We continue to marvel at our Lord Jesus' teaching style. Currently we are pursuing His parables, with a better appreciation for the Middle East context. This Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Supper in light of the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14. Notice how the Holy Spirit has Luke set up the purpose of the parable in verse 9. It's not a study on how to pray or the importance of humility. While those are certainly implications, note carefully why Jesus tells this parable to His hearers then and now.
The appreciation for that parable grows even deeper when you see what the tax collector does. He has witnessed in the Temple the sacrifice of the lamb (and this is done twice daily at the time of prayers), and has seen the priest enter the Holy of Holies to offer the incense and prayers of the people. So the tax collector's prayer is loaded with the hope and earnest plea that the atonement would be made for such a great sinner as himself! He does something very rare for a middle eastern man to do: instead of standing with his arms folded across his chest, he beats his chest. Luke tells us that this is the crowd's response to watching Jesus die at the cross (Luke 23:48).
It is the cry of everyone who comes face to face with his own sin! And the wonder of all wonders: just as Jesus could say about that tax collector, in light of the anticipated death of the True Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, you and I too may know that the atonement has been made! And for such great sinners as ourselves!
What marvellous Good News we have to announce to the world! May the Lord give all of us the opportunities to learn not only this Truth for ourselves, but may He give us the people to love and share with them this Best News. Thank You, Jesus, for not discarding us as too wretched to rescue. And thank You, Jesus, for the Grace we need to love all sorts of folks who may have convinced themselves that they are beyond hope.
The gratitude You give us for our salvation is such a gift: it rescues us from working so hard, living so seriously and trying so desperately to attain to such a lifestyle that would deserve Your acceptance. It can't be done. We can lay our doing down and trust ourselves to another righteousness won for us by our Savior Himself. Lord, help us to live out this life-changing Grace so that the folks watching can see the authentic life of Christ in us. Set us free from the tyranny of the love of our reputations in which we live for the recognition of people (and add to the ranks of the Pharisees), as we trust Him for what we need to love the Father and our neighbors.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Toward a Philosophy of ministry...and Vision
One very helpful distinction with which Bruce Finn challenged me in recent months:
In light of the emphasis in Mt. 28:18-20, on "as you're going, make disciples..." the way this mission church is developing, we are conscientiously praying about the Church on the GO. There are roughly 2 ways to see the church planting models:
A) Coming Church Concept. This necessitates an attractional church which currently is very popular, in which everything is done with the question, "Whom have we targeted to come to us?" What do we do so that they will come to us?" This idea comes from the 80's when Barna predicted that 4 out of 5 neighbors would come to church if invited. In other words, "if you build it, they will come." So, just how attractive can we make us?
B) The Going Church Concept. In the face of the trends out there, Jesus says, "Go." We have to go! To go is really the Biblical pattern, after all, in order to meet the growing needs (as our beloved US grows more and more post-Christian), and in order to take an aggressive part in winning the 92,000 unchurched in our county. We at Christ Coastal mission are with God's grace, committed to be part of His going vanguard to engage an unchurched world.
The generation gap is supposed to have been invented in the '70's, but I know as an ex-hippie of a decade before then that we were well aware of all sorts of gaps. Presently I am experiencing first hand the gap between the 15-24 year-olds, and the "old guys"---it's a much larger gap than merely generational. God, help us. That is why we are so grateful for the cooking class and Bible Study for high-school guys at our house (please click on some of those pics on this blog site). May the Lord help us to find more venues to reach the youth of this Southport area.
In light of the emphasis in Mt. 28:18-20, on "as you're going, make disciples..." the way this mission church is developing, we are conscientiously praying about the Church on the GO. There are roughly 2 ways to see the church planting models:
A) Coming Church Concept. This necessitates an attractional church which currently is very popular, in which everything is done with the question, "Whom have we targeted to come to us?" What do we do so that they will come to us?" This idea comes from the 80's when Barna predicted that 4 out of 5 neighbors would come to church if invited. In other words, "if you build it, they will come." So, just how attractive can we make us?
B) The Going Church Concept. In the face of the trends out there, Jesus says, "Go." We have to go! To go is really the Biblical pattern, after all, in order to meet the growing needs (as our beloved US grows more and more post-Christian), and in order to take an aggressive part in winning the 92,000 unchurched in our county. We at Christ Coastal mission are with God's grace, committed to be part of His going vanguard to engage an unchurched world.
The generation gap is supposed to have been invented in the '70's, but I know as an ex-hippie of a decade before then that we were well aware of all sorts of gaps. Presently I am experiencing first hand the gap between the 15-24 year-olds, and the "old guys"---it's a much larger gap than merely generational. God, help us. That is why we are so grateful for the cooking class and Bible Study for high-school guys at our house (please click on some of those pics on this blog site). May the Lord help us to find more venues to reach the youth of this Southport area.
Another night of cooking!
On Jan. 14, we had the girls over again for another cooking class. This time our neighbor Tony Collins joined us to teach all of us some new tricks and ways to make tasty food.The night ended with a lot of EATING and then a lot of clean up! :)
The above picture is of Val with Tony & Ann Collins son, Josiah. Tony is the one in the back.
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