The Ultimate MegaChurch?

How far is too far when it comes to MegaChurches? Should a church really have to meet in a NBA size sports stadium? I'm not sure, but something has to be working for Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church. Check out this blog on Lakewood's new 16,000 seat sanctuary.

This seems a little ridiculous and I am somewhat skeptical but I really do hope this is a huge sized God-thing and not a money-thing to fatten someone's wallet. What do ya'll think?

Just Drama?

"At a rehearsal of his play about Jesus' death, Jim Walker, the co-pastor of Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, sidled up to the actor playing Satan and urged him to be bolder. The pastor tried to inspire the shy student playing Judas. "He's Satan!" Mr. Walker cried, arms wide. "You hate this guy!"

"No one preaches at Hot Metal Bridge. Plays are its liturgy. Mr. Walker, a soon-to-be ordained United Methodist minister, leads the church with his friend Jeff Eddings, a Presbyterian seminarian. "Instead of coming to our church and listening to a sermon, you can be part of the sermon," Mr. Walker says."

The Wall Street Journal recently did an article on this church where there are no sermons; just plays and drama. Interesting concept granted but I have a hard time buying into this kind of church as your weekly place of worship. This may be a great place to go to occasionaly and learn some biblical truth in a "new way," but long-term discipleship seems tough if this is the only means of liturgy. But who is to say I'm right, so read the whole article here and tell us what you think.

Hell?

For those of you who are wondering what in the heck this is a picture of; this is a shot looking inside of a 2300 degree wood-fired pottery kiln. I was over at Tom's this weekend helping him fire his pots in the kiln and decided to take some pictures of the event because of how awesome the process of kiln firing is. While I was there though, I couldn't help but think about the power of God and the fact that he created fire, and how powerful and mysterious it is. I think we can learn a lot about God by examing fire and its qualities, maybe I'm just a pyro, but I'll save that for another blog.


Now I'm not sure if you believe in a literal hell or not, but it sure is mentioned a lot in the Bible and I think we have to believe in the literal existence of hell in order to have a geniune faith. If not what's the point in trying to "escape the flames" as so many people say? If hell doesn't exist why do we have to worry about how we live in this life?


I don't like to think about hell, nor do I ever want to condemn anyone to that aweful place. However, I couldn't help but think of hell when I saw all of these flames as we threw the pine slabs into the kiln. And I realized that if anyone was able to look inside this kiln and feel the extreme heat that comes away from the flame and they knew hell was a place like that but worse, they would definitely never want to go to that place. So I figured I would post up these awesome pictures and see what they made ya'll think about. Do they remind you of Hell? Or am I just a crazy pyro who happens to be a Christian, haha?

If you are still interested about the pottery firing process, just let me know; I have some more pictures from the day.

(PS: One of my pots is in the picture. It's the large bowl in the far upperhand right corner. )

The Viper's Eggs

“1Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. 4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. 5 They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider's web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.” (Isaiah 59:1-5)
Click here if you want to read the whole chapter.

Now that is a really humbling passage, lol. Praise God for His mercy and grace. Let’s take a look at this passage in more depth. What are these verses describing? These verses are describing a spiritual failure. This spiritual failure is described by four things.

1. Separated (Verses 1-2): Our sins have separated us from our God. Our God is a Holy God and he can’t look upon sin.
2. Hidden (Verse 2): His face is hidden from us because of our sins.
3. Constrained (Verse 3): Our hands and fingers are stained with blood and guilt. Our good deeds and sacrifices are not acceptable to him. We are separated from God and He has hidden His face from us, and we can’t do anything about it because we are constrained by our bloodstained hands and deeds. (Isaiah 64:6)
4. Calloused (Verse 4): After a while you heart becomes calloused and you don’t even try to plead your case. You just quit caring about God and spiritual things.

Wow, it now seems like we are in a helpless state. Now, you might say how do I keep from being in that state? Or what was the cause of this spiritual failure? Well I am glad you asked (took a page from Steve’s book, lol).

Look at verse 5, “They hatch the eggs of vipers”. What are the viper’s eggs? The viper’s eggs are any opportunity to harm you spiritually. It can be something as big as adultery or something as small as putting yourself in the position to commit adultery by flirting, lusting, etc. The viper’s eggs could be pornography, movies, or music that could harm you spiritually.

How are viper’s egg hatched? They are hatched by warming the eggs until the snake inside them matures enough to break out off the egg. This can mean to allow some sin or situation to persist and let it warm up until that sin hatches and gives birth to death. Another word that can be used to describe “hatch” is to justify. We warm the eggs by justifying a certain action or sin, saying that the egg is harmless and it won’t hurt us, or thinking I won’t ever get to the point of adultery so it’s ok for me to look at pornography and lust over other women. You justify pornography by saying I won’t let it get to that point, but it is a FACT that eggs hatch after being warmed for a period of time.

Spiritual failure starts when you accept or warm the viper’s egg. It starts when we leave the eggs lying around and don’t do anything to get rid of them. How do the viper’s eggs get into your life? Why don’t the eggs alarm us?

Three ways the eggs can get into your life: your eyes, your heart, and your passiveness. I know you know about the first two but the last one gets overlooked a lot. Eggs can get into your life through your passiveness. Letting sin linger around and not doing anything about it, not taking sin seriously and having the mentality that it can’t happen to me. This egg can hatch and take control of your life and can lead to death. Jesus even taught about this. (Matthew 5:27-30) He said it is better to cutoff your hand if it causes you to sin, rather than have your whole body go to Hell. He is saying get rid of that sin now by any means necessary, because it can control your whole life and eventually lead to death.

Praise God that His arm is not to short to save. He saw that there was no one to intervene so His own arm worked out salvation for us (Isaiah 59:16).

8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

I wanted to talk about something that really bothers me about the Church. The church is developing Christians who think and feel like they have to wear mask all the time. You have to go to church and act like you have everything together when in reality your life is falling apart. The church doesn’t seem to be doing a good job of keeping people from reaching this spiritual failure. The church needs to be a place where Christians are able to admit when they mess up and not be judged, or looked down on (leadership and pastors included), and a place where they can receive forgiveness and healing. Christians are afraid to admit when they mess up or when they are struggling, so they just put on that mask, and it leads to competition, a bitter heart, hypocrisy, and spiritual failure. We are manufacturing Christians who are more concerned about looking holy and righteous in front of fellow Christians rather than pleasing God. Christians feel like this because as soon as we admit we have failed, we are immediately looked down on and are made to feel like we are weak Christians because we sin, when in reality the people who are judging do so to make them feel better about their selves. For some reason a notion has been embedded in the way we think, that says we have to put on our mask and clean ourselves up before coming to Church, when in reality we can’t do that, we need Jesus.

This applies to non-Christians also. There is such a big gap between the Church and non-Christians. That is not how it is supposed to be. The church should be right smack in the middle of the world helping to bridge that gap, instead of building walls and saying you must clean yourself up before you’re allowed in this sacred place. Anyway that was just a side note; ill end my rant, lol. On a lighter note:

What are the eggs in your life that you need to get rid of?

“13When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” (James 1:13-15)

Random Thought Tuesday-The Ebay Atheist

Well I was doing my daily scope of blogs for the day and came across this article.

With all the crazy stories of people selling anything on Ebay it seems like the madness has to quit somewhere. I don't think it's going to happen. In this case, we have an atheist who has sold himself on Ebay to the highest bidder promising that he will attend 1 hour of church for every ten dollars of the final bid. Now this sounds ridiculous but it is quite interesting. The results from the winning bid of 504 dollars were quite fascinating. As the atheist began traveling to Churches around America he soon became very amused by the Christian media and the local Church. And how can I blame him? We have people like Joel Olsteen on the same TV channel as Pat Roberston, and the local hell-fire and brimstone preacher down the street, and they all three are proclaiming the "Good News" or Jesus suppossedly. There is such a huge contradiction in our "Message" that it is no wonder atheists and non-believers are turned off or simply amused by our foolishness. So before we think negatively and make judgement of the "Ebay Atheist" and his attempt to make a few bucks, lets be sure to think of our own "Christian" televangelists who try to sell us "holy water" and prayer rags for "easy payments of $19.95" and promise us freedom from sin.

So if your still interested in reading this guy's comments about the "Christian Church" from an oustide point of view, you can read an entire article from this link. Or you can check out the Ebay Atheist's blog on "Why I'm addicted to Christian Media" here.

Monday Munchies...Food for Thought: Sunday is Coming

There are times in everyone’s life when things aren’t going their way. Today’s munchies are another of those not so controversial, or questioning. It is about hope. Specifically a lesson we can learn from Easter.

This lesson is centered on the idea of holy week, which is a tradition that the church has celebrated much longer than Christmas. In any case, let’s look at Thursday night. Jesus is hanging out in the garden, saying some prayers, and he gets arrested. Peter gets mad and cuts a dude’s ear off, but Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to fight. What a terrible night that must have been for the disciples. Jesus arrested and He won’t let you fight for Him.

But wait, it gets worse. Friday, Jesus is nailed to a cross and dies. The messiah whom the disciples had given up everything they had to follow is dead. What an awful day. It’s kind of hard to imagine that kind of feeling, your goal in life, dead.

But wait, you guessed it, it gets worse. Saturday is the worse day in the history of the world. Jesus is dead, and what explanation do the disciples get from God? What semblance of understanding do they receive? There is nothing. God doesn’t speak to them. This day is so sad, I can’t begin to find words to describe what its like when the Son of God whom you have experienced day in and out for about 3 years suddenly isn’t there.

How many times in our lives are we living in a Thursday where our hopes start to die, or a Friday where our hopes are destroyed? Even worse how many times are we in a Saturday where heaven itself seems to be quiet and maybe even not care?

There is good news at the end of this story, and this is where we can find hope. Sunday is coming. God was active during the suffering of holy week, but the disciples cared mainly about Sunday. Sunday Jesus arose, everything was made better. The good news is that when we are going through Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, no matter how long they last, Sunday is coming. They got no answer on Friday, but Sunday was coming. They got no answer on Saturday, but Sunday was coming. Finally, Sunday came. What an amazing experience.

I guess I just wanted yall to know that no matter how bad things get, no matter how quiet God seems to be…Sunday is coming. Have hope. Hope is what sets us apart from other religions. Sunday is coming, and how great it will be when it gets here.

Christ is Risen!

Trembling for joy cries all creation;

What is this mystery, so great and new?

The Lord has risen from among the dead,

And Death itself He crushed with valiant foot.

Behold the cruel tyrant bound and chained,

And man made free by Him who rose!


(Melito of Sardes- 2nd Century)

Monday Munchies...Better late than never

Sorry I'm so late...school is getting intense. Here's to a welcome return to my questions. So I might as well come out swinging. If there was no heaven, would you still be a Christian?

This is a question that really shocked me when I first heard it. This question is phrased very dramatically but really makes you evaluate things. Another, perhaps less dramatic way to phrase this question is; what is the goal of Christianity?

Is the goal of Christianity getting to heaven? I think not. The goal of Christianity is this…Christ. I have to even breathe deep when I type that because of the giant task that lies in believing that statement. If we believe that statement then we have to figure out how to get to Christ.

In truth, there is nothing that we ourselves can do to get to Christ. Christ must call us, and we must answer. Christ initiates the relationship and Christ sustains the relationship, all we do is answer the call. The call is what is so hard about this task. The call is the cross; suffering, pain, rejection…and through that serving, life and freedom. It is not until we loose our lives can we find real life. It is not until we submit ourselves to be slaves of God do we find our real freedom. This is the call of the cross, this is the way to Christ, and this is the goal of Christianity.

My answer to the first question then must be relentlessly yes. Being a Christian while living on earth is the only way to really live while on earth. Live is better as a Christian, there is freedom, there is hope, and there is love. Christianity concerns itself with this life. Heaven is gonna rock my face off, it’s gonna be better than anything I can imagine…to get to be eternally in the presence of God! How awesome! Never the less, Heaven is a bonus, not the goal. The goal is Christ, and that is what we must concern ourselves with as Christians.

I struggled with weather or not I wanted to give yall my answer to this question and maybe just ask it. I think it was good for me to include my answer, but ask yourself honestly…if there was no heaven, would you be a Christian. If not, why? If so, why? Do not let my words be enough to convince you of anything. Trust the Holy Spirit, think for yourself.

Theological Tuesdays: Easter

Easter. Where did it come from and where did it start? And who in the heck decides what day it is on? I always knew it had something to do with the full moons, so lets jump in.


What's it about:
Easter is derived from a Norse word which means "Spring." It is also derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name for Passover. This holiday refers to the Christian festival which celebrates Jesus' resurrection. It is considered the most significant of all Christian festivals, because its celebration focuses on "the redemptive act of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ."

The History:
The Gospels indicate that the events culminating in the death and resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover, a Jewish festival which was in memory of the Exodus from Egypt and preparation started on the 14th of Nisan, the first month in the Jewish calendar. The Gospels aslo describe that Jesus died on a Friday, "the day before the sabbath," (Mark 15:42) and was resurrected on the first day of the week-Sunday(Mark 16:2-6). Since then, the first day of the week Sunday has became a customary time for Christians to meet and worship our risen Lord. The earliest primary source referencing Easter is found in the 2nd Century and characterizes the celebration as being well established.

Early Dates of Easter:
In the early Church there were disputes as to when to celebrate Easter. Since the death and resurrection of Jesus is intricately woven with the Jewish Passover, many early Christians stuck to celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan when preparation for Passover begins and the Passover lambs are slain. (Note: Paul refers to Jesus as the Passover Lamb in 1 Corinthians 5:7.) Other Christians wanted to celebrate Easter not on the 14th of Nisan which could fall on a weekday but rather on Sunday which was the day of the resurrection.

Calculating Easter Today:
Since the Christianization of Passover, the Church began to place more emphasis on the Friday/Sunday--death/resurrection sequence and decided to come up with a different method of calucalting the date that wasn't correlated with the Jewish Passover. So in 325AD the Council of Nicaea fixed the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the day of the vernal equinox. What does this mean, haha? The vernal equinox is the astronomical first day of Spring and occurs on March 21. So to explain that better we now can say that Easter is the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after March 21st. So Easter will always be between March 22 and April 25.

Let's be in celebration this week that we have a God who came and died on a cross and that on the third day he rose again. Who really cares what a vernal equinox is, the only thing that matters is that Jesus Christ is Risen! Have a good week yall.

Sunday Scoop-"Repent"

Sometimes it seems like the sun's not going to shine. Sometimes it feels like you wake up to nothing... and perhaps no one. Sometimes you get depressed and feel down whether it's because of guilt, shame, or maybe you're not able to pin point it. Life gets hard and throws you a curve ball- what do you do?
First and foremost, I've learned through my relationship with Jesus that feeling sorry for myself or dwelling on what's been done has gotten me no where in the past- I only dug myself a deeper hole. I was letting the devil win! Through repentence, the Lord has taught me to forgive myself just as He forgives me- to let go of my past whether it was a year ago or 3 hours ago. We will ALL make mistakes and at the time it may feel like a regret... but when you look back on your life and you think of potential "regrets"- they're not regrets at all; they are learning experiences. I'm sure you have heard the saying "Everything happens for a reason", and this is so very true. The Lord gives us the option of turning regrets into miracles- the past into a brighter future- and the darkness into light. He is a forgiving God!
Therefore, asketh and you shall receiveth. When you ask- ask with compassion and trust Him with all your heart and soul. Don't look back on what can't be undone- look to the future to what can be done!!! He's soooo powerful!!!!

"Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue." - (Daniel 4:27)

The Gospel of Judas

"An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years, and it portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus but as his favored disciple and willing collaborator." [NY Times]

The National Geographic Channel is going to have an interesting show on the Gospel of Judas tomorrow night, Sunday, at 9 PM. Check out the trailer for the show and I think you'll be interested.

Well I don't know if you've heard about the newly found Gospel of Judas, but I really get excited when stuff like this appears. I mean some people get scared or worried that our faith is going to get shattered, but I know that this type of media coverage can be a good thing. Afterall, I don't think God would want us to withdrawl from the intellectual and academic matters of our faith. We don't have to be stupid to follow Christ, and as a result I think these findings and the Gospel of Judas will ultimately strengthen a person's faith and trust in the authority of the Scriptures we do have. There have been many other fake Gospels and each new finding I think actually gives us more confidence in the Gospels that are in our Bible and the fact that they have stood for so long and haven't yet been discredited. Anyways make sure you check out the show coming on tomorrow night and below I'll provide links to a couple NY Times articles on the Judas gospel.

Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him,“Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal. [36] For someone else will replace you, in order that the twelve [disciples] may again come to completion with their god.” [excerpt for The Gospel of Judas]

Link to "Document is Genuine, but is it's Story True?"- NY Times
Link to "In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal" NY Times

Jesus May Have Walked on Ice?

This is a picture of the western section of the Golan Heights, overlooking the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, the body of water on which the Bible says Jesus walked. The New Testament says that Jesus walked on water, but a Florida university professor believes there could be a less miraculous explanation -- he walked on a floating piece of ice. (REUTERS/Jim Hollander)


Read the article from Reuters here.

So some scientist from Florida State thinks that Jesus may have walked on a piece of ice instead of water. Hmm, so what about Peter? I guess Peter paddled up beside some ice too, tricky rascal! Seems a little far out there for me to believe that a piece of ice was floating around near Galilee, but yeah who knows. However, since this guy is into explaining Bible stories in natural terms, let's see him explain the resurrection of Jesus in a little less miraculous fashion-- Not gonna happen. Science doesn't lead us away from God it only draws us closer. Have a good one ya'll.

Pontius Pilate

This was a paper that I wrote for a class earlier on this semester. Now I know that there is plenty of grammatical errors in it but I can't find my final draft and this was just a rough draft. Anyways I'm just posting it so yall can read it and tell me what you think. It's mostly about how I think Pontius gets a bad rap sometimes because he tried almost all he could to save Jesus' life and also if he had saved his life then Christianity wouldn't be here today. So here it is.

Many people know the story of the Crucifixion, but few know the political struggle and the reluctant decisions that Pontius Pilate was forced to make. In this paper I will discuss the political issues that led to the Crucifixion, the hesitance from Pontius Pilate and the reasons why he made the decision to allow for the crucifixion of Jesus. Ultimately these points will show the theme of reluctance that was shown by Pontius Pilate.

During the times of Jesus, right before the Crucifixion, Pontius Pilate, who was the Procurator of Judea during this time, was constantly battling with riots and uproars from the Jews within his city. Pilate was appointed by Tiberius, and was on his last straw with Caesar during this time. Pilate sent Jesus Christ to Herod, since Jesus was a citizen of Galilee, and he was mocked by Herod instead of being sentenced to death. Jesus was brought back to Pilate, and the Jews would not settle for anything less than death. (Josephus pp. 590-592)

Pilate had sent Jesus to Galilee in hope that Herod would be able to handle the situation for him. The Jews of the city were out for Jesus’ blood and Pilate did not want to be the one to sentence him. However, due to the constant uprising of the Jews, Pilate was unable to compromise. This political struggle was so out of hand that the Jewish population was on the verge of rioting and Pilate would even hide soldiers within the crowds in order to keep them under control. (Josephus pp. 591-592)

The account of Pilate allowing for Jesus’ death can be found in Matthew 27: 11-26. This was after Herod had sent Jesus back to Pilate. At the judgment of Christ held before the Jewish leaders, Pilate asked Jesus if he was truly the king of the Jews. Jesus answered that he was and the Jewish leaders lost control. Pilate then gave them the option of releasing Jesus or a notorious criminal named Barabbas. Pilate gave them this option because he felt that Jesus was innocent of all crimes. To Pilates’ surprise the Jews chose to have Barabbas released. He then asked what they wanted done with Jesus and they called for him to be crucified. Pilate tried pleading with the crowds but uproar was starting so Pilate washed his hands and said that his hands were clean of Jesus’ blood.

Looking at the attempts of Pilate to have Jesus released you can see his reluctance in having him crucified. After not only sending Jesus to Herod he also gave the Jews the option of having Jesus released or one of the most notorious criminals of their time. Pilate thought for sure that they would choose Jesus to be released, but to his surprise they chose Barabbas. He then pleaded with the crowds asking them exactly what crime Jesus had committed. The crowds persisted to have their way and began to get out of control. When Pontius saw that there was little left to do before a revolt he washed his hands clean and said that the life of Jesus was now in their hands.

In conclusion, after reading this passage in the New Testament I feel that in the past Pilate has gotten a bad reputation for having Jesus killed. It was clear that he did almost everything that he could to stop this from happening but in order to save his life and stop a revolt he gave in to the Jews. Pilate washed his hands clean and left the decision up to the religious leaders, and in my opinion I believe that he did this in order to feel less convicted of what was being allowed. Pilate was just a pawn in God’s plan for salvation.

Theological Tuesdays: Community

Community in simple terms can be defined as: A group of people having common interests.

Divine Community: authentic community built around meaningful relationships characterized by oneness or unity with God and with one another. People want to feel important and a part of something. God created us to be relational people. God is relational! We were made to live in community with others.

Observations about the need for community:

• Americans are some of the busiest people in the world yet we are some of the loneliest. Why? Having access to people and a large number of acquaintances is not the problem. 21st Century Americans try their best to avoid people. We no longer build houses with front porches. Why the heck not? Why do we now have back decks with fences around so no one can see us? I don't like it. I'm gonna be a rebel on this one and sit on my front porch!
  
• We are a culture craving meaningful relationships. We need meaningful relationships instead of empty useless acquaintances.
• People who live life alone or in isolation lose perspective on life and what's really important. Our viewpoint becomes clouded and we usually see things as being worse or better than they really are.
  
• People who aren't part of a genuine community have a fear of intimacy. If you've never been transparent with people you'll always fear opening up to new people.
  
• People who aren't in mutual relationships are very selfish and self-centered. The most selfish people you know, are probably the one's who have the least amount of genuine friendships. Right or wrong?

Divine Community:

• In John 17 we see Jesus praying to the Father that the disciples and believers may "be one as we are one." God desires for us to experience oneness and community with each other. Divine community is hinged on one word: love. Why is love so important? Jesus says in John that because of our love for each other, "all men will know that you are my disciples." Our relationship with each other in the the body of Christ is the "criterion the world uses to judge whether our message is truthful." Our community directly reflects our relationship with God.
• Authentic Community has these mutual qualities: ecouragement, meaningful relationships, love, accountability, support, honor, and sincerity to name a few.
  
• Real Community allows us to share the burden of living life. We "do life" together instead of alone. Which gazelle does the lion attack? The one that is alone, isolated and weak
  
• Our emotional needs are met in a Divine Community. We feel loved, wanted, and needed.
  
• Small-Groups are one of the best ways to truly experience Divine Community. Churches who operate on a Small Group format are the fastest growing churches in America.
  

In the perfect Garden of Eden before any sin entered the world, Adam was in oneness with God. He had a direct relationship with God and yet God still said, "It is not good for man to be alone." (Gen. 2:18) God knows that we need other people to get through life. We need Him but we also need others, that's why genuine community is so important!

An awesome book I'm reading on the topic of Small Groups that contains a lot of these ideas is "Creating Community" by Andy Stanley and Bill Willits. A definite must read on small-groups.

Monday Munchies...Food for Thought: Love Revolution

Today’s munchies are gonna be a little different. I feel like I’m preaching and venting/ranting more than providing thought provoking questions, but hopefully this will inspire some thought in yall anyway.

Love Revolution. I am an optimist, and I believe that our world has a whole lot of things going well and right, however, there is so much in this world that is wrong and, well, evil. It is time for a love revolution. I don’t mean reform or change, I mean a revolution. We need to rethink the idea of love and how it should affect our lives.

There is so much going wrong with the world, it is hard to know where to start. Let’s start with Africa. Every three seconds a child in Africa dies either from Aids or extreme poverty. Aids is the biggest epidemic to every hit the planet, and as a whole society has done next to nothing. What is the church doing about this? Programs like “the one campaign” which tries to get the US to donate another one percent of its budget to Africa, and programs like Sojourners which involves people directly into others lives to attempt to solve social problems by relationships are both great…at least on the surface. Even so, these programs are not enough to even start to solve the world’s problems. Things like racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination as well as hate, selfishness, war, and other things that could be eliminated from our world. That’s right, I said it, our world doesn’t have to be a world of suffering. I don’t believe that God wants us to let it be. In order to change it though, we need a revolution, one that will shock the world and over throw societal expectations. We need a love revolution.

Jesus was once asked which of the commandments was most important. He responded with two commandments as an answer. He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength and all your soul. And the second one is like it; love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:29-31). Notice He didn’t say any of the “Thou shall not” commandments. Later He says, you have heard it said love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy, but I say to you, love your enemy as your neighbor (Matt 5:43-44). Also, He tells us to love each other like He loves us (John 15:12). What do these verses mean? First off, we have to love God. We have to love God more than anything. The main opponent to this is really the self. One must love God more than they love their self. Most people love themselves, they take care of themselves, try and make sure they are secure, have basic needs met and try to make sure they receive love from somewhere. It’s a challenging thing to love anything more than one’s self. Now it gets even a little harder, and its how we can show our love to God, is to love our neighbors as ourselves. This means that all these things we do for ourselves, we have to do for our neighbors, Yall are intelligent so I’ll let yall make these connections. Finally we have to love our enemies as our neighbors. Well, these commandments leave no one exempt from who you should love. NO ONE is exempt from whom you should love, and not only love but love in a way you love yourself. An irrational, unreasonable, lavish, wild love. A love that surpasses imagination, that can only come from God and a relationship with Him, because it’s the kind of love He has for you. This is the love we are called to show and have for the entire world. The entire world, this means sinners. We have to love people. I never remember a passage saying, that we are called to judge. We are called to love. This means if someone is a liar, don’t judge them, love them. If someone is a homosexual, don’t judge them, love them. If is someone is a murderer, don’t judge them, love them. If someone is a drug dealer, don’t judge them, love them…yall get the point? Too often I think we get tied up in worrying about not sinning or making sure others don’t sin that we forget that its not our place to take care of whats between other people and God. I’m not downing accountability or confession of sin, and I’m certainly not condoning sin, but I am downing anything that takes priority in our lives over loving God, and therefore others.

So then, The Love Revolution is this. People loving other people, one at time, personally. This is how we can change the world. This is how we can win the world for Christ. This is how we can alleviate the problems of this world we don’t have to have. These problems are all the result of choices of humanity. I am tired of these problems. I’m tired of hate, I’m tired of war, I’m tired of suffering. I chose love, and peace, and Jesus. I choose to love, no matter the cost. I choose to follow Christ. I choose to change the world. I choose a revolution. I choose Love Revolution.

Foundation Group Meeting

We had the first planning meeting for the Foundation Ministry over at the DSBC last Saturday to discuss goals and vision for this new ministry. We had a great time together and there were about 25 college folk and young adults there. Below I have included some notes (*briefly jotted down notes-nothing is formal) taken from the meeting that cover some of the basics for where we see this new college/young adult ministry leading in the coming years:

1. Thinking about your life over the next 5 years; if you could be involved in a "dream" ministry, what would it include?

Worship – big corporate gatherings, music, mission trips, other mission opportunities, outside the county, state, etc. Have a group that is open to diverse people, not threatening or clickish. Life, small groups, hang out – fellowship, have accountability at your college, food, grow individually as well as corporately, learn new things, more women involved in our group.

2. Three years from now, where do we believe we should be?

Increase in size, tight relationships, Goal: to create community and disciples of Jesus through weekly meetings -> small group and worship. Use the resources that are available (internet, this blog, etc). Be intentional and foucused in this ministry. Have a vision and chase after it.

3. Where do we need to be 3 months from now?

Keep in communication with each other. Plan small groups to start in June- investigate materials, small group format, locations and times. Local mission outreach monthly. Worship service- Sunday(atleast once a month) at 1:oo or 2:00 PM. Where? CCC, YMCA, DSBC, Schools.

4. How are we going to interact with the traditional church:

No age limits at worship service, but need age limits in small groups. Stay involved in Youth Ministry and don’t loose touch with youth. Set an example and be there for them. Plan activities/services with youth and help disciple them. In-house ministry. Be servants. Free Car Washes/ Oil Changes. Help in outreach programs/ fundraisers.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come to the meeting. The next one is April 15 at 12noon at the DSBC Family Life Center. Be there or be square. Our meeting will be focused around planning for small groups.