Then God said, "Let us make man in our image." Genesis 1:26 (my emphasis added on us.)
The Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Genesis 2:18
Community -- more and more I am learning that God has set it up and intends us to be in community. Last evening for four hours or so as three couples gathered to really begin the process of discerning God's will for a ministry of some kind in Sebewaing, there was among us a deep sense of that kind of community.
We began with dinner together. It was simply a time to get to know one another, and there was much laughter. In recent days I have been reading and listening to teachings on the early church. One of the things that has stood out is how their times together often started or included the "common meal". I felt very much the presence of the Holy Spirit working.
After dinner we shared a little of our own spiritual journeys and began a conversation on what a disciple making movement might look like with our present situations and resources. I was excited because there seemed to be an attitude of "let's get started". After a time of prayer, we set up a plan to meet again next week.
We decided that next week we would each share our salvation story and a little about our spiritual journeys. After that we are going to begin to formulate a plan to draw people in. (We kicked around a couple of service project ideas last night.) We understand that traditional summer may not be the best time to start some of these things, but we are going to take an attitude "let's keep starting something until we finally get started."
Please keep the Gabrielsons, Elenbaums, and Reinhardts in prayer as we work to discern God's calling and also enjoy and invite others in the community we have experienced.
Your Servant in Christ,
Brian
Friday, May 22, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe--all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common.
They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. (Acts 2:42-47 from The Message).
Over the last couple of weeks I have "run into" this verse a number of times. From a Sunday morning message, to a study with a friend, to a discussion with a group of people, this passage of scripture has been on my mind a lot lately. Perhaps that explains why in a couple of encounters I had last week, it seemed like the spirit of the passage came into play.
Thursday, when I was at the school in the afternoon, because of some changes in the junior high schedule, I had some free time. I ended up sitting with the teacher of the alternative education program whose class I had been helping out with since last October. He was thanking me for the support I had given them in this first year of the program. We got into a conversation about things of the scripture and how God sometimes uses teaching and/or circumstances outside our comfort zone to help us see things in new ways.
Rudy's son was killed in an accident a couple of years ago, and he was describing to me some of the things that he had experienced and how even in the midst of that tragedy that God worked. Rudy shared how they had ended up using the Matthew video from the Nooma series at Kyle's funeral as an alternative form of sharing the gospel. As we shared, there seemed to be a real sense of the kind of community that is described in Acts 2:24-47. There we were two believers sharing views and helping to bear one another's burdens. That is the kind of community that God intends us to live in.
Later that day Deb and I had dinner with John and Rhonda as we have gotten in the practice of doing. Afterwords I suggested that we go for a walk and talk about the scriptures -- things that we were to focus on -- in a more casual setting. We had a great time walking and talking and sharing from the scripture. After some time in prayer together, we started to walk back to where we were parked and Rhonda brought up a concern she has about her children. Before we parted company, we stopped where we were and held up the situation in prayer. Again I could not help but think about the passages from Acts.
More and more I am learning that to be true disciples and to create a real disciple making movement, we need to be in community and to be fully living out the things God instructs. We have to stop playing church and become The Church. It is a journey we are all on.
They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person's need was met.
They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. (Acts 2:42-47 from The Message).
Over the last couple of weeks I have "run into" this verse a number of times. From a Sunday morning message, to a study with a friend, to a discussion with a group of people, this passage of scripture has been on my mind a lot lately. Perhaps that explains why in a couple of encounters I had last week, it seemed like the spirit of the passage came into play.
Thursday, when I was at the school in the afternoon, because of some changes in the junior high schedule, I had some free time. I ended up sitting with the teacher of the alternative education program whose class I had been helping out with since last October. He was thanking me for the support I had given them in this first year of the program. We got into a conversation about things of the scripture and how God sometimes uses teaching and/or circumstances outside our comfort zone to help us see things in new ways.
Rudy's son was killed in an accident a couple of years ago, and he was describing to me some of the things that he had experienced and how even in the midst of that tragedy that God worked. Rudy shared how they had ended up using the Matthew video from the Nooma series at Kyle's funeral as an alternative form of sharing the gospel. As we shared, there seemed to be a real sense of the kind of community that is described in Acts 2:24-47. There we were two believers sharing views and helping to bear one another's burdens. That is the kind of community that God intends us to live in.
Later that day Deb and I had dinner with John and Rhonda as we have gotten in the practice of doing. Afterwords I suggested that we go for a walk and talk about the scriptures -- things that we were to focus on -- in a more casual setting. We had a great time walking and talking and sharing from the scripture. After some time in prayer together, we started to walk back to where we were parked and Rhonda brought up a concern she has about her children. Before we parted company, we stopped where we were and held up the situation in prayer. Again I could not help but think about the passages from Acts.
More and more I am learning that to be true disciples and to create a real disciple making movement, we need to be in community and to be fully living out the things God instructs. We have to stop playing church and become The Church. It is a journey we are all on.
Friday, May 1, 2009
"Lord, Can You Let Me in on the Plan?"
This is my second attempt at posting on the blog this week. I just erased my first page, which I had spent about half an hour on, because I decided I need to be very careful with the information I am posting today. I do not want to run ahead of God, something that I am often guilty of. Yet, I do want to communicate that I had a very good day yesterday and felt like God is showing me some new things. Let me quickly tell you about two meetings I had yesterday.
The first meeting took place with a former student. We spent some time together talking about her future. Then after a while we spent some time talking about the years that I served as her pastor. As we laughed about some of the memories from youth group trips and such, Olivia ended our time with a statement that I didn't give much thought to at the moment but later considered. She told me "I never saw or heard of another youth ministry like yours." Her statement caught me by surprise, and there are still levels of it that I need to consider. But to shorten up the thought process for you, let me just say that I was reminded that any success that I have been fortunate enough to experience in ministry never came while I was following a formula, but rather during the times I was tuned in to the Holy Spirit.
The second encounter I had yesterday, that really spoke to me, was not one that I set up. Kent, who is part of my prayer support from the Elkton church, emailed me early last week and told me he would like to sit down and talk. Kent and I had a brief conversation last fall when I first started in Sebewaing but nothing came out of it then. In his email Kent told me he felt like God was up to something, and he wanted to be obedient to whatever that was.
As Kent and I shared while sitting in the McDonalds in Sebewaing, there really seemed to be a unity that only would make sense if it was from the Holy Spirit. It was not like a plan or a blueprint for success came out of the meeting, but it seemed like God gave us a glimpse of some things and simply said be obedient to the next step.
So that is what we are doing. We are going to compare calendars with some other people and start to see if we can bring some of those groups together and continue this process of seeing what God may have planned. I will keep you informed. In the mean time, pray for the Grbrielsons, the Elenbaums, and the Reinhardts as we meet to discuss the possibility of bringing some things together for the glory of God.
The first meeting took place with a former student. We spent some time together talking about her future. Then after a while we spent some time talking about the years that I served as her pastor. As we laughed about some of the memories from youth group trips and such, Olivia ended our time with a statement that I didn't give much thought to at the moment but later considered. She told me "I never saw or heard of another youth ministry like yours." Her statement caught me by surprise, and there are still levels of it that I need to consider. But to shorten up the thought process for you, let me just say that I was reminded that any success that I have been fortunate enough to experience in ministry never came while I was following a formula, but rather during the times I was tuned in to the Holy Spirit.
The second encounter I had yesterday, that really spoke to me, was not one that I set up. Kent, who is part of my prayer support from the Elkton church, emailed me early last week and told me he would like to sit down and talk. Kent and I had a brief conversation last fall when I first started in Sebewaing but nothing came out of it then. In his email Kent told me he felt like God was up to something, and he wanted to be obedient to whatever that was.
As Kent and I shared while sitting in the McDonalds in Sebewaing, there really seemed to be a unity that only would make sense if it was from the Holy Spirit. It was not like a plan or a blueprint for success came out of the meeting, but it seemed like God gave us a glimpse of some things and simply said be obedient to the next step.
So that is what we are doing. We are going to compare calendars with some other people and start to see if we can bring some of those groups together and continue this process of seeing what God may have planned. I will keep you informed. In the mean time, pray for the Grbrielsons, the Elenbaums, and the Reinhardts as we meet to discuss the possibility of bringing some things together for the glory of God.
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