Jesus in People's lives...

So I was preparing my lesson for this week and I always knew that Jesus was connected to so many different kinds of people, but I just wrote it out and it seemed to be shocking, so I thought that I'd share it with you...

The early church realized something. Everywhere Jesus went he talked to all sorts of people. The people who were well respected by the community, people who were called sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, cheaters, liars and thieves. He talked to the lame, blind, hearing and speech impaired, those with incurable diseases, and even people who were possessed by demons. He also showed that he cared for people who were Roman, Scythian, Samaritan and Greek. The early church realized that every single person is important to God!

This is just crazy to me!

The Missional Church

I have been confronted with this phrase many times since coming back from Poland. This concept isn't new in fact I've been taught it in every church that I've been associated with. I've heard it said, but I really don't know that I've seen it lived out in the hearts and minds of the people. In fact many times I've heard statements completely opposite of the missio dei and it is frightening to me. I found this blog post today and it really got me thinking about how things have got in the way of the missio dei. Here are ten things that we should not expect in a truly missional church.

TEN THINGS ANYONE WHO JOINS IN A TWENTY FIRST CENTURY MISSIONAL CHURCH PLANT SHOULD NOT EXPECT

1.) Should not expect to regularly come to church for just one hour, get what you need for your own personal growth and development, and your kidss needs, and then leave til next Sunday. Expect mission to change your life. Expect however a richer life than you could have ever imagined.

2.) Should not expect that Jesus will fit in with every consumerist capitalist assumption, lifestyle, schedule or accoutrement you may have adopted before coming here. Expect to be freed from a lot of crap you will find out you never needed.

3.) Should not expect to be anonymous, unknown or be able to disappear in this church Body. Expect to be known and loved, supported in a glorious journey.

4.) Should not expect production style excellence all the time on Sunday worship gatherings. Expect organic, simple and authentic beauty.

5.) Should not expect a raucous "light out" youth program that entertains the teenagers, puts on a show that gets the kids "pumped up," all without parental involvement. Instead as the years go by, with our children as part of our life, worship and mission (and when the light shows dim and the cool youth pastor with the spiked hair burns out) expect our youth to have an authentic relationship with God thru Christ that carries them through a lifetime of journey with God.

6.) Should not expect to always "feel good,"or ecstatic on Sunday mornings. Expect that there will ALSO be times of confession, lament, self-examination and just plain silence.

7.) Should not expect a lot of sermons that promise you God will prosper you with "the life you've always wanted" if you'll just believe Him and step out on faith and give some more money for a bigger sanctuary. Expect sustenance for the journey.

8.) Should not expect rapid growth whereby we grow this church from 10 to a thousand in three years. Expect slower organic inefficient growth that engages people's lives where they are at and sees troubled people who would have nothing to do with the gospel marvelously saved.

9.) Should not expect all the meetings to happen in a church building. Expect a lot of the gatherings will be in homes, or sites of mission.

10.) Should not expect arguments over style of music, color of carpet, or even doctrinal outlier issues like dispensationalism. Expect mission to drive the conversation.

O AND BY THE WAY¦ Should not expect that community comes to you. I am sorry but true community in Christ will take some "effort" and a reshuffling of priorities for both you and your kids. Yes I know you want people to come to you and reach out to you and you're hurting and busy. But assuming you are a follower of Christ (this message is not for strangers to the gospel) you must learn that the answer to all those things is to enter into the practices of "being the Body" in Christ, including sitting, eating, sharing and praying together.

Reculturing Evangelism

So, it's nice to get some affirmation about what I've been saying. I've started a new book, A New Kind of Youth Ministry. Its interesting because the author, Chris Flomsbee, is the director of Sonlife ministries, Sonlife is natorious for holding large evangelistic events that don't produce disciples just converts.

In the first chapter of the book he calls for youth pastors to stop doing big event evangelism and to start doing relationship evangelism. Just get to know students as much as possible. He calls it a move to friendship evangelism. You meet friends and share with them how Christ has worked in your life by just living it. It's amazing to see what happens!

This fall we are starting a Friendship Evangelism program. We are getting teens together and teaching them the skills necessary to help their friends get to know Christ. Chris talks about how if all we do is large event evangelism how is one-on-one evangelism modelled for today's teen.

Growing up I was very close to my youth pastor. I watched him like a hawk! I don't know that he even knew it. But I was amazed at his ability to build relationships. It seemed as though every other year or so another family or person would start coming to church because of the relationship that he had built with them. I saw him do it, so now that I am in the position I have been challenged to do the same.

I am praying that many of the students that I come into contact with will live missionally. That everyone they come into contact with will understand that they are a follower of Christ and that their friends may understand that that it a better way to live!

Check this Out!

DUNLAP -- Inspired by a recent church mission trip, recent Concord High graduate Matt Schnaars decided to get moving.
"I just realized the need to start giving back what I have and start helping out others," Schnaars said. "I had plenty of time and resources and just decided to start using those."
Schnaars' youth pastor at Sugar Grove Church, Joel Wolfgang, gave him the topic of AIDS relief as a challenge, a concept Schnaars viewed as "a good place to start."
Wolfgang said Schnaars was motivated from the start.
"He came back (from the mission trip) really like 'I want to do something,'" Wolfgang said. "I told him about Blood:Water Mission and he decided to go for it."
Blood:Water Mission is an organization that contributes to AIDS relief in Africa by providing money to dig wells in villages without a clean water supply. A clean water supply fosters a clean blood supply, which leads to fewer AIDS cases transmitted through blood transfusions, Wolfgang said.
On Saturday, Schnaars will head up a walk-a-thon, rummage sale and bake sale from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Concord Junior High School practice track, 24050 C.R. 20, with all proceeds going to the organization.
"We're definitely hoping for over 300 people to show up," Schnaars said. "And a total of at least 1,000 miles walked that day. We're hoping to raise over $3,000."
Wolfgang said participation is easy, from shopping at the rummage sale to taking a few laps around the track. Because several local businesses have offered per person or per mile pledges, Schnaars will be asking all participants who walk to sign in and then record how many laps they walked.
"He's got fliers up all over this area asking people to come," Wolfgang said.



I'm really excited about this. When I was in college it was drilled into our heads that we would never see real success from youth ministry while the students were in our groups, but here is a great example of success. I'm so pumped about this. Shari and I are walking from 3 to 6 tomorrow.

If you've never heard of Blood:Water check out their site. They are doing some tremenous things!

Rachel at The Springs...

Here is one of our girls at camp. She is trying to catch an M&M in her mouth. I think I can see it!

Poland 2007

You know we are still missing 6 passports, but we do have a t-shirt design!

What do you think?

The Springs...

So, we travelled 4 hours up to camp yesterday to take four senior high students. It was fun! Shari and I decided that we would stay up there for one night, I haven't seen camp programming in two year. Man, do I miss it! I get my fix once a year in February for our big winter retreat, but I still miss it. Everything seemed to be going well. So, keep up the good work guys.

Their Super Sweet 16

So, a couple of girls celebrated one of their friends sweet 16 by doing this!

Cedar Point

So we took the Senior High to Cedar Point yesterday and we had a blast. It took forever to get into the park because of the long lines at the group sales counter, but we still had a blast.

The crazy thing was that Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace of the Detroit Pistons were there! We were on our way to ride the Iron Dragon (I know it's not the most glamorous ride), and the guy sitting at the front of the line said that they had just walked by. I gave my cell phone number out to all the teens before we went into the park and I was getting phone calls all day from people telling me that they had seen these guys. I was really getting bummed because I was the Detroit fan, and I wasn't getting to see these guys (Shari saw them on three different occasions). Finally it was the end of the night and we were trying to gather up all of the teens. And who would walk by Tayshaun and Rasheed within 5 feet and all of their family and their bodyguards and publicists. It was a beautiful thing!

Anyway the trip was pretty good we only had one problem that needed to be dealt with, and that's pretty good considering we had 26 students.

Jacob Tyler Wolfgang

So, I finally got Jacob and Sarah in for a concert. I was so pumped and so were several of the teens. Jacob and Sarah came up to help us out with worship at our winter retreat, Reality Check, and they also did a concert of his original music for us (I missed it, all part of being a youth pastor). Anyway they came on Wednesday and we video taped it and recorded it. We've got all the stuff, and we needed the practice of it, so now we have the raw footage, and hopefully soon Jacob will have video from that show on his website!

Thanks guys for coming out and doing the show!

SGC Youth Cafe

So we had this great idea to start a cafe in our youth room. The idea was to get a bunch of concessions style food and drink and sell it at youth events and activities, and take any profits and give it to missions. These kids bring so much to youth group anyway, I thought it would be a lot better way for the youth to do something other than line the pockets of someone else.

Well, we did no advertising, at Jacob and Sarah's concert we opened it and we made $3.50! What a good night! I'm sure it will only go up from there.

Serving with Eyes Wide Open

Just finished Serving with Eyes Wide Open by David Livermore. This is a book about our approach to Short-term missions. I am particularly intrigued with this subject because I am leading a trip to Poland this summer with a bunch of 10th - 12th grade students. I am looking forward to it, but the more I read Livermore's book I realized that I was enabling them. I wasn't giving them the tools to succeed, but rather giving them the short simplified answers that I think that they need to get the job done right (whatever that means). I always love a good book that will change my perspective on a subject.

I want to read books that will blow me away, not books that will just support what I all ready know. I want to read books that will blow me away by supporting what I already know. This book did just that. It took the passion I have to see the world as the kingdom and practically showed me how I can teach that to my students while on a short-term missions trip.

Thanks Dr. Livermore

Jacob Tyler Wolfgang

So Jacob just finished recording his new albumn a few weeks ago, and he has some of the music up on his MySpace (not to be confused with ThySpace). You can also purchase the cd for only $5.49 here!

Jacob is coming to Goshen to do a show at Youth Group on June 6th. He did our worship for our winter retreat this past January and the students here seemed to really like Jacob and his music. He did a show for us on Saturday Night and students were waltzing to his famous Philosophy Waltz.

So, check the CD out! Let me know what you think! I personally enjoy Sarah's vocals on the Bless Our Burning Heart!

Great Job guys.