Missio Dei Suburbia

Money's Tight, Nothin' Free. Won't Somebody Come and Rescue Me?

Thanks to SRV for the post title - here's a bit of background music for you.

As people experience the psychological and financial impact of a recession, here's a summary of what we've laid out at our church to help people think through what to do about money.

The Scriptures are deadly serious about money - take the same approach.

There's a reason Jesus talks so much about money in the gospels. In my estimation, the most comprehensive resource on what the Scriptures teach about money is Randy Alcorn's Money, Possessions and Eternity.

What you do is driven by who you are.

Your identity shapes your activity. For us as a church, that means we make decisions about money in the light of our identity as missionaries in community empowered by the gospel.

What you do with money is a community project.

Because we are so easily deceived about what constitutes what we need versus what we want, we need other people who know us and love us enough to listen to us and ask good clarifying questions.

Pursue simplicity and generosity.

The biblical pattern when finances get tight is not to maintain and save. Without dismissing the issue of savings, the pattern throughout the Scriptures is to live simply and generously.

Take one more step.

Biblical simplicity and generosity pushes the envelope of what culture considers to be normal. If the gospel creates a people who cut against the grain of societal standards, that means that the followers of Jesus will be more rigorous in their pursuit of simplicity and more lavish in their generosity than their friends and neighbors who don't know Jesus.

Depend on the grace of God in the gospel.

Rigorous simplicity and lavish generosity is impossible apart from God powerfully rewiring how we think and feel about money. And the issue seems to come down to this - money exists as currency that purchases our greatest security, comfort and satisfaction. The question is whether we find those things in a life that is centered on God or some other source of hope and delight.

Cornerstone Church - Gospel Conference

From Tim Brister:

Over the past couple of days, I have been listening to the audio from Cornerstone Church’s recent Gospel Conference (Francis Chan is teaching pastor at Cornerstone).  These are some guys you may not be familiar with, but I encourage you to check them out.  The links take you to downloadable MP3’s and MP4’s.

:: Francis Chan | Audio | Video
:: Jeff Vanderstelt 1 | Audio | Video
:: Jeff Vanderstelt 2 | Audio | Video
:: David Fairchild 1 | Audio | Video
:: David Fairchild 2 | Audio | Video

Gospel Coalition Live Webcast

You can watch the 2009 Gospel Coalition National Conference here this Tuesday to Thursday. This year's theme is Entrusted With The Gospel: Living the Vision of 2 Timothy.

Speakers include:

• Tim Keller
• John Piper
• Phil Ryken
• Mark Driscoll
• K. Edward Copeland
• Bryan Chapell
• Ajith Fernando
• Ligon Duncan
• D.A. Carson

Christ Community Church - Tribe or Mission?

The next few months are going to determine the identity and rhythm of life for Christ Community Church - will we embrace and live out our existence as a tribe or a mission?

From Tullian:

There’s a radical difference between tribal and missionary mindsets. The highest value of the tribal-minded is self-protection. Since these people feel safest around those just like them, they ask, “How can I protect myself from those who are different?” They intentionally surround themselves with those who think the way they think, like the things they like, and despise the things they despise.

We all seek out sameness, as John Seel notes: “We cope by settling into our safe intellectual cliques—our favorite blog, cable channel, or e-zine—where our own views are reinforced and applauded. Without really trying, we can easily lose sight of the wider horizon and fail to listen to those who do not think as we do.”

As a result, tribally minded people live with a sense of superiority, looking down on those who are unlike them. This is the “fashionable” posture of our culture.

In contrast, the highest aim of mission-minded people is not self-protection but self-sacrifice. Mission-minded people exist not primarily for themselves but for others. They’re willing to set aside personal preferences in service to those with different preferences. They’re willing to be inconvenienced, discomforted, and spent for the well-being of others.

A29 Pastor in the New York Times and Boston Globe

Quite the story...

Boston Globe

New York Times

Driscoll Interviews Chandler

Piper - Never Shrink the Gospel

From Desiring God:

Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:

Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.

Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

• grace gets bigger;
• Christ gets greater;
• his death gets more wonderful;
• his resurrection gets more astonishing;
• the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
• the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
• its global extent gets wider;
• your own sin gets uglier;
• the devil gets more evil;
• the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
• its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
• and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.

Pray that it won't. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

How Big Is Your Gospel?

From Jonathan Dodson:

In Seattle [at a recent Acts 29 boot camp] Steve Timmis gave us three sessions on “Total Church”. The first was on the Gospel, the second on Community, the third on practical training for developing gospel-centered communities. One of the things I love about Chester and Timmis is the way they allow biblical theology to drive their ecclesiology, and not in an academic way. Consider the following definition of the gospel which accessibly incorporates the biblical-theological themes of: monotheistic christology, substitutionary atonement, imputed righteousness, christus victor, new creation, inaugurated eschatology, and the gospel of grace:

Jesus, God’s promised Rescuer and Ruler, lived our life, died our death and rose again in triumphant vindication as the first fruits of the new creation to bring forgiven sinners together under his gracious reign.

This is a big gospel. This is not the individualistic, works-based, escapist gospel of much of American evangelicalism. It incorporates the whole world, person, and Jesus. It forces us to move beyond decision-based conversions to following Jesus as Lord. It calls us beyond Christianity as private religion into Christianity as public, communal gospel. It’s not a pocket-sized gospel. The gospel is bigger than we think. Now, if we can just lead our churches into renewal, revival, and repentance towards living out a big gospel, a gospel as big as the city, as the world, as the whole of history.

How is this big gospel impacting your church, your leadership? Are you doing anything differently in your church because of the size of this gospel?

Advance 09

Christ promises to build His Church, and that no force will prevail against it. Yet, the local church has been heavily battered in battle. Sadly, churches in America are in steady decline, with over 4000 closing their doors and 500,000 members leaving each year, never to return. This is not what the Lord desires.

The Apostle Paul tells us that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” The local church is called to lift up Jesus so that all the world might see Him. The local church is called to make known the gospel and to be the vehicle of redemption for the world.

Led by local churches, Advance09 is a conference committed to the resurgence of the local church for the glory of God. Our aim is to equip attendees with the gospel so that the local church might become all that Jesus calls it to be. At this conference, we hope to ensure that on our watch and in our time we honor Jesus and see the resurgence of the local church. Advance09 is open to anyone: pastors and lay-leaders; church members; and regular attendees. We invite you to join us in this Great Cause.

How'd All These Students Get Here?

This article by Stetzer and Jason Hayes pretty much sums up what we hear from the 18-25 year olds that are connecting with us at Christ Church. What we say:

• Embraces the reality of doubts and struggles;
• Owns up to our individual and collective junk;
• Leaves us with great hope in Jesus.

There are other reasons why people are driving 20+ minutes and passing by lots of other churches on Sundays but this one's the most counterintuitive and most consistent response we hear from students and other men and women in their 20s.