Reflections From Sunday Evening

Several of our staff attended the Church of the Resurrection Leadership Institute this week. As always there were great insights to glean. I appreciated a number of things I heard but in particular some things Leonard Sweet shared. In particular I resonated with his statement: "As I grow older my theology is getting more complex but my faith is getter more simple." In essence he shares that his faith is summed up with "Give Me Jesus." I appreciate the simplicity of faith in Jesus. Is this not where most of us begin our faith journey? "Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." We learned about Jesus in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. It seemed so simple. Accept Jesus and he will forgive your sins. (That is an odd concept for an 8 year old but we learned that.) With Jesus in our heart we are promised eternal life in heaven. That is not bad theology. As we grow older it becomes apparent that our childhood faith does not always stand up in the furnace of life experiences. Grown up issues are much more complex. That is why we develop more complex theology as we live life. We find ourselves needing to develop a theology that speaks to economic matters, war, death, loss, fear and the list goes on. We make the discovery that the more we know the less we know. This especially relates to God. The more we learn about God the more we realize how little we understand. Then we find ourselves moving back to faith. It is a simple faith. It is a faith that rests at the heart of our theology. It is faith in Jesus. We continue to look for ways to serve God. We want to be in mission. We want to do justice. We seek to understand. But at the heart of it all is Jesus. "Jesus love me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. We are weak but he is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so." It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

We have been talking about Compass Point the past three weeks. This is our initiative to enhance spiritual growth. Sometimes we call it intentional faith development. We look for a pathway of discipleship. Here is a little different take on the points of the compass. N - Think of the North Star. Think of what we orient our life around. For us it is Jesus. So the North Point of the compass points to Jesus. He is the object of our worship. We become more and more Christ centered through the North Point of the compass. E - I think of the "wisdom from the East". The magi were "wise men" who travelled from the east to see Jesus. When we think of the E on the compass we think of learning. We will learn how to read and apply the Bible. We will learn how to think about God. We will become more informed followers of Jesus through the East Point of the compass. S - We move around the compass to the South Point. With this one I use my imagination. Think of a southern breeze that refreshes and renews. In our Christian life connecting with other followers of Jesus and living the faith in community is intended to bring that freshness of Spirit that renews. The South Point is one where we connect with Christ and others along the way of Christ. W - The West Point of the compass points toward serving. I imagine the adventure of moving westward in an earlier age. I see the West Point representing mission, service and witness. The W develops us as we serve. These are some different ways to think about what we plan to accomplish in Compass Point. Do not miss out. Use this spiritual compass to plot your course for living the faith. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

The Holy Spirit plays a huge role in our Christian life. Some basic points along this line remind us that when we put our faith in Jesus Christ and trust him as our Savior the Holy Spirit creates what we refer to as the New Birth. That means when we believe in Christ we are born of the Spirit. This is the entrance into the life of grace and sows eternal life in our soul. We do not believe that once a person professes faith in Christ that concludes the story. As a matter of fact we believe that "conversion" is but a first step in the Christian life. We immediately enter into a relationship with God where we will continually be transformed and renewed in the image of God. The Holy Spirit produces divine love in us. We are always experiencing the love of God growing in our lives and gradually we will be perfected in God's love. Contemplate that for a moment! The Holy Spirit also produces holiness in our life. There are more things taking place in our relationship with Christ that we attribute to the work of the Holy Spirit. We are being continually filled with the Spirit. Picture a river of living water that never runs dry. We are being continually filled with this river of life. The Holy Spirit is fashioning us in the love of God. We are filled with love. Our character is being formed. The fruit of the Spirit are becoming defining characteristics of our life. The Holy Spirit is producing holiness. With holiness comes the power of the Holy Spirit as we serve through various spiritual gifts that are given. The Spirit leads and directs our conduct as followers of Jesus. That should give you something to think about as you give thought to your Christian experience and how life in Christ is lived. Recently I thought about the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has power to change our lives. The Spirit gives grace and gifts. There is a power available that is astounding. This calls attention to an important point. Power without love and holiness is not something I want. Power with holiness and love will empower us to make a difference and do our part in transforming the world. With holy love the power of the Spirit is a wonderful thing. So receive the Spirit and continue to nurture God's love and holiness in your life. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

"Indigenization" - defined as "the fact of making something more native; transformation of some service or idea to suit a local culture". A number of years ago mission theory took a shift. There was a move from sending people of one nation to share the gospel with people of another to equipping people in the culture to be reached to share among their native country. (That was a tough sentence. You probably need to read it again). That puts the message in the language and culture of those being reached. This takes other forms. I recently mentioned our practice of taking a secular song and building a service and message around it. That is taking something from the culture we seek to reach and putting it in another culture (Christian) so the message is shared in the language of those we seek to reach. Indigenization! This is a practice that has been going on for some time. In 325 A.D. church leaders convened the Council of Nicea. From this gathering came the Nicene Creed. Feel free to look it up. It's basic thrust regards the nature of Christ. There is a word used that distinguishes orthodox teaching about the person of Christ. It is a Greek word. (You can feel free to look that up too). The point is not to do a Greek grammar lesson. The point is that the word was taken from the secular culture. It was a word used in the pagan world of their day. It was taken and inserted into this early Christian creed. That could have had the effect of making the Nicene Creed indigenous. A familiar word was given a Christian meaning. That is what we do when we seek to communicate the Gospel to a culture that is yet to embrace the faith. We speak in the language of the culture we are reaching. Of course there is a line drawn somewhere between relevance and missing the point. That is our challenge. For now we continue to look for ways to effectively communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ in ways that do not compromise the truth of our message yet more clearly relates to the culture. It's a challenge but also a joy. On another note... Only 15 more Chiefs games to try to sit through this year. But it could be worse. You could be a Cowboys fan! It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve