Church getting it right as to money! Element Church

The second church that has it right that, that is following the lead of Pastor Francis Chan is a church gathering called Element in Nashville, TN. Their pastor Jared Wilson after hearing the story of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, see yesterdays blog. Pastor Wilson said “it grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and dreaming it. I was thinking about the ministry buzzword “missional,” and I began to think that, while Element has already been operating and teaching as such that “missional” is not just empty sloganeering for us, it could and should mean more.”

So he went to his board and got them to voted to do the same, so "Element will designate minimum 50% of its budget to missions, and 10% to church planting or to other gospel-driven ministries. This means that for every dollar we receive, 60 cents will go back out the door. Our operating budget will be 40% of our offerings."

Pastor Jared Wilson stated that "We will give to both foreign and local missions, but more will go to local missions, because our idea is not just to write a check (or checks) and wipe our hands of it, but to be giving regularly to local mission agencies that we can actually visit, partner with, and do on-site service projects with.

Here’s what gets me: Jesus said to his followers that whatever they do to the “least of these,” they are doing to him. This means it’s not some nameless, faceless people out there who are shivering and starving and dying. It means it’s Jesus who is shivering and starving and dying. And while it shouldn’t matter if someone is nameless or faceless, while not seeing someone shouldn’t dissuade us from action, we are seeing this as a great way to bless Jesus, to worship Jesus."

Amen, see how one revolutionary can start a fire, as everyone knows California is being ravaged buy wild fires right now. And it is there that God has started a wild fire in one man, one church that has now leaped, like wild fires are know to do, clear across to Nashville. May this spread like the California wild fires through the church all across America, and go up to90% going to God, by giving it to the hurting, poor, starving, dying and missions and only 10% or less to building and salaries, Jesus said when you give to one of them you are giving to Him. Amen!

The United Nations estimates that the cost to end world hunger completely, along with diseases related to hunger and poverty, is about $195 billion a year. And that if the Church in America gave just 50% of its income to fight poverty it would bring an end to poverty, no one would go hungry.

The number one criticism of God is why does He allow poverty, starving children, that a lot of people refuse to accept God on that issue alone, they blame God for it, for not doing something. When the truth is God did do something, He commissioned, commanded His people, His church to do something about it, gave His people, the church the resources to do something, but they have chosen not to, to disobey Him. To spend the money on fancy building, programs and salaried staff.

How much the church would be a living, tangible expression of the love, compassion and mercy of God if they did what He said to do, and that is exactly what it is to be? No one could accuse God of being unloving or uncaring. The church would be the light to the world it is called to be, be the interment of Restoration, Renewal, Reconciliation and Redemption to our world that it is to be, reflect who God is to the world.

May a thousand churches follow Cornerstone and Element this year and more the next tell every church does as they are.

Who is and what is a real Christian? Part 2

Matthew 28:18-20 (known as the Great Commission) is by far the most quoted passage on mission. But it is not the only one, aside from the entirety of scriptures saying that God’s people are a sent people, a people who are to live their whole life on mission, it is their main purpose for living. We have three other passages where Jesus gives the command for us to go, be missionaries, live on mission. Or another way to say it, what Jesus expects from His followers, what He wants His followers to do, to carry on His mission.

1. Commission: “I am sending you.” “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).
2. Strategy: Make disciples. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
3. Content: the Gospel. “Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:44-49).
4. Geography: your city, national and international. “… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

We read in John 20:21 that Jesus explains that He is sending us as like the Father sent Him. Therefore all true followers of Jesus are sent just as He was sent, we believers are sent out, are to live on mission just as Jesus did, and the first disciples did, as Paul said imitate me just as I inmate Jesus.

Second, Jesus explains the design behind being sent out into the world, which is to make disciples of all nations. How? By conversion and entry into the community of God, baptism, and by teaching followers of Jesus to obey all that He commands.

Third, Jesus explains the content of the message is the Gospel and He is the Gospel, and He wants to go out into, be taken into the ends of the earth, the entire earth. And the Gospel,is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is centered on the person and work of Jesus (biblical Jesus), and it achieved the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to the Father for those who repent and believe in Jesus (biblical Jesus.

So a Christian is someone who is sent, living sent, living on mission, missional, any which way you wish to call it. A Christian is one who is taking the gospel to the world, and that world begins in but not limited to their neighborhood, their city, and goes to the ends of the earth, as long as they are spreading the gospel where ever they are. Baptizing in the name of the trinity and making disciples (and doing so as Jesus showed us to, a daily commitment to their lives, teaching them by example.)

God told Abraham to Go, Mosses to Go, and on and on all through the bible, He is a sending God, and we have Jesus sending everyone, commanding everyone to GO.

I can see no way of describing, defining who and what a Christian is without saying they are someone who is sent and they are living sent, someone taking the gospel to the world,and making disciples. Jesus says that is who a christian is. It has always been the calling of Gods people to live sent, to go to the world.

Bad Church Equals bad Fruit

Thursday in my morning reading of the scriptures I read in Mat 8:17 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” I witnessed this very clearly on the 4 of July while attending a BBQ get together at a friend of a friends place. They all belong to the same church, about 30 to 35 people, which was the connection for all of them, except for me.

During the course of the night I never heard one person mention Jesus, God or anything about their daily relationship with Jesus nor the word of God. Nothing about what God is doing in their life, nothing about living for God, serving God in any capacity, not one conversation involving the word of God, or Him, nothing in 4+ hours of conversation. I heard nothing that reviled any person who was in love with Jesus, someone who's whole life was centered in Christ, who was in a love relationship, intimately involved with God.

In my past years as part of churches such as Calvary Chapel, The Vineyard, The ROCK, and FCF every encounter with other members, ether at a church gathering or outside of the gathering included at the core of every conversation was God, Jesus and the word. No one could hold a conversation at any length with out talking about Gods involvement in their daily life, what God was doing in them, with them and through them, what they where or where wanting to do for God. They could not hold a conversation with talking about the one they loved, their intimate love relationship with Jesus, without praising Him, loving on Him, talk about their prayer life, their intimate times with Jesus and His love for them.With out talking about the Word of God, what they read that day, what the Spirit taught them trough it, discussing it in detail, how they where applying it to their lives and or life situation.

No one could tell you their life story with out it being filled with God, how and where they have served, how God has worked in every circumstance in their life, directed their life, and interceded in their life. And they could not talk about their future plans with talking about where God is leading them, their passion to serve and accomplish things for God, a calling to be fulfilled, and a passion for the things of God.

This really brought this scripture to life for me on the 4^th, "a bad tree cannot bear good fruit", I really saw as that scripture says that a bad tree (church in this case) cannot produce good fruit. If the church leadership is not passionate about God, nether will its body. If it is not Christ centered in all its teaching, nether will its people be. If it is not passionate about the word of God, does not teach word for word, encourage by example love for the word of God, nether will its people be. If the leadership is not in love with Jesus, in a intimate, personal, passionate relationship with the Real Biblical Jesus, than it will not saturate their teaching, an nether will the people be in love with the Real Biblical Jesus, in a intimate, personal, passionate relationship with Jesus, and it will not saturate their lives and conversations. If the pastor’s sermon is not filled with the word of God and passion for Jesus, gospel centered, then the people will not be. If the church is spiritual dead, so will the people. A bad tree / church leadership can not produce good fruit.