Jonah is a man of paradox. His name means dove, but he is the son of amittai (which means truth). He is from a small rural place, but is called to minister to a large city. He is a simple man as evidenced by how simple his writing is (Jonah is usually the first book translated in Hebrew 101), yet is called to speak on behalf of the great God of the universe to the greatest city in the earth.

The book of Jonah opens with God, who calls Jonah to be the only O.T. prophet sent to preach in a nation other than Israel; he is called to the great city of Nineveh, in the nation Assyria, on the east bank of the Tigris River. The Assyrians were a wicked people who were legendary for their pride (Isa. 10:12-13) and cruelty (the book of Nahum lists the many sins of Assyria). The Assyrians were known as a people who loved war. Their version of war was to destroy the men, rape the women and smash the children's heads against rocks. They were the superpower of the day and systematically dominated the nations around them. Consequently, they were bitter enemies of the Hebrew people (who had previously tried to wipe them from the face of the earth on at least three occasions).

Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was originally founded by the great warrior Nimrod--- as a side note, if you decide to give your son this biblical name, please make sure that he can also defend himself--- who was a descendant on Noah (Gen. 10:11). At the time of Jonah, Nineveh was a large impregnable city because of 100-foot walls that surrounded the city. The walls were wide enough on top for three chariots (think Hummers) to race side by side.

Jonah responded to God's clear call to go east to Nineveh and instead fled west to Tarshish, which was in southern Spain, literally the opposite direction to the end of the earth in that day.  It would be like if God called you to go to Chicago from St Louis and then you were to hop a plane to San Diego. Arriving at the port in Joppa, he found a ship headed for Tarshish (when we want to run from the Lord there will always be options). Throughout the Scriptures, the threads of sin and grace weave human history together. In Jonah, sin is shown as running from the presence of the Lord, and grace is shown as the Lord pursuing and overtaking the running sinner. We can run from God, but we can't outrun God.

God, who controls all of creation, then hurled such a violent storm that the ship headed to Tarshish, was nearly torn apart. This so frightened the sailors (who typically aren't so easily frightened) that they began to throw cargo overboard to lighten the load, and they cried out in desperation to their various false gods. Meanwhile, Jonah slept below deck (possibly from being depressed) until the sailors woke him, begging him to call upon his God for relief. Recognizing that some god must be angry with one of the men on their ship, the sailors threw dice to determine who was at fault and the lot fell to Jonah, whose sin had now threatened not only his life, but the life of all those around him (as is always the case with sin).

Knowing that Jonah was running from the Lord and that they would soon all perish, they asked Jonah what they should do. He replied that they should literally hand him over to the God who had appointed the storm by tossing him into the raging sea in order to stop the madness. But the pagan sailors, who were more spiritual and compassionate than God's prophet, tried to row back to land instead. Still, they were thwarted by the increasingly violent storm. Desperate for relief, the sailors relented and, crying out to the true God for mercy, threw Jonah into the sea, which then grew calm. And, in an ironic twist, God used Jonah to convert the pagan sailors who then worshiped the Lord and pledged themselves to Him, the very call that Jonah was running from.

God then sent a great fish to swallow Jonah, where he spent three days and three nights. While many liberal modern Bible scholars are critics have dismissed the account of Jonah being swallowed by the fish as a fable or a myth, Jesus does not. In fact, Jesus taught that if we are unable to believe that God put Jonah in a fish for three days and three nights, and then brought him forth alive, then we also will be unable to believe that He would die and be buried in the earth for three days and three nights before being brought forth alive as the One greater than Jonah, sent also to command all to repent of their sin and receive saving grace from Him (Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32). If God can create the world from nothing, and Jesus can rise from death, surely seeing Jonah's story as literal is not much of a stretch.

Why does this book matter? Well, the response of Jewish people to this book on Yom Kippur give us a clue. Each year, the Jews gather in the synagogue on the Day of Atonement to read Jonah and then reply, "we are Jonah." This truth is essential if you want to truly "get" Jonah.

We are Jonah.

We are runners. Some of us are blatant runners who disregard God and his revelation in favor of our own truth. Some of us are less blatant, but still are running. We run because we are self-righteous, like Jonah. We run because we don=t think we need or truly understand grace. Jonah wrongly believed that because he was of a particular race, knew the Scriptures, and belonged to the One True God, that he was somehow better than the godless pagans whom he did not like and did not want to be a part of his spiritual family. We are Jonah when we wrongly believe that we are more righteous than other because we have suffered or not suffered, because we are young or old, because we are rich or poor, because we are black, yellow or white, because we are wise or foolish, because we are urban or suburban, because we are male or female, because we are educated or uneducated, or because we are a success or a failure.

We too have been sent to proclaim God and ask for repentance to a great but wicked city, filled with other self-righteous people who are spiritual, but are not in a vital relationship with the True God. We are called to help people see that they are runners (also called sinners) and that they need to be overtaken by the God who loves them (also called grace). We must stay in touch with the fact that the only thing that separates us from the people around us is God's grace, not our goodness.

Lastly, Jonah is the author of the book that bears his name. The events recorded in this book are the worst moment in his prophetic calling, if not his personal life. The Bible is trustworthy because it tells the truth about its authors. In Jonah, we see nothing in the author that would cause a whole city to repent and turn to God. We see nothing in him, but everything in God. As in all of God's story, called the Bible, God is the hero. It is God who pursues running sinners. We are Jonah, we are the sailors, and we are the Ninevites.
We all want to run from God's presence.
We all want God in the rear view mirror.
We all run for the same reason: we don't want to give God control, because we don't trust him
We all want God to bless us, to provide and protect us, but we resist giving him control
We all want to treat God like a dog, stay! I'm going over here and I'll be back later

We all run but God still wants us because the reality of grace is that God works in us and through us despite us. God is chasing us in order to get us to love Him and love others.

We are Jonah.

Well, now that we know who is going to represent both sides of the aisle for a chance to be the next president of our great, but not very United States, it is only natural that the New York Times would do a story on our church.  Huh??  Yep faithful blog readers, we made THE newspaper, apparently because we became part of the “News That's Fit to Print.”

If you enjoy controversy, hate the way religion and politics tend to go together, or are just looking for another reason to hate on The Journey, this article is for you. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/us/01evangelical.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=us

Our greatest mentor on the simple, yet complex understanding of the gospel is Tim Keller. His shadow looms large over the preaching ministry of our church. Recently, I was privileged to be on the stage with him as we both taught at the Dwell conference. At that conference, Tim explicated the gospel and its various forms. Here is a article which summarizes the brilliant talk he delivered on that sunny Wednesday in New York City.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/002/9.74.html

Bad girls, take heart! God wants to use you despite your badness! Take comfort in the words of Liz Curtis Higgs, a self-proclaimed bad girl who writes about Biblical bad girls for the encouragement of modern-day bad girls:

"For ten years I studied bunches of biblical role models and finally realized what we had in common: Zip.
Sarah was so faithful. Esther was so courageous. Mary was so innocent. I was so none-of-the-above. Girls, it was downright discouraging.
Then I found Jezebel and something inside me clicked. I identified with her pushy personality, I understood her need for control, I empathized with her angry outbursts, and I began to wonder...
Could those Bad Girls from the past teach us how to be Good Girls in the present? I'm here to tell you-yes!

Eve had a hunger that cost her a garden;
Potiphar's wife had an appetite, too;
Lot lost his mate when her past swirled around her;
Delilah went bad when she snipped a new 'do.

Sapphira fell flat when it came down to money;
Jezebel ordered her husband around;
Michal missed the message in King David's worship;
To the bone, in a moment, their badness was found.

Yet...

A woman of Samaria found a thirst-quencher;
A sinner, a woman, anointed Christ's feet;
Rahab, the harlot, became a believer;
Her sin, like the walls, crumbled down in defeat.

Bad for a season, but no, not forever;
Not these three role models, saved from despair;
Made new by God, their changed lives teach the lesson:
If we but ask him, grace waits for us there."

http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/waterbrook/BadGirls/badgirls.htm

The question for you, follower of Christ, is what do you do with all this free government cash? Insightful blogger, Tim Challies, weighs in at the link below if you are interested in seeking God's best for you government windfall

http://www.challies.com/archives/interviews/thinking-christianly-about-economic-stimulus-payments.php

The short answer is that David failed to discern the insidious nature of indwelling sin. Here is a short description of how indwelling sin typically works in the life of a person:

Sin Tempts - Sin disguises its ugliness and begins to lose its nastiness in your eyes. As soon as sin begins to look good, you can be sure that you are in the middle of temptation. You focus short term pleasure (the bait) and fail to see the long-term consequences of that sin (the hook).

Sin Bargains - Sin makes an argument and you start internally bargaining: "I will do this, but not this. I will go this far, but not too far." You begin to rationalize the sin and to inappropriately bank on God's forgiveness. "I can repent later, God will forgive me", you say to yourself.

Sin Promises - Sin will begin to tell you can't live without this (insert the tempting sin). It will promise you satisfaction, pleasure and meaning.  It will tell you that you will only be happy if you do this.

Sin wins - Sin has you in its grip and you give in to it and love and obey it more than God.

Sin Addicts - Sin enslaves you and you want more and eventually you need more to feel satisfied. 

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:14-15

Surely Christians have this figured out, right? Yeah, not so much. Both the religious right and the religious left have sold their respective souls to the devil of partisan politics. Just as in the first century, neither the Pharisees nor the Sadducees are of much help these days. What is a Christian to do?

I came across this cogent, well-articulated article that I think can help us as we try to serve Christ and be responsible citizens of the good ole US of A.

http://www.smartchristian.com/?p=5535

This kind of stuff really shouldn't shock us in our 21st century world. However, when you go to church and see ladies who would call themselves Christian, dressed in similiar scantly attire, you begin to get concerned. Now, I could list various Bible verses that encourage modest dress and propriety, but I won't. You can look those verses up for yourselves. Instead, ladies, I would like you to consider the way you dress with regard to your witness to the rest of the world, especially with warmer weather on its way.

Consider the musings of a very thoughtful, twenty one year old young woman named Anna who throws down the gauntlet for Missional modesty:

"We talk about modesty a lot in the church, don't we? And yet we as Christian women are often reluctant to commit to it. There seem to be so few clothing options. Or it seems to be confining and subservient. Or it's too much trouble to think about specific standards for ourselves. The list of excuses/cop-outs could go on and on. And the list of reasons for modesty could go on and on, too. But I want to give you one that we don't often think about: we should be modest to serve the witness and testimony of the church around the world.

I read Daughters of Hope: Stories of Witness and Courage in the Face of Persecution for one of my classes last semester. The author visited persecuted Christian women around the world and interviewed them, learning their stories and their thoughts on the Christian life. When the team visited women from the Arab world, they were given a fresh insight from these incredible women. The author writes, "Many Arab Christian women reinforced the link between their witness and the behavior of Christians in the West. ‘It does terrible damage to Christians who are risking their lives when nonbelievers can point to the decadence of American Christians. Please remind the women and girls to dress modestly, to be kind to others and to show generosity.'"

Wow. Just wow. What a motivation for modesty. Many in the Arab world associate Christianity with Western culture. And when American Christians live decadent, immoral lives, we are harming the witness of Arab Christians on the other side of the world. I find it interesting that the first thing the Arab woman who made that statement mentioned was the need for women and girls to be modest.

Modesty means that we dress in a way that does not draw inappropriate attention to our bodies, that is honorable and not distracting or manipulative. It means that we seek to set godly standards for ourselves in this area, instead of being careless about it. I would love to see - and I am beginning to see - a subculture of American Christian women who have made the commitment to honor Christ and Christians around the world by being modest."

http://hoperoadblog.com/2008/01/29/modesty-for-worldwide-witness/

There are many arguments for the reality of the resurrection. Perhaps the strongest, at least from a legal perspective, are the eyewitnesses that saw the resurrected Lord. The apostle Paul, writing 10-15 years after the death of Jesus, challenges his readers to check with the eyewitnesses in order to corroborate the resurrection. He writes in 1 Corinthians 15 these words:

"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me also."

Paul is essentially saying, "if you don't believe me about Jesus being raised from the dead, go talk to the other people who saw him as most of them are still alive." It has been noted by Josh McDowell that if each of those 500 people were to testify for only six minutes, including cross-examination, you would have an amazing 50 hours of firsthand testimony which would prove to be very compelling evidence if a trial were to be held regarding the "realness" of the resurrection.

For those of you wrestling with the historicity of the resurrection it is incumbent upon you to examine these eyewitnesses along with some of the other important questions:
1. What happened to the body?
2. Why did all but one of the original disciples die a martyr's death while claiming to the end of their lives that Jesus had indeed died and rose again?
3. How did Christianity go from a small, insignificant sect to the most dominant religion in the Holy Roman Empire in such a short time?

The evidence for the resurrection is strong, to say the least. The burden of proof lies on those who claim it didn't happen. What say you?

For more information on the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection, please follow this link.

http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/resurrection-appearances.pdf

Movies like the Passion of the Christ give us a glimpse of the pain that the Savior bore on our behalf. But, perhaps the most disturbing and descriptive account of this death was published over twenty years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This powerful article goes into describes in detail the agony that Jesus endured in his beatings and crucifixion. Read this and let it melt your heart with the love of the Savior for you.

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/deathjesus.pdf

"The leader's character is what makes the difference between advancing or de-centering the morale, competence, and commitment of an organization. The truth about confession is that it doesn't lead to people's weakness and disrespect; instead, it transforms the leader's character and earns her greater respect and power.

This is the strange paradox of leading: to the degree you attempt to hide or dissemble your weaknesses, the more you will need to control those you lead, the more insecure you will become, and the more rigidly you will impose - prompting the ultimate departure of your best people.

The dark spiral of spin control inevitably leads to people's cynicism and mistrust. So do yourself and your organization a favor and don't go there. Prepare now to admit to your staff that you are the organization's chief sinner."

From Dan Allender's "Leading with a Limp", pg 3

To learn more about the history and reasoning behind Daylight Savings, check out this Wikipedia article.

We are very excited about our upcoming Dwell conference in New York City, April 29-30.
The speakers are incredibly gifted to teach about urban church planting: Mark Driscoll, Tim Keller, C.J. Mahaney, Ed Stetzer, and Darrin Patrick. All of these men have a passion for church planting and they have all learned from each other about being missional, Gospel-driven, and city-serving.

MISSIONAL
Ed Stetzer (who has a man-crush on Keller) wrote, "A missional church responds to the sending commands of Jesus by becoming an incarnational, indigenous, and intentional Gospel presence in its context. When Jesus said, ‘As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you,' (John 20:21) that was not to a select group of cross-cultural missionaries. Instead, that was a commission to you, our churches and me. We have a sender (Jesus), a message (the Gospel), and a people to whom we are sent (real people in culture). It is worth the effort to go beyond our personal preferences and to proclaim a faithful Gospel in whatever context we find ourselves. That's missional."

Darrin Patrick (who is cooler than Stetzer) wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth came on a mission. He was not looking for the well, the found, or the righteous. His mission was not about starting a ministry that would produce programs to be consumed by nice, attractive, middle-class, white, suburban, couples with 2.5 kids. It wasn't a country club with nice, painted, iron gates that Jesus inaugurated. It was a church that Jesus founded with its calling to storm the gates of hell. The church he founded was not a place for people to get fed and fat, but a place to be equipped and sent. Church is not a building or destination, but a people who are on mission: to join the Savior in seeking and saving those who are lost."

GOSPEL DRIVEN
Tim Keller (who is spooky smart) says, "The gospel is ‘I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey' while every other religion operates on the principle of ‘I obey, therefore I am accepted.' Martin Luther's fundamental insight was that this latter principle, the principle of ‘religion' is the deep default mode of the human heart. The heart continues to work in that way even after conversion to Christ. Though we recognize and embrace the principle of the gospel, our hearts will always be trying to return to the mode of self-salvation, which leads to spiritual deadness, pride and strife, and ministry ineffectiveness. We must communicate the gospel clearly-not a click toward legalism and not a click toward license. Legalism/moralism is truth without grace (which is not real truth); relativism is grace without truth (which is not real grace). To the degree a ministry fails to do justice to both, it simply loses life-changing power."

C. J. Mahaney (who has more hair than pride) said, "Reminding ourselves of the Gospel is the most important daily habit we can establish. If the Gospel is the most vital news in the world, and if salvation by grace is the defining truth of our existence, we should create ways to immerse ourselves in these truths every day. No days off."

CITY SERVING
Mark Driscoll (who regularly rips off Keller and Stetzer and occasionally even credits them) said, "Cities create the culture that is disseminated to the suburban and rural areas. It is both foolish and hypocritical for Christians to flee cities and then complain about the culture that emanates from them. The answer is for Christians to love cities, move to cities, pray for cities and serve cities."
Join us at the dwell conference in NYC in April. Registration is limited. Ed Stetzer's new book, Compelled by Love, free to the next 200 registrants.

Register today.  https://www.sporg.com/registration?form_id=98706

It’s amazing to think what didn’t exist 5 years ago.  To me, there was no West County, Tower Grove, or Hanley Road.  There was no struggle to do multi-site church.  Acts 29?  Barely born.  The oft-quoted Tim Keller?  Never heard of him.  Mission St. Louis?  No such thing.  Heck, five years ago, my children didn’t even exist.  The incredible friendships I share with so many in our church, and on our staff didn’t exist.  There was no staff!  Five years ago there were no Journey baptism celebrations.  There were no Gospel Classes.  There were no Community Groups.  There were no internships.  There was no Midrash.  There were no stories about people being changed by the good news of the gospel of Jesus through a jacked-up bunch of people called the Journey. 

But now, 5 years later, the stories are abundant.  In fact, many of us reading this blog on this website right now probably are one of those stories.  Whether we have become a follower of Christ for the first time, or whether we’ve turned from self-effort and religious moralism, or whether we’ve been set free from our licentious self-absorbed lifestyle, many of us have embraced the beauty of a good God who is faithful to love us and work in and through us, despite us.  We’re different  now, not perfect, but different.  We haven’t arrived, but we are in process, we are changing.  Surely God is in this place, and it’s amazing to be a part of it.  I have never loved a church and a city like I love ours.

I reflect on these last 5 years because I am on the cusp of stepping away for a month-long sabbatical.  A sabbatical?  What’s that?  It’s basically an effort to help our pastors endure the work of ministry for the long haul.  So we have designed a sabbatical policy that allows our pastors to take an intentionally planned period of time away from normal pastoral responsibilities to devote to rest, reflection, and renewal.  One author said, “There is a repetitiveness and intensity involved in ministry that exacts its price in weariness of spirit, diminished enthusiasm, a dulling of the capacity to be creative, and a loss of vision and perspective."  A great way to combat that is to step away and rest.  The principle of rest is clear throughout the Scripture.  After God created the heavens and the earth and all that filled it, Genesis 2:2 says that God rested.  In Exodus 20 God commanded his people to remember the Sabbath day by working six days and resting on the seventh.  Jesus was often described in the Gospels as getting away.  The cycle of work and rest is throughout the Scriptures.  I don’t know about you, but that’s easier to read than to actually do.  The pace we run at in our society makes us fear resting.  We fear it because we don’t want the work to pile up while we’re gone and we think we’ll just be further behind if we rest.  But the truth is we were made for rest.  We weren’t made to keep grinding it out until our bodies can’t go on.  We were made to work, and to rest.  And when we rest we are reminded that God is in control, that this is His world, and His story.  We are set free from worry, and we see that He is the one who holds all things together, not us.  And while we try to rest and remind ourselves of that on a weekly basis, there is nothing quite like a good extended time away to give us real perspective on the God we serve.  It gives us a healthy, refreshed spirit and a renewed vision for what’s ahead.

So, for the next 4 weeks, I will attempt my first sabbatical.  I will reflect on what has been an amazing 5 years here.  (I will also attempt the absurd by not writing a single email the entire time!)  I will refresh my spirit by getting some good focused time with my wife and 2 kids, and some good time to read, to journal, to enjoy God and his creation.  And lastly, I plan to envision and dream about what incredible things God might do in and through people like you and me over the next 5 years here.

A mentor of mine has written a brilliant challenge for us on this great day.  Read and consider doing what Dr. John Piper encourages us to do with regard to this imperfect, but important man's dream. Piper writes:

The point of this ‘today' is not to celebrate all that MLK was. You need not belabor his sins. The point is to lift up some magnificent things he stood for and some necessary and amazing achievements of the civil rights era in which he was a key leader. We are Christians and can see these things in the light of providence and the gospel. Let everything point to Christ and him crucified. Consider Revelation 5:9 if you wonder whether ethnic diversity and ethnic harmony are Jesus-blood issues.

All you have to do to find some good word from MLK is Google his name. His "I have a dream" speech has some powerful lines. He dreams that some day his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character." That cry is as important today globally and locally as it was in 1963.

In my judgment the "I have a dream" speech was not the apex of King's eloquence. That is reserved for certain passages in "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" (April 16, 1963). Here is the most powerful word from King I have ever read:

"Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience."

Piper then says:
You need not have all the answers. You need not be democrat or republican. You need not think things are as bad as they were or as good as they could be. What you need to do is press the issue of ethnic ill-will on the consciences of (the people you influence) in the name of Jesus, who came to us when we were more alien to him than anyone has ever been to us.

God give you courage and grace.

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1026_dont_waste_martin_luther_king_weekend/

The title of this blog is backed up by these interesting and depressing statistics regarding people like you and me in these United States:

70% are living paycheck to paycheck (Wall Street Journal)

Less than 30% use a written monthly budget to manage household  finances (Wall Street Journal)

Average American spends $1.22 for every dollar they earn. (Myvesta.org, Inc)

95% argue about money related topics on a regular basis (various polling)

Average balance per H.H. is $8,562. (Source: www.cardweb.com)

There are a few people who do have control of their finances. I am continually surprised and impressed by the number of people I am running into who have their financial act together. Yet many of these folks don't use their money to worship God. They stay in their budgets and are wise in their investments, but they fail to allow their money to be used to participate with God in His work of spiritual, cultural and social renewal.

This weekend, in our last sermon in the book of Philippians, we are going to look at the need to get our financial house in order, not just to avoid debt, or simply to save and invest our money, but so that we can join God in his work of renewal in our city and this world.

Stevens, to my knowledge, was not a Christian. But he definitely had a noble purpose in his poetry. I wish more people in our world had a heart to help others through their work. It was interesting to me that despite Stevens' altruistic motivation, even he realized that helping people see themselves and their lives as acceptable was simply not fully possible in this life. Stevens wrote, "What I want, the thing I desire even when being content with the things of this world is an imperishable bliss." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/blisses

In the next couple of weeks we are going to talk about contentment (being ok with your life) as we close out our series in the book Philippians. We will talk about the command to enjoy this world, but to put our hope for imperishable bliss in another world.

In the spirit of typical resolutions to lose weight, spend less and save more, find a soul mate, cease watching network television, and so on, I make this simply suggestion. Instead of making pronouncements at the first of this year, let's ask ourselves some hard questions and spend the year reflecting on them with our minds and answering them with our lives. Here are four important questions for you to consider in 2008:

How can I grow in my understanding and application of the gospel?
The gospel is both the way we come to know God and the way we grow in God. It is the central thread that runs throughout the whole Bible and is the key to everything in Christian Spirituality. What is your plan for "getting the gospel" this year?

Who can I serve better?
The weight of our culture puts great pressure on all of us to focus on ourselves and worry primarily about staying # 1. Yet, Jesus, the son of the living God, showed us the way to greatness by washing other people's nasty, smelly feet. Whose nasty, smelly feet will you wash this year?

What besetting sin will I repent of this year?
All of us, if we are gut-level honest, have sins that continue to pop up in our lives and drag us into a rut of bondage and guilt. These sins that consistently trip us up are called besetting sins. These are the sins that we excuse, justify, and rationalize.  These are the sins which cause us to feel condemned and drain our confidence before God and people. Will this be the year that you actually turn from that which you are so enslaved, ashamed and guilt-ridden?

Will I enjoy this year more than last year?
One of the consequences of living in a crappy, sin-dominated world is that we tend to get discouraged and depressed by all the darkness and bondage that surrounds us. It is very easy to let the pain and depravity of this world distract us from the reality that every day is a day that God has made, and thus every day is an opportunity to take joy in our God.
Will you learn how to rejoice?

What are your questions?
These are the main four questions I am challenging myself with this year. You should consider asking your own hard questions for your own life. Now, go take on the new year!

Let me give us all a challenge for the next few days. Let's pause, let's not give in, let's wait. Let's be present. You and I are more than consumeristic automatons. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/automaton

Enjoy Christ in the next few days and let Him distract from the madness. May we find and worship Christ like Mr. Robinson describes:

"The purpose of worship is not to escape from this world into the 'other world' but to open oneself to the meaning of the Christ in the common. The function of worship is to make us more sensitive to the depths of God in everyday life." John Robinson

In the final lecture on the "Emerging Church" I give my own assessment of what is the good, the bad and the ugly of the church that is emerging.

CLICK HERE for Audio Content

Today I am going to do some shopping and as I began to think about which stores I would frequent I suddenly felt my chest tightening up, my brow furrowing, and my mood becoming downcast. Why? Because I remembered how much I hated the American Christmas.

As I was surfing on the internet for the best deals at the relevant stores I ran across an article that Tim Townsend the religion writer for the St Louis Post-Dispatch wrote regarding the tension that Christmas is for Christians:

"Almost before the skin formed atop the Thanksgiving gravy, Americans turned their attention from mashed potatoes to Merry Christmas this year and in doing so, confronted the dichotomy of Christmas. What is Christmas really supposed to be about? And how do we negotiate the Two Christmases - the one where Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, and the other one about iPhones and Xboxes and Hannah Montana singing dolls. Interviews with dozens of Christian shoppers over six hours at five area malls on Friday suggested that Americans have become adept at reconciling the crass commercialization of a religious holiday and its true meaning. They've done it by stressing family togetherness. And sometimes togetherness happens best at the mall.

But the cost of togetherness can be high. Parking was a struggle at every mall. Lines at the food courts snaked beyond the courts' borders. Some weary shoppers (mostly men) dozed in the middle-of-the-mall sofas. At St. Louis Mills in Hazelwood and the St. Louis Galleria, Santa himself made his traditional mall appearances and proceeded to make little children cry." http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/keepthefaith/story/D0613F4E8B9D21BD8625739D000BDF1D?OpenDocument

What a world we live in. What tensions we have to deal with as followers of Jesus in a consumeristic world. I hope you join me this season in loving Jesus and hating the American Christmas.

Instead of typing up a bunch of stuff, just download the lecture I presented at the Francis Shaffer Lectures at Covenant Seminary. What is interesting is that many of the same words are used and defined almost the exact same way across the various streams of the emerging church. However, the words "missional" and the "Kingdom" have radically different definitions in the emerging church as you will hear. Enjoy.

CLICK HERE for Audio Content

In my view there are three main streams in the emerging church:

Emerging Conversational - They are mainly after theological revision for the church. These folks are really interested in trying to re-imagine theology in light of our postmodern situation. They often challenge traditional understandings of evangelical theology and cast doubt on many of the insights of the protestant reformers of the church. They tend to focus on the mission dei (mission of God) that takes place outside the local church.

Emerging Attractional - They are mainly after methodological revision in the church. These folks are really interested in trying to re-imagine methodology in light of our postmodern situation. They often challenge traditional understandings of evangelical church programming and tend to focus on reaching people in and through corporate worship experiences.

Emerging Incarnational - They are mainly after structural revision in the church. These folks are really interested in trying to re-imagine ecclesiology in light of our postmodern situation. They often challenge the complex structures of the evangelical church. They tend to focus on reaching people through relationships and simple church structures.

Now, let me be clear that these classifications are only so helpful. For instance, many emerging attractional types also do a ton of incarnational ministry. Likewise, many incarnational emerging types are not opposed to large group worship gatherings. Also, both of these groups love to engage in conversations with regard to theology, church and culture. These classifications are simply my attempt to help bring clarity for those who are peeking over the fence and trying to understand the emerging church. I know my categories are not perfect, but I hope they are helpful for those who are seeking to understand the emerging church.

CLICK HERE for Audio Content

Here are the questions I attempted to answer in these talks:
How did the Emerging church begin?
Why are their so many streams in the emerging church?
Who are the key players in the emerging church?
What is good about the emerging church?
What is harmful and dangerous about the emerging church?
What can the church at large learn from the emerging church?

I will post the content from the talks in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned...

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, "only a little while."

The American then asked, "Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"

The Mexican said, "I've got enough to support my family's immediate needs."

The American then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."

The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you would run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"

To which the American replied, "15-20 years."

"But what then, senor?"

The American laughed, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."

"Millions, senor? Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos..."

From Timothy Ferris' The 4-hour Work Week

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/september/30.44.html

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/6.16.html

Far idols are one or two layers deeper than near idols. A far idol is the central value by which all other values are measured and judged and that which all other values serve. A far idol is that which fuels most of the sin and other idolatries in our lives. It is the Sin underneath most sins. It is the root from which most behavior is simply the fruit.

Read this insightful synopsis from Tim Keller about how far idols work:
1. Every self exists in relation to values perceived as making life worth living. A value is anything good in the created order, any idea, relation, object or person in which one has an interest, form which one derives significance...
2. These values compete... In time, one is prone to choose a center of value by which other values are judged...[which] comes to exercise power or preeminence over other values.
3. When a finite value has been elevated to centrality and imagined as a final source of meaning, then one has chosen...a god...One has a god when a finite value is...viewed as that without which one cannot receive life joyfully. (To be worshipped as a god, something must be sufficiently good... Were my job not a source of exceptional affection and delight, it would not be a potential idolatry for me, but I am tempted to love it too much)

What We Seek/Price Willing to Pay/Greatest nightmare/Others oft feel/Problem Emotion

COMFORT/Reduced productivity/Stress, demands/Hurt /Boredom
(Privacy, lack of stress, freedom)

APPROVAL/Less independence/Rejection/Smothered/Cowardice
(Affirmation, love, relationship)

CONTROL/Loneliness; spontaneity/Uncertainty/Condemned/Worry
(Self-discipline, certainty, standards)

POWER/Burdened; Responsibility/Humiliation/Used/Anger
(Success, winning, influence)

Comfort idolatry: "Life only has meaning/I only have worth if--I have this kind of pleasure experience, a particular quality of life."

Approval idolatry: "Life only has meaning/I only have worth if--I am loved and respected by ____________.

Control idolatry: "Life only has meaning/I only have worth if--I am able to get mastery over my life in the area of ________________.

Power idolatry: "Life only has meaning/I only have worth if--I have power and influence over others.

In order to get to the bottom of what the Bible calls idols, and what Dick Keyes calls your "heart title", ask yourself these diagnostic questions:

What other than Jesus has become your main source of significance, happiness, meaning and purpose?

What other than being a child of God are you using as your primary identity?

What have you substituted for God in your life?

What have you used to make yourself feel accepted or worthy before God, yourself and others?

Another way to discern our idols is to begin to take note about what we get emotional about as our idols are revealed because they arouse powerful emotions when our idol is threatened or taken away. If your begin to pay attention to your emotional life you can begin to discern your idols

Questions that expose Near Idols (Keyes, Keller, Kaufman)

What do I worry about most?
What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to question whether or not I wanted to live?

What do I rely on or comfort myself with when things go bad or get difficult?
What do I to cope? What are my release valves? What do I do to feel better?

What do I think most easily about? What does my mind go to when I am free? What preoccupies me? What do I daydream about?

What makes me feel the most self-worth? What am I the proudest of? What do I want to be known for?

What do I lead with in conversations?
What do I want to make sure that people know about me fairly early on in the conversation or relationship?

What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?

What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?
What is my hope for the future?

We will go deeper next Sunday (9.16.07) and talk about how our "far idols" use our near idols to keep us from Loving God and people.

I asked this question to a friend and mentor nearly nine years ago.

At the heart of the Bible is the story of how God rescues the ones he loves. That story hinges on the person and work of Jesus - who he is and what he did. As we often say around here, Jesus lived the life that we couldn't live and died the death that we should have died. Because of his perfect life and sacrificial death, you and I can be forgiven and be made one with God. We call this the Gospel.

What I was discovering nine years ago was that this Gospel was not merely one piece of Christianity, but was, in fact, the very essence of Christianity. The Gospel is not just the entryway into something better or different; it is the centerpiece of all right thinking about God and life. The Gospel is it. That's pretty cool, I thought.

Meanwhile, I struggled to see how the Gospel actually worked on the inside to change people, mainly because I struggled to see how the Gospel was changing me. I kept asking myself, "Is this just another ministry paradigm that is a dime a dozen, or is there real power here, real power for life change?"

The tension grew as my love for the Gospel grew, but the view of my own pride, lust, and laziness grew as well. I was truly a "mixed bag of motives," and I was desperately looking for life. I wanted a way out, but somehow I knew the answer couldn't lie in the path of "do better and try harder." If the answer relied on me recovering "spiritual discipline" in my life, then I was in trouble, because I just wasn't that good.

The answer really is the Gospel. Jesus' life and death for us is "the power of God," as the New Testament says (Romans 1:16). Many people are still unclear, as I was, how exactly to tap into that power. If the Gospel is the answer, how do we apply it to our own hearts and lives? How can this beautiful story of Jesus lead to practical change in our day to day living?

Check out our series called "Transformation" if you are interested in living in the reality of the gospel.

Jonathan McIntosh

The Journey is often criticized for this focus on reaching the un-reached. We certainly take discipleship and shepherding very seriously as is evidenced by our emphasis on Bible Study and pastoral care through our community group ministry that is participated in by almost 70% of those who attend Sunday worship gatherings. While we rejoice in God's people growing in their faith, we realize that we must continue to reach out to those who have no faith.

Recently, I found a blog from Vince Antonucci http://www.vinceantonucci.com/
affectionately entitled "proof of sucking" with some interesting stats about why the church must be missional. Vince writes:  "Not only did the percentage of people attending church decrease significantly from 1990 to 2007, some studies say that there is not a single county in the United States where there are more people now attending church. (The only possible exception is in Hawaii. So, unless you're in Hawaii, there are less people in your county going to church now than a decade ago.)

The Barna Group tells us that the number of adults who did not attend church nearly doubled from 1991 to 2004.

The 2001 American Religious Identification Survey said that more than 29.4 million Americans have "no religion" which is double the number just eleven years earlier.

If the present trends continue, the percentage of the population that attends church in 2050 will be almost half of what it is today.

And, for you church planters:

The increase in the number of churches (between 1990 and 2000) was about one eighth of what is needed to keep up with population growth.
The church-planting rate has been declining throughout the history of our country. (Churches started per 1 million residents)"

Sources:

Stanley Presser, in "Data Collection Mode and Social Desirability Bias in Self-Reported Religious Attendance," American Sociological Review, v. 63 (1998): 137-145 (with L. Stinson).
www.theamericanchurch.org
www.barna.org, May 2004
Dave Olson's slide show, "Twelve Surprising Facts about the US Church"

In recent years "identity in Christ" teaching as highlighted the reality that Christians are saints and not sinners. This is only partly true. Yes, our identity as children of God is not found in our rebellion against God but in our reconciliation to God. However, we are still sinful as Paul describes in Romans 7. The key to the Christian life is growing both in our ownership of our depravity while at the same time exalting in our acceptance in Christ. Consider this from one of the Fathers of our faith as he tries to help us with this paradox:

"If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner."

Let Your Sins Be Strong:
A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon
Letter no. 99, 1 August 1521, From the Wartburg
(Segment)
Translated by
Erika Bullmann Flores
from: _Dr. Martin Luther's Saemmtliche Schriften_
Dr, Johannes Georg Walch, Ed.
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.),
Vol. 15,cols. 2585-2590.

In this thread I thought I would bring you into one of the ways our church and leaders are being influenced. To take our calling seriously to be leaders means that we also must be led. The gospel coalition is such a group that is influencing how we as leaders at The Journey see ministry in the 21st century. Check it out.

"We are a fellowship of evangelical churches deeply committed to renewing our faith in the gospel of Christ and to reforming our ministry practices to conform fully to the Scriptures. We have become deeply concerned about some movements within traditional evangelicalism that seem to be diminishing the church's life and leading us away from our historic beliefs and practices. On the one hand, we are troubled by the idolatry of personal consumerism and the politicization of faith; on the other hand, we are distressed by the unchallenged acceptance of theological and moral relativism. These movements have led to the easy abandonment of both biblical truth and the transformed living mandated by our historic faith. We not only hear of these influences, we see their effects. We have committed ourselves to invigorating churches with new hope and compelling joy based on the promises received by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

We believe that in many evangelical churches a deep and broad consensus exists regarding the truths of the gospel. Yet we often see the celebration of our union with Christ replaced by the age-old attractions of power and affluence, or by monastic retreats into ritual, liturgy, and sacrament. What replaces the gospel will never promote a mission-hearted faith anchored in enduring truth working itself out in unashamed discipleship eager to stand the tests of kingdom calling and sacrifice. We desire to advance along the King's highway, always aiming to provide advocacy, encouragement, and education so that current- and next-generation church leaders are better equipped to fuel their ministries with principles and practices that glorify the Savior and do good to those for whom he shed his life's blood." The Gospel for all of life: preamble from The Gospel Coalition

An explosion had just happened down the street and it was all over the plasma screens which seemed to cover every wall in the place. What had happened? Was it another terrorist attack? What should we do?  People started to get up and leave in the middle of their meals. It was a little freaky. I am sure you heard about the explosion of the steam pipe system (circa 1924) that exploded in Manhattan last week, tragically killing one person and injuring several and panicking millions.

If you have ever been to New York City one word that could readily be used to describe it is chaotic. Throw in an explosion in the middle of millions of people and you have multiplied chaos. Such is life. Not steam pipe explosions, but multiplied chaos. Chaos when you are at work, chaos when you are at home, and chaos when you are trying to relax, which is what my wife and I were trying to do.

The Bible never commands us to relax, in the popular sense of the word, but it does command solitude. "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while," said Jesus to his ministry-bombarded disciples. "Easier said than done," you might think. After all we reason, solitude had to be easier in the first century than it is now, right?

Probably.

But, the command to "do solitude" remains. Jesus wants us to be with him. This doesn't always mean retreating away from chaos, but it sometimes means retreating within chaos. The truth is that we can find solitude in the middle of our chaotic lives if we look for it, if we ask for it. Pause right now and ask God to show you solitude in your chaos and then take a minute, an hour, a day and be with our Lord. Stop making excuses and make haste to retreat in the middle of the chaos of your life so that your life is characterized more by the peace of God than the franticness of life.

Recently, our church participated in the first conference for a new organization called the gospel coalition that seeks to form a missional confession for the 21st century. Here is an excerpt that comes from the section about the crisis of truth from the founding documents for this new coalition.

"For several hundred years, since the dawning of the Enlightenment, it was widely agreed that truth-expressed in words that substantially correspond to reality-does indeed exist and can be known. Unaided human reason, it was thought, is able to know truth objectively. More recently, postmodernism has critiqued this set of assumptions, contending that we are not in fact objective in our pursuit of knowledge, but rather interpret information through our personal experiences, self-interests, emotions, cultural prejudices, language limitations, and relational communities. The claim to objectivity is arrogant, postmodernism tells us, and inevitably leads to conflicts between communities with differing opinions as to where the truth lies. Such arrogance, they say explains, in part, many of the injustices and wars of the modern era. Yet postmodernism's response is dangerous in another way: its most strident voices insist that claims to objective truth be replaced by a more humbly "tolerant" and inclusively diverse subjective pluralism-a pluralism often mired in a swamp that cannot allow any firm ground for "the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints." Such a stance has no place for truth that corresponds to reality, but merely an array of subjectively shaped truths. How shall we respond to this cultural crisis of truth?"

The documents go on to answer this question in exquisite detail. I encourage you to go to the web-site for the brilliant response www.thegospelcoalition.org

However, this whole discussion has been succinctly stated in our first value we hold dearly to as a church. Meditate on truth:

God is true. He has revealed himself in two special and unique ways: in Jesus who came and died and rose again in the flesh, and in his written Word, the Bible. Therefore, we will seek to know, live and proclaim truth out of our love for God. Just as Jesus came into a specific context at a specific time, we also realize that our fellowship exists in a specific context at a specific time. Therefore, we will seek to proclaim truth in the context of the cultures in which we are situated.

It was six years ago this month that my wife, myself and our one-year-old daughter Glory loaded up the moving truck and made our way across the show me state from Kansas City to our new home in St Louis. As we arrived in St Louis, we were absolutely drunk with vision as we sought to plant a church that would reach people in our new city with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have been reflecting a lot lately on the early days of the church. It was terrible but beautiful, exasperating and exhilarating. One of the reasons for my reminiscing is that our original elder Rich Budwell is launching out this month to plant "The Mission" in the Metro east side of St Louis . It is no exaggeration to say that without Rich and his wife Heather The Journey would not exist.

In reflecting on the early days of The Journey and on Rich and Heather launching out in faith I thought I would resurrect an old essay that I wrote in the early days of our church that is appropriately titled, "The Mission". As you read it pray for both The Journey and The Mission as we seek to proclaim the gospel on both sides of the Mississippi .

Jesus of Nazareth came on a mission. He was not looking for the well, the found, or the righteous. His mission was not about starting a ministry that would produce programs to be consumed by nice, attractive, middle-class, white, suburban, couples with 2.5 kids. It wasn't a country club with nice, painted, iron gates that Jesus inaugurated. It was a church that Jesus founded with its calling to storm the gates of hell. The church he founded was not a place for people to get fed and fat, but a place to be equipped and sent. Church is not a building or destination, but a people who are on mission: to join the Savior in seeking and saving those who are lost.

Evangelism, or mission, is not just another program that the church carries out. It is not some peripheral activity. The church is mission. Yes, the church gathers as people being called out (ekklesia) of the world. But the church is at the same time being sent out (apostolos) into the world. The church certainly must be called out from the world, but it also must certainly go back into the world. We are to be holy, set apart and different in our character than those who do not know God. But, we should also refuse to believe the lies the "churched" culture tells us: avoid hanging out with the people in the world because you will be corrupted. We also need to reject the lie that we have to create our own Christian sub-culture and insulate ourselves from the big, bad world. Mission demands that we follow Jesus, friend of sinners, by being immersed in relationships with those far from God, and thus, bring light to lost people in dark cultures. We are called out, but we are sent. It is only in the context of being sent do the metaphors "salt of the earth," "city on a hill," and "light of the world" make sense in describing the church. We are to be people who have been encountered by God through the gospel, and then we are to enter the world with the gospel.

Mission is intrinsically connected to community. In the gospel of John, it is said that the unity of the church is vital if the world at large is to believe and experience the Christ sent from God the Father (John 17:21-23). Further, he said that we, the church, would be identified as followers of Christ only when we are sacrificially loving one another, which is another way of true Biblical community (John 13:34-35). It seems that the gospel of John points us to a reality that is both awesome and frightening: The believability of the gospel which the church proclaims is directly linked to the "realness" of its community. Could it be that many times, the gospel cannot be fully comprehended outside of this kind of real community?

Living the gospel, ie - being on mission, can take many forms: explaining the gospel to a friend or stranger, carrying out acts of compassion, or by being faithful to sacrificially love those in your church. The challenge is for all of us to stay in "mission-mode" and not to default to "maintenance-mode." When it comes to being missional, it is easy for Christians and local churches to be content in our bible studies, worship services and small groups and to forget the world. We do not drift toward mission, we drift away from it. It is not easy to be missional, it is hard work, it takes intentionality. It is much less stressful to hang out with people who look the same, smell the same and believe the same things we do. It is uncomfortable and challenging to intentionally spend time with people who hold differing world-views. But we must push through this discomfort because we are the church. We are the church, the called-out ones. We are the church, the sent-out ones. We are the church, on mission for the sake of the world.