Sunday, December 11, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Temptation and Doubt
Is doubt a nagging companion tagging along wherever you go these days?
As we are wrapping up Paul’s letter to his Corinthian friends we will tackle two final areas of struggle. We titled the letter of 2 Corinthians “The Gospel: Power in weakness!” Reading Paul’s emotional, sometimes seemingly disconnected rants in his letter to the church in Corinth gives us unique perspective on his life and his very real struggles to live in the Power of the Gospel. He speaks openly about his pain, sorrow, suffering, and frustrations. Each chapter shows our weakness overcome by the power of the Gospel. Suffering is overcome by the God of all comfort; sin and disunity are overcome by repentance and restoration; our sin and inability to live according to God’s purposes are overcome by the power of Grace; Alienation is overcome by the ministry of reconciliation and death is overcome by the power of the resurrection. Even extreme poverty overflows with generosity because of the Gospel: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9
During these last two weeks in the book of 2 Corinthians we will finish with a look at two challenging topics, Temptation and Doubt starting this week with the former.
Since Eve encountered the serpent in the Garden temptation is a common experience for all human beings, Jesus was no exception. The Bible tells us that He “was tempted in every way, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Examining Jesus’ temptation 2000 years later will help us overcome our own temptations and live in the power and truth of the Gospel!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Refugee Ministry
"I have recently begun working with the refugee population here in Austin. These are people from countries like Bhutan, Iraq, D.R. Congo, and India who have been forced to leave their lives behind and start anew. Some have left to due to war, some to religious persecution, and others to financial instability. Upon arrival, most have no idea what life is like in the United States, and most only have the apartment provided to them by the government. A local pastor and refugee himself, John Monger, has taken it upon himself to reach out to these people and help ease into this new phase of life.
I met John for the first time this week while delivering some rice cookers that our church had raised funds to purchase for the refugees. I got to sit down with John and hear a little bit about the work that he does and some of the amazing stories of life change he has witnessed and been a part of. John also told about his story and his journey that brought him to Austin. John grew up in a small town in the country of Bhutan, which borders India and Nepal. When he was 16 years old, John decided to give his life to follow Jesus Christ. Bhutan very strictly enforces the Hindu religion on their citizens and gave John two choices: deny Christ or leave the country. He decided that he could not possibly deny the Savior that he had just come to know, so he fled. He arrived in a refugee camp in the country of Nepal. In the camp, there was a population of about 150,000 Bhutanese refugees, and John soon discovered that he was pretty much the only Christian. He began sharing the story of life change that he had recently experienced and began preaching the gospel to people all around the camp. After several months many began to accept the good news that John was sharing, and hundreds were converted to Christianity. But the government of Nepal was no more lenient on religion than Bhutan, and once they caught wind of what was going on in the camp, they found John and threw him in prison. Prison in Nepal is nothing like the American prison system, with all its allowances and luxuries. John was beaten and starved and told that if he did not stop sharing his faith he would die in prison. But he did not give in, and after two years he was released. He then fled to India and continued to preach and share what God had done in his life. Over the course of four years, John helped plant several churches and lead hundreds of people into relationship with Christ. Eventually, it was not safe for John to stay there either, so he had to come to the United State as a political refugee. But he did not let this move deter his calling to share the gospel with the world. He connected with many other of the refugees here in Austin and started the International Reconciliation Church, which now encompasses over 100 refugee families. Through his ministry, John takes in all new refugee families as they arrive in Austin, and provides for them all basic needs to begin their new lives. He helps them to find jobs and housing and even gets them training to learn English. He has volunteers come and teach them how to do basic things such as driving and shopping, and through donations he provides them with daily needs like food, appliances, and transportation. He also uses this time to share the story of God’s love for each and every one of these people, and the story of his own salvation and how it has changed his life! I got to attend John’s church this weekend and witnessed the baptism of over 30 people who had recently been converted from Hinduism, all of which are refugees from India, Nepal, and Bhutan. It is evident that God is at work in this community and there is much opportunity for His love and truth to be proclaimed!
We as a church will be working with John to help provide some of these basic needs for families as they first begin their new lives here in Austin. We have spent the last month raising funds and we were able to provide 12 rice cookers to give to these families. We will have the opportunity to continue to help as we will look to provide a large amount of rice, some microwaves and other necessary appliances, and cell phones to aid in their first few months of looking for a job. We will also send out several volunteers to help in driver training and job location. It will be exciting to see how God is going to use us as instruments of His love in the lives of these families who just want to know that someone cares! "
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Reflecting on our Call to plant a Church
I believe without a shadow of a doubt that God called us to plant The City Community Church in Central Austin, and it is this certainty of calling that has sustained us during some of the tough times during these last 2 years.
Allow me to reflect about the journey: While we were serving at Central Christian Church, an established church in CA (2200 average attendance), the elders approached me with the proposition to enter into a succession plan to become the next senior pastor of that church. At the same time I received a couple of other unsolicited inquiries to become senior pastor at other churches. The opportunities for new ministry caused us to rethink our ministry and where we felt God was leading us. It quickly became clear that I not only would love to be a lead pastor, but that I felt God's specific calling in that direction. In response we began pursuing conversations with our current church about a possible succession plan.
The prospect of being responsible for a church rather than just one of its ministries was both compelling as well as frightening. I began researching churches that seemed to be growing and having a significant impact in their cities only to find out that most of them had been somewhat recent church-plants. I began reading about church planting and talking with my friends about church planting. The more I read and researched the more I felt compelled to move toward church planting. The statistics are staggering. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 churches close every year, some statistics have the numbers as high as 7500. While roughly 4000 churches are started each year, just to keep up with population growth we would need to see 3200 new churches started per year. I am no math-wiz but even to me the discrepancy is painfully obvious.
Simultaneously to researching how to start a church and praying about church planting, we started hearing and reading about the city of Austin. The city, or various bits of information about the city, seemed to pop up nearly everywhere, the news, the paper, people we met on vacation, you name it. During that time I received a package from a church in Austin that was designed to attract a new student ministries pastor. The packet included a video message by the senior pastor talking about the city of Austin, the church’s vision to reach every man woman and child and the strategic positioning of Austin as far as Education, High Tech, Entertainment, Politics, Legislature, and Business were concerned. While I was not interested in the advertised position I was gripped by the vision outlined for the city. Andrea and I did some research and found out that as a part of their vision to reach every man woman and child in Greater Austin with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ, Hill Country Bible Church had an extensive and ambitious church-planting strategy.
After over a year of being in touch with Hill Country Bible Church we accepted the invitation to come to Austin for a church planters assessment. The three day assessment was intense and only showed me more clearly that I did not know how to plant a church. At the end of the time the assessment leader told me that they were about to invite us to come to Austin to plant a church and I told him flat out that I would refuse that invitation. When we returned home we continued to pray about our potential future as church planters, and while the task seemed daunting and some of the uncertainties about finances, kid’s schooling, leaving friends and a secure future at our current church continued to trouble us, the vision we felt God had given to us for Austin caused me to call Hill Country Bible Church and ask if I could still join their Church plant Residency program.
Without a doubt these last couple of years have been some of the toughest times Andrea and I have ever experienced. Finances, health issues, spiritual attack, uncertainty, depression, and anxiety about our fledgling church-plant have been intense at times, but I am so glad that God has chosen to bring us to Austin to plant The City Community Church. His grace has been so evident and the grace-stories of salvations, radical life-change, financial provision and the ongoing generosity of our people have been nothing short of miraculous and so fun to experience first hand! I remember talking with Robby Forsythe, my friend, fellow elder at The City and Worship Pastor at Central Christian Church, before moving to Austin and saying I longed to experience God's work in people's lives more. I remember saying something like this "I am tired of telling stories from months or even years ago, I want to tell stories from right now!" I am thrilled that by God's grace I can...
(I am making a video of some of our story and will post it here soon.)
Monday, December 13, 2010
The Christ of Christmas
During this Christmas time we turn our hearts and minds toward Jesus Christ. During these weeks of Advent we have been studying the Nature of Christ in our CITY-U. As John led us through the Theological material, I asked my friend Nate Cline to write down some of the class content as succinctly as possible for the rest of us who couldn't attend the class. Please read his article below:
The Doctrine of Christ: Who Do We Say That He Is?
We are beginning a short series on the Doctrine of Christ. Who we understand Jesus to be will affect our understanding of salvation, justification, and ultimately God. In 1John 4:2-3, the Apostle John says “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” The distinction between those coming from God and those coming from the Devil is about Jesus. In Matthew 16, Jesus tells Peter that the foundation of the Church is the right confession of who He is. Therefore, we must learn about who Jesus is, and what we confess about him. This first week, we will discuss the two natures in Christ. Jesus was fully God, and fully man. More importantly, we are going to demonstrate why these two natures are necessary to our understanding of who Jesus is.
You may wonder why the virgin birth is important to the doctrine of Christ. The primary reason is that it is the way that Jesus comes to us. The Bible records for us that Jesus was born to Mary at a particular time in a particular place. The next obvious question is the one which Mary herself asks; “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34). The angel gives us the only response that we can give in verse 35. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, that Jesus could be called holy, the Son of God.
The virgin birth is also key to our own understanding of the two natures in Christ. We see these two natures in Luke 1 :32-33. Jesus is both the Son of God and a descendent of David, who will rule the house of Jacob forever. It is vital that we understand there are two natures, but only one Jesus. He is fully God and fully man.
Why did Jesus have to be fully man? Paul gives us the most crucial reason in Romans 5:12-21. A man (Adam) sinned, and brought more sin and death with his action. Therefore, another man (Jesus) had to obey where the first hadn't. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was human that he might identify with us; yet, he was without sin (Hebrew 4:15).
Why do we teach that Jesus was fully God? John tells us in the first chapter of his gospel that Jesus was with God in the beginning, and calls him God. Also, salvation is from God alone (Jonah 2:9, Isaiah 43:11, and Psalm 3:8).
Paul calls Jesus a mediator (I Timothy 2:5). Perhaps, this office is the one where the two natures are most clearly defined. As mediator, Christ goes before the Father for us, and declares the words of the Father to us. This office was held by two separate persons in the Old Testament; the prophets and the priests. When God thunders from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, the people cry out for Moses to tell them the words of the Lord, because God scared them to death (Deuteronomy 5: 25-28).
Jesus tells his disciples in the upper room that everything he has spoken is from the Father (John 12:49-50). The writer of Hebrews says that God had spoken through the prophets in the past, but has now spoken to us through His Son (Hebrews 1:1-12). The prophets being mere men suffered two problems. First they died, and were unable to be a continual voice. Second, they had no authority of their own. When Jesus finished the sermon on the mount, the people marveled at his authority with the law (Mathew 7:28-29).
The second office aspect of mediator is that of priest. The priest would go before God to make sacrifices for the people (Leviticus 16:15,34 and Exodus 30:10). Christ, however, goes before God with the sacrifice of himself (Hebrew 9:11-14). Because Christ is fully man, he could bleed and die. Because Christ is fully God, his sacrifice covers the sins of all humanity.
This is a very brief discussion of who Christ is according to scriptures. Much like the people of the first century, we may be tempted to make Jesus into a savior of our own making who looks and talks like we want him to, but Christ is not one of many, he is the only Savior, and he is to be had only as the Father has revealed him in the word. As Peter says in Acts 4:12, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Suffering / Trials
A note by Andrew Murray 1895 ~
In time of trouble, say, "First, He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this strait place; in that I will rest." Next, "He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child." Then say, "He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow." And last, say, "In His good time He can bring me out again. How, and when, He knows." Therefore say, "I am here (1 ) by God's appointment, (2) in His keeping, (3) under His training, (4) for His time."
Monday, October 19, 2009
CALLED
One thing we all wonder about is does God have an individual, unique and exciting calling for my life?
Last week I actually posited the same question on Face Book with some interesting replies. While some people answered the question with an enthusiastic yes, others seemed disenchanted by the mere notion of an individual calling, let alone an exciting one. As one author states, “we have glamorized the idea of calling…”; however, as he rightly continues, there is nothing glamorous about calling, and receiving a calling from God by no means assures happiness. Take Paul for example. He received a supernatural calling from God, a calling that included seeing a bright heavenly light that blinded him, hearing a thunderous heavenly voice that confronted his persecution of the early church, encountered the risen Christ and received confirmation that this was not his overactive imagination playing tricks on him through the witness of Ananias and having his eyesight restored miraculously by the prayer of this man. Pretty cool if you ask me. However, this supernatural calling, while it led to innumerable disciples and a score of new churches as well as ¼ of our New Testament, led Paul to be rejected by his own friends and countrymen, beaten, stoned, arrested, plotted against, shipwrecked, imprisoned and ultimately beheaded. Exciting? I am guessing this depends on your understanding of exciting!
However you turn it, Calling, especially the individual, unique and exciting calling of God is intimately connected with the will of God. What is God up to in the world and could it be that he has a purpose for my life and wants me to play a part in the amazing and glorious story he is writing? There is a lot of talk about the will of God, but if it’s so important for me to know the will of God, why can I not figure it out?
To understand what we mean by finding our calling or discovering the will of God for our lives, we have to understand what we even mean by the terminology “the will of God”. There are three different things people mean when using the terminology “the will of God”.
1. God’s Providential Will – this is God’s sovereign will, which Pastor John Piper calls ‘his will of decree’. This is what God intends to do anyways.
2. God’s Moral Will – these are God’s commandments, including the 10 commandments and NT moral teaching. Piper calls it ‘God’s will of command’.
3. God’s Personal Will – what God wants me to do in any given situation. Should I marry her or not; should I move to Austin or stay in LA should I take the job, start my own business, buy or rent, etc.
God is sovereign over the affairs of man and his providential will sometimes seems to include things that are contrary to his moral will. God decreed for Jesus to be betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, mocked, beaten and flogged, falsely convicted and crucified. Each of these actions were against the moral will of God, they were sinful actions by sinful men. His betrayal by Judas was sin, his trial was sin and the false testimony against him was a direct violation of one of the 10 Commandments. At his crucifixion Jesus asks the Father to forgive his tormentors who were sinning against him; yet in Acts 2 we read that God, who had determined that Christ must come and die to rescue sinful man before the foundation of the world, preordained all this.
Some of us may think, I am confused as it is, I am not even sure I can spell ‘providential’. I just need to make a decision, and I need to make it now! So how on earth do I know what God’s will is?
We often feel that God’s will is mysterious, secretive and maybe even mystical, almost as though God wants to hide his will from us. However, as we study the bible, it appears clear that God’s will is discoverable, in fact it seems that God delights to make his will known to those who delight in him and seek him with an obedient heart.
Could it be that God want us to know his will even more than we want to know his will?
Now there is a question to ponder…
The bible is called the Word of God. Theologians call it God’s self-revelation. So a study of his Word should yield at least some revelation of his will. Even a cursory search of scripture reveals some clues allowing us to discover at least 6 facets of God’s will for us. Some of these are probably not what you expected, but don't just dismiss them...
· It is the will of God that you be saved
o 2 Peter 3:9 - … not willing that any should perish but that all should reach salvation.
o 1 Timothy 2:3-4 - This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
· It is the will of God that you be filled with the Spirit
o Ephesians 5:17-18 – Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of God is. And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
· It is the will of God that you be sanctified
o 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 – For this is the will of God, your sanctification: abstain from sexual immorality…For God has not called us for impurity but in holiness.
· It is the will of God that you be submissive (ugh, not sure I like this one...)
o 1 Peter 2:13-15 – Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution… For it is the will of God, that by doing good you should silence ignorant and foolish people.
· It is the will of God that you be grateful (not easy, but important!)
o 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for that is God’s will for you in Jesus Christ, do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
· It is the will of God that you suffer (ouch! does it really say that?!)
o Philippians 1:29 – For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe but also to suffer…
o 2 Timothy 3:12 – Indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Besides these six noteworthy facets revealed about God’s will in the bible, there are also many things we know about how God would have us live morally. The 10 Commandments, and New Testament teaching in the beatitudes (Matthew 5) are a good place to start. Are we obedient in the areas scripture has clearly revealed as God’s will for our lives? If not it seems doubtful that we are going to receive or obey God’s special guidance or revelation. We do not need to pray about certain things because God has already revealed to us how we should live. It seems to be an apparent truth that where God has already revealed his will in scripture we need not ask for a repeal. Let me illustrate this with two examples.
***When it is tax time, we need not pray about whether we declare all our income or not.
*** When we are contemplating housing arrangements, we need not pray whether we should move in with our girl-friend.
God’s providential will and his moral will provide the dual guardrails for every other decision we are facing in life. (Andy Stanley)
A couple of reminders:
--> The more familiar we are with the Providential Will of God and the more surrendered we become to his Moral Will the easier it becomes for us to discern the personal will of God for our lives! (Andy Stanley)
--> God has an individual, unique and exciting calling for your life!
--> When God reveals his will it is not for our consideration but for our obedience!
--> Could it be that God is more interested in us finding him than finding his will?
--> Could it be that God wants us to know His will more than we want to know his will?
--> Could it be that we cannot discern the will of God in a particular situation because we have refused to obey what he has already revealed to us about his will in another situation?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
You might be a practical atheist if...
2. You rarely share your faith in Christ.
3. You do whatever it takes to alleviate your felt guilt.
4. You think more about life on earth than eternity with God. (jobs, houses, cars, 401k’s, standard of living)
5. You gauge your morality based on comparison with others not on the biblical standard.
6. You want to be saved from the penalty of your sin without changing your life.
7. You only turn to God when you are in a bind.
8. You give whenever it does not hinder your standard of living.
9. You really are no different than anybody else in your neighborhood, company, family, etc.
10. You want the benefit of who Christ is without having to become like him.
Adapted from Craig Groeshel & Francis Chan's Crazy Love (Chapter 5)
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
The Dog Rev.
OK - this has been a funny day. What started several months ago as a way to love our community of dog lovers and road bikers has suddenly developed into a big deal.
Months ago when our church startup (think software startup) moved to La Zona Rosa , a music venue and bar downtown Austin and somewhat of a landmark for our wonderfully eclectic and creative city, we looked for a way to love our community. La Zona is located across from the Austin 360 condos and next door to Mellow Johnny's bike shop on 4th and Rio Grande. As a result we are weekly encountering a great number of dog walkers and those who are beginning or ending their Sunday morning ride at Mellow Johnny's. As we contemplated how to be a blessing to these folks we decided to put our welcome table into the street and supplement our usual fare of coffee and pastries with water, gatorade and cliff bars for our bike riding neighbors, and with breakfast tacos and dog treats for the dog walkers.
Our first attempt at handing these out was so successful that we had a number of people interested in joining us for church, and people just brought their dogs into the service. We have seen people bring their dogs on occasion and have made dog Sunday a monthly part of our church services.
So how has this turned into a bigger story than we'd ever anticipated? Sunday we had a reporter for the Austin American Statesman join us to do a story about the church that meets in a bar and allows dogs... (Read the article here) This story ran on the front page of the Metro Section, which was really cool. It is funny to open a website and have your 8 year old twins staring at you... What happend next is still somewhat surreal. After the story ran in the Statesman, it was picked up by a paper in Abilene TX, ran as a news-crawl on NBC during the Today Show, got some Radio time on a local radio station and has drawn the attention of 2 TV stations! Crazy...
We weren't shooting for this but are praying that our love for Jesus, Austin and for the people who live here would be the real story!
While this might strike some as gimmicky our real intention is to love people and tell them about how great Jesus is. We are definitely all about Jesus, his love, his grace, his forgiveness and his fame, and if telling you about Him includes you bringing your dog we welcome that as well.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Monday, September 22, 2008
It has only just begun...
Our team small as it might be (17 people) did a phenomenal job getting everything just perfect. The signs outside, the welcome table, the setup and tear down, the ambiance and communion setup, the sound, video, band, children's ministry, and the reception afterwards, everything was not only well planned but well executed. I love working with these people, they are fun to be with, are extremely hard workers, and they love Jesus!
The coolest thing was how many of our friends from work, neighborhoods and service projects joined us for the service, it is really for them that we have started this church in and for Central Austin.
We are exhausted after weeks of intensive preparations, but we are thrilled!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Charter Service
On September 7th 2008 once again 17 people stepped out in faith to see God glorified and people in Central / Downtown Austin gripped by the love of God, as we chartered THE CITY community church.
It was an incredible time as we worshipped together with elders, pastors, and members of various Hill Country Association churches. We even had 3 of the original 17 in attendance as we committed ourselves to God, one another, and the people of Austin.
God has done an incredible miracle in bringing us together from 7 nations, every socio-economic background, and various generations to start this community of faith in the city and for the city!