Still thinking about the church this week. My prayer/devotional guide has this week titled “Called by God”. It says that we are called by God to serve in a particular way and that we are also empowered by the Spirit to carry out that ministry. The two are inseparable. In that same prayer guide there is a quote from The Art of Prayer and it says, “The spirit of grace leads one man to concentrate entirely on his own sanctification by severe ascetic feats, another it guides pre-eminently to works of charity, another it inspires to devote his life to the good organization of Christian society, and again another it directs to spread the Gospel by preaching…”
Why do we so often forget that the Kingdom of God is supposed to be a diverse place? Why do we forget that none of us have the only “right” way to minister? Now don’t get me wrong here, I do not condone all of the “severe ascetic feats” that this passage may be talking about. I don’t see anywhere in scripture where we are called to intentionally, physically harm ourselves to prove something to God. But the more moderately ascetic lifestyles (i.e; prolonged periods of silence, solitude and labor) of the early monks gave us some of the most classic writings on theology and spiritual growth. In more modern times, people like Thomas Merton and Brennan Manning have made great contributions to the Kingdom through reflections that came during times in hermitage. Read More
In our walk with Christ he calls us to serve just as he came to serve. With this in mind we set out to serve lunch to the teaching staff at Edison High School. I arrived at Edison a couple minutes before 11 am and became nervous. I was not nervous about serving and hanging out with strangers but with how I was going to find the RH team. From the outside Edison looked like a huge school and I was reminded of the crowdedness of my own high school as this was a school day and the parking lot was packed with cars. I tried looking for RH folk but would later find my efforts futile, as I was the first one there.
Once everyone started arriving we signed in at the administration desk and went to the staff lunch room. It was very quite as class was in session. We highlighted the reasons we were there specifically focusing on finding out the atmosphere of the school and local area. Discovering the places of need and how we could pray to better the circumstances of this school and this region in Huntington Beach. We laid out short questionnaires for the staff to fill out that would answer these questions for us. At the sound of the lunch bell the campus became a zoo as is expected at any high school. The staff started coming in to enjoy the Mexican food we prepared for them. We were a little taken aback by the casual wear that everyone was wearing and would later find out that it was the day to sport your favorite college or university attire. It was fun engaging with the staff and answering their questions about why we were there with the response that we were just modeling Jesus and for no other real reason. I got connected with and started conversing with one of the campus security personnel about sports. It was a casual fun time.
Moving throughout our communities to serve those we come in contact with is what Jesus has commissioned us to do. This experience was a short couple of hours but was effective. As was our previous trip to Oakview elementary. We are learning how to best serve our community, and pour into our schools. Maybe we didn’t save thousands of souls with people surrendering to Christ but that is a mission for another time, and that too will be done. Serving in tangible ways is also an important part of the Kingdom of God and it doesn’t take much sacrifice. Often it only requires time, open ears, and an outstretched arm.
So I’m still thinking about our sermon topic this week, the church. Specifically pondering the community life and unity of the church. One Lord, one body, many members. What does it mean to live in true community with people? What kind of things do you do that make it community? Is it something that just happens to group, or do we need to do something to make it happen? I think community is some thing so radical for our day and time that most people don’t understand it and don’t know how to make it work. We get so caught up in thinking that all the stuff we do for ourselves and our family is so important that we couldn’t possibly sacrifice any of it. So we fool ourselves in to thinking that we don’t have the time or space to let other people and their lives in also. This mindset just divides the people in the church instead of unifying them as Jesus prayed. Read More
Last week our sermon focused on the Holy Spirit and the power that was unleashed at Pentecost for the declaration of the coming of God’s Kingdom and the establishment of the community of God’s people, the church, which is what we talked about this week.
I have heard it said many times that the greatest miracle ever performed by God was the act of gathering a group of people together and getting them to live in community together. That statement is usually made tongue-in-cheek in reference to the inability of people to get along with others that are different than themselves. But I think there is a deep statement there, whether it was intended or not. In his book, Community of the King, Howard Snyder says, “Truly Christian transformation of culture comes through Christlike (and hence sacrificial) love, community and being.” It was the early churches ability to love each other that transformed the culture around them. They were kind and generous and acted morally to their neighbors for sure. But it was the loving community that they were creating with other believers that caught the attention of society. And that community extended an open invitation to everyone. The early church didn’t have these intense outreach ministries to the needy. They merely fed their own widows and that through that people saw they were genuine about this love thing they talked about. Read More
So we’re smack dab in the middle of the season of Lent. We talk about Lent as being a season of preparing and waiting for the celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. This week the season of waiting has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I have been in school in for over 5 years now. And while I have still not “officially” graduated (that happens in May) I did, just last week, finish all of my required course work. So now I wait. I wait until May for my graduation ceremony. But I also wait to see where God is going to lead me now that school is over. You see, back in 2006, when I decided to finish my degree, and even in 2008 when I went on to do my graduate work, I felt a very strong call that God was telling me to “prepare”. Read More
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