Baby Steps

I've had a thought on my mind that I'm going to expand on Sunday. But I wanted to get it out there and let people start thinking about it. It comes from Luke 19:11-26. It's the Parable of the Ten Minas. Click the link and read the parable before you go on.

I've been thinking about how practical God is in the way that he guides us. The principle in this parable is that those who can be entrusted with a little will also be trusted with a lot. How sensible! This should ring true with any parent, project leader, administrator, business owner, or anyone else who is in a position of authority over others. When you have a task that needs to get done but the person to whom it is assigned falls through, you would never turn around and give them a BIGGER task! At the very least you would give them another task of similar size and start training them up in responsibility, follow through, diligence, etc. Someone that cannot fulfill the most menial task would be destined to fail if they were assigned something much bigger.

God works the same way. Sometimes it's financially, as on the surface of this parable. As you are a faithful steward of your resources, you will find your money going farther and, in some cases, strange blessings will come your way because you are wise, disciplined and faithful. God says that if you are wise with a little, the same principles will cause you to be wise when you have a lot. If you are foolish with a little, you would likely be foolish if you suddenly had plenty.

This parable goes deeper, though, and God treats our spirit the same way. We often want to know God's specific plan. We want to know what he has in store for us. Where to go next, what to do next, etc. Maybe you are not in a time of spiritual plenty. Maybe you want more from God. You want him to reveal himself, or for a spiritual relationship with him to just "happen." What this parable teaches is that you have to be faithful with what you've got. Are you busy? You will always be. Make time for God now. Make him a priority now. Are you financially strapped? That will likely not change too much unless you start changing your money principles now. Do you not feel like God is close? Do things to close the gap and build that relationship now. Don't wait for him to talk to you out of the clouds. Be a faithful steward of the position you are in today. When you prove that you can be trusted with a little, God will often begin to entrust much more to you.

God's purpose for your life (or at least part of it)!

Looking for God's
guidance in your life?

The more conversations I have with people the more I hear the sentiment, "I wish I knew what God's will for my life was. I wish I knew what he wanted to DO!" I would be completely dishonest if I claimed to never have these feelings because the truth is that I'm human! The fact of the matter is that many people are looking for God to give instructions about where to go and what to do. If we look to Scripture with this intent, we will tend to miss all the fantastic things God tells us about our purpose.

Ephesians 4:1-2 holds one of the many statements God gives us about what our purpose is. It says, "I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

That's it. Did you get that?

The life worthy of the calling is to be completely humble and gentle. The title "Christ follower" carries with it a certain expectation. God is calling us to live out his purpose. He is calling us to be his children. The life that is worthy of being considered a son to the creator of the universe is a life that is completely humble, completely gentle, completely patient, and being loving as we bear with one another in life.

The idea here is that faith is a journey. God knows (better than you do) that change takes time. He knows (better than we do) that if he gave you too much right now, today, that you'd never be able to handle it. He knows (better than we do) what his plan for us is. He has given us his plan so that we can know (better than we do now) how to get there.

We start by living for him and trying to become like him right here, where we are. Later in the chapter it says that some people will be called to different things (v. 11 & 12) but these are secondary to what every believer is called to be. We have to figure out what it means to be a believer before we can know what it looks like to be a believer that can literally follow God anywhere.

So get up! Go read God's word and start to discover his will for you. Forget about next year and start asking him to show you the next step. Don't look to the Bible to show you what a month down the road should look like, but instead start using it to show you what today should look like.

Start living out your purpose!

Re:define Ministry!

Welcome to the new blog for Re:define Ministry! Re:define is an exciting next step for the college-age and career ministry at Adventure Church. The name was not chosen arbitrarily, but instead is a meaningful statement of what we intend to do! Our goal in every element of our ministry is to re:define what ministry looks like! This blog is one facet of a ministry that seeks to fulfill the great commission, creating followers that are madly in love with Jesus Christ. Here are the ways we're going to re:define ministry:

• We believe that the church is the brotherhood of ALL BELIEVERS, and will seek unity with those that claim that Jesus Christ is the one true savior for a creation in need of saving. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
• We believe that WE ARE ALL MINISTERS! Ministry doesn't just happen on a weekly basis with one qualified paster preaching at an audience. It happens out where people are. In the workplace, in our families and in our lives, we are all called to be ministers to those around us. (1 Peter 2:9)
• We are called to be set apart from the world. We are to have standards for success, behavior and purpose that are separated from those standards held by the World. (1 Peter 1:13-15)
• Faith in Jesus is not meant to be stagnant. It is not a habit. It is not a tradition. It is given to us by God to find and fulfill our ultimate purpose as his creation. It is meant to inform our lives and teach us about his character. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
• Faith starts from within. Outward signs of goodwill and service are only as good as the inward motivation that causes them. We believe that a life of faith means taking time to let God shape your spirit inwardly. (James 3:9-12; Matthew 12:35)
• We can do nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit. God seeks after us when we are lost, beckons us to belief and saves us of his own initiative. The Spirit is his presence among us that lives in us and nudges us towards Godliness. (John 14-16, Ephesians 3:16-19)

For too long, "Ministry" has been characterized as something only a select few are "called" to do. While only some are called by Christ to make ministry a vocation, ALL are called to be a light to the world around them, shining God's character into the darkness of this world. While this blog's header might say young adults ministry, this is not an age-specific, or even life-stage-specific mission. This blog will be an attempt at motivation, hopefully empowering the reader to step aside and let the Spirit work in them. So follow, like, tweet, facebook, digg and buzz the blog. Subscribe to it yourself or pass it on to a friend and let's start a movement that re:defines ministry as we know it!

Swimming Upstream

Today I saw something that really bothered me and it opened my eyes to a bigger question. How can God use social networking to reach the lost?

Today as I was surfing on facebook I saw a friend had posted a video with some comment about the wisdom contained therein. Now the content of the video was bothersome enough to me (at least certain aspects) but what followed was a stream of comments in support of the video and, as soon as one person offered her point of view, another stream of comments blasting this critic and her Christian beliefs to pieces.

The fact that this person used to have such an extreme faith and this is now the focus of their heart shook me. The comments about God such as "IF God is ______ then count me out," bothered me because of a lack of investigation as to who God really is and what he is like. But that wasn't what really gave me pause. What struck me is how the internet has become such a divisive arena, a playground where teams are being chosen for kickball and everyone wants to be on the winning team. I am noticing that facebook, twitter, etc. are becoming places where everyone is in agreement with everyone else. The courage that being behind a keyboard gives people is our first weapon against anyone that disagrees and now, several years into the social media movement, I find that comment streams are almost always unanimously self-agreeable. Those that choose to offer up an opinion will quickly be chastised for doing so.

I could go into the way this flies in the face of the "tolerance" that our world claims to have. But I won't go there today, either.

I saw this and I was strongly tempted, even though someone had already blazed this trail, to offer my two cents, to share how my heart breaks when I see people fuel the fire of public opinion, while fewer and fewer know anything about Scripture's actual content. I could have taken any number of approaches in debunking the myths that I saw out there. Only to fall on deaf ears. I feel a bit like Solomon even as I write this. "Meaningless. All is meaningless." If this post only falls on the ears of those that agree with me and we seclude ourselves in our Christian bubble, then this post has been a failure. We've missed the point of what God has called us to do.

The real question is this: in what ways can the Christians in this world still be effective in using facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. to reach out and create disciples? How can we show the world (if not through comments in already-hostile threads) that the message Christ preached is one of freedom (Gal 5:1), love (1 cor 13), purpose (Matt 22:37-40) and relationship with our creator (Gen 2)? How can we allow ourselves to be used as Christ's body to impact his Kingdom? The answers to these questions continue to elude me everytime I boot up my computer.

In the end, I didn't post anything. But that person has been on my mind ever since. The thought that they have known Christ and left, pushing some non-Biblical theology that has a distant resemblance to God's character (much like the folks John wrote about in his letters) makes me shutter. The idea that this person has gone so far from what is true and is now rallying troops to go with her breaks my heart. This friend has been on my heart the entire day and I have been in prayer for a heart-change since seeing this. I pray for discernment in what to say if the opportunity arises. I pray that I know what a real opportunity looks like. I pray that God will give me the guts to say it when and if I do recognize that moment. I don't know what else to do but pray. I feel as if we are swimming upstream.

Don't Forget!

"When the centurion, who stood in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "surely this man was the son of God." -Mark 15:39

Today is Good Friday, and the start to the Easter weekend. A couple reminders for all you out there.

1. We don't have class this Sunday morning. INSTEAD, we have a special service schedule (services at 9 and 11) and a breakfast in between. 
2. Next Saturday, we'll be hiking at Bernheim Forest in Bullitt County. We'll meet at the front of the park and have a picnic lunch (*Pack your own*) and then go for a hiking trek in the forest. 

Have a great Easter weekend!

In a fit of rage

There's a story in the gospels that has always made me scratch my head. It's always seemed a bit of an inconsistency and out of character for Jesus. Because of scriptural reports that Jesus never sinned (i.e. Heb 4:15), the story of Jesus overturning tables in the temple has led pastors to try all kinds of theological kung-fu. Most often, the solution that is settled upon is that Jesus overturned the tables out of righteous anger, a justified fit of rage caused by the defilement of God's temple in Jerusalem. That has never really sat right with me.

This is one of those posts where I share a little somthing I've learned in my classes, namely, that it is important to look closely at what scripture says. Look - actually look - at Mark 11:11:

¹¹ Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve

The beginning of the chapter is Jesus' famous, "Palm Sunday" entrance into Jerusalem and the passage immediately after verse 11 is his demonstration in the temple. But what is interesting in verse 11 is that it shows Jesus assessed the situation the night before his demonstration. He looked at everything. It wasn't like he walked into the temple and his jaw dropped at the horrible acts going on. Jesus may not have been acting in a fit of rage so much as making a statement that the end of the temple sacrificial system was ending.

I am not claiming I am an authority on this, but it does seem likely to me that there is truth in this one small, easy-to-miss verse. What it tells us is that we can have confidence that he is sinless, that his ministry was intentional and purposeful. This particular story tells us that the temple is done. Trying to be "holy enough" had clearly not worked, ringing in a new promise that we can have direct access to God absolutely all the time.

Timing is Everything

Today's post is a little different because I'm not sure I've found the answer to the question, and so your thoughts are totally welcome. This goes in the "food for thought" category.

I've been studying the Gospels for school and there is a question that's been relatively unaddressed. We know a lot about Jesus' birth from Matthew and Luke, and all four gospels' focus is on his adult ministry, but we know very little about his childhood and adolescent years. Luke does include a story of a visit to the temple at the age of 12 (odd because he was still considered a boy at that point). In this visit, he showed himself to be wise and gifted at teaching, even at such a young age. Luke says that "everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers" (Luke 2:47).

I guess my question is this. Without making too many assumptions about a history we simply don't have record of, what can we take and learn from those 17 years or so between this experience and Jesus' baptism in the Jordan? He clearly had some understanding of his identity early on, and in Jewish culture, boys are considered men at 13 without an adolescent period as we know it. The only thing I can come up with is that having faith in God's timing is important. There were prophecies about the start of the Messiah's ministry, and for those to take place, John would have had to start his ministry. But I don't know if that is all there is to it. Maybe I'm trying to read into it and have already stepped too far. I'd love to hear your thoughts!