Several Updated Thoughts

My last post talked about my desires and prayers for our group as we went to Momentum.  If you read that and wondered if those prayers were answered, I want to tell you that they were.  I believe that God spoke loudly and clearly to those of us who were at Momenutm.  In some cases, it was obviously evident that God had spoken to an individual.  In other cases, the impact was a little more below the surface, but as you looked closer, you could see God’s fingerprint on those people as well.  It was a great week to hear God speak.

The other prayer was that we would respond when He spoke.  I’m typing this today, over 2 months later, with a report that students have, and continue to respond.  It’s been so neat to see students coming home and getting excited about their faith.  It’s fun to watch students initiate service projects with one another and look for ways to share Christ with their friends.  It’s neat how students have asked me if I can help them find a mentor, or if they can be part of a new evangelism team, or if I have any resources that might help them as they talk to their friends.  Students have definitely responded and I believe we are on the verge of great things in our youth ministry.  My continued prayer is that God would do something amazing in us, that can only be explained by His power.  Would you pray this bold, (dare I say, almost impossible?) prayer with me?

It’s been really cool to be together as a church staff and talk about what it is EGBC is supposed to be about.  We took a day last month to just pray and discuss this topic.  I think we have a fantastic sense that God has shown us what we are to be about.  As Pastor Jeff said during our retreat, “This is our job description here at the church.”  Being about Grace and Truth, being authentic and having an atmosphere of a loving community, having a passion for evangelism and making disciples, and doing ministry intentionall and creatively… This what we are about at EGBC.  These are things I can get excited about.  These are things that I want to get out of bed in the morning ready to help our church understand and live.

We just had our annual Fall Fest this past Sunday and I was very encouraged by the day as a whole.  Yes, it did rain, but inspite of that, we had a very good turnout.  I was able to talk with several people that I didnt’ know (which is a VERY good thing).  It was great to see our Body pull together and serve our community as well as to see people who may not know Christ, in our building, talking to people in our church that do know Christ.  I have no idea how many spiritual conversations happened that day, but people were praying for them, so I’m going to trust that not only was it a fun day for everyone involved, but it was a spiritually impactful day for everyone who came.

Lastly (before this gets too long), I’m really excited about the series we are doing in Youth Group the last 2 Wednesdays, tonight and next week.  We’re doing a Dare 2 Share series called Go Wide.  It’s so simple in concept yet so profound in it’s application.  We are basically being challenged to Pray (as in begging God kind of prayer) for at least one friend we would like to see come to know Christ.  We then are to Pursue them and look for ways to have intentional “God” conversations with them.  The goal is, using whatever you’re talking about, to “bring God up.”  Finally, we want to Pursue them in a number of areas… To Attend youth group or church, Believe in Christ as Savior, Connect to a group of friends in the group, Develop spiritually, and Evangelize others.  That’s it.  That’s the Great Commission in a nutshell.  I how I can walk out of youth group tonight and go do exactly what we’ve been talking about.  In fact, I have a list of people (neighbors, a server I have on a regular basis at a restaurant, etc.) that I’m praying for, hoping to pursue and looking to pursuade them into checking out our church and trusting Christ.  Imagine if every believer prayed passionately for one person, and took opportunities to talk to them about Christ and pursuade them to check out our church and our Savior… This would revolutionize our church.  This would turn us upside down.  Are you getting excited about that possibility?  Hopefully you can tell that I am.  Pray for me and I’ll pray for you as well.  God wants us to go wide with His message of hope.

My two prayers for our students as we head to Momentum

As we get ready for another trek to Momentum, I began asking myself, “What would I like to see God do in our group as we head off for Momentum 2008?”  I believe God put two thoughts into my head.  I would love to see our group grow in unity.  Jesus prayed that for all believes before he was arrested (see John 17).  His desire would be that we would be one.  This unity proves to the world that we are truly followers of Christ.  The more I’ve been thinking about and studying this idea, the more I realize that to truly do this, we must practice sacrificial love.  This is a kind of love that isn’t about the “warm fuzzies,” but rather about giving up what I want most and what makes me feel good or comfortable for the good of someone else.  My prayer is that we all begin to fully understand what sacrificial love looks like in our Youth Group as well as our church as a whole.  The second thought that I believe God desires for our group is to connect with God on a deep level.  This means keep our ears open to what God is trying to say to us and having the courage and resolve to respond to that with action in our everyday lives.  It’s one thing to hear God and agree with what He is saying to us.  It is quite a different thing to roll up our sleeves and say, “God, not matter what, I’m going to do this in my life.  No matter the cost or difficulty, I’m committed to living the life you have for me.”  So, how about you?  How are you doing in the areas of unity and connecting to God’s will for your life?  These questions have been hammering away at my heart.  My desire as a husband, father, pastor, and most importantly, a follower of Christ is to pursue unity with my fellow believers and to listen to what God is saying to me and respond to it no matter what it takes.  Would you prayer for me that God would accomplish these things in my life?  I’ll pray the same for you.

A New Book Worth Reading

My friend Kary Oberbrunner is a guy I went to college with at Grace.  He’s currently a Grace Brethren pastor in Ohio and has already written 2 books.  His third book is coming out in January and is going to be fantastic.  Kary has a firm grasp on postmodern culture and and great understanding of Scripture.  Check out the video trailer for his new book below.  I can’t wait to get my hands on this book and soak up all of Kary’s wisdom.

Is swearing a sin?

I’m going to forego the remaining material from Acts 17 because I was blessed by God with the opportunity to preach it on Father’s Day to the entire church.  If you weren’t here that Sunday, let me know and I can give you the notes from the message.

So, did I get your attention yet with my title?  Let me give you some insight on where I’m coming from in this post.  We had a very good discussion in Youth Group last night on this very topic.  I plopped down on the stool in front of the Youth Room and asked this very question.  Of course, the Sunday School answer was, “Yes, it’s wrong.”  So, my next question was, “Tell me where in the Bible it says that.”  Now, you probably guessed it; I was playing the devil’s-advocate with the group.  What I wanted to hear from them was an explaination of why as a believer I shouldn’t swear and I wanted them to tell me from God’s word, not from their own opinions or the opinions of people they’ve heard who have told them it’s wrong.

This topic was fresh in my mind because there is a guy I went to college with who was very encouraging and humble in the way he spoke while we were in school together.     This past week, having not seen or spoken to him in probably 8 years or so, I stumbled across some pictures of him and some other guys hiking on his personal socail networking site.  I was enjoying how much fun the hike looked when I happened to read a comment someone posted on his site about how long of a walk that hike was.  He was able to comment back on his own photo, and much to my surprise, used some very colorful words to describe how he felt about that even when the picture was taken.  I thought to myself, this CAN’T be the same guy I remember from college.  It seemed so out of character for him.

Someone else must have thought the same thing because they posted a comment after his saying they didn’t remember him having that kind of mouth in college.  In response to that comment, he stated that the Bible doesn’t say you shouldn’t cuss and believers that enforce that standard are just like the Pharisees who add their own rules to what God says.

So, going back to my question to the Youth Group… What do you say to someone who professes faith in Christ and has no problem with swearing?  Needless to say, it was a discussion that required a lot of thought and page turning in our Bibles to come up with some ideas on whether swearing is ok for a believer or not.

Now, before you think I just let everyone decide that if they wanted to swear that it was ok, we did come to some conclusions as a group.  I’m very proud of our students for thinking through the issue and relying on God’s word to come up with their own answers.  One student came up afterwards and asked for all the references we used so she could look them up again later.  I had another student text me later that night, thanking me for addressing the topic.  She had wanted to find ways to talk with her friends about this very thing we discussed and now felt like she knew what she believed and was able to give Biblical reasons as to why she she believed it.

I don’t post this to “toot” my own horn, but to give an example of what our teens are craving.  They need “real life” answers to things they deal with day in and day out.  They need to know that the Bible does give answers to tough topics and that it is relevant for everyday life.  This is my goal as their pastor, to help them discover for themselves what they believe, not based on what I tell them they should believe or what the good “church” answers are, but what God says about these things.  Afterall, shouldn’t he be the only authority that matters on these things anyway?

So, I throw the question out to you… Is swearing a sin?  What does God say about it?  What should we be teaching our students about this and other subjects they encounter daily?  I’ll leave you with the passages we discussed last night and let you do some thinking on your own.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this particular topic

Psalm 10:4-7; Psalm 39:1-9; Proverbs 17:20; Proverbs 21:23; Ephesians 4:29; Ephesians 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Colossians 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:13; James 1:26; James 3:2-12; 1 Peter 3:9-12

Paul’s Mars Hill Ministry

While our class has finished, there still so much more conversation to have regarding Paul’s ministry to the people of Athens and how that applies to us as we seek to reach postmoderns.  My intention for this blog is to continue to supply us with relevant information (much of which I wanted to cover in our class, but just didn’t have the time to) as well as be a place for resources as you seek to reach out cross-culturally to the world that is at our doorstep.  Today’s teens and 20-somethings desperately need God in their lives, and the only way they are going to find that relationship with their Savior is if we, the messengers, get out and engage them in relevant methods with a very real message of hope and salvation.  Paul gives us a great example of how he engaged a very similar culture with the gospel message.  This is found in Acts 17:16-34.

The following material is taken from the book “Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture” by Walt Mueller.

This material is review from last week, but it’s good to go back to it as we continue into the verses we weren’t able to cover.

16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

• Paul had free time and took a tour of the culture to study it.
• Idols indicated pagan worship and the extent of the city’s worldliness and immorality.
• Note:  Being in this environment does not compromise Paul’s integrity.  He is in the world but not participating in what they do.
• We too often overreact to culture and go into our “bunker” mentality.
• Paul’s faith and personal holiness sustain him in this environment.
• Paul is not indifferent to the rampant idolatry he sees.  He is “greatly distressed” by it.
• The result of his distress is that he speaks up to the people in that culture.

17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

• He wasn’t quick to condemn them as his first response.
• He also didn’t look to run for safety from the “bad” things he encountered.
• Paul started in the Synagogue and meets with his fellow Jews and God-fearing Greeks to explain Christ as the Messiah using Scripture from the O.T. like he did when he was in Thessalonica (Acts 17:2-3).
• He also moves to the marketplace to reason with the people he finds there.
• The marketplace was like a town square for the city and was the hub of all civic activity.
• Paul engages people in dialogue much the same way Socrates did years before in the exact same spot of the city.

18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

• Paul received opposition from 2 groups with pagan worldviews.  These worldviews were an attempt to answer the human need for meaning and purpose outside of God.
• Epicureans

Followed the teachings of Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)

Their highest good and goal in life was pleasure

This is not a hedonistic philosophy but one of being at peace and free of worry

Good and bad was determined by ones feelings

They believed in many “gods” but thought they had no involvement in human affairs

Believed there was no judgement after death

Since they thought physical matter disappears at death, they had no room for the resurrection in their worldview

• Stoics

Followed the teachings of Zeno (340-256 B.C.)

Were rational thinkers (the opposite of Epicureans)

Believed reason was to guide humanity

Their ultimate goal in life was to be self-sufficient, dutiful and courageous while living in harmony with nature

If you couldn’t live in harmony with nature, suicide was considered and encouraged

They believed “god” was the world’s soul and the world came into existence and continues by chance

Divinity = High Reason.  Therefore, anyone can become a “god”

Believed in tolerance and pluralism

Also had no room for the resurrection

• Both groups reacted against Paul’s teaching because their worldviews were anti-biblical and what Paul was telling them was foreign to them.