2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 4

Concept #5 – Ministry Assignments and Challenges (Jeff's titles, so don't shoot the messenger)
EVERYBODY IS A MINISTER!
EVERYBODY IS A MISSIONARY!
Moms are missionaries. Teens are missionaries. Business people are missionaries.
Dads are ministers. 4th graders are ministers. Volunteers are ministers. All of these people are both. The Bridge is a training ground. We will make sure that you are grounded in Bible to handle your calling as both. And, training will be provided in the classroom. BUT, the best training will happen in the field.

Concept 6 – Intentional
Every disciple of Christ should be being developed into the elder requirements listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. This requires being INTENTIONAL! Since this is the earthly purpose of discipleship, leaders for new missional cells should constantly be being developed. The new groups that form could stay with the same mission or discover a new one.

Concept 7 – Ongoing
Don't stop! Stay with it! God will change people's hearts to make this happen if they just hang around long enough for the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to move. This perseverance that we are responsible for will reveal the reality of Christ in lives. People who have just added Jesus on to their list of priorities instead of making Him and the Gospel their prime affection will play games and not persevere. Whereas, people who are being transformed with true life change will persevere until they get their personal & familia mission figured out. WE MUST PERSERVERE AND FIND A CLEARLY IDENTIFIED MISSION.

Concept 8 – Holistic
Going on mission for Christ will transform all areas of life: Physical – less stress, more exercise (we will have energy from purpose and from God); Emotional – fruit controls emotions; Psychological – thoughts are Gospel-centered, thoughts are in tune with God – HEALTHY; Spiritual – DUH! These all come from our intimacy with Christ while on mission.

This whole thing boils down to discipleship, the becoming more like Christ that I hope that we all seek, comes in a flurry when we make His mission OUR mission!!

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 3

Concept #4 – Discipling on Mission – Is there another way?

When I first got in ministry as a discipleship director of a mainline church, I was suspicious of overseas mission trips. I thought they were play toys for folks who wanted to “say” that they had worked with the “least of these,” but really did not have the inner fortitude (guts) to be a real missionary for the cause of Christ (the people who have been the real heroes of the Christian faith since the Apostle Paul). But, for some reason before I ever went on one, I put in a membership requirement at The Bridge that each member would would agree to go on a trip that he/she can afford and physically be able to perform. After having seen teams of Christ-followers GO TOGETHER on the junkets. I understand why God wanted this requirement in the package. I don't want to discount the work that teams do to help on projects around the world, but what we have seen is evidence as to what the Bible tries to teach. WHEN WE GO ON MISSION TOGETHER – DISCIPLESHIP SKYROCKETS. If our command from God is to make disciples who make disciples, we must go on mission together. Through the power of Holy Spirit, our Christlikeness, that develops by loving each well and eagerly studying and applying the Scriptures, explodes when that loving community goes on mission together. That mission field can be a neighborhood that a host home resides in, or an elementary school where a bunch of their kids go, or a day care center, or a drug treatment center with GAP, or world poverty awareness, or a local para-church organization like the Parkland Pregnancy Resource Center, or the homeless or women's shelters in Bonne Terre or many other options. We will start simple and slow, but anyone who thinks he/she is interested in discipleship, but not interested in mission, is fooling themselves. There is only so close that a person can get to Christ and become more like Him (fruit, gifts, power) without accepting His missional command. He said, “GO! And He said, “GO TOGETHER!” He said go and I will give you power. The general teaching is, “if you will make My mission your mission, I will make you like Me.” We are going to challenge every cell family to form around mission, and let's just see what God does with our discipleship.

This will not be easy! We must leave our comfort for the sake of the mission!

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 2

Concept 3 – Familial Context
I see God teach this at five levels:

1.Immediate Family –
Men, your wives are your first treasure after Christ. I am in the middle of some major repentance here. Wives, your husband is your first treasure after Christ, not your children. Then, your #1 job together is to disciple these gifts (these children) that God has given. I am working on this one also. Teach them to make disciples; teach them Godliness. All other is secondary, including important things like education. WATCH OUT – sports, fine arts, and organizations (Boys Scouts, dance, etc.) can be positive venues to work on disciple-making and Godliness, but they quickly can become idols that replace Christ as our affection.

2.Missional Cell Family –
Going on mission together requires what I call teamwork discipleship (once a coach, always …). As we engage our culture together, the one anothers (how we treat each other, love each other, minister to each other) will produce FRUIT. Ask the people who have been to Chacocente, on mission together, what it did for their discipleship to work as a team.

3.The Rest of The Bridge –
Each of us must be on constant vigil to reach out and help members outside our cells. We must not only pay attention to our own families and missional cells. If we hear of a need and we can fill it, GO take care of it. Example: an individual is moving and nobody in their cell has a truck or young strong backs, another cell has a truck and still another has the bodies – we must change our schedules and make this happen – God promises to respond with blessings. ALSO, every member of The Bridge is responsible for getting folks connected who show up at our celebrations and start hanging around. We all need to get to know names of new folks, find out some things about them, and make suggestion of connection points. We can make suggest a missional cell family either in their community or one that is based on something that might interest them. Or, we can just invite them to Starting Point, or one of our many classes that will introduce them to the idea of community (Alpha, CA, SOG, Crown are all set in small groups of community).

4.The overall Body of Christ –
We are in a very large family called the Body of Christ. We want to partner with other churches locally and world-wide to deliver the Gospel to a dying world. WE MUST VIEW THIS RELATIONSHIP AS FAMILY. As we partner with other churches, our goal is not to enhance The Bridge, it is to extend this family. This is a real challenge because most churches view others as the crazy uncle (they do things so weird over there) or as the competing brother (we have to WIN). Do you remember hating to lose to siblings? These thoughts must go away from the church – capital 'C.' WE ARE FAMILY whether we like it or not!!

5.Familia with the unchurched, the lost, the unregenerate –
This one is tough because the Bible has multiple commands about how familiar to be with the WORLD. Our war with sin means that there has to be some separation from the world. If we have people in our lives that pull us toward our sin cravings, we cannot hang around them, let alone make them family. There may have to be some contact because some of these folks may be in some of the other groups. But the lost cannot be people of INFLUENCE in our lives. On the other hand, we are encouraging everyone to have relationships with people who live far from God. Jesus did. We want you to hang out in coffee shops, malls, Facebook, etc – where people who don't know God hang out. We want you (God does too) to invite folks to hang out at all four of our other family environments. Invite them to your house to be with your family, to your cell to eat & hang out with that family, to The Bridge for special events (concerts, conferences, Night in Bethlehem) and Sunday morning worship celebrations. We also have a lot of community church familia-wide events like BBQ's, bowling, or trips that your unchurched friends and family can join.
Just to conclude, we will all find out very soon that MISSIONAL CELL is ALL ABOUT opening up your familia to folks who live far from God.

2010 – Disciples who make Disciples – Part 1

Discipleship is all about the Holy Spirit transforming us as we experience 'life on life.' God, with us doing our parts, doesn't make disciples in nice tidy environments. It is messy and it is in community. Teaching and worship happen in the BWCK (Big White Chocolate Kiss, our building), comfortable and safe; on the other hand, discipleship – growth in the qualities and nature of Christ – happens mainly 'life on life.' IT happens DOING LIFE TOGETHER.
I am going to spend the few days writing responses to eight different concepts about discipleship developed by Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma (Greek word for body), a collection of missional communities that is very Biblical in its development of disciples. We will all be experiencing a lot of SOMA training over the next year, so here we go on a ride of Biblical fun, adventure, and chiseling (thank you Brian & Ronnie for the unbelievable Christmas Eve skit).

Concept 1 – Faithfulness
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to RELIABLE men who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV)
Watch your life. Put sin to death. Develop people who want to watch God move powerfully in your life – who want to and are willing to do whatever it takes to help you be faithful. This includes both rebuke and encouragement. This will develop both of you. One person is great; a life coach, a mentor, a partner is necessary. A family is also necessary. Until you have decided that your faith in God is the most important thing in your life – FAITHFULNESS – making disciples who make disciples will not happen through you.

Concept 2 – Community Context
The 'one anothers' (Click Here to see them all) must be lived out in authentic community. This cannot be done to any effective degree in hundreds of people. These must happen in our immediate families or the Bible calls us the worst of sinners. But also, we with intention must build missional cell families. This community context will build disciples most effectively. What we cannot do with hundreds, we will do with a few faithful to the King and dedicated to one another. This the THE THING at The Bridge.

Tomorrow, we will only look at Concept #3 – the Familia.

More Thoughts on Biblical Church

We have been talking about how little the Western church looks like the church that we see being formed in the New Testament. The Forgotten God, the Holy Spirit, brings about radical transformation in our lives to make the church look a 'lot more like love.' This will be OBVIOUS in the way that we treat each other inside the Kingdom (and out for that matter). The Bible gives us a list of commands that we call the 'one anothers' that will show us what this love should look like. Here they are:
The Biblical One-Anothers
1.Accept one another -- Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Rom. 15:7)
2.Admonish one another -- Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16)
3.Bear one another's burdens -- Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal. 6:2)
4.Bear with one another -- Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph. 4:2)
5.Build up one another -- Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (original=build up one another). (Rom. 14:19)
6.Care for one another. . . so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. (1 Cor. 12:25)
7.Comfort one another -- Therefore encourage each other (original=comfort one another) with these words. (1 Thess. 4:18)
8.Confess faults to one another -- Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)
9.Be Devoted to one another -- Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. (Rom. 12:10a)
10.Encourage one another -- Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thess. 5:11)
11.Forgive one another -- Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph. 4:32)
12.Greet one another -- Greet one another with a holy kiss. (Rom. 16:16)
13.Be Honest with one another -- Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices . . . (Col. 3:9)
14.Honor one another -- Honor one another above yourselves. (Rom. 12:10b)
15.Be Hospitable to one another -- Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. (1 Pet. 4:9)
16.Be Kind to one another -- Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Eph. 4:32)
17.Love one another -- Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another . . . (Rom. 13:8)
18.Members one of another -- So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Rom. 12:5)
19.Pray for one another -- Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)
20.Be of the Same Mind with one another -- May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves (original=same mind among each other) as you follow Christ Jesus . . . (Rom. 15:5)
21.Serve one another -- You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love. (Gal. 5:13)
22.Spur one another on -- And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. (Heb. 10:24)
23.Submit to one another -- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Eph. 5:21).   

Good News / Bad News

Not long ago I blogged that a doctor had diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. That doctor was wrong. That is the good news. For that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving night.
The bad news is that I do know that I have a correct diagnosis of a debilitating disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). I have a very tough road in front of me. For that I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving night. Humility should not be a problem in this fight. I will let you google it if you like to check out my future. Here is the Mayo Clinic's description -- Press here Wikipedia -- Press here

I guess good health has been an idol for me because I have not done well with this diagnosis this week. In my mind, I have always thought I could handle a decline in health with a good attitude understanding that we are to suffer with Christ in this life -- that what I deserve is a cross and every breath spent with Christ is a blessing. My heart must have been a little idolatrous with this because I am struggling. I was an athlete and have always been able to pull off about anything I wanted physically. Limited ability to do a bunch of things over the last 4 years that really frustrated me now makes all kinds of sense. I thought I was just nearing 50 and my body was slowing down. Turns out, it was much more.

Honestly, I am feeling a little defeated and don't feel up to the fight today. But, Christ and my body of Christ family will not let me stay there. I know that God has a plan and something in mind with this, so let's get started.

Abiding

Thought for the day -- Prayer always attracts the Holy Spirit! (TT)
Ben kept using the word 'abide' yesterday as the key to developing the fruit of the Spirit, and I was thinking about what that means. One definition of the word is 'to dwell, to remain in a place.' I think there is kind of this cool little triangle where Paul says, "pray without ceasing." THAT is abiding in the vine (John 15). We spend our time in the presence of God. That is abiding, remaining in a place -- that is praying without ceasing. As we work, His presence is overarching. As we study, His presence is overarching. As we parent or play, His presence is overarching. As we seek him in this prayer - this abiding, it always attracts the Holy Spirit, and when the Holy Spirit is present, He is working -- working to develop fruit. God says abide in Me (allow Me to be preeminent in all your doings), and I will abide in you. God's abiding in us has to change us.
It is when we go it alone that we lose our patience.
It is when we go it alone that we are not loving (high view of self instead of others).
It is when we go it alone that we feel no peace.
It is when we go it alone that we feel no deep sense of satisfaction regardless of our circumstances (no joy).
It is when we go it alone that we are not kind, not gentle, not faithful, and not full of self-control.
The GROWING IT of our Christian faith is about abiding -- inviting God to reign and rule and teach all truth 24/7 -- to remain in that place.
How attached to the vine am I this morning? You?
Jesus says, "Apart from me you can do nothing." That is pretty plain.

Is Your Church 'Charismatic?'

Many of you may not be aware that we have an FAQ section on our website (Click Here) that answers a lot of questions that folks may have concerning The Bridge. Since we are studying the Holy Spirit, I thought I might point out this one.
One of those questions states, "Is The Bridge a “Charismatic” church?

The answer is ‘yes and no.’ Yes, if you mean do we believe that all of the spiritual gifts of the Bible still exist today. No, if you mean that we place a major emphasis on the gifts of tongues, healing, and miracles in our celebration services.

The reason for taking that stance is, as always, one of Bible. The Bible says that the public display of these gifts will ALWAYS, and I emphasize always, be orderly and edify the entire body (1 Corinthians 12 & 14). God uses these particular gifts in the Bible to bring an EXTRAORDINARY, NOT COMMONPLACE, NOT EVERY DAY, NOT EVERY SUNDAY, message that the existing language just cannot communicate strongly enough. Our church is made up of probably 45% folks who grew up Baptist, 30% mainline (Methodist, Lutheran, etc), 15% Catholic, and 5% Pentecostal and 5% completely unchurched. How would a prophetic public message in tongues EDIFY, OR BLESS, that entire body? It would not; it would throw us into mass confusion. God ordinarily does things that make sense. I might add that if we don't believe that the Holy Spirit stills gifts the world with miracles and healing, once again, we should close the doors.

However, our current status is that God has not blessed one board member, pastor, staff member,or elder with these gifts; and He has not introduced these gifts into any of at least 1000 different spirit-filled events that we have hosted at The Bridge in almost 4 years. The Bible is clear that not everyone gets the same gifts. Now, I believe we have about 5-10 (maybe more) members of our 135 who have been given these gifts by God, and they all agree that prophecy presented at The Bridge in English is most beneficial and quite sufficient -- this language does just fine to edify this body. Quite honestly, people are capable of ignoring God in any language. And so these beautiful people keep the gifts private and edifying for smaller gatherings. I want you to understand that I believe I have heard legitimate tongues and the following interpretation in my life, and I believe that they were real. I want you to know that God heals people physically, sometimes miraculously, but much of what we see of that publicly is put on by charlatans and is false. So to answer the question, this church is charismatic; it has the Spirit -- just not in the sense that some people are seeking and that is fine. I believe that the Holy Spirit reigns and rules this place -- and if I did not, I would quit and go do something else with my life quickly. God may find a reason to publicly display tongues and interpretation of tongues in a this place sometime, but that will probably only happen if my English version of prophecy is so bad that HE has to make a big deal out of correcting it.

One more note of interest. When God plants churches of significance, He does so because there is a niche in the Body of Christ that needs fulfilled. In my very unofficial and incomplete research, I believe that there are total of three independent churches (not affiliated directly with a denomination) between St. Louis and Arkansas and none in St. Francois County that are not 'charismatic' as being defined as the presentation of these supernatural gifts in public worship gatherings. There are literally hundreds of independent churches (dozens in SFC) already filling the niche of being 'charismatic' in that sense. I believe that called us to fill a niche that he has called many other powerful churches to around the world -- an independent church that He has not chosen to present those gifts in that way. We pray that Christ be glorified in the churches that have been called to focus their ministries in that way, but that is not what He has called us to do.

Even Worship is Missional

Preparing to worship on Sunday morning is a big deal to me. I try and stay in a spirit of prayer and communion with God each moment of the day, but I anticipate corporate worship with you and begin to prepare for that about Friday of each week. I begin to plan rest and spiritual preparation because I love the fact that God is honored, glorified, enthroned (Psalm 22) on the corporate praises of His people. I make sure that I know the songs; I learn the ones that I may not even like very well. I can't sing, but I practice. It is important to me. I wake up early on Sunday and spend serious time in prayer that God enjoy the singing of His praises, the prayers of His people, the teaching of His Word. It is like the old days of basketball pre-game. I prepare. Did you know that the unbeliever who shows up to church is watching the authenticity of our worship? They are watching to see if we are involved, if we are joyful, if we are engaged with a God they don't even know. We should not fake worship, but we should prepare to engage our Savior, our Lord, with enthusiasm and joy. The doubters are watching. Check out this blog on the subject.

Worship & the Visitor
By Gerrit Gustafson

I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples. Psalm 108:3

An American church planting pastor in Japan told me this story. Two Japanese, who had never had any previous contact with Christianity, came into a tiny Christian gathering. The worship that day, he said, was especially good. After the meeting, the two visitors eagerly approached the pastor with this question: "When you were singing those songs, we felt something. Was that God?" The pastor was able to explain how God dwells in the praises of His people and how they could know Him personally.

The Universal Itch
People are looking for spiritual reality. In previous decades, a secular rationalism created antagonism toward spiritual expression. Currently however there is a broad reaction to that worldview and an unabashed hunger for spiritual experience. For the most part, however, the Church is surprisingly uncomfortable with its transcendent nature.

In his book entitled The Contemporary Christian, John Stott makes this observation:

This quest for transcendence is a challenge to the quality of the church's public worship. Does it offer what people are craving — the element of mystery... in biblical language 'the fear of God'... in modern language 'transcendence'? My answer to my own question is 'Not often'. The church is not always conspicuous for the profound reality of its worship... No wonder those seeking Reality often pass us by!

We shouldn't assume that the visitor is incapable of apprehending spiritual phenomenon. After all, each one is made in the image of God, and, as Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, He has "set eternity in the hearts of men." The worship experience corresponds to that universal "itch." That explains the finding of the largest study of American congregational life ever undertaken — the FACT report conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research: "vibrant worship is at the heart of church growth."

Let's look at two principles of how genuine, hearty worship can help our fellowships and congregations communicate the Christian life to visitors.

Principle #1 - Worship gives a picture of kingdom life
A man I met at a conference told me this story. At a time in his life when he was far from God, he was hurrying through a hotel lobby when he happened to catch, in the corner of his eye, a television broadcast of a large gathering of people worshiping. Less than a minute later, he stopped in his tracks, went back to the TV and watched intently through his tears, knowing that God was drawing him back. God apprehended this man through a picture of worship.

Jesus said in Mark 12 that loving God totally and wholeheartedly is the greatest commandment. Christian worship should be living pictures of the society of those who have exchanged self-centered living for God-centered living. The act of corporate worship beautifully demonstrates this new life style where God is the center. The visitor needs such pictures.

Principle #2 - The visitor is not just listening to your words
The biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don't immediately understand; it's encountering something that is not genuine. Mahatma Gandhi, after several years of studying in London, said he would have become a Christian if he had ever met one. Whatever version of Christianity he saw, he apparently didn't see the real thing.

One study concluded that 55% of all communication is nonverbal. The visitor is not just listening to what you say. He is intuitively observing how connected you and your group really are with what you espouse. He's looking for emotional and intellectual honesty, depth of conviction, and heartfelt compassion. How we worship reflects these things — or their absence — more than we know.

The discipline for worship teams to learn is to mean what we sing and sing what we mean. This will affect not only what we sing, but how we sing it. Worship leaders, choose songs that are appropriate to your group's experience — there's no place for meaningless expression. And learn the songs so well that they are literally part of you.
Encourage and train the worshipers you lead to be sure to connect the outer acts of worship with the inner realities of the heart. Anything less is unfair to the visitor.

Do unto others...
Why is it so important to me that we not try to hide our worship from the visitor? It's because I was once the visitor, as you probably were too. I can still remember that meeting in Tallahassee, Florida when I, for the first time, saw people abandoned to God in worship. It awakened in me a deep sense of hope and destiny. Like the Queen of Sheba in II Chronicles 9, when she was the visitor observing Israel's worship, I was "breathless." I'll really never be the same.

Don't you think that those who visit us should be given the same privilege?

Advent Conspiracy 2009

Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas last year.
The average family in St. Francois County spent over $1,000 on Christmas with over half of that going onto credit cards that still have not been paid off here in November.

If you have been a part of The Bridge community, you know that every year we attempt to put the focus of the Christmas season squarely back on the Gospel, the great story of redemption that comes through Jesus Christ. Advent Conspiracy has taught us to worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. In 2007, we sent $12,990 to Chacocente, Nicaragua to help them pay off their water source. In 2008 you gave $14,756! We sent 1/2 to Chacocente and set 1/2 aside for another international outreach that has been delayed. This year we are going to do it AGAIN!
-- We are going to worship Jesus with more fervor than ever before during the Advent season. -- Also, we are going to encourage you to spend less on culturally material gifts and offer more gifts of time and effort to the ones we love.
Pay close attention, this is something new -- if you do choose to spend money on a gift, the Advent Conspiracy folks are trying to encourage people to buy their gifts in ways that help to bring people out of abject poverty with the Trade as One or Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee ministries. This seems like such a beautiful win/win situation. We purchase some gifts to give away for Christmas (there are some people that we must buy for) while supporting a business in an area of horrendous poverty instead of just sending money.
-- As usual, we are going to have a special offering on December 20 to give more to the Kingdom and whatever is given that day will go to Gideon 300. Your gifts to Gideon 300 will enable us to focus on Kingdom mission here at home where we fight against a poverty of a different kind -- that of the soul. Or, you can give more by going online and supporting Advent Conspiracy's Living Water International, or the other two ministries directly (see below).
-- And, we are going to love all by partnering with these ministries that make a difference in lives, both in St. Francois County and all over the world during the Advent season.

You can check out more about worship more, spend less, give more, love, and Living Water International at Advent Conspiracy's website at http://www.adventconspiracy.org/.
You can help with world poverty by doing your Christmas shopping at https://tradeasone.com/.
Another suggestion to help with an Advent Conspiracy on an international level is to by some bulk bags of coffee from Thousand Hills Coffee and give it as a gift or donate it back to the church. You can check this one out at http://www.landof1000hills.com/.

Watch the video on the Trade as One website. I think this can be our greatest Advent Conspiracy ever. We can support some folks battling world poverty AND set a goal to wipe out about 15 units (clay pots) in Gideon 300 here at home. This would be over and above our regular giving and Gideon commitments. Ask God's Spirit to MOVE your family in this season. Rely on Him to the point that you and others are STUNNED by what He does to make this happen for His glory during season that should be simply about His GLORY!

Starting Point for Gospel Centered and Missional

A Gospel-Centered Missional church doesn’t first ask the question, “What works best?” Instead, it asks, “How do we fulfill the mission of Jesus to make disciples who believe and live out the Gospel by displaying and declaring who God is and what He has done in and through Jesus Christ, teaching and training others to do so as well?” (JV-SOMA)

Gospel Centered and Missional

A Gospel-Centered church is defined by what God has done and is doing, not by the activities of people.
The Church is God’s People (who we are) saved by God’s Power (what He has done and is doing) for God’s Purposes (the good works he created us in Jesus Christ to do)-- (JV-SOMA).

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous
shall live by faith." Romans 1:16-17

We center all of our activities around the workings of Christ and the Gospel to provide God glory. That is why we were created. Our goal is never to convert people to The Bridge. Our goal is see people converted and discipled by the Gospel and play a role in them living out God's purposes on mission. They can, then, BE THE CHURCH on mission with the Gospel in every aspect of their lives.

Are you at war with sin?

Obviously, there is nothing we can DO to earn salvation. It has been DONE for us by Christ's substitutionary atonement on the cross and is a gift of grace. But, once regeneration and conversion have taken place by repenting and believing the Gospel, we have a huge role in the "what now" part of our life -- our being made holy in sanctification. Christ defeated sin at the cross, but we still have to fight our sin nature until glorification. The Bible essentially asks us to 'go to war' with that sin nature. Martin Luther said that repentance from sin was a daily fight. I thought I might give you an idea of what that might look like after the challenges of the 'games that we play' over the past two weeks. If God is pressing us on a sin area (the barn in the next county), what do we do? Do we play a game or do we go to war with sin. True REPENTANCE!

You know that you are at war with sin if you are willing to do whatever it takes to get it out of your life. Sanctification and spiritual maturity come from being submitted to an intimate relationship with Christ and at war with sin. We are to allow God to go deep in our being and reveal everything that is in opposition to His will. He does all of the heavy lifting and transforming, but we have a huge roll to play in this war. There are too many 'to do' verbs in the New Testament to ignore. Watch, test, flee, submit, obey, offer, 'do not conform, hate what it evil!' Summary: Submit to God's authority -- Put sin to death! Go to war!

Remember the Summer on the Mount, so says Jesus:
"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

How about Paul (which he repeats about 5 times in other Epistles)?
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:11-14

Christ has freed us from sin and death. We are forgiven yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but for us to be used powerfully in the Kingdom, on the most exciting MISSION ever given, and full of deep inner satisfaction and joy, sin must go. Go to war with it. Invite God to reveal it and then with His power and might, put it to death. No game playing.

Are They Already Gone???

Most of us who have been hanging around church very long are very aware of the incredible statistics of kids who have grown up in the church (very involved in children's ministries and youth groups) and upon graduation from high school never darken the door of a church again. They have answered altar calls and gone through confirmation classes and been baptized and, then, for a significant period of time or maybe forever, they live as pagans. I was one of them.

We have always kind of thought that the problem was that the lure of the culture when they go to college or out into the world of work was too strong and they basically abandoned their faith for culture. I agree with a book that I am reading right now called Already Gone that proposes that the kids have actually basically shut the idea of the Gospel and the church down often by the 5th, 6th, 7th grade, or high school and not when they leave home. They are 'already gone.' The church has taught kids some basic lingo about 'Jesus living in our hearts' and taught them some moralism -- that they live out their faith by not drinking, smoking weed, or having illicit sex. So, we have teenagers walking around with a complete misunderstanding of what a life 'in Christ' really means. I understand this is a huge generalization as we see young people who also have truly been regenerated by God and have repented and believed the Gospel at many ages; however, for the most part these college age kids are not abandoning a true faith, they actually gave up the charade of a false conversion a long time before we thought.

What is going on? The American church has, for the most part, not taught parents or the children Biblical Christianity. We have not preached and taught the Gospel and/or repentance from sin. The reason I mention the parents is that it is a Biblical mandate for them to be the primary teachers and models of a Gospel-centered life. The church has not done its part in producing quality adult disciples who then pass that life of Jesus being the center of every area of their existence to their children. I think we have a defeatist attitude that says that 18-19 year olds are going to party and have sex outside marriage, so we quit trying -- we quit believing the power of the Gospel and the power of the transformation of the Holy Spirit. And I think we underestimate what 8-14 year olds can understand about the Bible.

I love what our Bridge Kids and Youth are doing for the young people of our church, but this topic is bothering me. I am driven to challenge our ministries to fight this trend with every fiber in our beings.
Two initial things must happen to get a start in the fight:
1. We must preach and teach the inerrant, authoritative Bible to parents and kids alike. The source is Jesus Christ; we must do our part to develop Gospel-centered lives.
2. We must continue to emphasize that the children's understanding of a Gospel-centered life is the primary Biblical responsibility of parents - not the church.
The life must be taught and modeled. This is no game. Parents #1 responsibility on this planet is to develop the Lord Jesus Christ in their children. Sports are neat -- I played them, coached them, still love them, but if they take priority over the Gospel, we have sinned. Music and dance are great, same deal. Even academic achievement can be set above Godliness. To sum this up, the world has taught us that our kids should be molded by 50 different things and we run them ragged to cover them all. We prioritize lots of things ahead of the Gospel; then, we are shocked when our kids are 'already gone' in middle school or high school, and completely gone from the faith and from church in their 20's, many never to return.

Equal With Roles

Saturday morning prayer musings --
On our "What We Believe" page at The Bridge it says this, "We believe that Jesus Christ, while existing as the Son of God, is also God; he is co-equal with the Father." Later we state, "The Bible is clear that this one and only God is revealed in three eternally distinct persons. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal yet distinct within the Holy Trinity." I believe that the preponderance of Holy Scripture supports that fact that the 3 members of the Trinity are equally God -- none superior, none inferior (John 1:1-18). So, as we read in the Gospels that Jesus willingly submitted Himself to the Father, we arrive at an interesting notion that although the three persons of the Trinity are completely equal, they have roles. Jesus prayed to the Father, worshiped the Father, and submitted to the Father. {Luke 10:21-22 John 4:34 John 5:19-28} The Holy Spirit was sent; He was obedient in His role. They are co-equal, but fulfill roles for the benefit of the Kingdom of God -- for the Glory of the God-Head. Jesus was not submitting as an inferior, but as a willfully submitted co-equal (Philippians 2:6-8).

So, when Christ asks us to fulfill our roles in marriage or in the local church as willfully surrendered servants to the Kingdom of God for the glory of the Kingdom, we just take that on with a Christ-like humility. The one that I have been given to love Kelley as Christ loves the church is a bear; as a matter of fact, it is impossible, but with Christ the impossible becomes possible. Headship is never for selfish gain, but for the edification of all. Headship never means superior. It is a role that if abused will carry some of the strongest punishments in Scripture. Accepting roles is just another sign of maturing along the path of sanctification like accepting that I have no rights or possessions.

Missional Church

We use the term 'missional church' around The Bridge all the time. We are about to use it a lot over Labor Day retreat and in the Sept. 13 sermon on "Where does The Bridge go from here?" We have defined it before, but I found this definition on Jonathan McIntosh's blog and it does a better job than I could, so here you go:

A pastor told me the other day, “I realize that we are not a missional church.” What did he mean?

Simply that, at some point, the church let something get in the way of actually bringing the transformative message of the gospel into contact with people.

Mission drift happens when a church lets something else take over: a building project, an unstated theology of “people should come to us,” or sometimes simple laziness. Often an unspoken attitude hangs like a cloud over the entire church; an attitude that those who don’t look like us, dress like us, vote like us, have the same skin color, or come from the same socioeconomic background are not really welcome here.

And the church stops. Reaching. People.

People.

Real, living, sweating, broken, sinful people.

People need hope. They need God. They need the light of the gospel. Please, for all our discussions and books and conferences and postulating and sermon prepping, let us not forget this.

And we won’t forget if we understand something simple yet surprising: God was a person (and still is!). The incarnation – God as a person – helps us understand and relate to people.
The cross provides the framework for our theology (what we believe about and how we relate to God). But it’s the incarnation, that provides the framework for our missiology (what we believe about and how we relate to culture).

The cross is our message.
The incarnation shapes & informs how we communicate that message.

And what do we see in God as a person?

We see Jesus.

And we see him loving people. Spending time with people. Sharing his life with people. We see an outcast ministering to outcasts. We see grace offered to a prostitute. An adulterer. A tax-collector.

And he looks out at them and he is absolutely moved with compassion because he sees that they are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” And he says I am here. I am here to “seek and save that which is lost.”

A missional church sees that people and culture are not enemies of the church, but broken treasures that God is restoring.

Because of this, a missional church is committed to:

• Cultural exegesis – becoming humble students of the varied people & cultures surrounding the church.

• Faithful contextualization – communicating gospel truth in ways the culture understands.

• Producing missionaries instead of consumers – equipping people to live out the gospel through their daily lives and work.

• Building a great city, not just a good church – the goal being more than a full church, but a transformed city.

• Social justice – healing real wounds and righting injustices in the community around them.

• Church planting – multiplying to new towns, cities, states and countries by starting new local churches.

Interestingly, however, Philippians 2:5-8 indicates that God came in human form so that Jesus could humble himself “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” The man who was God was headed somewhere. The cross.

It is not enough simply that God lived among us. He also died for us.

Being “missional” is not enough. Mission fails if it does not point to the cross. The message that we are translating for culture must be “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

Of course, many churches that supposedly “get the gospel” fail to properly live out that gospel for their context; for them it is gospel in theory, not gospel in practical reality.

Because Jesus’ death has bought us life, we are now messengers of a new reality. We will faithfully proclaim and lovingly incarnate this new reality: to tell & live it for the hope of the world around us. This is the essence of mission.

So, as you can see, missional church is vastly more than just sending checks to some missionaries or even just being involved in international mission trips. The Bridge is committed to whatever it takes to be missional. HE is worth IT!

Reality

I am sitting here at MAC looking out at my beautiful surroundings and focusing on the parts of God's creation that are healthy for me to look at. I head to Farmington prison to speak tonight and I am contemplating what I can tell those men that might make a real difference in their hearts and minds as they go through their days inside the fence and then what will happen when they come back out. I will probably do what I always do -- give them the real truth about the condition of their hearts as Jesus looks at them. I will give them reality. I will tell them that they have same spiritual heart that I have (had) -- wicked, deceitful, and evil. And the only thing that can make that wicked heart righteous is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to make that believable and be very sweet. It also will only work if I make a connection with those men -- if they think I am real and I care. I will attempt to do so by showing that I have the same heart that they have. The only difference in us is that I have been law-abiding as I sin against God.

Just a few minutes ago, I finished reading an article in USA Today about why television had to shift shows away from "Leave it to Beaver" toward "Sex and the City" and "Grey's Anatomy." Everyone thinks it is because our society has gone to 'hell in a handbasket' in morals which may be a PART of it. But, the basic reason is that all post-boomer generations have no interest in their fiction showing a phony perfection. They require authentic; they require real. If "the Beav" was going to be redone today, it would never make it out of pilot unless we sense that Ward is struggling with the things that men really struggle with -- affirmation, fulfillment, proficiency in career, sex, and relationships. June would need to show her weaknesses as she fights the demons of aging and raging hormornes, not vacuuming in high heels and pearls. And Wally and the Beav would be considering dark thoughts as they were accepted or not by their peers.

These generations want the same things from their church. They do not have any interest in being a part of place that does not express authentic leadership and community. It is no accident that these generations respond well (I think) to my teaching, preaching, and leadership. I have always been one to lay out the whole package in everything I do. Should we not teach (including humor) about all subjects and not just the 'comfortable' ones? Should we not preach the perversion of the community at Corinth (Christians Gone Wild next summer maybe) as it relates to the current American culture or not preach the sexual intensity inside marriage from the Song of Solomon. I think we should and I am not afraid to. But,that feels weird to folks who really think that there are just some things that should not be opened up in public. So, on occasion, there are folks who think I go overboard in humor or subject material. They are probably right, but the "Leave it to Beaver" church almost destroyed the American church because it drove sin underground. Let's get it to the surface, so that we can truly 'repent and believe the Gospel.' Let's create authentic church, so that these generations may be saved.

A Great Teacher?

It is interesting as you encounter people from other cultures and other religions that they consider Jesus a 'prophet' or a great moral teacher. Well, the prophet thing always goes away when you point out that the definition of a prophet is 'one who speaks for God.' I had two Muslim basketball players from Bosnia that backed off of their 'Jesus is a prophet but not the son of God' stance when learning of the definition. I have been thinking about the 'great moral teacher' one today as I have been working on the Sermon on the Mount. These passages of Scripture from Matthew 5-7 are where people always think Jesus qualified himself as a moral instructor. This is just another cop out of avoiding his deity. While there is moral instruction to the SOTM, that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to drive a man or woman to the Kingdom of God as defined by God himself.

Let me give you an example. The general public thinks that the so-called Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) is maybe the great moral teaching ever uttered. While that may be true, that is not the main purpose of the passage. Due to our wicked, selfish hearts, it is impossible to perform the teaching, so its purpose is to show us our need for Christ. It is impossible, so it condemns us. Only being indwelt by His Spirit would allow us to be able to truly fulfill this command.

But, the Lord did not issue the command for his people to comment on it; he issued it for it to be carried out.

Thorn in the Flesh

I do not think that I am the Apostle Paul, but I understand some more about him these days since my physical health has just hit the toilet. This has been the lost summer with 3 surgical procedures and around 20 tests, and I am a little envious of folks who have really been able to get out and enjoy the fabulous weather that God has blessed us with. I can assure you that I do not have "an Apostle Paul complex;" my wife says that she has never seen me laid lower or more 'impoverished in spirit.'
Three years ago, I was told that I had fairly significant blockage in 4 major arteries around my heart. That affected everything that I do (diet, exercise, stress) or was supposed to affect everything that I do. Now, a new culprit has shown up on the screen -- connective tissue disorder (some form of fibromyalgia). This is my version of Paul's "thorn in the flesh." Long story short and no list of the symptoms -- I can no longer do physically what I want to do when I want to do it. Pain and fatigue are a real deal here.

God has won two battles by allowing in this thorn in. I have a reduced problem with arrogance. As a matter of fact, I am fighting to stay excited about all of the incredible excitement around me. Second, I have been forced to Sabbath. That has always been my most evident sin, and now there are times when I just have to stop and rest.
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

I have asked in faith that He take this away, but He knows vastly more about what is best for me than I do. May His blessings flow as we seek His will.

Cardinal Culture

This is an interesting day for me. My life has always been very intertwined with baseball and the Cardinals. My first memory of this was in 1963 when my dad, upon hearing that Stan Musial was going to retire, threw me into a car and we got bleachers seats at old Sportsman's Park so that I would see Stan play before he retired. You see that is just kinda what you did in the Gray family. My Grandpa Lester took my dad, Lester Junior, to see Dizzy Dean, and the rest of the Gashouse Gang in the early 30's. My Grandpa Lester played on a traveling team with Mort & Walker Cooper who were the stars of the 42 & 44 World Series champion Cardinals. He claimed they were good buddies, who knows? But, his passion for baseball was ingrained into all the Grays. We were in St. Louis on the weekend that the Cards traded Ernie Brolio to the Cubs for Lou Brock in 1964. We had been to the game the night before and Mike Shannon had thrown a ball from second base and smashed some of the neon lights out of the giant 'A" over the left field bleachers. What an arm -- he must have won a bet! Some of the glass fell on my shirt. Dad wanted to see if this Brock kid was any good, so I saw his first game as a Cardinal. Later in the year, dad wiped out two full beer cups to garner a home run ball by Brock. We almost fought that night; luckily, for those guys the fight did not happen. Lester hit like Roberto Duran. I knew the batting averages of every Cardinal from Bill White to Ken Boyer as the Cards won the WS in 64. Which brings us to 1966 and why this is an emotional day for me. The Grays bought 22 tickets to the 1966 all-Star game at the new Busch Stadium. I just knew that I would be going since there was no bigger baseball fan on the planet. After all, I had emptied my mom's baking flour from the pantry to re-create the batter's box of the new stadium in the yard. A spanking led me to learn about buying some lime at the local Ace Hardware. After all, I had Juan Marichal's leg kick down perfectly, and Carl Yastrezemski's high batting stance, and Luis Tiant's shimmy of the ball as he pitched from the stretch. I could imitate them all. All of a sudden it was announced that one of the adult cousins had made it into town and there wasn't a ticket for any of the kids. Wow! My chest heaved as I tried to look excited for everyone else. I was told, "We promise that the next time the all-Star game comes to St. Louis, we will buy you a great ticket and take you to the game." Well, that was 43 years ago and the promisers are not around. That day is today. The game has finally returned.

The tickets that day were $8 a piece. I had an opportunity to continue the Gray tradition to experience the love of baseball and take Justin today for the cool price of $1400 for the two tickets. That would be dumb. I chose to send someone to Nicaragua to help some people who eat out of garbage bags on top of the city dump instead. I forgive my promisers also -- may they rest in peace!!! I am glad they all got to go before they went. I will be watching on TV! Go Albert! I will cry when they introduce you tonight!

It's the Word!

I felt for Ben Durbin last Sunday as he was trying to work his way thru my notes and deliver a sermon completely unfamiliar to him. He was absolutely fabulous. I went back and watched it on livestream.com. But, I want to share something with you that he could not have shared with you because this was not in the notes. This is going to be more extensive because you will get the whole thing. One of the great treasures of the Christian world in the 20th century was Ed Cole ("the only scriptures you believe are the ones that you obey"). Right before he died, he wrote the forward to Steve Gallagher's At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, and I want to share some highlights from this gem with you. His premise is that EVERYTHING about the Gospel being THE TRANSFORMING FACTOR in EVERY aspect of our lives is revealed in the WORD OF GOD. See how many times he refers to THE WORD!

Ed Cole writes,
"The solution of course, as in every thing with the Lord, is in the Word of God. God's Word is where every solution is found to every problem or issue that a man or woman faces. There is no place for help like the Word of God. All God's healing work begins with His Word.
The subjective emotion and thinking of the addict is, "I'm too unclean, too unworthy, too unholy, too undeserving to read the Bible." That is a lie! God's Word is written for such people, to show the way Jesus Christ has made for them to get out of the pit or hole they dug for themselves.
Or they say, "I have failed so badly. How can I ever be good enough again so God can hear me? You don't get good and get to God, you get to God and God makes you good. (Tim: there is one for the bottom of your e-mails) Getting to God is getting into His Word.
The Word does the work!
Read it when you feel guilty; read it when you don't get anything from it; read it in the face of the devil and his accusations against you; read it when you are not even sure you believe it, just read it!
The Word does the work!
The Word of God washes the mind as soap does the hands. The Word is like soap in that it only effective when used.
All you have is The Word!
Life's greatest failure is not your sin, but in failure to read the Word.
The only only way the Word can wash your mind is when you read it. Reading the Word is the only way God can do His work in your life.
Christianity is not difficult to live, it's impossible. It is Christ living in you that is real Christianity. That is where the life of Christ is. Not what you try and do, but what he does in you.
The Word pays no attention to your sin, emotions, or actions; it merely does its work when you read it.
God's Word never changes, we do.
It doesn't make us feel guilty, we do that to ourselves. It gives us a way out of our feelings, habits, desires, and wants. God's Word is our source of life and blessing.
But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong. [And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.]
When you do your part, God will do His. You can't do His part, and He won't do yours. Yours is to act on His Word, and let His Word do the work.
The Late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole

My suggestion for you is to put that quote about His role and your role on your refrigerator (I know you will see it there) and look at it all the time. And then pick up your Bible and let God complete the work that He has started in you.
Did you hear Dr. Cole?
IT'S THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The "Gay Accepting Church"

At The Bridge Community Church, we are now broadcasting our services live on the internet, and then rebroadcast on demand all week on livestream.com. This is amazing as we have invested no money into this at all. A couple of cameras and techie items from E-Bay and the little ole Bridge is running with big dogs. Livestream is completely free for us because we allow them to run Google ads across the bottom our broadcast 24 hours a day. This gets interesting sometimes as Livestream is not a Christian organization. You can check this out at www.bridgelife360.com.

For 12 hours last week, Google's ad at the bottom of our broadcast read, "Gay Accepting Church." Anyone who came across that unaware of how Livestream works would have thought that this ad pertained to our church, and I wondered how people perceived that. Let me start by saying that this writing is not going to focus much on the homosexual issue (the ad could have said 'Heroin Accepting Church' or 'Extortion Accepting Church' or 'Premarital Sex Accepting Church' and the conversation would be the same). Someone watching could have had many thoughts. If they thought to the extreme -- this church believes that a person can be a practicing homosexual and go to heaven; as a matter of fact, the pastor or priest could be gay and be ordained. Or the observer could have thought -- they believe that homosexuality is not a sin and they are actively recruiting people who believe the same. Or they could have thought -- this church is a 'hospital for all sinners' and the homosexual would be welcomed in their midst understanding that he/she must repent, turn from his/her sin, and believe the Gospel. There are many other possible scenarios, but of the three, the latter most accurately describes The Bridge. Quite honestly, we go to the Bible for our stance.

First of all, homosexuality is a sin. Abusing our body with heroin is a sin. Extortion is a sin. Premarital sex is a sin. All of these things separate us from a perfectly holy God and are incredibly offensive to Him. Nobody should lead in God's church while actively practicing any of these sins as though they are not an offense to God. They are an offense to God. However, all sinners are welcome at The Bridge!!! Anyone who is practicing sins that could harm our people or especially our children would not be allowed to attend our public celebrations, but we would find somewhere safe for violent or dangerous folks to hear the Gospel. But, all others will find tremendous hospitality and love as they hopefully seek the truth of the Gospel. And the Gospel message is clear that sinners can be forgiven if they repent (turn from their sin; stop sinning) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the repentant, forgiven child of God, who still slips up and sins on occasion, can lead at a healthy, well-balanced church like The Bridge.

I can sum this up in a story of a test I received within just a few weeks of becoming the lead pastor at The Bridge. We had two young ladies (one of them with a small child) who began attending our church and they communicated on their Connect Card that they were gay and wanted to visit with me about my feelings about that. We met after church one Sunday and I told them that I loved them very much and I hoped that they had felt welcomed at The Bridge because I hoped that they would continue seeking God at our church. They very gently, but boldly, asked my opinion about their relationship. I, lovingly but directly, told them that I would have the same answer for them if they were a man and a women living in a sexual relationship outside of God's plan for His people and that answer was that they were practicing sin and they would have to repent to be forgiven by God. I told them that my job was not to judge them (except about their roles in our church), but that my job was to love them and proclaim the Gospel to them. I explained that I hoped that they would stay and experience Christ with us for a long time to come, but they would have to truly become convinced of a need for change before they would be allowed to join the church. However, they were looking for a different kind of "Gay Accepting Church" than the one I described. Very respectfully, they explained to me that they had gone to Bible college and that the Bible did not teach that homosexuality was a sin and that a good church would agree with them. I knew at that point that I would not see them again, but I was not angry and I hoped that I would and I still hope to see them this Sunday listening to the teaching on the Sermon on the Mount that requires us to set aside our human pride and with humility accept God's plan for life.

Summer on the Mount

Whew! I have the first sermon written from Matthew 5 as we are going to delve into the SOTM throughout the whole summer. This is going to be really challenging because I do not think that there is a stronger example of God's teaching that OUR ways are not HIS ways. Every week is going to be this brutal awakening that we actually have been taught by the human race to live far from the way God thinks. The question is: will we be willing to change?

What I thought I would do as I study to present this challenging text is to blog some of things I learn that there will be no time to present. So, this morning's topic is the Talmudic law. As Jesus begins speaking on the hillside that morning, one set of his listeners was the Pharisees. They had created the Talmudic law because as they became more and more self-righteous, or depending on their abilities to keep law, instead of a dependence on God, they realized what a miserable failure they were. As a result, they started whittling down the law into manageable traditions. Instead of putting their whole weight on God (Commandments 1 & 2), they became RELIGIOUS with the legalistic following of some man-made fence laws that were much easier to show off with their 'outside-of-the-cup' efforts. As they scream about protecting God's law to Jesus, what they are really wanting to protect is their peripherial efforts that looked good to the public while actually they were terrorizing God's true law. We don't do that today, do we?

Yes!
God's #1 command is to love him constantly by being obedient. We lessen that immediately by claiming that we don't steal (but we covet), don't lie (that's a lie), don't commit adultery (never lust?) while we spend large portions of our day setting aside the Gospel, setting aside the cross, setting aside Christ and doing life in thought, word, and action on our own. You know what that is called? IDOLATRY, and it makes us no different than those who killed Jesus three short years after having their world first challenged on the side of that hillside. We have whittled down what is acceptable to God from, "Do, think, and say everything from a wellspring of the Gospel" to "I am a law abiding person most of the time." The American church has developed its own Talmudic law because we don't like the difficulties of Scripture. We must repent and believe the Gospel. Only God can empower such change from the wicked deception that we have been taught.

I Apologize...

...for not having written anything in a while. My life is always on the accelerator. I am always in overdrive. I have really enjoyed my job at MAC this past year -- relationships have been developed and I have really been trying to do my job there "as to the Lord." But it has taken away from some of my teaching opportunities such as writing to you on this blog. I am not going to teach much today either. I am blind in one eye and I have not been able to study much recently. However, I have been reading At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry by Steve Gallagher. This book is worth getting simply to experience the forward which is written by the late Ed Cole ("The only scriptures that you believe are the ones that you obey"). But today, I am just going to share with you a letter. Meg Reiner wrote the forward to this magnificent letter, "The Bridge Community Church has received a special letter from one of our friends at the CSC. We began our relationship with Scott last December, and he has become a part of our lives. His neatly penned letter was given to us on his birthday. Thank you, Scott - we love you too!"

Dear Bridge Members,

You may not see the progress that I’ve made throughout the last few months, but you have all made an impact on my life, which means the world to me. The little things that you all continue to do has helped me change my outlook completely. I know that God is working in my life through you. I had given up all hope and was ready to die when I started attending the Bridge months ago. Nothing seemed to matter to me but everyone, and I mean everyone, offered their love and God’s unconditional love to me, even the wreck that I am. You have shown me hope and helped me in ways that my family wouldn’t help any more because they had given up on me. At times I felt worthless, but even through my dark times you stood beside me and loved me as God would want and I want to thank you all for everything that you’ve all done. Every one of you has helped save my life and I love you all for it. May God Bless you all.

Thanks and love you
Scott Joseph

Check out more about GAP and CA here.

Quite a week, Quite a God!

I stand amazed the in presence of Jesus, the Nazarene -- and wonder how He could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. How Marvelous, How Wonderful! Easter is anything but a holiday for a lead pastor of healthy church. I have not blogged in a while because I was just hangin' on for the ride. I was just downright proud of our youth over the last few weeks as they went from hesitant and self-concerned as we challenged them with the human video to confident deliverers of the Gospel, the greatest story ever told. People who came to Easter services have a memory and a reference point to the Gospel that I don't think they will ever forget. The kids told the story as it appeared 'according to the Scriptures.'

To make sure that I kept things in perspective though, two deaths blasted their way into my world. At 12:05 Sunday morning, my cousin Roger went to be with God after battling cancer. Roger was a minister for cause of Christ so the Resurrection is a comfort. But he was just 55 years old and his daughter was to be married this Friday. Please pray for our family.

I don't even know what to do with the second death. BJ was a narcotics addict who had been brought into our lives through our work at the CSC and had attended our Conquering Addiction 12-step program. BJ had been sober while living in the CSC and was release just a couple of weeks ago, but the last time I saw him I was really put out with him because he was obviously high. Our friends who struggle with addictions many times do not do well on the outside of a highly supervised environment. So this last sit down with BJ was the combination of rebuking him for his sin, praying with him to repent, and listening to him talk about how much he loved The Bridge and its people who had accepted him, flaws, tattoos, and all. Well, I am struggling with whether BJ had been changed by the Gospel because BJ is dead. I am leaving this in the hands of a sovereign and just God, but I am shaken as I am sure other members of our GAP team are as well. I left BJ that last time knowing that he needed more help than I could give him; man, was I right. I am glad God knows what is best because I feel really small.

Wanna Know What's Real?

Check out this poem written by a young lady from our GAP ministry:

My name is Meth,
I destroy homes, I tear families apart,
take your children, and that’s just the start.
I’m more costly than diamonds, more precious than gold.
The sorrow I bring is a sight to behold.
If you need me, remember I’m easily found,
I live all around you - in schools and in town.
I live with the rich, I live with the poor,
I live down the street and maybe next door.
I’m made in a lab, but not like you think,
I can be made under the kitchen sink.
In your child’s closet, and even in the woods.
If this scares you to death, well it certainly should.
I have many names, but there’s one you know best,
I’m sure you’ve heard of me, my name is crystal meth.
My power is awesome, try me you’ll see,
But if you do, you may never break free.
Just try me once and I might let go,
But try me twice and I’ll own your soul.
When I possess you, you’ll steal and you’ll lie,
You do what you have to just to get high.
The crimes you’ll commit for my narcotic charms,
Will be worth the pleasure you’ll feel in your arms, your lungs and your nose.
You’ll lie to your mother, you’ll steal from your dad,
When you see their tears you should feel sad,
But you’ll forget your morals and how you were raised,
I’ll be your conscience, I’ll teach you my ways.
I’ll take kids from parents and parents from kids,
I turn people from God and separate friends.
I’ll be with you always, right by your side.
You’ll give up everything, your family your home,
Your friends, your money then you’ll be alone.
I’ll take and take till you have nothing more to give.
When I’m finished with you, you’ll be lucky to live.
If you try me be warned, this is no game,
If given the chance I’ll drive you insane.
I’ll ravish your body, I’ll control your mind,
I’ll own you completely, your soul will be mine.
The nightmares I’ll give you while lying in bed,
The voices you’ll hear from inside your head.
The sweats, the shakes, the visions you’ll see,
I want you to know, these are all gifts from me.
But then it’s too late and you’ll know in your heart,
That you are mine and we shall not part.
You’ll regret that you tried me, they always do,
But you came to me, not I to you.
You knew this would happen, may times you were told,
But you challenged my power and chose to be bold.
You could have said no and just walked away.
If you could live that day over, now what would you say?
I’ll be your master, you will always be my slave.
I’ll even go with you when you to your grave.
Now that you have met me, what will you do?
Will you try me or not? It’s all up to you.
I can bring you more misery than words can tell,
Come take my hand and let me lead you to hell.

WOW! Are you kidding me? These are the people that we have been commanded to take care of, to preach the Gospel, and just flat out love. Let's love them well!

Bad Singers Unite

Thanks to everyone who showed up last night to worship and who performed volunteer tasks that made our Grand Opening an event that I don't think people will soon forget. Plenty of folks showed up and did their job with style and grace.
Parallax View was outstanding. Fee was Fee. And our great big white chocolate building performed magnificently as our God was glorified.
I just cannot believe that nobody bought me a "Bad Singers Unite" t-shirt. I am the leader of that choir -- HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Interesting Encounter

One of the strongest pieces of direction to pastors and leaders of churches is to protect the flock from false teachers and wolves who try and devour the sheep (1 Timothy 3 and Acts 20). I had an interesting encounter yesterday about that subject in between our two services at The Bridge. I thought the first celebration brought glory to God as Seth Durbin led worship for the first time and the study from Daniel 3 was strong and evident. But afterward, a lady that I had never seen before approached me off of the street with immediate questions. Her first question was: "Does your church support the 'word of faith' movement?" Assuming that she was asking me if I supported the prosperity teachings of folks such as Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and Joel Osteen, I answered her quickly but gently, "No." Her second question was: "Does your church support the ministries of Kenneth Copeland?" Having studied his teaching quite a bit, I answered, "No." She did not like these answers and challenged me strongly on them. I really wanted to go rest for the second celebration, but she had many questions. I informed her that I did not presume to know about the salvation of these men and women who teach 'word of faith,' but I, with gentleness and respect, answered all of her questions about what I personally had heard them teach that I found troublesome and even gave her directions to a church that had a speaker in recently from the Copeland Ministries if she would like to go there. She left the building three times and came back 3 times to challenge me some more (after the events of last week, I confess that I wondered if she came bearing more than questions and challenges).

Here are some things specifically that Kenneth Copeland teaches that I have a problem with:
1. He is very passionate about saying that Jesus never claimed to be God. Jesus did claim to be God; that is what got Him crucified. To say that he did not claim to be God is heresy and requires very bad hermeneutics to even come up with the idea in the first place.
2. He teaches constantly that Jesus had to descend to hell during the three days in the tomb and fight Satan for the keys to life and death. This is a heretical teaching for many reasons: #1) the issue was settled on the cross (there was no further work needed), and #2) Jesus has always possessed the keys to life and death. He is the sovereign God of the universe, so He would never need to take something from Satan because He has ALWAYS been in control of such things.
3. He teaches a prosperity Gospel. He does not understand the basic nature of God. He thinks that God is our cosmic servant. John McArthur calls it a "genie in a bottle" theology, or in other words, we rub the bottle, call up God our genie, and he fulfills our wishes (you demand healing, you demand money prosperity, you demand a new job all under the guise of faith). It is "give to get," and it is a man-centered theology that has no basis in Holy Scripture or reality and is very destructive. It always ends up that if these things do not happen for you that you just did not have enough faith. God's sovereign will is basically tossed to the curb. The truth is that God cares so much for us that he would never allow our weak hearts and weak thinking to rule what is best for us.

This lady told me as she left that she would pray for me, and I appreciate her doing that. I am also praying for her (she is welcome anytime) because I am afraid that she has passionately committed to something that sounds great, but only tickles the ears of a wicked and deceitful heart.
I could go on and on about these bad teachings, but let me finish with this. There are people locally that think I am arrogant for taking such stands (like The Bridge is the only church that has correct doctrine). That is a false accusation. I believe that there are many other churches that are healthy and have truly surrendered leadership teaching great Biblical truths and doctrines. However, when bad teaching is present and I am asked to comment on it, I will always point out the bad teaching -- I am commanded by Scripture to do so. The three things I listed above are as bad as it gets, and I will always point these out to the flock -- not to glorify me or our church or to demean any human being (only the teachings, not the teacher) -- but to glorify the One who is in charge of all things. His name is Jesus Christ and He is our God.

Third Anniversary

I bet there were some awesome naps taken yesterday afternoon after our Third Anniversary Celebration in the Sprung building. Our volunteers did an amazing job of getting the facility ready for bringing Glory to a Magnificent God. At 10:00 Saturday night, there were still no drain pipes on the bathroom sinks and there was no nursery whatsoever (no dropped ceiling, no carpeting, no nothing). Men and women of God got all of that done about 2:30 Sunday morning (and we just thought we were finished with early Sunday mornings), and then the band arrived from Jeff City at 3:00 am and just stayed up through the night getting the sound and video right.

Our building was completed mostly with volunteer labor. We subbed the concrete, the heating and cooling, the plumbing, and the tape and mud. Other than that, it was all God's people acting like God's people. It is quite a story that we now have 18,000 square feet (soon to be 23,000 when God gifts us with some more money to finish the second floor) that was all built for less than a million dollars. Our federal government could learn some lessons about rolling up their sleeves and really working rather than spending. This facility would have cost more than 3 million dollars if we had used tradition building styles and just hired it all done. I am very proud of what God has done. Pride is usually a bad thing, but I don't think so this time.

Everything came off without a hitch yesterday except me. The 9:00 service was a train wreck during the sermon as I missed my cue and forgot to let the 'Fearless' video run before I stood up. Then, when my battery went out on my microphone and we did an audible, I came back up from the "melt your face" guitar solo and left almost 3 pages of notes out of the sermon. People were sweet and said that it made some sense; only God could have made sense out of that debacle.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve this church as lead pastor. I don't feel qualified, but look what God did through 'knees knocking' Gideon -- maybe He can ever use a messed-up dude like me.

Here we go church. Year 4 with our own facility -- this is going to be quite a ride for God's glory and your health.

Time to Set Priorities

I know I know --
The Gospel is our life -- our hope!
The opening of the Sprung is exciting!
God is changing lives daily!
Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are healthy! HAHA!

Sorry, that I haven't posted in a while.
Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.

Last Sermon in E-Hall

Yesterday felt like it was an explosive day spiritually for The Bridge. Here are my top five memories of what could have been my last sermon in E-Hall:
5. "Correct doctrine is important, but it is not doctrine that saves you; it is a right relationship with Jesus Christ that saves you."
4. On eternal security, "I don't believe that someone who has truly been cut through the heart probably can forfeit his salvation, but he should live as though he can."
3. Powerful movement of worship through the music. We still have many people standing around talking or being busy instead of engaging the Holy Spirit in music, but the percentage of those who got ready to do business with God (especially at 9:00) was high.
2. Busting out hair (or lack of) jokes on Matt Pratt and Krishna. Sorry Matt.
1. Seeing Steve (the floor stainer from Springfield) flat out broken before Jesus Christ. He thought he came for the weekend to get our floor in the new building looking great and he ran headlong into the King of Kings. He was not the only one in the building that had a big day with God; many others came clean before the Lord. His Word is powerful, and His glory matchless.

Quote from Steve: "I have never seen a church like this, never seen people like this. It is over 3 hours from here to my home, but I would consider driving that far every week to experience what I experienced today." I really think that what impressed him was the God that made the day so special. Both he and Curtis (the boss of the floor crew) are bringing their families back to worship next weekend if we are in the new building. Praise be to God and thanks to God for making yesterday very special.

By the way, the Super Bowl was much better than the commercials. Great athletes playing at a very high level -- it was good as sports gets. It would have been a cool story to see Kurt Warner get another ring, but he cemented his place in the Hall of Fame. Way to go, Kurt. You know as well as played though, it was not nearly as important as the fantastic talk he gave last summer to a few thousand men at The Men at the Cross about King Jesus.

Mark McGwire's Brother -- Jay

Listen to this language that Jay McGwire uses to describe why he exposed his brother's steroid use:
"My bringing the truth to surface about Mark is out of love. I want Mark to live in truth to see the light, to come to repentance so he can live in freedom -- which is the only way to live. " Source: ESPN
That sounds like the theological teaching that we would espouse about repentence with Jesus Christ and walking in the light of the Gospel on a Sunday morning at The Bridge or even moreso at Conquering Addiction on Tuesdays. WOW!

Membership Covenants

When we designed our membership covenants at The Bridge, we had not ever heard of The Village (Matt Chandler's church in the Dallas area). I, personally, feel that The Village is the top church in American at developing sincere disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been spending the last 3 years redesigning their membership covenants and they unveiled the new work this week. I suggest you read through and notice the similarities and differences to ours. The ones that we address in membership classes such as marriage, church discipline, walking in the light (confessing sin to fellow believers) and authority of the pastors and elders are to be especially noted. Notice the first one which is the authority of Bible -- do you hear that a few times a day around The Bridge?

I covenant...
• to submit to the authority of the Scriptures as the final arbiter on all issues (Psalm 119; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21).
• to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ through regular Bible reading, prayer, fellowship and practice of spiritual disciplines (Luke 18:1; Acts 17:11; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Ephesians 5:1-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22).
• to follow the command and example of Jesus by participating in the ordinances prescribed to His Church:
° by being baptized after my conversion.
° by regularly remembering and celebrating the person and work of Christ through communion.
• to regularly participate in the life of The Village Church by attending weekly services, engaging in biblical community and serving those within and outside of this church (Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:23-25; Titus 3:14).
• to steward the resources God has given me, including time, talents spiritual gifts and finances. This includes regular financial giving, service and participation in community that is sacrificial, cheerful, and voluntary (Matthew 25:14-30; Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8-9; 1 Peter 4:10-11).
• by God’s grace through the power of the Holy Spirit, to walk in holiness in all areas of life as an act of worship to Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13-16, 4:1-3). Believers should strive to put certain attitudes and actions to death, while stirring and stimulating love and good deeds through the Spirit. Below are a few examples of actions addressed in the Scriptures:
° I will practice complete chastity unless married and, if married, complete fidelity within heterosexual and monogamous marriage. Complete chastity and fidelity means, among other things, that regardless of my marital status, I will pursue purity and abstain from sexually immoral practices such as adultery, premarital sex and pornography (Romans 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20, 10:8; Ephesians 5:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4).
° I will seek to preserve the gift of marriage and agree to walk through the steps of marriage reconciliation at The Village Church before pursuing divorce from my spouse (Matthew 19:1-12; Mark 10:1-12; Luke 16:18; 1 Corinthians 7:10-11; for the role of the church in the process of divorce, see Paul’s concern for the resolution of legal matters within the assembly of the church in 1 Corinthians 6).
° I will refrain from illegal drug use, drunkenness, gossip and other sinful behavior as the Bible dictates (Romans 1:28-32, 13:13; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:18; James 3:3-18).
• to refrain from such activities that the Scriptures would deem foolish (Romans 14:14-23).
• to take seriously the responsibility of Christian freedom, especially actions or situations that could present a stumbling block to another (1 Corinthians 8:1-13).
• to submit to the discipline of God through His Holy Spirit by:
° following the biblical procedures for church discipline where sin is evident in another -- the hope of such discipline being repentance and restoration.
° receiving righteous and loving discipline when approached biblically by fellow believers (Psalm 141:5; Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13; Hebrews 12:5-11).
• to do the following when I sin :
° confess my sin to God and to fellow believers .
° repent and seek help to put my sin to death (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5; James 5:16; 1 John 1:6-10).
° to submit to the elders and other appointed leaders of the church and will be diligent to strive for unity and peace within the Church (Ephesians 4:1-3; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:5).For more information, e-mail membership@thevillagechurch.net.

Schedule of Building Progress

Monday, February 2
Concrete stain worship area (everybody out)
Tape and mud continues in BK area
CT cabinet arrives at Butler Supply

Tuesday, February 3
CT cabinet is set ready for wiring
Floors are finished
Govro finishes main bathrooms
Missouri Natural Gas sets meter

Wednesday, February 4
Ameren pulls wire, sets transformer, and hooks to CT cabinet
Govro sets toilets and dividers
Carpeting on risers, back hall, coffee shop

Thursday, February 5
Govro does bathroom sinks.
Crystal fires up our heating units.
Savage Electric fires up our lighting system
Trim goes on all walls
Small detail work and preparations on stage

Friday, February 6
Dozens of details like mounting paper towel dispensers, toilet paper racks, etc.

Saturday, February 7
Dozens more details. You can help.

Sunday, February 8
God is in business!!!
9:00 Rob Pierce preaching debut on John 10:10
10:45 Ricky Horton of the St. Louis Cardinals
12:00 MAC athletes eat at E-Hall.

Is this crazy? YES
Is it possible? Philippians 4:13

Answering Questions #4

Our interesting question about the faith this weekend is "What is the 'unpardonable sin?' The Bible talks about the unpardonable sin being "blaspheming the Holy Spirit." (Mark 3:29) When we look at that vague scripture in light of other Scripture, "blaspheming the Holy Spirit" must be a complete and utter rejection of Jesus Christ. Instead of being a singular act which has been improperly preached for a long time, it is an ongoing rejection of the Redeemer, the Messiah -- Jesus. That is the only sin which cannot be pardoned. If we die without knowing Christ, we are bound for hell -- the blood of Christ is our pardon.

The Holy Spirit testifies about the truth of Christ. If we refuse that testimony, we cannot be pardoned. That is an ongoing refusal until our death, not a singular act. Stop walking around wondering if you said something bad one time when you were 14 that insulted the Holy Spirit. Accept Christ on His terms, and no matter what you have done you will be pardoned.

The Shack -- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

One of the most popular books in America right now is the The Shack by Paul Young. Just a couple of quick comments.
The Good -- Strict orthodox evangelicals hate this book because they think it plays with things that just should not be played with. I want to point out a couple of positives. As a professor of literature, I have to say this is a magnificent piece of writing. It is of epic proportions. That being said on a worldly level, on a spiritual level, the book does use its creativity to show a warm, delicate relationship between the persons of the triune God. Also, it does provide hope to people who have experienced the unspeakable horrors of a fallen world. The only hope is Christ Jesus, and on this fact the book is correct.
The Bad -- There is just inherent danger in speaking dialogue through fictional characters that represent God. Every word must correctly represent what we know God would say, and, quite honestly, we just don't know God that well. Mr. Young's fictional statements from God through the mouths of the characters who are the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are going to be gone through with fine tooth comb because they must. Mr. Young fails on occasion.
The Ugly -- These failures of Mr. Young are heresy or border on heresy. This makes jumping up and down and recommending the book impossible. Even the most trained eyes can miss the heresy and develop some strange notions about God. It is just a much better idea to get our ideas about God straight out of Scripture.

Unless you feel very comfortable that you can enjoy the literary masterpiece that is The Shack and ignore it affecting your understanding of God, you should leave it on the shelf. Probably just ought to leave it on the shelf.