Sunday, January 16, 2011

from January 16, 2011 prayer update

A week back, I began teaching a 16 part series on the book of Ephesians in one of the adult Bible fellowships in my home church. The series is titled “BE the Church”.

We all know that the local church is NOT a building. Nor is it an event (like Sunday morning corporate worship). Although frequently our vocabulary (and perhaps our practice) is not always consistent with what we know to be true.

We (the believers) are the Church, both in its local expression and in its universal expression. We are the Church 24x7, not just for a few hours on Sunday mornings at a particular location. As a matter of fact, the Church should be at its best when it not gathered together at a specific location, but when it is dispersed in a community, seriously engaging in its calling.

The church building is NOT the “house of the Lord”. We are where God has chosen to take up His residence. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” I Corinthians 3:16. God indwells and empowers His people, not bricks and mortar.

Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Church, describes five core functions of the Church: worship, community, discipleship, service, and outreach. Interestingly these are the same five core functions that he describes for the individual believer in his best seller, The Purpose Driven Life. Why? Because we are the Church.

Although there are five core functions, there is only one core mission for the Church – outreach (with both local and global components to it). God has called the Church (you and me) to seek and save the lost, in our natural spheres of influence and among the least reached globally.

I have seen a T-Shirt that reads “the church has left the building” – I love it! There is an apostolic (literally “sent ones”) role that did not cease 19 centuries ago. God has called every believer to GO. To embrace and be sent out to meaningfully join with Him in His mission.

Ephesians, like Paul’s other epistles, has two major sections. The first (chapters 1-3) I have titled “the high calling of Christ’s Church”. The second (chapters 4-6), “daily behavior and important relationships in Christ’s Church.”

Paul begins with the conceptual (doctrine / theology about the Church). We need to understand conceptually who we are and why we exist. But he then shifts to the practical, what should our daily lives look like as we live out these truths? Paul talks about things like unity in the Body, the priority of equipping every believer to be a worker, the process of life transformation, the importance of personal holiness, wise and Spirit empowered living, and spiritual warfare. He also discusses what it means to be the Church in our marriages, in our parenting, and in the workplace.

Great stuff! Are you playing church or have you seriously embraced BEing the Church? There is a BIG difference.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

from January 2, 2011 prayer update

A new year is a great opportunity for new beginnings and for personal / organizational goal setting. There are so many good things to choose from for personal goal setting: spiritual life, character, work, personal ministry, marriage, parenting, health, finances, friendships, education, new skills, and the list goes on.

The things we set our heart on and direct our attention toward reveal a great deal about our values. What personal goals have you set for yourself in 2011? And what do they reveal about what you truly value?

Psalm 90:12 says: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 103:15-16 reads: “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”

I temporarily lost my dad to death 32 years ago and temporarily lost my mom 2 years ago. I am now the oldest surviving member of the McDaniel clan. If I live to be 80 (which is older than either of my parents lived) I have about 8700 days left. If I only make it to 70, that becomes about 5000 days. That is not a long time.

The apostle Paul did not fear death, He welcomed it. In Philippians 1:21 he said: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” As I have gotten older, I too have begun to look forward to living in a sin-free environment in the very presence of God. This world does not hold the same allure it once did for me. But I also recognize that God created me for a reason, as He has every human that ever lived. I don’t want to depart this life without have accomplished what God uniquely created me to do.

Life is not about me asking God to bless me and mine, and to enable me and my organization to accomplish our personal goals. Life is about God and what He is doing in the world (today and throughout all of history). What a joy and a privilege to know that He has designed me to join with Him in His vast, timeless, and very significant mission.

As I embrace this view of life, my thoughts about personal goal setting change. I become less concerned about one year, measurable objectives (although certainly there is a place for these). I become very concerned about life direction, who I am becoming, and who I am living for. Because I am a slow and often a resistant learner, these translate into life-long goals. Four of the biggies that I can’t get away from are:

1) To know Christ more and more intimately as time passes -- thru the exchanged life, thru His Word, thru prayer, and through personal obedience to what I know to be true.

2) To become more and more like Christ as time passes. Boy do I have a long ways to go there (selfishness, lust, critical spirit, anger, . . . ).

3) To fully engage in Christ’s mission, which centers around seeking and saving those who are lost. Both in my natural spheres of influence and among the least reached globally.

4) To invest deeply in the lives of other believers who will eventually share these high level life goals. And to see my life impact multiplied as a result.

Would you pray for me as I continue to press toward the goal? And if you will share with me what God has challenged you to pursue, I would count it a privilege to pray for you. May 2011 be a year in which God receives great glory thru our lives.