God For The Rest of Us

Greetings All,

     I was tempted to entitle this weeks "thought"  --  "Getting Back to Reaching People the Jesus Way."   I love it because it's a true story and I enjoy true stories far more than fiction.  I like to hear of people who have actually done things, not read fictional scenarios of people doing things!  True stories are more motivationally challenging than fiction!

     
     The following excerpt comes from the book, "God For The Rest of Us" by Vince Antonucci.  It chronicles his call to plant a church in Las Vegas (or "Sin City" as it is commonly called).  It shows his love for "sinners" which others might by-pass, overlook, and even avoid.  That's why I personally found his story(s) inspiring.  And my prayer in sending this out is that his story might inspire you to do what both he and his friend Tommy did. I pray it challenges you to think outside the box in terms of who you seek to reach, and how you seek to reach them with the message of Jesus.  Enjoy.

     "I met Tommy at church. Tommy had recently gotten out of the Air Force. He was in a unit called Air Force Special Operations. Tommy would drop behind enemy lines to prepare bomb sites in wars, and knew how to kill people with his pinky or a rubber spatula.  But those were his Chuck Norris days. Tommy was now in seminary. Like me, he had decided to become a pastor so he could make the biggest difference possible for God.  When Tommy started attending our church, he began by volunteering and joining my small group.   About two years later, during my 12th year at that church, my wife and I felt God leading us to move to Las Vegas to start another church. After announcing it to everyone on a Sunday morning, we got together with our small group.  As we shared our feelings with the group, Tommy had a big smile on his face.  I wanted to tell him he was a jerk for being so happy we were leaving the church, but I was afraid to.  Finally, I stopped and asked, "What are you smiling about?"  Tommy laughed and shocked everyone when he said, "We're coming with you." They did. Tommy, his wife and two children, moved to Las Vegas to help us start the church.  After years of seminary Tommy would finally be a pastor.

     Tommy has a Harley. And when he arrived in Vegas, he realized that there was probably a bunch of rough-and-tumble Harley riders who wouldn't step foot in a church, so he joined a biker club. Well, he said it was a club. It seemed more like a gang to me.  It was a bunch of scary-looking guys who wore leather jackets and rode Harleys.  If they didn't want you in their "club" anymore, they would take your leather jacket and cut it in half.  I'd never heard of a club like that!  So Tommy joined these guys, built relationships with them, and began sharing his faith with them. Eventually he invited the leader of the gang (I mean "club") to our new church. The leader showed up -- big, tall, ornery and with a Wiccan girlfriend.  And eventually he said yes to Jesus, and Tommy baptized him. 

     Tommy also has tattoos. He realized that there were more than 300 tattoo shops in Las Vegas, and more than 1000 tattoo artists, and that close to none of them would set foot in a church. Tommy really developed a heart for these tattoo artists who felt rejected by the church. How do you help tattoo artists to know God is for them?  How do you lead them to experience God's love and move into a relationship with him?  How do you get past the hard, painted exterior so you can tattoo on their hearts the gospel of God's love for those who think they're unfit? I'm not completely sure.  But I know the strategy Jesus used.

     Jesus is God. 

     Jesus was in heaven.

     Jesus wanted humans (sinful ones) to know God is for them, to experience God's love, to move into a relationship with him.

     So Jesus moved to earth and became a human.

     My friend Tommy wanted to connect tattoo artists with God, so he decided to become a tattoo artist! Unbelievable! He had done all that training to become a pastor, and now he would have to do a year-long apprenticeship -- at no pay -- to train to become a tattooer.  He had come to the conclusion that other people could be pastors, but no one else was going to reach those tattoo artists. Tommy started apprenticing at a local shop where he built a relationship with a coworker named Randy.  Pretty soon Randy started coming to our church, and not much later he gave his life to Christ. Tommy baptized him. Even more people from the tattoo shop started showing up at church.

     But, then, there was Johnny.  Johnny was a young tattoo artist, Kate Moss skinny and covered from head to toe in ink.  Of all the people at the shop he probably had the least interest in Tommy, or in Tommy's "spirituality."  Tommy was trying to figure out how he could grow their friendship. One day he asked, "Johnny, what are you into?"  Johnny had to think for a bit. Finally he said, "I don't know, tattoos...and Harry Potter."  Tommy told Johnny that he had never read or seen any Harry Potter stuff, which blew Johnny's mind. Tommy asked how many Harry Potter movies there were.  Johnny proudly told him, "Eight, and I own them all"

     Tommy sighed. He didn't care to watch any of them, but he did care about Johnny.  So he asked, "Do you want to watch them again? I'd watch them with you." Johnny was stoked!  Soon they began their marathon. Whenever there were no clients at the shop, Johnny and Tommy would sneak into the back room and continue the seemingly endless hours of watching Harry Potter. This led, finally, to the day Johnny pushed the pause button and asked Tommy, "Where is Mother Teresa in the Bible?"  That conversation led, finally, to the day Johnny showed up at one of our services. That led, finally, to the day Johnny decided to say yes to Jesus and have Tommy baptize him."

     I find Tommy's example inspiring!  Full of faith and unbelievable love!  A true saint! 

     In fact, his example, like the example of Jesus that he followed, makes me ask myself (and ask you):  What "Johnny's" do we know?  Who can you and I think of that the average church might write off, pass by, or worse yet, avoid?  How far would your love for "sinners," and your desire to reach the type of people Tommy and Jesus reached, cause you to go in sacrificial love, to reach them?  Would we be willing to move our families to a whole new city, state or country?  Change jobs (even when we have a wife and kids) and do a one year apprenticeship at no pay?  Join a biker gang?  Willingly endure 20+ hours of Harry Potter movies? Is the salvation of lost souls that important to us?

     Would we, like Jesus -- who left the unspeakable glories of heaven to endure the agony of the cross --  be willing to make such sacrifices to reach those who might not otherwise be reached?  These are questions we really do need to ask ourselves, lest over time we become far too comfortable in our Churchianity...

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Training Like Jesus

Greetings All!

     This week I received a magazine called, "Voice" (September/October 2018) which had a very interesting article on, "Training Like Jesus" in which the author -- Paul Seger -- shows the difference between the way Jesus trained people, the way the Church throughout history has done so, and the way we tend to do so today.   I found the differences quite fascinating, not to mention a bit convicting and very challenging.  I trust it might not only be informative and thought-provoking for you as well, but challenging to consider.  It gave me a much greater appreciation and respect for disciplers and pastors from the past.  Enjoy.

Training People Like Jesus Did

     "Life on the mission field has honed my conviction and commitment to discipleship. I have gained an appreciation for the absolute necessity of leadership training.  For years I have done both.  Discipleship of new believers and training men for church leadership became an indispensable part of missions and ministry.  But a visit I took to Israel this past year demonstrated how woefully inadequate my approach has been. As we traversed the Holy Land and rehearsed the life of Christ, it became obvious that His method of discipleship differed greatly from the way we disciple and train...

     The Gospels speak of Jesus moving around the country with little reference to distances he traveled.  In my naivete, I failed to factor walking into the equation. From His base of operations in Capernaum, Jerusalem was at least a five-day trek (approximately 121 miles, walking the whole way)...  What do these distances have to do with the amount of time Jesus spent training His disciples?  It is obvious these long walks would have given inordinate amounts of time to talk and train.  Lengthy hikes with conversations.  Lessons and lectures were enabled by hours on the road.  Add to that the absence of television, internet, phones, movies, electricity, and readily available entertainment, and the hours for teaching and training rapidly stacked up.  Evenings around the campfire allowed for unhurried conversations.  In the 21st Century we might wonder how Jesus could train disciples in 3.5 years. We anticipate four years of undergraduate work and then another three to four years for seminary. Yet in half that time Christ prepared the men who would be the foundation and future of the greatest initiative in history, the Church.

     Most preparation for ministry in the Western world takes place in a classroom and a 15-hour semester load is considered normal. Then, if there is an hour or two a week with a mentor, it is considered an exceptional experience...  But when Jesus called His disciples to follow Him, it was to spend 24 hours a day together for months on end.  They ministered together, ate together, worked together, relaxed together, socialized together and lived life as one.

     We will never replicate the teaching style of Jesus today.  We have neither the will nor the capacity to do this. But there have been phases of church history where something similar happened. In the early years of the United States there were no colleges and seminaries.  Men who wanted to enter the ministry did so by moving into the home of a pastor.  They rose in the morning and had devotions together. Breakfast was shared with opportunity to converse. Study for messages filled their morning hours and were done together (the older instructing the younger). Afternoon visits and evangelism were done together with opportunity to debrief after the event. Evenings were unhurried conversations around the table.  "In eighteenth-century New England, Christian leaders such as Jonathan and Sarah Edwards regularly had one or two pastor-trainees move into their home (alongside their 11 children!) where the budding ministers had opportunity to observe the quality of their marriage, the reality of their spiritual life, and the demands of pastoral duties" (Ted Engstrom, The Fine Art of Mentoring).  How many pastors do you know who have apprentices living in their homes?  Would I be willing to do that?

     Some pastors were better at doing this than others, so it was suggested that these shepherds do this full time.  With these full-time shepherds, Harvard and Princeton were formed to formalize the training and we never looked back. Our jam-packed schedules, programs, and Western approach to education have become the norm and crowded out the potential of training like Jesus.  I'm not sure we will ever go back to the way Jesus did it.  He spent the time... It would take a radical adjustment to ministry for the average pastor to include a couple trainees in their home and schedule... Even though we will not replicate the teaching style of Jesus, many of us could start moving in that direction."

     It is challenging to consider and think that maybe the newest way of doing things isn't the best or most effective.  It's also challenging to consider the depth of commitment it took to be disciples of Jesus. Or to be like a Sarah and Jonathan Edwards and open your house already full of 11 children to the watchful eyes of one or two pastors-in-training who watched (so as to learn) your every move. Imagine someone (or a couple of someones!) watching how you treat your wife and family, keep your house, spend your income, raise and train your children, pray and study the Word, evangelize and train leaders, speak of and interact with everyone in the Body of Christ, and seek to further the work of the Gospel locally and globally.

     Pastors often talk about "living in a fishbowl" where people observe everything you do.  And that's with people looking on from the outside!  Imagine them living in your house 24/7 for a couple years at a time!  Yikes!  For us who need our times of privacy to gather our thoughts and regain strength, it's a daunting thought!  We might all say, "Only by Your grace, O God!  Please give us what we need to begin to disciple more like Jesus did."

With You In Our Habitual Need For Grace, Pastor Jeff