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?

With 81% of Americans claiming to be a Christian, with over 3000 different Christian denominations in the US and 39,000 world wide, one is left to ask themselves, who is and what is a real Christian.

There are a estimated 39,000 different denominations, and really a denomination is a different set of beliefs, so that is 39,000 different Jesus, different versions of who God is, 39,000 different ways to be a Christian, and 39,000 interpretations of want the bible teaches, that makes Christianity second to Hindus in number of god’s they worship. Before you say all Christian denominations have the same God, you need to look at the facts, understand that they all do not, they have a different belief, some very different version of who God is, who Jesus is and what He said, what the gospel is, what salvation is, how one gets salvation, and that makes them have different gods. Resulting in different definitions of what a Christian is, they each have a definition based on what they believe about the scriptures, salvation, who Jesus is, the gospel and ultimately who God is, His mission on earth, Missio Dei.

For example Rob Bell's definition of repentance is "repentance is not turning from sin" "anyone who tells you that you need to repent is not talking about Christianity." And a survey done of pastors in the US reveled that over 50% of them did not believe in Hell, even though Jesus spoke more on it than heaven, so obviously they have a different Jesus than the one in scripture. Over 50% say they do not believe the bible is the word of God, so apparently they have a different Jesus, because Jesus said He was the word and they say they do not believe in it. See the difference on just these two things. And a very popular pastor just last year made the statement “It does not matter what version of Jesus you believe in, only that you believe in some form of Jesus.

As for me I only know of one, the one reviled in scriptures, the one that I have meet and is my Lord, the one who is God come in the flesh.

Joel Osteen and a host of others tells us that being a Christian is all about: “Living a life of joy, peace, fulfillment” That “Jesus was executed for the purpose of making us rich and happy” They convey the idea of a Santa Clause God who will give people what they want, and that the mark of a true Christian is "you are rich and never sick", and get anything and everything you pray for. What they are saying in essences is that the creator of the universe became a man to suffer and die in order to become our servant, our genie in a lamp to grant our every wish, to put us on the throne to rule over Him.

The vast majority of the time you hear Christians ask people “do you know you are going to heaven?” Why? Because their theology is that being a Christian is all about getting a "ticket to heaven" only, that was the sole goal of Jesus’ life and death, the goal of the gospel. It’s totally a personal thing about you getting your ticket, once that happens, Jesus’ life and His death have served there only purpose, the gospel has accomplished it's mission. Then you just bide your time here tell you get there. The said thing is they have not even read the scriptures well enough to know that it not all about getting to heaven. The focus of salvation is not about moving to heaven when we die, because we only return with Christ to inhabit the new earth (Rev 21), the focus of salvation is ones immediate relationship with God and others in the here and now and His mission on earth here and now, and yes our eternal destination too, but that’s not the only purpose.

Salvation is about returning to fellowship with God, about entering life with God, with Christ now and right here, it is about Restoration, Renewal, Reconciliation and Redemption of all of creation. It's is about admitting our sinfulness and alienation from God, and accepting God sacrificial death in our place and receiving His free gift of forgiveness, salvation. It is about stopping to be my own God and my own lord and savior and making God my God and savior. It is about being transformed, born again into a new creation, in the image of Christ. And joining God in His mission to bring Restoration, Renewal, Reconciliation and Redemption to the whole earth. About dying, not living for self and living for God and the good of others. About incarnating the life of Christ, imitating the life of Christ.

The scriptures and Jesus tells me a much different explanation of who and what a Christian is. Jesus describes the Christian life much differently than Osteen and so many other do.

And "Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." Mark 1:17, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them......." Mat 28:19, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" Mark 16:15. That sounds like a purpose other than getting a ticked to heaven, being rich, fat and happy, or just biding time tell you get there. He did not say, I will make you rich, happy or successful but He did say" But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake" Luke 21:12, that sure does not sound like the happy and rich life so many describe the Christian life being about.

I read the apostle Paul saying "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" I Cor 11:1, but yet the life I read Paul living and the others in scriptures is not the one taught by Osteen or taught by most pastors today or seen being lived out, demonstrated by "church going Christians", with there being more different brands of church and versions of Christianity than there are McDonald's, this leaves many confused.

So far here we have Jesus and Paul saying a Christian is one:

Who fishes for men
Who Goes into the world
Who proclaims the gospel
Who will suffer persecution
Who imitates the life of Paul
Who imitates the life of Jesus

Part 1

Doing what Jesus would do. hanging with Marilyn Manson

In a resent interview Newsboys' guitarist Paul Colman was asked which mainstream artist he would like to tour with, he answered Marilyn Manson, not the answer the typical Christian would have expected, or an acceptable answer the American Church would want from a Christina artist.

But he had it right, that is an answer that every Christ-Like person should both expected and applauded, Paul has it right, that is the typical answer Jesus would have given. Because He hung out with the worst of the sinners. That is who He came to reach, every Christ-Like person should want access to people like Marilyn Manson and his followers, the chance to take the light of hope into their world of darkness. To expose them to the gospel and person of Jesus Christ, take the Kingdom of God near them to see and touch and experience in real time, real life, Jesus and the Gospel in us lived out before them, experience the love, mercy and forgiveness of God. To take God’s reconciliation and restoration to them in a tangible way, a real person transformed by the Gospel, love, forgiveness and mercy of God.

Paul Colman has it right, going to and being among the sinners is where we should live, be found daily, hanging out with prostitutes, drug uses and dealers, thieves, hanging out in the pubs having a beer with the prodigals, with the downtrodden, the oppressed and the outcast, taking the gospel, the light into the darkest of places.

That is doing what Jesus would do.

Beat the Coke Truck

“Reports have been circulating that the Coca-Cola International Corporation has a business plan with a goal of being able to get a cold Coke within one mile of every person on earth by the year 2020.”

In The January-February issue of Mission Frontiers Magazine that I received in the mail there is an article by Steve Schadrach states that some of his co-workers are “use this company’s goal to motivate Christians to get the gospel within a mile of every human being [some don't know there is a Jesus to believe in] . . . . Although God has supplied us with infinitely more resources (than Coca-Cola has) to get His message out, are we as committed to seeing our job finished as they are?” They came up with the name “Beat the Coke Truck” and use Coke’s company vision and put the Gospel within a mile of every human being.

I agree with their challenge, because Coke’s vision also fits well with mine, is similar to Mission Frontiers, I want to put a church on every street, that Christians would be the church instead of going to church, and the each one would be the church in their neighborhood. That there would be a community of faith, a house church in every neighborhood, on every street in our city, nation and the world. That every disciple of Jesus would live sent, be on mission taking the gospel to the world, that they would be taking Jesus to work, to school to every place their foot steps. My vision is a Christian who is living sent and as the Church be in every neighborhood, thereby every one would be a house away, a cubical a way, a desk a way from the gospel, from the church.

Blueprint of the God life and church

I have come to understand the God life and church much differently than the traditional belief of the American Church. What I read in the scriptures and see in the life of Jesus is something much different. So I have come up with a new blue print for the God life I desire to live, of what the church is and how it functions. This is still a work in progress, I am still trying to come to grips with and understand the God life, Christian life and church. Above is a diagram of a flow chart of a missional God life that is to be the foundation, blue print of my life in Christ. Each layer, phase of the missional flow of the God life links to a web site that I have made explaining, laying out that part of the life, church and what I see God saying it is to be, that Christ lived and modeled for us to reproduce.

Individual expression of Jesus

www.thechristiannextdoor.com

Individual expression of the Church

www.churchnextdoor.us

Collective Expression of the Church and Kingdom life

www.thecrowdedhouse.us

Synergetic[1] expression of the Church and body of Christ

www.fourteentwentysixgathering.thecrowdedhouse.us

I believe our life should be the touch point for others to see and experience the person and life of Jesus, they should know that He was and is because they see Him and the life the bible said He lived manifested in our life, world view, thinking and actions.

That our home should be the touch point for the Kingdom of Heaven, God life for them, you, your wife and children should be first where they see the kingdom life manifested, lived out. And should be where they see the church lived out (where two or more are their I am), their touch point for the person of Christ. Be where they see and touch the Kingdom community life lived out just as Christ lived it out with His disciples. You at work or school or while shopping at Target should be where they encounter the church and Jesus as well, all of these instances should be where they see the life of Jesus on lived out. Our homes should be more known and identified as the church in the neighborhood than the cold stone buildings that have a sign out front call it a church. Our lives and homes should be know as the place to go to experience church, be part of church, not some glamorizes entertainment center that calls it self the church.

Mouseover the image to and click on to see full flow chart, copy and paste in your browser the links from center of page to visit websites.

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[1] Synergetic \Syn`er*get"ic\, adjective. [from Greek expression, from to work together; sy`n with 'e`rgon work.]. Definition: Acting together; enhancing the effect of another force or agent.

Whose responsibility is it to carry out the Great Commission?

The following is a test to see how well you know the scriptures and the essentials of Christianity.

Take out a peace of paper and answer the following question:

In fifty words or less, tell me whose responsibility the Great Commission is?



Actually it’s a trick question, it does not take 50 words to answer the question, not even 40, the answer take only one word.

If you answered anything other than ‘mine.’, sorry you fail. You must repeat the class again, please pick up your textbook the Bible and open to Matthew chapter one and re-read paying close attention to the life and words of Jesus. Then repeat this for each of the books of the NT. Then you may re-take the test.

Am I sent?

We are sent, because God is a sending God, it is His nature, His character. So the question is never “Am I sent?” everyone who is truly in Christ is sent. The question to ask to whom am I sent? To where am I sent?.

God has placed you in the neighborhood that you live in for the same mission, to live the same life with the same purpose as He has sent someone to Mozambique or Botswana. He has sent you to the people at your job, school, grocery store, Wal-Mart or a restaurant just as someone He is sending to Thailand or Nicaragua, to join Him in His mission, to be His massager, to be the church among the people of your neighborhood, work place, grocery store just as much as someone sent to the people Nicaragua or Mozambique.

We should them say I am sent, and I am sent to…….fill in everywhere you go today. I am sent the the people of my....... fill in every person you meet at any given moment of the day.

What did Jesus call us to, our mission or His?

When Jesus said, “Come follow me,” this must have stopped the disciples dead in their tracts, cause their hearts to start of pound a thousand times a minute. This was a bunch of ordinary people with ordinary lives being called by an extraordinary man with an extraordinary life. This was the man who healed people, restoring their dignity and inviting them out of oppression. He touched lepers without harm, turned water into wine and caused the fish to over fill the nets. Caused a little to feed thousands, He healed multitudes. He ate and hung out with the outcast, prostitutes, drunkards and the poorest of the poor. While both shunning and condemning the religious. To follow Him was an daring call, a moment to be part of something grater and against the grain of what was established as goodly, righteous and holy way of life.

Then He invited them to come to the local synagogue on Sunday morning for a couple of hours and Wednesday night for another couple of hours. Forget following him around and watching Him do things. And when they got to there, he sat them down and led them through a couple of songs. Everyone sat in the same direction facing Jesus as they listened to him speak from behind a small upright box. The message was on average an hour long, tightly scripted with an introductory joke to arouse the crowd and was primarily about how to “not sin”. It usually included three points, a story from His personal life, and a summary to wrap it all up. He always finished with a challenge to his disciples to do better and closed with another song. At some point in the process he passed a large basket around expecting them to put a little something in to pay the rent and help build a larger meeting place, and for advertising and marketing plans and hire professionals to plan their programs to attract others and to get people to come and join there tight little group. The reality was that those in setup were tired of unpacking and packing up each time they met in this rented building. A new, obviously larger building just made sense. After all them more we pack in the more we get in the basket. Under this scenario you have to imagine the original call to “Come follow me” seems to lose its impact, doesn’t it?

The problem is that this isn’t in the Bible, it is not the life Jesus lead, the disciples where called to or lead. But yet this is exactly what the church and Christendom has practiced over the last 1,700 years, the blue print for every traditional church in America for the last 300 years. And yet Jesus never did it this way, nor did the church in the first three centuries. He went out to the people and restored them. He sought out reconciliation and healing. He engaged His Father’s mission, it was His way of life. Can you imagine watching Jesus heal someone? But in doing so He showed the disciples the way to life, to function in everyday life. He modeled a leadership that empowered them to do it themselves. It was an apprentice model of leadership that taught them how to engage the mission themselves. Nor did Jesus did not say I will assemble a bunch of people together so they can hangout, have free coffee and donuts and be entertained great performers, videos and skits and here some motivation feel good about yourself preaching.

But rather He said I am sending you.

He did not say service to Him was changing diapers, hading out programs or parking cars, He said, “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.”

Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Paul got it, he understood what Jesus meant when He said follow me, it meant imitate my life, every detail of it, even on to death for the good of others.

We must ask ourselves,

Do I know My Father’s mission?

Jesus understood that God had always been on a mission of restoring all of His creation. He said to Mary when she was looking for Him “Do you not know that I must be about My Father's business? Can you say the same thing?

Is my life structured in a way to accomplish this mission?

Ninety percent of what we think when we say “church” does not exist in Jesus’ blue print. He took ordinary people created a people who changed the world. A people who where the church, not a building that was the church, not an organization with lots of programs made to entertain a bunch of pew warmers and coffee drinkers. But a people who lived exactly as He did and did every thing and even can do grater things than He did, people whose lives looked just like His. Does you life look just like His, are you doing every thing He did, and greater as He promised that His followers would do. "Most assuredly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12

His very invitation invites us into a larger mission of restoration, of true relationship with God, the building of the Kingdom of God on earth, not the building of buildings.

Purpose driven life

When we do not live on mission, it produces a very marginalized Christianity, a very narrow understanding of Christianity and what it is, when we are not living with a bigger purpose of what a Global God is doing in the whole world. Then your Christianity is going to be about you and you alone, about making you happy, meeting your needs, its about God serving you because what else are you left with? And this can been seen in our traditional church services our contemporary worships services, they are focused soly on the individual and that churches needs only.

If we are not living with the bigger pitcher of what God is doing in the earth, then it is just going to boil down to what God is doing in my life. Our lives are to complex to ask God to give me a “Purpose Driving life” or a “Your Best Life Now”, I do not want God to step down into my existence and give me a individual purpose, I want Him to lift my eyes up to Him and say this is what I am doing now, this is My purpose on earth today and you can be involved in it, be a part of it. That gets me excited, not wow God blessed my little enterprise, my self-purpose, self-plans. Are we so really small minded to think that the God who created all that is, who was and is to be, who decides who take one more breath of not. Is the one I call to be my assistant in life, to do my biding, to enable my plans, to follow my lead or even depend on me to come up with the right plan for His work on earth.

The eternal God of the universe, who is and always will be is actual dong something, working, on mission from day one on the earth, He just not setting there on the side lines waiting on someone to do something to come up with a plan to save the world, reach the lost. He has a plan from before creation and His is actively working in out on earth. And not only is He doing something, He has chosen not to have the angles carry it out His work, and could do so a 1000 times better. But has chosen week and broken vessel who are the most need of Him and redemption to be His emissaries to go out and be His hands and feet to ministry to other who need Him the most. We are a desperate broken messed up people going to other broken messed up people and say we need God, we cannot save ourselves, lets go to God together. That is a bigger and greater mission than I could ever come up with myself anything as great and anything less is a waste of life, for self-glory not God’s glory.

How do we be missional?

How do we be missional? Here is a collaborated list of thoughts on how to be missional.

1. Think Missio Dei. God is a missionary God. As God the Father sent Jesus, Jesus sent us, and empowered us by the Spirit. Isaiah 61:1-2 is God’s manifesto; it is what Jesus gives as his first sermon in his hometown. He opens the Isaiah scroll and read what is to be his manifesto also, and it is mine also, Isaiah 61:1-2 is the goal if missio Dei. As God sent His Son with His manifesto, mission, so Jesus sends His people, His bride the church with the same manifesto, mission.
2. Think biblically. Be a student of the word of God, Jesus was. Be someone who studies them day and night, who thinks, eats and breathes the scriptures.
3. Be a Missionalest. If you aren’t, what’s the purpose of you life? Everything in your life should be directed toward participation in God’s mission, accomplishing God’s mission in the world, the restoring, renewal, redemption and reconciliation of all creation. (i.e. “Missio Dei is central in all that we say and do in life.”)
4. Be a Gospelists. The Gospel must be the very “heartbeat” in the soul of every believer, his worldview it molded by the Gospel, what he thinks about and meditates on is filtered through the Gospel. So then being gospel-centered means the gospel is functional central to your life, at the core of your being, what defines you. (i.e. “The gospel is central in all that we say and do in life.”)
5. Have a functional gospel-centered identity. Being gospel-centered means the gospel is functional central to your life, at the core of your being, what defines you. It is at the core of your identity, who you are.
6. Think contextually. If it was good enough for the apostle Paul, it’s good enough for me (1 Cor. 9:19-23). One-size never fits all. The Gospel never changes, but how we communicate it does.
7. Think culturally, act biblically. We live, breathe, and swim in culture. What's more, it's impossible to be a Jesus-follower in a non-cultural context. If we are serious about being missional, we need to understand the culture and subcultures surrounding us.
8. Practice incarnational principles. Incarnational living brings the living embodiment of the gospel to our neighbors, manifesting the reign of Jesus to our neighbors, and therefore liberates their suffering. We should consider how we can live in a way that makes the gospel most accessible to the people around us, that is see it at work in your life and Jesus tangible to them be cause you are the living image of Him.
9. Practice love. As in love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor with the same kind of love you show yourself.
10. Practice caring for those in need. Give loaves of bread and fish to those without, physically touch today’s lepers, and if you have more than one of something someone needs, give it to them.
11. Practice compassion. Bringing the same love that Jesus would bring to the broken and the lost.
12. Practice mercy. Bringing the same love that Jesus would bring to the broken and the lost.
13. Practice grace and forgiveness. Most people will need to see the gospel in action before they can adopt and practice it. Give grace, give forgiveness. Even if you think it will kill you.
14. It is about justice. Standing alongside the neglected, the falsely accused, and the abused.
15. Actively engage in restoration. In God’s mission of restoration, actively working to restore al of creation to wholeness. Not to condemn others who are in a fallen state, but on the mission or restoring them to wholeness and a right relationship with God.
16. Live in and build authentic community. Jesus was about intentional community, communities engaged in the restoration of each other and the world.
17. Practicing missional discipleship. Actively teaching one on one others to duplicate the life of Christ by imitating your example of dong it, by your life being about restoring, renewal, redemption and the reconciliation of all creation lived out right before them to see how it is done.
18. Practice the Great Commission. Share your faith in word and deed. Engage in doable evangelism. Don't discriminate. Instead, share the gospel with everyone regardless of ethnicity, religion, economic or social status.

I intend to make these my non-negotiable way of living a missional lifestyle.

To Be Like Jesus

This is a great list I came across and add my twist to some of them, this is something to think about, and act on, what it would be like to live like Jesus.

1. Get baptized by the craziest guy in town.

2. Say and do things that are guaranteed to make religious people want to kill you. Repeat again, and again, and again, and again, and again and don't stop unless forced.

3. Do amazing things for people and ask them to not tell anyone.

4. Hang out with the most despised, marginalized, looked down upon, and shunned people you can find. Prostitutes, gang members, druggies, est.

5. When possible, forgive and restore people, even if they betrayed you.

6. Live in a way that provokes gossip.

7. Win the most grace competition.

8. Keep the party going, hang out at the local bar, and buy a round or two.

9. Serve people (note: nose plugs may be required).

10. If you're sad cry.

11. Empower people to do the extraordinary.

12. Act like a rock star in a hotel church.

13. Radically simplify theology. “Explain it to me like I was a 10 year old.”

14.Break human-made religious laws. Repeat consistently.

15.Prioritize the most important over the important.

16. Let women with questionable backgrounds pay your bills.

17. Be courageously willing to demonstrate your love for others.

18. So trust God to rescue people that you don't feel compelled to run around spouting off predictable religious language.

19. Reject the secular-religious dichotomy by treating all of life as the place where God works and spiritual things occur.

20. Be bold on things that matter, but always be driven by genuine love for God and others.

21. Join Scripture to life and life to Scripture, allowing both what God has said with what he is saying to permeate your thoughts and life.

22. Expect, as Jesus did, that living in a fallen world will always make you susceptible to hypocrisy. (What makes him amazing is that he never succumbed to this, but others often did, which is why he warned them/us.)

23. Point out the harmful tendencies of the religious (but do so in a way that demonstrates that you are not bitter but rather angry at those whose ways misrepresent God and hurt people).

Missio Dei

Missio Dei (God's mission in the world). God himself is on a mission to restore (i.e. "reconcile") all of creation, God's purposes for the world is reconciliation not condemnation at this time, place in eternity, He is on a mission to save, restore and heal man, to call unto Himself His prodigal creation, mankind. And God's people (i.e. the church) are to embody and to bear witness to this, His love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. The church is not so much a rescue station for the lost as it is a demonstration of God's saving purposes in Christ. The church is a servant of the Gospel; she is the Gospel in action, in human flesh just as Jesus was. Chosen to bless the whole world and be a sign of God's past, present, and future activity. This implies followers of Jesus are not called to go on a mission for God; they are called to join God in His ongoing mission. This was the central theme of Jesus' life, teaching and ministry: the Kingdom of God. This is the mission of each follower of Christ, of the church.

Church is not about being an entertainment center, a set of self-help-programs, a warm and fuzzy place for believers to hide from the world, a great show and set of programs to invite un-saved people to.

But an open demonstration ('A city on a hill") of God purpose for reconciliation of man to Himself, of His Kingdom, of a life lived with Him, a community so radical different from the world, the living out of love for one another like none has seen in the world, forgiveness on a God level that demonstrates the total, unconditional forgiveness of God for anything.

And it is going out, in motion with God, demonstrating Gods pursuit of the lost, His prodigal son, bring reconciliation and healing to those in need, going into the darkest places, just like Jesus, gong to the prostitutes, the poor, the dying, the drug dealers, your co-workers, neighbors and the strangers. Any thing less is, different is not the Church, not Missio Dei.

What the Chruch is Not

Some may assume or rationally think that the church is a building to be filled with Bible Studies, churchy music, hi tech sound and lighting shows, movie clips, entertaining skits, hymnals, pews, paid workers to do all the work, pastors who do all the studying then present the cliff notes of it both verbal and in the program also would be nice (keep it to 20 min or less please) of what the bible says and do all the evangelizing of course, programs to meet their needs (financial, marriage, how to get rich, how to get God to do what you want Him to do, est.), something to keep the kids busy for an hour or two, a program to teach the kids all bout the God stuff so the parents do not half to, prayer groups to do all the praying, oh lest not for get about the free Starbucks and donuts in the foyer, etc., est. And service to God is reduced to changing diapers once a month, handing out the programs at the door or directing traffic in the parking lot and working the book store of course where you can pay to get copies of the sermons and the pastors book that you paid him to do.

But church is Not for more studies to debate personal theology and continually add to the list of don'ts. Not for only prayer about my health and personal needs or a new $500,000 sound system to bring in more people. Not for couples to choose to only live in isolation from the world and surround themselves with only believers. People who say church is Sunday and Wednesday night only and has nothing to do with the rest of the week. Church is the building I invite people to come to, to be entertained by our professional entertainers and get plugged into one of our programs for the paid professionals to deal with them. Not for people who think that being a conservative Republican in their views is being a light, being a Christian or how God is working in America.

Basically dismissing the idea that each person who knows Christ is to function as the church in their everyday life 24/7, and the church exist is to carry out the " Missio Dei ", to join in, be part of the Missio Dei, the Mission of God.

The church is a gathering of sent people who are individually living as the church by being a Gospel centered people who are on Missio Dei, living missionaly 24/7. Who come together to corporately be the church as a whole on Missio Dei, God’s mission. To celebrate and worship God and their part in His mission. And each person is excursing their spiritual gifts and calling to the body so there is no need for paid professionals. To live in community with each other 24/7, and love, build up and support one another. And they are a people in motion, that is going out into the world to take the gospel to the world, being sent out into the world as Christ was sent, so we are being sent to be agents of reconciliation and transformation to the world, joining in with God on His Mission to redeem the world, in our neighborhoods, work, schools, grocery store, Wal Mart, the city as well as other countries. We do not invite people to go to church, we are the church and are about taking it to the people, we are on Missio Dei.

Child like

I brought a friend of mine to the IHOP (International House of Prayer) service this past Sunday for his first visit and as we where leaving his 2 year old daughter in her class there was another 2 to 3 year old boy sitting on the floor crying his heart out. He was inconsolably, no one could get him to stop crying, he wanted his parents, he was unable to function without them near by him. He refused to be consoled, to participate with the other children, to even play, to be function in life until he was back in the presents of his parents.

When we returned to the sanctuary I though about that little boy and it came to me that perhaps that is part of what Jesus meant when He said we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of God. That just like that little boy we to are inconsolable, unable, and unwilling to function when we are not in the presents of God. That if any time during the day we brake off communion with God, move out of His presents. Allow anything to come between us and God that we to become so upset that we like that little boy must fall to our knees and cry until we are back in His presents. That we to refuse to be comforted by any other thing in this world or any other person, that only our Fathers presents will satisfy us. Only when we are back in His present will we return to participating in life, because we dare not do so without Him, without being in His loving presents, with out His protecting presents with us. Only them do we feel safe to be in this world.

Maybe that is why Jesus said only children really understand how to enter the Kingdom of God, how to be a child of God. Can you function in life with out the presents of God, in constant communing with Him? Do you even aware if you are in His presents or not? Are you unwilling to go even 5 minutes in your day with out His presents, in communion with Him? Or do other things satisfy you so much that you don’t even notice if you are in Him or not, or that you don’t even need Him really to function in your daily life? These are question I well ask myself, I seek to become like that little boy, that I must be in the presents of my heavenly Father to live my daily life or I too will stop everything and cry out for Him and will not go on until I am back in communion with Him, walking in His very presents.

What does you life say Christianity is?

People look at the lives of Christians and say, “So that is what it means to be a Christian.”

So what is your life saying to them what it means to be a Christian?

People look and say “So that is what Christianity is all bout.”

So how does your life define the meaning and purpose of Christianity as being?

People look at your life and say “So that is who Jesus was and what His life was all about.”

So who does you life say Jesus is and what His life was bout?

Isyour life about God’s mission on earth, liberating others from Sin, Gospel Proclamation, about the redemption of the world? Is it about compassion and mercy? Is it about Liberating others from Suffering, Gospel Incarnations therefore you are passionate about the poor, naked, orphan, widow, the hungry and the oppressed? You spend you time, money and life for these things.

Or is it about materialism, worldly things, your career, and bigger house, getting ahead in the corporate world. About self, me, mine and more for me. Does being Christina just mean you don’t cuss, dance, drink, smoke see movies and sleep around and go to “church” get entertained for an hour and put your Christian county club dues in the offering basket. That you don’t get around sinners, prostitutes, drug users, people with AIDS or drunkards. After all Jesus never did anything like that, God wants nothing to do with those kind of people right. Your prayer is all about your and what you want for your self to live a comfortable, rich and happy life. Church is there to server you and take care of any perceived needs you have.

Is that what you life is tell people that Jesus was about, that is why He came and died. That your life models God’s mission here on earth, what the Gospel is all bout? After all Christians are told to imitate the life of Christ, Christian means, to be Christ like, therefore you life tells everyone looking at you what Jesus lived like, His purpose, what His death was for, what things God is concerned about, His mission, and what it means to become a Christian, what Christians live for and their mission in life. So what is it saying?