Why not serve?
I saw this post last night from Lionel at “Gospel in 3-D” called “Vessels Of Mercy: DFW Organic Church Connection May 30th Outreach“. Apparently, Lionel is taking part in a group project to clean up yards and do simple repairs in the Dallas-Ft Worth area. In fact, it seems that there will be several churches involved. I can’t wait to hear what happens on that day. (hint, hint Lionel)
If you’re in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, why not take part? Yes, it will be hard work serving others. But, what else do you have to do that would be more important?
If you’re in the Wake Forest / Raleigh area and you need an idea about serving others, get in touch with me (my email address is in the left sidebar of this blog). I’ll be glad to help you find ways to serve people.
Mentoring leaders
So, I’m considered a leader by the church. I’ve been recognized as an elder. While I often teach, I try to lead through serving. I try to encourage people to follow my example by serving others. Obviously, I’m not a perfect servant – I’m often self-centered. I’m learning to serve, and I’m trying to help others learn to serve.
I think it is important for me to teach, so I teach. However, I do not think my ability to teach makes me a leader, nor does an ability to teach make me qualified to be leader. I know that some people follow me because of my ability to teach. I try to encourage those people to follow by serving.
I also think it is important to be educated. I’m pursuing a PhD in biblical theology. I do not think being educated makes me a leader, nor does it qualify me to be a leader. Some people may be following me because of my education and studies. I try to encourage those people follow by serving.
This last week, I had a good conversation with a brother who likes working with young people. He said that he liked to encourage them to be leaders. I asked him what he meant by being a leader. I encouraged him to think about service. In other words, encourage people to serve and encourage people to follow those who are serving. This seems to be Jesus’ focus when he talks about leadership.
I’m learning to think of service instead of other things that are often called leadership. It’s not an easy way to think or live. I don’t want to follow servants, because if I follow servants then I will be serving others myself.
Gospel, Community, and Beyond
Just over a week ago, in a post called “Total Church Principles“, I mentioned that I am reading the book Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. In that post, I discussed the first part of the book in which the authors discuss the principles behind the church as both gospel-centered and community-centered. In the second section of the book, they discuss practical implications of the church as centered on both the gospel and community. In this post, I will discuss the first four chapters in this section: Evangelism, Social Involvement, Church Planting, and World Mission.
I’ve decided to discuss these four chapters together because they all share something in common: they all focus on how the gospel-centered and community-centered church must reach beyond itself to impact the world. To begin, here are a few quotes that stood out to me:
Major events have a role to play in church life, but the bedrock of gospel ministry is low-key, ordinary, day-to-day work that often goes unseen. Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality. Whether it is helping a friend, working at the office, or going to the movies, there is a commitment to building relationships, modeling the Christian faith, and talking about the gospel as a natural part of conversation. People often ask if they can come see our ministry at The Crowded House [the group of churches with which the authors are involved]. But all there is to see is ordinary people doing ordinary things. There are no projects, no programs, no “ministries”. (pg. 63)
We want to make three assertions about the relationship between evangelism and social action:
1) Evangelism and social action are distinct activities…
2) Proclamation is central…
3) Evangelism and social action are inseparable… (pg. 78-79)There need be no second-generation churches if the church is constantly reconfiguring itself through church planting. Second-generation “Christians” are those without their own living experience of the gospel. Second-generation churches are those who have lost their gospel cutting edge. It may be that a fiftieth church anniversary is not an occasion to celebrate the faithfulness of God but to lament the stagnation of his people. (pg. 96)
There are two main things that I take from these chapters… two things that I have not thought much about before, but that I’m thinking seriously about now.
1) Evangelism should be a community activity. This doesn’t mean that groups should go door-to-door. Instead, it means that as I meet someone and begin introducing them to Jesus Christ, I also begin introducing them to the community. As the authors say, recognizing evangelism as a community activity takes seriously how the Holy Spirit uses and gifts people differently.
2) A church – as a Christian community – may not be intended to remain “together” forever. In fact, if it is our responsible to proclaim the gospel, and if that gospel includes community, then we must be willing to share both our words about the gospel and to share our gospel community. This may mean (and probably does mean) that our community will need to divide into multiple communities in order to reproduce itself.
I’m still enjoying this book very much. I’m especially enjoying thinking through the practical implications of the church being both gospel-centered and community-centered.
What do you think?
stories: Raking leaves as the church
This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)
One Sunday last November, we met with the church like we normally do on Sunday mornings. Someone led us in singing some songs. Someone read a chapter from the Bible. Someone taught. Several people shared exhortations. This happens every week, and God often uses this weekly meeting to encourage, convict, rebuke, admonish, teach, train, comfort me – and hopefully others.
We also shared the Lord’s Supper that day. After our meeting we set out some tables and put some chairs around them. Someone talked about the significance of the bread and the cup as we took the elements. Then, we ate lunch together. We eat together every week, and specifically share the bread and the cup about once per month.
But, after our church meeting and after eating lunch together, we did something different. We had already been meeting together for just over four hours. But, the most exciting part of our church meeting was just about to begin.
Several of us changed clothes, and drove about a mile to a nearby government assisted housing project to rake leaves. As my regular readers know, my family and some other friends spend time in this neighborhood every Saturday. When Margaret (my wife) found out that no one raked leaves for this housing development, she asked if we could all go over on Sunday afternoon and rake leaves for them. Many of the residents are elderly, or in poor health, or single moms.
So, for a little over two hours – until it got dark – we raked leaves for the people that we knew in the neighborhood and for a few neighbors that we do not know… yet. We were able to talk to many of the neighbors while we were raking. We even sang “Amazing Grace” with one of the elderly ladies. Some of the children who lived in the neighborhood asked if they could help rake leaves. We also enjoyed piling up the leaves so the youngest children could jump in the piles!
At one point, a man who lives across the road from this government assisted housing development walked up. I met him, and he introduced himself. He asked if we were “a church group”. I explained that we were part of a church, and that we were raking leaves to help out some of our friends who live in this neighborhood.
He told me that he “goes to church”. He told me the name of the church. I know this church and many of the leaders. I’ve asked those leaders if they would like to do a service project together with us so that we could show the unity of Christ and the love of Christ together. They said that they would get back to me about it. I’m sure that they’ll get back to me one day.
Anyway, this man said that he was glad that we were doing something to help “those people”. He said that he often thought about doing something to help them, but he never seemed to have time. I told him that we were in the neighborhood every Saturday morning and that he was always welcomed to join us. He said, “ok” and went back into his house. How I wish he had come back with a rake to help us. But, he didn’t.
By the way, we ended up raking leaves for six different housing units (nine families).
While our group was raking leaves, another group from the church was also serving someone. One of our friends has a coworker who was trying to move out of her boyfriend’s house because she decided she was in a bad situation. My friend asked the church for help during our church meeting, and at least eight people helped this young lady move. Of those eight people, only one of them knew this young lady.
It is so exciting to be part of a church that actually serves people! And, we don’t just serve people that we know, or people who are part of the church, or people who can serve us back. We serve people who we have never seen before and who we may never see again. But, we serve people because we love them. And, we love people because God first loved us.
(If you would like to see some pictures of us raking leaves, I’ve posted some on our family blog in a post called “Raking Leaves With Friends For Friends“.)
stories: Missional without the label
This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)
In the fall of 2007, some good friends of ours decided to start spending time in a local nursing home. This wasn’t a “church program” or a “ministry”, but a desire on their part to spend time with “the least” in order to demonstrate God’s love. They talked to the administration at the nursing home, completed the forms and classes and tests necessary to spend time with the residents, and started going to the nursing home one morning each week. They all went – the husband, wife, and their children, even their 3 year old.
They invited me to go with them, and I wanted to go. But, I couldn’t go because of scheduling – work, teaching, and school scheduling. However, last summer, when I was only working, I was able to adjust my work schedule to spend time with them in the nursing home.
I arrived at the same time my friends arrived, and I walked into a common room with them. There were already fifteen or so residents sitting in a circle – some in wheelchairs, some in chairs, some on sofas – waiting for them to arrive. My friends started greeting the residents, and I could tell right away that this was more than a “program” to them. They genuinely love these elderly men and women. Some of the residents greeted them with smiles and hugs and words expressing their gratitude for coming. Other residents nodded or moaned, but were unable to communicate more than that. Some residents seemed completely unresponsive. But, my friends made their way around to each person, holding their hand, speaking a kind word to them, showing them the love of Christ, even if the person could not respond.
Eventually, a few of my friends headed down the halls of the nursing home to the rooms of some of the residents that they knew well. A few minutes later they returned walking with or pushing someone who had forgotten that they were coming, or had been unable to come on their own. Soon, there were twenty or more residents chatting with my friends.
My friend reminded the residents that they had been reading through the Gospel of Matthew together. He opened his Bible and, he and his children started reading from chapter 25 – each one taking turns. They read two chapters, not just a few verses. I knew that some of the residents could not hear what was being read. I knew that some of the residents could hear but could not process or remember what was being read. But, they knew that my friends were there because they cared for them deeply.
Call it coincidence – or call it divine providence – but the chapters that my friends read that morning included this passage:
Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:32-40 ESV)
I couldn’t help but noticed that I was seeing this passage lived out in front of me at that very moment. My friends were loving “the least” – people who could not return their love except in a touch or a hug or a kind word, if that. But, my friends love them any. They were not looking for a response from this sweet men and women. My friends were the ones responding – they were responding to the awesome grace and love and mercy and forgiveness that God had poured out on them.
After they read two chapters from the Gospel of Matthew, my friends asked the men and women if they would like to sing. Several of them called out the names of popular hymns and we all sang. After we sang, my friends once again made their way around to each person, greeting them again and speaking to them individually.
My friends do not read my blog. They probably do not know about the term “missional”. They probably do not know about the discussion that surrounds the meaning of the word “missional” today. But, they don’t care. They do not lavish their love on these precious people so that they can claim the label “missional”. Instead, they love because they were first loved. They love because God’s Spirit is producing love within them.
Total Church Principles
A few months ago, I bought the book Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis with an Amazon.com gifts card that I received for Christmas. Several people had recommended this book to me, and the blurbs that I had read about it looked promising – although blurbs can be misleading.
Last week, I needed to read something “for fun” – yes, I had plenty to do and too many books to read for school, but I needed a break. So, I picked up this book and started reading through the first chapter. I’m hooked. I really like this book.
The authors’ premise is:
What we do is always defined by the gospel, and the context is always our belonging in the church. Our identity as Christians is defined by the gospel and the community. (16)
By being “gospel-centered”, the authors mean that we should be centered on both the message (word) of the gospel and the mission of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. The authors recognize that some groups of Christians rightly focus on the gospel, but fail to live in the significance of the community. Meanwhile, other groups focus on the community while failing to see the significance of the gospel. Therefore, the authors suggest that the church should focus on both.
We believe there is an alternative. We need to be enthusiastic about truth and mission and we need to be enthusiastic about relationships and community. (18)
In Part One of their book, they write about the principles involved in being gospel-centered and community-centered. For example, concerning the church being “gospel-centered”, they show how God rules through his word and his Spirit. They reject a polarization between the two. Thus, the proper understanding of the word of God is as a word through the Spirit of God. Similarly, they say that this word is a “missionary” word, meaning that the good news of the kingdom is meant to be proclaimed.
However, living a “gospel-centered” life or being a “gospel-centered” church is often easier said than done. They say,
The church exists both through the gospel and for the gospel… Few Christians are going to object to being gospel-centered… The problem is the gap between our rhetoric and the reality of our practice. The continual challenge for us is to apply this principle to church life and ministry without compromise. (33)
The challenge for us is to make the gospel the center of our lives not just on Sunday mornings but on Monday mornings. This means ending distinctions between “full-timers,” “part-timers,” and people with secular employment in our team and leadership structures. We need non-full-time leaders who can model whole-life, gospel-centered, missional living. It means thinking of our workplaces, homes, and neighborhoods as the location of mission. (37)
Next, the authors examine the idea of the church being “community-centered”. They point out that following Christ is not an individualistic endeavor:
By becoming a Christian, I belong to God and I belong to my brothers and sisters. It is not that I belong to God and then make a decision to join a local church. My being in Christ means being in Christ with those others who are in Christ. This is my identity. This is our identity. To fail to live out our corporate identity in Christ is analogous to the act of adultery: we can be Christians and do it, but it is not what Christians should do. The loyalties of the new community supersede even the loyalties of biology. If the church is the body of Christ, then we should not live as disembodied Christians. (41)
This does not mean that the church becomes something that we add to our lives – just another to ball to juggle along with other responsibilities such as work, family, finances, etc. Instead, the community of Christ becomes part of our identity, such that our “problems” with work, family, finances, etc. become their problems, and their problems become our problems. We now live life together.
I think I appreciate their conclusion to this section on “principles” more than anything else that I’ve read in the book so far. Why? Because they give the same advice that I often give to people who are seeking this type of community life:
If you warm to this vision of Christian community, then start where you are. Sell the vision by modeling the vision. Don’t become a pain to your existing congregation, telling them everything they are doing is wrong. Become a blessing by offering hospitality, showing practical care, dropping in on people. Create around you a group of Christians who will share their lives and encourage one another in the faith. (50)
The only thing that I would change in that last quotation is the word “create”. I don’t think that we can “create” a community centered on Christ. However, as Christ creates that community around us, we can foster it and encourage it and not hinder what Christ is doing.
The next section of the book is called “Gospel and Community in Practice”. The authors write about certain church “practices” and how they would look if the church centered on gospel and community. I have read the chapter on “Evangelism” and thought it was excellent. Hopefully, I’ll be able to read more soon and wrote more about this book.
Meanwhile, what do you think about my quick summary of the first part? Do you think the church should be both gospel-centered and community-centered? How would you implement this in your life and community?
Community Gardens
There is an article in the News and Observer from last week about churches starting community gardens for “the benefit of the church, local food pantries and other nonprofit groups”. Some friends of our in Cleveland are planning to start a community garden soon near their neighborhood. We’ve talked with some people about community gardens, and we think it would be beneficial for the neighborhood where we spend time on Saturdays.
Unfortunately, neither Margaret nor I have had much luck in the past with keeping flower or potted plants alive, much less a garden. We’ve been praying that God would bring someone into our lives who knows how to care for a garden, has a desire to help with a community garden, and has a desire to teach others how to care for a garden. So far, we haven’t met anyone.
Do you have any experience with community gardens? What do you think about community gardens? Are you interested in community gardens? Are you in the Wake Forest, NC area?
stories: I needed to talk to you
This post is part of my “stories” series. In this series, I share stories of how people live their lives in response to the gospel and as a demonstration of God’s love in order to teach us and to provide an example to provoke us to love and good works. (See “stories: A New Series” for more information about this series.)
I published part of this story a few months ago (see “I needed to talk to you“), but I’ve added some updated information about Sheila’s story.
Our family travelled from North Carolina to Alabama and Florida for a few weeks around Christmas. While our family was still in Alabama, I got a phone call from “Sheila”. She is one of the residents of the government assisted housing development (see “stories: The Neighborhood“) where we’ve been spending time since last summer. (see “stories: I thought she was rude” for the first part of our story with “Sheila”.)
She was very upset, and asked if Margaret and I could come over to talk to her. I explained that we were out of town, and I asked if she wanted to wait until we returned home, if she wanted me to find someone else for her to talk to (someone that she was acquainted with), or if she wanted to talk on the phone. She asked if we could talk on the phone.
Apparently, there had been some type of incident in which Sheila felt she was wrongly accused of something. Because of that accusation, she and her three children might have to move out of the housing development. This would be very difficult for her family because they can’t afford to live anywhere else.
Primarily, she said, “I just wanted to talk to you and Margaret. I needed to get this off of my chest, and I didn’t know anyone else that I could talk to about it.”
For the first time since we’ve known her, Sheila began talking about her faith. She talked about some of the struggles she’s had in life. She said that she didn’t understand why her life was going wrong while people who were violent or did drugs seemed to have a good life.
When we first met Sheila, she seemed cold and distant. But, through the time we’ve spent with her, we’ve developed a relationship that seemed impossible at the beginning of last summer. Now, when she needed to talk to someone, she thought of us. How amazing!
A few weeks ago, because of the incident that Sheila called us about, she and her family were forced to move out of the housing project. They decided to move down to Raleigh to live with her mother for a while until Sheila could afford to rent a place of their own. I contacted some of our friends, and several of us helped her move some of their belongings to a storage unit.
As we were packing her furniture and clothing into one of my friend’s trucks, I noticed that Sheila was always quiet whenever my friends were around. But, when it was just Margaret or me, she perked up and talked a little. During the last trip to the storage unit, Margaret and Sheila stayed at her home by themselves. While we were unpacking her belongings, Sheila began unpacking many of her troubles and struggles and questions with Margaret. She opened up even more about her life, her failed marriage, her broken relationship with her mother, and many, many more things.
We continue to stay in touch with Sheila. She still has to deal with the ramifications of the incident that I mentioned earlier. Of course, we don’t know if she was falsely accused or not. However, we plan to continue to walk with her through this ordeal.
Once again, God has confirmed to me that my responsibility is to love people in his name, and allow him to give me opportunities to help people in their faith. It is not my responsibility to force things on people, or to manipulate conversations and relationships in order to disciple people. I must let God lead them to himself.
So, we’ve loved Sheila and her family. We’ve helped them through various situations. We’ve served them in different ways. In every case, we’ve let them know that the reason that we love them is because God loves us and he loves them.
Please pray for Sheila and her family. Pray that even if this situation is not resolved the way she hopes, that she would learn to trust God through all circumstances. Also, please pray that whatever happens, she would allow God to reveal himself to her however he desires.
Finally, as Paul asked, please pray for me and my family, “that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ.”
Equipping for what?
In Ephesians 4:11, Paul lists some of the gifted individuals that Jesus Christ gives to the church:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers… (Ephesians 4:11 ESV)
I have argued before that these are a sample of the gifted individuals, and that these are not intended by Paul to be set above any other gifted individual (for example, see “And he gave… (Ephesians 4:11)“). Instead, I see this as a non-exhaustive list of gifted individuals, just as Paul gives other non-exhaustive lists (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12). However, in this post I do not intend to discuss these spiritually gifted individuals. Instead, I want to talk about their purpose.
Why does Jesus give spiritually gifted individuals to the church? Well, the purpose is found in the next part of the sentence that started in Ephesians 4:11:
… to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… (Ephesians 4:12-13)
Jesus gives gifted individuals (all of us, actually) to the church in order to equip the church… that is, to prepare the church.
But, a question remains: Prepare the church for what? If my son wanted to play football, he would need to be prepared. If he wanted to take a driving course, he would need to be prepared. But, in either case, the preparation would take on different form.
Paul says that gifted individuals prepare the church for “the work of ministry”. What does this mean? It means that we are to prepare one another to work hard at serving other people. That’s what the phrase “the work of ministry” means. The goal of “equipping” or “preparation” is that followers of Jesus are ready and able to serve other people.
I realize that this doesn’t sound very glamorous or particularly religious, but this is exactly what Scripture is telling us. We can teach creeds and confessions and apologetics and belief statements and biblical languages and theology and church history all day long, but if the people are not prepared and ready and willing to serve others, then we are not equipping one another.
Notice what happens (according to Eph 4:12 above) when people are prepared for the hard work of serving others: the body of Christ is continually built up (edified) until we finally reach maturity, which is defined as “the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God”.
Do we want people to be united in their faith and trust in God? Then let’s teach them to and show them how to and prepare them for serving other people. Do we want people to know Jesus Christ? Then let’s teach them to and show them how to and prepare them for serving other people.
Serving is hard work. It’s dirty work. It can’t be done from a platform. The church needs to be prepared to serve others. It is time for God’s people to begin preparing one another for this type of service. Remember that Jesus called leaders to be the greatest servants. If you want to lead, then serve and show others how to serve. Let’s start equipping God’s people for works of service.
Prayer and the ministry of the word
Most of us are familiar with this passage from Acts 6:
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:1-4 ESV)
Now, I often see where verse (devoting oneself to prayer and to the ministry of the word) applied to elders. In fact, I read a blog post this week in which the author applied this verse to himself as the senior pastor of a church.
To whom should this verse apply? If you choose to answer, please give the reasoning behind your answer, preferably from Scripture.