A Missional Church -- Part 2

How does that saying go?
"You can not lead where you will not go, and you can not teach what you do not know."

That for me sums up what part 2 is all about in my journey. In a sense my disillusionment with the church was really disillusionment with myself. Questions came flooding in . . . you can't just point the finger at what the church is not doing you have to first look at yourself. How many significant relationship do I have with people outside of the church? How much does my life resemble how Jesus walked (remember 1 John 2:3-6)? What have I done for the hungry? The poor? The prisoner? The naked? The sinner? (Remember Matt 25:31ff) Who have I brought into the Kingdom recently? How have I transformed the culture with the Gospel? How well do I really understand the Kingdom of God? (Granted it is ultimately God doing those things, but he is trying to do them through me . . . )

Sure I can parse Greek verbs, or tell you what a hortatory subjunctive is in Greek grammar . . . I could describe the difference between supralapsarianism and sublapsarianism (though I can't spell them) . . . but unfortunately those things aren't on the list of things that pleases God.

As Anne Lamott once told me (in an audio book on my ipod), "In order to get in to heaven, you need a reference letter from the poor." Though clearly a reference letter won't save you, God does that in Jesus, however, there is some truth to those words. James 2 talks about a faith that results in good works, in feeding the hungry, and Matthew 25 isn't too off from that.

What difference has my faith made? Am I bringing about God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?

So in the last couple of years (and I am still on this journey--probably always will be) these questions have led me to try to form my life around the mission of God.

Here is a couple things that changed:
1) I began a study on the kingdom of God and the gospel studying the life of Jesus in the gospels, so that I would have a better picture of how I am to live. (If you are really bored you can read the last year of my blog to gain some of the fruit from my study.)
2) In trying to live out these things I stumbled across Bridgetown ministries, and serve there with the homeless. Feeding them, clothing them, washing feet, cutting hair, and just loving them. This experience helped to form my view of the world, more with the eyes of Jesus.
3) I began looking to develop new relationship with neighbors, friends, and anyone who I could find who were not following Jesus, just to love them and maybe inspire them to seek to follow Jesus as well.

There were some other things as well. But the point is I began to change. My perspective on life began to change, and my perspective towards the church began to change.

So the things I was learning, I thought maybe I could teach . . . the things I was doing I thought, maybe others could join me. And I set out on a journey to not only live a missional life, but to actually help form a missional church.

To be continued . . .

A Missional Church -- Part 1

One of my biggest passions both personally and professionally (as a pastor) is to help to form a truly missional community/church that transforms a culture with the gospel: the good news of the kingdom of God, and of the King who gave his life, was raised again, and rules with goodness, mercy, love, and justice.

So I thought I would start a new series of posts on my blog to tell a story . . . my story, but not mine alone, it is a story about my church . . . better yet it is a story about God. Some of this story has already been written, some is yet to come about, but I hope and I dream.

Allow me the freedom to begin telling my story with the analogy of falling in love. For those of you who have been in a lasting relationship you know what it is like to fall in love. When you first start a relationship you enter what I call the cloud 9 phase, where you see only the best in the person. Life could not be any better, you think about that person all day long, your life is consumed with them: they have no faults. This phase can last months and for some even years. But one day you hit the second stage, and disillusionment sets in . . . You begin to see the faults of the other person. The newness of your love has worn off, and you finally see that person for who they are: messed up (let's be honest, we are all messed up). This then brings us to the 3rd stage of a relationship if you make it . . . Recommitment. This is when love that lasts finally begins forming. When you love a person despite their weaknesses.

This is my story. Not about a relationship with a person but with the church. For about the first 27 years of my life I had largely been in a cloud 9 relationship with the church. At the age of 12 I wanted to be a pastor, and I pursued that with my life. I went to school, got a bachelor's in Ministry, a master in divinity (whatever that means), and even got a job as a pastor (which I still have an am very thankful for).

But a few years ago I began reading some books, taking some doctorate classes, noticing things in the Bible, and I came to some simple conclusions. 1) The church exists to reconcile the world back to God. 2) The Church (at least the Western Church) is doing a terrible job in this. Not only are we not gaining ground we are losing ground. 3) A question: What I am giving my life to? Is it worth it? Can I say I actually pleased God with all of this? This is all meaningless if we are not the church God wants us to be.

It was at this point that disillusionment set in for me. Though I personally attended (pastored) what I would consider to be a great church, but we had so few stories of making a difference in our community (BTW, I use the past tense, only because I believe we are a different church now then we were a few years ago). When asked the question, "If your church were to just disappear, would your community cry, would they miss you?" I did not know how to answer that. If this was all there was, I was done.

I hear of so many stories of disillusionment with pastors, and with Christians over the church (universal) now days. But different people react differently to disillusionment. Some leave and only talk about what the church is doing wrong, others leave and are actually hostile to the church, still others leave and just try to start over and plant other churches but at least are gracious about it, and yet others recommit. They recognize that the church is the bride of Christ, that He loves her, has not neglected her, and deserves His best, so they stay and love and try to turn the ship.

This is what happened to me. My disillusionment turned into a recommitment: a deeper love, a deeper devotion, a deeper passion to become, and help form the church into what it is support to be. A church focused on Jesus which lives out His mission in the world, and actually transforms the world. In a word a Missional Church.

This was where my passion was born . . .

Honduras Video

Here is the video I put together from our Honduras Trip.

Enjoy.

Destino del Reino

In a previous post I mentioned that I might tell a little of the story of one of the children's homes we visited that was amazing. It is Destino del Reino or "destiny in the Kingdom." Rhonda Jackson (picture on the left) is one of the founders and the whole story of the children's home/school is truly a God story.

Here are a few of the highlights (I hope I don't mess this up too bad):
God called Rhonda to Honduras and she went not even knowing exactly what see would be doing. She spent a couple years learning in Honduras learning the language and seeking God before she got the vision for this home. During that time she lived in a terrible part of Honduras where the Honduran would not even go. She did not know it, However, because she was living with a family who had killed more people than anyone else so no one messed with her. One day she was reading the bible and realized how many babies where abandoned in scripture that God used as leaders in the kingdom (Jospeph, Moses, Daniel, Ester, and Samuel . . . to name a few) and she realized God was asking her to start a home for abandoned kids who would grow up to be leaders in the Kingdom of God.

Once she had the vision land was given to her . . . as much land as she could every use, but the experts told her there was no water there. In reading scripture she believed God promised her "abundant water" and spent thousands drilling against everyone's advise . . . 600 ft. down. "Well," she hit water so deep and so plentiful that it is one of the only places in Honduras you can drink out of the tap.

As time went on and they started to pray for electricity, and Houston power and light donated $27,000 in material and the man power to get it done (they had never done anything like that before).

They started a school that has the best education around, and they only let the poor in. A school that is bi-lingual and helps kids learn trades.

The other picture on your left is Brian holding a baby that was left to die in a field shortly after birth. Rhonda stumbled on to her, brought her home, and now this child will grow up to be a leader in the Kingdom of God.

God's name is lifted up and so highly glorified by this ministry that I have no doubt God will continue to supply all their needs. It was a night and day difference between the government ran orphanage where there was no hope and the kids grow up as if they were in prison with no love.

We have people from our church now thinking about giving their lives to this place and moving there, but only God know the future.

Honduras Pictures

I am just starting to go through my pictures. While I was there I took almost 600 pictures, I thought I would put my favorite 111 on the web for you all to see.

Just click on this link, or under Blog Map on the side click on Pictures I've Taken, then on Honduras.

Enjoy.

Back in the Office

Today is my first day back in the office since I got back from Honduras. In looking back I am amazed at how things when better than I expected in every category. From our ability to bless the church and hear about their work, to our relationship with our missionaries, to the unity of the team and how God modeled our hearts. Everything went so well because of the Lord . . . All Glory to Him.

The team is coming back with a desire to continue ministry in hospitals and with the fatherless (orphans) and the elderly here in our community. What we learned and how God spiritually formed us just can't stop with Honduras.

Jessica . . . Since you commented that the story of the home visits blessed you, I will tell the follow-up story to that.

The last day we were with the church we printed off the picture that we took of the lady who accepted the Lord with the team, and grabbed a bible and went back to follow up and give it to here. This time just with Brian W., Tyson, Sara, and I.

When we got to the house her husband came out and told us she was not there. So we gave him the stuff, asked if he would give it to his wife, and walked away. We didn't get more than a half a block before Brian stopped and asked, "Why didn't we ask if Christ was in his heart?" Fear over came my heart as I knew where that question was leading.

So we all got our nerves up and turned around back to the house and got invited in. Brian told him the story of what happened with his wife, and asked if he knew Jesus. He said he went to church a long time ago, but hasn't in a long time.

I told the story of the prodigal son to him, and that the Father is God, and that he wants you back. You can take many steps away from God, but it just takes one step to come back to him. He wanted prayer, so we pray for him.

It was awesome to see how God ordained that visit. Had the wife had been there we would never have talked to the husband. Now they are able to share together their visits with us and there desire to follow the Lord. The pastor will be following up on them soon as well.

So the story continues . . .

One Last Quick Post

We are currently at Patrick and Debbie's house for lunch, and are about to leave for Teguc. We had a great time with the church saying good-bye last night, and today got to go to a children's home that was amazing . . . might save that for another post when I have more time.

Anyway, I have to make this quick, but just wanted to put one last post up.
Lynsey has not been feeling well the last couple days, so you could pray for her. But we got her some medicine today, and it looks like she is doing better.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Prayer Request

Today will be our last day with the church, then tomorrow we drive North.

You can be praying for the health of our team, several have become mildly sick.

Thank you.

Update

The last couple days has been amazing.
Yesterday we spent the day in our second day of construction. The relationships with the people are going deeper, and the church is slowly getting built.

Today was a blessing from the Lord. We spent the morning at a hospital, and split up into 3 teams. One to minister to the men, one to minister to the women, and one to minister to the children and parents of the children. I went to the children´s ward in the hospital. We were able to pray with the moms of babies who were sick, read scripture to them, and tell them of Jesus love. We printed off pictures of them with their children, some this will likely be the only photo they will ever get. They treasured the pictures so much, some cried tears of joy as we gave them the pictures. We also handed out bibles to the adults and stuffed animals to the children. We came with the love of Jesus and the joy of the Lord, and brought smiles to those who had none. There were difficult moments as we encountered suffering, but over all the experience was amazing.

In the afternoon we got the team WAY out of their comfort zone (and mine too) and went door to door sharing the gospel. Though this does not work well in America, but with the Honduran culture it was very well recieved. One young mom with 2 little kids was very touched by what my team had to share. Lynsey opened it up, Tyson M. shared his testimony, I brought in some scripture, Brain W. brought in his thoughts, Pastor Arnold took it from there, but mostly the Holy Spirit moved in her heart to where she was very touched by what was shared and she wanted to recieve Christ. She had never heard the gospel before today. We are having the pastor follow up with her.

This evening we spent in homes of people from the church. They prepared us dinner, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship and encouragement in the Lord. This will be one of the MANY highlights of the trip.

I am seeing tremendous growth in the team here. Tremendous unity of the spirit. The church has been VERY encouraged by our presense as has the Oconnors. The Holy Spirit is bringing about God´s will which continues to be beyond our hope or what we can imagine.

Thank you for your continued prayers. The team remains healthy, but we are tired. Our days have been very full with a combination of phsyical labor (in a place where you sweat standing still in the shade) and emotional situations where we encounter experiences we are not use to seeing. We are very thankful that tomorrow will be a day of rest for our team so that we are able to finish strong.

Others are waiting for the internet so I must keep it short.

With love,
Pastor Jon

Faces

Today was so different from yesterday. Yesterday we worked hard doing construction, today was hard on our hearts. We when to an home for the elderly, as well as to a childrens home. Though I don´t think that the word home is a good description. It was more like a prison. Children basically from birth through the ages of elementry school all live in this cement building never able to leave. There parents either brought them there because they were too poor to care for them, or because they are in prision, and in some cases maybe haved died.

We held babies in our arms . . .

. . . babies, maybe 18 in a room, ages birth through maybe 2. Crib after Crib all lined up . . .

. . . babies desparate for love.

We are still processing all of these things. I don´t even know what to write after looking into these children´s faces and wondering what the future will be like for these precious children that God created and loves.

We had one day . . . but it is something you could give your life too.

The team is still all in good health, though I think we are getting tired, and the emotions ran deep today. So we could use prayer that at this time our hearts would continue to be knit together in love, and that we would live and walk in the Spirit.

Tomorrow we are back at the church for another day of construction. Thank you for your prayers.

Heroes

Today was one of those days that words can´t quite capture. Especially on a blog with a limited time limit on the internet. So I thought I would just tell you a couple stories of some heroes in the kingdom of God that I got the priveledge of spending time with today.

Pastor Aronold is the pastor of the mother church in San Pedro Sula where we are ministering. In this area when he began the church there were 8 major gangs in the area an people were getting killed all the time. His church began a ministry to the gangs. He began soccor leagues, and got the gang members to play soccor and come to the church. Over the last 9 years or so, Pastor Arnold in working with these gangs, and bring the kingdom of God into this area has brought it down to where there are just 2 gangs, and the killings have gone way down. He has a prision ministry in the prision where the gang leaders are. He ministers to them, earns there trust, and they tell the gang members it is OK to trust him and be apart of the church, and play soccor. Well the outpost where we are building this church. The vision was to plant a church there because the gang in that part of the town could not get to the location of the other church as they had to go through rival gang area. In addition this new location is in a rapidly growing area, so the church we are helping to build will become (and is) a base for amazing ministry and future. I am amazed with Pastor Arnold. He is a hero in the Kingdom of God. God has him here at just the right place at the right time, and he as risen to his call.

Another hero I spent time with today was Victor Almederez. He is a church planter in Western Honduras. He has planted around 35 churches. He has a gift to find the right guy to pastor a church, disciple him, and equip him to grow a church. He is discipling all the pastors in the churches he has planted. Many of those church have intern planted daughter churches, and grand daughter churches. So hundred of churches, a whole movement of the kingdom of God has come through this man.

The Oconnors are also Heroes for the kingdom. They are the one who have been discipling Victor, the ones disicpling pastor Arnold, and so many more. The Oconnors are really the catalyst for this movement of God in many ways.

Ok . . . others are waiting to get on the computer but just a couple stories from today. Construction was awesome, tiring but awesome. At one point the dump truck that was delivering dirt for us broke down blocks from the church. Our resident hero Brian Wiggs, started getting greasy for God in Honduras. We walked to the site where the truck broke down, the neighbors next to there just happened to have a cresent wrench, and Brian got the truck working with one wrench and a spare bolt laying around. It was awesome.

The Lord held the rain until we were on our way home, and then it started pouring. God´s timing was perfect!

So I apologize for all the mispelling and grammar errors, I spent all of my time writing instead of proof reading. But the team is all heathy and doing great. Tomorrow we get to go to a childrens home and an old folks home. Thanks for your prayers. And much love!

We´re Here

Hey Everybody!
Thanks for checking in. We made it to Honduras last night and got settled around midnight, central time. The flights went well, and we got a good night sleep.

This are going great. Today we went out to the church where we will be doing construction, but for the first day instead of working on the building, we put on a festival to get to know the people a little.

Patrick estimates that we had 300 kids there! Wow! Yeah. More than we had expected. We made snow cones, and balloon animals, did face painting, fishing games, soccor games, crafts, shared the wordless book in the form of the savaltion braclet and were able to share the gospel.

The people were all so warm and loving, and really melted our hearts. We could feel the presence of Jesus in that place. It went so well for having so many people!

After the festival, we brought everyone together and sang a song, shared the story of David and Goliath, and talked about faith. Brian Wiggs also got to share his testimony.

Tomorrow we will begin the construction project, and it´s a big one. Be praying that we would be able to accomplish a lot of work on it while we are here. It is a big building, but there is a big vision for the area. You can imagine the potential if we roll in and there are 300 kids!

Also tomorrow we will send a VBS team into a school, so you can be praying for that team as well, as they could have a lot of children there as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers. So far everyone is healthy and doing great, but it´s hot. Really hot. You work up a sweat just standing still.

Thanks for all your prayers, and support. It is exciting to have a moment in the story that God is writing in Honduras.

Honduras

I am leading a team of 16 people (ages from about 12-70) from our church to Honduras. We are going over there to link arms with our friends Patrick and Debbie O'Connor who have lived in Honduras for many years, and have done a great job at helping the nationals to plant and grow churches (hundreds).

We are so thankful for this opportunity to go and encourage them and hopefully the Honduran in the Lord.

While we are there we will be:
1) Working on a construction project side by side with the church members to help them build their church building.
2) Do some children's ministry.
3) Love and bless people at a senior citizen's home, a couple orphanages, a poor hospital, as well as just having special times with the local church.
4) We will also take a vision trip the last day to possible catch a vision for the next trip that we would like to take.

You can pray for 3 main things:
1) That God would use us to encourage and bless the Honduran church to become the church God wants it to be.
2) That God would use this experience to help form us who are going that we might be able to become the church that God desires us to be.
3) That the Honduran and the Oconnors would just feel the love of Jesus, and that we would truly be a blessing to them.

I am hoping to post some updates on my Blog while I am in Honduras if there is internet access.

Stay tuned.