Don't tell people how to be "Radical for Jesus".

As many of you know, I am a church planter in a major metropolitan area of the country. In addition to that, I am attempting to spread the gospel in what many believe to be the most pagan and liberal area of North America. I am a part of the SBC and the North American Missions Board which simply means that I love the Jesus, the bible, evangelism and the autonomous church. I am also a part of the Acts 29 Network which means that I love the Gospel, Reformed Theology, Missional Philosophy and Church Planting.

That said, I often see things that I fear in American Evangelicalism and specifically within some of the tribes that I roll with. Here are some things to think about...

The movement of The New Calvinism, Reformed Christianity, Missional Living and anti-fundamentalism / attractionalism, has the temptation to lead people into a hyper-theology, unbalanced philosophy of ministry and too much cultural compromise in the name of "Godly Influence". All believers need to learn what it means to be content in the mission of Jesus throughout the mundane rhythms of life. We have to be careful to not fully define what it means to be "Radical for Jesus" or "Living on Mission" lest it become another rule for people to follow that brings no life and in the end births no joy. If we over explain the practical application of the mission of Jesus, we rob people of the beauty of hearing God's voice for themselves and utilizing their own unique gifts in the time, place and culture that the Lord Jesus has put them in.

What sparked this though was recently a good friend asked my thoughts on an article written by Anthony Bradley called: The New Legalism. You can read it here.

Study Through Acts 1:6-11

"Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

As I am looking into this part of Acts, I am confronted with my own confusion. Here is the reality; even when are sure that we know what God is doing, we could be way off. Here we are in Acts, Jesus is with his people after the resurrection and they are confident that he has come back to restore Israel as the military and political powerhouse of the world. This thought didn't come out of left field somewhere because you see it being done over and over again in the OT. However, although everything looked as if that was the case, they couldn't have been more wrong. That was not the plan at all.

So, now that we know what the plan is not, we have to figure what the plan actually is. Jesus tells his people 2 very important things here. These two things are the essence of the Christian mission. Often, we think of the mission of God is to be a sanctified Holy people who are reverent and intimate with Christ. Although that is part of the Kingdom, that is not the mission. Here are the 2 things that Christ tells his people.

1. You will spread my message to the entire world.

2. I will be with you the entire time through God the Holy Spirit.

Note the purpose of Jesus sending God the Holy Spirit. Often times we think that the Holy Spirit is here for us and to do a mighty work in us. However, if we believe Acts 1, than we see that the Holy Spirit is not given to us for us at all. The Holy Spirit is given to us for the world. The purpose of Jesus sending us the Holy Spirit is so that God will spread his Gospel through his people.

The primary way that Jesus equipped his people was the promise of the Holy Spirit. The result of the Holy Spirit coming on them was propelling them into mission. If you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you are a christian missionary. No questions asked!!

Study Through Acts 1:1-5

As a believer and a pastor-to-be; I have been plagued with this question, "What makes you feel equipped to carry out Jesus' ministry on earth?" This is a big question, because your answer reveals a lot about yourself. If deep down you feel that you are equipped because you are gifted, smart, intelligent, or you have some other natural characteristic that has equipped you, than most likely you are driven from pride or arrogance that in the end will kill your personal ministry. Jesus is responsible for building his church, not our giftedness. I didn't always think this way, it probably wasn't until about 1 1/2 years ago that God began to put me around people who saw my gifts and realized that I relied on my own talents and not the Holy Spirit which is literally God inside us.

Lets dive into Acts 1:1-5 and learn more about this.

In what ways did Jesus prep and equip his apostles to continue his ministry and life on earth? The first thing to notice is that Christ was clear to go and wait for the Holy Spirit before beginning the process of carrying out the mission of God. This is vital to us today. How many pastors or Christians do we know today who have very little Holy Spirit power or authority when they speak or begin to carry out the mission of God. It is most necessary that we are spending time in prayer and solitude, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon us in order to continue Christ's ministry. Over the course of the last three years of Christs life, he walked, talked, taught, and modeled a Spirit filled life to the apostles. This was part of him prepping his people to carry out his mission.

So, if this text is true, we have to ask the question; "what is the significance of the fact that Jesus showed himself to the apostles and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive?" In the text we learn that Jesus presented himself alive to the apostles and many others after his sufferings and death. This is key to the Christian faith. Without the resurrection of Christ we do not have Christianity. Like Paul says, "if Christ did not rise from the dead, than there is no gospel (good news) because we are still stuck in our sin and have no atonement." Christ rose to claim victory over death, sin, and Satan. He then promises to send us the same Holy Spirit that rose him in order that we may one day rise in defeat of death. Christ showing himself alive builds our confidence in the fact that we serve a God who is alive and well and promises to never leave us or forsake us. In scripture, Christ promises that as we go to fulfill the mission of God, he will not only be with us as we go, but he has also gone ahead of us. We need to remember the resurrection as we engage people at work, on airplanes, in restaurants, as we preach, as we lead our families. Everything hinges on the resurrection.

Lets think through this thought together; How would the apostles ministry be affected by the fact that Jesus chose, commissioned, and instructed them? How will our lives be affected if we believe the same about ourselves? I cant even imagine what it would be like to have a moment with Christ like these apostles had. Can you imagine Christ showing up at your house and telling you that you are responsible for taking his message to your city and beyond? A real life encounter with the living Christ.....God, I want that. Imagine the confidence and brotherhood that these apostles would have had. Imagine the desire that they would have to carry out the mission with Christ. I couldn't think of anything that could stop them. Not sufferings, persecutions, not even death itself would have the power to get in the way of them carrying out the mission. Paul put it like this when thinking about his personal encounter and walk with Christ, "to live is Christ and to die is gain." These are the type of crazy things we say when we believe that we have encountered the living Messiah, Christ the Lord. I am begging God to have an encounter with him like this.

Purpose, Mission and Vision Statement

Last night I thought through this as I began to prep our business plan. Below is Netcast Church' s Purpose, Mission, and Vision Statement as well as our 3 strategies to fulfill our objectives.

By the grace of God, we will do whatever it takes to create a relevant church in Boston, that will empower us to transform a city and its culture, by seeing thousands of people who are far from God, filled with life in Christ.

We will do this in 3 ways:
1. Sunday Worship Experience (Intimacy w/ God)
2. Small Groups (Community with Believers)
3. Missional Living (Influence in the world)

Being on Mission "Fishers of Men"

I have been trying so hard lately to live a life on mission. The other day I posed the question to Beth, "What are we intentionally doing, in order for lost people to come to faith in Jesus?" I was really convicted of this the other day while listening to a sermon titled "Dwelling w/ Unbelievers" The point of the message was to share the importance of living intentionally missional lives. They asked the question, "where are you hanging out so that you are intentionally hanging out with unbelievers, in order to see the people far from God, filled with life in Christ?" They also, asked "Do you have influence w/ any unbelievers right now?" and Why are you afraid to chill w/ unbelievers?" Those are some tough questions?

Hanging around lost people is not very difficult for me because I work a secular job that puts me in touch with many different people, I play basketball at the YMCA 3 days a week, and my personality is one which engages people all of the time. The conviction came when I asked myself, "Am I utilizing these opportunities to see people far from Christ, draw near to Christ?" I need to start looking very careful everyday at how God wants to use me to be a missionary who is intentional about these things everywhere I go.

Matthew 4, Jesus says, I will make you fishers of men. Notice he didn't say hunters. Sometimes I want to be a hunter rather than a fisherman. A fisherman, throws out his line, and when he hooks something, slowly reels it in. A hunter, sees its target and shoots it. Jesus was a fisherman, he would throw his line out with compassion, love, truth, etc and when one would take the bate, he would be right there to guide them in. I at times can be a hunter where I see someone who is lost and want to kill them with the gospel rather than loving them and slowly walk them into this love story with Jesus. There is a huge difference.

Examples:

If you read back a few blogs ago, if I would have shot Starr w/ the gospel rather than having love and compassion on her situation, she would have been uninterested. But because I threw out a little Jesus, she bit the bate and my family is growing a close relationship with her and watching Jesus work in her life.

Last week, at the YMCA, one of the guys I play ball with was going to go in for surgery on his knee and it was his last day to play for 6 months. After we were done playing, I pulled him to the side, and just asked him if I could pray for his surgery. In a moment of shock that I would ask such a question, he accepted. So I prayed and was done. Afterwards, he looked at me and was amazed that someone would actually do that, he gave me a hug, (A man hug may I add, one that starts with a dap, then is brought in like dudes do after scoring a touchdown). He looked at me and said with as much sincerely I have ever seen from him, "Thank You". That was missional. I didn't tell him about his sin, or hell, or outside of a relationship w/ Jesus , you have no business coming to the throne of the Father in prayer. Instead, I loved him like Jesus would have if he were here.

I (we) need to live missional, we need to love like Jesus did. We need to surround ourselves with lost people like Jesus and show them what it looks like to follow Christ and not be religious fundamentals., like the ones who nailed Jesus to the cross.