Acts 2:42 “They devoted themselves to…teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and to prayer.”
The first Thursday of every month there is a free admission night from 5 to 8 to the downtown Evansville Children's Museum (picture to the right). 
Change: WE WILL BE MEETING ON SUNDAY EVENINGS 5PM WITH PIZZA AFTERWARDS
As we wait, we are preparing for what is next. Things are being put in place, we are trying to anticipate needs, and we are getting things ready. It is like winding a rubber band up and getting ready to let it loose. But the timing of when it is to be let loose is not ours - it is God's.
We wait on the Lord as we wait on the wind. It will come, and He will give direction, and He will provide for what He intends to do. We just have our sails up and get ready to go where He chooses!Psalm 135:6-7
The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.
He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth;he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Here is a sermon/teaching from the series "RHYTHM OF THE HEARTBEAT OF GOD; Gathering and Sending."Courage is not without fear. Courage is moving forward though feeling starkly naked by the fear that overwhelms us. Just as faith is not without doubt. Faith is not without reasons to believe or reasons to not believe. Rather faith is moving forward in belief despite the starkly naked fealing of our overwhelming failure to eliminate doubt.
(II Timothy 2:11-13, The Message)
If we die with him, we'll live with him;
If we stick it out with him, we'll rule with him;
If we turn our backs on him, he'll turn his back on us;
If we give up on him, he does not give up—
for there's no way he can be false to himself.
(It puts more meaning to this video)
Pastors
Pastors' Wives
Last Friday, I had the privelege of hearing Coach Tony Dungy at a luncheon in the Colts Training Center. He gave us an inside look at the championship week leading up to the Super Bowl. He realized their moment wasn't just the game, but the whole Super Bowl experience. So, he gave his players an extended curfew, let them sleep in and enjoy the moment (not to excess of course) with their family and friends. Even the coach of a team playing for the Super Bowl took time with his kids to play at the NFL Experience, an football carnival-like atmosphere with games and rides. When people saw Dungy with his kids there, he said they thought they were seeing a ghost! They couldn't believe he was there. Didn't he have a game to prepare for? But for his six-year-old boy, playing with his Dad in the NFL Experience probably meant more to him than watching his Dad go to work on Super Bowl Sunday. Tony Dungy didn't wish time away that week
One of the things that I struggle with the most in waiting for something is wishing time away. I remember when Sharon and I were first married and saving for a house. How I wished time away to move from our apartment (furnished with 1970s, extra-long, olive-drab shag carpet) to the day we moved into our home. I regret wishing time away.
The command is plain: you go into the whole world and announce the good news. It cannot be dispensationalized, typicalized, rationalized....
I have not the foggiest idea how or where God will lead you. Of this I am sure. He will lead you and not let you miss your signs. Rest in this-it is His business to lead, command, impel, send, call, or whatever you want to call it. It is your business to obey, follow, move, respond, or what have you...
The sound of 'gentle stillness' after all the thunder and wind have passed will be the ultimate Word from God. Tarry long for it.
- Jim Elliot, Missionary to the Auca Indians 1952, "Shadow of the Almighty"
1. To embed mDNA, [or the missional realities of our faith in Jesus by multiplying people], through pioneering new ground for the gospel and church...As custodian...the apostle is both the messenger and the carrier of the mDNA of Christianity. As "the one who is sent," he or she advances the gospel into new missional contexts and embeds the DNA of God's people into the new churches that[come] in those places. At heart, the apostle is a pioneer, and it is this pioneering innovative spirit that marks it as unique in relation to the other ministries. "...the church is called to be a dynamic movement rather than a static institution. For that reason, it's leadership is to be drawn from those on the front line of the expansion of the church."He spends alot of time unfolding what all that means, and he is very thorough. But he describes the need for apostleship in this way:
2. To guard the mDNA through the application and integration of apostolic theology...But for the custodian of the DNA of Christ's people, the responsibility of apostolic ministry does not end with pioneering missionary work. He or she is also mandated with the task of ensuring that the churches remain true to the gospel and its ethos. This aspect of apostolic ministry can be described as creating and mainting the web of meaning that holds the movement together. Apostolic ministry does this by reawakening the people to the gospel and embedding it in the organizational framework in ways that are meaningful....All authentic apostolic ministry does this. Apostles are not just hot-headed entrepreneurs; they are also working theologians - or at least ought to be if genuinely apostolic.
3. To create the environment in which the other ministries emerge...Ever wondered why, in all the lists of ministries, that of apostle is always explicitly listed first? And why it is considered the most important of the minsitries (I Cor. 12:28ff; Eph 4:11)? Or why in Ephesians 2:20 Paul says that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets? Not because of some hierarchical organizational conception of leadership, because such ideas of leadership did not exist in the New Testament movement. Rather, it is because apostolic ministry is the foundational gift that provides both the environment and the reference point for the other ministries mentioned in scripture [Hirsch goes on to describe this from what he calls an APEPT concept - apostolic leading to prophetic leading to evangelistic leading to pastoral leading to teaching/didactic].
Apostolic ministry is basically a function and not an office. Office as we normally conceive it, relates to a position in an established, centralized institution, and it gets it authority from being an "official" in an institutional structure. One simply cannot find this level of "institution" in the New Testament and in the postbiblical period. On the other hand, the New Testament church has all the hallmarks of an emergent people movement with little or no centralized structures, no "ordained" or professional ministry class, and no official "church" buildings.Though that is only part of his unfolding of the mDNA and how apostleship functions in the church, is there anything that rings true for you?
...
All subsequent apostolic ministry models itself on this archetypal ministry of the original, and authoritative, apostles. This is to say that he/she is the person who imparts and embeds mDNA. And once the mDNA is embedded in local communities, apostolic ministry works to ensure that the resultant churches remain true to it and that they do not mutate into something other than God intended them to be.
Community does not come out of community for community's sakes. No group or organization every lasted long or made great impact in the world by focusing on community. Too often, the church, focuses on creating community and eventually falls into narcisistic entertainment of "what I need for it to be community for me."
Instead, we must be focusing on the mission God has given us. Us individually, and us as a body or church. Once we embark on that mission we will find that community happens.
And community is never planned for or structured. Instead, community happens, and then a structure is borne out of that community. Unfortunately, over time, the structure becomes a box that limits, and eventually suffocates, community. Not because community doesn't happen or is not wanted, but because the mission has been replaced with a focus on maintaining the community. Once again, the mission is forgotten, and a narcisistic focus on "what I need for the community to continue for me" is focused on.
Churches need to pray for and follow what mission God gives them, not focus on creating community. The mission is not for our community, but to go out to tell people about Jesus and only in the going do we find "community" or the relationship of church that Jesus demonstrated and intended."
We decided that in the context of Melbourne, a city obsessed with food and eating out, that we ought to try and see how we can engage our culture on its own turf (missional), rather than expecting them to come to ours (attractional). What drove us to this conclusion was asking missionary questions, namely, "What is good news for this people group?" and "What would the church look and feel like among this people group?" Both these questions assume that we dont' fully know the answers until we ask them in the active context of mission. They require that we pay attention to the existential issues confronting people as they experience those issues. And that we try to shape and form communities of faith so that htey can become an organic part of the cultural social fabric of teh people group we are tring to reach.So, what is good news for the people around you? We can't know this until we know what the "existential questions" are, which simply means, what are the really really hard questions of life that they are asking? It could be as simple as, "Where am I going to pay my next bill?" or something like, "Is there more to life than this drudgery of working 9-5." Maybe they struggle with marriage, raising children, finding passion, depression, or whatever.
He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon."It was bittersweet to talk to Samson on Mother's Day. While our whole family loved speaking to him and hearing his voice, I was haunted by his plea, "When are you coming for me?" He has been waiting so long. All I could say was, "I am coming soon."
I was awaken at 3:00 a.m. today with the burden to pray for him as well as the 143 million other fatherless who are wondering will they ever have hope for their future. Thank God for our Savior who came so we might not be left as orphans. I relate in so many ways to Jesus when He said to his disciples about the promised Holy Spirit: "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:18).
The words to the "offering benediction" (again, I'm not sure what it's actually called, but I can sing it from memory) mean more to me now as I've had to live in times of quite extensive trust in God providing:We worship in the giving of our provisions to the church.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise Him all above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost
Eli said, "When I grow up I'm going to get a job and make alot of money."
Well, I summarized the story of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar (read it here: Luke 16:19-31), and how the rich man worked for all this stuff but died and went to hell and the poor man went to be with God. Not exactly the Gospel, but I did explain that money can be good or bad and is not one of the most important things (I've taught him that the two most important things are "Love God and Love others" so that when he is doing something he shouldn't I ask him, "What are the two most important things?" and then say, "Are you doing those?" It worked till I realized the definition of love had to be taught, so now I'm teaching him by asking, "What is love?" and he's learning that it is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"... my point being...money was not one of the important things.)It was difficult because I've never really talked to Eli about the penalties of sin being "hell."(I've always used examples of suffering because of sin, but I've never talked to him about "hell."
I don't know that he's ever conceptualized "hell" before, but he does know sin and the damage it does to relationships and that Jesus died so that his relationship with God can be restored now. I guess I've always tried to talk in terms of forgiveness is now, redemption is now, and the Kingdom of God starts now...but I digress from the topic of money...)"Do you know why we give money to the church?" He said, "To give to the poor." I thought that was a better answer than I would have given. Yes the church should be giving to the poor.Why do we give to the church?
I'm not overly scholarly on this, and there is much more in depth studies to be had, but I like the idea of "kiss"-ing it (Keep It Simple Stupid) for myself. So this is what I understand as a "tithe" biblically:
A tithe in the OT was 10% of everything you had (primarily agricultural at the time) that was given to "God" through the temple:
And then the tithe was used for the "Levites." The Levites were the tribe of Israel (remember, there were 12 and one set aside for work in the temple, or the place to come before God before Jesus), because the Levites were not given any land by God. Instead, God made their work be in the temple and provided for them by requiring the people to give a "tithe," or a tenth, of their provisions:Leviticus 27:30" 'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
Numbers 18:23 It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites. 24 Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the LORD. That is why I said concerning them: 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.' "So, a tithe was 10% of all you produced in life (materially or monetarily) and then:
1) Given to the Tent of Meeting (temple or place of worship) for the gatheringsA tithe doesn't seem to translate perfectly into our New Testament and American culture.
2) Used to provide for the people who served at the Tent of Meeting, the Levites
Acts 4:34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.The emphasis to me is that we are all bringing what we have and who we are - ALL OF IT! And trusting the leaders in our body of Christ, or trusting those we choose to walk with and learn from spiritually, to help us understand how to use it to serve the Kingdom of God.
I Timothy 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
