for Dareth and for us?

Unofficial Definition: Aside from Jesus, Missional Communities are what Missio Dei Communities live or dies with.  We are unwaveringly committed to shaping and sending followers of Jesus into the world to live out the Missio Dei.

Official Definition: A Missional Community (MC) is a core of people who are being transformed by the gospel that commit to living out God’s mission together by demonstrating and declaring the gospel in tangible ways to each other and to their world.

In order for this to happen we need to equip and unleash dynamic leaders who faithfully live everyday life with gospel intentionality.  These leaders must be committed to leading gospel communities on mission doing the same.   We want to use the blog this week to talk about how we see this happening.

But let’s start with some discussion.  What would you say is a key ingredient for a Missional Community?

Hey Chris,

So excited about our study in Acts!  Something’s been stirring in my mind about Acts 1 regarding the long section on Judas and the selection of Matthias.  I’m thinking that some of that crew were probably really discouraged and wondering if they were on the right track.  Without the power of the Holy Spirit, they probably felt purposeless and maybe even abandoned by Christ.  Some may have doubted whether they were really in line with God’s intended plan.  I think Peter was encouraging them and reminding them that, even what Judas did, was in fulfillment of God’s plan: “For”, said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and ‘May another take his place of leadership’. 

I think that we, in our human weakness, get discouraged from the plan so quickly.  Like we might get all excited about our MC and the ministry God has given us, but as soon as others drop away or things don’t go like we thought they should, we wonder if we heard it right.  I love that God doesn’t change His mind when He sets for a plan and a vision – He never changes the rules like our ever-changing society.  We can trust that He is on course and that we need to keep on with His plan.

Can’t wait for this Sunday!

Sandy

• We are not looking for people to attend a different worship service.
• We are not looking for people to give their money to our bank account rather than another church’s.
• We are not looking for people to transfer their membership from one institution to another.
• We are not looking for people to follow us so that we are validated as a legitimate church.
• We are not looking for people to fit into our forms and structures.

 ...however...

• We are looking for people who are fed up with wasting their lives away.
• We are looking for people who are willing to dream what it could look like for them live an upside down Kingdom life.
• We are looking for people who have a burning passion to see a specific people or place transformed by the gospel and are looking for some help, ideas and accountability.
• We are looking for people who haven’t figured it all out, but are open to trying.
• We are looking for people who yearn to be overwhelmed by the weight of the gospel with us.
• We are looking for humble, angst-ridden, passionate leaders.

We just finished up another Transition Community on Sunday night.  It got me thinking about this stuff.  More people are hearing about Missio Dei Communities.  And that is great.  But we are not just looking for people who are frustrated with their church or are looking for the next trendy thing (not that we are trendy, ha)  Do we want Missio Dei to grow?  Yup.  But we want to grow with Jesus-enthralled, gospel-driven, self-sacrficing missionaries.  If you are open to that, let's do it.

"Part of the point about Jesus' resurrection is that it was the beginning of precicely that astonishing and world-shattering renewal.  It wasn't just that he happened to be alive again. It was, rather, that because on the cross he had indeed dealt with the main force of evil, decay and death itself, the creative power of God, no longer thwarted as it had been by human rebellion, could at last burst forth and produce the beginning, the pilot project, of that joined up heaven and earth reality which is God's plan for the whole world.” 

“The Resurrection is not an odd event within the world as it is but an utterly characteristic, prototypical, and foundational event within the world as it has begun to be.  It is not an absurd event within the old world but the symbol and starting point of the new world.  The claim advanced in Christianity is of that magnitude:  Jesus of Nazareth ushers in not simply a new religious possibility, not simply a new ethic or a new way of salvation, but a new creation.”

More of Dr. Tom on the Resurrection...

N.T. Wright Page

YouTube Search

- Setting Things Up

- Baking Food

- Supplies to Pick Up

If you want to be a part of Blessing the neighborhood please e-mail thew.mdc4@gmail.com. The sooner you get in contact with them the better so that they can know how to prepare. Thanks.

The cross was never plan B for God, but  stands as the center of God's mission and consequently the center of our mission as well.  It is ecause of the cross we can find hope, forgiveness, cleansing, and power, and that changes everything.

This past Sunday was week 1 of the two part conclusion of the book of Luke. I've gotten several e-mails asking for the .ppt slides from Sunday's teaching, if you want them CLICK HERE.

Spend some time this week reading through the book of Luke and see how much richer it is after having spent the last 24 weeks learning from the words of Dr. Luke about our King Jesus. Feel free to post any of your reflections coming off of Sunday or from your time spent with Jesus in Luke this week.

"All Christian Mission flows from the cross- as it’s source, it’s power, and as that which defines it."

C. Wright

Fail. (Luke 22)

Betrayed by the kiss of a friend
Denied by lips of another
Mocked by whips of the powers that be
Scorned by tongues:
Yesterday "Hosannah!"
Today "Crucify!"

And Lord I see
They are we
These who failed
Are just like me

And so I run
To the only one
Who says, "Not my will
But yours be done

Only as I gaze upon You
See my sin forgiven
See the hope now given
Can I say, "Not my will
But yours be done."

And so I run
To the only one
Who says, "Not my will
But yours be done."

You said,  "Not my will
But yours be done

The Cost of the Cross

This idea of the self crucified is demanding, disturbing, and troublesome.  It is a paradox, an enigma and a mystery.  And frankly it is unattractive.  I have my rights.  I have desires, goals, and needs.  I amthe captain of my ship and the architect of my destiny.  Have you heard those lines and have you considered their implication?  Don't they seem very natural and reasonable?  And how does one "carry his  cross?" 

Seriously, does hating your parents, your brother and sister, and your own life sound reasonable?

The harsh reality is that often scriptural truth is couched in enigma, paradox, and a great reversal.  We discover the way up is down. To be first is to go last. The master is a servant.  The creator becomes creature. The Great Priest is the sacrifice.  The Lion is the Lamb. The Judge is the accused.   Bondage is freedom.  Death is life.  God becomes man.  And the examples go on and on.  The kingdom of God is upside down, backwards, and inside out.  It is illogical to the natural man, it is counter-intuitive, unreasonable, and foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  (1 Corinthians 1:18) (see also 1 Corinthians 2:14)       

This really is seriously strange.

Speaking of which, in his book, Crazy Love, Francis Chan says "Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy.  Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers." Now that makes you stop and think.  It's like Noah building a huge ship on a dry plain, or Abraham placing his only son, Isaac, on an alter.  Chan's premise (although understated and oversimplified) is just that love IS sacrifice. 

And that brings us right back to the cross.  In Roman times the sight of a man carrying the cross beam to the place of his execution was not an uncommon sight.  We know that the Romans executed by crucifixion 10,000 individuals on a single day.  What goes through a condemned man's mind as he takes that last walk?  Is he wondering what will happen to his business?  Is he worried about who will need his goat and donkey?  Or would he upset that his 401k is in the toilet?

Not even.  WHAT WOULD YOU BE THINKING ABOUT IF YOU WERE CARRYING YOUR CROSS?  When we come to the close of our life will we then start to consider what's next, after our death?  To carry your cross strongly suggests the immanence of death and the culmination of our life.  To live in the severity of that awareness is to come to the end of yourself which surely realigns our priorities.  You've heard that Martin Luther was asked what he would do if he knew this day was his last.  His intriguing response  was that he would plant a tree.  I'm guessing he had long been carrying his cross. Paul says in Philippians 1:21: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."  He had faced death many times and was confidently ready, but more than that he knew what to do while waiting.  And now, here again is that beautiful paraphrase of Paul you've heard from me and others by Jim Elliot: "He is no fool  to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot loose."  It sounds almost too obvious if not exactly simple. Do you suppose this means: "get thee to a nunnery?"  Are we to sell the house, give away the car and donate all our money to the poor?  Some have and others still do.  For Luther, Paul, and Jim Elliot not even their very lives were too dear to be "considered loss compared to the surpassing greatness of  knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord."  (Paul's words from Philippians 3:8) The meaning of cross-bearing is surely provocative and I am convinced of this one thing...that this is the central and inescapable fact of discipleship.  I do not know if Jim Elliot meant to refer to dieing.  If not, then what?  I think what he meant was that WE ARE ALL "DEAD MEN WALKING."

Weren't we relieved after reading in the Luke 18:18 passage, where Christ tells the rich young ruler to sell everything, that the admonition was not literally directed at everyone?  Until, that is, we read in  Luke 14:27: anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple, or in 33: In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.  And again in Luke 9:24, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. And in Luke 5:28: and Levi got up, left everything and followed him, or Luke 18:28-30: Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you." And of course the story we just encountered   in Luke 19 where Zachaeus offers up half of all he has and then four times the refund of what he took  dishonestly.  The cost is our very lives and everything else besides.  We are not looking to literally end our lives or necessarily to get rid of all that we have, but instead to consider everything mortal and temporal as if already lost to us in order to invest in a forever world.  By worldly standards this is absurd. The meaning of the cross is the end of your life.  It is no longer going to mean "have it your way."  You are finally out from under the unbearable burden of having it your way.  I beg you, please don't  waste your life trying to discover why you can't bear the burden of having it your way. 

For too many centuries the church has compromised the fundamental doctrine of discipleship for an easy believism that has been termed cheap grace.  This means to split apart something the Bible teaches as being inseparable.  That is to imagine that you can know Jesus but not follow him.  You can have faith separate from obedience.  You can accept the gift of justification without the need of sanctification.  You can be free of the penalty of sin while remaining under the power of sin. You can be a Christian without becoming a disciple.  (Weren't there really just 12 disciples?)  You can experience Christ as Savior without acknowledging him as Lord.  It goes a bit like this: Jesus you can have control of the living room, kitchen, and dinning room of my life, but the bedroom, closet and the internet are off limits and are mine to do with as I choose.  This devious doctrine of dichotomy developed in a garden long ago when Adam and Eve wanted a hybrid theology, one that would accommodate God's will to their own. 

One Biblical illustration highlights the consequences.  For four hundred years the children of Israel remained in physical, spiritual, cultural, and economic bondage to the Egyptians.  Then God heard their cry, sent Moses, and brought them out of slavery.  This he did so that he could take them to a place of desolation and bareness.  A place of little water and no food where they could wander around in circles for forty years until an entire generation had perished.  WAS THAT THE PLAN?  What happened to a land flowing with milk and honey?  I'll tell you what happened—idolatry happened.  It turned out that it was easier to get Israel out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of the Israelites.  They just couldn't make the leap of faith that God required to take them into the Promised Land.  And they wondered in the wilderness.

Chip Ingram has a wonderful way of characterizing Paul's admonition in Romans 12:1 as going all in.  Placing all of your poker chips on the table because faith in Christ is an all or nothing proposition.  There is no half way with Jesus.  If you want to take hold of the Promised Land, you're going to have to let go of Egypt.  You just can't add Jesus to a temporal world view.   When you want both what you get is wilderness.  What you are being asked to give up is precisely ashes, dust and soot (or you could say wood, hay, and stubble).  What you get is emeralds, sapphires, rubies, diamonds, silver, and gold.  And this is a woefully inadequate way to describe what's at stake.

What Jesus is saying in Luke 14:26 and following is that this is the greatest bargain and opportunity of your life.  More than just questioning the cost, Jesus is showing us how to pay it. The principle isn't what is the cost, but rather here's how you go about it and here is what comes of it.  We are familiar with the book: The Cost of Discipleship, but if we did this Biblically we would also have a book called "The Cost of Non-discipleship."  You see the cost of not taking up your cross is far higher.  What is offered to us is worth so much more than what it is going to cost.  The real question is never how can we afford to make such a sacrifice, but how could we ever consider not.  Satan's ploy is to get us to focus on how grim the cost is rather than for us to focus on how grim our condition is already.  And left to our own devices it's all downhill from here.  If you want to succeed in discipleship it has to be the most important thing in your life.

 I see so often the wreckage of Christian lives gone aground on the rocks of our own diligent efforts (and, that is religion) or by the proud mantra—I did it my way (and yes, that's irreligion).  Here's what that ship looks like—there's no compass, no rudder, and you're in the middle of the "perfect storm." And then we wonder why our culture is not seeing Christ in us through attitudes and actions that defy explanation and then drives them to ask the reason why, drawing them into the supernatural kingdom.

 The difficulty in all of this is that we think to resolve this problem we must re-align our priorities, make adjustments to our activities and interests.  Listen to more Mark Driscoll sermons, read better books or change churches.  We think we need to be less self centered, less selfish or self motivated.  This is like pursuing a macrobiotic diet or an intense exercise regimen to re-grow the arm you lost in a car accident.  It just won't work.  It is really about perspective.  You see selflessness and selfishness still have the same root.  Our ordinary outlook views all of life through our own eyes.  We see our world in terms of how it relates to us and affects us.  In the picture before our eyes we are always in the foreground trying to figure out how well we fit into the picture and what will it do to us, or provide for us. Put another way we have a me-first vantage point.  This is the definition of our fallen sinful state.  You see, "sin is the claim to the right to myself—and therefore the claim to my right to my view of things." (Oz Guinness) From which we get "be all you can be," or "you deserve a break today,"  or "I just want what's coming to me," "or what's in it for me?" etc.  The picture has you large in the foreground seeing life through the lens of your hurts and needs, your desires and goals.  This will always warp your view of the picture (I like to call it THE BIG PICTURE) of what is real, and true, and beyond the limits of our own perspective.  

 What is called for here is an exchange.  We need to get "the me" out of the foreground of our perspective and replace it with Jesus.  When he is looming large in the foreground of our vision and we draw closer and closer to him it's like the view through a camera's macro lens.  Jesus is in clear crisp focus and whatever else is beyond that might distract or disillusion or derail our lives become fuzzy and blurred.  All we see is Jesus and what had before held us captive falls away like cataract lenses falling from our eyes.  Then Jesus is BIG and we are little. We see with spiritual eyes what had never before been available to us, and it just feels like the great issues of our lives have become trivial.  We discover we have simply forgotten all about ourselves.  Is it possible that it is not all about me?  Who would have guessed?  You see it's not about self denial or selflessness, it's about death to self and the self crucified.  What a difference that makes.  And, lest you think you arrive at this place by great effort, by treatments, pills, or thinking happy thoughts.  This is not self help.  This is transplant surgery.  This is a new heart.  And you are going to "die" on the table.  That's the cost and it's is the only way to get you out of yourself.  Weird, huh?

Now it makes sense to look at the parallel passage found in Matt. 11:28-30 which means the same thing as the very demanding words in Luke 14:  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  I have come to believe that the cross is not only the symbol of Christ's own sacrifice, suffering, submission and offer of salvation, but it is also the source, motivation and the power for transfer andexchange of our own sinful, fallen identity for the new identity of the Christ life within us which then  transforms every notion, tendency, passion and false self that was our original condition.  While it is too clear that this is not the typical condition of the church today it was always meant to be the "normal Christian life," and the only way of followership.  And please don't dismiss bearing your cross as simply tolerating a demanding boss, or the sacrifice of increasing the amount of your monetary giving, or the very real suffering of the loss of a job, etc.  Those are very real trials, but the test of fully following Jesus is far more crucial when things are going well and we think we've got it all together.

We must become as Jesus is so that we can do as Jesus did!   It is not enough that Jesus is  prominent in our lives, he must become preeminent!  You see with Jesus it's all or nothing. I hope, with me, that your prayer will be...

                                  ...Lord save me from myself.

Last Saturday morning, Kevin’s dad was surfing with a buddy near their home in New Jersey.  His friend took a wave in looked back out and saw Kevin’s dad face down in the water.  He went out, brought him back in.  The lifeguard performed CPR and he was medi-vacked to the hospital. 

They think he had a heart attack, stroke, and drowned all at once. 

He has been mostly sedated for the last week.  When he starts to regain consciousness, he gets anxious and tries to pull the tubes out.  So they are being careful with that. 

He has been able to move his arms and legs.  He’s also cried and tried to open his eyes. 

The doctors do expect that he will live.  They just don’t know yet how much damage was done, what rehab will look like, and what the quality of life will be.

Pray for…

…Healing for Kevin’s dad.

…Wisdom for the doctors to know the best course of action.

…Strength for Kevin as he pastors his mother and family through this.

…Jesus to be made much of in the midst of the storm.

Updates

Thursday 6:45AM– Kevin just texted and asked for prayer.  Dad has a fever, that means an infection is setting in. 

Friday 11:00am - Kevin's dad is going into surgery this afternoon.  Doctors say he should either get better or worse, but not the same.

Saturday PM-  My dad is now breathing on his own.  They are trying to wean him off of the ventilator over the next few days and then find out what caused the heart attack.  The main things we'd appreciate prayer for are his mental condition, we don't know the extent of the brain damage, and for my mom- she is truly feeling the profound effects of the fall these days.  Thanks for all the e-mails, prayers, and texts.  See you all soon.

Here is the 411 for this week:

September 13th a new transitional community starts.  This is a 4-week community that meets from 5-7pm on Sunday nights to discuss what Missio Dei is all about and how to get moving on mission with us.  If you have been coming on Sundays but aren't living the mission with an MC this is something you'll want to carve out the time for.

Please RSVP: info {at} missiodeicommunities.com.

September 19th is Gospel Counseling 101.  From 10am to noon we will begin to learn a framework through which to counsel people.  This isn't to become a professional counselor, but to learn how to better orient people's lives around the truth of the gospel in everyday situations.  The cost is $15 and includes a book and CD.  Click Here for more info.

Please RSVP: info {at} missiodeicommunities.com

  Use All Your Senses.  This is going to seem a little foreign for all of us "my Bible, pen, and cup of coffee is enough" type of people.  Here's the reality though God's given us 5 senses and each can play a creative role in the way we experience the Bible.  Find ways to utilize them all.  Look at or create art of the story you are reading, light a candle, light some insense, find a taste described in what you are reading and experience it as you read, spend dedicated time listening to God, or listen to the passage instead of reading it. A simple example might be when reading about the Word of God being sweeter than honey- go taste some honey.  For those freaking out about the theological basis for this: the temple was a multi-sensory experience with God and his word, boom roasted.  There are lots of ways to do this. What are some of yours?
 
Meditate on Jesus. Maybe before you even get into the Word you spend some time focusing on Jesus.  Who he is, what he has done, and what he is doing in your life.  Then ask him to teach you how to live out what you are about to read. Ask yourself the questions: "How did Jesus perfectly_________." "How does Jesus free me up to be able to ____________."

Do It In Community.  Somehow through the years we got the idea that Bible + reading = silence and solitude.  As if the primary way that God has spoken to his people throughout the years has not been in community.  Take time and do all the above in community.  Husbands lead your wives in this. Boyfriends start early and take some leadership. Friends- what if sometimes you discussed the Bible instead of it always being the latest episode of the bachelorette or football scores?  God has amazing things to teach us through the body- will we engage with him that way?

What are some other creative ways you are finding to learn from God's Word?  Post them.

3.  Use the Learning Guide.   It may sound like self-promotion, but studying through the guide can be a big help in working through a passage.  There are questions and ideas for moving past just information into action and reflection.  Don't skip the action and reflection questions- work through the whole thing. Another benefit is that the learning guides also facilitate group learning as we are able to discuss what we are learning from them together.
 
4.  Change Your Environment. If you are usually in your house try going outside.  Yes it can be hotter than hades, but the early morning isn't so bad.  Light a candle, burn some insence, change rooms in your house, go to a park- be creative and enjoy using that as another way to worship God.  Changing your environment can help stimulate your mind as you interact with the Word.
 
5.  Start with a Song.  Read a Psalm.  Turn your ipod on.  Good gospel informed songs have a poetic way of drawing our minds and our hearts back to our God.  Open up Israel's CD cover for some historic lyrics of praise, pain, and wonder or download some tracks by crowder, whickam, or yes even tomlin.  Then with your heart and mind focused on the saving God of the songs open up your Bible and learn.

Stay tuned for another round of thoughts tomorrow.

1.  Pray. Let’s be really clear on one thing.  It is not going to simply be some good advice that is going to get you soaked in the Word.  It is going to be the Holy Spirit convicting you of how desperate you are and driving you to the bible.  Before you open your bible, take a few moments and pray.  In John 14:26, Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will guide us and remind us of all that Jesus has said.  Pray that the Holy Spirit would illuminate the Word of God to you as you read. 

Holy Spirit, I am weak and in need of Your help.

I believe that you can and will teach me from the Word.

Illuminate the scriptures to my heart. 

Help me to see afresh how Jesus is Savior.

Lead me into truth.

2.  Reorient.  What are you about to open?  The book you are about to open is not a list of rules.  So you aren’t simply looking for a new rule to obey.  It is not a bunch of fables.  So you are not looking for a neat story to warm your heart.    It is the True Story.  This is what God is doing throughout history to bring redemption and restoration to His creation for His glory.  You open your bible to reorient yourself to this story.  You open your bible to reorient yourself to Jesus.

Read "The True Story"

Read “Reading the Bible as One Story” by Michael Goheen (pdf)

Read “Living into God’s Story” by Eugene Peterson (pdf)

chris robertson

Let us start where it always starts: God. God is on his self-exalting, self-promoting,  mission. On this mission, he is chiefly concerned about one thing: his glory. His most  glorious decision was to save his people. In order to do this, he willfully lived out of his  humanity, leaving heaven and being born as a baby. While here on earth, he ushered in the kingdom: healing people, casting out demons, living a sinless life, and hanging out with the outcasts of society. Despite his perfectly lived life, he rendered himself to a court of those who falsely accused and excecuted him on a cross. The grasp of death could not hold him down, and his resurrection freed his people from a life of bondage,
sin, and death. In light of this choice, God's people are transformed like their glorious maker. All that is true, well and good but not life transforming if it never leaves the pages.

I have spent most of my life with Jesus on the pages. I learned, trained, and investigated, yet it still never really left the pages. As much as I seemed to love God's glory, functionally, I've seemed to love mine just a little more.  I had tricked myself into believing that I was pursuing God's glory, when I was really pursuing my own. Some godly men with stinging questions have really helped me to see the truth.

Understanding and being able to decipher my motivations has had the most fruitful impact in my pursual of God. Recently, I had a very encouraging conversation with a mentor. During the conversation, I noticed that I was becoming increasingly excited. I began to question my excitement: was it because of the God-exalting conversation or because I was excited that I get to learn how to be on the cutting edge of ministry so that I would earn approval from those I respect. It was the latter. Praise God that I'm not owned by my sin but am able to repent. My new prayer is this: 'God, thank you so much that you are redeeming your people from every tribe, tongue and language. Thank you that your redemption will all be accomplished through your power and through your life, death and resurrection. Thank you that I cannot mess it up even if I tried. God, thank you so much that I still get to be a part of you redeeming your people, and thanks for putting a family around me that will guard me against my own idolatries and will help to check my motivations. All praise be to you.'

What does your money say about your God?

MDC on FB  Be a fan of Missio Dei Communities on Facebook and get updates.

School started at Thew today.  Will you stop right now and pray for Julie, the teachers, and the students?  Do it.

1.  There is so much to learn about culture and how to engage with people.  We learn through each other how to do it.
It’s good to be on mission with brothers and sisters that share a similar heart and focus because I’ve learned more about how to engage others lovingly as well as how to be a tangible expression of love through the others guys in my MC than I have through my own trial and error – and there’s been a lot of error to learn from.
 
2.  Don’t be afraid, and acknowledge when the depravity you’re encountering brings you down.
There have been a few times over the past year that I’ve had to mentally and physically “check-out” because I couldn’t handle any more of it. Lean into your brothers and sisters and repent of your own attempts to do it without God
 
3.  Pray. Always.
I cannot understate this. Here’s a quick guide to the relationship between prayer and mission:

No prayer = disillusionment, numbness, exhaustion, frustration, overwhelmed, done.

Prayer = thankfulness, gratitude, passion, desire, fulfillment, onward!

Any of these hit home?

Further Resources
Buy  The Prodigal God by Tim Keller
Listen  Prodigal God sermon by Tim Keller

It may have been Martin Luther who is given credit for the statement "All of life is repentance", but he definitely stole the line from Jesus.  Like a Diddy beat, Luther simply took the truth Jesus  said and put a new spin on it, then he nailed it to the Church door.

Yesterday we talked about repentance and Luke 13. No matter what situation you find yourself in it's the right time to repent.  So many times we want to question God’s intentions when something bad happens in our lives, but when good happens we instantly take credit.  It’ looks something like this:
 
                        When something bad happens we look to the sky and
                         ask, “God are you punishing me?”
                        When something good happens we look in the mirror
                         and say “Finally- I deserve this!”
 
What Jesus is saying in Luke 13 is that the situations in our lives ( whether good or bad) and the shortness of our time on this earth should compel us to repent. God is gracious and has given us time to turn to him- but it won’t last forever. If we don't repent and turn to God we experience destruction: it's simple math.
 
The reason that repentance may seem so foreign is that we don’t understand it. When Jesus says repent it isn’t just a general guilt, but rather a decision to turn to Jesus based on two truths:

1.  My Sinfulness.  I am utterly sinful.

2.  God's Compassion.  God is at work in Jesus to give us what we don’t deserve  

Or in other words: “Stop believing lies and orient your life around the true story.”
 
When good things happen (the tower misses us)  we need to respond knowing that this is God’s blessing us in ways that we don’t deserve (Romans 2.4) and when bad things happen (the tower falls on us) we repent and turn to Jesus knowing that what we have lost was actually loaned to us in the
beginning anyway.  
 
The need for repentance is only magnified by the reality that there is a time when there is no more time.  God is compassionate, but won’t hold back judgment forever- will you repent?  Will we live in self-absorbed sin or will we be communities that are marked by radical, gospel informed repentance?

On Thursday night I asked Mike Baumert about prayer.  He is a leader in the Mill MC.  I asked him what his experience has been with prayer over the last 6 months.  Without missing a beat he said, “Dude, when we don’t pray, it is an absolute train wreck.”  

He talked about how they find a direct correlation between solid spiritual conversations and their dependence on prayer.  But he also told us how when they forget their dependence on God for the mission, they end up getting wiped out, discouraged, overwhelmed and ready to tap out. He told some heavy stories about being face to face with sin, brokenness and hatred without a dependence on the Father to carry them through.  Train wreck! 

Are we putting ourselves in a place where if we don’t pray, we are going to be in an absolute train wreck?  Or have we set up our lives with safety, security, and comfort as nonnegotiable?  

If Jesus doesn’t show up in my mission, do I have to tap out?  I hope so!

WATCH: a video of John Piper defining what prayer is and what it is not.

LISTEN: a sermon Jam of Tony Evans telling a story about the power of praying in His name.

It was only after the disciples started living on mission that they realized they NEEDED to pray.  It wasn't just something Jesus did, it was something they needed in order to live the life Jesus was calling them to.  C. Gonzalez.

There are many errors we could fall into.  Here are three common ones:

1.  The Legalist Error.  Some people give, but for the wrong motivation.  They give because it will gain us God’s favor.  This is a legalistic mindset.  Please don’t give simply because you are supposed to or you would feel guilty if you didn’t.  

2.  The Individualist Error.  Some people are tempted not to give because they want to make decisions for themselves about where the money goes.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to be prudent about where our money goes.  However, it takes the community aspect out of our finances.  It says, “It is my money and I will give it away where I want.”  It forgets that we are in this together as a community living out the gospel on mission.  

3.  The Anti-Institutionalism Error.  I (Chris) have been guilty of this in some other areas over the last year.  Basically, I have seen first-hand the abuses of Institutionalism.  Everything exists to serve the furtherance and the stability of the institution.  We preserve the institution at the expense of the mission and community.  So we say, “I am not giving my money to an institution.”  The Institution becomes the enemy.  But there is a problem with this.  Institutions are not bad things in and of themselves.  Institutions at their best are simply structures that are set up to help sustain the community and carry out the mission (i.e. Sacraments, Preaching, Bible, Missional Communities, Sunday Gatherings, Leaders, website).  Institutions are good.  Institutionalism is bad.  If you are not giving because you fear your money will go to “institutionalism” that is another conversation.  Let’s have that one!

The money goes to the mission of Missio Dei.  A good portion goes to salaries and rent.  We have also been setting aside a minimum of 10% for Church Planting and 10% for Global Gospelling.  Here are some specific ways our money has been redistributed for gospel ministry:

-    Funding the translation of the NT into 5 dialects in South Asia
-    Funding people from Missio Dei to serve oversees
-    I-HELP meals this summer
-    Sending an Acts 29 church planter from Glendale to Soma School for a week
-    Helping rape victims in Uganda
-    Dentures for Dougie, an I-HELP monitor
-    Christmas presents for I-HELP
-    Rent for Thew
-    Idol Booklets
-    Resources for MC’s and MC leaders

We have two primary ways to give.  The first is in the box on the info table at Thew.  Since we don’t meet every week at Thew, many people find it easier to give through automatic withdrawal.  Almost all banks have a feature you can set up online or at your branch where they will automatically write a check for you on a recurring basis.  For the address to have checks sent to or for more help setting this up, email info@missiodeicommunities.com.

What thorny tactics do you fall prey to?

The desire behind the bulletin was to keep people connected though. Times have advanced a bit since clip-art and bad word art- but the desire is still the same- to communicate vision, connect people, and continue pushing forward on mission as a family.  We aren't using bulletins, but here are three ways that you can be staying connected within Missio Dei Communities:

1. Website.  Regularly check the Missio Dei site for new resources, to read and interact with blog posts, and check for new additions to the calendar.

2. Twitter.  If you don't know what it is, Twitter is a combination of instant messaging, blogging, and a happy medium between useful and useless information.  You choose the people you want to "follow" and recieve updates from.  Start up an account and follow @missio_dei.

3. Facebook.  Most of us already have facebook accounts, but we are going to be continually seeking to utilize these tools as ways to increase connectiveness and continue what God is doing in our lives other days of the week.  Become a fan of Missio Dei HERE.

If you need help setting any of these up please let us know.

Last week someone asked me why we are taking this Sunday off.  I tried to explain to him that just because we are not having a worship service at Thew, we are not “taking the day off.”  
 
We are actually “taking the day on.”  Let me explain.
•    Usually we meet together for two hours. Today, we party/celebrate all day long.
•    Usually most of us sit passively while a few of us teach. Today we each take responsibility to teach each other.
•    Usually we take communion individually.  Today we take communion together with our MC.
•    Usually we meet at a neutral location.  Today we welcome you into our house and our lives.
•    Usually it’s hot inside.  Today it’s hot outside.
 
So, welcome to our Sunday Gathering.  As we celebrate our First Anniversary, we invite you to remember all that God has done.  And we invite you to be an active participator in gospel ministry this afternoon.
 
•    Who do you need to BLESS this afternoon?
•    Who’s story would God have you LISTEN to?
•    Who do you need to EAT and break bread with?
•    Who will you SPEAK gospel truth to this afternoon?
•    How will you SABBATH and celebrate today?
 
Let’s take this Sunday on as we live out the Missio Dei!

Post a comment with your thoughts from Sunday.

Missio Dei is a Latin term translated, “The Sent God” or “The Mission of God”.  We adopted it as our name because it communicates our place in the divine drama taking place.

We are convinced there is a God who created a good world that went terribly bad. The creation rebelled against its creator bringing disunity, discord, and death.  But God doesn’t stand back and watch.  He acts.  He sends Jesus into the world to redeem and reconcile a community to God.  He accomplishes the rescue mission by defeating the rebellion on the cross and securing the restoration with his resurrection.  

We are a bunch of knuckleheads who see ourselves with a role to play in this divine drama.  Just as Jesus was sent, so we have been sent to participate in this mission. We are a group of communities seeking to live out the Missio Dei.

Sunday I showed the wordle for the book of Luke– People loved the idea so much I’ve gotten 5 different texts asking, "What program creates wordles?"

Lucky for you it’s free and online.  Click HERE to make your very own wordle.

Coming out of the great discussion on Sunday here are some questions to continue processing through.

- How can we declare and demonstrate the gospel among the people that society or organized religion has written off or deemed untouchable?

- What are the things that I hold onto rather than recklessly following Jesus?

- How will the amazing grace shown by Jesus  propel us to act in grateful joy this week?

Jesus’ sermon in Nazareth in Luke 4 holds the key to the entire book of Luke because in it he lays out His mission.  It is also the key to understanding our mission.

First, you have to see that Jesus is not just randomly quoting some Old Testament passage.  Jesus is pulling out an entire Old Testament theme of Jubilee (Lev 25, Isaiah 61).   The Jubilee was to happen once every 49 years.  It was marked by radical liberation and freedom for the people of God.

Second, and this is HUGE.  The Jubilee brought spritual, economic and social liberation.  All three!  So when Jesus says the ultimate Jubilee has occurred with His arrival, he is saying His mission is to bring liberation:  spiritual, social and economic.  There is a holistic nature to Jesus’ mission.

Third, the religious people oppose Jesus, violently.

Implications for Us
1.    Is there a holistic nature to my mission?  (Spirtual, Social, Economic)  If not, why not?
2.    In what ways can you tend to be one of the religious people who oppose Jesus’ mission?
3.    If you are not living your life and being an agent of freedom amongst people in your context who are poor, oppressed, or marginalized, you will have a growing sense of uneasiness and disconnect as you proceed through Luke.