Moving Past the Negative...

Meeting was...

I'll leave it at that for now. Will probably blog it this weekend when I have more time to digest.

One of the things I have missed about blogging is being able to share what God is doing at JFC. It's been amazing! Over the past six months we have seen God's hand at work. First, we are seeing people saved and people restored to the church. A large part of the ministry God has given us in this season of time is a real ability to reach people who have been angry with God, or Christians, or church or who had never given any thought to Jesus at all. It is so exciting to see folks getting it and then to see those people become some of our front line evangelists and bridge builders. Of course, a lot of these people are young, in age and faith, but their passion and enthusiasm make them excellent community connection points.

Further, we have seen our small group ministry begin to take shape. Now it's not perfect yet, far from it, but we have people who are making an effort to meet and when they do meet they are accomplishing some things. Of course, it helps that they are guided by some phenomenal curriculum produced by Song of Solomon ministries. Vintage Jesus is 12 lessons on who Jesus is and what He came to do. Great stuff! And yes for all you haters, it is taught by Mark Driscoll- God forbid we use good Bible teaching from Mark- it might make us think! :)

We are also seeing new leaders rising to the fore, not the least of these are the elders. But beyond the elders, we have a good team of leaders falling nicely into place- small group leaders, a ministry assistant, an older children teaching team, and a lady who has a passion for women's ministry who is awesome. This is such a huge change from several years ago and I am so amazed at what God is doing.

Finally, personally, I am enjoying a personal spiritual renaissance. It's not just a return to blogging, but a return to a passion for Scripture, reading for personal edification, enjoying times of slowness and solitude to hear God's voice, and rediscovering a passionate love for Jesus and what He's doing. All of this gives me an amazing sense of peace and excitement for the coming days.

May His kingdom advance...

Cooperation...A Long Story and A Simple Idea

I have a meeting tomorrow that I'm not really looking forward to. It's with some good friends and that's usually a good thing, but not tomorrow. I have been invited to this meeting because of a word. A word that is used my church's statement of beliefs. That's right a word. I'll tell you the word here in a minute.

How did I get into this? Well, the elders at JFC have been working on an official statement of beliefs. Simple stuff, basic orthodoxy. Nothing controversial. Nothing that anyone would hear and go, O man, I can't believe you guys believe that. Journey Fellowship is a pretty simple place. We believe the Bible is true, Jesus died and was raised, God reveals Himself in three distinct ways, salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus, Jesus is coming back. We are not theological trailblazers. We are orthodox, largely evangelical, and very much crazy about Jesus.

The word that got us in so much trouble is how we refer to baptism and Communion. Many of our evangelical friends use the term "ordinances." I used that term for years myself. I never really thought about it or what it meant. I just grew up with it and never questioned it. Then I got into this church starting/pastoring thing and words and practices became really important. They are important to me now for 2 reasons:

1. because I grew up and learned to think for myself and
2. because I am now reaching people who ask questions about everything and I want to have a reason for what we do and say.

So we wanted to define what we believe baptism and communion are in our faith, this following of Jesus, Christianity. And initially we went with the term "ordinance" because it was what we had always known. Then we made the mistake of reading some books, a dictionary, and some old dusty theology. We rediscovered a word. That word is "sacrament." We thought we found something really cool. A word that described what we felt about, and what we felt like the Bible described the practice of baptism and Communion- "sacrament- an outward action that reflects an inward reality." Sounds simple enough, right? That's what I thought. Especially when ordinance means a rule or law, especially one enacted by a community.

(Side note: When I think of Communion or baptism I think of obedience, like a rule or law, but not is the sense I think of a law- more out of a sense of doing something out of love. I obey the speed limit because it's the law, I clean the kitchen for my wife out of love. I was baptized because I love Jesus and want to obey Him, not because I was afraid He would reach down and smack me. Getting the picture?)

Unfortunately, we have discovered that for some people. these friends of mine, "sacrament" has some cultural baggage in some evangelical circles. These circles think by saying baptism and Communion are "sacraments" we are saying they are necessary for salvation, or "aids to grace" in the theological parlance of the day. The rest of our statement of beliefs makes it clear that this is not our position, but the schism remains, at least on their side.

I write all this to plead with my friends who follow Jesus, particularly those who pastor or work in networks of churches, please, please, please think about how to cooperate with one another, instead of how to create division. There is a complete and total lack of willingness to listen and to look for areas of agreement in our churches, especially in our state (Oklahoma). Let's make it simple. Do you believe that Jesus came, died and rose again? Do you believe that His death was a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind? Do you believe that in order to be forgiven and to enter into a relationship with God a person must trust Jesus for salvation? Can we agree on these basic things? If so, then what can keep us from cooperating? I'm sure I am overlooking something and it will be pointed out. That's cool. I will bet I am not overlooking much.

I'm not excited about my meeting tomorrow. I hope it ends well and we can part as friends or unite as partners in reaching people for the Kingdom. May His Kingdom advance...

Reboot

I have laid off of blogging except for the occasional facebook note for the past year or so. There has been so much going on with Journey, family, other job, etc that it's been hard to make the time to really blog. But with the advent of elders at Journey, and with a renewed interest in reading for learning I'm thinking through a lot of things and I think blogging is a good way to walk through some of them.

One of the big ideas I'm chewing on right now is the idea of partnership. What is the purpose of partnering with others? On a personal level, as a Jesus guy, I know that relationships are important because God did not create us to be alone. We are made to exist in community- in marriage, friendship, discipleship, etc- just as God exists in relationship- the Trinity.

But what about as churches? What does partnership look like? I have been walking this road for the past few weeks with a group we would like to partner with. We believe what they believe about Jesus, but the discussion of entering into partnership has been awkward. We speak a different language in some ways, even though we mean some of the same things. It is frustrating to not be able to blast through something that seems so simple, because of semantics.

That leads me to this thought...for me I am committed to work with and partner with anyone or any group that meets the following criteria- they believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for sin, and that a relationship with Him is the key to knowing, understanding, and experiencing God as we were created to do. Beyond that, I will leave the fighting to the other guys.

Personal Thoughts and Notes:

Got U2 tickets for the Norman show! This will be my first time to see the boys from Dublin live. I can't wait! We are in section 22 row 57. Have no idea how good those are and don't care. Now does anyone have a backstage pass they want to share so I can finally meet Bono?

Do you twitter? Follow me @absonjourney There is nothing more fun than 140 characters about nothing!

Best food I've had in awhile was at Mama E's with Mike Kerr a couple of weeks ago. Try the Soul Food Special!

My wife dared me to read the Twilight series. I am reading it because they are the only books she has ever finished. They are ok, a little too girly for my tastes. Give me more blood.

Also, slowly reading Vintage Church by Driscoll and Brashears. Yes I still like Driscoll. Great book, probably the best one sense Confessions.

Last but not least pic of the fam from Easter: