Missio Dei Suburbia

Spanning the Globe More Hastily Than Santa and His Flying Mammals...

Hey kids-
Good to see you again. I'm in a Panera Bread in Birmingham, losing my masculinity and eavesdropping on a conversation by the leadership of an 'eclectic spiritual community' planning their Christmas Eve service.

Life's been a bit nutty - we're in a pretty major creative construction phase at Christ Church - connecting our leadership structure to our long-range plan, continuing discussions about other future plans, hunting for the $100K + that God is hiding to kickstart us as a church, etc.

I'm also studying for, praying through, thinking about, writing down two sermons (or one and a half - the sermon for the evening gathering is around 15-20 minutes...yeah, I know you don't believe that, but it's pretty much done and actually going to happen I think).

To catch you up with notes of interest from around Al Gore's interweb (BTM has informed me that he, in fact did not invent this contraption), here's a hodgepodge of stuff, most of it pertaining to Christmas. As I've said before, getting the meaning of Christmas is harder than it looks. I hope something here will help you get your hands around that this year.

These are in no particular order, other than where they are on my Firefox tabs:

1. Al Mohler comes close to giving a thumbs up to CNN's recent exploration of historic Christianity. His overview is worth the read. On a side note, it appears that Liam Neeson and Kiefer Sutherland are battling to replace James Earl Jones and Charlton Heston for the title of Guy Whose Voice You Want Selling Your Product.

2. Speaking of Kiefer, he turns 40 today (and Samuel L. Jackson turns 58 - is there another day in the calendar year that has produced two guys more effective at looking like the baddest men on the planet?). And the trailer for the new season of 24 is up here - start up the Jack Bauer as Jesus debate again.

3. If you ever wanted to know how the Nintendo Wii works, the NY Times is your hook-up.

4. Mark Taylor, a religion and humanities professor at Williams College, writes about the need for uncertainty in religious thinking. Here's a blurb: For years, I have begun my classes by telling students that if they are not more confused and uncertain at the end of the course than they were at the beginning, I will have failed. A growing number of religiously correct students consider this challenge a direct assault on their faith. Yet the task of thinking and teaching, especially in an age of emergent fundamentalisms, is to cultivate a faith in doubt that calls into question every certainty. You know, I'm all for questions and doubt - my concern with stuff like this is that it seems that there's an obsession with uncertainty with little desire to come to any conviction or conclusion about anything other than the enlightened status of uncertainty. I think this severely limits our ability to connect people to the kingdom of Christ. I'd prefer to see us connect certainty to a gospel-created humility that includes the ability to patiently listen to others. Those of us who have been met by Christ have the one thing that provides for the needs of those around us - our mistake is far too often a failure to listen and connect Christ to the details of people's real lives.

5. Okay, on to the Christmas stuff. Here's an article by Eugene Peterson on 'Christmas shame' - a great story about his parents' decision to not have a Christmas tree in their home when he was 8 years old. Great writing, vintage Peterson.

6. John Piper takes another visit to Barnes and Noble and walks away resolved to give the rest of his life to the truth of Christ. He ends with this: We know no truth aright, if we do not know and love Christ himself as the ground of it and the goal of it and the way it looks in true life. So we exist to spread a passion for Christ, not just ideas about Christ. That’s more, not less. He was born to bear witness to the truth. Let’s resolve this Christmas that we will live for this.

7. Bob Kauflin shares some thoughts on Christmas, gleaned from Mark Dever's excellent work on the New Testament - this time from a sermon Dever preached on I Timothy on December 19, 1999. If you don't have Dever's works on the Old Testament and New Testament, you need to take some of that Christmas money you get and go here and here and buy them both.

8. Joe Thorn writes about the connection between Christmas and the American spirit in a good, brief article at the Relevant Magazine website. I loved this at the end: I do not feel the need to fight with the world about the true meaning of Christmas. Instead, I can find common ground from which we can talk, really talk, about Jesus. Sure, Christmas is about the best in humanity—the need to be compassionate, restorative, kind, generous and selfless. The stories we tell at this time of year ought to be held up, because all of this, in one way or another, points to Jesus. Who else more perfectly demonstrates love for the poor, compassion on the broken, the forgiveness of sinners and redemption to all. Who has sacrificed more? Who has given more? Who has loved more? Who has shown us a better picture of all that we celebrate at this time of year? Who else can make the holiday hope of humanity’s restoration a reality?

9. Almost forgot this one - Anthony Carter posted on the partnership between a prominent Atlanta minister and leaders of the Nation of Islam for the purpose of community renewal. Carter questions the legitimacy of such a partnership on the basis of its impact on the uniqueness of Christ. A good reminder for those of us committed to leveraging relationships with others for the sake of kingdom redemption and renewal.

God's Grace Is Enough - More Than Just An Idea

Thanks to those of you who e-mailed to let me know that you were/had been praying for all of us at Christ Church as we gathered together for this year's Reformation Conference. This conference is part of our quarterly CrossRoads equipping series - weekends designed to strengthen community and practically connect life and the gospel. Each weekend has a particular theme and this time around our focus was on the sufficiency of grace in our lives.

This was our sixth CrossRoads weekend and in my opinion it was our most 'successful.' Alan Carter, senior pastor at Faith Church in Birmingham, preached on Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning and preached three of the best sermons I've heard him preach - unfortunately, the audio recording demons have struck again and somehow all three sessions didn't record *insert bowling language*

Along with the main sessions, we also offered three separate breakout sessions connecting grace to relationships, generosity, and the local church. By the end of the weekend, we had spent over eight hours eating together, laughing together, sharing studies and opening the Scriptures to be reminded of the hope and mission that we have because of grace.

Our worship gathering on Sunday was one of, if not, the most powerful expressions of the presence of God in his grace and mercy to his people since I've been here at Christ Church. Good to know that grace isn't something you just talk about...

Your Grace is Enough - The 2006 Reformation Conference

A little over a year ago, our church replaced the standard weekly, lecture-based classroom environment of 'Sunday School' for adults with a quarterly, more intensive, community event we entitled 'CrossRoads,' in light of the fact that following Jesus involves (in his words) 'taking up our cross.' (Luke 9:23).

Beginning tonight and continuing tomorrow morning and Sunday morning, this particular CrossRoads weekend also serves as our Reformation Conference, an opportunity to be reminded and apply historic truths about God and His creation to the details of our life together. This year our theme is 'Your Grace is Enough - A Call to a Reformation of Grace.' My hope and prayer is no less than the continuing transformation of our lives away from Karma (what you put out comes back to you) to Grace.

As I've thought about this weekend and theme, I've been reminded in a number of ways that I need to spend some time thinking long, deep thoughts about the contours of grace. We're a church that talks alot about grace, but I think we tend to talk about it like a celebrity we watch from afar, not as a close, personal friend. The truth is, I don't think we know grace as well as we think we do. When someone asks us to describe grace, our composite portrait rarely looks authentic. Whenever we go out into life, we rarely bring grace with us. Grace sounds like a good idea, but few of us really believe it serves a very practical purpose. So we put grace in the coat closet and pull it out with our Bibles on Sundays and talk a good game about this Grace we claim to know but in reality are barely on speaking terms. To help get us going, I've added a short article from Jerry Bridges that addresses the question, 'What is Grace'?

I'm thankful that my friend and former pastor, Alan Carter, will be here to preach in our three main sessions. Alan's a pretty strange dude - grew up in rural Mississippi, was rush chariman of his frat at Miss. State, has a degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in philosophy. Like me, he married way over his head and would never laugh at my good jokes, just the bad ones. Most importantly, no one has done more to model grace and point me to Christ as a pastor and friend.

In addition to Alan, we'll break people out into three breakout groups that are devoted to the implications of Grace in the details of our lives - things like relationships and personal finance and life in the local church. These are always great environments because it provides us an opportunity to give three hours of attention and discussion to issues we deal with on a regular basis but rarely have time to step back and ask questions.

For those of you coming this weekend, I'd encourage you to pray throughout today that this would be a time of G0d-centered worship that draws us together as a community at the foot of the cross. The 'win' for us is not imparted information but transformed lives. You might also roll the dice and invite an unchurched friend and neighbor to come with you tonight and/or tomorrow.

For those of you who can't make it because you live out of town or are traveling or have other stuff going on (and between wedding showers and Fall Festivals and Georgia football, there's alot going on!), you would be serving our community well by praying for three things:

1. Christ. Ask that we see grace, not as an end, but as the means to finding Christ as our all-satisfying treasure.
2. Community. Ask that God might bind us closer to him and each other as we're transformed through the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit.
3. Clarity. Ask that God might grant both clarity of speech and thought to those listening, so that we might see the beauty, value, and truth of Grace

We're hoping to have Alan's sessions up on our podcast by early next week.

Living an Alternative Lifestyle

Here's what I thought I was going to say during our worship gathering last Sunday. Lots of Keller lurking around here so credit for anything smart goes to him - and Jesus...or is it the Holy Spirit? Or both?

What's going on here this morning is that Jesus is redefining life for us - God is not some recalcitrant tyrant whose love we must earn; sin is not merely doing bad but doing the right things for the wrong reasons; which means that we are not merely saved from our badness but our goodness, as well. We need to understand that both younger brothers and older brothers miss the point of life - both self-discovery and moral conformity miss the fact that we were made for God and that both our morality and immorality have ruined and broken everything. We have brought shame to our Father, we have broken his heart and broken fellowship with him because what we've really wanted in life isn't God, just his stuff.

What we need to see this morning is that salvation isn't about freeing yourself from the shackles of religion so you can find yourself. Salvation isn't about being a good person. Salvation is a life of repentance - a life that sees that our lives have brought shame to God, that begins to comprehend what we deserve for causing his shame and experiences sorrow and grief because we miss our Father.

I'm not sure how you'd define Christianity, but here's how Jesus defines it here in Luke 15 - Christianity is neither moral conformity or self-discovery; it's not a religion and it's not freedom from religion. Christianity is not about morality, Christianity is repentance, a life of returning home to God. Repentance isn't something we drum up - repentance is a response to the proactive love of God who 'kisses before we confess' and who 'seeks out angry older brothers who have everything but think they have nothing.'

If you want to read the rest, click here: Download luk1511082706_manuscript.pdf

Preaching at Christmas

Probably no decision made by the elders of Christ Church since I've been here has created more fuss than moving our Christmas Eve gathering from outdoors to indoors. I won't get into all the reasons that the change was made (I will say that destroying every last vestige of the past (to quote an e-mail that I received) was not on our agenda!), but at the heart of that decision was our belief that at the heart of gathered worship, regardless of the time of year, is the 'expository exultation' of God through Scripture that we call preaching.

As we get ready for our Christmas Eve and Christmas worship gatherings this weekend, I'd encourage you to read these three blog posts by Al  Mohler on the importance of preaching in corporate worship: Part One. Part Two. Part Three.

I look forward to opening the Scriptures with you this weekend and hearing God speak to us as we ponder the meaning of Christ's coming to earth.

One More Quote from CJ

"Your family's higher purpose is to serve the local church. It's true that one reason the local church exists is to equip your family, but that isn't its ultimate purpose; meanwhile, your family's ultimate purpose is to serve in the context of the local church for God's glory. The church is the true family of God, and you have the privilege to serve in the church not only as an adult but also with your child." From Humility: True Greatness, 165-166

Being Missional: RIP, Eddie Guerrero

This is a shortened version of a longer post that the Internet ate - Typepad can be so fragile!

Some of you know that professional wrestling has been part of my life, from growing up watching it as a kid to getting to know some of the guys who would come into Birmingham to rehab injuries and work out at the same gym that I was at. That world and culture is pretty rough - the guys travel 250+ days a year, "work" consists of going out for 15-30 minutes a night to take a constant series of "bumps," each of which does the same damage to your body that being rear-ended by a car going 20 mph would do. Every night you're standing around in your skivvies, so you really want to be in good shape. And because each performer works as an independent contractor, you don't take time off for pain and you do whatever you can to recover quickly. Add on top of that the fact that guys spend more time on the road than at home, you can imagine that having a family and being a good spouse and/or parent is pretty tough to do. What you end up with is a bunch of pretty messed up people who often turn to painkillers, alcohol or recreational drugs to simply cope and make it to the next town.

Catalysts

I've been thinking about the concept of catalysts - for our UGA friends, catalysts are substances which stimulate change - think chemistry class, mixing chemicals and bunson burners.

I'm interested in those catalysts which are going to change our missional culture, or as one person told me after Sunday's sermon, actually having a missional culture. That's a bit of an overstatement but the reality is that for reasons right, wrong and indifferent, we have been a pretty inward focused community. What we have encountered in the previous weeks and months has been a realization that God has called us to be about something bigger than ourselves - God is handcrafting some opportunities for us to build bridges into the thoughts, values and experiences of the world around us.

So how are we going to move from talk to action? What are going to be the catalysts involved in our moving in such a direction? I've got two ideas and would love your feedback and comments below - the first and most common response that we've been getting has been to be more intentional. More planning, more thinking, more structure, etc. - I know that some of our loosey-goosey people (and I say that with the sincere love of Jesus!) just got a bit nervous, but don't take this too far. The thought here is that what has kept our efforts at outreach in the realm of theory has been this lack of intentionality.

I do think there is some validity to this, but I struggle to see that throughout scripture. Rather, what I see is something so simple it's going to sound juvenile - when you think of the apostles and the New Testament church, what was the catalyst in moving them to move out into the world boldly and with love? For me, the catalyst seems to be Jesus - that when these yokels from Galilee and Judea were impacted by the greatness and glory of Jesus, they were moved to go out to the world (someone could also make a compelling case from the Acts of the Apostles that it was God's providence in bringing about persecution in Jerusalem that served as the catalyst as people fleed Jerusalem and took the gospel to places like Antioch).

So what are going to be our catalysts? What is going to move us out into the world? Should we be more  intentional? Should we just get people excited about Jeezus? Anyone, anyone...Bueller?

Biding Time

I'm sitting in my living room watching the Dawgs take on the Razorhogs. First quarter, typical Georgia slow start...no worries, they should win big. For an Alabama fan, this is all just a nice distraction from the steel cage, barbed wire, lumberjack, Ironman match between the Tide and the Smokeys of Tennessee at 3:30. I would personally rather lose to Auburn than to UT so needless to say, I'm a bit fired up for this one. I always do try to remind myself before and after the game that it's just that - nothing more than a game. God is gracious to allow us to have fun, but there a much bigger things in the world (including gathering with brothers and sisters to worship God corporately tomorrow!) that should hold our attention and consume our passions.

DJ Shockley just injured his knee or something - he's being taken back to the locker room. I'm no prophet, but last time I saw a QB had to do that, his name was Brodie Croyle and when he came out of the locker room, he had been diagnosed with a torn ACL...season over. Hope that's not the case here...

Some random stuff below...

Biblical Community and Small Groups

One of the last things that I said last Sunday morning was that our brief biblical exploration of God's design for being in community with each other would open up more questions than it would answer. What we saw is that biblical community and fellowship has a particular shape and takes on a definite form - it is more than mere socialization although it is by its very nature relational; it is inclusive, recognizing the need we have for every part of the body of Christ, rather than an isolated group of weakly-connected individuals; it is exhaustive (not exhausting...okay, sometimes it is that, but I digress) in that there is no part of life that is isolated from those around us; it is not a voluntary association as much as it is the work of a God who calls us to one another around a common vision and expectations of our life together.

All of that is well and good - but what does this look like on ground level? How do we apply our biblical beliefs and convictions and hopes and dreams for community into our lives as individuals, families and a church? While community impacts all of these areas in similar ways, there are also some very real distinctives that makes community look different on a Sunday morning than it might appear at your kitchen table on a Thursday evening or in a group of 8-12 people gathered together.

As the elders of Christ Church were thinking about our Community Group ministry, we were influenced heavily by the book Why Small Groups? by CJ Mahaney, who persuaded us that four things must be in place if our small group environments for couples, women, men, students and children were going to places where biblical community is formed. Keep reading below to discover what we believe is indispensable for healthy small group ministry to take place.