The Mission of God

For those of you who may not have known this, I recently began working on my Doctor of Ministry degree. The program is in Congregational Mission and Leadership. And I must say that I am pretty excited about it. Needless to say, you can expect to get a few blogs on ideas that have crossed my mind as I have been doing reading and course work. Thus the blog for today.

I read a great book The Ministry of the Missional Church by Craig Van Gelder. The premise for this book is that the Church being the church is not and should not be separate from the church being about the mission of God in the world. In other words you cannot separate church from mission, because in order for the church to be church, the church needs to be about mission. That is the premise. So what is the mission of God?

It is simply that God is seeking to bring back, to reconcile to himself, all of creation. Cool, huh? And so the church needs to think and operate according to this. How does_______ (fill in the blank) participate, contribute, is a part of the mission of God? This is not to say that whatever you filled the blank in with is necessarily bad, but I think that it provides us with a different framework for how we think about the things that are done as a church.

Have you ever had the feeling that the point of church was survival? We have to keep on keeping on. Or maybe perhaps that the activity of the church was limited to a local congregation? What this "mission of God" kind of thinking does is to challenge the local congregation to think a little more big picture. In other words, God has placed us in the very specific community that we are in, because he is about reconciliation, and we are to be about the work of reconciliation in this place. It isn't about merely surviving or feeling stuck in a location. But it is about being part of something that is bigger that we are, and being able to make a real, genuine difference. It is about thriving and living and experiencing life the way that it was meant to be lived.

This is such a very exciting topic. But at the same time is is very simple. It is the will of God that all people be saved. It is the mission of God to reconcile those people to himself. It is through the church that God works to bring that about. What an amazing and awesome privilege we have to be a part of that. Not even the angels get to partake of this great honor. God's blessings to you this week and always. I look forward to your comments and responses.

Sincerely,
Pastor CJ

Confirmation

Having completed the list of questions that I was handed months back, I figured I would take this week to share some of my thoughts on a very important day. For fifteen of our 8th graders, this Sunday is confirmation day for them. That is the day that the faith given to them in baptism is confirmed in them.

They have gone through two years of classes, worked on projects that expressed their faith, participated in service events in the community, and now they get to go through this very special day.

And yet, even though there were many requirements that needed to be met, confirmation is not a graduation. It is not the end of the road, rather it is the beginning of the journey. So during this confirmation week, I would request your prayers. Please pray for these confirmands, and that this day would be a launching point for them into the greater life of the church.

Also, think about topics or questions or things that you would like to have addressed in this blog and we will move forward. God bless you this week and give you his peace in Jesus. God bless our confirmands, and all confirmands.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

Really?

Is God Really ALWAYS with You?

The answer is yes. God is really always with us, and nothing will change that. The presence of God in the midst of his people is unlike anything else that you will see in other religions. There, there is a different relationship with their gods.

For us, our God became a human being, Jesus. He lived with us. He died for us. He gives us his Holy Spirit. So we are never ever without our God. He will never ever leave us or forsake us. He will never ever abandon us. He promised to always be with us and we can be sure and certain of that wonderful hope.

Not only is he with us, but he cares for us and loves us. He will always provide us with all that we need to support our bodies and lives. And he gives to us a life with him that will never end. He is present as we read his word. He is present as we receive his body and blood in communion. He is present as we serve others. He is present as we spend time with his people and grow in love with them.

To be sure, there are times when it does not feel like God is around. Or we ask, "If God is here, why is he allowing this to happen?" And yet, even in the face of the most awful things we can imagine, our God does not leave us alone. He will not always let us in on why he is allowing the things to happen in our lives that are happening. But he will never abandon us or forget us because of them. Check out Romans 8.

May you always find comfort, strength and joy in the good news that are God is really and truly always with us.

God's peace in Jesus.

Pastor CJ

Recharging Your Faith

How do you recharge you faith when you are feeling burnt out and lost?

Spending time in the Scriptures an in prayer is a very good way to recharge your faith. Also receiving communion is another way to do this. The Holy Spirit works through these things to strengthen our faith. These things, the Scriptures, Holy Communion, and Holy Baptism, are known as the means of grace, and they are very powerful in our lives.

Another way to recharge your faith is to spend time with other Christians. As Christians we are to bear each other's burdens, so that the things we face, the challenges that come against us in life, we never have to face alone. But we have the help, support and encouragement that comes from one another.

Yet another way to recharge your faith is through service. This can be very, very powerful. Going away for a few days on a servant event can be a life changing event for people. It helps you to put things into perspective and realize what is important. Serving others is living out our faith, it is what we are to be all about as Christians. And service can be a great source of renewal. If you are not able to go away, get involved locally. There are many ways to help, and places to go to help, that will allow you to serve. And in that you will find a great source of encouragement. It is kind of cool, those who serve, not only are blessing the ones they are serving, but they themselves are blessed in their service. It is a situation where everyone involved wins.

There are many practices, known as Spiritual Disciplines, that can be helpful as well. These are things like fasting, prayer, worship, service, study, simplicity, solitude, as well as a few others. They can be good tools to help us refocus and recharge.

I hope this has been helpful. If you have any thoughts or questions, please post them. God's blessings in Jesus.

Pastor CJ

It's All Part of the Plan

Has God planned us from the beginning of time and does he know exactly where we will end up?

It is true that God knows everything. He knows all the decisions that we have ever made, and he knows all the decisions that we will ever make. Not only does he know that, but he knows everything that would be different had we made a different choice. He knows how life would be different if we had gone to a different school, or would have married a different spouse. So we say that God knows everything, we mean that God knows everything. This is one of those things that could keep you up all night.

It is important to understand that there is a difference between knowing that something will happen, or what will happen, and making something happen. It is like watching the movie Titanic. You know how that movie is going to end. You knew the ending before you even bought the ticket. No matter what was going to happen, the boat is going down. And no matter how much you want to change that, it won't change.

In the same way, because God does what is going to happen, does not mean that he makes it happen. Remember he knows every outcome of every possible path that we choose to go down.

Now, when it comes to salvation, we will find in the scriptures a paradox. A paradox is two statements that seem to contradict each other, but in reality both of them are true. You also have to be careful that you do not make arguments from silence. That is you have to be careful about saying that something is true, even though the scriptures don't tell us in so many words. God's word can speak for itself and it is best to not add to it.

With that in mind, God has chosen his people before the creation of the world, to be his people. For those who belong to him, that is a great source of comfort and strength. But you can't automatically assume that the opposite is true. You can't simply say that God then has chosen other people, who are not his, to be separated from him for all eternity. That is not how the scriptures speak. In fact, they say the opposite. God desires that all people would believe in him and come to know salvation in Jesus. God wants all people to be saved.

Because this is true, then the church has a pretty big mission to accomplish. And this not converting people, because only the Holy Spirit can do that, but it is for us to proclaim the good news of God's love in Jesus. To love and serve people as God would have us love them, and to speak and give witness to the hope that is in us. We do this, because from a spiritual perspective people are born in sin and are separated from God, they are spiritually dead and can, on a spiritual level, do nothing. They can't choose to follow Jesus or anything like that. However, the Holy Spirit works through his word, to give life to people, so that by the time they say, "I want to be a Christian" the Holy Spirit has already worked his wonderful work.

Now the Holy Spirit, can work in any way that he wants. However, he has chosen to work through the Scriptures, that is why it is important for us to proclaim them correctly, so that the Spirit can bring about salvation through them.

This is a topic that can be difficult to understand. But it is very much an important one. If you are in need of more explanation. Please let me know.

God's peace in Jesus.


Pastor CJ

Big Huge Super Bad Sin

If you commit a big huge super bad sin how do you ask/receive forgiveness?

This question is a great question, because it gives us an opportunity to talk about a great topic and that is the forgiveness of our God. Before I get to that though, it is important to point out that we, as human beings, tend to think of sin not in the theological terms and implications, but in terms of consequences. Since the consequences of being angry with someone are not as bad as the consequences that come from murder we say that murder is a worse sin than being angry with someone. But actually, Jesus says that one is just as bad as the other. Now, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us, but that is because we think of sin in terms of consequences. But from sin separates us from God. There are no little sins or big sins or even big huge super bad sins. The wages of all sin is death and that we are to be separated from God. That is why sin is such serious business.
So what do you do when you have committed a sin and as a result of that sin there are big huge super bad consequences? You ask God to forgive you. You repent (change the way you think and act). And you ask the Holy Spirit to give you the strength to fix/correct your sinful life. Then after you have ask for forgiveness, you and rejoice in the joy of knowing that for the sake of Jesus, and because of his sacrifice on the cross, that God indeed forgives your sins. Sometimes it is helpful for us to tell our sin or to confess our sins to another person (i.e. a pastor) and to hear them tell us that we are certainly forgiven and that that is a good thing.
So that forgiveness is real and sure and certain. That forgiveness takes away the sin and the debt that results from that sin. However, that forgiveness does not remove the immediate consequences of the sin.
But the blessings and joy of the Christian community is that within that community we have a family of people who will support us and walk with us as we struggle to deal with those consequences. Because that is what it is to live life in the forgiveness of God.
May his joy and peace in Jesus be yours this week and always.

Pastor CJ

Questions & Answers

Are there any completely right solid answers to questions or is it more of an experience that Go leads you through?

If this is a question about whether or not there is absolute truth, the answer is absolutely there is such thing as absolute truth. Because it does not come from us, but rather is something that comes from God.

I know that is not a popular kind of thing to post in our day and age, but it is posted with all love and respect. In saying this I am not placing myself above another, or making myself judge over them, nor am I trying to discount their experiences. I am simply writing out what I believe to be true.

Now this is not to say that life with God is all about head knowledge and correct answers that is devoid of any experience at all. God works through and in the experiences that we go through in our lives. The place where this becomes dangerous is when we expect or demand from God an answer or reason for why he allows the things that happen in our world.

It is not that God wants bad things to happen to people. In fact God desires that all people would come to a knowledge of the truth, and would know what life is like, when it is lived with him. The bad things that happen in our world happen because our world is broken by sin.

OK. But that then leads us to ask, why doesn't God fix it? And the answer is, that he did fix it in Jesus. Oh sure, we still see the results of the brokenness in our world, but, because of Jesus, we know that there will be a day when that brokenness will be completely removed, and all of creation will be restored. It is a very exciting kind of thing.

We also know that we who have been reconciled to God in Jesus, have been given the task of proclaiming that, and living that, and sharing that with others. In other words, we don't act better than anyone else, because we are not. We can disagree, but we do it respectfully. But we certainly do love, and serve and care for, and in doing this we are living and showing what it is to live life with God.

There are some Christians who have given a bad example. They have done some stupid, mean and evil things. But that does not mean that Christianity is bad, and the things those people did in the name of Christianity is not even Christian. So in our lives, in the things that we say and in the things that we do, we show that life with God, with his truths, is absolute, and is life the way that it was meant to be lived.

We show that it is a good thing, a blessing and a joy. And we give thanks and praise God for this awesome gift.

God's peace in Jesus.

Sincerely,
Pastor CJ