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When Faith & Love Converge, There is Hope

Getting ready for the final message in our No Perfect People Allowed Series - the message is titled: Creating a Culture of Hope and Healing. I was led to 1 Corinthians 13 - the love chapter. As I was reading, I caught myself wondering why I was wasting time reading the "love" chapter when I should be preparing for a message on "hope." Then it hit me...

1 Corinthians 13:13 (the last verse of the great love chapter) "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Our world needs hope. And where is hope found?

Answer: Where faith and love converge.

Where do faith and love converge?

Answer: The Church (Or, at least, they're supposed to)...

Why are not more people discovering hope through the community of the church? Perhaps it's because there's a lack of either faith or love. Faith forms the foundation for hope, yet hope is experienced in love. Love for God, love for one another. If faith is absent, how far can hope reach? Without faith, there is no hope at all. If love is absent, perhaps the only hope that remains is the hope of being loved. And that's what we were created for: to love and to be loved.

So, this is the hope of the church - where faith and love converge through the Body of Christ, as we re-present Jesus as His church, people find and experience hope.

Saved by Grace; Judged by Works

We're heading into week 3 of a 6-week series called The Hole in Our Gospel. The series is based off of a book by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision US. Of course, the series is actually based on Scripture ... some of the most challenging passages of Scripture in our Bible.

Many of these Scriptures, like Matthew 7 and Matthew 25, are challenging not because they're difficult to understand, but because of how easy they are to understand. In Matthew 25, for instance, Jesus tells the "Parable of the Sheep and the Goats." In this parable, which is more of a snap shot of the final judgement than anything else, Jesus separates the sheep and the goats - sheep and goats being metaphors for the righteous and the wicked. On one hand, the righteous "sheep" are set to Jesus' right, and invited to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Likewise, the wicked "goats" are set to Jesus' left and damned to an eternity separated from God and tormented in hell. Miserable thought.

Clearly, upon reading Jesus words in Matthew 25, the criterion for dividing the sheep and the goats is not that the sheep have confessed faith and belief in Christ while the goats have not, but that the sheep acted in loving and tangible ways toward the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned and the weak, while the goats did not.

The troubling take-a-way from this passage, and from passages like Matthew 7 and Revelation 20, is that the goats were not rejected by Christ because of the evil things they had done, but because of the good they did not do. And that's troubling. Which brings me to address a great concern: Where's the security of our salvation in that? Certainly there must be, because Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 2:8-9 are just a few of the passages of Scripture that make it abundantly clear that our salvation is not based on works, but on the grace of God alone.

After Sunday's message, I was asked by someone if I thought that someone making a decision to follow Christ on their deathbed would be accepted in to heaven. The question was asked because, clearly, every time the final judgement is spoken of in the New Testament, we are judged by our walk, not our talk. Saved by grace, judged by works. So what if someone gets on their mark while on their deathbed, and has no time to do the good things that we are called, according to Ephesians 2:10, to do? Is it too late for them?

I remember the thief on the cross next to Jesus. Luke 23:42-43 records these words: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'" Surely, if Jesus will take in a thief on his cross, he will take in anyone who genuinely calls upon him, no matter what the time or circumstance. Perhaps the key here is, genuinely...

Ephesians 2:8-10 says that we are saved by grace, through faith, in order to do good works. Surely Jesus didn't die simply to save us from our sin. He died to give us new life. He died as an open invitation to join Him in His Kingdom work, right here, right now. Certainly, the tangible results of a genuine faith in Christ is that we do the things He has called us to do. Surely, Matthew 25 and other Scriptures like it suggest not that salvation is attained by works, but that an authentic and genuine commitment to Christ must be accompanied by demonstrable evidence of a transformed life - a life engaged and surrendered to the will of Christ.

Philippians 2:12 tells us to "continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling." When is it that we're allowing Christ to use us most - when we are comfortable and collected, or when we are working out our salvation with a healthy fear of God - struggling to make sense of our calling, His calling, and what we are here on this earth to do? It appears we've not wrestled with verses like these enough, because it appears we've not fully invested our lives, our talents, our treasures, to reach the lost, minister to the hurting, take hope and healing to the sick and poor and needy and oppressed. It appears we're not doing enough to reach the unchurched, the spiritually restless, those without the Hope of Salvation that we celebrate every week within the four walls of what we call "church".

Maybe, if we really payed closer attention to what Jesus said, and stopped wasting time with theological murmurings, we'd find ourselves closer to the God of the universe, more on track with the Savior and Hope that is Jesus, and closer to completing the final work He's called us all to be a part of - reaching every lost man, woman and child on the planet with the message and hope of the Gospel that is Jesus.

Let's get on that, shall we...

The 5 Agreements

This past Sunday, we had the incredible honor of hosting Lee Powell, Pastor of CedarCreek.TV. For the past several years, CedarCreek has been listed by Outreach Magazine as one of the top 100 fastest growing and largest churches in America.

When Rock City was no more than an idea, CedarCreek came along side of us and our team. They believed in us and in the vision of Rock City Church while still in its infancy. They've become a true and trusted friend. They've supported us, mentored us, and continue to stand beside us as we navigate our way from launch to a healthy and growing church.

On Sunday, Lee shared with us 5 Agreements that have, over the years, helped to guide them and keep them on course. I think they are worth mentioning here. The commentary after each Agreement is my own.

First, We Agree that the cause of the church is our greatest cause on planet earth. If you believe this, it changes everything. It only takes a few to ignite a movement. A few who are willing to sacrifice, to serve and commit themselves wholly to the cause of Christ, to faithfully support the mission of the local church... If it's the greatest cause on planet earth, what are you waiting for? What's our cause, you ask? Taking the message and hope of Jesus to the lost, the hurting and the oppressed in our cities and around the world. That's it.

Second, We Agree to do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ. We're not bound by some rigid set of rules or tradition. The Message never changes, but the method by which the Message is delivered has to change in order to reach an ever-changing culture. What exactly does this look like? Watch Rock City, and you'll see.

Third, We Agree that the church can never get to big. What does big mean? Why focus on numbers? Well, for starters, there's an entire book in the Bible called "Numbers." And God uses numbers over and over in scripture. Pertaining to the early church, read Acts 2:41. Three thousand people were added to the church that day. Someone must have been counting. Someone must have been measuring that kind of growth. Numbers are a good indication of health. If we believe the church is the greatest cause on planet earth, and we're telling people about Jesus, the church grows. It has to. Healthy organizations, healthy churches grow.

Fourth, We Agree to be an example of Jesus' love behind and beyond the walls of our church. Simply put, we're not inward focused. At least, not totally. If our heart breaks for what breaks God's heart, we won't stay confined to our four walls. We'll be in our communities, in our cities, making a difference. Our hands and feet, our dollars, our work will be on foreign soil as in our own backyards. People are people. And people matter to God. And where there are people, there is the mission of the church.

Fifth, We Agree to do more with less. Nobody wants to throw money away. Nobody invests in something that isn't producing results. We are committed to being financially frugal, to make every dollar stretch. To do more with less.

Thanks Lee, for casting that vision for us.

The Hole in Holiness

Kevin DeYoung, pastor of a church in East Lansing Michigan, wrote an article that I thought was worth sharing...

FIVE REASONS WHY YOUNG CHRISTIANS OFTEN NEGLECT PERSONAL HOLINESS by Kevin DeYoung

I have a growing concern that younger evangelicals do not take seriously the Bible’s call to personal holiness. We are too at peace with worldliness in our homes, too at ease with sin in our lives, too content with spiritual immaturity in our churches.

God’s mission in the world is to save a people and sanctify his people. Christ died “that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor. 5:15) We were chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Eph. 1:4) Christ “loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her…so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:25-27) Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14)

J.C. Ryle, the Bishop of Liverpool from the nineteenth century, was right: “We must be holy, because this is one grand end and purpose for which Christ came into the world…Jesus is a complete Savior. He does not merely take away the guilt of a believer’s sin, He does more—He breaks its power (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 12:10).” My fear is that as we rightly celebrate, and in some quarters rediscover, all that Christ saved us from, we will give little thought and make little effort concerning all that Christ saved us to.

The pursuit of holiness does not occupy the place in our hearts that it should. There are several reasons for the relative neglect of personal holiness.

1) It was too common in the past to equate holiness with abstaining from a few taboo practices like drinking, smoking, and dancing. In a previous generation, godliness meant you didn’t do these things. Younger generations have little patience for these sorts of rules. They either don’t agree with the rules, or they figure they’ve got those bases covered so there’s not much else to worry about.

2) Related to the first reason is the fear that a passion for holiness makes you some kind of weird holdover from a bygone era. As soon as you talk about swearing or movies or music or modesty or sexual purity or self-control or just plain godliness, people get nervous that others will call them legalistic, or worse, a fundamentalist.

3) We live in a culture of cool, and to be cool means you differentiate yourself from others. That has often meant pushing the boundaries with language, with entertainment, with alcohol, and with fashion. Of course, holiness is much more than these things, but in an effort to be hip, many Christians have figured holiness has nothing to do with these things. They’ve willingly embraced Christian freedom, but they’ve not earnestly pursued Christian virtue.

4) Among more liberal Christians, a radical pursuit of holiness is often suspect because any talk of right and wrong behaviors feels judgmental and intolerant. If we are to be “without spot or blemish,” it necessitates we distinguish between what sort of attitudes, actions, and habits are pure and what sort are impure. This sort of sorting gets you in trouble with the pluralism police.

5) Among conservative Christians, there is sometimes the mistaken notion that if we are truly gospel-centered, we won’t talk about rules or imperatives or exhort Christians to moral exertion. To be sure, there is a rash of moralistic teaching out there, but sometimes we go to the other extreme and act as if the Bible shouldn’t advise our morals at all. We are so eager not to confuse indicatives and imperatives (a point I’ve made many times) that if we’re not careful, we’ll drop the imperatives altogether. We’ve been afraid of words like diligence, effort, and obedience. We’ve downplayed verses that call us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12) or command us to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1) or warn against even a hint of immorality among the saints (Eph. 5:3).

I find it telling that you can find plenty of young Christians today who are really excited about justice and serving in their communities. 

You can find Christians fired up about evangelism. You can find lots of Generation XYZ believers passionate about precise theology. Yes and amen to all that. But where are the Christians known for their zeal for holiness? Where is the corresponding passion for honoring Christ with Christlike obedience? We need more Christian leaders on our campuses, in our cities, in our seminaries who will say with Paul, “Look carefully then how you walk.” (Eph. 5:15)

When is the last time we took a verse like Ephesians 5:4—“Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving”—when is the last time we took a verse like this and even began to try to apply this to our conversation, our joking, our movies, our YouTube clips, our TV and commercial intake? The fact of the matter is if you read through the New Testament epistles, you will find very few explicit commands that tell us to evangelize and very few explicit commands that tell us to take care of the poor in our communities, but there are dozens and dozens of verses in the New Testament that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy (e.g., 1 Peter 1:13-16).

I do not wish to denigrate any of the other biblical emphases capturing the attention of younger evangelicals. But I believe God would have us be much more careful with our eyes, our ears, and our mouth. It’s not pietism, legalism, or fundamentalism to take holiness seriously. It’s the way of all those who have been called to a holy calling by a holy God.

New Inside Look at Rock City

Stories that Matter

As we celebrate the launch of Rock City, and people celebrate this church, I want to share with you just one story that is worth celebrating 1,000 more times over.

As I began reading through the hundreds of Connect Cards on Sunday night, one in particular caught my attention, and quite honestly, brought me to tears. I was overwhelmed at what I read. Overwhelmed at the power and love of God at work.

On the top of the card, under Prayer Requests, it read: "I wrote this before your service: I pray that I find God. I live in fear and worry and I want faith to guide me in the right direction. I haven't been to a church in over 15 years."

On the bottom of the card, under Questions/Comments, it read: "It was a blessing I came today. Awesome! I love it. A great experience. I can't wait to come back. Thank You."

To top it off, she made a first-time commitment to follow Jesus!

As I read that, I couldn't help but cry. That is the power of our God. And it was as if God so purposefully gave us that specific day's message just for this one. Jeremiah 29:11, Matthew 6:25-31, Proverbs 3:5-6, John 14:6 - all direct answers to this woman's prayers!

Here's the email I received on Monday evening:

"I heard about Rock City Church through a post card I received in the mail last Friday. I read it, put it back down on the counter, read it a few more times and told myself, 'This is it...I'm going to church.' Sunday morning came and I was lying in bed, looked at the clock and said, 'If you're going to go to church, then get up!' I don't know what it was but something was calling me to that post card.

I'm a fairly shy person and by me coming to church by myself was a big accomplishment. I wanted to thank you for making it such a great experience for me. I loved it. I was telling one of my friends about it and she wants to come with me on Sunday."

Thank you, you know who you are, for allowing me to share your story. This is why we do what we do. This is why we are here. This is what happens when people get on their mark with God - follow Jesus - and love people!

And this is just the beginning!!!

Life Giving Church

Once again I've encountered a life-giving Church.

How can you tell if you're in a life-giving church? Thanks for asking. You know you're in a life-giving church because a life-giving church gives life.

A life-giving church GIVES.

I've been fortunate to experience a few life-giving churches this past year and a half. And to be honest, before having experienced one, I wouldn't have believed they existed. After all, I've grown up in the church. I've worked in the church. And like most, I'm a bit jaded. Thank God, He has allowed me to not only experience a life-giving church, but be a part of a growing network of life-giving churches -

Churches that aren't in it for themselves. Churches that genuinely want to see us and others succeed. Churches that have secure leaders. Churches that genuinely love people. Church that give their resources away, for FREE. Churches that share. Churches that give life.

That network is ARC - The Association of Related Churches. I've met dozens of ARC church planters and ARC pastors, and still have not found one that was unwilling to lend a helping hand or give generously of their time and energy and resources.

This past weekend I took a team to benchmark iTown Church in Indianapolis. What a great church. What a great team. What a great leader they have.

Life-giving churches give. They are selfless. They aren't in it for themselves. They want to see you and me and others succeed. They serve rather than wait to be served.

God, please, continue to lead us in your way. Help us to be the kind of church that gives life. Help us to be the kind of church that genuinely loves and cares and gives. Help me to lead selflessly. Give me the courage and confidence to surround myself with better and stronger leaders than myself. May we know your life-giving Spirit. And may we be a church that gives life.

Rock City has a home, after 61 Days of Fasting...

Okay, so just in case you're wondering, it wasn't 61 days in a row. But it was 61 days nonetheless! Saturday night, as I was getting ready for bed and looking forward to waking up on Sunday morning for two reasons - ONE, I got to spend time with our launch team and meet several new faces - and TWO, I got to break a 21 day fast - Both were exciting - It hit me.

You know how God sometimes just pokes at you or whispers something so quietly in your ear but it hits you like a ton of bricks? Saturday night that kind of thing happened to me.

As I began to think about the 21 day fast that was ending, and the BIG announcement I was preparing to share the next morning, I was reminded of the last time I was led to fast, just a few years ago. That time it was a 40 day fast. And here's what I wrote down at the start of that monumental fast...

"In order for me to take you to a place you've never been before, you must first begin to do what you've never done before." -God

It wasn't like God showed up and spoke that to me in a loud voice, but I knew that's what He was saying - to me in particular. Looking back, I remember rounding the corner of day 41. I literally hadn't eaten ANY food for 40 days. I lived on juice and water. I lost 40 pounds. Physically it took a toll on my body. Spiritually, I'll be honest, I didn't really feel that much closer to God. I was a bit surprised. Nothing extraordinary happened. So I thought.

Having been far removed from that time in my life, I've often looked back and shared that that season of my life marked a significant milestone. Clearly, as that 40 day fast ended, circumstances and events took shape in my life that would, in less than a year's time, take me from a secure ministry position in a church I thought I'd live and die in, to a desert road experience that made absolutely no sense, to a hotel conference room on the night of January 1, 2010 gathering with a core group of people consecrating ourselves before God and to each other with a commitment to plant a church in Columbus, Ohio.

Clearly, God made good on His word. I did something I had never done before - fasted, 40 days nonetheless. And the result was that we were literally transported to exactly the place that God intended for us to be. Columbus, Ohio.

And sure, I'm making it sound so easy and simple. It wasn't really. Actually, it was painful. It hurt. We got a lot of sand in our teeth and our feet blistered from the long journey, but the result was the same. When God leads, it's not always easy. But He'll get you there. He'll get you to where He wants you. Whatever it takes!

What struck me Saturday night was that the same exact thing has resulted in this 21 day fast. I was astonished. We've been trying to secure a location to launch Rock City for months. Several plans had fallen through at the last minute. We were honestly beginning to feel a bit desperate. We had put in an offer to the AMC Lennox a month earlier and hadn't heard back. I'd followed up regularly, but the answer was always the same. There was no answer. Then, I think around the 18th day of our fast, we got the news. They had accepted our proposal. And on the 20th day, I was sitting in the middle of Theater 13 at the AMC Lennox, filming the video I've posted below.

This isn't to say there's some magic formula to fasting. It's a purely spiritual thing. But one thing I know is this, these last 61 days of fasting have produced a whole lot more than spiritual blessing in our lives. I can clearly see the how the hand of God has literally and physically moved us, not a day early and not a day late, right to the place where He can use us. For us, that's Columbus, Ohio. For Rock City Church, that's the AMC at Lennox Town Center, where we'll be launching on April 3, 2011!

Where's the Salt?

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus says, "You [we] are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

I was reading a book called The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by John Stott and was completely halted upon reading the following statement:

"When society does go bad, we Christians tend to throw up our hands in pious horror and reproach the non-Christian world; but should we not rather reproach ourselves? One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: Where is the salt?"

Take a minute and reflect on that.