One of the biggest challenges followers of Jesus express on a constant basis is hearing God's voice. I can relate at times.
I cannot imagine the context and implications to passionate people of God who lived in the era of 400 years of God's silence. This was the period of history between the Old Testament and the emerging of John the Baptist in the New Testament.
Scholars have called this time when God did not speak to His people 'the echo of God'. Try as they may all that came back in response to their calls out to God was the sound of their own petitions. What replaced it was a sterile attempt to follow God's teachings or a flimsy hope that one day in the distant future God would 'show up'!
What was lost was the covering and protection of a loving, gracious, forgiving God whose sole aspiration was (and is) to restore broken relationships, heal broken people, reinstate His dream for His creation. The Old Testament reveals an active and involved God in His creation and people. When lost He directed, when disobedient He brought to our attention the self destructive inclination, when off the right path He called for a national turning around, when obstinate He disciplined, and when discouraged He reminded of His promises.
A far cry from the options we tend to default to! Religion that doesn't fulfill and idealism that doesn't bring resolution here and now. The Jesus Chronicles reveal another option. Jesus came that we might have life. He offers not a sterile teaching that with gut retching effort makes us 'o.k.' or a distance hope that doesn't address our present circumstances. But a presence that brings joy, peace, and place of rightness with him, others and ourselves.
With John the Baptist's emergence the Jesus Chronicles begin in the New Testament. His message was that God was taking action, His voice was once again fresh, that He was going go protect us, and our aspirations He placed in us can be realized.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Volunteer Effect
Dave Hall, PAOC Alberta District Office, wrote the following article on an @Midpark Church area of service. In 2005 Randy Johnson, Sheila Muirhead and myself committed ourselves to address the need to, a) provide a truly effective support system in the local church, b) train volunteers to rise to the level of competency, and c) enmesh the ministry into @Midpark's Mission Statement.
After meetings and presentations to the @Midpark leadership, plans got under way. Today under the leadership of Danell McSween, Jacqueline Mueller, Susan Tam and Derek Sheahan @Midpark's CareNet ministry has benefitted countless people both inside and outside the congregation. CarNet has also make inroads to a host of various organizations and community resources creating true partnerships.
Much thanks goes to a movement of volunteers of 50 plus who have engaged in a Missional Christianity.
By Dave Hall
As I meet with our District Credential Holders and go to the places they minister, I often hear some great ideas for ministry in local churches and their communities. After hearing some of these ideas, I have often thought, “I wish I’d heard of that when I was pastoring. That’s a great ministry plan!” Over the past 3 plus years of hearing about great ministries that our District churches and ministries are doing, I have decided to share some of them in our District Update as a regular feature. As you read them, you might just catch something that you can do in your sphere of God’s Kingdom. It may not be exactly what is being reported but you may begin to see something you had never thought of before. So in this regular feature, if a seed gets planted in your mind, my prayer is that it will grow to be a blessing wherever you minister.
In this first feature, here is an idea for providing care in the local Church and community. Derek Sheahan is on the Pastoral team at Midpark Christian Assembly in Calgary with Lee Primeau. Here is a brief description from Derek on “CareNet”…
CareNet
CareNet is a support ministry aimed at meeting practical and spiritual needs of people at Midpark and beyond. It is a network that links one person’s gifting to another’s need. In its most basic definition, CareNet facilitates CARE.
CareNet is a community of people who demonstrate compassion, caring and serving. There are two main roles -- the first is the practical response to and care of those in need. We commit to provide an unconditional caring response to the emotionally distraught, the struggling, the lonely, the shut-ins, the sick and the dying. The second is to establish partnerships with external resources to more efficiently and productively care for those in need.
As CareNet has grown, we have implemented different teams to accommodate the regular patterns of need we have seen. The teams are:
PrayerNet: they are the prayer chain team and also are the ones we call upon in church services if prayer is needed for individuals.
MMM-Midpark Meals Ministry: this team regularly meets to cook and stock our freezer so we can give food to families in need for all occasions.
Emergency Meals Team: this team is called if we have funerals or last minute food needs
Transportation Team: this team is called if people are needing rides to church, hospital, doctors, etc....
Moving Team: this team is called upon if someone in the community is moving and needs helpers or trucks.
Miscellaneous Team: this team covers all the rest of the requests from helping someone fix a household item, to donating furniture, to whatever comes our way...no need is rejected.
In addition to these teams, CareNet oversees our support groups which are now GriefShare, Divorce Care, Surviving the Holidays, Anger Management, Dealing with Depression, Caregivers of Alzheimer/Dementia, A Trusted Friend (a facilitators course), Financial Management. Benevolence, HomeStart, and OIL (operating in love) are also under our CareNet umbrella.
Not every need can be met in-house, and so CareNet has endeavored to partner with other ministries and resources outside our church. We have a vast array of resources that we can direct for individuals from counselors, to financial aid, to shelters, to medical assistance. No need is refused.
We believe CareNet represents what the church is already supposed to be doing... making an impact in people’s lives for the kingdom of God and His glory.
After meetings and presentations to the @Midpark leadership, plans got under way. Today under the leadership of Danell McSween, Jacqueline Mueller, Susan Tam and Derek Sheahan @Midpark's CareNet ministry has benefitted countless people both inside and outside the congregation. CarNet has also make inroads to a host of various organizations and community resources creating true partnerships.
Much thanks goes to a movement of volunteers of 50 plus who have engaged in a Missional Christianity.
By Dave Hall
As I meet with our District Credential Holders and go to the places they minister, I often hear some great ideas for ministry in local churches and their communities. After hearing some of these ideas, I have often thought, “I wish I’d heard of that when I was pastoring. That’s a great ministry plan!” Over the past 3 plus years of hearing about great ministries that our District churches and ministries are doing, I have decided to share some of them in our District Update as a regular feature. As you read them, you might just catch something that you can do in your sphere of God’s Kingdom. It may not be exactly what is being reported but you may begin to see something you had never thought of before. So in this regular feature, if a seed gets planted in your mind, my prayer is that it will grow to be a blessing wherever you minister.
In this first feature, here is an idea for providing care in the local Church and community. Derek Sheahan is on the Pastoral team at Midpark Christian Assembly in Calgary with Lee Primeau. Here is a brief description from Derek on “CareNet”…
CareNet
CareNet is a support ministry aimed at meeting practical and spiritual needs of people at Midpark and beyond. It is a network that links one person’s gifting to another’s need. In its most basic definition, CareNet facilitates CARE.
CareNet is a community of people who demonstrate compassion, caring and serving. There are two main roles -- the first is the practical response to and care of those in need. We commit to provide an unconditional caring response to the emotionally distraught, the struggling, the lonely, the shut-ins, the sick and the dying. The second is to establish partnerships with external resources to more efficiently and productively care for those in need.
As CareNet has grown, we have implemented different teams to accommodate the regular patterns of need we have seen. The teams are:
PrayerNet: they are the prayer chain team and also are the ones we call upon in church services if prayer is needed for individuals.
MMM-Midpark Meals Ministry: this team regularly meets to cook and stock our freezer so we can give food to families in need for all occasions.
Emergency Meals Team: this team is called if we have funerals or last minute food needs
Transportation Team: this team is called if people are needing rides to church, hospital, doctors, etc....
Moving Team: this team is called upon if someone in the community is moving and needs helpers or trucks.
Miscellaneous Team: this team covers all the rest of the requests from helping someone fix a household item, to donating furniture, to whatever comes our way...no need is rejected.
In addition to these teams, CareNet oversees our support groups which are now GriefShare, Divorce Care, Surviving the Holidays, Anger Management, Dealing with Depression, Caregivers of Alzheimer/Dementia, A Trusted Friend (a facilitators course), Financial Management. Benevolence, HomeStart, and OIL (operating in love) are also under our CareNet umbrella.
Not every need can be met in-house, and so CareNet has endeavored to partner with other ministries and resources outside our church. We have a vast array of resources that we can direct for individuals from counselors, to financial aid, to shelters, to medical assistance. No need is refused.
We believe CareNet represents what the church is already supposed to be doing... making an impact in people’s lives for the kingdom of God and His glory.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Do You 'latreia'?
The biblical foundation of the church has always been rooted in and best understood as a movement. Implied in the term 'movement' is action. As history shows terms begin to take on other meanings and tradition sets in re-defining the word.
For example the word 'worship' has taken on the idea of meeting in a building with a steeple to congregate and follow a liturgy. While each of these words and actions are not bad in themselves, nor should they necessarily be eliminated, they have defined how a follower of Jesus is to worship Him. Get up on Sunday morning, meet in a building, follow an order of service (another word that has historically been re-defined) and leave complete! Even the most feeble attempt to 'mess' with this concept is met with resistance, opposition, anger, and either a church battle or exodus of parishioners.
As someone has said, "Christians are like cement...thoroughly mixed and permanently set".
The danger of course is that for efficiency sake we pick up definitions, traditions, and habits 'on the fly'. There is just too much information coming our way to really explore 'high ideals'. This is especially true in our 21st century information explosion. In a sense we trust those who have dedicated their lives to areas of specialization to be accurate and competent in that specialized area. Every time I drive my car out of the shop after paying good money for it to be fixed I'm counting on the mechanic to have done the job right with the right parts. The principle applies across the board!
As we gloss over the Bible and read the word 'worship', hear the preaching on Sunday and hear the word 'worship', or are encouraged to 'worship' in a Sunday service (no matter the style of liturgy we enjoy) a picture and definition is summoned. The unfortunate thing about the word 'worship' is that it doesn't exactly fill out the total meaning what the Bible says.
Context matters! This goes equally true for the Bible. A Greek word that the New Testament uses is 'latreia' and is translated as 'worship' as are other Greek words that in their context have a broader meaning than what we understand as 'worship'.
'latreia' is better understood as service, submission, and work done for God. As Evangelicals we are married to the term 'worship'. As long as we are there must be a fleshing out of the term so that we can biblically worship God. In context we discover that worship is either private or corporate, is a matter of the heart not location, worship involves unity of believers, requires a profession of our faith, the self sacrificing of self to serve others, the giving of monetary means to others and causes.
The movement that Jesus initiated was a movement of service to others in all practical ways that would validate and affirm the value of each one of His creations. When the serving of others is replaced by the tradition of worship the movement ceases to be anything other than a religious expression of doctrine. From a biblical contextual perspective 'worship' is intentionally setting out to make ourselves available to the needs of others.
Mark 10:45 "The son of man did not come to be served but to serve and give himself up as a ransom."
Romans 12: 1-3 "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."
"Worship is the response of grateful and humble people to the living God where submission, sacrificial service, praise, profession, testimony and gratitude are freely expressed in innumerable ways. This is a much richer concept than mere corporate singing and praise once each week for 20 minutes - an event that could occur without any actual worship going on at all." Elmer Towns
Do you 'latreia'? Have you lately? READ; Worship God by Getting Up....Getting Out....Getting Going.
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