SonLife connects with God and the world around us through the Good News of Jesus,
growing a church family to impact others with the grace and truth of Jesus.
43.
The net day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Phillip, He said to him, “Follow
Me.” 44. Phillip, like Andrew and Peter
was from the town of Bethsaida. 45. Phillip found Nathanael and told him, “We
have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and about whom the prophets
also wrote---- Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph.” 46. Nazareth! Can anything good come there?
Nathanial asked. “Come and see” Phillip
said. John 1:43-46
As
I read this passage one of the thoughts that came to mind is that how we
connect with other people, is often a sign how we are connecting with Jesus and
who He is in our lives. Even though
Nathanial’s comment may be taken as a tongue in cheek, there is still validity
in the comment of “can anything good come from Nazareth?”
How often do we make those comments about such places like West Virginia or Arkansas. We often make comments that people from there
are backwoodish, their family tree is a straight stick and that they are
uneducated. Ma and Pa Kettle would be
the ideal picture of our sterotypes. As
much fun as we have with these type of jokes and often are made in good fun, but
there are other stereotypes that are more serious and are more dangerous. Whether it is a stereotype of unfriendly
family members/friends to nationalities/religious beliefs like Iraq or Afghanistan, we put ourselves on
alert, whether justifiable or not. We
tend to make them lesser than what they are or we elevate ourselves superior
then what we really are. Let’s explore the
three different ways we connect or disconnect with God and who Jesus is in our
lives and how these affect how we connect with other people
The
first way is more of a disconnection with Jesus, because we view Him as a liar
or a lunatic. Jesus is must be some guy
from a far off time where He was delusional and He drank His own
kool-aide. He was some random guy
wondering around Israel
claiming to be the Messiah and in all reality He had a mental illness and
should be committed to a mental institution.
He really believed that He was the Messiah and was willing to die for
His delusions.
Another idea to go
along with this is the idea that Jesus was nothing more than a liar. Jesus knew that He wasn’t the Messiah, but He
didn’t care and it was all about deceiving people into following Him. It was all about the deception and He had
such an ego and Savior complex that He made up that He was the actually
Messiah. He played into the idea that
the nation of Israel
was looking for the coming Messiah to set up the kingdom. He was willing to live this life so He could
gain the status and the stardom from the people. Both theories lead to the idea that this guy
named Jesus died a pointless and meaningless death and He never came back from
the dead. To wrap this idea up is that
since Jesus is not alive, His followers were delusional enough to create
stories that Jesus did come back from the dead and they continued the lies that
Jesus started. So why believe in or put
your trust in someone who is dead and had followers who kept the lies
going. Jesus at best is some historical
figure who lived in first century Israel and now is dead. With this idea, someone would discount Jesus
and Christianity along with viewing them as either liars, naive, or even
delusional. So why would we even connect
with someone who believes this and they connect to some other faith.
Another way we
connect with Jesus is that our relationship with Him ranges from either a good
teacher to He is my homeboy. This view
is that Jesus was a good teacher and that He was sent from God. More or less that Jesus is a prophet sent
from God to reveal something to us about God and how we should live. But being God’s Son and the whole death and
resurrection thing is out of the question.
Jesus was just a prophet and a good moral teacher, nothing more, and
nothing less. This idea puts him on the
same level as Buddha, or Gandhi. They
are all equally human and they are someone that we can learn from and aspire to
be. In essence they are just good
teachers. The other end of this spectrum
is that Jesus is our homeboy. We believe
that Jesus is God and that He did die for our sins and came back from the
dead. Jesus is more of a person to meet
our needs and be our best friend. This
form of Christianity is really a self centered Christianity where I will follow
Jesus and His rules as long as my needs are being met and that He gets me into
heaven. To put it in monopoly terms,
Jesus is my get out of hell card or fire insurance. If you are a movie/comic book fan, this form
of Jesus is Tony Stark. For those of you
who don’t know, Tony Stark is Iron Man, and even though he has his enemies,
most people want to be his friend because of his confidence, money and he can
save the day. This view of Jesus is that
all Jesus needs to do is to be my friend, with all the warm and fuzzies and His
sole purpose is to keep me safe and comfortable, I will follow Him. How we relate to people through this idea is
that as long as we follow the Golden Rule and to treat people the way you want
to be treated. The downfall of this is
that without pushing them to have a deeper relationship each other and with God,
our relationships with each other and God will never grow and we will become
stagnant.
The third way is
that we make Jesus the Lord of our lives.
Not only do we believe who He is, but He calls us to a deeper walk with
Him and each other. God’s will for our
lives is the center of our being and who we are. It is loving Him with everything we have and
loving our neighbor as ourselves. It is
not sitting in some room locked away hoping to grow and staying away from the
world, but it is letting God change us so that we can change the world. Its not about what God can do for me, or even
what I can do for God, but it is partnering with God and what He is doing. It is allowing His Lordship to permeate
everything we do and change who we are.
I think that when we take this Lordship of Christ for real in our
personal lives and the life of this church, it will radically change
everything. How can Son Life be like
Phillip and say, come with me because I have found the Messiah.
The first one is
that as a church, there needs to be intentional discipleship, no matter if you
one or one hundred, it is learning how to be God’s vessel in a broken
world. Discipleship is more than just
attending church, reading my Bible, or reading the latest Joyce Myers
book. Discipleship is more than learning
facts about Jesus, or Bible characters, or how long it should of taken the
Israelites to get from Egypt
to the Promise Land.
A lot of these facts can be very informative and help with
conversations, but here is the thing, if it doesn’t lead to maturity that
results in action, what’s the point of knowing it. True discipleship is not so much knowing
facts, but doing what we know to be true and continuing to learn more and put
that into practice. In essence, it is
growing up or maturing. This can be done
through prayer, our devotions, coming to church and putting it into
practice. It is also putting away things
that are a hindrance to our relationship with God and others. Just as a three piece suit would hinder a
marathon runner, there are things in our personal lives that also hinder
us. It is dealing with them and putting
them in their proper place.
Just as we want to
grow in our important earthly relationships, we should have the same desire for
our relationship with God. Rules are not in relationships so we can check
things off, but it is so we can set parameters in the relationships and have
healthy boundaries. Our relationship with God and others isn’t so much about
rules, but growing in our love for them and living in those boundaries. Just as we don’t want to make our spouse mad
because we love them so much, shouldn’t this be the same with God. It is growing up and giving God our
everything. When God says love our
enemies, He really means it, and its not a suggestion. It is following the guidance of the Holy
Spirit and not putting off what God is calling us to. True discipleship always leads to maturity,
and maturity leads to action. Our works
can not save us, but they are a response to what God has given us. When we think about discipleship we often
think of not doing things, whether it is drinking beer, gambling, gossip,
pornography, but here’s the thing, if we don’t replace it with something Godly,
something else will creep in and take its place that can be just as
destructive. I can not stress enough
that true discipleship is Christian maturity.
It is putting into practice what we know about God and what He is
calling us to do. Christian maturity
means we do things differently, whether its dating, raising our kids,
interacting with coworkers, or dealing with people that you just don’t
like. It is loving God with everything
we have and loving others as ourselves and through these two commandments, we
do life. It is a daily process of
growing into who God has made us to be, which is not only holy, blameless and
mature, but we are sons and daughters of the most High God, and if that doesn’t
get you excited, you need your pulse checked
With discipleship
also comes community. As much as we try
sometimes, we can not do this Christian life by ourselves, not matter how hard
we try. The Apostle Paul shares with us
in I Corinthians that we are the body and the body has many parts. If a part of the body isn’t doing its job,
but body gets sick and becomes inefective.
Community is more than just coming to church on Sunday mornings and
going to small groups on Sunday nights.
It is interacting with each other and pushing each other to grow. It’s not asking how someone is doing and
giving a response of everything is great.
So often we do this in our culture and not even think about it. If I were to venture a guess why we do this,
is because we do not want to do the hard work that requires us to be in
community. Do we really want to tell other people that our marriage is on the
rocks, or that I might be struggling with an addiction issue? Not only do we not want to share these types
of things, but we often think that I can make it better all by myself, I just
have to pray harder. Or when the church
is taking prayer request, it is easy to give a praise or pray for someone else
and their sickness, but it is never easy to ask for payer with our struggles. It’s probably because we feel like we will be
judged and that people will look less at us and maybe even gossip about
us. Its more than do we care enough to
share, but do we care enough to do something about it. Community requires trust and honesty, no
matter how brutal it is sometimes. It also
requires forgiveness, understanding, communication, and listening. Community does not mean we all agree the same
thing on the same issues. It is ok that
someone likes the Packers or Cowboys, or dislikes the music of Prince. We have to be willing to listen to, disagree,
console, pray with and pray for people without calling them poopy heads. It is also challenging each other to grow and
calling each other out with God’s grace and love on certain issues. If you know someone has an addiction, it is
coming around them to not only to confront them out of love, but being there
through the recovery process, know matter how messy it gets. If a church always gets along and never gets
into fights, or is always fighting there is something wrong. Christian community starts with the Apostles
Creed uniting in what we essentially believe and with the non essentials, we
give grace and latitude.
The third thing
that I think SonLIfe is called to is outreach or evangelism. There is the idea of personal evangelism in
the areas of friends, family and work, but there is also this idea of how can
the church reach out to the Wrenshall community. So here is my question for you all. If for some reason SonLife would drop off the
face of the earth and no longer be around, would the Wrenshall community know
the church is gone? In essence, what
kind of impact is SonLife having on this community? Are the actions of SonLife more inward or
outward focused? In order for the church
to survive there needs to be a healthy balance of both. How do you all see yourself engaging the
community around you? There can not be
true discipleship or community without outreach into the community that we
live. Knowing Wrenshall and graduating
from this very school, there is a great impact that this church can have on
this school and community.
One way this
church can get involved in this school is volunteering for different activities
and building those relationships. One
easy way is maybe contacting the school principle and seeing if there are opportunities
to volunteer. One way is to offer
tutoring to students who are struggling in school. Through tutoring, it’s providing way in for a
relationship with that student and that has endless possibilities. Or maybe helping chaperone a school event, to
helping a new teacher with classroom decoration or making copies. Or how about the church adopting a class,
preferably an elementary class and following them through their education. Whether its tutoring, providing things for
the classroom, chaperoning events, and willing to help pay for background
checks are all great ideas to get plugged in.
While I was in college, I had a husband and wife “adopt” me and a few of
my friends. We would go over to their
house a couple times a semester for a meal a great home cooked meal (because
college students are always looking for those) and even better
conversations. There are many great
memories there and I am still in contact with my adoptive parents.
There is also
providing needs to the members of not only this church community, but the
Wrenshall community. Most guys I know
like to do projects, whether it is building something or taking something
apart, it feels good to work with our hands.
Not only is it a great way to do something for someone else and connect
them with SonLife, but also take time during these projects to connect with the
people of the church. A lot of formative
memories and bonding experiences are formed , especially with guys. It can be a chance to invite people who are
loosely connected with the church to this project, and it allows the building
of relationships in a non threatening way.
It could lead to the opening of doors for a deeper and more meaningful
conversation. Another way to connect
with people is knowing families that have had a major life event and either
providing child care, meals, or even mowing lawns to help ease some of the
stress. One of my favorite things to do,
is sharing a meal with someone, especially if it’s a home cooked meal. The kitchen table is one of the most intimate
places in the house in my book. It shows
community, solidarity, and openness when a meal is shared around the kitchen
table. One of my favorite memories is
one day I stopped over at the Johnson’s to see Chad and Sarah. It got to be dinner time and I was invited to
eat with them and that meal was a lot of fun of the sharing back of forth.
So in closing,
here is my question to you SonLife, how do you see yourselves connecting with
God grace and the world around us with the good news of Jesus? How and who we see Jesus as, is how we are
going to connect with our world and here is a reminder, He is Lord of All
irregardless of what we think. So when
we make Him the Lord of our Life, not only can we change the world, but even
maybe even light it on fire with the grace of God
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