BECOMING– A New Vision for Grace Fellowship

Last Sunday, July 19, our staff rolled out a new vision which we believe God has given us for the days ahead at Grace Fellowship. Next Sunday when you arrive, you will see a huge banner on the south wall of the Worship Center, proclaiming the vision’s theme– BECOMING An Intentional Community of Christ’s Followers. The theme verse of scripture is Philippians 3:12 (LB) — “I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be.” In the coming months, we will be be challenged to become a people of vision, a people of prayer, a people of compassion, and a people of stewardship. In the coming weeks, I will be explaining these great themes in the Sunday morning worship lessons. Today, I offered the assertion that we cannot be a people of vision unless we are also a people of faith. “We walk by faith and not by sight,” Paul proclaims in 2 Corinthians 5:7. As Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed is he who has not seen, and yet has believed.”

I hope that as I share this very important series of messages, you will jump in on this blog to interact with what is proclaimed. You will enrich this preacher if you will offer that very important input. This Sunday, I will be talking about the benefits of “BECOMING” a people of vision. I hope you will be there to hear, and then to react on this blog. Have a blessed week!

Catch the Vision!!

This Sunday, July 19, our staff will be using the Sunday worship teaching time to roll out a new vision for Grace Fellowship. I will lead the way with a biblical interpretation of the theme, which will be revealed in the service. The Coordinating Council received this presentation this last Sunday, and we are excited about the new sense of direction that will result from some very needed adjustments in our programs and ministries. I hope you will be present. In the meantime, here is a clue: Consider the word “Becoming” and what might follow it in a sentence, and please pray intensely for this time. Our staff has prayed, planned, and poured ourselves into this proposal. We hope you will find it something you can enthusiastically support. Please try to be with us Sunday. If you have suggestions for how we can improve, your response to this blog is a great place to do it. IT’S YOUR TURN!

THE WAY– Pray

Sunday’s message on prayer is one that I would definitely appreciate some response to. Prayer, for all else that it is, includes a healthy dose of perspective. It is fashioned in large measure by the expectations that we bring to it– both realistic and unrealistic. Sunday we asserted that a person cannot consider him/herself a follower of “THE WAY” without living a life “devoted” to prayer– and we defined “devoted” as “spending a large part of your time doing it.” If I had to sum it all up in two words, they would be these– “relational” and “conversational”. Prayer is first and foremost a conversation with God that feeds our relationship to Him. I would also appreciate your comments on what I called “The Awareness Factor”– perceiving God’s presence in a room, even when you think you are alone. I hope your prayer life will be enriched this week– so make it a good one! And now “It’s your turn. . .”

“The Way”– What is the difference between a Christian and a Christ-follower?

I can’t tell you how many times I have read through, studied, and preached from the Book of Acts over the last 35 years! This one thing I know, however, I have never seen it as I am seeing it in this current teaching series. I don’t ever recall knowing of anyone who has focused on the references to “The Way” in this book, as a means of describing the life-pattern of the early Christians. It appears that the term “The Way” was used, not as a name, or a label, but as a description of how early Christ-followers behaved. No one called this group “The Way” in an attempt to describe a new religion or denomination. It wasn’t a name for a body at all. I call them Christ-followers, because the term “Christian” was not used until later at Antioch, and was apparently something of a derisive term which was best pronounced while looking down one’s nose. It is interesting to me that any newly-formed group of followers of Jesus Christ has to deal early-on with the charge that it is a cult. I suspect that this occurs, not over the charge of the teaching of heresy, but because its unbridled enthusiasm for its new identity is threatening to the status quo. I remember having to deal with this when we began Grace Fellowship in 2003. Someone in town was even heard to refer to our new church-start as “The Kenleyans”! I have learned that only faithful teaching over a period of years can effectively dispel such charges.

This coming Sunday, June 28, I will be sharing one of the most important teachings about the church that one can ever learn. It will be entitled (unless I change it before the end of the week) “THE WAY– Not Religion, But Relationship.” Read Peter’s sermon in Acts 4 and see if you can find the key verses to this thought. I hope to see you Sunday to expand on it. I would appreciate any comments you might have on this series. Have a blessed week!

THE WAY– An Introduction

Sunday’s message, taught by Kyle Black and myself was an introduction to our Summer Teaching Series on the Book of Acts. It is entitled, “THE WAY,” and provides us with the foundation for the church to do the work God has called us to. The focus in this introductory message was THE WAY as a means of referring to this early Christian movement. The focus was not on how they organized, but on how they proceeded in the task that Jesus had called them to.

Somewhere along the way, the modern, organized church has strayed from that path into a self-sustaining mode– doing not necessarily what it has been called to do, but what will sustain its organization.

This week, we would be interested in hearing from you. Have you found this to be true in the churches you have experienced in the past? Let us hear from you, because now IT’S YOUR TURN!

How To Hear God Speak (Part 2)

Jesus’ parable of the sower teaches us some important lessons about being receptive to the voice of God in our lives. In part one of this two-part lesson, we looked at the “seeds” in the parable that fell along the path. They could not take root because the ground was trampled and hard, so birds came and carried the seeds away. This was the picture of the mind closed to the voice of God.

This last Sunday, we continued to look at the various scenarios that Jesus set forth as attitudes necessary to hear God speak. He next told of seeds that fell on rock where only shallow soil covered it. This is the portrait of a superficial mind– the mind that responds the the Spirit in a shallow, superficial way– perhaps merely out of emotion.

The seeds that fell among thorns, or weeds, represent the preoccupied mind– where the things of the Spirit are choked out by the busyness of life in what I would call “the tyranny of the urgent.” The preoccupied mind is so filled with activity that it never has down time, alone time with God. Jesus mentioned three “weeds” of distraction– worries, riches, and pleasures– all of which still cause our greatest distractions in this life.

The seed that fell on good soil represents the proper setting for hearing God speak. This is the productive mind, which, as James writes, does not merely hear the Word, but does what it says. (James 1:22) The question is, which kind of soil are you planting your seed in? It’s your turn! Would you offer some personal experiences in response to this teaching?

How To Hear God Speak

Sunday’s message on how to hear God speaking to us poses one of the great challenges of the Christian experience. The underlying factor is this “faith” thing. God persistently refuses to reveal Himself to us overtly. He doesn’t speak from clouds or thunder or whirlwinds, as He did in the Old Testament. He has spoken to us through Jesus, as the writer of Hebrews starts off His letter, and now, with the indwelling Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ within, He speaks to us through thoughts and impressions.

Sunday we used Jesus’ parable of the sower in Luke 8 to suggest that in this story, the seed that fell on the pathway where the ground has been pressed down could be compared to a closed mind. We don’t hear God speak, often because we are not open to the possibility that He might speak to us. Jesus’ story says that the sower’s seed that fell on this ground could not take root because the soil was compacted, and birds came along and carried the seeds away. In other words, being closed minded to the voice of God in our lives is for the birds!!

Now it is your turn. Do you ever hear God speak? Do you ever recall a time when you sensed God was speaking, and then later found out that He had indeed? Tell me what you think. I will still be one this subject next Sunday and would like to include some of your comments in that message. Thanks for both listening and responding.

When It’s OK To Worry

First, let me apologize for failing to post these last three weeks through Disciple Now and Easter. I’ll be back on track now, and will soon beginning a new teaching series on the Book of Acts.

Last Sunday we focused on worrying. We took an approach I first heard from Gerald Mann at Riverbend Church in Austin. He took Jesus’ statements on worrying from The Sermon on the Mount and turned them to suggest times when it is OK to worry– like when it will feed or clothe you, when it will make you live longer or grow taller, or when you want to know how a pagan lives. His point? Worrying will never accomplish any good result!

I would be interested in hearing about your experiences with worrying? Has it ever helped? Did it ever change the end result?

This Sunday we will talk about how you can hear from God and discover His will. I hope you can join us.

Love in the Age of Reason

Sunday’s message continued the current teaching series on love, as we have attempted to wrap our minds, in some small way, around the concept of love as the Bible teaches it– love of self, love for other people, and of course mainly, our love of God. Our focus was on John 3, and specifically on this man Nicodemus, a high religious official, who came to Jesus by night with honest questions about who Jesus was and how to relate to Him. We called Nicodemus an “honest skeptic,” one who set out not to debunk Jesus’ claims, but to discover their validity.

We also considered the proposition of “new birth,” and explored its implications. I would be interested in your observations related to being “born again.” What does the expression mean to you?

Finally, we talked about what the word “eternal” means– particularly as it relates to everlasting life. Our assertion was this: “If what you think you have ever ends, then what you think you have is not eternal life.” I would appreciate it if you would react to this statement, especially in light of the prospect of one losing his salvation.

IT’S YOUR TURN. . . .

When God Said, “I Love You”

Sunday’s message took us on a journey back to the very beginnings of God’s relationship with mankind to find the origin of blood sacrifice. The premise of the message is that even God could not merely declare His love for us, but that He had to “demonstrate” it (Romans 5:8) We observed that the way that God demonstrated, or proved His love for us was through the shedding of blood, and specifically through the bloodshed of Jesus Christ on the cross.

We pointed out that God’s love for us was also revealed in His great tendency to enter into covenants with mankind. In our small group meeting Sunday afternoon, one of the participants drew a most significant distinction between a covenant and a contract. In a contract, we are concerned mainly with how much we are going to receive from it. In a covenant, we are concerned primarily with what we will give, or contribute to the agreement. I thought this was a great statement. The culmination of God’s covenant-making tendencies can be seen in the covenant Jesus described at the Last Supper– as he lifted the cup of wine, He said, “This is my blood of a New Covenant.” It was the ultimate demonstration of God’s love!

In the end, we were challenged to consider the sacrifices we are called to make in order to demonstrate love in any relationship. I would be interested in exactly what forms you consider these sacrifices to take.
IT’S YOUR TURN. . .