The Vision and The Journey…

Not all journeys begin with a vision, but every vision is the beginning of a journey. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I am talking about something that originated from the heart of God, not the desires of man.  We have all felt strong desires and placing them in beautifully crafted words and called them a vision.  Church leaders are notorious for this , the proof being captured in many churches’ three part vision statements.  I’m not slamming on the desires of Godly men who want to do good things, but there is a big difference between the visions of men to do Godly things and the visions from God that only He can give and fulfill. 

“That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  John 3:6

God fulfills His visions through us and by the resources He supplies.  We cannot see or understand the full scope of this kind of vision.  If we did, we would run away from it like Jonah or run right out thinking we can fulfill God’s vision.  A true vision from God frightens you and captures you at the same time.  You don’t go looking for it, it finds you.

It was a typical Sunday service.  We were going through the same routine we go through every Sunday.  As we came to our time of worship, I was engaged as I usually am somewhere between sorting out the last thoughts of the sermon I am about to deliver and half listening for any last minute promptings from the Holy Spirit and trying to worship.  All of a sudden I am arrested by God with a vision.  I am engulfed by what I see in the Spirit as everything in the natural fades into the backdrop till I am only aware of God and what He’s showing me.  And, this is all I see…

I was taken outside of our Church building as I watched a storm appear.  It was sudden with no time to prepare.  You could not see the storm, only it’s effects.  It was like seeing one of those storm stories about a hurricane or tornado on the Discovery Channel.  The power of the wind began to tear the building apart starting with the shingles.  Piece by piece the building tore apart, shingles, plywood, timbers and bricks, til all that was left was the concrete slab foundation.  Then as quickly as the church was torn apart and stripped away, God began to build it back.  Suddenly, I found myself back standing in our sanctuary singing our last song if worship.

I tried quickly to compose myself.  What now?  I sensed in my spirit that God was about to do what I saw, but I had no idea what that meant.  As I said before, it frightened me and captured me.  I heard the Lord say, “surrender.”

I made my way up front and stood before the people God had been so gracious to bring together as our church.  I felt compelled to share what I saw and what God said to me.  When I was done sharing the vision, I said to the church that I sensed God telling us to surrender, that if He needed to strip anything away, we needed to surrender and let Him.  If I needed to go, the building needed to go, any programs, any people, finances, ideologies about ministry or personal issues, then we needed to surrender and let Him.   I asked everyone to pray with me a prayer of consecration.

What came next, I would not have expected.  And, so the journey began…

Come along with me.

Changes, changes, changes….

Life is an incredible journey and it is easy to lose sight of it if we only focus on the moment.  Some moments in life can be paralyzing if we let them.  Those of you who have done much flying have been stuck in a city or airport when you needed to be somewhere else.  It’s a layover, not your destination.  None of us decide to permanently stay there.  However, we are there.  We make the best of it, maybe even find a way to enjoy it, knowing it’s a journey not the destination.  We have to learn to enjoy the journey which means embracing changes.

Our Church has gone through many changes over the past 3+ years.  These changes have reshaped and reoriented who we are and what we look like.  There have been many moments in this journey that could have been paralyzing and maybe for a season even were.  But weathering and savoring the good and bad continue to shape us for God’s plan – a people who genuinely reflect Him and reveal Him.

I am not the same nor is our church the same but what we are changing into is something glorious.  This blog and our church blog will begin to reflect the changes we are going through.  Tomorrow I am going to share a vision God showed me 3 years ago that has shaken everything in my life. (Vision: not something I desired or dreamed up, but an actual, literal vision from God.)  This vision was the beginning of a journey.

Have you ever seen a literal vision?  What did you see?

Next Teaching Series: Going Deep

I’m excited about what is ahead of us at The Dwelling Place.  This is our next Teaching Series:

 

 

 

So, if you are visiting in town or looking for a gathering of God’s church to connect with, come worship and fellowship with us this Sunday 10:30 am.

Going Deep…

If you remember learning about icebergs in Elementary or Middle School you know that what you see sticking out of the water is only a small fraction of the whole thing.

Over the last 2 years I have walked through a major change in ministry.  God began some things in the church I serve that have caused me to take a fresh and new look at my faith, my theology, my walk, and my views of what the church is and does.  This has been an incredible journey of discovery.  However, not everyone around you is ready to take the journey or handle what you discover.  Like Jesus in John 6:66, many of His disciples turned away because they could not handle what He was saying to them, and they quit following Him.

For most, if you asked about or mentioned church, their first thought would picture a building located at some specific address.  You know the question, “where do you go to church?”  If this represents the iceberg above the water, what is below the surface.  If all we experience is what we see on the surface, we miss the beauty of all that is below.  Sadly, many believers will spend their whole life just on the surface and want nothing else or reject the notion that anything under the surface should be explored.

Let me prophecy (throw stones if you want), there is a shift happening – a global shift.  As I have cried, prayed and searched, I am finding there are more people walking the way of Jesus than you will find warming a pew on Sunday.  They are living in intentional communion and community with Jesus and other believers.  They are committed to be the church, not just attend church.

The church as we have known it is in crisis.  Our culture is changing and this current and next generation of spiritual seekers are looking for something more than church attendance.  They are looking for more than religion.  They want more than a life of lip service.  For them, what is on the surface has no meaning without all that’s underneath.

What’s on the surface just doesn’t cut for me anymore.  I’ve got to have what’s underneath.  The truth is, the surface no longer satisfies and looses meaning without the beauty of the depths of Jesus and all that the church should really be.

Time is short, ‘ve got to leave off here.  I will probably revisit this in my next post.  I hope I have stirred something in you.  If so please leave a comment.  I cannot be the only one feeling this.  I know I’m not.

Born to die…

We always share communion on Christmas Sunday in our worship gathering.  I was pondering this in light of the celebration of Christ’s birth.  Why do we combine the crucifixion with the birth of Jesus?  What is its significance and implication?  As many of you will share the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) this Sunday let me give you something to meditate on.

There is something wrapped in the mystery and miracle of Christ’s birth.  We are overwhelmed by the beauty of His birth and celebrate His coming, but His coming was for what or whom?  Like a seed potent with life and full of a greater destiny, Jesus birth is only the beginning of a journey to the cross.  And like a seed He must die to fulfill His mission.

“…unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, nd whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also.  If anyone serves me, the father will honor him.  Now My soul is troubled.  And what shall I say?  ‘Father save Me from this hour’?  But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”  John 12:24-27

I am reminded that as Jesus shared the Eucharist with His disciples, He told them to “share it with each other”.  (Luke 22:17)  As it was His mission to be sent into the world to die, we too are to follow Him and be Broken Bread and Poured Out Wine to a hungry and thirsty world looking for life in a wasteland.  Within us is the incredible fragrance of Christ waiting to be sacrificed, broken and poured out like the bottle of perfume’ that Mary broke open and poured out on Jesus feet and hair. (John 12:3)

This Christmas, when you receive the Eucharist, which is not only Jesus Himself but also His Mission, find yourself in Him and your mission to be broken and poured out.  Take it and share it among yourselves.   We are not His unless we follow Him in like manner. 

Let Christ be poured out into your hearts and go this Christmas giving your life to someone who needs Jesus.

The Future of the Church?

What is the future of the Church in America?   How are we reaching the men of our culture?   Where are the good soldiers?

There is a shifting going on in our churches and culture causing people to long and looking for something more. Some have a growing discontent and a division is happening between those who want to attend church and those who are looking to be the church. There is a battle to strip away the dependency on an institutional church to find the all sufficient living Lord Jesus and thus revealing a glorious church made in His image. These are incredible times we live in and we have an awesome opportunity to raise up men of God, good soldiers, to lead the way.

Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill shares this great message about the church and church planting.

What are we looking for?

“As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”  John 6:66

I met an African Pastor about 15 years ago who said to me, “If someone says they want to be a Pastor then God is probably not calling them or they are out of their mind.  If you can do anything else then do that.”  What a gift of encouragement.  Fifteen years later I can say I truly understand what this Pastor was trying to say to me.  To deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus is all too real.  I had no idea 15 years ago that it would mean denying everything about myself for what every other person would want of me. 

This verse in John’s Gospel as well as the context it is taken from reveal so much about ministry in today’s church.  Those going into ministry would do well to learn these things up front.  But, like me, they would not believe it and because we didn’t yet know what Jesus knew, “there is no life,no resurrection without death, without crucifixion.”  You only learn this by loving the Father and those whom He loves so much that you will allow them to crucify you in order to show them life and love at the risk of them maybe not ever seeing it.

By human standards and much of our standard related to church success today, Jesus was a failure.  But Jesus knew it was what His Father said that mattered.  In John 6:66  all of Jesus’ disciples except the 12 looked at Him and said this is too tough, we cannot follow you anymore.  Jesus was so secure in His Father’s business that He didn’t go chasing after them to change their minds.  He simply obeyed His mission.

The context is interesting.  Jesus has fed the 5000+ people by the sea of Galilee and then later the disciples went ahead of Him to the other side in a boat.  Jesus came walking out to them on the water and then they miraculously found themselves on the other side.  That next day when the people realized Jesus and the disciples were gone, they went and found them.  Jesus makes an accusation toward them.  “I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”  John 6:26

Jesus was saying, “you are not following Me because you believe in Me but because I fed you.”  These are the people who turned and left Him.  In the same manner we find these same people or the like, praising Him on Palm Sunday and crucifying Him on Good Friday.

We have to be careful that in all our searching to find the Church and a place to be fed, that we not miss the church all together.  We can totally miss the point.  And if I were judging by appearance the success of Jesus’ church at this point, I would say by a 5000+/- drop in attendance by His disciple would be an utter failure.  And, 50 days after they had crucified Him only 120 could be found.

What really is the point?  The enemy of the Church loves for us to miss the point.  When we get our eyes on ourselves we miss the point that it’s about others and our relationship with them and our relationship with the Father.  The enemy wants us to blame our Pastors who sacrifice for them in ways they will never realize.  Our Pastors cannot take up the responsibility of every christian to build each other up in love and do their part so the church grows.  (Ephesians 4:11-16)  We can only teach and encourage the body to do so.  The enemy loves to instill fear and division in the Church.  It renders us ineffective and many times his instrument.

The enemy wants us to think like the world when we look at the Church.  He tempts us to believe that God is not in something if it’s declining and not growing the way we believe.  Tell that to Job. And for most of us that would make our personal lives utter failures. 

We must rise above these things and be the glorious Church that Christ died and lives for.  The Church grows based on what the body does to build each other up in love.  Bless those who serve you, reach out to those far from you.  Judge not on the outward appearance.  Love never fails when we love like Jesus.

NOW.  Let me be personal and for those who may read this and are of another congregation be encouraged where God has you.  We have been going through difficult and painful times as a Church.  No one knows that more that me, my family and our leaders.  It has been an incredible test for us all.  But, God showed me He was going to do this, of which I have shared on several occasions.  And, He also showed what He was going to do when this painful part was complete.  I have no alternative as a believer and a Pastor but to trust and follow Him even if many people leave.  To obey is better than sacrifice.   In this case, “the sacrifice.”  Some have not and will not take this journey.  This I understand. 

But, I don’t want to be just another Church;  I want to be a different kind of Church.  One that will lay it’s life down for it’s neighbor.  One that will seek to save that which is lost.  One that is willing to go wherever the lost is not waiting for them to come to us.  A Church that is intentional about building relationships with lost people in order to know them and love them not just in our Church but where they are.  One that will love the way the Bible say.  One that loves God by serving and ministering to others. 

The Bible tells us that God’s kind of love Never Fails.  If it fails, it’s wasn’t love.  My commitment as a Pastor endures.  I believe in God and His plan for us as a Church more than the darkness that seems to surround and makes seeing where I’m going difficult.  I trust Him more than what I see in man.  God will not fail us.  He is true to His Word and what He says is more important than what we want.  What He says will not return empty but will accomplish what He desires.

I would ask you to be more committed to each other than ever before.   I would also ask you to support those who have sacrificed to serve you for many years with no expectation but obedience to God’s Word your friendship and your love.  I would ask you to not give up hope.

Please, take the time to read this article, (We can’t do megachurch anymore.) CLICK HERE

I know this is long but I believe it is important.

Risky Business…

My highlight from toady’s message – I got to show a clip from the movie Transformers.

I mentioned in an earlier post that me and Jesus were on a journey.  One of the things I’ve been pondering is found in a quote from this movie.

“50 years from now, don’t you want to say you had the guts to get in the car.” – Sam

This is a defining moment for Sam and Makala, will they go home or will they become a part of living the adventure? Will they take the risk?  Will they take the road less traveled?  Or will they play it safe?

Maybe it was not so theatrical and with no building music in the background but this is exactly what was going on when Jesus spoke to Peter and Andrew on the shore of Galilee saying, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  This was a defining moment.  They had no idea what was exactly ahead for them. 

3 years down this road Peter was so in love with Jesus, he said he was willing to go where ever Jesus went even if it was to the cross.  In John 21:15-22 Peter has now witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and failed miserably by denying that he knew Him.  He was probably evaluating Jesus call to “Follow him.”   After the resurrection,  Jesus comes to Peter and has a little breakfast with him on the shore.  Jesus asks Peter “Do you love me?”  Peter replies “Lord you know I do.”  Jesus says “Feed my sheep.”  This He does three times.  Then Jesus describe the kind of death Peter would suffer and then again as He did in the beginning, He says, “Follow me.”  Peter goes on to ask “what about John.”  Jesus says “What is that to you if he lives or dies, you follow me.”

Jesus call to us to follow Him.  If we choose, it will be a life filled with meaning, purpose, adventure, mystery, and danger, perril, sacrifice, and unlimited posibilities.  We don’t know all that will happen.  Each persons life and journey is unique as is their purpose.  But will we “get in the car?” 

I don’t want to settle for a life without meaning.  I want to say I had the guts to risk it all, where ever Jesus takes me.  I want to Follow Him!  Will you?

Have you had a defining moment?

Did you have the guts to take the risk?

Christmas Message Series…

Presence  

If you could ask for one life changing thing, what would it be? 

This could be just another year of Christmas as usual – visiting relatives, eating too much and spending the rest of the year paying off the credit cards, or it could be a year God’s presence transforms your life, your relationships, and your community. 

Join us over the next three weeks as we experience the Presence.  Invite a friend or co-worker to this Life Transforming time in God’s Presence.

Presence >>> Current Series: December 9, 16 & 23 @ 10:30 am  (also on the 23rd @ 7:00 pm)

Becoming The Dwelling Place…

Someone asked me the other day, “Are you double blogging?”  The answer is yes.  How crazy is that?  Like I have time?

Anyway, I just wanted you to check out this other site.  It is directly related to our Church and what God is doing with us and developing through us.  I hope you will check it out, pray for us and leave your thoughts and encouraging comments.

www.becomingthedwellingplace.wordpress.comEphesians 2:22