Many times these people are placed in situations that are challenging, uncertain and unexpected. Either way, they all demand a response.

I feel the question posed to the church today is,”What Are You Going To Do?” It’s not a secret that the church (global church) is facing some challenging, uncertain and unexpected realities. Over the past 50 years the church has tried to take it’s stand on moral and political issues. The rise of evangelical conservatism over the years has had some wins but I think there have been some losses too. When the church has an “us vs. them” mentality things go bad. And for many church going Christians, this is their way of thinking. All I have to do is check my news feed and see this victim mentality from some of my Christian friends. They flood my feed with political and social jargon and are sometimes downright offensive.

Evangelical Christianity has largely played the role of victim over the last 50 years. The church growth movement was, in large part, a way for the church to come together in safety. Sure, our churches grew, but many were running away from something rather than to something. Willow Creek, one of the largest churches in Chicago, was honest enough to say they missed the mark in their church growth strategy early on. They had the guts to release their findings in their own REVEAL study.

No longer can the church can take the position of a victim. It must become the rescuer.

Church leaders are beginning to see this reality and have a renewed sense of discipleship and missional living.

These are tough challenges and each church must figure out how be a rescue center that sends out rescuers (missionaries) to their communities and around the world.

If you were positioned to make an impact in your community, I ask you, in the words of John Quiñones, “What Would You Do?”

I’ve been encouraged at how some of the students in our ministry have been focusing on these three words over the past few weeks. Some have gained some ground in their relationships and are beginning to see spiritual life in their relationships. Praise God!

The idea of reaping is simply calling for one to respond to the gospel.   Our central passage for this series has been John 4 (The Woman at the Well). In this interaction, we see Jesus go full circle in the CPR approach.

C-Cultivating a relationship

P- Planting seeds of truth

R- Reaping/Calling for a response

John 4

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

At the end of this conversation Jesus explains that he is the Messiah, and as a result, puts the ball in her court. He’s asking for her to respond to who HE IS!

That’s the point. You and I must introduce others to who Jesus is and call people to respond! And to be honest, this is where many drop the ball. They create intentional relationships with those far from God, they faithfully plant seeds of truth, but they NEVER call for a gospel response!

We must follow Jesus’ example- CULTIVATE, PLANT, REAP—-repeat—-CULTIVATE, PLANT, REAP—-repeat—-CULTIVATE, PLANT, REAP……

Lives depend on it.

This week we move to PLANTING- planting seeds of truth into our relationships. The fact is, you will  not see anything grow out of the ground without first planting a seed. I’m not a farmer, but I know at least this much: seeds must be planted in order for new life to begin.

In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul says, ” I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

You and I have a responsibility to plant and to water! Later, in verse 9, Paul says we are God’s fellow workers in this task. How cool is that? God invites us to participate in producing new life!

This past Sunday, our student ministry planted seeds in flower pots as part of our lesson. As each person placed a seed in the pot they listed a name of someone they know who does not have a relationship with Christ. At the end, we had a total of 65 names represented! We then discussed ways we can all begin to plant seeds of truth into these relationships.

Unfortunately, planting isn’t enough. Seeds need water. Once we plant seeds of spiritual truth into our relationships they need to be continually cared for and watered. For example, many students said they plan to invite friends to church. Statistics say that it takes 7 invites on average until a person finally says they will visit a church. This is our responsibility.

The next part is God’s. He’s the only one that can bring life. No matter how hard I try, I can never create life. It’s God’s miracle (even Miracle Grow can’t do it).

It’s no surprise that the fastest growing churches are the ones who have sustained their evangelistic edge. Most of these churches are centered around who’s not there, those far from God. This is difficult for any church because the natural inertia is for a group to fold in on itself. It’s easy for the arrows to turn inward and it takes an intentional effort to point the arrows outward, towards people far from God. I’ve been in a personal study on the life of Christ and I’ve seen some pretty remarkable insights when it comes to Jesus’ relationships.  Jesus didn’t have too many “religious” friends. He spent most of his time with his small group of disciples and sinners. Think about it. Jesus was given the title, “Friend of Sinners” by those who observed his life. Would the people around you give you that same title?

This is why I’ve started a focus on building INTENTIONAL LOVING RELATIONSHIPS. Lynsi and I have been working on these relationships for some time and I want to share some things that have helped us. We’ve seen God open some incredible doors in our community and on our street when we started being intentional in our relationships.

Here is a helpful acronym that is simple and is something Jesus modeled. C-P-R. We often associate CPR as caring for the physical need of heart gone bad. We can use the same idea as caring for the spiritual need of a heart gone bad.

• C-cultivating: becoming friends with those far from God.
• P-planting: planting seeds of truth in that relationship.
• R-reaping: reaping is calling for a response as a result of a clear presentation of the Gospel.

This process can take place quickly, like we see with Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4), or can been done over a longer period of time.

I’m taking our student ministry through these 3 words over the next few weeks. Last week we talked about CULTIVATING relationships. As part of our study we are going “hands on.” We’ll be CULTIVATING, PLANTING, REAPING an area near our church. Here’s some pictures of students cultivating.

Cultivation is necessary in preparation for planting truth. Most of us do well at cultivating relationships. It’s easy for us to create small talk and make friends. However, those relationships need to progress. Isaiah 28: 24 says something interesting, “When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil?”

It’s a rhetorical question. It makes no sense to plow continually and never plant! But this is what many of us do in our relationships with those far from God. If you want to see life, you’ve got to PLANT seeds of truth. We’ll talk more about this next week.

The app is essentially a photo sharing tool. You snap an image, then you set a timer, and send it. The person on the other end has a few seconds to view your photo and then it disappears, forever (unless you have an iPhone and have a quick draw to screen shot)

When I’ve seen it used it has been entirely all for fun. Like sending goofy pictures back in forth of contorted faces or seeing who can make the ugliest face knowing it will soon disappear from your friend’s phone. Sounds fun, huh? It is, but it can easily be misused.

Parents should be informed about the misuses of this ever popular app. The issue of “sexting” (where people send inappropriate images of themselves) is real and many teenagers have participated.   This raises the question of how parents deal with, not only cell phones, but technology in general. Later this spring I plan on doing a student teaching series that deals directly with our relationship with technology. We live in a new digital world and our children need help navigating through it. I think it’s great that teenagers can share photos and there are plenty of photo sharing tools out there. I’d recommend Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. All of these allow users to share images to their friends. That being said, I believe a parent should have access to these social media sites too. You may not need their password but you at least need to see what your child is posting. Maybe it’s time for you to join the world of social media if you haven’t already!

The Today Show story on SnapChat:

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/50068553#50068553

Want to read more?

Here a few other youth workers who have written about this topic:

http://adammclane.com/2013/01/23/snapchat/

http://theyouthcartel.com/products/a-parents-guide-to-understanding-social-media/

Below is the transcript of the President’s speech, courtesy of the Washington Post:

This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller. I offered Governor Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.

We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. And each time I learn the news, I react not as a president, but as anybody else would as a parent. And that was especially true today. I know there’s not a parent in America who doesn’t feel the same overwhelming grief that I do.

The majority of those who died today were children — beautiful, little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.

So our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost.

Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors, as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early and there are no words that will ease their pain.

As a country, we have been through this too many times. Whether it is an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago, these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children. And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.

This evening, Michelle and I will do what I know every parent in America will do, which is hug our children a little tighter, and we’ll tell them that we love them, and we’ll remind each other how deeply we love one another. But there are families in Connecticut who cannot do that tonight, and they need all of us right now. In the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as Americans, and I will do everything in my power as president to help, because while nothing can fill the space of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need, to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them, that the love they felt for those they lost endures not just in their memories, but also in ours.

May God bless the memory of the victims and, in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.

Everyone has their opinions about Jesus too…

We usually don’t use Jesus and Santa in the same sentence. It’s considered sacrilegious to some. However, I think there are a few similarities between Jesus and Santa.

#1 Both come to us. 

Think about it.

Santa doesn’t ask all the children of the world to make the pilgrimage to the distant land of the North Pole. You’ve see the place in the movies right? Santa’s workshop is located in unapproachable terrain with horrible weather conditions. There’s no way a child could make it alive! Thankfully, Santa leaves this whimsical kingdom full of Christmas cheer and little elves and comes to us. He enters our world!

Jesus did the same. Jesus chose to leave his heavenly home to come to earth. He didn’t ask us to come to where he was, he came to where we are. This is one of the amazing things about Christmas. God came to earth as the God-man, Jesus!

By the way, we are to do the same thing.  We can learn a lot from Santa and Jesus on what it means to be on mission. Instead of waiting for people to come to where you are, to visit your church (which often feels like another world for the unreached), or for your neighbor to randomly knock on your door and strike up a spiritual conversation, how about you go where they are? Aren’t you glad Jesus came to you?

Selah

#2 Both love children

Let’s be honest. Christmas is magical for little children. They go nuts over Santa. Have you ever been to the mall and seen the line to visit Santa? And Santa sits there for hours listening to their dreams and wants.

Jesus was the same way. He loved children. He rebuked the disciples for trying to push them away. He made time for them and I’d imagine there were probably times when Jesus had children sitting on his lap telling Him their dreams and wants.  There’s something special about the faith of a child. That’s why Jesus said unless you come to me like a little child you will not enter the kingdom of God (Matt 18:3). He also said the one who welcomes a child welcomes me.

What is your attitude towards children? What are you doing to invest in the next generation? Don’t push them away.

#3 Both bring gifts

The gifts of Jesus are obviously better since they don’t depend on being naughty or nice! And the gifts that Jesus brings are eternal whereas Santa’s will eventually go to waste.  If you have children, ask them if they can recall what they received last year at Christmas. Chances are they won’t be able to recall much. Be sure to spend some time this year giving them things that matter. One way to do this is to think of experiences rather than gifts. We are more apt to remember an experience than a gift this time next year anyway.

#4 Both had beards

Isaiah 50:6

#5 Both have a heart for the world. 

Aren’t you glad that Santa doesn’t just choose one continent, one country, or one people group? He loves the world. I remember growing up being amazed that (1) Santa could fit in my chimney and (2) he cared for every boy and girl around the world and would visit them too! I’m grateful that Jesus loves the whole world too (John 3:16). Jesus has a desire to reach every man, woman, boy, and girl.

If you’re comfortable with this list, I suggest using some of these similarities as talking points with your children this Christmas. You can obviously expand greatly on the points above. Or perhaps you can think of other similarities and/or differences. I could think of a few more similarities (ie. they both have detailed lists of names…that’s a little creepy),  but I like the number five so I decided to stop there. Can you think of others?

Merry Christmas!

The short answer, Yes.

Emmet Fox, in his commentary on the Sermon of the Mount defines poor in spirit this way:

“To be poor in spirit means to have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and , what is just as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the whole-hearted search for God. It means to be willing to set aside your present habits of thought, your present views and prejudices, your present way of life if necessary; to jettison, in fact anything and everything that can stand in the way of your finding God.”

So, based on this definition, to be poor goes way beyond material possessions. The Greek word for poor is protos, and it means to be completely empty and dependent on someone else for provision. 

Jesus was poor. He was completely dependent of the Father.

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. -John 5:19

I’ve been doing some studying on the life of Christ recently.  Scripture says that we are to “walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).” It means we can (and should) imitate him. Jesus wouldn’t call us to do something we can’t do. The question is how do we imitate Jesus? We must be poor.

We must be completely empty and dependent as he was during his time on earth.  Here are some characteristics of those poor in spirit:

1. They pray. (the ultimate sign of dependence)

2. They are OK with saying IDK. (they are not quick to form opinions or judgements)

3. They listen.

4. They give.

5. They value people.

6. They are grateful.

7. They are humble.

8. They suffer.

Jesus spent a lot of time with the poor and he wasn’t so keen on the rich, religious leaders, or anyone who thought they had things figured out spiritually.  As one who works on a church staff, who has degrees from some of the best theological schools in the country, that can be a bit frightening. However, I find myself asking more questions than ever and I’m OK with that because I’d rather be poor and dependent than rich and lonely.

Day 12 by Chad Rigney

“Everyone has those moments when God asks, ‘Am I still First?’ What will you say when that moment comes?” –Live Second, 14.

Within the first 5mins of my day I touch some kind of technology. Usually the last thing I touch before I go to bed is also the first thing I touch in the morning. Life without technology (and more specifically, my iPhone) would be challenging. Usually, whatever you and I think about before we go to bed and when we rise takes priority. I wish I could say that the sole reason for me picking up my phone is to set my alarm for the morning. Unfortunately, more often than not, this isn’t the case. I’m usually checking my notifications, perusing the Facebook newsfeed or checking my email. What does this say about my priorities? It says a few things. It says I’m looking for a few “likes” to make me feel better about myself, I can’t leave “work” at the office, and I’m probably ignoring my wife laying next to me.

In my previous post I talked about the test that Abraham had to take with his son Isaac. It’s a test we take too. The question is, Is Jesus first? In Genesis 22 Abraham passes the test. It says that Abraham did not withhold his son (Gen 22:12). Abraham was able to offer Isaac with hands wide open, not with clinched fist.

What is it in your life that you need to put down? As crazy as it may sound I need to learn to put my phone down! At times, I’m like a dog responding to a whistle when I hear a notification on my phone. It takes everything inside of me not to move. I must learn to let go. Better yet, turn it off!

What is it for you? Maybe it’s technology like me. Perhaps you need put down the TV remote, close the laptop, or log off. It could be your car, your house, your degree, your portfolio, your desire for the first string, your desire for the first chair, your desire to be in top 10% of your class. None of these things are wrong in and of themselves. The problem is when we begin to hold on to these things with an iron fist. When this happens these things become first in our lives. God wants us to be like Abraham. He wants us to let go and put it down. Sometimes literally.

Day 11 by Chad Rigney

“Either we and everything we hold dear take second place to him, or we stop pretending that he is our God” –Live Second, 13.

I’m not a test-taker. During my school years I dreaded any quiz or test that was aimed at my ability to retain the things that should have sank deep. Tests reveal what is actually there. I’ve had my share of passing some tests and failing a few. However, written tests have no comparison to the tests of life. I’ve had those too. There have been times in my life where I’ve had to prove what was actually there. I’ve been tested in my character, integrity, purity, faith, and the list goes on and on. Some I’ve passed and others I’ve failed. Whatever the outcome of the tests of life there is always a common denominator: every test affirms what is true or reveals what is in error.

One thing I’ve learned about God is that he likes to test you at your core. And this is for our good. This was true of Abraham of the Bible. Abraham’s child of promise, Isaac was his greatest treasure and God wanted to test Abraham on what was Abraham’s priority in life. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son. Talk about a test! God knew that Abraham would have a tendency to put his son before Him. When it comes to following God he wants to be first. And when Jesus came on the scene his demands were the same. He said this: “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison–your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26) God wants to take priority in your life. Nothing else. Not family, not career, not even your life.

We all have things that creep in our lives that scream for our attention and affection. Have you ever wondered how to identify what those things are? An easy way to determine what is at the center of your life is to ask this question: What do I dream about? I’m not necessarily talking about what you dream in your sleep, but the things you daydream about. The things that are constantly on your mind. It could be money, politics, kids, a romantic relationship, your job, possessions. All you have to do is look at someone’s social media page to see what they dream about. Many times it’s the things that are always on their mind that make their way to their page.

There’s no doubt that Abraham dreamed about his son Isaac. God promised he would have a son and Abraham waited years until he was born. I bet Abraham dreamed about Isaac long before he was even conceived. And once Isaac came on the scene God wanted to test Abraham’s dreams and priorities.

God wants to test your priorities too. Jesus says it’s a daily test (Luke 9:23) and there’s only one question: Is Jesus first?