January e-update

“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”         Mt 9:37-38

Discipleship is an as-you-are-going experience.  There’s a lot of movement in the Gospels.  When you read about what Jesus did he may be, “by the sea” or “on the road” or “in the boat” or “on the mountain” or “in the house.”  Jesus moved about proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God in various places.  Even when there was great ministry to be done in one particular area, Mark tells us that Jesus responds to the news that many are looking for him with, ““Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come” (Mark 1:38).

The undergrad group has been on the move a lot lately.  2010 was the first year that we planned to move the mid-week Cross Walk meeting onto campus.  Due to renovations we ended up doing that mid-October 2010.  This school year we looked forward to being in the South Pole (on South green under Nelson dining hall) all year long.  At the end of fall quarter we were informed that … well … Nelson is being renovated now so you’ll need to move.  After swiftly examining meeting place options, it was determined that the recreation room under Ryors Hall would work … except for one Wednesday night that it was already reserved.  That one week we were in the West Nest (under Boyd dining hall).   

All this moving could be discouraging.  It is, in fact, challenging to ensure that everyone knows where we’ll be each week.  However, it is a brilliant way to remind us that we are to be “on the move!”  Wherever we find ourselves, we are called to make disciples.  Our Christian life isn’t lived in the ROC House or just in one location on campus.  Following Jesus means that we’ll find ourselves following him “into the South Pole” or “under Boyd” or “in Ryors rec room” or “on the green” or “in the classroom.”  Following means being on the move too!  It is a blessing to be on the move following Jesus with this community.

Off to Haiti

Haiti team

Back row: Cathy, Mike, Zack, Anthony, Alex, Greg, David

Almost back row: Erika, Kira

Middle Row: Nicole, Ali, Courtney, Sarah, Adam, Zach

Sitting/kneeling: Carrie, Bryan, Emily, Regan, Nate, Jared

Please pray with us for Jared and the team of students heading to Haiti December 4, 2011.  They will be serving with Team One.27 (name taken from James 1:27) by helping a couple of orphanages in Port-au-Prince Haiti.  In addition to doing some manual labor jobs, the team will be helping with a Christmas party for an anticipated group of over 4,000 street kids and orphans. 

Please pray with us: for travel safety, that all luggage gets transferred between planes and makes it to Haiti with the team, that no one gets sick during the 10 day trip so they can all focus on service, that God will do in and through the ROC team whatever He desires.

There is a team blog that they will be posting to during the trip.  You may access the blog by clicking here.

Thanks!

Merry Christmas!

A week or two ago I was looking at some pictures my daughter, Anna, took of my son, Isaac.  There is one shot in particular that really touches me.  I’m not sure if it’s the outstanding photography (in my opinion) or Isaac’s eyes or that I simply know and love both the photographer and the subject.  Whatever it is, I am drawn into the photograph.  Or maybe a better way of saying it is that I’m “grabbed” by the photo.  When I look at that particular shot, I end up staring at it for several minutes mesmerized by the beauty and wonder of the picture, of life, and of the relationship that I have with my family. 

Such wonder surrounds the season of Christmas as well, or at least it should.  It is a wonder-ful thing to be brought back year after year to the unfolding story of light entering darkness as we remember again the miracle of the incarnation of God.  This year as I have been contemplating this gracious condescension I am struck anew with the amazing love the infinite God has for us that He would surrender glory to take on flesh.  “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:5-7). 

I imagine that there were times (and are times) that the Father looked upon Jesus and was just struck with His eyes and His manner of life and His obedience and just stared at him mesmerized by the wonder of His Son.  Through the incarnation we too are invited to be caught up in this amazing relationship of Father and Son and the opening of the divine relationship that we too are embraced as children of God.  Because of Christ’s incarnation those who receive Him are drawn into this relationship and we get to experience God’s loving gaze without fear, without shame.

In Colossians 2:9 Paul wrote, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” and this wonder we celebrate as we look toward His Advent again this Christmas season.  In celebrating the incarnation, we are likewise called to embody the same great, gracious love that Christ demonstrated.  This year I pray that we will all be so caught up in the wonder of God’s love in Christ that we will bless friend and acquaintance, family member and stranger with the kindness and compassion, love and joy given in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Merry Christmas! 

Sacrilege thoughts

You do something very important during your late teens and early twenties: you reconsider just about everything you think you know and what you hold dear.  Some of us can hardly wait to leave home in order to become our “own” person though, whether we recognize it or not, we are always influenced by someone or the media or by a community.  This is definitely true for the churched person.

Growing up in church may have given you the idea that being a Christian is about being nice and not doing “bad” things.  You may have been taught not to ask certain questions lest you be thought a “heretic” (whatever that might mean for your given church culture).  In his book Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus, Hugh Halter encourages you to ask questions about what it means to be a follower of the One who came to blow the doors off the religious establishment and reveal the heart of God for the lost, the sinner, the poor and the oppressed. 

I challenge you to rethink what it means to be a disciple of Jesus by reading this book.  If you take up the challenge, you’ll find in Halter a mentor for living out a life shaped by apprenticeship to Jesus. 

If you have written off the church but still think highly of Jesus, you will find a lot of encouragement and challenge from this book also.  Halter is straightforward and doesn’t pull punches and that is the sort of prophetic word we all need to hear.  He suggests that Jesus doesn’t want any more followers who look like each other.  Instead Jesus called people to follow HIM.  But sadly the church scene is one where, “followership, instead of true discipleship, has been the norm, and thus we Christians have produced a lot more people who are like us than people who are like Jesus.” 

You can check out Sacrilege and customer reviews of it by clicking here.  Get it.  Read it.  Then take up the challenge of living out the life to which Jesus calls you.

Blessing

Have you ever been to a place that was unfamiliar?  Maybe the food was different, the temperature wasn't what you were used to and you couldn't understand the language.  Perhaps the pace of life was unusual and the way that people treated one another was strange.  What would it mean to you to have someone come along side you and walk you through the strange cultural differences and help you learn the language?

Can you imagine moving thousands of miles away from home and living in a completely different culture where you don't know anyone and all of the strange things listed above are true?  Thousands of international students do this every year.  Last fall (2010) here at OU alone there were 1,483 international students representing 95 countries.  All needed to adjust to the SE Ohio culture.  While some didn't have a problem with the language, others really needed assistance from friends who welcomed them to the United States and to Athens in particular.  These friends were conversation partners who volunteered an hour a week just to connect and chat. 

I encourage you to consider volunteering as a conversation partner.  Come along side another to help him or her navigate the customs and language here.  In doing so, you will be a blessing.  You can sign up to be a conversation partner by clicking here.  It's very simple.  You will meet a new friend and be able to help acquaint one of the many guests in the USA right here at Ohio University.  Thanks!

Belonging

“Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.  Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:22-23)

    Being precedes doing or, put another way, our doing flows out of our being.  We can do all kinds of good things, righteous things, powerful and even apparently holy things but if our hearts are not right or our relationship with God is not one in which we are known by Christ, that doing is evil.  That may seem rather harsh but that’s what Jesus says.

On the other hand, the one who is humble enough to come to God, admit her/his failures and request forgiveness is received with open arms as the Father received the prodigal and lavished his love, grace and welcome just because the son returned home (Luke 15:11ff).

It appears that the kingdom is too small for the prideful.  However, the King has wide open arms and plenty of room for the humble.   This open-armed welcome and belonging is the sort of hospitable expression we hope to express this fall and always.  

As new students explore the campus and experience campus life and as you veteran, returning students show up for another year, we are delighted to be able to connect people in relationships with one another and with the Father who loves us so much that He is seeking us out.  No one has to be perfect to be part of ROC.  Actually, we’re a haven for sinners being transformed by God’s love and grace and the power of His Holy Spirit.  

Our first value, “belonging—to God and each other,” expresses this goal of enfolding people in relationships with one another and with God.  We believe that it is through the ongoing interaction with one another in God’s presence in community and service that we are formed into the image of Christ.  This life on life experience is not unlike the discipleship that occurred with Jesus and His apostles (Mk 3:14).  He brought them together first to be with Him and then to send them out to preach.  The being with was necessary in order for them to do the preaching.  Their doing flowed out of their being!   

Banner Problem

Apparently the ROC banner that is up at the College Gate has the wrong location for worship tomorrow night.  Cross Walk will be held in the South Pole all year this year at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday nights.  The banner says the ROC House.

Sorry for any confusion this brings folks.  Time for a new banner!