How’s Your “In”? Missional Micro Post.

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Pastor Jesse

How’s your “in”? How are your relationships with the other Christians in whom you are investing your life? (Are you investing deeply in the lives of a few other Christians? — Well, that’s a separate topic.)

A few years back I heard a pastor named Randy Frazee talking about “refrigerator-rights friends.” Those are the kind of people who are so welcome in your home that they can come over and get whatever they want for themselves out of your refrigerator – and you don’t think twice about it. You don’t feel like you have to serve or entertain or even necessarily give them your attention. His point was simple: we need those kinds of friendships. “Love one another” ought to translate to, “Help yourself to what’s in the fridge… Oh, and if you’re out today, could you pick-up some milk?”

Do you have some of those kinds of people in your life?

In our adventure with missional community, we’re getting there. We can walk in when we’re expected without ringing the doorbell. We help with the cooking and clean-up. And if our houses could still use a little straightening up when people arrive – well that’s okay.

That kind of openness with our homes leads to a deeper openness in our own lives. We’re more likely to bear one another’s burdens, speak the truth in love, and love people for who they are when we begin to live together like family.

And I know they didn’t have refrigerators back in his day, but I’m pretty sure that’s the kind or relationship Jesus enjoyed with his disciples.

Blessings on the journey.

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Fine Wine (John 2:1-11)

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Pastor Jesse

Last Saturday, Darren and Crystal were with us.  They are doing something extraordinary that is pointing to Jesus.  And it’s kind of like fine wine.  I’ll explain.

You may already know the story of Jesus turning water into wine.  Very briefly, Jesus went to a wedding and (as his mom pointed out), they ran out of wine.  That would have created a very embarrassing situation in 1st Century Galilean Jewish village life.  The host and the groom would not live it down.  Lawsuits against the caterer may have ensued.

But Jesus was there and that changes everything.  He, a little reluctantly, saved the day by turning water into wine.  But the details make all the difference.  The scripture tells us he turned ceremonial washing water into very fine wine.  And John’s gospel tells us this miracle was the first sign that Jesus performed and his disciples noticed and put their faith in him.

Jesus’ sign was really fine wine.

And that’s what I see Darren and Crystal doing.  They are intentionally growing their family through adoption – adopting a two little girls from Somoa.  At least one of these girls has special needs.  The lives these girls are going to experience will be very different because Darren and Crystal have chosen, in love, to make significant personal sacrifice to bring kids into their family out of a desperate situation.  Instead of an orphanage with care-givers, they will have a family with a mom and dad!

In terms of beings a sign that points to Jesus, I would say what they were doing was like really fine wine.

What they are doing also resonates with the early church.  In the Greco-Roman world, children were considered a burden.  Many times, babies who were unwanted, blemished somehow, female, or who had special needs, would be “exposed”.  They would be set out beside the road.  Christians rescued them because Jesus, contrary to the values of his day, taught that children had value.  He even said, “Let the children come to me -and do not hinder them.”

When the early Christians did that, it was noticed.  It impacted the culture.  It was  sign that pointed to Jesus.  You know, the cool thing about pointing to Jesus in such a way is that the whole course of history can change for the better.  Wherever the Christian faith took root, the culture began to treat children better.

It was like really fine wine.

Last Saturday at our worship celebration, Darren and Crystal shared their story.  Darren did a beautiful job drawing the connection between adoption and the gospel (Christians affirm that we are adopted into God’s family) and then Crystal sang an oh-my-that-was-amazing song she’d written for their daughter whom they have not yet met. Well, a guy walked into our worship gathering just as Darren was beginning to speak.  I do not know who he was, and it turned out that ours was not the meeting he was looking for.  But he sat politely through Darren’s talk and then excused himself.  Later it occurred to me that our accidental visitor heard a very clear presentation of the gospel.  And the illustration was standing in front of him.  What Darren and Crystal are doing provided the best proof I could imagine to point to the power of the gospel to change everything.

So, the question this raises in my own mind is pretty significant.  What is the quality of “my sign”?  How well am I pointing to Jesus?  Is it “fine wine”.  How’s yours?  These questions may be helpful in evaluation.

  1. Does what you are doing point to Jesus?
  2. Is it missional?  In other words, does it line up with God’s will and activity in the world?  (In case you are wondering, God has ALWAYS had an interest in rescuing orphans.)
  3. Does it bless the world?
  4. Does it demonstrate love?
  5. Do you need God’s help for it to go well?

If we can answer “yes” to each of the above questions, then we are probably on the right track.

 

 

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Updated: The Lord’s Prayer Life Shape (The Hexagon)

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Pastor Jesse

Hexagon Lords PrayerDrawn from Building a Culture of Discipleship by Mike Breen and the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Key Scriptures: Matthew 6:9-15, Luke 11:1-4

In the Matthew 6 (part of “The Sermon on the Mount”), Jesus tells his disciples to “Pray this way.”   He gives them not just words to pray—but a way to pray that is clear and balanced.   “The model for prayer taught us by Jesus is shallow enough for a Baby to bathe in and deep enough for a elephants to swim through.”

Prayer is the most powerful thing a Christian does. Without prayer, our work and service often becomes empty and unproductive. It has been said that we can never do more than pray until we’ve prayed.

There are six parts (classically known as the six petitions) to the Lord’s prayer—thus our tool to help us remember is the Hexagon. When we pray the six phrases of the Lord’s Prayer, we are planting the seed of kingdom life in our hearts.

Luke 11:1-4 – “Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach – only how to pray” (A. Murray).

1) Praise God for who he is!

“Our Father in heaven, holy is your name.” The preface teaches us to draw near to God to God with reverence and confidence as children to a father, able and ready to help us. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Remember and proclaim the Father’s Character – who God is – and who we are. Begin times of prayer by praising God for who He is!

2) Ask for Heaven to come to Earth!

When we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are asking for the Father’s Kingdom of light and love to advance against darkness and hate. Our desire is to see heaven come to earth in every situation. Dallas Willard wrote, “Heaven is God breaking into our reality.” What are our realities? Ask God to break into them.   For example: if our reality is sickness, God breaking in would bring healing.  If our reality is fearfulness, God breaking in would bring courage.  If our neighbors are disconnected, God breaking in would bring community.  If our friends have rejected Christ, God breaking in would bring faith.

3) Ask for your daily needs!

“Give us this day our daily bread” is a straightforward way of asking for the Father’s provision. We have needs and in asking for God to meet them we acknowledge that God has the means to feed us whatever our hunger is. Some are reluctant to bother God with things so trivial as our own personal needs. But God is not above being concerned about these things. He wants us to humbly acknowledge our needs and our dependence on him for everything. Pray for your own needs!  God is a loving father who is wise enough to know our needs and who likes to hear from his kids. 

4) Ask for God to forgive you (as you forgive others.)

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. Here we ask for the Father’s forgiveness and express our commitment to forgive others. When we refuse to forgive the transgressions of another we are saying, “God, my sins against you were not as bad as this person’s sins against me.”   But we owe God more than we can imagine for the forgiveness he gave us in Jesus. Jesus tells a parable about a man who’s master forgave a huge debt. Later the man refused to forgive someone a little. The master was not pleased (Matthew 18:21-31) Jesus is clear—God’s forgiveness of us includes our forgiveness of others. Besides, when we forgive others, we experience something of the joy and life of God! We are all sinners in need of grace. God has forgiven us our sins at the cost of his own suffering. Remember the Canyon and the Cross.

5) Ask for God’s guidance!

Praying “Lead us not into temptation” is asking God to guide us in more circumstances. God is very interested in each of us and desires for us to represent Him in his kingdom well. Here we are asking God to give us the strength to be in the world but not of the world– and to lead us through it. It is okay to ask God to guide in big things and little.

6) Ask for God’s protection!

“Deliver us from the evil one” is acknowledging both the problem of evil in the world and our need for the Father to protect us from it. Our souls have a strong and destructive enemy, but “Greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world.” The name of Jesus is greater and God will answer this prayer.

When you work through this prayer, use it as a pattern to pray for all sorts of things. God is interested in every aspect of your life. Of course, he knows what’s going on already, but he wants to hear it from you. Bringing our praises, our requests, our needs, and challenges before God makes a difference in our hearts and opens our eyes to the ways that God is at work around us.

Questions for Reflection:

1) How can this pattern of prayer help bring both depth and bredth to our prayers?

2) Are there other patterns of prayer that you know of that have been helpful. A.C.T.S.—or praying the scriptures, for example.

3) Sometimes people have a hard time praying for their own needs, fearing it might be selfish. How does Jesus’ teaching on prayer address that.

4)  Sometimes people have a hard time praying for the needs of others. Where do we pray for others in the Lord’s prayer?

5) In many prayer groups, health concerns dominate the prayer needs.   While it is certainly important and good to pray for those facing illness , how can following the Lord’s prayer keep us from falling into that rut?

6) Is God saying anything? What will you do about it?

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Worship This Saturday Night!

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Pastor Jesse
Second Saturday Celebration Tomorrow!
1) The First Coast Missional Communities worship gathering is this Saturday night at 6:30 at Faith Community Church.
2)  We are looking forward to Daren and Crystal Libby being with us.  God is doing something really cool through their lives.  They will be sharing the story of their journey toward adoption. You can read some of their story at www.Journey2Family.com.  And if the Lord leads you, there are ways you can partner with them on their journey.
3)  We’re continuing our series on BELLS (Bless three. Eat with three. Learn Christ.  Listen for the Spirit. See yourself as sent.)  This month our focus is “Learning Christ” and we’ll be looking at John 2:1-11 in which Jesus reveals himself through a sign of turning water into wine.
4) Remember to pray for us.  By the way, if you know anyone who has adopted a child or is interested in adoption, invite this month.  I believe they will be encouraged.
God is good.
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What do you do with youth and kids in a missional community?

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Pastor Jesse

I remember typing that into a search engine back when we started our pilot missional community two years ago. I was intrigued about the idea of families, including kids, being together in community to follow Jesus. What I found on-line mostly encouraged me, and we started off by including kids in everything. In a minute, I’ll share where we’ve landed – but our early efforts just seemed to confirm that it was a good idea. With “Up” times, the youth were able to hold their own in the Bible studies. Little kids, well, they were a bit of a distraction. But we chipped in and arranged child care for those nights. Problem solved (mostly). And all generations participated in worship. The “In” times were not problem, because they generally centered on food – and our food was – and sill is – awesome! But during the “Out” times is where having children and youth with us made the biggest difference. As I recall, we did a food drive. There’s something disarming about a kid knocking on the door asking someone to fill a bag for hungry folks. I remember going out with my friend Alan and his cute six year old daughter, Reagan. We came to one house and the garage door was open. Alan’s little girl walked toward the front door. Just then, a man stepped out of the garage, but he hadn’t seen Reagan.

We said, “Hi! We’re doing a food drive. We’d like to drop this bag off – if you could fill it with non- perishables, we’ll be back around to pick it up tomorrow afternoon.”

He said, kind of gruffly, “Uh, we really don’t have anything for you. We don’t do this sort of thing. We’re really busy and, uh…”

About that time, Reagan walked back into sight. He looked over at her and it completely broke his train of thought.

Reagan walked right up to this man, put out her arms, and wrapped them around him in a hug. He was struck silent. Alan and I were amazed. He looked over at us and said, “So, umm, cans and rice and that sort of thing?”

We said, “Uh, yeah, that’s what we need.”

“I’ll have the bag full for you tomorrow.”

No doubt about it – having kids with you on the missional community journey is a great idea.

But in our context, we needed something more.

When we started FCMC, we knew that most parents would really want their kids in children’s programs and youth groups. And while we went back and forth on it for a while, I must admit that “those parents” include me and my wife. We wanted both. We wanted our kids to be a part of this journey with our missional community. And, especially for our teenagers, we wanted them to be a part of a youth group. As former youth workers, we can rehearse some of the benefits: peers, friendships, small group Bible study, great role models, positive activities, cool adults who are interested in them, opportunities for high energy worship, the chance to go to camp, mission trips, etc.

We can also rehearse some of the problems that generationally segregated ministries create. But what were we to do as we started a church of missional communities?

The answer ended up being not very hard: We decided to encourage our kids go to children’s programs youth groups in traditional churches.

And that has been a huge help. In our own family, we have four kids. One in college and three who are youth group age. They are all different. Seth goes to Faith Community Church where they have a smallish group of twenty or so kids who love to go deep and focus on discipleship. That group is great fit for Seth. Jared likes a crowd and is involved in two larger youth groups – one at Mandarin Presbyterian Church and the other at River of Life UMC. Sarah, our middle schooler, has a good group of friends who also go to youth group at River of Life.   Really, we couldn’t more pleased.   They are having a positive youth ministry experience. Better, I think, than they would have had if they had to all go to the same group.

By the way, it has also checked any temptation to think less of traditional churches. We are blessed by the traditional churches around us and want to bless them. (It’s part of our mission statement – to bless other churches.)

But we had to get over one thing. We felt a little guilty that they were in churches that we weren’t actively supporting. Our old paradigm had to break. We supported a church, led a church, and required faithful attendance at those churches activities – because that is what we believed good church members (and leaders) did. But then I remember my days as a youth worker. We always welcomed kids however they came to us. Always. Whether their parents were in the church or not didn’t matter. And good news – that’s still how youth groups operate. So our kids have been welcomed – wonderfully welcomed. And a side benefit for us is that we have gotten to know a good many youth leaders in Jacksonville. Our kids are helping to bless and build youth ministries in our community and those groups encourage missional living. And it has been good for our family and it has taken pressure off our missional community in terms of always trying to include kids.

These days, the kids of our families still participate. We love each other’s kids.  The adults in our MC know and love the kids in our MC.   But mainly, the kids come to our big group gatherings, especially involve worship. And they help us in mission – that’s pretty natural. We don’t really try to include them in discipleship so much, and that has allowed our discipling conversations to go deeper – to be more adult. And that’s good for us, too. But most importantly, we’re still engaged enough with our kids. They are on this journey with us as we follow Jesus together.

So, about those problems with generationally segregated ministries… The biggest drawback to that kind of ministry, in my opinion, is that kids don’t get to walk with their parents as they follow Jesus. They don’t see following Jesus modeled very much by the people in their families. And that’s one very big reason that kids quit the church and the faith after high-school. They don’t have an example to follow. Well, having our kids with us on this missional community journey definitely addresses that challenge.

May the Lord bless you on your journey!

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