Celebrate & Suffer

When I first heard Jeff & Caesar (from Soma) teach on the way Christians should celebrate, I was deeply convicted. I was immediately aware that I was not celebrating God, celebrating with other members of his family, nor was I inviting unbelievers into the celebration. Their teaching has moved me into embracing the rhythm of celebration.

Mark and I added “suffer” to the list of rhythms, because we felt like it was right up there with celebrate, maybe even the other side of the same coin as long as we’re in this fallen world. But there is something distinct about Christian suffering, and we want to understand more what that is.

Celebrate. Everyone celebrates something. As believers, our celebrations are redeemed, because we have been enabled to genuinely celebrate what is actually worth celebrating: God. He has done everything necessary for us to enjoy eternal life with him, giving us everything we need for life and godliness. This is absolutely a reason to celebrate and celebrate continually. The church can have a reputation for being a killjoy, when in reality we should be rejoicing more than anyone else on the planet.

Suffer. We live in a fallen world where suffering and pain are daily realities. Not only this, we are told in the Bible that we are “heirs with Christ provided that we suffer with him,” and that, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God,” and as a church we are commanded, “if one member suffers, all suffer together.” We would be foolish to think that suffering is not a daily rhythm for God’s people. But we want to suffer differently than the world, knowing that “God works all things together for the good of those who love him.”

Anything in these two rhythms strike a chord with you guys?

Eat

I’ll post this rhythm by itself, because the next four need to go in pairs.

Eat. Eating is seen throughout Scripture as something God’s people do together often. Whether we read of God’s institution of sacred feasts for Israel, his provision of manna in the wilderness, Jesus feeding the 5,000, or early believers breaking bread together in their homes daily, it is obvious that eating is a Biblical rhythm. As a church, we want to share meals together often as a reminder that we come to God’s table empty and hungry, and he must be the one to provide. We see meals as a way for deep fellowship to happen amongst believers, as well as a means for reaching out to our neighbors who might not know Christ.

Has Jesus redeemed your dinner table?

Missionaries

Here’s an identity that you may need to think about, I know I had to. Missionaries are usually seen as people who leave their homeland for the sake of the gospel in another place. So, the church has missionaries, and then they have their “regular” members. I think that’s the norm. But here’s what we’re hoping for:

Missionaries. God sent his son, Jesus, to Earth to take on human form and live within the culture. He worked, ate, and interacted among the people; living in such a way that those around him could see and experience what God was truly like. God has made us missionaries like Jesus. Missionaries are not only those who move to a foreign land, sacrificing common surroundings and language for the sake of the gospel. Rather, regardless of the land we live in, we should all live as sojourners, learning the language of the people around us that we might use it to preach the gospel. We have been made Jesus’ light-bearers in a dark world; wherever we go, the light comes with us. We want to live with this reality before us, that all of life – ourselves, our relationships, our money, etc. – might be given over to God’s redemptive mission.

What are your thoughts? Can the Lord grow a church full of missionaries? We want him to.

Servants

In planting a church, we desire that another identity be that of “servants”. Serving is definitely something you do, but it is also who you are. For instance, Paul often introduced himself as “Paul, servant of Christ Jesus”. That was who he became in Christ. Here’s what we’ve written:

Servants. Jesus is God, and yet he humbled himself “even to death on a cross” as he served the very ones who hated him. In describing his mission on earth, he once said, “the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” It follows then, that if Jesus’ people are included in his mission in any way, they must become servants as he was. In Christ, we have been freed from the bondage of sin so that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who for our sake died and was raised. We say with the Apostle Paul, “We are servants of Christ Jesus.”

“That we might no longer live for ourselves.” Quite a statement. When I read that, it makes it clear to me that I don’t just need motivation for service, I need a new identity.

Family

We’re currently in the midst of writing a “prospectus” (don’t ask me to define it, I can’t) for a church plant in Philadelphia. We’ve spent long hours on it, and I’m going to start posting bits and pieces here.

One of the sections will contain “Identities and Rhythms”, an idea straight up stolen from these guys. What we’re trying to communicate through this section is the DNA of what we hope to be like in Philly. The “identities” are things true about us in Christ, ways we have fundamentally been changed by having our identity in Christ. I’ll start with the first one:

Family. “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” God has always been raising up a people–an earthly family–who would live in such a way that the world would know what he is like. Jesus once said that those who live in his ways and obey his Father are truly his family. Through Jesus, we believe that we are children of God and brothers and sisters with each other. As family, we see it as our obligation to personally care for the needs of one another, both physically and spiritually. We disciple, nurture, and hold each other accountable to this Covenant life together.

What are your thoughts on this particular identity? How does a church embed this in their thinking from the get-go? What are some ways we contradict this truth by the way we normally act toward other believers?

The Word Moves the Mission

My buddy Mark (with whom I’m planting a church) asked one of our elders about what he should focus on most before the plant. His answer was unexpectedly simple:

“Preaching and evangelism.”

This comes from a dude who is a gifted visionary who excels in planning, figuring out logistics, etc. And yet he knows that if the Word of God does not go forth, neither does the church. I was encouraged by this. You can have whatever plans in place in you want, but if you do not bring the Word of God to bear on people’s lives — you have nothing.

Update: Philly Plant

This past weekend we (myself, Mark Chripczuk, Clint Casabella, and Fletcher Lang) made a trip up to Philly to scout out a few possible locations for planting. We had set up meetings with a few local Acts29 pastors so that we could benefit from their wisdom in planting, as well as their knowledge of the city and its needs.

We met with Rob Burns, pastor of Real Life. Rob gave away pretty much his whole day to us — even meeting us at 8:30 for breakfast after he only slept three hours that night. He busted out a map (shown below) with red dots representing like-minded, gospel-preaching churches in Philly, explaining things about the areas that had no red dots. We then drove around with him to these places and grabbed some pizza together. It was beyond beneficial for us to hang with him…we hope to do more of it soon.

Rob then drove us down to Epiphany Fellowship’s building to hang out with Eric Mason for a little bit. We already had great respect for him before our conversation, and we have even more now. He was super-helpful and gave an hour or so of his time to us, even though we were virtually unannounced. He’s a humble, honest, focused dude…I’m stoked he’s in Philly.

The next day we drove out to North Brunswick, NJ to hang out with Reid Monaghan for a bit. Reid, like Rob, cleared a chunk of his day so that we could benefit from his mad skills the grace God has given him as a pastor. Jacob’s Well (the church he pastors) is about 7 months into their plant. Seeing how things were done at that stage was extremely helpful, as the other churches we visited were 2 years old or older. Everything is still fresh for Reid, so doubly helpful for us. We then drove out to Princeton with him to talk and walk around the campus. Reid is pictured below next to Jonathan Edward’s grave — he’s delighting in God (note the smile).

We also hung out with Aaron Harvie (pastor of Riverside) and Todd Pruitt (pastor of Wayne Church of the Savior). I have no pictures of them for some reason, but…they were just as helpful as the aforementioned. We were incredibly blessed by the time and attention we received from these guys.

Pray for us as we journey onward. We need it.