Monday, June 29, 2009

Missional Living

Everything in me wants persuade you to remain vigilant in your decision to pursue Christ's plan for our community, to maintain the relationships with the children God developed during VBS, and to see Christ victorious through prayer, but I won't.  Instead, I will remind you of what true missional living is:  pursuing Christ with all your being.  Many members of our family have forgotten the true mission of our lives and replaced it with what should be it's fruit.

The common understanding of missional living is that of a missionary lifestyle; adopting the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message.  While this is good it's not what's best.  The most effective missionaries in God's arsenal have ALWAYS been people deeply committed to knowing Him and seeing His plan fulfilled.  You can't achieve one without the other.  You can try your dead level best to "win" the world for Christ, but what good is it if you're walking in two different directions!

Walking on water is great until your focus becomes that action, because that's when the power is lost.  The goal wasn't to walk on water, but to be with Christ.  Focus on Christ and you'll have your jaunt upon the water.  There is great power in being engaged with Jesus, so walk where He leads and overcome all obstacles; that's being missional.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Vacation Bible School

Our goal for Tuesday was to double the number of VBS kids from Monday. I think there were 50% more. If we can get 50% more again tonight and Thursday and Friday we will have a God sized problem to deal with.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Pictures from Africa

If you missed the service this Sunday, you missed the first report from Tanzania. A second report will be available soon. Here are some of the pictures from the first report.

Pictures are great for the website, but the lessons that they shared were largely about relationships and what is important.
  • One traveler confessed apathy in the great commission and great commandment.
  • One traveler recognized that they were on a daily tread mill.
  • One traveler realized that life is short and out of our control.



We all are very blessed to know these three travelers. I am eager to hear from the other three.

Friday, June 12, 2009