Marty Wooten, a one time ICOC teacher and bigwig, has recently joined Kip’s LA church. I found it surprising and a little disappointing, but it may be a good thing after all. Marty may be the balance that Kip needs. Marty seems more thoughtful and introspective while Kip is zealous and impulsive. Maybe, as Marty has acknowledged, they can help balance each other out with each’s weaknesses being complimented be the other’s strength.
But that’s not the point of this post. What I wanted to write about was something he wrote in his part 2 of why he’s joined Kip’s church:

If the central purpose of a fellowship is to impact the world for Christ, then unity is an absolute necessity for success (John 17); unity within an individual church and between a larger fellowship of churches must take place.

He’s making a point that Kip makes a lot in this article. Churches need relationships with other churches if we are to be about our main mission, seeking and saving the lost. I don’t take issue with relationships between churches being needed and good (he speaks of it in a way that I can better accept than what Kip usually says). My concern is with the premise that leads to the conclusion:

If the central purpose of a fellowship is to impact the world for Christ

Maybe I’m a heretic, but is that really the central purpose of a fellowship? Certainly it is one of the purposes of a fellowship, and even an important one, but “the central purpose”? I don’t think so.
I’m not sure how I’d word it (help me out here), but Jesus told us that loving God and loving others were most important (in that order). Sharing the gospel and evangelism (what he’s getting at if you read the article) are part of doing that (never mind the high minded wording of ‘impacting the world’), but not all of it. Certainly, seeking and saving are not our central purpose, but part of it.
Isn’t this one of the things that got the ICOC in trouble? We assumed Jesus’ mission (seek and save the lost) was to be our mission. If that is true, then that will lead us to a lot of things. Door knocking, jumping in front of folks on the street to invite them to church, over emphasis on stats and growth and an unhealthy church to church interdependence.
I think the primary mission of the church is simply to love. Love God passionately, love each other deeply and love everyone else as we do ourselves. If we do, we will reach out to other churches, we will evangelize, and do so cooperatively and we will serve and care for those in need. We will be a light in the darkness, whether that darkness is sin, sickness or poverty.
What do you think?

Missy recently was talking about relationships she missed. That got Kansas Bob talking about the cost of friendship. In his post, Bob quoted this scripture:

Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Matthew 5:23-24

That got me thinking about priorities.
We, it seems, tend to think that ‘God things’ have a high priority. Things like attending church, the way we worship, communion and offerings and contributions. These are Important Things, things that must come first, or at least high on our list.
Look again at this passage and notice God’s priority.
The man is there to pay honor to god, to make his gift, to give his contribution, to write the check and God says stop for a moment and examine. He’s about to put God first. He’s about to proclaim his allegiance and God says don’t just yet. Why?
Reconciliation.
God says your honoring of me through gifts, gifts I’ve commanded you to make, is less important than your reconciliation to your brother. My gift can wait, go be reconciled.
That hit me powerfully when I read it earlier today. How often do we have that backward today? If you skipped church this Sunday to go visit someone you had issues with or had issues with you, would you be praised or chastised? Don’t we tend to emphasize the practice of religion over the practice of our relationships? We say, your relationship can wait, go worship God.
How ironic that so many are willing to sever relationships for the sake of ‘purer and holier worship’, when God says you should interrupt your worship to fix your relationships.

If you’ve got time for a good sermon, head over to our church’s sermons page and listen to Doug’s sermon on Acts 16 from last Sunday. Great stuff that, as is normal for his messages, has me chewing on some ideas that may turn into blog posts later.
As a tease, here’s the best line from the message:

Stop living on the earth!

Have a listen, you won’t be disappointed.

This weekend we were in Toledo with Mom and Dad. They get up for the early adult Sunday School. Dave runs the class, and I always enjoy Dave’s classes, so we went along. The text was Matthew 14:22-34:

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

This has long been one of my favorite stories, but Sunday brought to light new things in this familiar tale.
The key was in verse 22:

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.

There’s something in there that I hadn’t thought of before. Jesus, being God, knew what was coming. He knew that He was sending them out on the lake, straight into a storm. Alone.
Meanwhile, He went to spend some quality time with Dad. Hours, he prayed on the mountain, while the disciples headed strait into a storm. Not until the fourth watch, which, acording to the online parallel Bible, was after 3 AM, did Jesus come to them.
We like to think of Jesus as one who rescues, saves us from harm, but here he send the disciples straight into danger. The question is why? Why would He send them into danger? Why would have them face it alone and what does it tell us about God?
It seems clear that Jesus sees opportunity in the storm. Opportunity to teach the disciples of His power. Opportunity to put things in perspective for them, to help them see the storms that seem to loom large from God’s perspective. That opportunity is great enough that not only will he refuse to shelter the disciples from it, he sends them right into it’s midst. And he’s content to wait and have them battle that storm for hours before strolling in to join them.
What this tells us about our God is at once shocking, scary and comforting.
The shocking and scary part is that God isn’t concerned with sheltering us from pain and hardship. In fact, it’s just the opposite. For the opportunity for growth presented by trials, he will lead us right into them, and let us fight with them for some time before coming to our aid.
The comforting part is that He knows exactly what He’s doing. He can see what lies on the other side of the storm, we cannot. He know that we will emerge stronger and closer to Him in the end. Once Jesus appeared, the disciples weren’t focused on the storm anymore. And once he got in the boat, they had a perspective on Him that no lesson on shore could ever deliver.
The comfort is that the fourth watch comes, and with it Jesus, in ways that we couldn’t see Him otherwise.

Last night at our midweek service, we simply had a session of good news sharing. This is a tried and true ICOC tradition that would degrade at times into “I did a good deed” sharing instead. However, while giving the congregation an opportunity to share what God’s doing can be risky in that you don’t have control over what is said, it can also be profoundly up lifting and faith building.
I’ve heard folks complain that they don’t like these sessions because they feel cheated. They don’t get anything out of it. My response to that is, are you listening? Here’s some things I heard last night:

• This was Mat’s first service back with us. It’s been a month since I updated you and in that time he was moved out of the ICU to the James Cancer Center. I’m not sure when he was released, but I suspect it was within the last week. But he was there last night and he stood up with Jess as she shared for the two of them what an encouraging journey it has been. All the support of the church, seeing Mat sharing about Jesus with anything that moved in the hospital to how his doctor’s office took up an amazing collection to help them pay for their wedding. As Jess shared, they were responsible for him being alive, yet they were still giving to them. Through it all, they were drawn closer irresistibly to God.
• Mark and Sandie (yes Jeff, that Mark and Sandie) stood up and shared that their newly adopted baby boy was officially and legally theirs now. If you knew them, you’d understand that it was an answered prayer that Sandie was standing, let alone standing and holding her own son up high.
• Cheri stood and shared about her niece. This young woman, who’s she’s shared about and asked for prayers for in the past, has spent most of her 18 years in abusive relationships. Her mother was married to an abuser who isolated her from her family. He was recently convicted of that abuse and sentenced to 18 years as a result. Escaping that into foster care, she was placed with a foster parent who behaved the same way. She’s known nothing but abusive situations and when given the opportunity to escape a few years ago, chose to stay because it was all she knew.
  Last night, thanking the church for their prayers, Cheri shared through tears that “Tomorrow I’m finally picking her up and bringing her home.” That emphasis was her’s not mine. That’s how she said it, she will finally be home. She’s spend years loving her through praying for her, researching the psychology behind her situation and reaching out to her. It’s only for a few weeks, but the joy in Cherri was obvious that all of that effort in love was finally bearing fruit.
  This made me think of the parallels to our own lives. We spend years in an abusive world, trying to meet it’s demands and follow it’s ways. It beats us up no matter how we try, but we keep trying. God is there, calling us out, but we return because it is all we know to do. He hurts each time we do, but He does not give up. When we finally decide to turn from the world and to Him, I imagine that His tears of joy are as real as Cheri’s as he says “I’m finally picking them up and bringing them home.” No wonder the angels rejoice.
• Erica stood and shared about her reaching out to a coworker and a work social function. The conversation turned to his social life and she mentioned that he should stop some reckless behavior. He said something about how he needed something in his life. Erica immediately though “God, I guess that’s my cue.” and shared with him about Jesus and our church.
  What an amazing heart. How many times do I miss my cue? Am in tune with God’s spirit the way she was, always on alert, waiting for my cue? God made the hand off, ans she ran with the ball. Too often, I fumble because I’m not ready or paying attention.

That’s what I heard last night. There was more. I didn’t share about the news from the Amazing Race statewide teen event that we hosted last weekend, the Big City Christain hip-hop concert last Saturday that moved teens into their Bibles and encouraged his heart as well or about our new summer campus interns that are already bearing fruit after only being here a week.
You could argue that our minister got a pass last night, not having to prepare a lesson. I would say no, he just stepped aside for a minute to make sure that God was getting center stage.

In the middle of a much longer and thoughtful post on trust, Jared at the Thinklings wrote this:

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
This conviction of things not seen isn’t just about trusting God to use our mess for glory; it’s also about trusting He’s in control of that mess and that there really is a higher order in place to which the mess is subject.

That one made me, and still makes me, go hmmm ….
The first part – that faith is more than trusting God to use our mess – and the last part – that there is a higher order at work than we can see – I’m completely on board with. The idea that God is bigger than our mess and that He knows what’s happening and can see much farther and wider than we can is absolutely key to making it through the tough times with one’s faith intact.
It’s the middle part – that God is in control of my mess – that makes me scratch my head. Jared’s a Calvinist and believes, I think, that God is in direct control over everything. If I understand that right, that includes his writing his post, it’s exact wording and my writing my response (does that make God responsible from my typos?). Jared and I have been ’round and ’round on this a couple of times before and he’s even won me over a bit.
His quote here takes me back to that age old question, how much control over the world does God really execute? I will not disagree with Jared that God is ultimately in control. Where I have disagreed is that it seems to me that God has allowed us some freedom, some sovereignty, over our own lives and destinies. We wield that sovereignty to our own peril as we are not equipped to direct our own affairs in this world saturated in sin. Nonetheless, God has afforded us that opportunity. Given us enough rope to hang ourselves, if you will.
Yet every time I come back to this question, I find both answers lacking. A God that is directing and determining every action seems uncaring and distant. Yet so does a God who’s sitting back and watching, waiting for us to ‘get it’. Is there a middle ground, or perhaps some other off-to-the-side ground where God operates?
What do you have to say about this?