All this snow gives Christians a chance to live out their faith. Most of the times we Americans are pretty good at pretending as if we’ve got everything covered. With a storm like this people are more willing to accept help. For those of us who are healthy it gives us a chance to care for people in a way that is often much harder. You’ll also notice that when people start to get cabin fever, and so even though its cold I’ve stood outside and had a number of conversations with many of our neighbors.

I know that many people will want to grumble when they hear the news of more snow  coming this week, but see it as an opportunity to get to know more about your neighbors and to help out some folks.

New York Resident Philip Holme 1840′s.

Last night we went to the release performance for Ben Sollee’s new album at the 21c Museum.

Today we went to the 11, and 7pm worship gatherings at Sojourn Community Church.
I got to thinking about what was the same and what was different.

So, here are some of the differences and similarities between City Reformed and Sojourn Community.
Differences:
1. Louder – A drum set, and a electric guitar means a louder service, with a bit more of a punch. Though the 7pm service was a bit more mellow than the 10am.
2. People – Its funny, I’m guessing that the average age in the 10am was actually older than our service. I think they have more long-term residents than we do, even if they are in the 20′s and 30′s.
3. Size – There were probably 300 people in the 10am and 80 in the 7pm, so they are bigger.
4. Building – The 930, though not simply a church building, is definitely nicer than the Frick Academy.
5. The Atmosphere – Most of the people were dressed more casually than CR, and the lighting in the building was a bit more stirring than the halogen gems that we rock.
6. Standing for the Bible Reading – I had thought about this before, and I really liked it.
7. Communion – Weekly (Let the gasps of utter horror from the “4 times a year because its special” folks begin.)

Similarities:
1. The “elements” – Call to Worship , Singing, Prayer, Bible Reading, Confession of sin, Assurance of Pardon, and a benediction.
2. Both Church leaders explain the service, and doesn’t assume that everyone is a part of the church subculture.
3. Deep sermons – you can tell that, both Matt, and Daniel are men that love the Bible.
4. Contextualized – Both CR and Sojourn are trying to take an ancient truth and make it as accessible as possible with out changing that truth.
5. Keller – North or South, Baptist or Presby. Tim Keller has a wide sphere of influence.

Now to the good stuff…

Who has the better facial hair?

Matt Koerber

Daniel Montgomery

Winner: Matt Koerber

Just check out that beard. Though a bit scarier in his picture, Matt clearly wins by the fact that he could stop a bullet with that facestache, and thus prevent a stray bullet from hitting a member of his church (talk about laying ones life down).

I have been learning over and over again that this clip is actually a pretty good picture of what Christians are supposed to do as missionaries. We are supposed to observe how people are communicating, and learn the best way communicate to the people we are trying to communicate with. This is how we are supposed to go about communicating with people its the same for someone, in urban africa, rural india, or Post-Christian-America. Its called being missional.

I have been reading about the practical side of being missional(being a missionary in a Post-Christian/Non-Christian context). One of main work on the topic,The Missional Church, is also one of the shortest, and guess who wrote it? One of my favorite Pastors-Tim Keller surprise, surprise.

Here is a one sentence summary of the work:

Stop thinking like its all about the alreadys(Those already the church), and focus more on the not yets(people not yet part of the kingdom).

Here is a good example from the paper:
“Now the culture’s story is– a) to be free and self-created and authentic (theme of freedom from oppression), and b) to make the world safe for everyone else to be the same (theme of inclusion of the ‘other’; justice). To “re-tell” means to show how only in Christ can we have freedom without slavery and embracing of the ‘other’ without injustice.”

If you still think that people need to act like you in order to fit into your church, I beg you, please repent. Open you Bibles to 1st Corinthians 9, and ask the Spirit to give you a heart like Paul has in that passage. While your at it, pray that everyone else will get a heart like Paul as well.

Yet if we take a closer look at the Old Testament we can’t help but realize that God instructed the people of Israel to be very creative. God cares a great deal, about the way things look. In Exodus 25 and following he lays does instructions about how the Tabernacle should look. He goes into great detail about how things should be put together, and then he says “you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.”
The word skillfully here can also be translated inventive or even ingenious. Its a adverb stating that the cherubim which are going to hang in the curtains should be the best. God is telling the Israelites to do a good job. A few chapters later he even goes as far to say that he has empower certain people in Israel with the skills and artistic ability to make art worthy of God’s Tent of meeting.

Of course things are a little different now, but if we say that God gives still people the ability to compose songs for his glory. Couldn’t it be possible that He has given other people gifts that allow them to craft visual beauty, like Bezalel and the other artists of Exodus?

Some big churches like Marshill that are now getting into the fine arts and having gallery space, but they have 6000 people in and out every week.

How do smaller churches communicate that the Visual Arts are important?

At our church we have have Arts Coffee houses, were the Artists in our church have put stuff together, but we have not really pursued much of the Artistic community.

One church that I really like is Sojourn in Louisville KY.

They recently moved into a new building which acts as studio, gallery, and even performance space. They even have a yearly film fest utilizing their space.
These guys are doing something right, they are truly calling out to artists and saying “Jesus, cares about Art. He wants to see creative visual expressions.”

I hope to check out their space one day if I ever get down to Louisville.

Information and a list of upcoming events at the 930 Art Center can be found at their website.

Yesterday Our church hit 140 for the second week in a row, which means that compared to the average in the summer we are 40% bigger. When we took a good look at the room after service we realized that we could only fit about 20-25 more people in the room.
I think that could create an interesting challenge in the next several month.
so what does a church do when they are about to out grow another building?