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via: Culture Making

Read Jesus’ statement again in light of this question: “What one thing should I do to grow more as a Christian?”

If someone asked you that question, how would you respond?

Would you suggest some basic spiritual disciplines, such as reading the Bible, praying, fasting, or learning theology?

The crowds brought this exact query to Jesus in John 6. His answer may surprise you:

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent” (John 6:28-29).

Notice they are asking Jesus what they must do to live a life that pleases God. Jesus answers that

the work of God is to believe.

In other words, the Christian life is not all about doing, it is about believing.

In the same way we become a Christian – repentance and belief – is the same way we grow as a Christian – repentance and belief.

Getting this right is crucial to our transformation into Christlikeness.

Most of us are naturally doers. We gladly embrace the next project, the next challenge, the next assignment. So our pursuit of Christian maturity produces a lot of busy effort, but little lasting change that only continual repentance and belief can.

For sake of discussion,

Why is this so?

Why do we equate busyness with transformation?

I originally stated that we let people belong so that they can become . . . become more like Jesus. I think that most churches have this process reversed. That is, they expect people to become like Jesus before they will ever let them belong. In other words, if you are not like us, or a currently participating in some visible sin, then we cannot let you belong. Stay outside while we sing “Just as I am.”

By belonging I’m simply referring to giving all people, wherever they are in their journey, the opportunity to find love and community so that they can encounter the transformative power of Jesus.

We are about actively ushering not-yet-Christians into the web of relationships among the church and welcome them be involved (though not leading) in the life of the church. In turn, the church – God’s missionary people – continue in prayer for the person and seek to demonstrate the love of God in practical ways, not to complete strangers, but instead people who by all accounts do not know God but are in genuine friendship with missionary people who do. In this way, the not-yet-Christian is not connecting with the church in terms of events and large programs, but instead smaller face-to-face ongoing contact with people who love and speak truthfully to them. In other words, they belong.

The not-yet-Christians see the very natural and practical outworking of the gospel in people’s lives and begin to identify themselves with the church before they identify themselves as Christian by speaking of my church—which we do not believe indicates faith but is a good step along the journey to speak of my Jesus.

As trust builds with their friends and the church, they have become accustomed to hearing about Jesus Christ often and at some point God gives them faith and they pass from death to life. This precise moment is often unknown to us and what we are less concerned about what is the exact moment of salvation and more concerned about their understanding of the gospel and love for Jesus Christ that changes them. They are becoming.

The non-yet-Christians are well aware that Christian friends have been and are praying for them and have always desired for them to make a decision to follow Jesus. So, when they do become Christians, they confess Christ to their friends and are overjoyed and spread the good news throughout their social network.

The new Christian then is baptized so they can make a public profession of faith and makes a covenant with the rest of the church body. They naturally want to invite their friends and family to their baptism so that they can begin their work as a missionary and confess Christ to their friends because they are overjoyed and desire to spread the good news throughout their social network just as the gospel was brought to them.

So what are your thoughts?

Am I missing something?

1. The Church in the Global South and East is growing far more rapidly than the Church in Western nations.

Consider the following graph from David Barrett:

*By 2005, the figure was already 60%, and some estimate that by 2010, 70% of Christians will reside in the Global South and East.

2. Because of the growing maturity of the Church in developing nations, a very healthy and vibrant missions movement has grown.

This means that all mission agencies will have to adjust their structures and organizational cultures to include and fully engage the multicultural missionary force or they will risk becoming isolated and marginalized from the growing non-Western missionary movement.

3. The new global realities dictate new approaches to mission.

Business as mission is not just a new strategy for raising support, but is a missional strategy as missionaries are no longer seen as “heroes” of the cultures they come from or by the cultures in which they are serving.

4. The global context requires more than short-term missionaries practicing Christian tourism.

We need churches who act and think like missionaries; churches who are dedicated to people, not programs; to incarnational ministry, not institutional preservation. Short-term trips should be balanced with long-term commitments.

I believe that these are realities no matter where you serve. I am always troubled how America is often referred to apart from “the world” or “the nations” like we do not all co-exist on the same globe.

For us serving in America, we have a lot to learn for the non-Western world. We must always have a global perspective for to many missional church do not do mission. Furthermore, the world is often at your door step. My son’s, pre-k class is representative of the multi-cultural reality we live in. In his class alone, you will see peoples from Latin America, India, Eastern Europe, and children of mixed heritages (I remind you that this is the South).

So what are your thoughts?

To my friends serving overseas: How are these realities played out in your context? What else would you add?

At their most basic spiritual level, meals are a daily reminder of our common need for God and his faithful provision.

When we eat together at the Lord’s Table (I am referring to more than a thimble of juice and a stale wafer), we commune around the truth of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Our meals together are about God reaching out to us with amazing grace. It is about the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Some have even commented that the whole Christian faith is contained in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

Jesus says in John 6:53-56, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

These mysterious proclamations disturbed enough of Jesus’ disciples that they left him according to verse 66 of John 6. They walked away. And Jesus did not call out: Hey fellas. Come back. It was just symbolism. No. Jesus let them leave without explanation and without defending his words.

I have to ask then, are the meals we share together around the Lord’s Table more supernatural than we think?

Could there be the real possibility that God is connecting with us in a very real way beyond just us recalling what happened 2,000 years ago?

As we eat and drink together in remembrance of Jesus, could Jesus himself may be reaching through the veil and touching us in a way that we cannot fully perceive with our human senses?

Maybe this is why the only command Jesus gives in regard to worship is given while eating a meal. For when we eat, we are using all of our senses – sight, touch, smell, taste, and yes we can even hear food being cooked and consumed.

Have you ever eaten a meal and the taste, the smell, the feel reminded you of something?

Could communion be one of the means by which God makes us more like Jesus?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Our English translation does not convey the shock that the entrance of this woman made, when it says “when a woman” it is literally “And look a woman!” The shock was primarily because of this woman’s reputation. The text tells us that she was a sinner and whatever her sin, she was a woman of considerable notoriety.

Her desire is to find Jesus and when her eyes finally rest on Him, the other guest fade into a mist of tears; it suddenly doesn’t matter what these respectable people think about her. All that she sees is Jesus and “standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.”

This woman is a mess – crying unashamedly, her nose running with snot, her hair wet with a muddy mixture of tears, dirt, and the smell of feet.

All eyes are on Jesus what will he do.

So Jesus tells Simon story: “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon’s answer reveals his heart. “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

Both were incredible debts considering that the average wages were barely sufficient for survival. And although there is considerable difference in what each man owed, what is important is that neither man was able to pay.

Both would have great love and adoration for the moneylender because their debts had been cancelled. It really doesn’t matter how much they owed. The point is forgiveness – something Simon believes he has no need of. Simon, however, has the same problem as the woman – they both owed a debt that they could not pay.

How often do we fall into the same trap. “I’m a sinner, BUT I am not a ‘big’ sinner like that woman.”

Sin is sin is sin is sin.

The sin debt had to be paid. And Jesus paid the debt so that you would not have to.

With that said, let me give you a little background to the Matthew’s Table story.

We decided from day one in the life of our church that we would be directly involved in international mission because too many “missional” churches simply do not do mission for a number of reasons. We did not want to fall into that trap.

To this end, I had the opportunity last spring to go on a vision tour of Rome, Italy and Marseilles, France with The Upstream Collective.

While in Rome, I connected with a church planting team who seeks to live incarnationally in what is Western Europe’s largest city with 3.8 million people. We have since formed a strategic long-term partnership with this team and will be taking our first trip at the end of April.

Our church community is made up of people who live pay check to pay check not unlike most of America.

For full disclosure: I do not receive a salary as a pastor nor do I pay myself one through Java Joe’s. My wife does receive a small salary from Java Joe’s – usually around $400-$600 a month depending on how business has been. Java Joe’s itself does good to pay the bills. Matthew’s Table receives $875/month in support from the Tennessee Baptist Convention which goes to help Java Joe’s pay the rent. Our monthly giving through our membership averages $500/month which is designated for our weekly meals, child sponsorship through World Vision, family ministry, and local mission.

I said all of that to say, we need to raise ten thousand dollars for our team of five (besides myself, all are relatively new believers). The cost breaks down to $1,500 for the plane ticket and $500 for food and lodging while in country.

I have attempted to make giving as simple as possible through Pay Pal. You can give simply by clicking the “donate” button below.

If you do not want to donate online, checks can be mailed to:
Matthew’s Table
1029-K West Main Street
Lebanon TN 37087

I had the opportunity to hear from Dave Gibbons early this week at the churchplanters.com Conference. He made a very simple statement that churches all too often define success as:

Up and to the right

However, biblically success is defined:

Down and to the left

Then Dave made this statement which has been rattling around in my brain ever since:

You can impress people from afar, but you can only impact them from up close.

That’s incarnation.

So how do you define success? Up and to the right? What you do.

Or do you define success down and to the left? What Jesus did.

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

[HT: http://www.dzubinski.com]

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at Matthew’s table, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples (Matthew 9:9-10, ESV).