The Message of the Movement

For a long time now Christianity in the West has been viewed as nothing more than a new religious system. Its adherers believe that it is the best, and only good religious system. But, a religious system is a religious system and the Movement of Christ (His Kingdom) is no religion! Jesus did not come to this earth simply to give people a new religion to follow. In fact Jesus came to rid the earth of the current system of religion they were held captive to (Judaism) because it was no longer necessary now that the Kingdom had arrived. Because in Christ's Kingdom everyone has full access to the thrown room of God through the blood of Christ. (Heb 10:19-22)

The problem that we now face today is that some people like religion, and have polluted their discipleship unto Jesus with a bunch of religious filth. It is because of this polluted form of Christianity that we must reclaim the movement expression of God's living church.

There are major differences between viewing the way of Jesus as a movement rather than a religion.

A religion constricts God and the worship of God to a limited time and a limited place.
Movements happen everywhere at anytime. Because they realize that God is everywhere at all times.

Religions are stagnant and do little to evangelize those not a part of their religion. 
Movements are full of passion. Everyone in a movement is active in spreading the message of the movement to others.

Religions are made up of complicated systems, long creeds and complex doctrines. 
Movements are simple, and receive their identity from their message. This identity functions as a catalyst within the movement which launches it forward giving it rapid growth.

In the Jesus Movement our message is what we call the gospel.

The Bible tells us that the gospel is a powerful force. It brings life and light and liberation into this dark world.

Mohandas Gandhi once said:

"You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down , and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature."

When we actually practice living and sharing the gospel of Jesus -the movement of Christ, the Kingdom, explodes in this world! Historians believe that by the year 100 A.D. that there were already 25,000 followers of Christ in the known world. Keep in mind that this group of 25,000 is over 2,000 times the size of the original 12 that it first started with. Historians also say that by the year 310 A.D. that they became 800 times larger and that there were as many as 20,000,000 Christians in the known world!

The question that so many of us now ask is: "how did they do it"? I can tell you this. It wasn't done the way that we often think of doing things in our churches today. There wasn't a special committee or outreach program. They didn't have to make sure their plans fit into the churches budget. They didn't have the luxuries of media that we have today to make it happen. So how did they do it? They did it the same way the first disciples did. They told the message with great boldness in their lives and as a result the Kingdom spread.

In Acts chapter four we find a group of people that are completely sold out on following their risen King. When persecution came their way they immediately turned to prayer. They prayed to God that they might have boldness to tell people the message of the Kingdom of God. They prayed for strength to share with others what was so freely given to them -the Good Life. They prayed for help in spreading God's Kingdom here on earth through the sharing of the gospel.

There were no special tricks. They didn't have any amazing new book that just came out. But they did have all they needed because they had the Spirit of God working through them enabling them to act and will according to God's will and purpose.

The message that they shared with others was simple. It is important that we today share the message of Christ in concise and simple ways. Ways that make sense to everyone and in ways that are easy to remember. Basically the message should be able to "stick" with the person that you shared it with. Some have come to call this the "sticky gospel". When a message is "sticky" it can easily be passed on to others. It is in this way that the message of the Kingdom can explode across the globe with atomic force.

Here are three small messages that I have began sharing with others. Each one in itself tells the gospel story -that the Messiah has come to liberate us. And all three put together give a well shaped picture of Christ's mission which has become our own:

• Christ The Liberating King Has Come (Galatians 5:1)

• He Has come to give us Life to the Full (John 10:10)

• He Has come because of His Love for us (John 3:16)

I have noticed that these small but powerfully informative phrases stick well with people. They are easy to spit out in a conversation with someone about Jesus. They take little explanation and since they come from the Scriptures they can easily lead to more in depth conversations about Jesus by turning right to one of those three verse.

What would happen if we began to share the gospel (both in speech and practice) as they did? I believe that if you do what they did, we will end up getting what they got. And what they got was the Kingdom, right here on earth. (Read Acts 4:13-31 to see how beautiful God's Kingdom spreading looks).

The early Christians were able to allow God to fully take hold of their lives. They loved others with the overflow of their love for God. They knew it wasn't about them -but that it was all about God. May we do the same as we spread God's Kingdom in our world today.

Youth and Family Ministry

It has been a long time since my last post so I thought I would give everyone a quick update on what I have been up to.

My wife Michelle and now live in Mt. Carmel, IL where I now work as the Youth and Family Minister at the Mt. Carmel Church of Christ. I love the church body here! And I really love my role in the congregation because I able to partake in many diverse areas of ministry. My major focus of course is the youth (6-12 graders) but I have also been working on re-envisioning our children's ministry and have been able to help start our small group ministry.

Children's Ministry

Our new children's ministry will launch on the first Sunday of January with the theme S.A.N.D. Explorers. S.A.N.D is an acronym which stands for:

Searching For God In Every Area of My Life
Always Learning More About Him
Never Putting Myself Above Others
Daily Becoming More Like Christ our King

Everything in our children's ministry and bible class program will be orientated around this theme. Our Bible class area will be called the "S.A.N.D Box" (we will soon begin repainting our classroom to make it look like a desert). We will call the kids "S.A.N.D. Explorers" during Bible class. In class the kids receive "S.A.N.D. Dollars" for displaying "S.A.N.D." in their life, reciting memory verses, bringing a friend, and so on.

Small Groups

Since the summer I have been writing teaching outlines for our small groups. Our small group lessons have been based off of the same theme that Bobby Smith (our pulpit minister) preached on on the previous Sunday.  If you are interested in using any of these small group outlines let me know and I would be glad to send them to you. 

Youth Ministry

We have had a lot going on with our teens lately and our group has been growing quite a bit. Our teens have been doing a great job inviting their friends to all of our teen events so we often have just as many visitors attend as we do "members". Here are some of things we have been doing with the teens lately:

•  We have had the entire high school football team over for breakfast at the church building on one of their game days. For the fist time ever I used American football as an illustration.

• We have had a couple of Work Days where we helped paint an elderly lady's garage. A man from our church saw this lady painting her garage one day and stopped and offered to help. She was hesitant at first -thinking he was wanting to get payed. He helped her for some time and then the next two weeks a small group from our church returned to finish up the job. It was a great time to show this woman that the economy of the Kingdom is based off of the gift. Out God's love for us we have freely received, and thus out of our love God we freely give! 

•  I have been going to eat with our teens at their schools. In all, our youth group attends four different schools (two high schools and two middle schools). Each week I try to go eat at at least one of the four schools. The teens have really enjoyed this, and it has been a great way for me to better get to know them and their friends.

• I have been writing a discipleship book to study with some of our new Christians and not-yet Christians. The book teaches the basics of our faith while also teaching them what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. So far, Michelle and I are using this material to study with one person, and we have just made plans to study with two others, and have been trying to get a hold of a fourth person so that we can set up a time to study with him.
  

• Two Sunday's ago we led our high schoolers on a trip to Paducah, KY to see the AIMers. We had a great time spending the day together. It was also really nice to see so many of my old friends in the AIM world.

• Just this past Friday we had our first ever Fifth Quarter just for Middle Schoolers. Fifth Quarter is a party that is thrown after home football games, usually involving free food lots of fun, games and inflatables. We ended up having 60 kids attend in all!
  The event was a great success largely because so many from our body were passionate about serving the kids in our community. Thank you everyone who helped with this event.
  

• Just last week I launched a blog just for our youth and college called "Leaves in The Wind". You'll have to be sure and check it out sometime. You can click on the image above to go to the blog and see pictures from our recent activities.
  
  

At The Well: 2009 High School Mission Trip

On Saturday, August 8th my wife Michelle and I led a group seven young adults to Clarksville, TN on a short mission trip. Our trip's focus was to work with an inner city ministry called The Well that some good friends of ours, Craig and Marcia Hines, had help start a few years ago. Early that Saturday evening we arrived at the Hines' home where would be staying. The night was full fun laughter and joy, as we played games, roasted marshmallows and sang songs into the star lit sky.

The next morning we went to go eat breakfast at a soup kitchen with some of the homeless and poor that we would be worshiping with latter on at the Well. The soup kitchen in Clarksville is hosted by several churches in the area that open up their buildings to use as the soup kitchen. And every Sunday the downtown Methodist church hosts the soup kitchen. The crowd was large, easily around 100 people when we first got there and the crowed doubled by the time we left. While we were there we spent time meeting and getting to know people. Craig and Marcia had several that they really wanted us to meet. Like Jr., who would see every day while we were there.

Jordan and our new friend Jr.

While there I talked to man who had been in prison for over 20 years for murder. He was a really nice and friendly guy, looked kind of like an older and smaller Morgan Freeman --white beard and all. He told me with a joyful chuckle, "some people will say that I'm dangerous. But I'm not dangerous, you just don't won't to make me mad." He then told me how he wasn't sorry for killing the that he was sentenced for murdering. "I'd do it again if he were right here!" He told me boldly. "And that's what I told them when I was in court." Many of the people there have pretty rough pasts and were in need of the Liberation that Christ in their lives.

After eating we went to The Well which was just a short drive around the corner. The building itself was once an old Moose Lodge. It had a bar, a dance floor -the whole shabang . Now, the building is a place where the people of all walks of life gather to encourage one another and celebrate their lives in Christ.

Not everyone there was homeless. There were some that were from Madison St. church of Christ, the church that now sponsors the Well, and others who liked in the neighborhood who like to gather at the Well because of its intimate and loving atmosphere.

We began worship by singing. Anyone who could start and lead a song could. We sang all kinds of songs, new and old. And praise to God filled the air. After singing, a young man named Brian told us the scripture that we would be reading for that morning and together we all read the text. Brian then asked us about what that passage of scripture teaches us about Jesus and His Kingdom. Many people contributed their thoughts, sharing what the message meant them. When we were done, everyone had a new understanding of the passage we explored because nearly everyone contributed to the discussion. Rob, who is one of the deacon over the Well, prayed over the Lord's Supper, and passed around the bread and fruit of the vine. After we prayed we spent time in fellowship (a.k.a "hanging out") with some of the people there.

Our teens loved the way that we gathered for worship this day. They loved how everyone had a place. Everyone was welcome. They loved the strong unity, and wide diversity of the Christians that met. Some of our teens said, "I'm sad that we don't get to go back next Sunday."

Craig, Benny and Marcia

After church we all went over to spend some time with a friend of Craig and Marcia named Benny. Benny had been homeless for three years and just in the last several months had been able to get off the streets. He now has a job and his own place and wanted to have our group over to his house to tell us his story. Even though he had very little, he had bought snacks and drinks for us. After everyone was able to grab a bite we all gathered around as he began to tell us his story. He told us how his wife had died about five years ago and performing the funeral cost him everything --including his house. Benny became very angry and went into a deep depression that led to a crack addiction. For three years Benny lived homeless in a tent because of his addiction and deep anger. He then met Craig and Marcia at The Well. They would spend a lot of time with Benny encouraging him to work on his relationship with God, and to pray. They encouraged him to pray harder and harder, about his anger and his struggles. And Benny said, "God was working! He is real and he really works in our lives if we allow him!" Benny encouraged us with tears in his eyes to pray always because God will hear us and answer our prayers. Today, Benny is one of the most joyful, and kind people you could ever meet. It's hard to imagine him the way he once was. He kept his tent that he lived in for so long to remind himself of where he once was and how God brought him out of that bondage into a new life in Christ. We were all deeply touched by his story. And after many hugs we had to say goodbye.

Monday morning we met with Mark at the well at 8:30. Kind of a early start for some of our group since it's the summer and we had to leave Craig and Marsha's by 8:00 -but there was no complaining. Mark is the other deacon from Madison St. church of Christ who oversees The Well. He told us our game plan for getting the meeting area of The Well renovated. We first would have to sand down the whole room, and then if we had time would put up the primmer. Our teens worked their hearts out sanding down those walls. We had been doing work and service projects all summer long so we were well ready for the task. Much to Mark's surprise were able to get all of the sanding done and a lot of the room painted in that first day! And had we had the whole project done before lunch on Tuesday.

Tuesday night The Well has what they call Bread of Life. At Bread of Life a free meal is served to all who attended. We saw many of the same people we saw on Sunday morning. While everyone is eating a lesson from the Bible is shared. I was able to speak to the group that evening. Then while people finishing up their meals they have an open mic session where people can sing, rap, slam a poem, or share whatever it is they want to share. I told the teens before we went done to Clarksville that I wanted everyone to participate in the open mic session. Everyone in our group has a good voice and are musically talented. So just before leaving Craig and Marcia's house for Bread of Life we went over a few things that we could do. Our line up was to (1st) Sing amazing grace, just the first verse twice and invite everyone to join in. (2nd) Read a montage of scriptures that I had prepared about creation, life, and light from Genesis, the gospel of John, and 1 John. The montage accents poetic, rhythmic nature of the Word of God. The girls read, while a group of us guys played drums throughout the reading. (3rd) We played "Come Though Fount". (4th) And for our grand finally we played a song called "Wake up" by Arcade Fire, which was basically our mission trips theme song because we played it so much.

When we first got on "stage" the teens were acting a bit nervous and shy. Rightly so, I came to realize latter on since there were nearly 100 people watching us. As we sang and played it was just awesome to see the faces of everyone there that night. People were just glowing with joy and life.

Before we left the well and called it night several people came up to me to say thank you for us coming down and helping paint their building. They told me that our group has been a huge blessing and that we had touched so many lives just over the past few days. They said that our whole group was very talented and so free and full of life. There was a huge contrast between that night at The Well and our morning at the soup kitchen. That night at The Well, everyone was just full joy, and life. There was great since of awe and amazement over the whole crowd. Everyone, ourselves included knew that God's presence was there among us. Everyone went away, blessed, touched and impacted.

I wish that I could tell you more and more about all that happened but it would take a whole book to tell the full story. On our way home to Illinois we stopped in Evansville, IN for a wrap up session. We shared with each other our trip highlights and how the trip effected us. It was so encouraging to hear what the teens had to say. To see how they had grown and been stretched by God. We had been focusing all Summer on living out the message of Jesus. Living as Liberated people, sharing the abundant Life with others that only comes through Christ. And Loving others with the overflow of our Love for God. We have focused on being the Jesus Movement in our world, and have been richly blessed because of it.

John writes in one of his letters:

"God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might Live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to Liberate us from our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another God remains among us and His love is made complete in us."

-1 John 4:9-12

John is saying, "no one has ever seen God but if you're living out the Jesus Movement, if you are Loving others with the Love of God --then God is revealed among you!"

And it is literally awesome to have God among you.

Summer's Here

Wow summer is already here! And it has been quite a while since my last post. I have been in transition for the last month or so.

After school let out Michelle and I were able to go visit my parents in Las Cruses, New Mexico for a few days. We spent time just hanging out and relaxing at their place. One day Michelle, mom, my sister Jess and I all drove out to White Sands National Park. The area is so beautiful! The sand is extremely soft and is white as snow. Being there as the sun sets makes the whole terrain glow with a heavenly vibrance.



While we were in New Mexico we drove up to Albuquerque for our first wedding shower! It was really nice to see so many of my friends and mentors from home again. Several women from my home church threw us a really great shower at the Carmen's house. It was great to just be able to spend time talking and checking up.

I'm now in Mt. Carmel, Illinois working with the youth again for the summer. I have just recently got all settled in to my own apartment. Michelle is living with Mitchell and Gala in Kentucky getting things together for the wedding. Once we return from our honeymoon Michelle will join me here in Illinois.

I am really existed about working with the church here again. Its nice that I already know the place and all of the people this year. Bobby and Mellisa Smith just got in town yesterday. Many of us from church helped them unload last night and unpack today. It will be really awesome to be able to work with Bobby again.



I have a lot of new ideas for the summer. This year I decided to make a summer theme: "The Jesus Movement". It seems that many in our country have forgotten that the Way of Jesus is a dynamic movement. When from the very beginning of Jesus' ministry He went out both telling people and showing them that the Kingdom of Heaven has come to Earth. Since then, Christ's movement of love, liberation, and life has been spreading across the globe. This summer I want it to be clear that we as Christ's followers are now the hands and feet of this movement. I want us to be active in bring this movement to our community and friends as we show it to others in the way we live our lives. I pray that those around us will realize that we are part of a 2,000 year old movement of love, liberation, and life. I pray that this summer God will continue to use us in His work as He expands The Jesus Movement throughout Mt. Carmel.

One major way that I think that our community will see this movement is when they see that we as a church genuinely care about them and their physical needs. So this summer I have big hopes and dreams for what God will do through us for the community. It is my hope and prayer that God will use us to serve Mt. Carmel and the surrounding area. And that the young and radical disciples of our congregation are a part of His plan.

One of the ways that we are going to show our love for the community is through community service projects. I have already had a few meetings at city hall with the Administrative Assistant to the mayor about some things that we can do to help the community. As a result I have found some projects around town to help improve some of the town's parks. What is the point of all of this? Glory to God! Glory to God is always the point. Showing people our deep love for them is a natural outflow of that. I believe that our teens are going to make a big impact this summer. And these community service projects will only be a small part of that impact. We as disciples should always being displaying the radical love of God in our lives to others.

May the people in your life see that you are a part of movement of love, liberation and life --a movement that genuinely cares about them. Let those around you know through your actions that you are a part of The Jesus Movement.

Resurrection Day

I hope that you know my King. 

For nearly 2,000 years now people have been entrusting their lives to Him because of our with in God's ability to raise us too from the dead. 

Many historians and Biblical scholars have pointed out that the resurrection was like a catalyst for the revolution that was simply called the Way. Those that opposed and tried to oppress the Way and it's message of Life found their task to be futile. Because the disciples of the One who was shown to be the Messiah didn't stop. Not even when their "lives" on at stake. The disciples didn't stop then -and we still haven't stopped to this day, some 2,000 years later. When you're dealing with disciple's of Jesus, when you're dealing with the Kingdom of God, you are dealing with a people that know that they too have been resurrected --because their King has victoriously conquered death. 

"Death has been swallowed up in victory. 

O Death, where is your victory? 

O Death, where is your sting? 

Thanks be to God for Jesus, the Liberating kING, Who brought us victory over the grave."

--1 Corinthians 15:54-57 

I hope that you know my King. 

I hope that you are living a resurrected life, where you are set free from sin and death and all of their bondage. 

I hope that you know the love of Christ, and how strong and endless it is for you. 

I hope that you know followers --those of the Way. We are His Kingdom, and today (like every day really) we celebrate our Resurrection Day.

Current Events No. 2: West Mesa Victims

Oftentimes love is so poorly packaged that when we have sold everything to buy it, we cry in finding all our substance gone and nothing in the tinsel and the ribbon.

-Calvin Miller

In his article "Bodies Found in New Mexico, but Mystery Lingers for Kin of Missing Women", Dan Frosch tells the stomach turning story of recently discovered bodies in the West Mesa of Albuquerque, New Mexico. This story, appearing in the headlines of the Times, quickly caught my attention since Albuquerque is my home town.

On February 2nd, a woman walking her dog discovered the remains of a woman who was later identified as Michelle Valdez, a local prostitute who went missing in 2004 at the age of 22. Since this first discovery another 11 bodies have been found by a team of forensic experts and archaeologist. This team believes these bodies match descriptions of missing prostitutes that have gone missing from 2001-2006.

Frosch points out how at first no one really noticed that Ms. Valdez had even disappeared since she lived in the backdrops of society. Some of the other bodies have recently been identified as prostitutes who worked the Albuquerque streets in a part of the town called "the war zone." Most of these women began their work in the streets because of sequences of terrible events in their lives that led to use of and eventual addiction to heroin. These woman turned to prostitution as the only way to secure their next fix on the drug. One father from Fort Worth told of his daughter who first used heroin after having been raped by a school mate. His daughter then moved to Albuquerque for a fresh start on life --but went missing only three weeks later.

I am deeply saddened while the reading of these events. The stories of these woman remind me of a woman that Jesus met while stopping for a rest in the region of Samaria. The woman in Samaria had also been victimized like these woman found in the desert of Albuquerque. The woman of Samaria was a social outcast, she was marginalized and forgotten. She took to the habit of going out of her way to avoid people and the judgments that were sure to come from others. And she too had been sold a dangerous counterfeit love that called itself an original.

There are many things that one could become angry over in this story: injustice, corruption, complacency, abuse, and the pure horror that someone had such a disregard for life that they could carelessly kill so many. The list could go on and on. And many questions could be raised just as well. But what resonates most with me, and what I take away from reading this article is the lives of the victims themselves. Because victimized is what they were. And from what it sounds like they were victimized long before their physical deaths. They are victims of the World Hater's sin that always, always leads to death. I see these woman as being under the cruel and painful grip of Satin. He love to bring about pain after pain in people's lives. He loves to deceive his victims by persuading them give their lives over to a false since of reality, priorities and happiness. He does this while telling them that the same lie is all of love that there is in the world.

Hearing about these victims also makes me think of how such people were naturally drawn to Jesus. Because Jesus was always willing and wanting to show them what Love truly is. Reading this story makes me realize how important it is that I live an incarnational life here in this world. Because this world is full of marginalized victims of the World Hater who have been sold a counterfeit love and are starving for the Original.