We are a Culturally Diverse Church

"...of all nations..."

-Matthew 28:18

It may be a cliché, but the nations are here. In the US, and certainly in a college town like BCS, one does not have to go far before he or she encounters those "nations" right outside there door.

This is one of those places in the bible where the English fails to fully convey the sentiment which is found in the Greek. The word ἔθνος (ethnos) which is the word that is translated as "nation," does not carry the the political insinuation which our English word "nation" has. Instead of referencing a group of people defined by political borders on a map, this word is better seen to be referencing groups united through a common ethnicity or cultural practice. It is is arguable that what Christ was asking was for the his good news message to be spread among the cultures of this world.

And suddenly the whole thing opens up!

The local church might be able to send out missionaries to the nations, and vicariously minister there. But the command to bring the gospel to the cultures can be practiced right here right now. How many cultures in Bryan/College station?

The numbers show us that there is much diversity of ethnicity and culture, especially in Bryan. A closer look shows us that this is a diversity in disunity. Though there are many cultures they are, by and large, segregated and separated to their own neighborhoods and organizations.

When God called Erin and I to college station it would have been easier for me, as a white man, to seek to create a church which operated within the norms of my own cultural experience. But God didn't say go plant a church for the white people in Bryan/College station. And we would have to turn a blind eye to the reality of these cities we have been called to if we were to create a church which was only for those people who looked and acted like us. We have been called to start a church for these cities, and the people who are here. We have been called to start a church which is as richly diverse as Bryan/College Station is--a church for our community.

In the book of Revelation we see a picture of mankind, from every tongue, tribe and nation worshiping God. This is what heaven will be, a beautiful patchwork of diversity, perfectly united in the adoration of our King. Christ taught us to pray that God's will would be done "on earth as it is in heaven." For us this means that here and now is the place to see this unity of diversity. Why wait for heaven? We want to start now.

This is part of the vision of the Vineyard Church BCS--to be a church that reflects our community--to be a Culturally Diverse Church.

We are disciples that make disciples!

"...and make disciples..."

What does it take to make a disciple?

Well without getting too long winded I would like to suggest that a good place to start is by being a disciple yourself. You cannot impart to another a thing which you do not have yourself, and those people who Christ commanded to "make disciples," were themselves disciples of Christ.

So this command in many ways not only calls us to an action, but also to a state of being--we are to be disciples, so that we can make disciples!

So the question above really begs the additional question, "what does it mean to be a disciple?"

The concept of disciple can have many connotations, the most basic of which is simply a student. Now when defined in this way we, in 2010, draw up images of what we know of students. The unruly 8th grader, or the care free college student, or any other stereo type, but most likely we do not imagine the heart of what this word disciple connoted for those at the time that Christ spoke those words.

Christ was speaking to his disciples, men and women whom he had been living with for three years. They had been through many amazing things with Him, spending nearly every moment at His side. They had eaten many meals with him; laid down beside Him on the ground to sleep on countless nights. They had sat at His feet as He taught about His fathers Kingdom, and stood with Him as He demonstrated that Kingdom in action. I am sure that they had laughed raucously together, and also cried together. They were as close as any family.

And in this context the word disciple was understood. Community. Relationship.

Christ's command to make disciples was about teaching, training, doing... but it was also about living life together. That is how He made disciples, by offering himself to man kind first in relationship.

So in order to make disciples, we need to be disciples. That means so many things, but one thing it means is to be in authentic genuine and, yes, even vulnerable relationship. It is here that disciples can form and be made.

This is part of of our vision at the Vineyard Church BCS, to be disciples that make disciples!

We are an Outwardly Focused Church

"Therefore go..."

-Matthew 28:19

Jesus did not say "wait and I will send those people to you who I wish you to minister to."

Christ sent the disciples out. They were to "go." The church has been sent out into the world and we want to reflect that sentiment in our actions.

We want to be a church that has been sent.

What does this mean?

It means that we are going to be outwardly focussed--that the target of our time, energy and affection cannot terminate on ourselves, but must be constantly seeking further into the world for those unloved people for whom Christ sent us. We want to be looking outside of our body, our family-- yes even getting up out of our homes and church buildings--for people to love.

We want to be a church that sends. We want to mirror Christ by empowering those people in our midst to go. We can do this by equipping and empowering each and every member in our church community to minister, teaching them that when Christ said "go", yes, He was talking to you too. No one escapes. We are all on the move in this world looking for those lonely hearts that Christ longs to make a home in.

These ideas have a number of practical implications for us. Just like we are a church plant that has been sent out into a new community, we will also be sending people out from us into new communities, perpetuating this cycle of the sent sending. Our ministries will have an outward focus, lavishing our attentions on the needy of our community. We will have a visual presence in the community, not with media and sign-age, but with our loving actions and real tangible presence.

This is even the reason why we do Home Groups.

By meeting in each other's homes we are sending a message that this church pours out past the walls of any one building. It is out there in the world, in your homes and in your lives. And when we do have a building, it will be located in the middle of the city, not on its outskirts. We don't want to set up shop, open our doors and say "we are here, now come to us," but instead we want to communicate that we have come here to be with you.

This is part of the vision of Vineyard Church BCS, to be an outwardly focussed church.

The Authority of Christ

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...."

-Matthew 28:18

Here Christ shows us the foundation of everything we do. We serve Him out of love. We serve Him because He knows best. We serve Him because it is good... because his plans are better than our plans. But first and foremost, before all these things, we serve Him because He is The King, and all authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Him.

Jesus is a King, and we are citizens of His Kingdom.

This idea of Kingship is a an odd concept for us in our times. We live in a society that was born out of a rejection to the dictatorship which the rule of one represents. Culturally we are uncomfortable with any authority over our lives which might supersede our own. But that is reality--Jesus is king--and as Christians we live our lives as if that is true.

What does this mean for us?

Well it means many things, some of which I will touch on in the future. For today I would like to talk about our desire to acknowledge Christ's authority to direct our destiny.

Just moments before His arrest and execution Jesus prayed to His father , "Father, not my will, but your will be done!"

This is how we are to relate to the authority of Christ, by realizing that His will supersedes our own, and when we are faced with a choice and what we want is in contradiction to what He wants, He has the authority.

Practically this means seeking out instruction from God, listening to God's voice--in the many ways in which He speaks--and actually doing those things that He tells us to do. When we make decisions our first question is not, "what do we want?" or even "what makes sense?" Our very first question is, "what does Jesus want for us?" And once we know, we serve His pleasure faithfully, because He is King.

I think choosing a church is a great example.

Many people will ask themselves "What am I looking for in a Church? I want it to have a strong teaching pastor, and a good children's ministry. It needs a youth group and it would be nice if it were within 30 min of my house..." and the list goes on. All of these are good and practical concerns...

none of them acknowledge the Authority of Christ.

Where does He want you to go to church?

Is it going to be the perfect place for you, perfectly comfortable? Or is it just going to be the place where He can use you, or mature you? Maybe it won't be your ideal, but if its His ideal then he wins, because He is king.

This concept of Christ's authority has boundless ramification, but it is enough to say that the reason Christ began His instructions to us with an affirmation of His own authority is because it is the foundation of all we do. We move in this work because He says move, we wait when He says wait, speak when He says speak.

That is part of the vision for the Vineyard Church BCS, to be be faithful servants to the authority and kingship of Jesus Christ.

The Mission of The Vineyard Church BCS

"What does it mean to be a church?"

This is the question that kept me up almost every night a year ago. Erin and I had moved to Bryan, certain that God had asked us to begin a Church here. And if we were supposed to start a church, I wanted to know what that REALLY meant.

I was not asking about the Church Universal--the Body and Bride of Christ, which has stretched throughout time and spread across the globe--but the Church Local, the particular instantiations of The Church.

What did it look like for the Church Universal to live in Bryan/College Station.

We prayed and waited and eventually God was faithful to lead us to some answers. Not all the answers--what this church needs to look like is an ever growing vision--but a foundation out of which we can build.

God brought us to Matthew chapter 28. Here Christ is at the very end of His physical ministry on earth, he is about to be lifted off the ground and brought back to The Father. The people around Him at this moment are ALL those who believe in Him, so in a real sense it is as if the whole church is standing around Him. The bottom line is, this is a very important moment... and He says these things:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

As we sought God and asked Him to show us what His vision was for the particular church He wanted us to start, He began taking these words and showing us what these general commands might look like in the specific surroundings we found ourselves in.

I would like to spend the next few blog post which I write on this passage. The basic commands are simple, and the passage is finite, but its content is complex and its applications are infinite.

I hope you are as excited as I am to see what living these commands might look like in Bryan/College Station!

The Raven and The Dove

I was recently asked to preach on chapter 8 of Genesis.

My first thoughts after reading the chapter was, “Man… this is RIGHT in the middle of Noah’s story. It’s not the begging, or the end, its just this middle section. But after trying to seek God out in the chapter, He was faithful to speak. I felt as if there was an image of God’s heart towards man buried in the middle of the story.
The story of Noah and his family is probably one the most well known stories in the Bible. We probably heard it firs at some vacation bible school or saw it in a coloring books. It is also one the most criticized stories in the Bible for the fantastic elements it contains. But I think that we would be doing the story an injustice if we were to be satisfied with these simplistic kinds of readings. It is a significant story. The themes in the story are rich and profound.

That certainly was the attitude which the Jewish people had towards the Noah narrative. The themes in this story—of judgment and redemption and new beginnings; the rebirth of mankind; specifically God’s use of water to wash away sin—these themes seem to repeat in Jewish history and through time they established themselves as core elements to the Jewish mindset in ancient times. This idea of the water coming and washing away sin, or of passing through the waters to safety and life and rebirth—we see these things repeating throughout the biblical narrative.

When Mosses leads the children of Israel through the waters of the Red sea, they pass through the waters, from slavery to freedom. This mirrored for them or echoed the passage through the flood from sin to righteousness. A generation later one of Israel’s war leaders, Joshua, leads the children of Israel across the Jordan—passing through the waters to victory on the other side. This idea of passing through water into God’s grace and good will became a very well formed thought in the Jewish mind; so that, thousands of years later we see in Israel a practice of ceremonial washing called baptism has developed and is held as being a significant sign of God’s cleansing.

One man, known as John the Baptist, had very significant ministry in this area. He would preach about the coming of the Kingdom of God, and the peoples need to turn from their sin, and he would ceremonially wash those who listened to him in water, signifying their acceptance of God’s desire for them to repent. For the Jews this act spoke so directly of the Noah and the flood. Peter even wrote about the waters of the flood, “this water symbolizes baptism.”

So this is the backdrop to the baptismal ministry of John. And so on the day that John baptizes Jesus, when the Holy Spirit appears to the crowed in the form of a dove and descends on Christ, there was only one place for those very Jewish minds to go: Noah! God did not choose to use the image of a dove at random; He was intentionally calling the minds of those watching to this intensely significant moment in their history in which he delivered mankind from sin through the washing of water.

We can look at it like book ends: 6 thousand years earlier God washes away the sin of the world with water, and Noah employs the dove to search out the earth for evidence of new life, and then—way over here at the other end of the Bible—we have Christ receiving a baptism meant to signify the washing of sin, and receiving the Holy Spirit from God in the form of a dove.

So what is God trying to communicate? There are two birds, the raven and the dove, and four flights. What is the significance of these four flights, that God would so obviously allude to them in this moment? I feel that God is illustrating an allegorical depiction of His own interactions with man throughout history, in judgment and in His Spirit.

First Noah sends out a raven. The raven has always been a very significant bird by virtue of the fact that it feed on death. In doing this the raven has often been used to depict or personify death and destruction. Now, who knows why Noah grabbed a raven at that moment. But the image is clear. Outside the ark there was more death and destruction then had ever been seen on the face of the earth and the first living thing to be seen is a black raven flying back and forth over the waters. The imagery is not lost on me. In a sense this bird being sent out into the world symbolically makes us think of the flood itself. The wages of sin are death, and God’s judgment had just been unleashed on the world. But the raven found no place to land and returned.

Secondly Noah sent out a dove. Now we know from the gospels that is was God who chose the dove to represent His Spirit. This dove flies around, hovering over the waters, but not resting on any one point. We see the dove behaving very much in the same way we see the Holy Spirit depicted in the earliest times in man’s history. Even at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 1:3 we see God’s spirit depicted as, “hovering over the waters.” In fact this is consistent behavior for the Holy Spirit throughout the Old Testament. In Judges 14:6 we read that “the Spirit of God came upon Sampson in power…” and that was the pattern, we see it resting on people for a moment, but never indwelling or remaining. This was acknowledged by the Jews, in fact John the Baptist even remarked that one of the signs he is to look for in the Christ is “I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'

Noah sends out the dove a second time and this time it returns with an olive branch in its mouth. On a mundane level this showed Noah that the water was receding and that new life was already present on the earth. In a more profound sense this showed Noah that God’s judgment had secured peace between Him and His creation. That is why the dove with the olive branch has come to signify is peace. And in an even larger picture, that dove that we see descending on Christ in His baptism, returns with Him to heaven, bearing an olive branch for God. Jesus returns to heaven saying, “look father, I have won peace between you and your creation!” This second bird very easily depicts the Holy Spirit in Christ, walking among us, and returning to the Father with evidence of peace, victory and new life.

Finally Noah sends out the Dove a third and last time, and it makes it home in the new world which God has formed through the flood. Noah knows that the world is hospitable for him again, and he comes to make it his own home, just as God, now that Christ has secured the hearts of men and brought redemption, will now come and make His home among men. And His holy spirit was sent out a third time, on the day of Pentecost. We see the tongues of flame on their head as they are “baptized in fire,” and the Holy Spirit comes and makes its home on earth, in the hearts of men. The Holy Spirit came to the church on that day and made it His home, and He has not left us sense. We are His home.

To me this is such a beautiful picture of how God’s plans for us are so consistent and intentional, that they were written out for us in the very begging. But the significance of these things runs much deeper even than these things. Not only does this show us a picture of God’s interactions with us through mankind’s history, but in a very real sense it tells our own story, as individuals.

We are all born into sin, and begin in God’s wrath and judgment. We all need the cleansing of a flood to wash away our unrighteousness. And in that state of death and destruction, the Holy Spirit is there. Not inside of us, hovering over us, calling to us, touching us for a moment as it beckons us. And then there is the olive branch… the anointing of Christ. It is the only way forward from where we start. But that is God’s hope and desire. Just like Noah was aching for the doves’ message that the waters had receded and peace had been restored, God longs for that report that Christ has been formed in you and that there is peace between He and you. And finally He wants to send His spirit out to make His home in you, to come down and remain in you.
The story of Noah’s ark is not a story of silly impossibilities, but of God’s very real and tangible plan for your redemption. It is not a story of death and destruction, but of rebirth and new life. You have an opportunity to interact with this story in a much more active and profound way. You can make it you story. This hope for new life and rebirth is a hope for you.

We are not Hungry, We're Busy

At our last home group we read John 6:1-15 , one of the most famous stories in the bible.

In the specifics Jesus takes a handful of fish and loaves and uses these few things to feed a huge multitude of hungry people. A general look at what happened is that the disciples had resources which fell pathetically short of the needs which were facing them.

The resource of food, or the need for food, can be hard concept for us to connect to. We are not a society that, in general, worries about our next meal. Who are, however, a society of people who often find our resources lacking relative to an abundant need.

And the resource i think most of us find in the shortest supply is time.

We are surrounded by masses of people who need our time: our jobs ask us to cover more hours, and our debts demands that we listen; our friends need help moving, or painting, or just someone to talk to; our families are understanding, but they need us to be there also... and then there is church.

There never seems to be an end to how much they ask for: Sunday morning, and night, the bible study mid week, that outreach once a month, or the Saturday church work day; womens group, mens group, youth group, worship teams prayer ministry... etc.

This list goes on and I can feel myself, and everyone reading curling up into the fetal position and rocking back and forth.

So what is the solution?

Well I think there is some application from this story for this modern shortfall in time.

When Jesus asked the disciples to begin distributing the food, there was just a little bit of food. It would have been nice if he had waved his hands and made a mountain of fish (yum!) and bread, but he didn't. When the command came to begin the work, it seemed imposable, but the disciples began to do it anyway.

I think there are two important points here:

1) the disciples heard a command from God:

I think many of the things that demand our time may not be Gods desire for our lives. They all seem good, and int the right context the may be, but I think it is important to allow the Holy Spirit to order our lives so that we are not wasting our resources in areas which are not ultimately productive for the Kingdom.

2) The miracle of multiplication occurred AFTER the disciples obeyed. For us I think that we want to see God multiply our resources first, and then we want to ask him what to do with the surplus. But the model we see here is simply hear-obey-multiply.

I think these two things can help us with our time management. If the Holy Spirit leads us to commit our time to something, God will provide for us the resources we need to accomplish that task.

I pray that God gives us all grace to identify those things that He is asking us to commit to, and that we would find both the faith and the discipline to do those things even when it seems like our resources are too few to meet the task.

How I read the Bible

In this clip Herschel hears God talking to mosses and because of his limited view of the situation he mistakingly applies everything God is saying to Moses to himself. Ridiculous, but not as uncommon as you might think. It happens to us when we read the bible.

You see, when you read the bible in many ways you are reading someone else's mail.

There is application for you, but because you were not the primary recipient, you cannot not always directly apply the message to yourself. A method of biblical interpretation which safe guards against this mistake is essential.

In an attempt to avoid mistakes such as this I try to apply the following four steps in biblical interpretation:

1) The Holy Spirit:

Because the Holy Spirit has been sent to lead us into all Truth, and it is the true meaning that we seek in scriptures, how can we hope to advance towards that truth without the aid of the Holy Spirit. It is not only good to be mindful of this when studying the scriptures, it is essential. Invite the Holy Spirit into your study, ask it to be your guide to the Truth. This is not the best starting place, it is the only starting place.

2) Exegesis:

Each book of the bible was a specific composition written in a specific time and language, by certain people to certain people. The context of its creation is inextricably tied to its meaning. It is imposable to divorce the particular elements of a biblical composition from its ultimate relevance and truthfulness. They are an essential part and as such must be discovered as we journey towards understanding.

3) Universal Generalization:

After the context of the passage has been examined the thematic elements can be lifted. What is the universal truth that is being illustrated by the particulars of the composition? These themes will not concern themselves with the specifics of the text, but will be the ideas which, along with the particular details of each situation, gave birth in the authors mind to the words which he wrote.

4) Existential Instantiation:

At this point, one can take these universal themes and ask how they would apply in the specifics of their own circumstance. Now the universal Truth takes on flesh once again, and lives in the moment. It might not look just as it did in that other time, but its soul is the same Truth or principle.

So using Herschel's example let's examine how this could have gone differently:

Firstly had he been listening to the Holy Spirit he might have avoided the whole embarrassing situation. Secondly, a little inquiry would have revealed to him that God was in fact talking to Moses, and not him. Some more universal truths that could have been derived from the things God said are: God speaks to us; God is a liberator; or His presence is holy. Some particular applications for Herschel would have been: God might also speak to me; if I am to model myself after the character of God, I am to have a heart for liberation; I should revere the presence of the Lord.

These examples are little odd, but the point bares out. It is important to be deliberate in our pursuit of the Truth in the bible, and not to haphazardly apply the things it says to our lives without an understanding of HOW those things should apply to our lives. relative to our specific situation.

Jesus Heals the Official's Son

In the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John Jesus heals an official's son. As with most things in the bible this story works on many levels.

In just a straight forward sense we see Christ snatching a life from the jaws of death. He is able to display his authority over the universe. His deity is further illustrated by the great distance which is breached by His power--though the boy lies ill miles off, he is still subject to the hand of the almighty and omnipresent God, whose incarnation has said "go, your boy will live." All of these things serve to advance John's consistent goal to establish Christ as a deity equal in every way, and in fact synonymous with, Yahweh.

An analysis of the recipient of this miracle may shine some further light on what John was communicating to us. This man is said to have been a "religious official." Galilee, at that time, was under the rule of Herod Antipas. Herod was a Gentile, and was generally despised by his people. It would only make sense that these feelings would be communicative to those who officiated on his behalf.

Why is this significant?

Well let's take a look at all those who Jesus has rubbed shoulders with so far: 1) Galilean commoners at a wedding feast; 2) Jewish religious crowds at the temple; 3) Nicodemus; a highly respected religious authority; 4) a triply despised Samaritan/woman/adulterer; and now a, in all likelihood, despised political official, the symbol foreign rule in Israel.

Jesus got around.

We are just starting and he has addressed his message and miracles at the low and the high; the admired and the despised; Jew, gentile, half breed--rich and poor; week and powerful. He is God not for the few, but for the many, not for some, but for all.

The final point which jumps out at me (though by no means the end of possible themes or applications) touches on the exchange which takes place between the official, Christ and those standing around. After being begged to heal the Officials son, (who lay some 20 mi. off) Jesus makes this statement, that "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe."

This is followed by the dismissal of the official along with the promise that his son would live.

Now what is strange about this is that there were none in that moment who experienced anything particularly miraculous. The servants 20 mi. off see a sick person who takes a turn for the better, wonderful but not necessarily miraculous, and those with Jesus only hear this ambiguous promise that the boy would not die. In the moment they are all very much denied the miraculous "sign and wonder" that they craved.

A possible application of this is that though we all want to see God move in the miraculous, hungering to see not only an end to suffering but also the evidence of the Divine on earth, we cannot always appreciate the miracles happening in front of us because of our finite perspective.

In retrospect, with the accounts of all those involved, John was able to see a miracle, but in the moment some heard a promise and others saw a boy recuperate. The miracle was there but hidden. For us it may often be the same. God has a desire to reconcile and to heal, and we are commanded to ask for these things, but when they don't become immediately apparent we need to not jump to grandiose conclusions. It could simply be that our perspective is too finite to perceive the miraculous which is taking place right under our noses.