I'm back

I didn't know it was possible to go a week without internet, and it wasn't at all my plan, but i did. My family just got back from our annual Oklahoma Christmas vacation to see other family. We had a blast.

Can I just say thank you Jesus for using broken people. Thank you. More sooner than later

Bible-Study, Texas Hold-Em, and Cigars

So I was talking to a church planter recently, and he shared with me that weekly, he does a Bible-Study, Texas Hold-Em, and Cigars with several guys, both believers and unbelievers. And as I began to think about this, I thought, you know, what is more Christ-like? If Jesus were living today, where would he be? Because I suspect He wouldn't be hanging out in our church buildings all the time.

This area church planter is not really concerned about pleasing religious people. His primary concern is reaching people who do not know Jesus. The Gospel is more important to him than pleasing his critics. And I think about Jesus, and I think about all of His critics...the religious people who said, "Jesus, how can you hang out with sinners? With drunkards? With tax-collectors?" They even called him a glutton and a drunkard, though we know Jesus was not, because He did sin. But He was not concerned by the comments of His critics. He was concerned with revealing Himself to people who needed Him.

I think this is a lot to think about. I think we, as Christ-followers, should look at the life-example of Jesus and allow Him to serve as our example. I think we need to look at our gifts, the passions God has blessed us with, and then ask ourselves, "How would Jesus live my life?" And we should begin to live this way, asking God to help show us how we can share His love with our world.

"Come to Us - Free Christmas Gift Wrapping" - I suspect we've lost our identity...

I'm looking forward to tomorrow - no Starbucks, just a lunch meeting with friends I get to learn from who are wiser than I, and an afternoon spent in some coffee shop getting some odd stuff done and writing my first Christmas letter.

So, on my home, I drive by this church. They have signs outside that say, "Free Christmas Gift Wrapping Saturday December 15."

I must preface this by saying there are different approaches to ministry, and God can use all for His glory, but I can't help but think there's a better way. I feel the western church is caught in a "come to us" mentality. We make it our goal to do everything we can to get people in our doors. And I'm not sure this should be our goal. As I read through scripture, I see a church in action, a church that realizes its calling is not to ask people to come to their buildings, to come to their services, but a church that realizes its calling to go to people, to serve people. At Jacob's Well, it is our goal to equip and mobilize believers to see themselves as missionaries where they are at and figure out what they may look like.

In our culture today, too many people have been burned by the church - they've had bad experiences and don't want to go through it again. It's a near impossibility these people will go to a church building, or anything church-related. So the church must recognize its calling to go to people.

Instead of asking people to come to us, to have their Christmas gifts wrapped by us, to come to our services, why not go to them? Can you imagine what it would be like, if instead of trying to get a few people from your church to volunteer to wrap gifts at a certain time on a Saturday afternoon, you mobilized the entire church to go out - to offer to wrap presents for their friends, others in their houses, apartments, and dorms - and when you do this, you have the opportunity to reach people who would never grace a church building with their presence.

We must, as a church, as followers of Jesus, realize our calling is to go - and go does not simply mean across the world - it means across the hall, the street, the city - it means to see yourself as a missionary where you are at and find ways to show the love of Jesus in tangible ways to friends and family and neighbors. This is what it means to go. I pray that the western church is recaptured by her mission to go. I pray God would use Jacob's Well as a catalyst for this type of movement in Minnesota.

The Golden Compass

I should begin this post by just saying I have not read the Golden Compass, nor the other books in the trilogy, but I do plan on seeing the movie when it comes out.

I want to encourage believers to wait a few minutes before jumping on the Anti-Golden Compass train. I know the author is a self-proclaimed atheist, and I also know that at the end of the 3rd book, the children kill God. I've heard the magistirium is supposed to represent the church. I've seen the groups on facebook calling believers to "not support the Golden Compass." I've heard the fuss. But let's think about this for a second.

Believers are called to engage the culture around them. The appropriate response to the movie the Golden Compass is NOT to "not support or watch it." Boycotting the Da Vinci Code was not the appropriate response when that movie came out either. As believers, we need to ask ourselves, "What good does it do to boycott these things and protest like we often do? Does it serve to advance the kingdom of God and let people know about Jesus?" Because advancing the kingdom of God and letting people know about the Gospel of Jesus should be our goal. If it is, boycotting is not the best way to go about this. We must be engaging the culture, watching these movies, reading this books, because we must know where people are coming from so we can then find ways to communicate the unchanging Gospel in a way the culture can understand and relate with.

This is nothing new. This is something ancient, just something I believe has been lost in the western church and simply needs to be rediscovered. Paul did this in Athens in Acts 17. He walked around the city, noticed their idols and gods, and found a way to communicate the unchanging Gospel in a a culture different from his own. He also showed he was familiar with the poets and philosophies of the culture of Athens by engaging in conversation with their stoics and philosophers, as well as quoting some of their owns texts.

Paul engaged the culture so he could communicate the Gospel in a way that connects with the culture. We are called to engage our culture in the same way. Movies and books such as the Da Vinci Code and the Golden Compass present believers with opportune times to engage culture and point people to Jesus. I pray God will raise up believers who recognize He has called them to this and instead of boycotting and protesting, rise to the occasion and engage people where they are at, pointing them to Jesus.

Captivated by Christmas Carols

I have been captivated by the lyrics of Christmas songs - not Jingle Bells and Deck the Halls - but Christmas songs about Jesus. The Christmas season is a happy time to spend with family, a time to be filled with joy, a time to remember what we are thankful for. And I know this may go without saying, but we must, must, must remember the real reason we celebrate.

I think I'll let the lyrics of these songs speak for themselves. The word Savior appears over and over and over again. Jesus didn't come down to earth 2,000 years ago to pat us all on the back and tell us how good we are and to keep it up. He came to save sinners. He came to save humankind from the mess we are in. He came to free those enslaved to sin, to transform them to slaves of righteousness. He came to free those consumed with self, to empower them to a life abandoned of self and consumed with Him. He came to restore communion with God that was broken. He came to redeem.

"Down in a lowly manger
Our humble Christ was born
And God sent us salvation,
That blessed Christmas morn" (Go Tell it on the Mountain)

"Long lay the world
In sin and error pining
Till He appeared
And the soul felt its worth" (O Holy Night)

"Silent night holy night
Son of God love's pure light
Radiant beams from the holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace" (Silent Night)

"Nails spear shall pierce Him thro'
The cross be borne for me for you
Hail hail the Word made flesh
The Babe the Son of Mary" (What Child is this?)

"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay;
Remember Christ, our Saviour,
Was born on Christmas day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy." (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)

"No more will sin and sorrow grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He'll come and make the blessings flow
Far as the curse was found,
Far as the curse was found,
Far as, far as the curse was found." (Joy to the World)

"O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in;
Be born in us today!" (Oh Little Town of Bethlehem)

Hark! the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful, all ye nations rise;
Join the triumph of the skies;
With angelic host proclaim
"Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Hark! the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of the virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see;
hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King"

Hail! the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail! the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth,
born to give them second birth
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King" (Hark the Herald Angels Sing)

Box seats in the snow

So yesterday, my roommate Ku comes in my room and says, "Nate, I have an extra box seat ticket to the Timberwolves game tonight. It's yours if you want it." And so last night I watched my first sporting event from a box seat with some bros from the house. Good times had by all.

And today, I woke up to see snow! And it's still coming, which means it's donut time for the Sebring. This truly is a blessing our brothers from the south can only envy.

So the weekend has got off to a fantastic beginning, and I trust it's only going to get sweeter. I am anxious and eager for our Sunday Gathering tomorrow morning. I believe God is going to move in some special ways. I'm excited to also get everyone back together for a few weeks before Christmas!

Snow is the show...

So this morning, I can't get the Christmas song sleigh ride out of my head... I've been up since 5:45 because I worked at 6:30. During the wee hours of the morning, I was singing, "Giddy up giddy up giddy up let's go. Let's look at the snow. We're riding in a wonderland of snow." And I exclaimed after thinking about it, "you can't rhyme snow with snow!" My co-worker insisted you could... It just made no sense...

So later on, another co-worker said, "I think it's show, not snow." And I said, '"Let's look at the show?' What show? What is the song talking about?" None of my co-workers, nor I, really knew.

About 10 minutes later I realized, the snow is the show! The wonderland of snow is the show!

It was a proud moment for me and my co-workers laughed at how excited I was about this epiphany. Point of the story... there's not really one...

Learning about community and our culture from Motion City Soundtrack

Last Saturday, I went to a rock show, suffered through a band called Metro Station, basked in the beautiful sounds of Anberlin, Mae, and was first exposed (I know, I know, I should've been exposed a long time ago) to Motion City Soundtrack.

And as people are screaming their lungs out all around me, with smiles on the faces to one of their favorite bands, I started asking, "What is it about rock that resonates so much with it's listeners."

I'm sure this is nothing new, but I think there's something we can learn from rock. I look at our culture today and I see this huge need for community, a need to belong to a cause, a desire to get rid of everything fake and insincere and be real, authentic. Look at rock. Why do people like it? Because it moves them, because it's about life when it sucks, life when it's awesome, love, hate, success, failure, heartbreak, spirituality, all these things. And at a show, you put a whole bunch of people in a room together to their favorite band and you have instant community, a group united because they identify with the songs - they see themselves and their experience in the music. An instant community of people is sharing this intimate moment together at the top of their lungs.

But I wonder if people realize the reason this rock n' roll experience is resonates with them is because they identify with the music, because they are experiencing this instant community for an hour and a half... because it is reflective of something going on deep within them ... a desire for community, a desire to belong.

I think this is reflective of our society. And as believers, there is a lot to be learned. As believers, we are called to take the Gospel to people, and to accompany the Gospel by meeting the needs of those we share it with - evangelism and action beautifully wed. And in our culture, to meet the needs of many is to meet that need of community and belonging everyone has tucked somewhere deep inside of them, whether they are unaware of that or not. People don't want masks, they don't want fake. They want real.

This is the reason the number one way people are coming to Jesus from our generation is through small group Bible study. People crave relationships, community, belonging. People need more than to be told the Gospel leads to life-transformation, they need to see it.

This is also the reason is so important to build relationships with those who don't yet believe and to share life with them. They need to see the Gospel in action.

So enough for now... I'm trying to blog a little bit several times a week to get my thoughts on paper and become a better write... it probably all sucks right now, but I'm hoping this discipline will help...

Fred Claus - Good Movie, Bad Theology

Thanksgiving was great for me. It was so nice to go home to Rochester and be with my family for a few days. On Friday we went to see Fred Claus, a new Christmas movie. It was a cute fun movie. Throw it in the category of all the Tim Allen Santa Claus movies and add Vince Vaughn and there you go, instant Christmas classic.

It was at this movie I found out everyone is a fundamentally good person. And I say, ya, this movie must be right. Jesus must have come to earth around Christmastime, not to save sinners, but to pat us all on the back and tell what good people we are all. The world doesn't really need a Savior, just a pat on the back to encourage us to do the good we're all capable of.

Well, as you and I both know, central to the Christian faith is the truth that humankind is not fundamentally good, but fundamentally flawed. This is the mess we find ourselves in. We have chosen not pursue the things of God, but instead to pursue our own selfish desires. And this is why the world is a mess - because we know no better. And while we may find in ourselves ambitions to do good things, we also find within ourselves ambitions to only look out for ourselves. And when we really think about it, we can remember some pretty bad things we have done, we have thought... since we have come into this world, we have been crying to our mamas and the world around us "feed me! look at me! take care of me!"... we do this because it is our nature.

God has a standard for people to be in communion with Him. That standard is perfection. God cannot look upon sin. And we are in sin, because we have chosen our way over His. This is the mess Jesus has come to save us from. This is why the world needs a Savior. Jesus came and took the punishment for our choosing our way over God's, and falling short of His standard of perfection. And this is why we celebrate Christmas. Because we are in a mess, and Jesus has saved us from ourselves. When we realize the mess we're in, that we deserve separation from God for choosing our way over His, but that Jesus came to save us from ourselves, taking the punishment we deserved, and then enabling us to live a life we could not live on our own... this is the reason we celebrate Christmas.

Fred Claus - funny good family film, bad theology. At the very end of the film, silent night is playing in the background. But the song replaced the lyric in the 2nd verse "Christ the Savior was born" with the last lyric in the 1st verse "sleep in heavenly peace." Because who needs a Savior when we are all fundamentally good people? ... you and I know different

Are we feeding our own self-righteousness?

So I recently picked up a copy of a Christian publication, and on the front page, I read

"Atheists are less likely to 'do good' survey concludes."

Immediately I wonder, what good does including this article in this publication do? What are Christ-followers to conclude from reading this? I can't help but conclude an article like this only serves to feed our self-righteousness... that feeling that says, "Ya, we're better than everyone else! We're right, you're wrong. Look! Look at this article! Take that atheists!"

Does this article help us reach those who need Jesus? Or does this only serve to pat us on the back because of our own righteousness, telling us what good Christians we are?

I'm reminded of the Ancient Hebrew scripture, the one Paul reminds us of in Romans when he quotes, "There is no one righteous, not even one." I'm reminded, atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, the list goes on, yes, even Christ-follower... we are all a mess, all in need of a Savior named Jesus, who came to redeem us and set things right, whose reason for coming was not to pat us on the back and tell us how good we each were, but was to save us from this mess we find ourselves in.