Red Point Church

I have read two articles this morning that are very insightful. The first at CNN the second at Albertmohler.com

The articles are talking about a Pew Research Poll concerning American denominational and religious affiliations. There are several things that struck me as I read these articles.

• Although evangelical churches strive to win new Christian believers from the "unchurched," the survey found most converts to evangelical churches were raised Protestant.
  
• Among younger Americans (ages 18-29) almost a quarter claim no religious affiliation.
  
• The Midwest is the most representative region of the country, while Evangelicals are concentrated in the South.

Matt and I just spent the day at the Cleveland Hope office hearing from Charles Brock. He is a man that both Matt and I have had the privilege of having his books radically change our view of church and church planting, as well as studying under one of his former pupils while in seminary. It was a great time for us getting to hear a lot of the stuff that we have heard before about indigenous leadership in church planting, but this time sitting around a table with people that want to see it happen in Cleveland, Ohio. 

 

I would highly recommend Charles Brock's book Indigenous Church Planting A Practical Journey. If you are at all thinking of church planting or just how should church work, it will rock your world.

So I had an "Israel Moment" today. You know what I mean. A moment when in your heart you know what God has done for you in the past and you know he has been faithful, but you still doubt if he will be faithful this time. You worry and fret and try to take things in your own hands like Israel when they were in the wilderness and had no food or water and didn't believe God could provide Manna from heaven. 

Well anyway over the last few days I have been looking at our finances try to figure out how Kara can work less and spend more time focusing on school, all while still making all of our bills. We in no way are in a bad financial situation at all, but it was just a moment of can we continue living as generously as we have been and still make this thing work. I realized that I had forgotten to write a check to give to the church this last week. So I was filling out the check thinking man this is a lot of money that would make the whole financial situation thing a lot more comfortable. As I was thinking that, I knew that God has consistently been faithful to us financially when we have been faithful to give back to Him what he has blessed us with. So I wrote the check, while still feeling a little anxiety deep down.

It was not an hour later that God came down and not just slapped me in the head, but full fledge kneed me in the gut. I was out around town and I get a phone call from my wife. She informs me that she has received a promotion at the hospital because of her completion of her first semester of nursing school (We knew this was coming), and with that promotion came almost a 2 dollar raise (we had no idea this was coming). To this point we had thought that she might receive 25 or 50 cent raise, but nowhere in my mind did I think it would be 2 dollars an hour more. 

I then go on to read the parable of the talents in Matthew, and am reminded that for those that are faithful in the small things more will be given to them. 

It was at this point that I kind of smiled and thought "Wow, how big of a moron must I look like now." I actually thought that I might know better than the God of the universe how to handle my finances. For the record, I am not even that good at finances by human standards let alone in comparison to the Almighty God of the Universe.

So that is my reminder for today of what a horrible person I am and how desperately wicked my soul is. Praise Christ that Jesus died on the cross to redeem my soul and forgive my unbelief.

I haven't ever done a Bible Reading Plan. In the past I have just read 3 or so chapters a day to get through the whole bible in a year, or I spent longer times reading and re-reading individual books of scripture. I decided today to try something new. I found the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan which I like. It basically is a plan were you read 3-5 chapters a day. One chapter from the law, one from the prophets, one from the Gospels, and one from the epistles. It will take you through the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice in a year. You can find a ton of resources on the web for this plan. I even downloaded a calendar for computer that has all the reading for that day as an event. I would suggest this site for resources.

Vacation was good. The weather was tremendous (between -6 and 20 degrees with 4-12 inches of snow every night). Well that is great for skiing anyway. We all had some pretty nasty falls and the roads were horrible, but by the grace of God we all came out alive and for the most part uninjured. 

I didn't really take a lot of pictures and the ones I did take I haven't downloaded off the camera yet so I haven't got anything to post as far as that goes but maybe over the next few days I will.

 

 

 

So I am with the family and the in-laws in Colorado for a week of vacation and skiing. The weather is great and the time off with be a great relaxation. Hopefully we won't break any bones or anything crazy like that. I will be taking pictures and I will try to post a few of the good ones up here.

I don't know if any of you have seen or heard what is happening in Kenya over the last few days. It appears that severe tribal violence has broken out across the nation after an election that was apparently rigged. To this point 275 people have been killed in the fighting, many of which have died horrible deaths being hacked to pieces with machetes or being burned alive while trying to seek shelter in a church. There are many who are likening the violence to what was seen in 2004 in Rawanda. If you are not familiar with the genocide that happened there I would recommend doing some reading or rent the movies Hotel Rawanda or Beyond the Gates. Both are great movies that will start to give you a glimpse of what has happened in the great continent of Africa. Pray for Kenya and its people. Pray that we would do the just and right thing in protecting lives that can never bring us anything in return.

I ran across this Time Magazine article about Mike Huckabee. I am not really into politics that much, ultimately because I think the church has allowed the government to take roles in society that christians should be championing i.e. social justice, equality, healthcare, education, to name a few. Huckabee a former Southern Baptist Pastor and governor of Arkansas makes some pretty interesting points in this interview. Even if you wouldn't vote for him you have to love the fact that some average joe from Arkansas can become a governor and then make an actual real bid for the presidency of the United States. It sounds like a movie script, but we will see over the next few months how it plays out.

My wife and I had a conversation last night that was one of those reflective sorts of conversations. One were you look back over your life thus far and realize you are spiritually not were you want to be just yet. It is always good to have these conversations and thoughts, it helps me to continue the push forward in my spiritual journey. As we continued talking my wife said something profound (this is typically her role in the conversation, I am not the most profound person in the world). She said that she looks back to times in her life were she was the closest with God, but during those times she was not great at connecting with the people around her to show the redemption and love of Christ to them. As we talked this through we came to the conclusion that this is the tension of being "in the world but not of it." I think this phrase all to often is take out of context by parents and pastors when talking to students. What they mean by it is don't do drugs, have sex, or drink while you are out on your own in "the world." I think however, that it is really more about that fact that as Christians we have a tension between wanting to be intimately close with God but still living in a fallen and broken world that needs redemption. It will forever be the challenge of Christians to embed themselves in the world so that they can show Christ love for it (living missionally), while at the same time striving to know God more and draw closer to him. I guess this is probably the same tension that Christ felt as he entered a broken world in a barn 2000 years ago. Merry Christmas

Over the last several months we have been going through the book of Luke at our group meetings as well as privately. It has been a fascinating rediscovery of the life, and teaching of Jesus. Often times we relegate the simple parables and miracle stories to sunday school and we save the deep theological stuff of Paul for the when we are strong "Christians". I think I understand part of the reason that we tend to love the epistles and bypass the Gospels. Given some simple logic and reasoning skills you can make pretty good sense of Paul even in the difficult passages. Jesus in the Gospels on the other hand will turn your world upside down until all the blood rushes to your head and you think you are going to pass out. Does anyone beyond a shadow of a doubt know what we are supposed to do with the Beatitudes or how about in chapter 8 of Luke when he says "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him." All this to say I encourage you to really study the Gospels they will knock your socks off and leave you asking a lot of questions, and despite what anyone says questions are good they will make you dig deeper into the scriptures for answers.