Acts 29 and Movement Thinking
Today, while I was at work I plugged in my MP3 player to a set of computer speakers that I brought in from home. While I do this most days, I’m usually listening to worship music of some kind. But within the last couple of days I loaded way more preaching onto my Walkman than should be allowed in any country, and so instead of listening to music at work, I listened to preaching. The great thing about it was that I found myself wanting to get back to my desk and work so that I could hear more of the sermon that was paused while I was away. It was good motivation to stay at my desk and to continue working.
The featured speaker of the day was Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Mark has a movement of young men desiring to plant churches all over the place and has done (from what I understand) an amazing job of bringing the true Gospel to tons of non-believers. This sermon was given to a group of potential church planters that were thinking of joining Mark’s Acts 29 church planting network. It had a lot of funny moments, some stuff I liked, and some stuff I disagreed with.
But what the sermon did, it did well…and that’s this…Mark described very well the nature and pitfalls of movements. He described movements as a river made up of various tributaries, always focusing on young adults, always harnessing new technology, and always bringing reformation to those outside of the movement’s reach. One of the things I greatly appreciated about Mark’s message was the single-minded focus he had about keeping Acts 29 focused on bringing the gospel to lost souls and planting churches where lost people are saved. Mark has taken great pains to make sure that nothing else eclipses that goal.
And in the process it reminded me that all true, Jesus-centered movements are on the same mission that Jesus was on–to seek and save the lost. There are no new movements (in the Kingdom, at least) where people are not being converted. We (as a house-church and as part of the larger house church movement) need to make sure we don’t loose this as a cardinal value. When we loose this, we become just another plateauing church that is part of the reason lost people are going to hell every day. But if we embrace not just Jesus, but the mission He is on as well, we reconnect ourselves with the very cause the Church on earth exits and we become a little more like the phenomenal Jesus-movements of history.
I’ll talk more about movements sometime. For now…are you part of the movement of Jesus to reclaim humanity under the reign of God?
A Short Update
Things around this blog have pretty much been a ghost-town since the election ended. I feel like I have a lot of thoughts about things but not much clarity from the Lord on any of it. Rather than posting whatever I feel, I’m going to wait. Thankfully the Lord is beginning to save me from by big, fat, internet mouth.
There are lots of things going on that are good right now. I really feel like the house church is in a very positive place. We’re all beginning to catch a little bit of the vision that God has for us as a family and as part of a larger movement that will culminate with the return of Jesus. I’m testing the waters with Jesus about the possibility of going to Ethiopia in June with my friend John. God is stirring the water several different ways in my job as well.
I think this blog is up for a little remodeling as well. You may notice I have a new avatar. I’ve become increasingly concerned with the abilities Web 2.0 gives to anyone whose interested to monitor what I and those around me are doing. Because of that, I removed my face and replaced it with this snappy picture. However, on a happier note, this picture is said to be of a Canadian farmer rejoicing at sunset because of the greatness of the harvest in front of him. My hope is this picture is in reality prophesying where this thing is going. I’m also hoping to develop a resource page where I can host different teachings, books, and equipping files that will strengthen the apostolic church I believe the Lord is raising up in this hour. While there is absolutely nothing there, you can check out the beginnings of it here.
Finally, the Lord has been speaking to me about continuing to write and publish and develop relationships around the themes that I talk about frequently here. Part of that will be me trying to get significantly better at describing what exactly it is we’re called to as an end-time church planting movement. If that doesn’t excite you, that’s okay, I’ll publish other stuff as well. But if it does, feel free to drop in, say hi, or get involved in the discussion.
And finally, to those of you who I’ve been bad at staying in touch with, I’m working your way.
Have We Lost Our Minds?
More than ever before, this election cycle has attempted to pit one group of people against another. This election seems like the most important one since…well I guess since the last one. I’ve watched people blogging about this election, and while a lot of it has been wrong or misguided, I’ve never felt compelled to speak out against any of it. Today, however, was a turning point that probably should have come sooner. Today I saw a slew of blogs about the way in which a pro-life voter could conceivably vote for Barack Obama with a clean conscience the most obvious of which came from a prominent Christian writer that has supported Barack since the beginning. My fear is that sincere Christians are attempting to ease their consciences about voting for a Pro-Choice candidate. My hope is to articulate why Barack Obama is not a choice for serious Pro-Life voters.
The latest batch of lies being pushed over the internet have tried to paint Obama as a pro-life candidate. Bloggers are arguing the basic thought: 1) Obama is Pro-poor. 2) Poor people make up a majority of the women having abortions. 3) A vote for Obama would raise the economic status of many resulting in a lowering of abortions. 4) A better economy equals lives saved.
But we cannot believe something so incredibly deceitful. We don’t kill our unborn children because we’re poor. We kill our unborn children for the same reason we kill adults. There is a propensity in the human nature towards evil. Selfishness causes us to make choices that are good for us and bad for others. Jesus said that the poor would be with us always. If this is the case, economics has no hope in ending the slaughter of innocent children. The Obama economic plan to help the poor is admirable, but in the end it will not stop abortion.
The real question is this-How many babies should we stop killing before God as a righteous judge is satisfied? We kill somewhere between 3,500 to 4,000 a day. Will God be happy with half of that number? How about 1/4 of that number? I don’t know in the heart of God how many is enough, but I know this- we have to work until that number is as close to zero as possible. Until Jesus returns not every single abortion will be stopped. Even laws revoking Roe v. Wade will not stop back alley abortions. But we can stop endorsing the slaughter of our children as a right that a certain group of people have. We can stop pretending that these children are cells and start calling them our inheritance. We as a church can work to support poor women who find themselves pregnant and help them raise their children to know the Lord. We can open our homes to children who probably would have been aborted and we can fund adoptions of children whose parents weren’t ready to be parents.
Beloved, the way forward is not economics. Children have a right to exist whether a parent is poor or not. We as the church owe it to the 4,000 children aborted today to go out and vote for a candidate who won’t work for the next day’s number to grow. We must pray, work for more adoptions and easier adoption laws, care for the poor, and yes, we must vote for a candidate who will not condemn our children to death. If that means we vote for John McCain, so be it.
———————————————-
A list of disclaimers:
1) I’m not an ardent supporter of John McCain. I think there were a lot better candidates to choose from in the Republican line-up that present the best our country has to offer. I do respect Senator McCain (like I respect Senator Obama) and no matter who wins the election, I will pray for the President just like I have done for the last eight years.
2) I will be voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin as a vote against Barack Obama, not as an outright support for all of their policies.
3) I also am not a fan of war or greed. I think war should be a last resort and that greed is evil. Lost life is lost life and is tragic no matter what. But I do believe that 4000 babies being aborted daily and the apathy about this genocide is more tragic and sinful than anything we’ve been a part of in Iraq or anywhere else in the world.
4) I would vote Democrat if a Democrat had enough courage to stand up to special interests who favor killing unborn children.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 