Jesus Fame

This morning I was thinking about Acts 9:31 and how it relates to pastoring and church planting.

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

There are a host of books written and seminars hosted on the subject of church health and multiplication, two things mentioned here.

How was this early church in Jerusalem being “built up” and “multiplied”? Continue reading

Simply put, a disciple of Jesus is a follower of Jesus. Jesus told his 12 disciples, “if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24)

What does it mean to follow Jesus?

1. Live as a Worshiper – as image bearers of God, we are created as worshipers. The question is not “will” we worship, but “what” will we worship? Our worship is like a fire hose that can’t be turned off, so the question is where will we point our worship proclivity? A follower of Jesus worships their Creator and repents of any false worship, including good things like family, work, or recreation.

2. Gospel Identity – a follower of Jesus recognizes the sinful tendency to find their identity in their money, intelligence, career, education, children, human relationships, or any number of created things. Therefore a disciple turns from finding ultimate identity in these empty idols (1 Thess. 1:9), to King Jesus and His kingdom of perfect hope, peace, joy, and love.

3. Committed to Community – a disciple of Jesus has a Spirit inspired desire to live life with other Jesus followers, the church. They recognize their membership in the body of Christ and understand the weight of that responsibility by giving of their gifts, time, and money to serve others.

4. Sent on Mission – Jesus said he was sending his church in the same way in which he was sent (John 20:21). A follower of Jesus sees themselves as a missionary sent on Jesus’ mission, in their everyday lives, to restore a broken world through gospel living and proclamation.

A few months ago we were informed that our facility, TPAAK, was going to be unavailable to us on Sunday Nov. 20th. At first our leaders began to scramble to find an alternate venue for which we could gather.

Instead we decided to put together a project called “Church without Walls” where instead of gathering in one location we would spread out through Fort Collins to serve in various capacities.

We had three tracks -

1. Visiting folks at a Nursing Home

2. A work project at the home of an elderly woman

3. Loving on homeless folks

The event overall was a great success. Each of the three tracks had good turnouts and saw good fruit result.

A few of our musicians shared music at the nursing home, many of our children made cards for the folks who very rarely see young people, and even though most of the folks who live at LeMay Ave. Health and Rehab have very short memories they were blessed and so were the people of Missio Dei who showed up to serve the least among us.

The woman we served was overjoyed that complete strangers would show up at her house to do manual labor. We had guys raking leaves, scraping and replacing tile grout, hanging blinds, doing general cleanup, and one of our ladies even took her to the store to help her pick out nutritional supplements to help with some health issues she was having. This woman had been abandoned by her husband of many decades, she lives alone, is broke, and she had no community, until now.

The cops showed up to chastise us for serving the homeless…”these people choose to be here you know? Do you understand the risks? Do you realize you’re actually making this worse?” We all understand that most homeless folks have chosen that lifestyle, but they’re still humans, created in the image of God and therefore have value and worth. Yes we know that there are drug addicts, pedophiles, and drunks that congregate at Jefferson Park but how on earth are we possibly making it worse? By serving people? By loving the unlovable? By going to the very people Jesus went to, which is what the Church gets criticized for doing too rarely? In spite of the opinion of the Fort Collins PD these folks were grateful, friendly, and eager to share conversation with people who typically turn the other way out of fear and shame. We ended the evening by leading the chapel service at the Open Door Mission. The room was packed with 30+ marginalized folks who heard that despite their place in life, or their sinful lifestyle, they too have the opportunity to be rescued by the unconditional love of Jesus Christ.

Yes I’m proud of the people of Missio Dei.It was a great day with much fruit for the Kingdom.

My prayer is that our corporate event will inspire our members to recognize that they can do this individually and as families without the support of the church corporately. There are always the elderly, shut ins, and the sick to visit. Scores of people in this area are living in homes that could use work done that they are incapable of accomplishing themselves. The poor and homeless are all around us despite the opulent facade.

Wherever you live, in any context, urban, suburban or rural there are needs and because of the mission of God (Missio Dei) to rescue you from your certain destruction you should be compelled to join God’s mission and serve the people that God places in your life.

Most of the following is borrowed from The Village Church in Dallas, TX. We appreciate the faithful work of great churches like The Village that allow small churches like Missio Dei to steal their stuff.

Christ is coming. He has come, and He will come again. This is the message of Advent.

Though Advent is often neglected in many contemporary churches, it has a long history of remembrance. It is a season of waiting, a time of anxious and eager anticipation for the coming (advent) of Christ to His bride.

Though it overlaps with modern Christmas celebrations, it is quite different. Whereas Christmas tends to be a season of noise and commotion, Advent is a time to slow down and reflect. It is a season to consider the first coming of Christ and patiently ponder His second.

This year, Missio Dei will celebrate Advent together. Starting the last weekend in November, we will corporately begin to walk through the Old Testament anticipation of a Messiah, the incarnation of the Christ, the amazing message of the Gospel, and the Church’s eager expectation of His soon return. Our children will be walking through these same topics and themes along with us. But we don’t want your celebration to end with our weekly gatherings.

The Village has created a guide to help their people celebrate Advent as family, and we wanted to pass it along to you.

Our hope is that this guide and the weekly sermons will help drive you and your family more deeply into the meaning and message of Advent as we fix our eyes on Christ, glory in His incarnation and eagerly await His return.

Advent Guide

Currently we are going through the book of Acts during our Sunday gatherings at Missio Dei Church.

We’re calling this series, “Be the Church” - the premise being that Church is not a building to congregate in or an event to attend. Church by it’s very definition is a people, who are set apart for the mission of God.

If you’re a Christian, then you’re a member of Jesus’ Church, therefore you’ve been pursued and reached by the mission of God and as a result you’ve joined Jesus on His mission to rescue this broken world.

The question then becomes, not are you on mission, but how good of a missionary are you?

If your life seems to lack missional intention and you are wondering why here is something to think about.

The more intimately acquainted with Jesus and His gospel you become, the more naturally His mission will flow from your life.

When I married my wife Andrea almost 15 years ago I had never watched a classic movie in my life, but a few short years into our marriage I had watched more Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart than I care to admit. Why? Because my wife loves classic movies, and because I love her I naturally began to enjoy the things she enjoys.

The same is true when it comes to missional living.

When Jesus is the love of your life, the things He’s passionate about (people, His creation, and His plan to rescue them) naturally become things you are passionate about too.

Therefore if you’re life lacks mission don’t start with the symptoms and attempt to fix it with more effort but go to the source and once again allow Jesus to capture your heart with His amazing love.

Here is a great article on this subject, by Acts 29 president Scott Thomas, that you might helpful