Obsessive Dysfunction

Hospice Gospel

Because I have grown up going to church, I have been through "Evangelism Trainings" "One Verse Methods" Been down the "Roman Road" out the ying yang it seems like.  And although I know the Lord has and does use these "methods" to see thousands come into personal relationship with Him, there is one thing that really rubs me the wrong way about the way I was raised to "evangelize"  The death question!!  You know what I am talking about.  The lead question of "If you were to die tonight, and standing before God...." Or sometimes much more detailed of "If you riding home, and were in a car wreck, and were mauled by a tiger, and vultures came and picked your body apart, and you were standing before God..."  Personally, I don't like this for two reasons.  1) You simply do not see Jesus spend a lot of time talking about it - Death. (Maybe 1 time to Nicodemus in the middle of the night)  He spent His time talking about the kingdom and the HERE and NOW!! "The Kingdom of Heaven is NEAR!!" and 2) It is just a weird way to approach strangers, no? "Hey what's your name?" "Bob" "Well, hey Bob even though I don't even know your last name or anything about you, I want to talk to you about your death experience!!" "Seriously!!" Plus, most of the people I am talking to are in fact NOT thinking about death or dying or things like that, and don't really want to be.  That is why I call it Hospice Gospel!!  Asking someone about their death would be a great question in hospice because they are probably thinking about it.  For those not in hospice, maybe their is a better lead question.  My problem is that it is so ingrained in my DNA, that it often becomes my default when sharing my faith.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the benefit of eternal life, and think it is AWESOME!! But I think the Life Jesus came to give us (John 10:10) begins when we begin a relationship with Him.  And I think it is time for that to get some props in our evangelism.

Prayer Tonight

Prayer ministry at CrossRoads was INCREDIBLE tonight!!  Man o Man, Jesus showed up in a huge way.  People were getting prayed for all over our auditorium.  It looked like a Spirit-Filled Prayer Hospital.  People getting prayed for for healing all over the place. 

We prayed for a girl with severe dibilitating headaches

We prayed for a guy with severe neck pains.

We prayed for our friends, Chris and Emily and their unborn child.  Click on their site to check out their situation. 

We prayed for a college student with back and hip pains. 

We prayed for a little boy with food allergies

Plus a few more.

Many were healed!! All were ministered to!!  A really cool part!  Many who came to be prayed for do not even attend our church!! Now that's Kingdom!!!!

Well Said

Can't think of anything to say today, so check out Cathy's blog post about our staff.  We tackled a pretty tough issue in staff meeting yesterday, and came out more clear and united.  Praise God!!  I praise God for the team that I am working with right now. (By the way, I just stole her picture from her blog.  Bad form, I know!

Things I have experienced lately that make my heart leap for joy...

Here are a few things I have seen or experienced lately that make a Student Minister leap for joy:

- While out to lunch with a friend, I saw a Life Group leader and a student out hanging out, eating lunch on their own initiative.  So GOOD to see leaders investing in students because it is their heart, not their duty!!

- Heard the testimony of another Life Group leader taking two of his middle school boys to a ladies house help her fix up the house.  Showing the heart of a servant, SO GOOD!!

- Heard this come out of a student's mouth, "So I was spending time with the Lord this morning, and I have a couple of questions."  Are you kidding me, this was not at camp, nor did anyone make him.  Once again, on his own accord, spending time with the Lord!!

- Watching a student lay his or her hands on another student and pray for deliverance, and freedom for that person.  Man, I love seeing students begin to see themselves as ministers!!

I am just trying to notice all the supernatural things the Lord is doing our midst.

Identifying your Pain

A few weeks ago, my wife, 2 yr. old son, and I went to a church in Spartanburg to hear Arthur Burke speak about sonship.  While he talked about many great things, one awesome thought that I have been chewing on the idea of "identifying your pain".  In other words, what thing in the world for some reason breaks your heart, and makes you angry, confused, sympathetic, all at the same time.  What injustice, or wrong of the world do you want to pour your time, money, and life into.  For Mr. Burke, he said it was criminal domestic violence.  He said it breaks his heart, and he wants to pour himself into it.  Well, my wife and I have been talking a ton about identifying our pain.  And both of us without a doubt know what our pain is.  Our pain is that we desire for and long for racial reconciliation.  (For us especially among black/white lines.)

Let me tell you to us what this does NOT mean:
- It does NOT mean claiming to be some great white hope and swooping in to the black community with an arrogant S on our chest, and saying "I'm white and I am the cure to all your problems!!" How arrogant is that!!
- It is also NOT sitting around and singing Kumbaya with a great big external smile, meanwhile on the inside thinking, "This is wierd, I don't want to be doing this, but Hey, at least we are united."

To me, this is what it does mean:
- It DOES mean my goal everyday is to seek out understanding and pursue communication, and to encourage both the black and white people I encounter to seek out understanding and have communication with people from different races.  All for the big goal of a sincere, authentic, Spirit of God heart change toward the other race.  This is done by intentional pursuit, open communication (NOT presribing to the God is colorblind theory), experiencing life together, and prayer.

Jesus prayed for unity in John 17:23, so I have no problem spending my time praying for it and pursuing it as well.

I am so pumped anytime I get a chance to scratch this, and when I find that other people/churches share in the same itch such as Jamey Johnson and Fellowship Memphis, it pumps me up even more.

You see the Lord has brought me to a place of having a passion for bringing His Kingdom like never before (more blogs on this later).  The big question I have been trying to ask myself as I encounter different situation is "Would "blank" exist in heaven?"  If the answer is no, then I feel like God has called us to do what we can to bring His Kingdom ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!!  Does racism exist in heaven? HECK NO!!  Okay then Lord, what would you have me to do to eradicate it from earth.

A Light House

Tonight, I shared my heart with our high school students.  I briefly talked about Matthew 5 which talks about being the light of the world.  I then began to talk about a concept that really defines the direction I feel like the Lord is leading our student ministry.  In the past, I feel like we have mainly been a house of light.  A place where people can come into our midst and see the light within our walls.  Now this is a good thing.  This light helps keep us accountable, encourages our fellow believer, and can really be effective.  But I think God is taking our ministry to a new place and a new season where we are not only a house of light, but transitioning into a lighthouse.  We as a ministry are going to turn our lights outward towards our community, school, and world.  Shining our light on the world in boldness.  The scripture talks about showing the light to the dark world, so they will see our good deeds, and praise our FATHER in heaven.  We long to be that light so that the Father in heaven will be praised.

I really feel like our ministry is heading in a direction in which God will use our students to truly influence and begin revival in their schools and world.  Our effectiveness of a ministry is not going to be based on what goes on inside our walls, but our effectiveness will be measured by how God moves through us outside our walls in our community and world.  We as a ministry are going to continue to intercede, seek the Lord, and trust He is really doing something in our city, and wants to use our students.