Recently it was my pleasure and privilege to be one of my church's delegates to the annual District Assembly. I had been in the previous two years and knew that it would be inspirational, but I am not sure I was ready to be so greatly blessed and challenged. District Superintendent Rob Songer started by presenting us with 7 essentials to have a successful, discipling church.  Here they are:

    Meaningful worship
    Theological coherence
    Transformational leadership
    Intentional discipleship
    Church development
    Passionate evangelism
    Purposeful compassion

Each one of these could generate several sermons. Instead of sermons, each essential was presented by pastors and church leaders. They shared with us how there particular essential was at work in their church.  For example, church development, Pastor Guadalupe shared that no sooner had she established a new work in Farmersville than God began to speak to her about a new work in Orosi.  She stated that doing so was not a money problem, only a vision problem. Pastor Jason presented purposeful by, in part, talking about how their church adopted every school principal in town and prayed for their school and their leadership, culminating in inviting them all to a Thanksgiving dinner.  It was truly inspiring to hear what was going on in our district to further the cause of Christ.

One of the great things about assembly was the worship, especially on Friday night. I haven't heard such enthusiastic congregational worship in some time. At Friday nights ordination service we worshipped together singing We Believe, a recent hit of the Newsboys. The worship was so electric that when the song was finished, Dr Busic (our General Superintendent) asked the worship leader to do it again. We nearly got Pentecostal as our voices raised in worship. Truly a memorable moment.

If that wasn't enough, my wife Debbie, as our local missions president, was a delegate to Saturday's Missions Convention.  There we were priviliged to hear from Missionaries Mark and Linda Louw.  Highlights from that:

Mark Louw - Mission is not a something, its is you-here. When you are sent there, your there becomes your here. Think about it.
A man named Kevin (leader of a house church in a coountry where Christian churches are forbidden) - my only fear is not doing what God called me to do
Mark Louw - we are each in our own mission field, is your presence making a difference?
Mark Louw - Integrity, if you say it you must do it
Mark Louw - is your heart broken for the world or is church just something you do?

And finally, Martha Lundquist (District Missions President) spoke straight to me when she said - Let's no think about what we can do, but what God is calling us to do.

What are you waiting for?

Once again I have been challenged by one of my pastors.  Let me just start by saying that when I write these posts I really do want them to be helpful and inspirational for my readers. But be clear that when I say 'you' the you is inclusive of me. I am far from mastering discipleship 101 let alone earning a degree in discipleship!

That being said, what are you waiting for? Many of us struggle to determine what it is God wants to do with our lives, some of us for many years.  We keep waiting for that 'magical something' that will make it crystal clear what we are to do.  Waiting is hard. The Jews of Jesus' day were waiting for a messiah who would overturn the Roman government and seize control. They thought Jesus was that kind of answer when He began His ministry. When He was killed they were taken aback because they had been looking for a conquering warrior who would assume some sort of throne of power. They were waiting for the wrong kind of king.

Two angels asked "Why are you looking into the tomb, He is not here" They probably thought that meant that He was going to set up His kingdom any moment. Another time they asked, "Why are you gazing into the heavens". They were expecting that maybe he had ascended to gather His army and that He would soon be returning to overthrow the empire. 

The church never got off the ground until the disciples returned to Jerusalem, waited in prayer and understood that this is what God wanted all the time was for them to wait prayerfully to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They re-traced the steps of Jesus in prayerful waiting. Once they did that - well, read Acts chapter two for the rest of the story.

So maybe our problem is that we don't know how to wait. Don't wait for a miraculous sign. Be sensitive to the prodding of the Holy Spirit while you prayerfully wait in His presence.  God does have a mission for each of us, we must be willing to wait in the right way by retracing the steps of Jesus leading up to the cross and following His example of prayerfulness.

Nobody likes to wait, waiting is hard. Waiting becomes even harder when we are waiting for the wrong thing.

Emmaus or Jerusalem?

After Jesus was resurrected he met up with a couple of disciples along the road to Emmaus. They were talking about all that had happened in Jerusalem with the torture, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus joined him they did not recognize Him and just thought him another traveler along the road. They were walking away from Jerusalem and the power of the resurrection. Once they were made aware of whom it was they were talking to, they immediately returned to Jerusalem.

Discussing this with a group of friends tonight, I was made aware that in my life I had done exactly that at different times. Instead of accepting the power of the cross and the resurrection for exactly what it was, I headed away from it because it was not the kind of salvation I was looking for. I wanted something a bit easier to live with. Somewhere along that road Jesus gently reminded me that I needed to return to Jerusalem and accept the fact that His love for me was enough, and that while working out my salvation might not be always pleasant it was necessary to stay focused on Him

Lord, thank you for meeting me on the road to Emmaus and gently turning me around towards Jerusalem and the beauty of your salvation.

Running with God

Went for a nice, easy 4 mile run this morning in the cool spring temp of 50 deg. Running always leaves me feeling energized, but it also has the effect of drawing me closer to God. In my study of Romans 12 one of the things that Paul talks about is the importance of offering our body as a living sacrifice. Again in 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul reminds us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  So I don't think it is unusual that my running, and even the other exercise programs that I do, make me feel as though I am engaging in spiritual worship while doing good things for my physical body. After all, worship is about making God smile and I think he is happy with my efforts, even though I may feel I could have done more.

Another blog

I love to write. A blog is a good place to practice my skills. The problem is I have started several blogs over the last few years and haven't been faithful to any of them.  So what is my response to this realization? Of course, start another blog!

OK, stop laughing. I really am going to do this.  I am calling it  Spirituality For The Common Man because I am after all a spiritual guy.  I purposely said spiritual instead of religious because I  do see a difference. And I consider myself to be a common man. Common in the sense that I am just another human being put on this earth at the proper time to accomplish certain things as I learn to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

In the past I have blogged about fitness, photography, cycling and yes, even spirituality.  I intend to make this blog primarily spiritual, but I will write about other passions of mine as well.  Could be about running or photography or writing, but I will always try to find a spiritual application.  That is after all who I am.

So what is my purpose for writing.  Well, to practice my skills for the bigger writing projects I have in mind is certainly one purpose.  More importantly, I hope that as I share my insights that I get from following what I believe to be the "way of the cross", I may be able to help other disciples discover their way as well. And most importantly, maybe there will be readers who stumble on my humble efforts who are not followers of Jesus Christ and will become followers as they read my thoughts.

My first project will be to delve into Romans 12. There are 24 admonitions in that one chapter of the Bible that if followed would go a long way in helping us be better disciples. Stay tuned.