the City should be different

It's been bothering me.

As I drive around my city, it's been bothering me that i don't think that the Christians here, and the churches here...

Well, it's not that they don't make any difference in the city. I know that the people who are connected to Jesus here and the churches of those Jesus-followers are real and meaningful to those people, and to the people they love on.

But, really, can the city tell there there are people here who love Jesus?

I was with my friend Willie a couple weeks ago. He's talking about a city-changing plan to place mentors in every 5th and 6th grade classroom in our area. He's got the school board's blessing. (He got that because Willie has been, legit, serving others for a long time!)

I asked him where the churches were on the radar screen as he is looking for the right people to fulfill this critical, life-changing role.

Guess what his answer was?

Not even on the radar. He's worked to get churches involved in other things serving the youth, and only a tiny bit of progress. His business friends are much more engaged in serving the youth in such desperate straights as he works with.

So this though has been possessing me for a few months:

The City Should Be Different

The city should be different because there are Jesus-followers here, and churches full of Jesus-followers. Our influence and impact, if we follow Jesus and take as our own His radical mission to make disciples, to Love God, and to Love People, would be unmistakable.

The city should be different.

(photo credit, pjchmiel on Flickr)

Worship + Justice = WORSHIP (our response to suffering, like Haiti earthquake)

I'm the minister dude for college-age people at my church, www.tbclc.org. We took 16 college-age people to Passion 2010 Jan 2-5.

I'm going to run out of creativity to describe how our enormous, glorious God showed up and impacted our hearts and eternities there! The students are still talking about it on Passion2010 + day 10.

A huge heartbeat of the Passion Movement, led by Louie Giglio, is to lead people to Worship with their whole lives. I remember Louie challenging us Worship as a way of life years ago, and it made a huge impact on me!

And Louie has continued to lead us to Worship, by completing it, marrying Worship with Justice, serving the least of these around the world!

Worship + Justice = WORSHIP!

¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16

In light of the horror of a natural disaster in an impoverished place like Haiti, I am stunned. Let's not sit in paralysis or idle talk, but move forward to love those, to do good, to share, to sacrifice...for with such sacrifices, God is pleased.

Our college students are responding by serving time and money to Friendships.org, a way cool ministry that brings relief and medical aid in response to things just like this earthquake. M/S Integrity sails from Lake Charles on the 20th for Haiti, packed with food and supplies. It's way cool that we can put our cash and hands to serve the least of these in our neighborhood (just out of the Gulf of Mexico).

Lord, stir our hearts, people in America who call on Your Name! Bring us to tears in the news of tragic suffering, and stir us to respond in Worship, serving the least of these!

Photo credit:
Worship scene @ Passion 2010: Wade
Haitian man, Credits: Munoz/Reuters