Face to Face with Reality: Part 3

being a nominal believer is easy. It's frustrating, but it's fairly easy. What i mean is that doing things for the sake of doing things is simple - there's not much conviction for you to stand on, once you finish your tasks you can simply move on, you can always pawn off your failures onto other people's lives. It's easy. The Gospel of Jesus is never easy. Hmmm...let me clarify because Jesus does say that his yoke was easy and his burden was light. Yes his path for salvation is simple and easy.We acknowledge who we are in light of who he is and we come and fall a this feet. His discipleship, however, isn't. And if we really take Him seriously...and we really understands what he has called us to then our faith becomes significantly more difficult. I'm not saying that it's the worse thing in the world and you want to shoot yourself in the eyeball bad...i'm saying that the journey is tough - some survive and some don't (if you know what i mean). 

I say all these things to you because what is at stake is your joy. Joy? That sounds weird because that is not what we've been used to hearing at church huh? Nobody talked to me about joy...it was about quiet times,and prayer sessions. But joy comes from a lifestyle of worship - when Jesus begins to penetrate every aspect of life (from your relationship,the way you view people, the way you spend money, to whatever). I realize that i don't live this way too often...i don't. And as much as i like to say to others that i do, it's probably like 30% of the time. But i'lll tell you what...when i follow Jesus and what he says he proves tobe faithful and my joy increases. You know who Jesus always goes to thosewho need him the most? like he goes to the prostitutes, the homeless, the sick...well so i tried to do what he did one day and this and that happened and i'm actually waiting for one of my homeless friends to get cleaned up and showered. For the life of me, i couldn't have figured that i would do anything like this...but he was in need and we had resources. You know i have no clue how this is going to turnout - i mean i was told by friends that i was a fool for doing this and i have been warned by many people of "these people". I get theirpoint of view but in the end the command to follow Jesus out-weighs their opinions and in this case, it is quite clear. So yeah...i suppose we'll see what happens in this situation.

All to say...things look a lot different when Jesus is involved in religion. I ask you - how seriously do you take this faith of yours? Are there things you've been neglecting? Are there things that you need to be chasing that you aren't? Do you taste joy in your journey? Not happiness...but joy? 

Doubting Me: When doubts cloud your faith

i think there are times in one's life when they're confronted with the question "what the crap do i believe?" honestly, i was just like you and i hadbeen doing this "religious" thing all my life until my junior yearin HS and i sat there and went "man...i honestly have no clue what i believe or why i do the things that i do". Because honestly, churchfelt like a whole bunch of rules and nonsense that was put onto us by bitter people that wanted us to act like them. So i went off and triedto figure out what i really believe - whether or not this whole "christian"thing was legit. And i'll tell you it took awhile until i found out an answer...like i went to ask a bunch of people why they believed what they believedand it's funny cuz most people themselves don't know. 

I probably came to a realization that eventually i'm going to die andthat there's probably some kind of judgment waiting for me...and i'mprobably screwed because of who i am and what i've done. And i realizedthat i'm further screwed because there's no way i could ever fix myselfand get "good enough". And that's when it hit me...that i'm not and iwon't ever be BUT Jesus actually died for me and for my place. An undeserved death that was meant for me he now bears on his shoulders. It's weird because i heard that message for a long time but never reallyunderstood what it meant. It took me a good time to understand it, andsome more time to believe it to be true. After that it took me evenmore time to decide that i was going to follow after this Jesus no matterwhat it took - that's why i'm doing what i do. 

So here's the thing. Eventually you're going to have to ask yourselfthose questions - what do you believe, why do you believe it, and whatdoes that mean for your life? It is ok to doubt...please, i think if youhaven't doubted then you really don't take your faith that seriously because you haven't really challenged yourself. But know this, I and manyothers are there for you on this journey so you dont have to walk it alone. Whatever you need please let me know. 

Wisdom from Driscoll

1. I need to transition from caring for all people to ensuring they were all cared for by raising up elders, deacons, and church members.

2. I need to transition from being everyone's pastor to being the missiologist-preacher who led the church from the Bible in the pulpit.

3. I need to stop doing most of the work I was doing and deploy more elders and deacons to manage church members who would do the work of the ministry.

4. I need to transition from working both in the church and on the church to almost exclusively working on the church, continually making plans to connect the Bible with our culture, like Paul did as a missiologist-apostle.

5. Our internal and external church communication needed to transition from informal and oral to written and formal, which would include me writing lots of email templates, booklets, and position papers to inform our people.

6. We needed to transition our people from a survivalist mentality that focused on the present to a settler mentality that focused on a lasting legacy.

7. We needed our people to accept that we would be a very large church.

8. We needed to ensure that in the tension between caring for Christians and reaching non-Christians, evangelism continually remained our highest priority.

9. We needed to accept the fact that some people would feel less connected to my family and me, experience displacement, and leave the church.

10. My wife and I needed to reserve the right to select our own friends without feeling personally obligated to everyone in the church.

"Confessions of Reformission Rev." Mark Driscoll pg 150-151.

Fools!

About a week ago i attended my alma mater up in fort worth, texas. A couple of my fellow classmates were graduating from seminary and i went to cheer them on. And it's funny how God continues to push you when you're standing there and there's that constant reassuring thought the Holy Spirit blesses you with. I think recently ministry has taken a toll on my soul (nice rhyme) and i continue to wonder if i'm really cut out to do ministry. Like there are some days when i'm at the office and i wonder "why am i doing this? i'm not as good as i thought i was...the youth don't seem to be growing...blah blah blah" and i go into this self-loathing pity party. Ha. Talk about depravity right? But this is me.

So i get up to seminary and i was just expecting to sit through a typical graduation sermon, sing 2 songs, pray, and watch my friends walk. The president reads

1 Corinthians 15:12-17 12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

We are fools in the eyes of many because of our faith. It is futile in it's methods and means. We use this God in heaven and this Jesus fellow as a crutch to get through life. We are fools because our ethic is counter-cultural and we get exploited, used, and crushed. We are fools because we believe that there's something else out there other than this world. We are fools because we believe God in the flesh live

1 Corinthians 15:20-24 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

But. It hit me like a monkey crossing a bridge in July with a snowcone. Our faith is useless, worthless, worthy of being mocked, UNLESS it is true. Something swelled inside of my soul to think of the implications. We are no longer fools for becoming ministers, missionaries, equipped biblically...we find ourselves doing and in essence, being, the very agent that God has intended us to be. The question I find myself asking now is "How seriously do I take this Jesus and what he says? Is it a feel-good, once-a-week lesson? Or is Jesus really coming back one day and ask us what we did with our time, talents, and resources? Do i really trust that his way for life is better than popular culture's?" No friends, we are not fools...for many have tasted what is genuine conversion and they have not been able to recover. I find myself humbly in this line of "fools" for i have nothing intrinsically valuable, nor do i have the knowledge needed to succeed in this life...so i play the part of a "fool" in the eyes of the world and "redeemed, forgiven, justified, holy" in the eyes of my King.

Face to Face with Reality: Part 2

I think the easiest thing about being a church-goer was that there wasn't really anything to it. Like go and attend and that's pretty much it. I mean, people would tell me what to do and what not to do...but for the most part I never really cared about what they said. And I expose this part of my journey because I think many of us are here. Where it's easy to believe certain things and even pretend to abide by them but there's something drastically different between knowing something and acting upon it.

Saturday night rolled around and like most Saturdays i'm trying to prepare my mind for the long and exhausting Sunday that is to come. All of the sudden I get a call from an unknown Houston number. I don't think about it and I answer it. "Hey...is Justin there?" the caller asks. "Yeah, this is Justin...what's up?" "It's Michael...the homeless guy." At first i had no clue what was going on and honestly, i thought one of my youth was pulling a prank call on me. But then i realized that i had given this homeless guy my business card with my number on it. We chat for awhile and I was trying to figure out what he was calling about and more importantly what for. He really didn't say much...just that he was having a tough week and out of nowhere i go, "Hey man...what are you doing tomorrow? Would you want to go to church with me?" And i'm not really sure what made me do it but I just felt that perhaps i might be able to talk to him in person. But funny enough he goes "alright" and i tell him where our church is located and i feel bad about this next part. He goes "wait a minute...i need to write the directions on the back of my sign". And at that moment i tell him to forget it and i'll just pick him up and drive him to church.

I hang up the phone and my mind kind of goes all over the place. 1) because i've never done anything like this and 2) i start thinking about the "what ifs". The biggest thing that continue to filter into my mind was "what if the church doesn't receive him?" Like i'll play his side and i know scripture time and time again commands us to practice hospitality and to show love to the world - and this was definitely it. I knew in my gut that this is what i was supposed to do biblically. And i think this is going to have to be my filter for the rest of my decisions for the rest of my life. Because that night as i was trying to put a handle of the situation many people were telling me that this wasn't a "wise" idea because "what if the church isn't ready for him? what if he's dirty and smelly? what if he endangers people?" Just a week ago someone came up to me and told me that they found people smoking on our property that attended some of our church events. And they were furious with the situation and wanted us to kick them out because "it might ruin the reputation of our church and this isn't who we are". I kind of stood there and was just dumbfounded. Wait...this isn't the church? Seriously? You're telling me that we're only supposed to take care of people when it's convienent for us? My first impulse was to go to scripture and there i found the parable of the good samaritan. What you have is a man trying to justify himself with religion and the hard in-your-face question that is addressed is "who is my neighbor?". I read that story and i realize that the samaritan (the one who helps in the story) he's put in an unreal situation. Already two religious, powerful men pass by the beat-stranger and yet the samaritan stops, puts him in his car...drives him to the nearest hotel and stays with him over night. Can you imagine that? Do you know what my momma would do to me if i told her i did something like that? But yet the parable conveys the lesson - your neighbor is ANYONE that is in need.

Sorry, back to my story. I talk with Tina about it and though she understands where i'm coming from and the biblical rendering she still worries for my safety. Which...i'm alright with. So i ask Brandon to follow me in the morning in his car. We get there at 8:45 at his "place" and he comes out and the first thing i notice is that he had a can of beer in his hand. I didn't say anything about it, nor would i have, but he goes "man...i'm sorry. I don't mean to offend you by bringing this beer" I guess he thought beer offends christians. So he puts down the beer and he apologizes once again and pulls out another beer from his pocket. haha...i couldn't have cared less but it just makes for a funny story. Anyways i ask him if it would be alright if brandon and i just go to breakfast to just chat. And so we spend the morning over chorizo and listening to his story. The first thing i notice about him was the smell and even after dropping him off for the day my car still smelled as such. And you know...it's not pleasant, but it's reality right?

You know...after breakfast and just chatting with brandon about the whole morning and experience made me think a lot about life, christianity, and homeless people. I think a lot of time we like to compartamentalize these three and i found myself forgetting a lot of lessons that i've learned throughout life about this. But i told myself i'd try to remember, so i'm writing these lessons down...in part 3

Face to Face with Reality: Part 1

It's easy to gather information but it's crazy difficult to apply what you learn & believe.

Last Friday i was coming back from the gym on my way to work. I had not eaten anything so i wanted to pick up some food before i got back to the office. And it's weird because there's only fast-food restaurants between the gym and church so i pass up a MCstomach ache and went to Sonic. By the way, they're $1 menu is catching up with the rest of the fast-food world (i recommend the frito wrap). Well so i order and i'm sitting there at a light and out of my window i see a homeless dude with a sign. Recently, at church we've been talking about missions and how we're constantly on missions and that God has given us our talents, abilities, and resources for pushing back the darkness. And so looking at this guy i reached down and grabbed my lunch and rolled down my window and go "Hey man! I got lunch for you!" When he walks over to my car the first thing i notice is how his skin is kind of worn out from the sun and how it peels. I give my lunch to him and because that was all i cared to do for the man i started to roll up my window. But before i could get it up all the way he asks me, "What's your name?" Honestly, i wanted to just drive away and feel good about myself for feeding a homeless dude. I didn't want to chit chat nor did i want to risk the chance of getting jacked in the face by some random stranger. Nevertheless I tell him my name and he asked me what I did. I responded "Youth Pastor" which again God used to humble me. And then he proceeded to tell me how grateful he was that there are people in the world like me and for some reason (I don't know why) I pull out my business card and go "Well...here's my card and if you need something let me know". I swear that was the longest i've ever spoken to a homeless man. I roll up my window and take off and really didn't expect much. That was until Saturday night...