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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Putting it All Together

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com




One of the most important reasons to be a part of a church is the connections we build with each other. We become brothers and sisters in Christ - but what good is that if we don't share, learn, grow, and transform from those bonds? Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) says "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." The word "encouraging" there is parakaleo - it is not just saying we should go around patting each other on the back every Sunday. Parakaleo means "to come along side" and to "comfort, console, encourage, urge, appeal, exhort" which sounds a lot more like the way you treat a brother or sister than a Sunday acquaintance. And that is a problem right? If the church is not a building but all of us who are brothers and sisters in Christ; and if we are to be brothers and sisters by coming along side each other, how can we do so if we only interact one day a week for about 90 minutes? How can we comfort, console, encourage, urge, appeal, and exhort with each other if we don't really know each other? Facebook is not the answer, I'll tell you that much.
But before we go there, let's take a step back. Last week I wrote about sharing the Good News through relationship and by being a witness. But that is just the first step. The goal of evangelizing through relationship should not be to simply get people to come to church. It should be to show them love, develop a bond with them, to bring them to the place where being a part of a church together is a natural piece of the relationship. If they choose a different church, it doesn't matter, continue to build on it. Building on those relationships is just the first piece of the brotherhood and sisterhood, and it is not confined to new followers either. Being a part of a church gives us several outlets to "come along side" our brothers and sisters. There are three that the leadership here at Crosswalk wants to encourage and I want to touch on each of those and how they relate to each other: Equipping Small Groups, Life Transformation Groups, and Discipleship.

Equipping Small Groups

We consider all of the small groups here at Crosswalk to be "equipping" because what you receive from groups is not meant to be held in, but then turned and shared back out. But small groups are where the sharing and relationships go from the five minute conversation you have on a Sunday to something deeper. You go from "acquaintance" to "friend." You pray for each other, you learn together, you share your experiences together, you serve together. Small groups are where you can learn from people's perspectives, opinions, and experience. When you are a part of the small group, it doesn't matter if you know people or not, you get to know them better through it. As you get to know people, you find out who can be in an LTG with you and who could benefit from your discipleship - or if you could benefit from theirs. If you aren't part of a small group, I highly encourage it. It is not a place of judgement but rather a place of learning and connection. I have never attended a church and truly felt like I was a part of the community without being a part of a small group. I got to know my wife in a small group, I proposed on a group camping trip, and half our wedding party was from the group. Our current group includes a doctor, a teacher, someone who helped fight sex-trafficking in India, and even people who have traveled to Tibet. I would have had no idea if I did not spend more time with them than Sunday. The point is, you get to know people and build some deep, long-lasting connections in small groups. Studying the Word is an essential part of group, but being connected with people and sharing life is important too.

Life Transformation Groups (LTGs)

Out of my current small group, I was invited to join an LTG with two other guys and it has been great so far. There is no leader in an LTG - everyone is considered an equal. That opens things up for the group to discuss what is going on in their lives in intimate detail and for mutual accountability. To me, the most important part of an LTG, the part where transformation comes from, is that accountability is not just about staying away from sin. It is about where you are going, what you are actively doing to improve your life, what you are actively doing to further God's Kingdom, and what you are actively doing to passionately demonstrate the love of Jesus. When someone asks you those questions each week, and you know they are, you make sure you have something to share with them. The guys in my LTG have encouraged me in my leadership, held me accountable to what I say I want to work on, and given me confidence to take the next step.

Discipleship

In this context, it is also known as mentorship. There are different types of discipleship but I am going to focus on mentorship since that is what I have had experience in. What is a disciple? It is a follower. Literally. A couple of weeks ago Pastor John preached on discipleship and spoke about disciples following a Rabbi into the bathroom so they did not miss anything. When you are in a discipleship/mentor relationship with someone you study Scripture together but you also discuss how it affects your life, how to live out Christian principles, and it is a sharing of experience and Scripture. My inner geek relates it to Yoda and Luke. Ideally, you should be learning from one individual while teaching another. In his book Multiply, Francis Chan says making disciples is not just gathering pupils to listen to your teaching. "...it's all about being faithful to God's call to love the people around you. It's about loving those people enough to help them see their need to love and obey God. It's about bringing them to the Savior and allowing Him to set them free from the power of sin and death and transform them into loving followers of Jesus Christ. It's about glorifying God by obediently making disciples who will teach others to love and obey God." The young man I had the privilege of teaching had a profound effect on my life. I have no doubt that he will go on to other greater mentors than myself and far exceed anything I have accomplished, and it has been a joy to see him grow and transformed by God into someone who does not just seek God, but seeks to honestly follow Jesus. It all started with going out to lunch together and discussing Scripture - and now he will be a lifelong friend. Making disciples has many forms, this is the one I have experience in and I feel is a powerful way to pass on and share the love of Jesus.
For all of these, I would suggest starting with a small group. Get to know people, build relationships, be encouraged and walk alongside each other. As you get to know people better, find a few peers with whom you can be mutually accountable with. Find someone else whom you can disciple and take them out to lunch - and see where it goes. God has given each of us amazing experiences in life, share them with your brothers and sisters. Many of you are probably thinking that all sounds nice but you don't have time for it. Others are probably thinking you don't have enough experience for it. Start with a small group, pray about the rest. Don't hesitate when God gives you the opportunity.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

What's a Witness?

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com


When I first started working at Crosswalk, I wrote a post about how God changed me through Crosswalk. Now it is over a year later and I am still excited about what is happening at Crosswalk, especially Stepping Forward. I'm talking about Stepping Forward as what our church is focused on, our redefined mission. I'm talking about being a community who passionately demonstrates the love of Jesus by pursuing truth, choosing sacrifice, serving all people, and making disciples. This is not just a sermon series, this is an ongoing conviction about who we are and what we do. When I read that mission, when I pray about it, there is one obvious thing I keep coming back to: it is about our relationships, as followers of Jesus, with others. Sharing the Good News with people is not just something we say, it is the way we live, it is who we are.
There are many ways to share the Good News with people and none of them are wrong; except the one where no one knows about your faith. In today's postmodern society, people want to know that you care about them, as an individual. Several wise people have told me that. Asking a stranger if they know about Jesus doesn't have the same impact that it used to because there are very few people in America who don't know who Jesus is.  TV, movies, the internet, etc. have changed all that. People know who Jesus is, but they really don't care. Or they think that Christians don't really act at all like Jesus did, so why bother following Him? Are they wrong to think that way? No, because I have known a lot of Christians who were filled with hate and anger, and that is what defined and drove them. But that is also very few Christians. Most of them are good, kind, loving, and compassionate. How do we get society to change and embrace Christianity? By being the type of person they want to be around, by letting them know who we are. By developing caring relationships with people, and talking about what Jesus has done for us - and when it is done in the context of an ongoing relationship, people know that you are coming from a place of genuine caring.
I used to be afraid to talk to people about my faith, not wanting to admit I was a Christian thinking that it would push them away.  But the verse that kept coming back to me was Acts 1:8 - "and you will have power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  First of all, this was the last thing Jesus said to the disciples before ascending to Heaven. Seems to me that whenever I go out of town for a while I want to make sure that the last thing I say is what I don't want people to forget. Those last minute instructions which are the most important. A lot of people focus on the power of the Holy Spirit in that text, but I look at what Jesus is telling them to do. Be witnesses - which means sharing what we have experienced in our own lives. What God has done for us in our lives. How the Bible has changed us. As God continues to work in our lives, it is reflected in the way we live.
At my last job, my boss was an Atheist and during one of our first conversations he found out I was a Christian. Immediately he started to tell me about a previous coworker of his who would constantly "share the Good News" with him. He couldn't stand her because she didn't want to have a conversation about it, she would only tell her side, and it was patronizing to him. The easy thing to do would be to wipe the dust off my feet, say he doesn't want to hear what I have to say and then move on. But I listened to what he had to say. In our conversations I was very open with him about what God had done and was continuing to do in my life, but in the context of personal conversation. After a year, he had begun initiating conversations with me: when I told him the story of how I found the job at Crosswalk, he even admitted that while he didn't believe in God, it sure seemed that God gave me the job. A few months later, he told me that his wife and kids had decided to go to church, and while he didn't go himself, he encouraged them to see what it was all about. I'm not saying he is accepting Christ or anything, but I am saying that there are other ways to look at evangelism. Listen to people, value who they are and their views.  Share with them about how you are experiencing God. In other words, build an ongoing, caring relationship with them which is not just about sharing the Word. It is about being a friend and caring about them, and wanting to share with them what is happening in your life.
I look back at my life and see how God working through a family who cared about me. Like many people, during college I stopped paying attention to God. But I had a good friend whose family lived close to school and they constantly invited us over to dinner, bbq's and just to hang out and spend time together. They were such an amazing, caring family that I wanted to know more about what made them that way. They talked to me about their relationship with Christ. About what they experienced on missions trips. About how God acted in their lives. They were confident in what was going on in the world. They invited me to church but when I declined they were ok with it. They wanted to be my friend, to be in relationship with me. I can honestly say they were the first family I ever met who lived out the Gospel to others and it had a huge effect on me. Not right away. Years after I graduated college and did not see them anymore I still thought about them. And when God drew me back they were the first ones I thought of and who I called with questions.
I'm just saying that living the Christian life is more than just taking in what God reveals to us. It is about living out the Gospel to others. Not as a monologue but as a conversation. Let people know that you genuinely care for and about them, that you respect them. But don't hesitate to share what God has done in your life.