missio

I’m going to start a 5-part blog series on Gospel-centered families, aptly titled Shalom in the Home. Forget the rabbi. Shalom in the New Testament (usually translated as ‘peace’) is the, ahem, harmony, that comes from being submissive to Jesus, His Gospel, and His Kingdom. It is holistic in nature, and all-encompassing in reach. This means that our marriages, children, and legacies are to be harmonic as well. So what does that look like? To be honest, I’m still trying to find out. I have very little life experience. All I know is what Scripture teaches, and what the Spirit has given me in the vision for Greenville and Harmony Church. It’s all I got. It’s going to have to be enough. So starting very soon, I will try to address the following:

• Part 2: Shalom in the Home: Gospel-Centered Marriages
• Part 3: Shalom in the Home: Gospel-Centered Children
• Part 4: Shalom in the Home: Gospel-Centered Legacy
• Part 5: A Wrap-Up

They won’t be all-encompassing. They won’t bring up if-then statements like “If your children don’t listen, then do this…” It won’t be a very specific series. But it will provide us with a foundation to work towards. In this post, I do want to address the “why” question: why do we at Harmony focus so hard on the family?

Because it is the foundational unit of the Kingdom of God. It is the cell of the body of Christ. For those of you who haven’t been through our partnership material, you should know that at Harmony we don’t think you can be a Christian alone. God exists in community. He calls to Himself a people. He redeems individuals, only so that they may be a part of a community. And I vaguely remember something about Him saying that it is not good for man to be alone.

This is a passion of mine, and I hope it shows. I dearly want to see marriages, families, and legacies that erupt and emerge from people loving and pursuing Jesus.

Harmony, we are a young church. We can, as Barney Fife says, nip it in the bud, for the most part. If we get it set in our minds and hearts what God would have us do with our families, we can turn this city upside down.

I’m looking forward to it.

How about you?

Comments?

Today, I want to write a little about presence. Churches are supposed to have presence, simply because our God has presence. He has presence in His creation (Romans 1), in His people (Genesis 1), and in the person of Jesus (John 1). If we are to be like Him, and are to imitate Him, then we are to have presence. But what does this mean? Presence is simply this: a local existence that cannot be ignored. So what are some of the ways that we at Harmony have tried to have a presence in our community? Here’s a list:

1. We meet in a public gathering place. In our case, it’s a nightclub/bar/restaurant.
2. We volunteer and work closely with our city’s organizations and committees. We work closely with Uptown Greenville (link). We work closely with the Pitt County Task Force to End Homelessness. We are present at city council meetings.
3. We have a marketing presence in the community and on the nearby college campus. We post flyers. We have invite cards. We have a nice website.
4. We serve our community. Harmony has provided volunteers for Umbrella Market. We have given out free water. We have helped students move in to their dorms. We gave them free water. We will be providing volunteers for the upcoming Freeboot Fridays during football season. We will have a presence at the football games.
5. We have shirts and signs. It sounds simple and maybe even capitalistic, but when you combine that with the above items, you start to see people recognizing your presence.

Today, a young lady who calls Harmony home was standing a bus stop. And someone, seeing her Harmony shirt, asked her if she went to Harmony. And she was able to, through conversation, invite them out to hear the Gospel. Because they saw a sign at a bus stop, and a lady with a shirt, it led to a conversation which may lead to a conversion. Who knows?

Presence is powerful.

What are you doing to cultivate presence in your church/small group/life?

So many times we as leaders, and even as Christians in general, are caught on our heels. In general, and usually disguised as “seeking the Lord”, we wait too much. We are too often on the defensive, instead of taking the Gospel movement to the world, we focus on fixing things within the movement itself. We worry that people won’t handle responsibility…responsibly. We worry that the finances won’t be there when we need them. We worry about if anyone will show up to an event. We are so busy responding to the problems we perceive in the movement, that we neglect the entire purpose of the movement itself: bringing the redemption of Christ to a fallen world.

Practically, this works itself out in leaders who respond to problems, and deal with effects of situations.

My question is this: when are we going to stop worrying about the effects and start worrying about being a cause?

We react too much as leaders. Christ has called us to “go”. Not to wait. He has instructed us to move forward, and not look back. Even though the plowline may be more crooked than Nixon, we are still told not to worry about the past, but to instead look towards the future.

Question for you: what can you/I/we do to be more proactive and to propel the Gospel forward?

Comments?