Thursday, April 26, 2007

I was challenged by this today...

Concerned to enter that radiant life we each must ask, "Am I a disciple, or only a Christian by current standards?" Examination of our ultimate desires and intentions, reflected in the specific responses and choices that make up our lives, can show whether there are things we hold more important than being like him. If there are, then we are not yet His disciples? Being unwilling to follow him, our claim of trusting Him must ring hollow. We could never credibly claim to trust a doctor, teacher, or auto mechanic whose directions we would not follow...

pg. 11 The Great Omission - by Dallas Willard

I dont know that following Jesus will ever be as easy and as specific as changing my oil every 3,000 miles. I don't pretend to make that statement. One thing I am certain of is... I dont always love my enemy. I dont live a life that fully entails me loving my neighbor as much as myself. I am pretty good at treating my friends well and I am prolly not the worst husband in the world... but honestly, that stuff isn't that hard.

I am caught asking myself... how much do i really want to be like Jesus. What am I am really willing to live for. Because honestly, it is easy to be a nice Christian. It's easy in our country to not rock the boat, be clean, say the right things, and retire. But I am certain there is more to our faith than just following the status quo. I somehow get a feeling that becoming like Jesus would never be close to the status quo and I fully believe that is our call. Even as a church planter... I find myself stumbling on greater realizations... I have no desire as a pastor or as an apostle to run an organization... I want to see people living in the abundance that Jesus talks about. An abundant life... a life leading to wholeness and the shalom of God.

This idea seems so "ingrained" into the new testament... Maybe we will find it as a church.

I know that no one likes to read a long blog posts (espeacially this person - really no one does, he just mentions it a lot - not afraid to say what others are) so I will digress. I am moving through some tensions in my life as a person, as a husband, as a roommate, as a disciple of Jesus, and as a pastor. Thanks for your support and love. Maybe you too can wrestle in this tension a bit. Feel free to leave some thoughts...

shalom aleichem,

-Jason

Monday, April 23, 2007

Opposing the Traffic Benefit Weekend

If you are in my contact list you may see this in email form also.

Myself and some friends (www.voicetogether.org - myself and some good friends - www.visiodei.org - my church community - also good friends) have been working really hard to pull together an awareness weekend for "Human Trafficking".

The weekend is here and I wanted to let all of you know about what's going on. You can check out the website at www.opposingthetraffic.org - We put this site together to hold all the details for the weekends festivities. In short, we have:
  • a benefit show at The Pour House Friday night - doors at 8pm (we need to cover a hefty bar tab - please bring your friends) - The Bands are Incredible - lots of fun - good rocknroll
  • A sleep out at the Capitol lawn Saturday night (we have a permit)
  • Our Church is giving the morning to Kimberly Smith of Make Way Partners to speak of all that is going on around the world related to human trafficking - this will blow your mind
but go the website and read through it - it will take you 5 - 10 minutes

I would like to personally (or not so personally) invite all of you to the benefit show Friday at the least. It wil be a blast... would love to see some of you I havent seen in a while. You can get info there on the rest of the weekend. Saturday will be a blast also and Sunday you would hear things that you will not believe.

Anyways... no matter where you fall in the realm of spiritual things, I am sure you would agree that sex slavery and human trafficking is far beyond something we should just let go unnoticed. I am not only asking that you try and make it if you are free, I am asking you to consider changing your plans if you have them for such a cause. (dont mean that to sound rude... hopefully you know me well enough to catch that - just being to the point) If you can't, I understand ;)

Here's how you can help
  • come to the benefit show
  • bring other people
  • email/blog/myspace/facebook/contact your friends and tell the about the weekend - www.opposingthetraffic.org
  • join the Voice Together mailing list - www.voicetogether.org - for future updates on things we are doing (www.myspace.com.voicetogether)
Signing off - but - come into town this weekend... come to the show... hear about what's going on. If we could save one woman or one child from this terror, it would be worth all the effort.

I know we can make a difference.

Peace and Love

-Jason

In the midst of sports depravity...

The NFL Draft is in 5 days... YES!!!! We will watch at my house... you are invited.

also, on a positive note that will make all of us smile... the Red Sox swept the Yankees...

and for Ashdown, The Wings are still moving forward...

holding on for the Fall,

-J

Thursday, April 05, 2007

A new read... a continuing journey...

So I started reading this book by a guy named Alan Hirsch entitled (that means - named) The Forgotten Ways. (Corrie, thanks for the recomendation.) I was actually looking for some insights on discipleship in our culture but it appears the book is more about approaching how God's church could look or must look in todays culture to be at its best or to be what it was created to be. (Which to an extent I am certain will tap into discipleship.) It's premise is looking at places in history and in the present at where The Church has been thriving and beautiful and trying to "point to " varibles that lead to this thriving. It's not as formulaic as it sounds. It's really just saying the only absolutes we have in looking at these things are our own personal observations and experiences, so why ignore them.

I am in the first chapter I am already challenged. He says this "In the study of the history of missions, one can even be formulaic about asserting that all great missionary movements begin at the fringes of the church, among the poor and the marginalized, and seldom if ever at the center. It is vital that in pursuing missional modes of church, we get out of the stiffling equilibrium of the center or our movements and our denominations, move to the fringes, and engage in real mission there."

While I am a church planter and possibly a Pastor (not by title but by giftedness or calling) I am constantly reminded of how my concern, desire, or passion is not to build a big church where people gather together on Sunday and thats it. Not a place where we have a center, place ourselves there, and expect people to come to us. I want to be apart of a community of people on mission to share the love, hope, peace, and resurrection power of the gospel of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray I am willing to risk everything including my job, my income, and even my life should it be necessary to be apart of such community.

Hirsch mentions the current decline of the church in the west and also in Australia where he is from. According to statistics it is not due to a lack of "spiritual seeking" or even "Jesus openess" (both my terms - sorry to poorly paraphrase) as an increasing percentage of people report a "yes" to God and to Jesus but that same increase is also saying "no" to the church. My prayer is that our church and the Church as a whole can find a place to meet people where we do not expect them to first be willing to walk in through the doors of a building that could represent oppression and/or judgement o reven worse to them.

I am becoming more and more aware of the gospel being for everyone and not just those willing and/or able to come sing songs with us on Sunday morning. If this is the case then it is our calling as the church to be on constant mission to bring this hope that we celebrate to all of the world and namely our neighbors.

My prayer for Visio Dei is not to become the church where "cool people" go, the place with the great teacher, or the place with the cool vibe (Lord knows we don't have to worry about it being the place with great music.) My prayer is that we will be an authentic Jesus community living on the fringes of culture taking a radical message of Hope to the world around us. I fully believe that is the only Church worth giving our life to and I fully believe that is the gospel that Jesus allowed himself to endure the cross for.

Just some thoughts from the first chapter... a new book... a continuing journey... may we follow Jesus more and more closely...

Love and Peace,

-J

A new read... a continuing journey...

So I started reading this book by a guy named Alan Hirsch entitled (that means - named) The Forgotten Ways. (Corrie, thanks for the recomendation.) I was actually looking for some insights on discipleship in our culture but it appears the book is more about approaching how God's church could look or must look in todays culture to be at its best or to be what it was created to be. (Which to an extent I am certain will tap into discipleship.) It's premise is looking at places in history and in the present at where The Church has been thriving and beautiful and trying to "point to " varibles that lead to this thriving. It's not as formulaic as it sounds. It's really just saying the only absolutes we have in looking at these things are our own personal observations and experiences, so why ignore them.

I am in the first chapter I am already challenged. He says this "In the study of the history of missions, one can even be formulaic about asserting that all great missionary movements begin at the fringes of the church, among the poor and the marginalized, and seldom if ever at the center. It is vital that in pursuing missional modes of church, we get out of the stiffling equilibrium of the center or our movements and our denominations, move to the fringes, and engage in real mission there."

While I am a church planter and possibly a Pastor (not by title but by giftedness or calling) I am constantly reminded of how my concern, desire, or passion is not to build a big church where people gather together on Sunday and thats it. Not a place where we have a center, place ourselves there, and expect people to come to us. I want to be apart of a community of people on mission to share the love, hope, peace, and resurrection power of the gospel of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I pray I am willing to risk everything including my job, my income, and even my life should it be necessary to be apart of such community.

Hirsch mentions the current decline of the church in the west and also in Australia where he is from. According to statistics it is not due to a lack of "spiritual seeking" or even "Jesus openess" (both my terms - sorry to poorly paraphrase) as an increasing percentage of people report a "yes" to God and to Jesus but that same increase is also saying "no" to the church. My prayer is that our church and the Church as a whole can find a place to meet people where we do not expect them to first be willing to walk in through the doors of a building that could represent oppression and/or judgement o reven worse to them.

I am becoming more and more aware of the gospel being for everyone and not just those willing and/or able to come sing songs with us on Sunday morning. If this is the case then it is our calling as the church to be on constant mission to bring this hope that we celebrate to all of the world and namely our neighbors.

My prayer for Visio Dei is not to become the church where "cool people" go, the place with the great teacher, or the place with the cool vibe (Lord knows we don't have to worry about it being the place with great music.) My prayer is that we will be an authentic Jesus community living on the fringes of culture taking a radical message of Hope to the world around us. I fully believe that is the only Church worth giving our life to and I fully believe that is the gospel that Jesus allowed himself to endure the cross for.

Just some thoughts from the first chapter... a new book... a continuing journey... may we follow Jesus more and more closely...

Love and Peace,

-J