JUNGLE BOOGIE

I had the chance yesterday to sit in with Bill Easum as he was here speaking to pastors at the Cokesbury Leadership Academy. Bill, is a church growth consultant and I guess you could say a student of culture. He Twitters (I don't) and is about twice my age, so that should say something. If you haven't noticed our world has changed. Metaphorically we are in the jungle, while most of our churches are still in the National Park. Throughout the day we discussed making disciples and several times it came back to our Wesleyan heritage. Wesley was about "behavior modification". He believed that when we come to Christ and are saved that our behavior should change. We should be in obedience to Christ and stop sinning. Yesterday we stopped short of the sin part. It wasn't really the place for it.

But what strikes me is that at the places we should be talking about sin we stop short too! If making disciples is about behavior modification then we should be pointing out sinful behavior. Here is a question: In our Bible-illiterate, truth-is-relative world, how else will people learn what sin is? The jungle is full of it. The answer lies in being a right handler of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15) Sermons should! Small groups should! Families should! It is every believer's job to go (into the jungle) and make disciples. A disciple is an intern or apprentice learning the trade. We are the ones to be modeling and teaching the trade of obedience to Christ. It must be done in the spirit of love, as Jesus did.

We need to drop our self righteousness and model obedience and just how tough it is. I believe jungle people smell pride. It is like a pheromone that drives them away. We are not the judges! We are the hands and feet of Christ going into the jungle to be salt and light, dealing with our junk and sharing the love and redemption we have found in Christ. Get your machete out.

UNKNOWN DISCONNECTS

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that read:"Standing on a corner in in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine site to see.." That comes from the Eagles tune which goes on to say, "there's a girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me." The disconnect for me was that the bumper sticker was on a Chevy. I know the guy doesn't have to be in a truck while standing on the corner and that the song isn't really about the brand of car, but for me there was a disconnect there. It made me think about disconnects, relationships lost or faded. I think back to high school friends I'd no longer recognize. I think back to people I worshipped with or served in other churches. I think about people I've let down or hurt and in the disappointment they have cut ties. I think about those who hurt me. I think about the natural deterioration of relationships that happens when physical distance of time and space have their way and lives drift apart. Disconnects. But now my thoughts move to this. Do my life and actions show Jesus and His undying love? Am I a disconnect for people to the thing they need most? The Westminster Catechism says the man exists to Glorify God and to find joy in doing so. When people see me do they see Jesus? That is my question today and everyday for that matter.

COOL ASHES

What do you get when you have an over zealous young pastor with a history of Youth Ministry and a bent to mischievousness?

You get a forehead of ashes that kids think are cool. My friend Micah loaded me up last week as we began lent. What is funny is how students and adults came up to me and wished their ashes were as dark as mine. There is a coolness to the cross, when you are in Christ. May we live our lives that way too. Leaving people wanting what we've got. I pray that God would make us irresistible to the lost.

I have used the word "compelling" a great deal in the last couple years. i.e. we should compel people to come to God's house. But we should take heed that we don't think that God needs us to make him sexy to the world. John says that the Father will lift up the son for the world to see. May we live so that our eyes are open to the the power of our Holy God, and that our need for him opens the eyes of others. I need God and relationship with him. I, like you, am not good, but while I was a sinner, Christ went to the cross and shed blood that made me clean and gave me that which I need most: GOD. Our existance here is about that and that alone. That we glorify God. May your ash be dark and compelling! May your love be up and out!