Missional Venues

I was checking out the "Venues" section of The Daily Collegian yesterday, looking for some creative cool stuff to check out this weekend.

My weekend picks-

A photography exhibit, a Cello recital, and a basement pot-luck rock-show (not in Venues...a friend of mine is putting it on), and of coarse a Super Bowl party on Sunday!

But that's just me. Where do you find yourself this weekend? Where will you already be that will give you an opportunity to be a light to others? Are there any other venues that you could intentionally plan to attend as an imbedded missionary?

The cool thing about Christianity is that it does not call us to hide from the world-- to retreat to church basements to read books about the rapture. We are called to be like Jesus-- to be humans! To come along side people...to eat, drink, study, work, view art, design buildings, engineer stuff, use software, speak languages,play sports, and rock out (or rap-out if that's a word)to a good show! But as we participate in the things that we enjoy, and share these activities with people from all backgrounds and beliefs, we have the privelige of sharing with them the joy that goes deeper than all of these activities, and the hope that conquers all despair!

So make plans with friends, check out "Venues" (http://www.collegian.psu.edu/venues/), watch some football, and be missional!

Light for the Broken

In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus says: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

At Sojourn last night, we discussed the concept of sin and debated whether or not the world is "broken." While that's all well and good for middle to upper class educated philosophical types sitting in a warm coffee shop sipping on warm drinks, and heading home to a warm bed, for many people around the world, the question of whether or not the world is broken seems ignorant to even ask. The answer is so obvious!

Much light is needed around the world. There is much work to be done. Jesus says that we are the light, and that the light that shines through our lives is meant to lead people into a relationship with God in which they will glorify Him. But don't make the mistake of thinking that going to the broken only means going to Africa (although God may lead some of us to leave our homes to serve the broken around the world.) We must realize that beyond the obvious brokenness of starving people, refugee camps, warzones, disease, and poverty is the brokenness that all people who do not know Christ share: spiritual brokenness and the possibility that they will spend eternity seperated from the love of God. May God teach us to be a city on hill, ministering to broken people, and leading them into the light that has captivated us-- and may he teach us to be just as burdened for the broken people that surround us in our warm coffee shops and classrooms, as we are for the orphan in a far off country.

Oh God, make our light contageous, here, at Penn State, and to the ends of the earth!

Break our hearts for the broken!

"Yahweh" by U2

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahewh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

Note: Image found at www.vagabondish.com

An Anchor for the Soul

"God's presence is renewing, transforming, enlivening, sanctifying, commanding, sweetening, and cheering to the soul. Nothing is like it in all the world: His presence supplies all need, heals all sickness, saves from all danger; it is life in death, heaven in hell, all in all."

-John Bunyan, mid 1600's

Lest you be confused, I do not believe that this quote is saying that being in right relationship with God fixes everything. Rather, God's presence in our lives frees us from all the things that would cause us to despair if we had to live life without Christ. God's presence gives a whole new lense through which to view the world.

You may lose your job or run out of money for groceries. You may die from cancer. You may be a victim of abuse. You certainly will face death at some point just like every other human in history (with the exception of Enoch and Elijah). And these things will be hard as humans....remember 1rst Peter...we will face "various trials."

But even as we are tossed about by the things which are most difficult in human life, as members of the body of Christ and fellow heirs (Romans 8:17) of the kingdom of God, we have an anchor of joy and hope (Hebrews 6:19 calls it an "anchor of the soul")-- an anchor that sets a limit to our suffering-- and an anchor that never allows us to drift too far from the hope that will be realized "when our faith becomes sight" (As the hymn "It is well with my soul" puts it).

One of the absurd and beautiful things about the Christian life is that it often presents suffering as the pathway to joy. I've found personal encouragement both in trial and temptation thinking about Hebrews 12:2 where it says that Christ endured the cross "for the joy set before him."

Not only is there joy on the horizon, after the suffering. There is joy in the suffering. Romans 8:28 says "we know that for those who love God all things work together for good" and James 1:2-4 says "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

From a material perspective, we may lack food, shelter, or cash, but if we have God we are among the richest people in the world. Because of Christ we can confidently face danger or disease with a smile on our face, because we know that either God will be glorified by delivering us from these trials, or that they have been ordained by God as the vehicles through which he intends to usher us into his presence.

Take a few minutes today to dwell on God's "renewing, transforming, enlivening, sanctifying, commanding, sweetening, and cheering" presence." If you have put your faith in Christ, you are never lost at sea. Even in the roughest of waters, remember: you have an "anchor of the soul."

Gospel Sighting...Right in the middle of The Daily Collegian

So I'm bummed that Jerry Bridges was in town over the weekend and that I had no idea about the event...but I did catch the recap, entitled “Speaker asks audience to live Gospel” by Natalie Plumb in yesterday's Collegian. I am also thrilled to report that this article was also an official gospel sighting right on page 3 of The Daily Collegian. Praise God!

I actually don't know that much about Bridges except that he is somehow connected to the Navigators (a campus ministry God has used in great ways over the years), and that he wrote a book called The Discipline of Grace which revolutionized my view of the Gospel towards the end of high school or early in college (I can't remember exactly when...I'm only 25 and I'm already losing my memory!)

It is interesting (and a bit frustrating) that when most of us read a non-fiction book of say, 150-200 pages, we often forget most of the small bits of information, supporting arguments, and catchy anecdotes that often surround--is it too scandalous to say clothe (?)-- the real message that the book is getting at. I think that the success of a book (and as a side-note, good preaching...and probably any communication for that matter) lies in the communicator's ability to lead his/her readers or listeners to the naked truth, the ultimate truth which inspired the message to be crafted in the first place. Another way to explain this (perhaps a bit more 'G' rated) is to say that with most media that we take in we will eventually forget the fluff, but if the message was well crafted we will remember the heart of the message.

All that to say that although I don't remember a whole lot of specifics from Bridges' Discipline of Grace, the bottom-line truth that has stuck with me is that the gospel is not something we move beyond; it's not something that happened a long time ago when we said a magic prayer. The Gospel is something we need every day, and it is something that should be constantly transforming us and influencing the way we view everything. I don't have the time or the space to show you all the scripture references that back up this idea, so you may want to take a look at The Discipline of Grace (or just read the Bible for that matter.) In a few words, this idea and its application into our lives is referred to as The Centrality of the Gospel, and happens to be one of the core values of the Missio Dei movement.

To repeat the Bridges quote from Plumb's article: “Preach the gospel to yourself every day.” Why? Because we desperately need to hear it EVERY DAY!

One of the other quotes that I remember was something to the effect of “Your good days are never so good that you are beyond the need for God's grace, and your bad days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace.” (I'm going by memory so that may not be the exact quote.)

When these theological concepts are integrated into our lives, we are freed from a perfectionistic view of our Christian lives (The idea that we were saved by Grace, but when it comes to our daily lives we feel like we have to continually be at a certain “spiritual” level-- that somehow in our post-salvation lives we have to earn God's favor so he'll keep blessing us.) We realize that we are in need of God's saving grace at every moment of every day. It's not that we are losing and regaining our salvation moment by moment (that is a frightening thought), but rather that we have come to terms with the fact that being a Christian is more about a continual recognition of how messed up we are and how we constantly need Jesus if we're going to do anything right, than it is about crossing over some moral threshold where we assume new identities as righteous, sinless, superheroes.

Consider the words of Jesus in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” As Bridges said, and Plumb reported so well, “It is the death and perfect righteousness of God” that grants Christians justification, or entrance to heaven. I would add that the death and perfect righteousness of God is also what gives us the ability to live with purpose in this world-- to love sacrificially, to pick ourselves up when we fail, and to find hope in times of sorrow. I'll close this long blog post with Hebrews 12:1,2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul

I woke up this morning singing this hymn. I was hoping to find a link to a video or free mp3 so you hear the music, because it is such a beautiful song-- unfortunately I was unsuccessful. But I thought I'd post it anyway.

Whatever you are facing today, run to God, who is our refuge.


Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul

1. Dear refuge of my weary soul,
On Thee, when sorrows rise
On Thee, when waves of trouble roll,
My fainting hope relies
To Thee I tell each rising grief,
For Thou alone canst heal
Thy Word can bring a sweet relief,
For every pain I feel

2. But oh! When gloomy doubts prevail,
I fear to call Thee mine
The springs of comfort seem to fail,
And all my hopes decline
Yet gracious God, where shall I flee?
Thou art my only trust
And still my soul would cleave to Thee
Though prostrate in the dust

3. Hast Thou not bid me seek Thy face,
And shall I seek in vain?
And can the ear of sovereign grace,
Be deaf when I complain?
No still the ear of sovereign grace,
Attends the mourner's prayer
Oh may I ever find access,
To breathe my sorrows there

4. Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will,
And wait beneath Thy feet,
Thy mercy seat is open still,
Here let my soul retreat
With humble hope attend Thy will,
And wait beneath Thy feet

©1998, Kevin Twit Music.

Missional Monday

Probably one of the more common questions is, ‘Should [we] focus on better disciples or focus on reaching out?’ The reality is that we need both. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot separate evangelism and discipleship. We need missional churches that are focused on serious disciple-making, not just leading people to make a decision. For this to occur, we must identify what a disciple is. As we fully define a disciple to include both the inner disciplines of personal spirituality and the outer disciplines of missional living, then we will move our churches to be filled with missionary disciples like the early church. 

Breaking the Missional Code, p. 68-9

A Front Row Seat to Brokenness

I have to admit...there are times where my Christianity does feel like a straitjacket. There are times when holiness is hard, purity is lonely, and self-control feels boring. Last night was one of those times.

It seemed like everybody in town was partying. I was lonely. I felt left out. I felt boring. It would be so much easier to just go out and have a “good time” like everybody else.

After a couple hours of distracting myself on email and facebook at dunkin donuts (which was quite unproductive due to the heavy weight of temptation which seemed to be assaulting me mentally), I went home to discover there was a party across the hall from my apartment. Temptation just doesn't let up sometimes!

I read my Bible for awhile, then talked to my brother on the phone for awhile. I was feeling better after that. By this point the it was 1:00am and the party was still going strong nextdoor. There was not much hope of getting to sleep so I ate a bowl of cereal and tried to distract myself by reading.

Then I started hearing conversations, arguments and fights from the hallway. I went over to the peep-hole in my door and began watching the reality show going on in my hallway. Relationships were crumbling. Friends were being betrayed. One guy called another guy to tell him his girlfriend was making out with some other guy. I heard another girl crying in the hall, saying that she had paid for her best friend to have an abortion-- through tears she exclaimed that had “paid to kill her friend's baby.” Not only was she distraught about the fact that she had paid for an abortion, but now that friend was sleeping with the guy that she was in love with. I heard drunk friends counseling drunk friends...and their advice was empty, and sometimes absurd. It was literally “the blind leading the blind.”

After stepping out of my apartment to ask some people to stop smoking right outside my door, and to investigate two fights that sounded like they were about to erupt in my hallway (one in each stairwell), I met a couple guys who were quite talkative (typical of drunks, I suppose). They said they were starving, so I offered them a box of Ritz crackers...and was treated like a superstar after that. One of the guys, who seemed to be kind a social leader in the group (and also quite sober...comparatively speaking), became my tour guide, leading me through the alcohol-drenched apartment, and introducing me to several people, including 3 of my neighbors.

As we walked around, I overheard more drama, witnessed girls throwing themselves around, and saw guys taking advantage of them. Then it dawned on me-- “I have a front-row seat to brokenness right now. I am not the one wearing the straitjacket-- they are. I don't need what they have-- they need what I have.”

Oh, to see the light of Christ break into the lives of these broken people!-- that the girl who paid for an abortion would experience the forgiveness found in only in Jesus Christ!--that these boys would become men, who love God, and as a result respect the women in their lives--that these girls would become women who do not find there value in the attention of a guy, but rather in a savior who truly loves them and will never fail them—that friends would no longer fight and betray, but would “bear each other's burdens,”-- that my confident tour-guide buddy would some day use his people skills and influence to lead people to Jesus.

Oh God, forgive me for being duped by the “deceitfulness of sin,” for envying the “freedom” of sinners....for viewing your great salvation as a burden. Fill my heart with compassion for my new friends and neighbors, who are lost and broken. Make me an ambassador of the freedom and joy that is found only in you.