Today after spending some time at a local elementary school with a second grader I’m mentoring, I had lunch with my friend Merv at Panera Bread. At least I thought he was my friend. My man let me sit through the whole meal and walk around the restaurant wearing my “Mr. Nathan” name tag from the school.
Next time I see him, he’s wearing it on his back.
And to think I voted for him for President.
This morning I was reading the apostle Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus, when I noticed something I hadn’t caught before. In Ephesians 3:20, he writes: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us….”
That line is often quoted about how God can “do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” But a lot of times it’s left at that. So we ask God to do big, miraculous things. We ask Him to bring a friend of ours to faith. We ask Him to provide for a financial need for someone. We ask Him to comfort someone who is hurting. And we believe that He can do these things, because He is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”
But this morning it hit me that the verse does not isolate that phrase. It continues, saying that God can do all these great things “according to his power that is at work within us.” This passage isn’t saying that God is sitting up in heaven being all powerful and dropping down these amazing answers to prayer. Instead, it says that He does “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” by pouring out His power into His people. His power isn’t some random force floating around the universe, occasionally materializing long enough to zap someone like lightning. Instead, His power is actually at work within His people.
That means that if I want Him to bring someone to faith, I shouldn’t just sit back and wait for God to do the work all by Himself. His power is in me, so I should model Christ and verbally share my faith. If I ask Him to provide for someone’s financial need, then rather than waiting for a check from heaven to appear in their mailbox, I should let His power at work within me cause my heart to be generous so that I give to help meet the need. If someone needs comforting, rather than just expecting a supernatural mending of the heart, I should be there for them and personally comfort them by God’s power at work within me.
This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t work without our help, because He often does. But this passage is not referring to those instances. It says that when I’m praying for God to do something greater than I could imagine possible, I need to expect Him to answer according to His power at work within me. I can’t be aloof and disobedient, but must be pliable and open to His grace coursing through me so that it pours out into the lives of those around me.
After the first session of the membership class at CrossWay on Sunday, where we talked about our core values and explored their biblical basis, one of the women who took the class stopped me before she left. She said, “Those were things I hoped we still believed!”
Yep, we still believe. Mennonite churches don’t exactly have a reputation for theological clarity and commitment to orthodoxy, but we’re working to overcome that at CrossWay. We worship Jesus and believe the Bible. The rest is details. (Important details, however, which is why we discuss them in the membership class!)
Laura Marie turned 9 months old yesterday. It’s hard to believe that next month she’ll hit double digits. (Okay, so it’s double digits in months, but still.)
At CrossWay yesterday we started a new series and also began our first membership class.
The series is a two-parter about the Book of Jonah. Yesterday we read the first two chapters and a couple verses from chapter 3. The subject was repentance, which essentially is making a U-turn. At some point we’re all traveling down our own road, and repentance is when we make a U-turn to get onto God’s road for us. We explored how Jonah ran away from God–he literally tried to run away from God by buying a ticket to the end of the known world. As you might expect, it didn’t go quite the way he anticipated… not even close! Once Jonah learned about running away from God and turning around to come back to Him, he learned firsthand about repentance and the universal need for God’s grace.
We’ll pick the series up next week and finish out the Book of Jonah.
After the worship service we shared a meal together. We had been doing this the first Sunday of every month, but due to various factors we missed January and February. I’ve missed it. It was great to sit around eating and talking with everyone again!
After lunch we held our first ever CrossWay membership class! According to the official church Constitution & By-Laws which we adopted last fall, none of us are actually members of the church. That can be kind of problematic. One of the requirements of membership is completion of the membership class, and since this is the first time it’s been offered, this graduating class will be the first official members of CrossWay!
The class is two parts. Yesterday we covered our mission, vision, values, and core beliefs. Lots of Bible study! Next week we’ll talk more specifically about membership and our particular congregation, such as our history and affiliations. Then anyone who would like to join will have the opportunity to sign the membership covenant.
There were 15 people at the class yesterday, which is a pretty good start. The class will probably be offered quarterly, depending on the need and interest.
When the local snow plows were scraping Route 50 here in West Ocean City, as usual they smashed up our church mailbox. I hope this is not becoming an annual tradition.
Anyway, when I looked at the warped, twisted mailbox, there was something strangely familiar about it. Finally I realized what it was. Compare below:
We wrapped up the series Celebrate & Serve on Sunday at CrossWay. We reviewed our mission, vision, values, goals and strategy. Then we brought it to a personal level and explained how each individual can personally be involved in helping the church achieve our goals for this year and work toward fulfilling the vision.
A quick summary of the Personal Next Steps:
(1) Community: Our goal is to have 75% of our regular attenders become participants in a community group. Personal Next Step: Try out a community group! And if you’re already in one, then get in the habit of inviting others to come check it out.
(2) Reverence: Our goal is to reach an average of 75 people in worship on Sunday mornings. Personal Next Step: Set a personal goal for attending and participating in worship. Rather than deciding each Saturday night whether or not you’ll go to church the next day, just make it a habit to go.
(3) Outreach: Our goal for this year is to invite 2,000 people to hear the gospel at CrossWay (see previous posts for more details). This is not the only thing we’re doing for outreach–and in fact it could be argued that this is more inreach than outreach, as it’s definitely more attractional* than missional**–but it’s a start. As a church we’ve not yet gotten in the habit of inviting people to worship with us, so developing that mindset is our first step. Personal Next Step: Make a list of 5 people you can invite to church. And then invite them!
(4) Service: Our goal for this year is to have 50% of our regular attenders using their God-given gifts to meet the needs of others. Personal Next Step: Get a job. In the marketplace, unemployment is usually involuntary. In the church, it’s all voluntary. To illustrate how easy it is to get involved and serve, we brought into the sanctuary a display of artwork made by three-year-olds at the Training Station Preschool. Each child shared a creative way that they help out at home. If three-year-olds can do it, certainly adults can!
(5) Spiritual Growth: Our goal for 2010 is to have 50% of our regular attenders reading the Bible and praying at least 5 days a week. Personal Next Step: Read the Bible and pray on your own each day. We gave everyone the tools they need to get started: We give away free Bibles, there’s a suggested daily reading guide in the worship bulletins, and we’ve already encouraged everyone to make a list of 5 people they can invite to church, so they’ve already got a prayer list. The important thing here is not to aim for some kind of long, deep devotional time, but simply to develop a daily habit.
That’s five Next Steps for one sermon! So we asked everyone to pick one of them to begin right away, and set the other four as goals for the year.
We read 1 Peter 2:4-6, which describes individual Christians as “living stones” that God uses to build His church. So at the end of the worship service, we invited people to make a commitment to help build the church by committing to these goals. We had five baskets up front, each one labeled with one of our core values. Everyone who wanted to make a commitment to the vision of CrossWay came up and took a stone from each basket and laid it at the foot of a cross at the front of the sanctuary, while the band played “For Such A Time As This.” It was pretty moving!
On Monday when I was in the sanctuary and saw all the stones at the foot of the cross, I was surprised by an emotional wave that came over me. It hit me how each one of those rocks represented a heartfelt commitment that someone made to Christ and to CrossWay, and that is simply awesome.
* attractional: Strategic efforts to draw people from the community to our church. The focus is on getting them to come to us.
** missional: Strategic efforts to go out into the community and reach people where they already are. The focus is on us going to to them.
Both attractional and missional outreach ministries are important to a church on mission to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It’s amazing how kids get it. We have so much to learn from them.
This morning when Ms. Grace was teaching the Bible story at the Training Station, she asked them what a miracle is. One little girl raised her hand and said, “Something only God can do.” That floored me. Adults write huge volumes and preach long sermons trying to explain what a miracle is, and usually leave people confused. And here’s this four-year-old girl nailing it right on the head in only five words!
When Ms. Grace was telling the story and mentioned Jesus, one little guy interjected, “God and Jesus are the same people!” I’m totally putting him in our preaching rotation.
Laura Marie has been out of the womb longer than she was in the womb. She’s growing up! She’s at a really, really fun age. What a blessing she is!
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