Spiritually Empowered- Embracing the gifts and the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

If I was the Holy Spirit, I might feel a little offended.  While Jesus gets a lot of credit (and deservedly so) for his coming to Earth, showing us how to live, and enabling us to live eternally through his death and God the Father gets a lot of credit for that small little thing of creating the heavens and the earth, the Holy Spirit can get lost in the mix.  Thankfully I am not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit’s worth is not in what we give, but in the Triune relationship, and in that relationship the Holy Spirit is of equal worth to the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God on the Earth for us.  Just as Jesus was a gift from the Triune God for Earth, so is the Holy Spirit the gift of the Triune God for Earth.  Yet while Jesus was limited to one particular location for a certain period of time, the Holy Spirit has been given freely and abundantly to all people at all times since the initial outpouring at Pentecost.  Thus, if our ministry is not spiritually empowered, it is not Christian. 

This church will be sensitive to the movement of the Holy Spirit in all areas of life and ministry.  This does not necessarily mean a speaking-in-tongues, slain by the Spirit sort of church, though if the Spirit moves in those vivid and expressive ways then we will be sensitive to them.  It has to do with more a posture of life and orientation of ourselves.  This church is a church that would lead, only after we have been lead by the Holy Spirit.  We will be intentional about providing about space and time for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our decisions and directions.

We are thus, under the authority Holy Spirit. We recognize that there are times when we might make a decision that may not be the “wisest” decision on paper, but through the confirmation of the Holy Spirit we follow that leading.  We recognize that the Holy Spirit is not just something that comes onto us, but that the Holy Spirit indwells us.  Some have said that there is a hole in our soul that only God can fill, and while that has become cliché, it is true.  We are whole when the Holy Spirit indwells inside of us. 

The Holy Spirit is an instrument of grace throughout our journey of discipleship, and it is the leading of the Holy Spirit that brings us closer to God.  So that, any true growth in discipleship is done from the inside-out.  It is the Holy Spirit who even before we have a relationship with Christ, lets us know that something is not right with the world and draws us to relationship with God.  When we accept Christ as Lord, we are filled with the Holy Spirit.  There is a movement within us, so that the more we surrender ourselves to God, the more the Holy Spirit fills us and leads us.  It is the Holy Spirit that guides us in both little decisions, what passage should I read in my devotion and the large decisions, should I move my family and take this new job. 

The Holy Spirit also empowers us with Spiritual Gifts that are given to all people for the purpose of the Body of Christ.  The Spiritual Gifts are not a “skill set,” but a gift given, and part of our discipleship is to learn how God gifted us, and we are then to serve out of that gift.  While there are ways we can strengthen our gifts, i.e. I can strengthen my gift of preaching by my studying of preaching, but I still must affirm it as a gift from God above all else, and thank God that He loves us enough to give us gifts, and especially thank Him because He gives us complimentary gifts to be used for His purposes in the world.  These are not gifts for us to use for ourselves as if it is a Christmas gift from our parents, but they are God’s gifts to the world and we have the opportunity to participate in the divine through these gifts.

The Holy Spirit is not that warm, fuzzy feeling, but it is that strangely warmed feeling that gives us confidence to act as children of God.  One of the traits of the Holy Spirit is the communion that the Spirit brings.  The Holy Spirit is not given to the pastor only, who discerns what is to be done alone, but the Holy Spirit most frequently works within many people bringing them together.  This church will be united by the unity-driven Holy Spirit.

Relationally Founded- Right relationships are the heart of our lives and ministry.

My former pastor, Steve Bredesen, found himself faced down on the floor one day while he was in seminary.  Now being face down on the floor is an awkward place to be.  It is a place of helplessness from a fall, or surrender because of the fall.  Steve was face down praying to God, and God gave him a word.  A word to build his ministry around, and that word was Relationship.

It should be no surprise that we begin with relationships because our God does not just act in relationships or is relationally-oriented.  Our God is relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Now admittedly , there is much that we do not understand about the Trinity, but what we can understand about the Trinity tells us much about the essential nature of right relationships.

Dr. Steve Seamands in his book Ministry in the Image of God talks about what we can learn from the relationship of the Trinity.  He outlines seven qualities of the Trinity that our foundational for our understanding of being in right relationships with one another: Relational Personhood, Joyful Intimacy, Glad Surrender, Complex Simplicity, Gracious Self-Acceptance, Mutual Indwelling, and Passionate Mission.   The Trinity exemplifies relationship for us.  The Trinity teaches us that we are made for relationships, and not just a Facebook friendship, but with an intimacy that is goes deeper than we are even aware of.  While we are still in individuals, we are individuals dependent on relationships.  God has created us for relationships.  Physiologically, we are created for relationships, and we are physiologically oriented to complete one another.

For us, right relationships must begin with God.  One time Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  ³ If we do not have a right relationship with God, all of our other relationships will be wrong.  Period.  Christ must be our foundation of relationship.  He is the one who teaches us what love is, instead of what the romantic comedies show us.  More importantly, He is the one whose very love, frees us to truly love.  A right relationship with God is the very core of our identity.  Our identity is shaped by the love of God.

Jesus continues his answer with this, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Dr. Mulholland, one of my seminary professors, says that the understanding of the statement, “And a second is like it” can be translated “another way to say the same thing is…”  Thus, our relationship with ourselves and others is an extension of our relationship with the Triune God.  So, we need to love our neighbors and ourselves.  We, Christians, often like talking about loving our neighbors well, but we do not spend as much time talking about loving ourselves, but the only way we can love others the way we are called to is if we love ourselves.  We must have right relationship with ourselves.  We are called to be balanced people, who embracing loving ourselves.  This is not an ego-boosting-kind-of-love, but it is a nourishment-of-the-soul-kind-of-love.  Loving ourselves frees us to better love others.  For example, one way I can love myself is by engaging in some sort of recreation especially sports related recreation.  When I engage in watching a football game with friends or driving balls on the range, my soul is replenished, and thus I am better for others.  It is easy to over-indulge yourself and saturate yourself with nourishment and become fat instead of fit in the faith.  Nevertheless, we must be in right relationship with ourselves to be the people that God has created us to be. 

Being in right relationship with our neighbors is essential.  As it has been often said, “No man is an island.”  Neither should there be a “lonely disciple.”  A disciple is one who has right relationships with those closest to them especially one’s family.  This, of course, can be a difficult thing because we have had more time to notice their brokenness and expose our brokenness.      However, the call to love our neighbor begins with the ones we share a roof with.

Our call to loving our neighbors continue with the neighbors we know and like.  This is probably the easiest relationship we have.  We share things in commons.  We have mutual friends, and we can maintain these friendships easy.  However, we must be intentional about showing God’s love to them in deeper and deeper ways.  Being in right relationships with others beckons us to love them enough to lovingly encourage one another to growth in Christ.  Our call is to love our neighbors enough that we invite each other into our homes. 

However being in right relationships must continue with love of our enemies, as Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?   ”If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”  (Matt. 5:46-47)  Christians must be in right relationships with those who have greater distance from us.  Being in right relationship with those who don’t love you begins with loving them and being God’s grace for them.  Also included in this is setting appropriate boundaries that does not enable brokenness of the other and also protects yourself from feeling entirely responsible for the relationship.  It is the sort of grace that knows when to say yes, when to say no, and humble enough to say I don’t know. 

Finally, we are called to be in right relationships with all those around the world.  Being a person in right relationships demands that we remember our connectedness to one another.  Being a Christian, necessitates that what happens halfway around the world effects us.  The 143 million orphans around the world are our brothers and sisters, and though all of us are not called to adopt, all of us are called to stand up and act justly and lovingly to our neighbors around the world.

Thus, we are made for relationships and our lives are lived out in relationships.  Relationships help to define us.  Relationships is the nature of the Triune God, and it is to be our nature as well.  No person is an island, and we have a great responsibility for one another.  In the television show Lost, Jack, one of the leaders, made a rallying speech in one of the first episodes that attempted to bind the variety of characters together, and his climatic word to them was “Live together, die alone.”  So it is with us.

Mission Statement: “Transforming the broken into whole-hearted disciples of Christ signified by our loves and lives.”

Brokenness defines us.  I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.  We are each defined to some extent by our brokenness.  We have all described people as “a little needy,” “conceited,” or “tends to be angry.”  Especially, we know our own brokenness.  Most of us know, to a variety of extents, of our brokenness, and if you don’t see any brokenness, then let me tell you one area of your brokenness is pride. 

Broken, however, is not worthless.  Our brokenness is worth dying for.  At least, that is what Jesus thought.  His death on a cross was our life on this Earth.  Christ through his life showed us how to live, and through his death enabled us to live.  So, we are all broken.  Our brokenness is us.  God loves us in the midst of our brokenness.  As it says in the well-quoted Romans 5:8, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”  However, God loves us too much to keep us there, as Paul exhorts us later in Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God– what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

So, we are not called to remain in our brokenness, but to move from brokenness through the process of transformation.  “Transforming” is a continual action.  We are to continue to be transformed from brokenness into wholeness.  Transformation is not a minor change, but a change in orientation.  We are be transformed from people who live in and out of our brokenness, to people who live in and out of Christ’s wholeness.  We move from being self-referenced beings to people who have the “mind of Christ,” whose orientation was not for his pleasure or gain, but instead whose very nature is cruciform love. 

Our discipleship is then living out the wholeness that Christ showed us how to live, and the Holy Spirit.  “Whole-hearted disciples of Christ” is then the goal of this community of faith.  Therefore, discipleship is the passion of this church.  We will orient ourselves to being on the journey of discipleship.  Being a disciple involves holiness of heart and life.  Being a disciple is not just doing good things, but it is having the heart of God that sacrificially chooses to minister all people (including self) to wholeness in Christ.  Discipleship is both an inward and outward dimensions.  It involves both loving family and stranger.  It is local and global.  It involves the big decisions and small decisions.  It happens on Sunday mornings and Thursday nights.  It is essential our whole lives being lived out of the relationship with our Triune God.

If we are disciples, then the world will notice.  I wish this statement wasn’t needed, but the bottom line is that if we are not distinguishable, then we are not disciples.  As disciples of Christ, we should be marked by our love and lives.  If there is an inward transformation of our heart, then there should be an outward result in our love of God, self, and others in our lives.  Too often, Christians are identified by what we are against or by our hypocrisy, instead of by our love. 

Southland Christian Church in Lexington, KY decided to end service 45 minutes early, one Sunday, so that instead of people meeting in a church, the people could be the church for the world.  One group of people decided to go to a hospital waiting room with food, drink, and love.  While they were there they were able to feed the hungry and comfort the needy.  At first, people were hesitant to receiving the love of a stranger through food or a shoulder, but soon enough they ate food and told their stories of a variety of brokenness that lead to them being at the hospitable.  When that group of people left the hospital, people applauded!  Better than that, one person asked why would someone do that for strangers, and someone in the room replied, “That’s just what Christians do.”   In the continual process of being transformed into whole-hearted disciples of Christ, people should notice that the way we live our lives is marked by our love.

This is where we begin.  We will move on to look at the core values of this particular church, and continue to dream about what God’s vision.

As my seminary career is getting closer to being finished, it is time for my self-instituted capstone project.  A blog series on the mission and core values of a church that I am called to lead.  Now, this is not just a project for me, but it is also an attempt to live out my recent calling to be a church planter in the United Methodist Church.  Heather and I are in conversations with my Annual Conference about planting a new church in the Oklahoma conference, and we covet your prayers for mutual discernment about where this call will lead.  I feel called to be part of a mother-daughter church plant.  My purpose of this blog series is just to flesh out some of these ideas and concepts in the blogging community.  It is also to be a place for potential mother-churches to understand my peculiar perspective on church ministry, and be a place for conversations with those congregations.  I will attempt to do one blog a week, until it is completed.  I hope you enjoy and feel free to comment as you feel lead.

• Mission: Transforming the broken into whole-hearted disciples of Christ signified by our loves and lives.

Core Values:

• Relationally Founded- Right relationships are the heart of our lives and ministry.
• Spiritually Empowered- Embracing the gifts and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
• Peculiar Grace- Sharing the immense grace of God through extravagant and creative means.
• Radical Hospitality- Going above and beyond to love others into the family of Christ.
• Intentional Discipleship- Growing in faith and love through intentional community.
• Authentic Worship- Seeking to glorify the Triune God through passionate, creative, and genuine expressions.
• Scripturally Grounded- understanding and engaging the transformative Word of God.
• Family Focused- Supporting and empowering the family no matter how unique as a basic unit of Christian discipleship.
• Missionally Orientated- constantly and actively loving our neighbors both near and far.

1 month ago today, my first son Micah Reilly Noah Tiger was born.  Needless to say, this month has been radically different from any other month of my life.  So, I thought that I would give you all somethings I have learned in my 1 month of parenthood.

1. I am a lot more selfish than I thought.  It has been an adjustment, as I understand a new level of sacrifice.  Micah depends on me to be attentive to him, and I don’t get the “me time” like I accustomed to.  I didn’t realize the depths of my selfishness, so I am thankful for Micah to show me this. 

2. I learned why they call babies, bundles of joy.  Micah just brings forth joy to all who meet him.  It is an incredible gift, and I love being around him.

3. I miss sleep.  I have seen 4 A.M. more in the past month than I think in my previous 25 years.

4. I am grateful for a community of both family and friends that have come around and supported us.  It was great having the grandparents up.  It was incredible having friends make dinner for us.  Truly, a village does raise a child, and I am thankful for having people around me.

5. It is tough to maintain your other identities when you are acting as father for such a period of time.  I forget to be husband and friend at times because of how dominating this relationship is.  I realized the other day that I had hardly related to my wife as my wife, and instead had been relating to her as Micah’s mom. 

6. Life takes longer with a baby.  It takes much longer to go places then it used to.

7. Micah is one strong baby.  He has already turned himself over multiple times.  He will be crawling before we know it.  He is an active baby, and he is going to enjoy his freedom as he gets older.  I think I will need to get in better shape.

8. Micah is one cute kid.

9. Parenting is a lot of trial and error.  He is crying.  Does a diaper change work?  Nope.  OK, let’s see if he wants to be rocked.  Nope.  Alright, lets see if he wants to be walked.  That’s it! 

10. Babies cry.  Sometimes for no foreseeable reason. 

11. I enjoy talking and singing to Micah.  He seems to enjoy it sometimes as well.

12.  Love grows each day.  I really do enjoy coming home more and more.

13.  I don’t know how single parents do it.  Heather and I operate so much better when we are together taking care of him.

14. People love pictures of babies.

15. Diaper changes aren’t as bad as I think they are.

16. Micah has grown so fast.  He is still little, but he is much bigger than he was when he first came out.

17.  I am thankful we didn’t have twins right now.  That would be overwhelming.

18. I am hopeful that we get into a “relative” routine.  I didn’t realize how important that was to me.

19. I am more grateful than ever to my parents for the effort and energy that they exerted during the first month of my life. 

20. I can’t wait to see what this next month will bring!  The grace of God flows through Micah daily, and I can’t wait to see the new mercies that God will bring through our little bundle of joy.

Micah Reilly Noah Tiger was born October 5, 2009 at 10:07 P.M. weighing 6 lbs. 14 ozs. and measuring 20 inches long. Heather gave birth via. C-Section and she is recovering nicely. He is a peaceful, beautiful baby, who is a bundle of joy. Enjoy the pcitures. More to come later! ]]> http://aarontiger.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/micah-reilly-noah-tiger/feed/ 0 aarontiger http://aarontiger.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/2009-fantasy-football-running-blog/ http://aarontiger.wordpress.com/2009/09/15/2009-fantasy-football-running-blog/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:47:23 +0000 aarontiger http://aarontiger.wordpress.com/?p=320 ]]>

Welcome to the 2^nd annual running draft blog for the Central States Football Association or as I like to call it the “Friends of Keith Cooper League.”  (Read the first one here.)  It is a ten-team keeper league, where we keep any four players for as long as we would like.

This draft has a little drama for me.  I am working at Saul Good tonight, and though I have talked to my bosses and communicated the critical nature of this fantasy football draft, if we get busy then I will have to be on auto-draft and hope I get some good players.  Let the running blog begin.

Thursday Sept. 3

5:00- Leave for Saul Good.  It normally takes about 20 minutes.  I want to get there early, so that I can get off in time for the draft.

5:12- Running into some traffic on my way to work, hopefully it is no big deal.

5:20- It is a big deal.  There are detouring us into some neighborhood, better call and say I might be late. 

5:25- Still in the neighborhood.  There are all sorts of cars going all directions, this does not look good.

5:30- I am officially late for work, and I have no clue where I am.  I feel like I am in one of those real life mazes with all sorts of dead-ends.  This is no fun.

5:33- Car in front of me is getting directions, only 4 turns I hear the lady tell him.  I’ll follow him. 

5:43-Finally, get out of the maze.  Awesome.  I’ve never been late to work, and on the day I am asking for a special occasion, I am 20 minutes late.

5:50- I’m at work.  Time to start rolling silverware.  The only chance I have to draft is to get that silverware rolled.

6:30- Not too busy in here, odds of making the draft 80%

7:30- Uh-oh getting full, and silverware is piling up, not a good sign.  50%

8:15- Place is clearing out.  This is what I normally don’t like to see, but today this makes me very happy.  Silverware here I come.

8:30- Just got the official word, I’m cut!  Draft chances 100%.  I just have to roll silverware, sweep, and a few other things before the draft at 9:15.

9:11- I’m finally logged in for the draft, made it with just a few minutes to spare.  I am blogging live from the Saul Good Bar.  Me, I’m drinking a coke.

9:13- As I mentioned earlier, we get to keep 4 players, I have Brady, Payton Manning, Chris Johnson, and Fitzgerald.  Yea, that’s right I have Brady and Manning.  The Rinky Dinks waived Brady last season, so I picked him up.  I’ll probably trade one of them at some point in time, but now it is just fun to have them both.

9:15- The draft begin!

9:15- Boom, all of our keepers are set.  Four rounds just like that, done.

9:15- Rinky Dinks have the first pick and go with Reggie Wayne.  Solid selection by the Boatmans. 

9:16- Two players I am hoping somehow fall to me Frank Gore or Calvin Johnson, we’ll see what happens.  I got the 8^th pick.

9:16- While most of the picks are solid, the first reach in the draft belongs to “the truth” who drafted Matt Ryan.  Very postmodern of our newest GM Eric to name a team “the truth” in all lowercase.  The Truth is he could have drafted Matt Ryan four rounds later.

9:18- I get my highest guy on my draft- Frank Gore- I’m pumped!!!!  Not only is he a great RB.  He is a great RB for my favorite team.  Hopefully my favorite team will actually play well this year.

9:20 Surprised the Tuff Tigers went with Wes Welker over Jason Witten, my dad loves to have Cowboys on the roster, and Witten is probably the most sure thing on the Cowboys roster.

9:22- 2 Antonio’s gone in a row.  I picked Bryant over Gates, though I think this equation is definitely not in my favorite Rivers>Leftwich/Prince/New O-Coordinator.

9:24- Alanstown Blues after drafting Calving Johnson and Ryan Grant says, “I guess this is going to be the players I like draft.” Beat me to it

9:25-Ochocinco succeed what he hoped to accomplish: being a topic of conversation, the truth “refuse to call him ochio cinco”  rinky dinks “you just did”  Gotta love fantasy football chat.

9:25- rinky dinks select Ryan Longwell for second place in the “never too early to draft a kicker club”.  the truth kept Jason Elam.

9:26- BUGEATERS- (still in all caps) select T.O. “there goes my locker room.”  Gotta love the imaginary fantasy football locker room. 

9:27- Apparently, we have got to the moody WRs portion of the draft with 2 out of 3 picks being  T.O. and Brandon Marshall.  The only 2 people on my do not draft list.

9:27- I just uncovered Alanstown Blues super-secret draft plan.  After keeping Brett Favre, he is drafting people connected to Favre.  For example, Ryan Grant used to receive handoffs from Brett Favre.  Now, Bernard Berrian is going to be catching passes from Brett Favre.

9:29- The draft is moving too fast for me, but I sure do love looking up and seeing college football on TV.  Even if it is South Carolina vs. NC State.

9:31- Blues take their time and goes with Owen Daniels, who used to play with Sage Rogenfels, who is now Favre’s backup.

9:34- I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I have no idea who Greg Camarillo is.

9:35- Beanie Wells picked by the BUGEATERS.  Love the pick.  Rookie RBs are worth the reach in our keeper League.

9:36- Blues draft Jay Cutler, who has been compared to (wait for it) Brett Favre!

9:38- Someone asked when I was going to draft Michael Crabtree, who is still holding out.  My response, “It won’t matter he’ll end up wanting first round fantasy football playing time.” 

9:40- Decided to draft Lance Moore.  If Brees throws for another 5000 yards, he is bound to have at least 800 of them.

9:41- Blues drafts Jerricho Cotchery, who used to catch passes from (wait for it) Brett Favre.

9:42- We have the “super-sleeper of the draft” or the “worse pick of the draft so-far”… Chase Coffman to “the truth.”  2 problems, 1. He is a rookie TE. 2. He plays for the Bengals.

9:43- BUGEATERS having a great draft.   Back to back great picks with Harvin and Moreno.  Remember this is a keeper league: potential matters.

9:47- I guess enough time has passed to start joking about Michael Jackson, as someone made a joke about Michael Jackson changing from black to white to blue.  I don’t know how to feel about that.

9:52- I had to go do some work, but I’m back, don’t think I missed much.

9:52- BUGEATERS select his mandatory Husker: Kicker Josh Brown.

9:53- Michael Crabtree just got drafted by the Parrotheads.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Actually, I know how I feel about this.  Are you kidding me Michael Crabtree?  You know how much you are worth, as much as someone will pay you.  Period.  They are not offering you an unfair contract.  Get over yourself.  This is the NFL if you play as good as you think you are, then you will get your money.  People will play a lot of money to have your smiling face associated with their product.  Some team will pay you a whole, whole lot to have you play even past your prime, and after you have destroyed 3 teams.  (See T.O.)  Plus, really you think that you will get MORE money by sitting out a year?  You have shown that you care more about yourself than a team.  You show that you don’t love football because you are willing to sit out a year, and by the way Dez Byrant is a better WR than you are, and the memory of your Texas TD catch will be largely forgotten.  Sign your contract and help the 49ers somewhere around week 10.  Thank you, back to the draft.

9:54- Jake Delhomme just got drafted.  Seriously, because nothing sounds like a solid fantasy backup like a guy who had 6 turnovers in his last game.  P.S. I’m posting this late, but Jake had a -9 for week 1.  Congratulations, if you had started me on your fantasy football team over Jake it would have been a great move.

9:57- Aaron’s annual reach for Vernon Davis is about to commence.  I drink the “this is going to be his breakout year” kool-aid every year.

9:57-Domenik Hixon just got drafted.  I like the pick under the Eli Manning is going to throw for 25 TDs and somebody will have to catch them theory.

10:00- Darrius Heyward-Bey just drafted by the Blues.  Keith tells me to go ahead and rip him.

10:01- Oh I will.  This breaks like 20 rules in fantasy football drafting.  Here is a few.  1. Never draft a Raider.  4.  Never draft a rookie WR to early.  7.  Never draft a guy whose best performance last year was at a combine.  15.  Be wary of guys with a hyphenated name.  20.  Do not draft a guy whose head coach breaks the jaw of an assistant coach. 

10:01- And Michael Vick is off the board by who else but the Rinky Dinks.

10:03- “We’re in the “dog days” of summer,” says the Rinky Dinks.

10:09- We are getting close to being done, and Saul Good has cleared out.  I didn’t miss out on a single customer because of the draft.  Which makes me feel less guilty.

10:14- Final round of the draft.  BUGEATERS select Plaxico Burress.  At least we know he will have a weapon this year.

10:15- I finally get my kicker, when you are supposed to: with your very last pick. 

10:16- Mr. Irrelevant is Brandon Pettigrew.  Glad he got drafted.  I think he will be a solid TE.

10:17- Gotta drive home, call my Dad on the way to reflect on the draft, and then spend a few minutes with my wife before I get some shut eye.

 The church thinks a lot of evangelism.  How do we reach the least and the lost?  How do we present Christ in a compelling way to unbelievers?  Evangelism is an exciting business.  Hopefully, we all have seen people whose life has been radically transformed by the good news of Jesus Christ.  We see them go from a nominal life to a joyful life.  There is the joy of the Lord within them.  This carries on for a while, but it seems like that many people move from that joyful life to a new nominalism that is masked as acceptable faith.  We may still go to church and read our Bible, but we don’t have that deep relationship.  Others of us may stop going to church except when culturally acceptable (holidays or to see someone perform).  Most critically, our inward relationship categorized by joy, love, and intimacy has become like a a old high school friend who we haven’t talked to in years, but we follow them on Twitter.  We know what is going on in their life, but we aren’t involved in their life. 

Today, true church growth is seen not in total numbers, but in new converts.  Don’t tell me how many new members you have, but tell me how many of those new members are new to faith.  We like transfers, but we love converts.  I think our intentionality in reaching those who are lost is tremendous and a definitive mission of the church.  If we do not continue to create new disciples of Jesus Christ, we are not fulfilling the mission of Jesus Christ. 

However, the church of today needs to be passionate about re-evangelism.  We need to be re-intentonal about opening the floodgates of God’s love for people who have lost or are losing the intimacy of relationship with Jesus Christ.  I guess my question is how do we do this?  Here are a few of my thoughts…

We confess our failure as a Church that we have not loved and empowered them to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.  Last Spring, I did an internship at a Hispanic worship service.  One evening at a worship service, a particular young woman who I had not seen before was asked to come forward to be prayed for.  She was pregnant, unmarried, and broken.  The Pastor asked the ladies in the congregation to come forward and pray for her.  Much of it wasn’t translated for us, nor did it need to be, but the pastor communicated the failure of the church that did not stay with this young lady through her tough time.  The church needs to be real that when we communicate that being a disciple consists of coming to worship and going to Sunday School every week, we fail them about what it means to follow Jesus. 

We need to remind people about why they fell in love with Jesus in the first place.  There is something about true grace and holiness that people yearn for.  We need to communicate sin and convey grace.  We need to embrace them as a community where they are, but at the same time remind them of the promise of joy and peace that is intimacy with Jesus.

We need to provide public experiential expressions of reaffirming and recommitting ourselves to Christ.  As United Methodist, we have two structures in place that are for that purpose: Wesley’s Covenant Service and Reaffirmation of Baptism.  However, we can’t just doing these as lifeless rituals, but we must provide baptismal joy that is accompanied with them.  These rituals can be both bodily and verbally expressive of the inward intent of the heart.  Creativity and passion is needed in these areas.

Re-evangelism is a great need for the church.  It is not about stealing members from another church, but it is about re-acquainting people with their Lord and Savior, and communicating and equipping people with tools to maintain a vital relationship that is based on intimacy.

So, my wife Heather and my friends Chris and Emily Burkhart are huge Harry Potter fans.  They’ve read the books, watched the movies multiple times, and can talk about the minuscule differences between the two.  So, there was no question that they were going to the Midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  Not being one to be left out, I decided to join in the fun and go to my 1st midnight movie.  Yes, Harry Potter is my 1st midnight movie, and I am 25.  I’m coming to terms with that. 

One of the reasons why this is my first midnight movie is that I am not very good after midnight, and I am especially not good watching movies after midnight.  In fact, when I can’t fall asleep at night, I will go to the living room and… watch a movie to fall asleep.  So, alas my confidence in my ability to stay awake was lacking.  Without further ado…

4:07- Lay down next to Heather for a long pre-movie nap.  If I am going to stay awake through the movies, then 2 1/2 hrs is a minimum. 

7:33- Wake up from nap, 3 1/2 hours pretty solid nap.  Long enough to give me a nap.

9:43- Heather and I prepare to go to the theatre.  Call our friends Chris and Emily Burkhart, who are a little ahead of us on the road with their brother Aaron. 

9:55- We arrived at the theatre, probably about 30 people in front of us about a dozen in costume.

10:00- Went to get lawn chairs from Chris’ car.  Nice to have some experienced midnighters in the group.

10:03- Best costume so far- Hagrid by far.  Big guy, huge beard and hair.  Other highlights, a Voldemort with a white swimming head-thing and white face paint, a couple Harry Potters though the only similarities would be the glasses and the scar, and some random brown bee-looking costume, not sure what it is.

10:10- Making a kroger run to pick up a deck of cards and some other “equipment” for the movie.  I normally don’t do this, but I really need some gummy worms to help me stay awake. 

10:13- Walk into Kroger and hear two teenager girls talking about how guys are “too stupid to say it first.”  We’re sorry, ladies.

10:16- Candle aisle is curiously full.  Deck of card choices: ec0-friendly, High School Musical, or creepy glow-in-the-dark.  Went with the creepy ones, they were the cheapest.

10:23- Arrived back at the movies with cards.  Place is filling up.

10:26- After I dealed out the first hand of 5 Card Draw, they let us in the theatre.  Awesome. 

10:30- After taking the chairs back to Chris’ car, we realize that they only opened up the first theatre, so we got to walk past a whole bunch of people in line.  One of the highlights so far, the envious glare of people as Chris and I stroll past them.

10:34- Quote from one of the High School girls behind us, “I left my wand in my purse.”

10:35- Curiously enough, their wands look like sticks, but what do I know.

10:36- Heather got to take a picture of Voldemort and Hermione together, smiling.  I can’t help but chant “Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort” very softly in honor of Jim from the Dinner Party episode of The Office.

10:42- Chris begins planting the seed of a costume contest in our theatre, me I’m hopefully.

10:47- First hints of tiredness hit me.  Must press through.

10:52- Figure out the weird bee costume is actually the golden snitch.  My friends are mad that they didn’t figure this out.  It took me a sec to remember what the golden snitch was. 

10:56- We are sitting right in front of a youth group that is all dressed up.  Voldemort is sitting right behind Heather.  This does not make me feel safe.  Voldemort has already cast the death spell on Chris multiple times. 

11:05- Make a run to the concession stand.  Pickle and cherry slush for the pregnant wife and a coke for me that I plan to drink throughout the movie.  Aaron needs his caffeine.

11:11- Apparently, I missed a heated discussion between Aaron, who teaches music, and some High School girls about the viability of Kelly Clarkson as an artist.  I don’t know whether to be sad or excited I miss this.  Nevertheless, they are still going at it.

11:12- Chris is refusing to lead a costume contest despite my urgings, but he is willing to drink the pickle juice.  Not an even trade, but entertaining.  I quote, “It’s not nearly as intense as you might think, though I can tell where I didn’t brush my teeth.”

11:13- Gotta love concession stand food.  Written on the pickle wrapper:  Net wt. 1 pickle.  Thanks a lot.

11:19- Chris and Emily are bragging to their friend in Indiana because her movie does not start till 12:06.  Yep, these are my friends.

11:24- Contemplating closing my eyes.  Heather is discouraging me, saying I won’t wake up well.  She’s probably right.

11:28- The conversation about Kelly Clarkson has moved to the Wonder Years.  Chris goes on a rant about Winnie playing with his heart, cheating on him, and so-on.  Jeremy, a seminary student from Oklahoma, who is sitting by us, says, “So, she was the normal High School Girl.”

11:30- 30 minutes left.  You can feel the buzz in the air.

11:32- Best “over-the-top” outfit, Guy who dressed up as a Hogwarts student has doctoral stripes on his robe.  Gotta love it.

11:35- The pre-movie stuff finally came on the screen.  We applauded, but alas this guarantees that there is no costume contest.

11:36- Just learned that Snoop Dog rapped “Ain’t Nothing but a G Thang” for the first time into a jail phone to Dr. Dre.  Anyone that surprised?

11:39- Voldemort and Hermione are very excited about some boy band on the screen.  I am not. 

11:43- Heather and Emily make the pre-movie bathroom trip.  Both are optimistic, they can make it through the movie.  I am not so optimistic for them.

11:48- Shirt of the day: Black shirt, 1 Word: Muggle.

11:50- Just learned this is The Empire Strikes Back of the Harry Potter Series.  If you have seen it you know what I mean.

11:52-Voldemort has just returned from what I am assuming with the bathroom, because she no longer has her Voldemort face on. 

11:56- You can feel the anticipation in the room.

11:58- Chris just got back from the men’s room.  Said he watched 4 grown men not wash their hands in the bathroom.  His theory is that because they came to the midnight showing of Harry Potter, they are attempting to gain their man card back by not washing their hands.  My theory they are lazy, dirty, and don’t want to miss the previews.

11:59- Chris just burped pickle juice.  Know what we can learn from this, if you would just lead a costume contest, then you wouldn’t have the sting of burping pickle juice.

12:00- The lights go off and the crowd goes wild.

I did not take any notes during the movie, but I will tell you this.  This was such a focused crowd.  Though they were fun pre-movie, once the lights went out.  Everybody was silent, looked forward, and was deeply involved in the story.  I did manage to stay awake throughout the movie.  My gummy worms, coke, and pre-movie nap were effective.  I ended up getting about 6 hours of sleep that night.  All-in-all, it was a good night.

I know I haven’t blogged in a while, but I have read, so I thought I would share with you some quotes that I have read recently that have pierced my heart, and while I am glad they did, when the Word speaks truth into your brokenness, it stings a while, as my heart gets molded into the child of God that I was created to be.  I hope they pierce you, like they have pierced me.  Without further ado…

“God’s ownership of everything also changes the king of question we ask in giving.  Rather than, “How much of my money should I give to God?” we learn to ask, “How much of God’s money should I keep for myself?”  The difference between these two questions is of monumental proportions.”  Richard J. Foster, The Challenge of the Disciplined Life: Christian Reflections on Money, Sex, and Power. p. 42

“Our cross is not that cantankerous person we have to deal with day by day.  Our cross is not that employer we just can’t get along with.  Our cross is not that neighbor or work colleague who cuts across the grain in every single time of relationship.  Nor is our cross the difficulties and infirmities that the flow of life brings to us beyond our control.  Our cross is the point of our unlikeness to the image of Christ, where we must die to self in order to be raised by God into wholeness of life in the image of Christ right there at that point.  So the process of being conformed to the image of Christ takes place at the points of our unlikeness to Christ, and the first step is confrontation.”  Dr. Robert Mullholand Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation, 38.

“As a fairly young Christian I thought of repentance for my sins in terms of being sorry for things I had done.  I was really, sincerely sorry, yet kept doing the same things over and over again.  You may have been there yourself.  Then I heard a wise teacher say, “Repentance is not being sorry for the things you have done, but being sorry you are the kind of person that does such things.”  Dr. Robert Mullholand, The Deeper Journey: The Spirituality of Discovering Your True Self, p. 23.