Right Between The Eyes
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
(Philippians 4:6 ESV)
Sometimes God’s word hit you right between the eyes and you need it to.
Why Should We Start New Churches? Pt. 3
Place for new Christians
Frequently, established church have pressure placed on them to care for the needs of the people already present, this means that often the older a church is the more time it ends up spending on programs and services intended to care for and retain its existing members. This doesn’t mean that older churches don’t care for new Christians, it just means that often they are better equipped at training more mature Christians.
Why Should We Start New Churches? Pt. 2
Intentional reevaluation
The old saying “foundations are forever” means that when you start a new church, it is important to examine what cultural foundations you will be laying. New churches have the unique opportunity to reevaluate customary ways of doing church, with less fear that they might divide a church over any issue. This reevaluation gives does two things: First, it lets new churches establish new traditions. Second, it gives new churches the freedom to connect to the historic church in ways that the previous generation of churches might have seen as undesirable, or unattainable.
Why Should We Start New Churches? Pt 1
New Opportunities for Service In many existing churches the pathway into service and/or leadership is often a fairly long and complicated one. Church tenure is often expected before a member is invited to or allowed to influence a church’s culture. This can often hinder how well a long-established church ministers to new groups in their area. New churches offer opportunities that are often absent in established churches. This is especially true when a new church is reaching a new group of people or a new generation.
I Love Pittsburgh
Several years back Jo and I stumbled into Pittsburgh, we meet out in the country of western PA, and both of us had grown up around much bigger cities, so it wasn’t a given that we would stay here very long. But, after moving here for graduate work we fell in love with the city. I’ve come to realize that loving a place is alot like loving a person. It takes commitment. It involves sacrifice. It means knowing flaws and still loving. After living here for four and a half years I can say that we love Pittsburgh. We love the people, and the neighborhoods, the accents and the culture of this curious forgotten city.
Jesus Still Loves Hypocrites
I’ve recently been thinking alot about a specific passage in the New Testament book of Galatians where the author of the book says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20 ESV)
The author is saying that the new spiritual life he has because of Jesus is so powerful that it takes hold of his entire existence.
Very often as a Christian I hope that non-christians will begin to follow Jesus, but when I consider my own life I am living by my own set of rules. I do not see my life in such radical terms.
Most of the time I feel like I have tried to make some deal with God, where he gets a certain percentage of my week, but the rest is mine as long as I can keep my nose clean.
I wonder how different my life would be if I stopped living for myself, and began living my entire life by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I think my free time would be different. I know I’d care for my wife more. I probably wouldn’t avoid eye contact with people that I didn’t want to talk to. I might actually begin to follow Christ in a way that showed my friends and neighbors what it could look like for them to be reconnected to God.
I’m a hypocrite and thats one of the reasons why I need Jesus.
Getting Assessed
What Assessment was
Monday morning Jo, Gus and I flew to Atlanta, for our denominations Church Planter Assessment. The main goal of the Assessment was to interact with Jo and I to see how well we might do at starting a new church (often called church planting). Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America does this kind of thing several times a year. We were with 8 other couples and one guy.
The actual assessment was an intense process. It was broken up into projects, teaching, interviews, and personality testing. The men and women evaluating us had all participated in church planting or were in leadership in similar areas. All our assessors were great–they really cared about getting to know us, and while I assumed the whole thing would be just one big job interview, I’m glad I was wrong. I made some great connections with the other potential-planters as well as the assessors.
What Assessment wasn’t
- A cake walk — It wasn’t an easy process. We probably spent 15 hours just with the application alone, and that was before the intense 3 days spent in Atlanta.
- A vacation — I’ve never been on a vacation with that kind of breakneck pace.
- Final approval — The assessment offered us a recommendation. The final approval comes from our local network of churches(presbytery).
- That scene from Armageddon — The counseling wasn’t crazy and no one went near my cooli.
Why was it important?
- It was one of the best things that Jo and I have done for our marriage.
- The process also helped shape my thoughts on my limitations as a potential church planter.
- We went away from the week with a fresh perspective on our hopes for Lawrenceville, some of which changed over the week and other which were affirmed.
- It let me see that I hadn’t been relating to Christ the way I need to. I had been offering people the church, it was Jesus’s church, but I hadn’t been offering people Jesus. This blew me away, and I so glad that it did.
Does this change anything?
- Yup, it sure does, but I’m not exactly sure of everything yet, so I’m gonna keep my mouth shut.
Assessment: Day One
Jo, Gus and I are in Atlanta this week for assessment with the Presbyterian Church in America’s group that helps start new churches. There is no way I have the energy to go over all the stuff that happened today, but I can give a quick overview of some of the highlights (in no particular order):
1. We had a counseling session with Phil Drake. It was really good. We looked at where our blind spots are, and it confirmed to us that Jo and I are working well together. It also revealed some potential challenges for church planting and pastoral ministry in general.
2. I preached a 10 minute sermon and then Jo and I talked about our call to church planting. The format was such that there was no dialogue as much as they ask and we answer. It was a bit wearing, but an important step.
3. We’ve already got to talk to some great couples about ministry they are excited about. Its interesting to find that alot of the people here are looking for affirmation and they didn’t necessarily wait till after assessment to start talking praying and planning for church planting opportunities.
On a side note I need to thank my Mom who is staying with us all week, and all those other folks who contributed to let us get here.
Calvin on Curiosity
“We are naturally prone to curiosity. Hence, neglecting altogether, or tasting but slightly, and carelessly, doctrine that tends to edification, we are hurried on to frivolous questions. Then there follow upon this — boldness and rashness, so that we do not hesitate to decide on matters unknown, and concealed.”
John Calvin
Dear Christian, Stop Being a Jerk
One very sad trend among many Christians is how quick they are to throw other Christians under the bus to prove they are better and more thoughtful about their faith. This often comes into clear focus when you read comments that Christians post around the web.
I don’t think most Christians realized that they only have two options when they are speaking about people:
1. The person is connected to Christ, and therefore we are connected to them, they are family.
2.The person is not connected to Christ and is what John Newton calls an”object of [our] compassion”
John Newton who is most well know for his hymn amazing Grace, was a pastor and wrote many letters. In one of these letters he spoke about how Christians disagreements should be characterized.
I wish more Christians would take Newton’s advice when he says “before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing.”
Questions:
Are you really so short sighted as to assume that you are the only one who is a critical thinker?
How often do you pray for people that you publicly or privately disagree with?
You can read Newton’s entire letter here.
You can subscribe to either the entire site or to one of our three categories.
The DeSocios.com RSS Feed Faith RSS Feed Family RSS Feed Life RSS Feed