looking ahead

on Sunday, i challenged our congregation with some additional vision. the vision points, using overdone alliteration, came from this passage in Proverbs 24:11-12, "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?"

1. get involved -- if we're going to Glorify God, by Touching the World for Christ, we have to continue to get involved with those in danger by serving their needs, including them in a loving fellowship, and joining with them in prayer. our congregation has done well to re-emphasize a missional heart in their support of our coming trip and involvement with the churches in Guyana. they also readily embraced and supported the Davenports and their ministry in Aukland, New Zealand. our church council affirmed my overzealous response to be a part of the volunteer labor and fund-raising for a new children's playground in the park next door to us that will be 75% handicap accesible (the national average for children with disabilities is 8%, but in Decatur it's 12%).
these are good steps, but there's more we can do -- 1 John 3:17 says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?". we are constantly bombarded by a community in need. we are able to meet some and reference other places of help for needs we can't meet. one set of needs we continually face is housing. we continually get individuals and families that are just trying to get ahead enough to start rent at a place -- but the daily monetary needs for a family or food take away from the ability to raise deposits for rent, utilities, and first month's rent. we helped a single mom and her kids living in their minivan for months. we are currently helping a family of 6 (that became 7 Thursday morning). they've been living out of a motel room for 6 weeks. all the while we have a house behind our sanctuary. the house is vacant. the church used to rent it -- but doesn't want to be in the rental business anymore. i challenged our congregation to use it for those in need --to make it our Hope House (see yellow and blue icon). this would be an intentional ministry that would provide temporary housing, accountability to saving money, and help to finding a future, suitable home.

2. interrupt those staggering along with an invitation to something more. we have a sign out in front of our church -- it's not lighted, and at 45 mph, you can't really read it. if you are able to read it, you may learn the name of the church that meets there, but that's it. You don't know when we're meeting, why, or why in the world you'd like to come. traffic gets stacked up in front of our church in each direction each night. we could put a lighted sign on each side of our sanctuary -- but let's go one step further and add a scrolling marquee so that there are constant invitations to come and see what God is doing.
i also challenged the congregation to think bigger than our own fellowship when it comes to certain annual activities. i challenged us to make four quarterly events that we would also be sure to invited everyone in our neighborhoods to attend. the events would be around Easter (spring), a block party in the church parking lot (summer), our annual picnic in the park next door (fall), and something with Christmas (winter).

3. hold each other to integrity. this is the controversial one. since i've been pastor at Sixth Avenue, i've had difficulty during the nominating and annual business meeting times because i expect more of leadership than just showing up. i presented a leadership covenant that was approved by our Council, quickly became a sore spot, and has been waived the next two years by subsequent Councils. our by-laws hint to requirements of leadership, namely attendance, regular 'worship,' and "living in harmony with the teaching and practices of the Church of God". that last generic statement seems to be present in many of our church's by-laws. but what does that mean? the only belief many seem to care about is that salvation makes you a member of God's church. our national church recommends leadership covenants in the latest Credentials Manual. but more importantly, the Bible calls for higher standards of leadership. that belonging to a fellowship is one thing, but leading within that fellowship requires a little more care. i challenged our congregation to be willing to articulate those Biblical expectations and potential leaders should submit to accountability. without such agreement and accountability, we will be subject to immaturity. In Ephesians 4, while Paul is speaking of the Body (15), he mentions that we will be able to grow up into Christ as we "speak the truth in love".

finally
4. invest in those not yet here. we recently lost a good youth ministry team in Andy and Shannon (http://andrewdailey.typepad.com/dailey_blog/). in such a transition, there's the obvious drive to fill the void. but at this particular time in our church's life, we have just as many children as youth. what if we should look for a children's pastor and build up a large children's ministry for a larger, future youth ministry base? or, what if we partnered with the Concilio (Hispanic Church of God council) to bring in a Hispanic ministry family to help us meet and minister to our large Hispanic community around our church and city? then we would see not only an enlarged children's and youth ministry, we would also see additional workers and a larger congregational base from which to support children's and youth ministries. we could also be equipped to learn Spanish--and think about an eventual english/spanish speaking 2x2 ministry into our neighborhood on Sunday nights! 2 cultures, one family, meeting the needs of our community for His name's sake.

+1 = 14

this past Sunday night, 11 went out from our church into our neighborhood. that's 1 more than went last week, but four of this week's servants were out for the first time -- that means that in the last two weeks, we've had 14 from our church make at least one trip into our neighborhood.

again, the hope is, rather than expecting the neighborhood to come into our doors, we'll meet them where they are. we are compelled by the love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-21)-- not wanting anything from our neighborhood, but something for them. to demonstrate this love, we go with an extended offer to serve or pray, ready to share the hope we've found if prompted by the Spirit.

this week, we were able not only to see some follow-up to last week's encounters, but to also meet some new neighbors. most of who we met this week were not nearly as receptive or eager to talk. i think that's great! if the Spirit begins to move as we act justly through continual mercy to folks that are initially apprehensive and have the defenses go up--imagine the light that can break begin to break through into even darker places.

again, those walls or barriers to our effort also served as teaching moments that God is faithful to be true to His word, not allowing these efforts to return void, just part of His gentle whisper and knock at the door of hearts

we returned to talk and pray as we did last week -- there was additional joy in the room, but also a multiplied sense of purpose. the discussion and the ideas were electric.

"i want to invite every neighbor to our church"

"the Jesus video could be a pretty powerful gift around Easter"

"we need a block party with food, and games, and no strings attached"

"we really need a Hispanic pastor"

"i wish we would have been walking my dog -- that would have given us a better connection with that family through their dog"

"next week i'll bring my kids to play at the park with their kids -- then i may have a better opportunity to strike up a conversation"

many good ideas--great levels of continued prayer and discussion afterwards in the parking lot. great timing too -- this next Sunday marks our annual time of casting new vision and ideas to our church and leadership to consider and pursue in the next year.

the proverbial ball is rolling...

JOEL 2:28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."

sending out 10

Jesus began with sending out the 12 (Luke 9:1-6) in groups of two and eventually the 70/72 (Luke 10:1-24). the apostles continued this missionary tradition sending out such pairings as Paul and Barnabas.

tonight, we began with 10--five groups of 2. we weren't canvassing the neighborhood, just trying to follow the gentle whisper of the Spirit. we went out to bless, not convict -- to offer service, instead of trying to get them to our services.

eight of the nine that we had previously been praying with and teaching to share their testimony were joined by one other willing believer this evening. we began as we usually do with our 5:00 prayer meeting. after the time of prayer, i gathered our new cards and reminded everyone of our desire to be a part of God's process -- that the quality of our interaction was important. we decided on which streets we would take (so not to create a mob scene down 1 street) and we set out

2 of our teams entered into two different conversations with people from the same household, at the same time. one team interacted with one member in their front yard; meanwhile another team was cutting through an alley and had run into another family member in their backyard.

we gathered back at the church after an hour and shared who we met, what their impressions were, what our impressions were. everyone, as in Luke, seemed to be filled with a joy of being a part of God's love extended to these homes. no one led anyone to Christ, but several of the teams had the opportunity to hear a need and pray with that individual/family for that need. now relationships have begun and we can follow-up next week, after we seek to continue to pray for those individuals through the week.

everyone also demonstrated a greater concern and a heart for our neighbors. we've talked about meeting our neighbors, being willing to meet our neighbors' needs in prayer and service -- but now those neighbors had faces, names, location.

everyone also seemed to have a greater confidence. we've been talking about it--but now we've done it. we've walked out the doors, across the street, and into conversations with our neighbors. it didn't hurt--they didn't bite--it wasn't that awkward. i think they think they can do it again

and we will

"Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ" ~ Acts 5:42

Guyana here we come!

on september 1, Alison, my wife, and i will head north to Nashville to head south on a plane on september 2 for our first missions experience in Guyana, South America.

Alison was moved to attend this first excursion the moment she saw the map and announcement in our sanctuary. the Lord honored her heart's desire and provided for her favor to obtain time out of school, time off of work, and a bonus from her boss that nearly covered the expense of the trip.

keli and i have received gifts and encouragment from friends and family all throughout the states. we were blessed last night with a call from a group of friends who said they would cover the balance!

now it's time for vaccinations and waiting on Uncle Sam to send our passports on time.

the focus of our trip will be one of discovery, relationship building, some preaching or leadership training, and beginning to search for a suitable location to build a church plant in memory of my grandparents in the near future.

this is an exciting time

the vision of our church has been "to touch the world for Christ" -- it was the vision long before we were there. we came with the hope of giving new "feet" to that vision in the form of a ministry strategy from Micah 6:8, serve, love, pray. as we do these three things in relationships across the street, inside the sanctuary or around the world, we'll bring God glory and touch the world for Christ

the church has actively supported missions in the past, and had many trips. but lately it has lost relationship with those projects. we want to renew the relationships with the projects we support.

i've told our congregation that we can't touch the world for Christ is we're not out touching the world. it's my hope and our vision that in the near future, we're touching the world in relationships to serve, love, and pray for and with a group of churches on every continent.

as my friends at www.servelife.org say, "the goal: GOD's GLORY among all nations"