What A Community

So I was reminded today of why I like living in Buffalo, MO so much.

It's the community.

Not the collection of houses and parks and well-maintained (or sometimes not so well maintained) roads and groupings of businesses and entrepreneurial opportunities. But, rather, the collection of people who know and care for one another.

I watched today as people who had experienced a loss last week loved and served another family who lost a loved one this week. They were living out the Scripture from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 that says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." And this reminded me that I love living in this town with these people. Living in a place where people know each other and care.

So, tell me, why do (or why don't) you like living where you are at? Do you sense and value the community? Looking forward to your thoughts. God bless.

A New Month, A New Series, A New Life!

I love seeing God change people's lives.

I got to be witness to that a couple times just yesterday! The first instance was yesterday afternoon. As my family and I were getting ready for dinner, a friend and neighbor who has recently started coming to church dropped by with some questions about her faith and growth with God. During the course of our conversation we were able to help her confirm that she had accepted Christ as her Savior and encourage her in further steps in growing closer to Him. Very exciting!

The second instance was after service as a teen came to me in tears after the message. Along with another leader, we were able to confirm for this young person that her relationship with God was real and start her on a path to making God her true foundation.

You see, we just started this new series on "IDENTITY" last night. Ronni brought a message about foundations based on Luke 6:47-49. As he challenged us to consider whether we are standing on God or whether we are standing on things of the world (ie. popularity, achievement, possessions, image, etc), this young person was moved by God's conviction to reevaluate what her life is based on.

Since last night, I have already heard of many others who were particularly challenged by this message. I'm excited to see God continue to work in our lives as we move through this series of lessons, but I am wanting to hear your thoughts, struggles, questions, stories about your foundations as we get started. Post your responses.

God bless.

Did I Ever Tell You, You're My Hero...?

So I don't watch much TV.

That's not that I don't love media. My family and I actually watch a great deal of movies and videos. We've even recently joined the wonderful world of online streaming with our DSL & laptop upgrades! (Go "Watch It Now!" on netflix!)

But we made a decision awhile back not to have TV feed into our house. We were using a small set of "rabbit-ear" antennae to watch the news but since the digital conversion we have chosen not to even get a converter box. This allows us so much greater control of what and how much media we allow in our house, but...

Being a student of culture, every once in a while I am forced to do some "cultural research" by watching some touted piece of "life-changing" media. One of those pieces of media that keeps coming up over-and-over again in seemingly every magazine, book, review, or blog (Christian or not) is the ABC series LOST.

So I spent some time this weekend catching up on the first few episodes of this series. And one of the things that struck me most was how I reacted to the main character. Essentially the focal character of the episodes I watched was Jack Shephard, a surgeon who quickly becomes the leader/hero type for this group of people stranded on a tropical island after a tragic plane crash.

I found myself intrigued by Jack's collectedness and ability to organize and command in the face of terrible situations. I marveled at his calmness and decisiveness under great stress, fear and quickly-changing circumstances. And I found myself wondering, "Would I be able to do what he was doing?" Of course I don't have the medical training that this character does, but would I be able to pull it together and help others? Would I be able to be the hero?

It seems to me that is most often my reaction in viewing traumatic, crisis situations. I always desire to be the hero. I think many of us do. But as I thought about my life and how I act and react, so often I am not who I want to be.

I panic. I get frustrated and angry. I pass up opportunities. I hesitate. I feel sorry for myself. I'm selfish.

Granted, I don't want to be that way, but too often I am. I find some comfort in those moments of reflection of the words from Romans 3: "None is righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10 ESV). But it is only a little comfort.

I asked my wife why we always are attracted to those fictionalized heroes, having that secret desire that we somehow could be them given the right circumstances. She said (very wisely, because my wife is VERY wise!), "It's because we all need and are looking for a Savior."

I think too often though - even in going to Church, ministering to people, doing Bible studies, etc. - I am trying to be that savior for people.

but really they need to know Jesus. They need to know how I am imperfect but Christ saved me. They need to know that I am an unrighteous sinner just like them who was changed by a wonderful, forgiving Savior.

So will you join me trying to change from HERO to HERALD for the true Savior. Let's make Christ famous in our world by letting people see how ONLY He is good enough! God bless.

Back2School

Last night was our annual Back 2 School Event for 180 Youth Ministries. In case you missed it, it was a inspiring time with food and free prizes and crazy mixer games. We also shared vision for our ministry and upcoming events.

Oh & we had some crazy good worship! I love that song "Take It All" by Hillsong United and the 180 Worship Team did an excellent version of it to close us out!

For those of you who came, we hope you were excited and challenged by what we do. For those who didn't, come next week and check things out. We will be starting ournew series on our IDENTITY. Hope to see you there.



Below are the two videos we showed last night. Enjoy!



IDENTITY PROMO VIDEO (without audio - working on this issue! Sorry!)


MOVE 09 TESTIMONY VIDEO

Risky Business

So I watched a really interesting movie this week, The Visitor. It's one that I had originally passed over when it first came out. To be honest the plot synopsis sounded pretty dull: "A widowed college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple, who turn out to be illegal immigrants, living in his apartment." I know, I know; sounds like excitement a plenty. Watch out G.I. Joe!

But it kept coming up in discussions of challenging, though-provoking film for the last year (I think Netflix's genre description for it was something like "modern-day surrealist mind-bending thought-provoking film with little known foreign actors"; I love Netflix;) So I finally gave in to Netflix's continual suggestion to add it to my queue and watched it last week.

And I am so glad I did. Not only was it well filmed and written with excellent acting, but it left me with all these questions. Without giving away too much of the plot - in case you are inspired to watch it this week as well - let me share with you some of those questions:

Why was the main character willing to risk his job, his money, his well-being, his reputation for people he barely knew - law-breakers at that!?!?

What was the point of the movie since the outcome wasn't really that much different for the immigrants than if they had never met the main character?

When we choose to "help" people in need, what is our motivation? Is it more for them or more for us?

Who is more changed by a person offering to help: the receiver or the giver?

Such good questions for me as I try to figure out what it looks like to follow Christ in meeting people's needs. Let me know your thoughts and questions - with or without this film. God bless!

...Upon Popular Request

Here is our Trailer for Sunday morning services (180 Creative Worship Team style;)

After a Long Hiatus....

So God shows grace in funny ways sometimes. I was reading Psalm 69 out loud yesterday with my wife and we were shaking our heads at some of the irony in the words of this Scripture. First of all it is to be sung to the tune of “Lilies”, which is not a tune we may know but definitely brings to mind some sort of slow, lilting string music with flowery words. Which is why the first words “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck” may seem a little out of place. But the part that was most interesting to us was as we got to all these curses that David was calling down on his enemies (vs. 22-28).

Let their eyes be darkened.

Let your burning anger overtake them.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living.

I mean can you really say these things about people. And to think this was a song to be sung in church! Can you imagine if one of the people he wrote this Psalm about came to that service and heard that song? I can’t imagine that bringing much harmony.

But then I started looking over the notes in the ESV Study Bible (check out a review of this really neat Bible from my buddy Nathan here), and it began to paint a different picture. First of all, it points out that the writer of this Psalm is not claiming to be perfect. In verse 5 he says, “O God, you know how foolish I am; my sins cannot be hidden from you.” (NLT) It goes on to point out how many times this Psalm is used in reference to Jesus:
“Those who hate me without cause” (Ps 69:4 & John 15:25); “For zeal for your house has consumed me” (Ps 69:9 & John 2:17); “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink” (Ps 69:21 & John 19:28-29).

Now, if these words are used according to Jesus, does that mean that He also wants to bring these curses down on sinners, of which I am one? The notes go on to show how the apostle Paul used many verses from this Psalm as well, by which he shows how many of his fellow Israelites have rejected Christ and had their hearts hardened (Romans 11:9-10). But then Paul says this most interesting thing. In Romans 11:25, he says: “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

And suddenly it all came rushing to me. We are those with hard hearts. We are the sinners. I was immediately convicted of ways that I had been disobedient to God this week – through ways I had spent money foolishly that God had blessed me with after praying for Him to help with my finances; through having a whiny, selfish attitude rather than recognizing how God is working; through being critical of others rather than being obedient to who God is calling me to be. So I prayed and repented and found God’s mercy and refreshing through a better understanding of these curses in Psalm 69.

I was reminded of words of one of the speakers at our CIY conference a couple weeks ago. He said that when we read the Bible we usually associate ourselves with the voice of God’s chosen, but he said if we are not being obedient to God then we are the other side – the oppressors, the hard of heart, the evildoers. The writers of the ESV Study Bible notes summed it up for me this way: “These words could prove to be a mercy to the evildoers, should any of them be present at worship when the congregation sings them, and they heed the warning.” So, let us continue to sing of God’s mercy, even if it comes in the form of curses.