What is the Church?

It's taken years for me to write this post.  I have been in the middle of church strife, and on the fringe of it, and I've grown up in the church.  Most of my childhood church life was one way, traditional.  One day my idea of what church was...was changed.  It was the day I walked through the doors of LifeChurch.tv  -Stillwater campus.  That day I knew I was home.

How did I know that this was my church?  Because the moment I stepped foot in the door, I was was greeted and was received like a part of a family.  I was a stranger but that didn't matter.  I was welcomed.  I know what that feels like be on the outside looking in.  It was a warm engaging feeling of belonging.  It was fellowship.  It was home and I belonged there.  

Since then...every Sunday Kingdom builders are born there.  I belong.

The idea of us being Kingdom builders is not new, it's the philosophy that built the New Testament church.  Mark 1 states... "Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 'The time has come,' he said. "The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!"  Jesus modeled the gospel by making the claim..."I am your King."  

Next verse..."As Jesus walked..."  

Jesus took the gospel outside the tent meetings and the tabernacle and took it to the community of fisherman and tax collectors, the downcast, the oppressed, the rich, the poor.  He built the New Testament church with a devoted twelve.  He loved them enough to share the good news of salvation.  He gave of Himself because the beach front community needed to know.  They were crying out out for a Savior.  They needed Jesus and Jesus took the church to them.

Jesus is the Church and if we have Jesus Christ in our hearts, then we are the church.  We are kingdom builders of Jesus' church.  My church view has changed over the years about who and what the church is.  Church is a community that comes from fellowship with God and with other believers.  And that's what the fellowship of believers, making a community of truth based like minded believers looks like.  I realize that I am just one in the sea of believers, but we are all the church, inside and outside those building walls.  The actual community in which we live is crying out to be saved.  So we must, as the Great Commission states, go!  We must be the church that people are needing.  Our neighborhoods needs a Savior.

"Church arise...shake yourself from the dust....God is calling us to go!" Leeland

Will you be the one to tell them?

P.S. Mitch Hildebrant...this post was for you!

We Are Gathered Here Today

"This seems more like a funeral."  Giggles and laughter filled the room.  "When you have a bunch of people gathering to say nice things about you, you normally aren't alive to hear it."  More...giggles...and grins.  This was a direct quote from a China-bound couple who have been called to the international mission field and are on their way to a new life.  

Being a mission-minded couple, they're no stranger to radical way of life.  They have already been living out the Great Commission in their everyday lives.  The Mr. had been teaching-leading-mentoring a small church for 20 years.  In fact, he left a full-time, safe and secure income and devoted all efforts to a local food pantry, as he poured into his church and community.  The Mrs. wasn't shy in her radical efforts either as she was the strong force behind the children's, youth, women's and prayer ministries.

So how does an established couple, who are well rooted in the community and surrounded by loving children and grandchildren, get to a place in their ministry lives that they are willing to leave everything behind for a people group that they don't know?  

One reason...Heaven waits.

As I listened to all of the memories shared about Mr. & Mrs., one word that came to mind.   When I thought about all the ways my family had been impacted by their Christian witness, it could be summed up as....devotion.  They have a devotion to the gospel, they have a deep devotion to share it, and a deeper devotion to the One who is calling them to go. 

So in a sense the couple did attend at their own funeral for ministry as they knew it.  The Sending was a good-bye.  So long to their former life of a stateside pastor with a nifty packaged church.  And a hello to their new ministry life with their obedient missionary hearts, fresh-squeezed with compassion.  Plus a radical devotion to truth that will color their new church page. 

Their devoted service speaks volumes to me.  Their sacrifices will be great,  but their rewards for obedience will be greater.  

Because Heaven waits.

"A Place For Sinners, Not a Museum For Good People"

Thorny places

I liked the slogan of the church as soon as I saw it the Sunday service notes.  We settled into worship and it was obvious right away that the worship leader had spent some time with Jesus.  He worshiped too.

When it came time for the message, the pastor shared the exact same verse I had just read that morning.  I thought to myself...wow..that's cool!  Paul's writings have long stirred me ..and still do.  The more I understand the depth of Paul's circumstances in which he did most of his writing, the bigger fan I am of his style.  If anyone needed mercy, Paul did.   

The pastor shared about Paul's weakness with the thorn in his life.  Paul never mentions exactly what it was that caused him pain or irritation.  But in 2 Corinthians 12:7 - 10, Paul shares.....

"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that..."

And how did God answer Paul's cries for thorn-removal?  God left it right where it was planted deep in Paul's soul.  God's answer came in the form of mercy...

"My grace is enough; it's all you need. 

My strength comes into its own in your weakness. "

Did you get that?  Please re-read ...

I have a thorn...we all do..

Whatever your "thorn" is right now...your answer is God's grace.  Whatever you feel weak in...God's strength will come in and make it strong.  Struggling with a failed attempt?  God meets that with His strength and grace.  Feeling like you can't go on another day?  God won't leave you lacking when you ask Him for His grace.  Grace is complete and fills in all the cracks.

Wait...you say you have something that is impossible to get past?  

Your circumstances are ruined for all of time?  

You have crossed the line this time and there is no going back?

  

You have a fear the size of a  professional football field lodged in your throat and you can't see God's work for the giant crocodile tears that are constantly in your eyes and heart?

Yeah...I know...me too.

When I heard God's answer to my weakness, how it was simple and enough, I was a bawling mess of flesh in the pew on that Sunday.  

Really God...how could it be that simple?  How?

"My grace is enough; it's all you need. 

My strength comes into its own in your weakness. 

I am your portion and in YOUR weakness, I will use YOU..."

Talk about a waterfall of grace...gushing into my heart.  Wow..

The pastor's message was God's cheerleader encouragement that I needed to kick my football field sized fear-filled dream to the goalpost and say "touchdown".  Well...honestly...I have a hard head so..it will take a couple more reviews of the playbook to fully sink in.

But it was definitely a direct word from my God who knows my fear and has teamed it up with His grace and strength.  I know that he wrote the playbook, so there is no contest to consider.  He has all I need to make what He has asked me to do complete and enough.  

To me it's a God-sized challenge, but all I need to do is suit-up.  

When I am faint from practice, I will be met with enough promised grace.  

When I am frustrated beyond words, His cheers will shout hope to continue.

When I bring my "I-can't-attitude" to the field, He will meet me with A-string of "I-cans!"

When I am faint from not getting it right, He will bring me strength in my weakness.

When I am met with the empty blinking white screen ...He will give me all I need.  

Not just enough, but all that I need.  

God knows my needs better than anyone.  As I swallow hard and move forward I know, even my weakest and most broken places, those are even valuable to God.  It's in those thorny-hard-to-figure-out-the-answer places that he will bring His mercy.  I can trust Him to provide the grace and strength he has promised as He sees fit.  He's not running out of grace-laced-plays yet as I submit to His plan.  Wow....  

So...you want to know the name of the church?  Mercy Church, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

A Lesson From The Book of Honduran Hospitality

This past week I traveled to Honduras on a mission trip.  I didn't expect to meet such hospitality but the Hondurans are very welcoming people.  I was surprised by their open door policy and ironically a lot of homes don't have doors.  


The Honduran community in which we served was very open to our presence all week.  They were the most gracious hosts.  Maybe they were just curious about two bus loads of white Americanos driving down their dirt roads.


Whatever the reason, as we were there to serve them with our open hands, they received our help.  They weren't too proud, offended or insulted in anyway.  Some even opened their homes and set out chairs for us to sit and chat with them.   The kids came in close to play.


We made some community visits while we were there and one father made a decision for Christ.  He graciously invited us in as we asked him a few pointed questions.  In his humble kitchen he invited Jesus to come into his burdened heart.  He invited the Savior in as the gospel flooded his home.


Our supervisor at the Mission of Mercy project was most hospitable and tolerant of our girl-power-cinder-block-laying-abilities.  He didn't say a word about how the blocks might have been a little crooked.  He was very understanding of our lack of construction skills and didn't say a word.  He graciously let us invade his work space for four days of sweaty toils.


The mission team felt at home in the community of Choluteca.  The Hondurans opened their homes, they opened their hearts, they opened their church doors to worship as one.  The team held many kids in their laps and they were open to the kindness of Christ.

"Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." Romans 12:13

It was evident that God is at work in their little community, with the Mission of Mercy staff on the ground, and with the work He is doing through the church.  God opened their hearts to welcome strangers in, we welcomed their hospitality and brought the gospel message.

These hospitable Hondurans' challenge me to swing wide and prop open the mission-minded-doors of my heart for God to build faith in me. 

When Shadows Come

Coping with life's shadows

Maybe you are having a rough week.  Perhaps your life circumstances are rough all the time.  How do we get out of these seasons of one crisis to another or continuous desert moments?  

 How do you cope?

When we are overshadowed with life we look to the shadow of the cross.  We look to the One who conquered all.

The disciples knew of desperate times.  They had traveled with Jesus for three years.  They had watched him heal and heard him teach.  They fished, prayed and rested with him.  They had some intense times of fellowship.  They were a band of brothers.  They worshiped together; they grew in the faith together, and they experienced God's word in living color.  As they went through adversity they had community.  

When life brought the shadow of the cross, they faltered.  One denied, one took his life, and they mourned the death of a dear friend.  In spite of their desperate outlook, they had fellowship through community.  

When you are in the throes of life's shadows, 

you need the community that you find in Christian friendships.

God has ways of reminding us that we are not alone.  God loves to shine through His people to pray, to give comfort, to lean on, to let you know that He's got this crisis just like He had the last one.  God's grace appears through the kindness of a dear friend who brings you a meal or a chocolate cupcake.  In the hands who give you a Kleenex in the surgery waiting room, and through the nurse who touches your arm in the hallway and whispers "It's going to be ok".  He shines in His people who have built community in your fellowship.  He shines in the confident prayers of the saints and reveals His faithfulness. 

There are many pieces to this tapestry that He is weaving with your life threads.  As He weaves the shadows with His shine, we have community as we receive His peace as our source of strength.  No matter what comes...you know that God is holding you.   The faith of community weaves into your shadowed life.  As we mix and mingle, share and care, and see and feel, we can know that God is in each and every stitch.  

We see with the eyes of our heart.

When the disciples reached a desperate desert moment, they had each other.  Their hearts must have exploded with grief as they mourned their loss.  It was a bleak Friday.  Joy was overshadowed by dashed hopes and hearts.  But yet, they stuck together as they kept reaching, kept seeking, kept praying.  They didn't forsake the assembly of believers.  They encouraged, comforted, cried and communed together.

They were the church.

I love it when Jesus shows up.  The first thing he does when he sees their sad faces? He took away their fear.  "My peace is with you", Jesus said.  Peace drives out fear every time.  Hearts that were overshadowed with fear now illuminated His peace. There was no place for doubt and grief.  The believers conquered their desperation together. They looked to the One who conquered and rested in the fact that their risen Savior was alive and true.  

When life’s shadows slip in and leave you with fear and doubt, look to the One who gives peace and comfort.  Lean on your fellowship of community.  Rest and trust that God will show up and help you see Him shine with the eyes of your heart.  The shadows will soon disappear as He is revealed.      

Music Monday [Christ Is Risen]

We celebrate Easter many ways. I love to spend it in church singing worship to the One who made today a reason to do the happy dance.  One of the most moving songs for me is Christ is Risen, it's a song that we sing on more than just Easter Sunday. This song brings worship to my soul. Plain and simple...Christ saves.  He took a brutal death on a wooden cross and He took the hit for me.  That is and will always be cause for me to celebrate.  

My favorite part of the song are these lines..

Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bowed to none but heaven's will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer's crown
No burden great can hold You down
In strength You reign
Forever let Your church proclaim 

My favorite part...is personal. Christ bowed beneath the weight of my sin.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

Christ was obedient, He willingly went to Calvary.  The nails didn't hold Him, love did.  

Christ was born for my purpose and nothing thwarted God's plan.

Christ defeated Hell.  Someone had to tell Satan he has lost the battle for our souls.  

Jesus said he would rise again, and he did. That makes Him a person of his words. You can believe Him and  believe in Him.    

We have got the best news around town. Tell someone else! Celebrate that Christ's death has brought us life.  Through His death we too have victory over death. Come awake!  Hope is alive!