be refreshed

Even though we may be sitting in a crowd, we can still feel alone. Even though our holiday season may be filled with parties and business, we may still feel isolated. It was interesting in our Monday night Bible study this week we looked at Acts 3. In it, the passage says a guy was placed outside the temple everyday to beg. This brought to mind that he probably saw Jesus walk by a few times, in the past months and years. But on this day he was healed by Peter. God had waited until this day to heal him. God Himself, in Jesus, saw this man, but waited to heal him until the Holy Spirit healed him that day, via Peter.

God's timing can be funny. Sometimes our seasons feel dry, and we wonder when we'll drink again. Other times He blesses us with rich times of refreshing. We had a great discussion about His timing on Monday. I was struck by God's timing to heal this man in this passage. After this healing, a crowd gathered, and Peter explained things to them. And in 3:19, with the fully restored, healed man clinging to John and Peter out of joy, Peter says "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord..." The NASB says, "...in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord..." The
Message, "Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you..." While the restored man before them, Peter speaks of allowing God to refresh them. If you've been in a desert, remember God is a God of refreshing. His timing is funny, but He is a God who WILL bring refreshing, restoration, and healing. I pray that He will bless you this week w/ at least a taste of that refreshment, and I hope that you will be be immersed in His presence and encouragement.

prayer

FYI - I've posted the December prayer letter in the prayer section of the blog. I invite you to check it out.

calgary

A couple weeks back I went to a church planting conference in Calgary. It was a week long thing, but I feel like I could have left after the first afternoon. One of my favorite authors, Michael Frost, spoke a few different times, and surprised us the first afternoon we were there. He talked about four historic elements of church: worship, community, discipleship, and mission. Each of these, in his mind, are equal, none with a lesser value. In theory they should all have equal play in the church, but he believes that is impossible b/c we are human, and will always allow one to organize the others.

#1:
Worship
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Community – Discipleship – Mission

Historically, the church has organized around worship. If you wanted to get plugged into community (small groups, etc.) you found out about it at Sunday worship. The primary vehicle of teaching the faith was the Sunday sermon. And the primary way you reach out to the “lost” was the invite them to the Sunday gathering.

#2:
Community
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Worship - Discipleship – Mission

Another option is to allow community to organize the church. Frost stated that this gets played out into a cliquish end, where a close-nit group of friends praise God, learn, and serve the community together, but the inclusion of outsiders or the “lost” is difficult. I would like to hear him explain this one more

#3:
Discipleship
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Worship – Community Mission

The next option is to allow discipleship to organize church. His critique here was that the church’s mission becomes to learn, rather than promote kingdom growth. This I found the weakest point of his argument, so again I’d like to hear more.

#4:
Mission
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Worship – Community – Discipleship

Lastly, and the one advocated by Frost, is to allow mission to organize church. He states that if the church focuses on mission (bringing and sharing the kingdom of God to the neighborhood) than the others come alive. When after spending times w/ guys at the pub, you finally see a friend open to the gospel of Christ, it causes your community to want to worship. And, if that conversation goes bad, the community is at the feet of the Father pleading again for change. When you head out on a short term mission trip, you return weeping for joy over the connection you had w/ those on the trip (the trip that focused on mission). Community is tightened. And as you confront challenging people and faith questions w/ those at the coffee shop, the community is forced to plunge into scripture together – discipleship.

I’m not saying the other models are bad, but I found the argument for a mission-organized church to be very convincing. We are young enough in are development to reinvent anything w/ the church plant. So his brief and simple presentation was very thought provoking. I am excited to dialog w/ you all about this, as we continue to articulate God’s call on our life.