Pastor Mark's Blog

I Am - Identity

2011-10-06T11:42:00.001-05:00

Lost and Found

2011-10-06T11:23:00.000-05:00

Over the past couple of years I have become increasingly excited and encouraged by what is happening in the Church in America and abroad. There is a movement and a resurgence in the Church where we are rediscovering who we are called to be. It has resulted in people living radically and counter culturally as the Church and lives being affected in very positive ways. But along the way I've lost sight of something. I lost sight of the Gospel.

Now you might be thinking, "Come on Pastor Mark, you preach the Gospel and talk about it all the time". Ok, there's truth in that, but at some point I lost sight in the power of Jesus Christ and what He does through His Holy Spirit who lives and dwells in us. I became disenchanted and disillusioned because I haven't seen much of an impact and a change here at Concordia as I have seen in other congregations and settings where

Christians are living radically because of the Gospel. I lost sight that it is the Gospel and God's amazing action in our lives that changes people and moves people to do these great and radical things. I somehow started to think that we could do some great things that would point people to Christ and would help us to live better and more radical lives like those examples of people I've seen lately. I thought that through our actions alone, apart from the Gospel, people in our lives that we affect and interact with would somehow know and turn to Christ apart from the Gospel.

Then I found the Gospel again. In the midst of my grandmother's passing I went to a conference in Alabama and rediscovered the greatness of God and His interaction in my life. I was bombarded with the proclamation of the Gospel and realized that God's goodness and grace is not just a construct to examine and think about but something that changes my life. I saw the conviction and ways that the Gospel affected many of the Christians I have read about, and saw that their actions were never devoid or separated from the Gospel. The two go hand in hand. God's actions to us and through us are because of and connected with the Gospel.

The Gospel definitely pertains to the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for me and others, but it's so much more. I once was lost and now I'm found, was blind but now I see. Yes it was an event in history that changed my life, but it's the reality of the here and now that God is here and interacting in my life today changing me to become more like Him and to be the person He desires me to be. And it is that Jesus gives me the hope of the resurrection and assurance of a future reality that I will experience when He comes again. The Gospel has a past, present and a future affect on my life. I lost that, but now I am found. God in His grace renews me and refreshes me so that I am then enamored with Him and His work in order to move into the lives of others around me and share with them the reality of God's Kingdom and interaction in their lives. It is because of the Gospel that I am spurred on to do go good works and to help others to move from a state of being lost to one of being found in Christ. To God alone be the glory!

Theory vs. Reality

2011-06-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

Not too long ago I watched a movie that completely blew my mind. Inception. I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, but it completely blurred the lines of what was real and what wasn’t real. I need to watch it again to try and figure it out, but even after I watch it a second time I don’t know if I’ll be able to discern what is reality in that movie.

This happens in life quite often too. I see a lot of Christians going along in life and thinking that they’re living in reality when really they’re living in a very theoretical world that looks like reality. I’ve lived there for quite some time too. I take vacations there every now and then and retreat to it when I feel like things are getting kind of tough. This quasi reality shows up when I surround myself with other Christians. It feels safe. It seems clean and simple. There’s a common language there that I can’t speak in reality because it’s almost like a dream. It makes sense to me when I’m there, but when I try to bring the theoretical world into reality things don’t work so well. Reality is dangerous. Reality is dirty and complicated. My catch phrases and language doesn’t work so well with people who are not Christians and I feel out of place.

What makes me think that one is real and that the other is not, you ask? It’s not that either reality is not real. Both involve real, live people who really do have messy lives. The difference comes in that the non-Christian people I hang out with acknowledge that their lives are messy. It might seem that they’re denying it (and I’ve known a few people to deny it), but it’s really that they don’t have an answer for how to clean up their life. That’s real.

What I see happen so often in the theoretical world is that Christians have Jesus as their answer for cleaning up their life but they get to a point where they no longer acknowledge that they’re messy. Nor do they acknowledge that they should be hanging out with people who have messed up lives. It becomes so theoretical that they talk about how people need to turn and see their messed up life and come to Jesus. The problem is that’s not reality.

Jesus came to us. Jesus comes to people. No one can by themselves turn to Jesus and clean up their life. Jesus has to come to them as the answer for their life. That’s reality.

As I was thinking about this more, I thought of people who have chosen career paths in life. Take an electrical engineer for example. An electrical engineer goes to school, knows a whole lot more about power grids and circuitry than I will ever know, and then eventually gets a job to apply all of that knowledge. But what if this person never got a job to apply his knowledge? What if instead, this person were to finish their schooling and decide to go back to school some more? Ok, we’d call that a professional student someone who gets their PhD in electrical engineering or other fields. But what if this person then stayed in the school system? What if they then went on to teach about electrical engineering because they’ve advanced very far in the theory of the field? Well, it seems like that person is doing a great service to society by teaching future electrical engineers about power grids, etc., but they’ve never touched a single wire. This person has never had a job dealing with the stuff they’ve learned. What good is their knowledge if they have never actually done anything about it?

This is the reality I’ve come to recently. I had to admit to myself that I talk about discipleship, I try to practice discipleship, and I try to further discipleship efforts here at Concordia, but I have never been a disciple myself. Sure, I follow Jesus. I believe that He’s my savior and that it’s only by His grace that I’m saved. But I’m following Him through the theory I’ve been taught. I’m teaching according to the theory that I’ve been taught. I am in need of living in reality.

So I am submitting myself to a brother who is discipling me. I am working at hanging out with people who are not in my theoretical circles. I’m getting into the messy, dirtiness of life with other people and I’m starting to see the reality of Jesus making a change in people. It’s difficult, but it’s real. Which reality are you in?

The Burden of Ministry

2011-05-10T13:29:00.001-05:00

We’ve just finished our series on “Lay Your Burdens Down” here at Concordia and it was a series that touched many people and a message I needed to hear as well as preach. But Easter is over, and from this pastor’s perspective all I have to say is “Aaaaaahhhhhhhh”. (That’s the kind of refreshing “Aaaaaahhhhhhhh” that you get after you take a sip of cold lemonade on a super hot day.) It may not be politically correct to say it, but I’m glad that Lent and Easter are over. Of course I enjoyed and got a lot out of the worship experiences and times together with brothers and sisters through this season, but it was a lot of work. The one burden I didn’t get to let go of during these past six weeks is the burden of ministry.

Jesus calls each of us to this particular burden. But does He really intend it to be a burden? Or call it a burden? Jesus does say in Luke 14:27, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” He isn’t calling it a “burden”, but it is definitely something that He is indicating is not a simple, easy-going, always cheery, fun, frivolous task. There’s some sacrifice involved. The cross was Jesus way of sacrificing and He calls us to a life of sacrifice. There’s also a bending of our will to His involved. That’s where He calls us to follow Him and “come after” Him. We don’t always get to do things our way or the way that we best see fit. We need to bend our will to His and see how He wants ministry and life done His way.

While Jesus calls us to follow Him and do things His way, we often get ministry confused with busyness. Or perhaps we could say we get “business” confused with “busyness”. The business of God is the ministry and interaction with people. Loving people, being in their lives, taking care of people’s needs, and lending an ear are what ministry is about. But we too often get it confused with the paperwork, the making of rocks (well that’s what I confused it with), the hustle and bustle of making everything “just right”, and the jamming as much into a season or time as we possibly can. The business of God’s ministry to people has become a bunch of busyness for God’s people. We need to slow down. We all need to take some time and say, “Aaaaaahhhhhhhh”. We need to approach ministry the way that it’s supposed to be: with people at the forefront.

Now, of course I am glad that I did some of the busyness so that people could get more out of the worship experiences and that this was all being done “for people”. However, what I, and all of us, need to figure out is how we can still do some of these things that are “necessary” so that ministry with people to take place. Perhaps part of the answer is doing these “necessary” things (like making boulders out of paper mache) together so that we can connect with each other while we’re doing these “necessary” parts of ministry. An even harder question to ask, however, pertains to what is really “necessary” for ministry to take place and where do our efforts need to be focused? There’s no easy answer there and it’s something to explore, but until we ask the question we’ll never be able to figure out what we should and shouldn’t be doing in order to help people grasp the greatness of the Gospel and God’s grace.

That is the ultimate goal of our lives. We each need to see God’s grace abundant in our lives so that we have a changed heart and a lifted spirit. When the Gospel is first and foremost in our lives ministry with people isn’t a burden. It’s a pleasure. This calling that Jesus gives us is one of great privilege and joy where we can be about the business of God rather than the busyness that we try to make it.

Media and Mission

2011-02-25T13:41:00.002-06:00

This past weekend we had a great Leadership Training Seminar here at Concordia.  We focused on living a missional life and how we can start to move into a rhythm of life where we engage people in our everyday lives with the intentionality of loving people with the love Jesus has shown us. This isn’t anything new from us.  Actually it’s about 2000 years old, if not older.  However, we need to live this way in every aspect of our lives and through the things that we’re already doing, places we’re going, even in things we’re watching and listening to.

            Someone brought up at the seminar that they wonder if the media and the increase in our technology has led us to come up with excuses to be a “Christian” but not have to step foot in community with other believers.  This was a great insight and a point that’s worth exploring a bit more.

            Undoubtedly the technology explosion that we’ve experienced over the past 50 years or more (really the past 20 years in particular) has brought many new opportunities for communicating and conveying the Gospel, as well as many worldly concepts, in ways that we never could have imagined or been capable of doing centuries and millennia before. Large leaps like the Guttenburg printing press in the 1500s was a great tool for the Gospel as well, but this leap lasted for 500+ years and is now being transformed and replaced with new technologies daily.  We are now facing large leaps on a faster pace and larger scale than anything that we’ve seen in history before.  This is an exciting time, but also a time where we need to take caution as a society and as God’s people.

            The use of media in the Church can be a great thing.  This article is also being published on my blog that’s on our website www.concordiatx.org.  It’s not to say that the article is great, but the ability to broadcast messages about Jesus, His love, and how we can exude that love through our lives is a great thing.  The abilities to record and broadcast sermons by putting them on our website or on iTunes is a tremendous capability.  The ability to sit in your car, turn on the radio and hear songs and messages about Jesus is wonderful.  Movies are being made that have blatant Christian messages. Christians have a barrage of outlets for being encouraged and challenged in their faith.  There is much good in the content and capability of this technology.

            However, as with any technology there are good ways to use them and ways to abuse the technology.  This abuse or misuse, really even ignorance, falls mostly on the part of the person listening, watching, or reading the different media.  The content can be sound, Biblical, Christian messages from some faithful followers of Jesus handed out to the masses.  But how do we use it? Are we using this media to replace the AC/DC that we used to listen to, the rated “R” movies we used to watch, or the daily news feeds that we used to get from the Dallas Times or Reuters?  Are we using this media to withdraw from the world and society so that we can feel comfortable and safe?  Even KLTY advertises that their radio station is “safe for the whole family”.  Are we growing less relevant to the world because we have tried to increase our own personal holiness?

            Growing in holiness and devotedness to God is a good thing, don’t get me wrong.  But are we doing this through media and means that cause us to whitewash our lives and live in Christian bubbles that don’t engage or touch the world anymore?  Are we holding the world and our neighbors who have real problems (just like we do) at arms length and saying, don’t come in because you’re messy?  The media explosion, though beneficial in many ways, has also caused us to become consumers of Christian goods and services as well as giving us blinders to what is really happening in the world.  As the listeners and consumers of these Christian media we need to have discernment to what we’re watching and listening to.  Examine the reasons you’re listening to or watching these media.  Examine the balance of your media intake and see if you’re someone that a “sinner” would hang out with. Jesus Himself withdrew to pray and spend time to connect with His Father, but He was always approachable and approaching sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and the outcasts of society.  Does your involvement and engagement in Christian media allow you to live like Jesus?

Not a Tame God

2011-02-09T13:41:00.003-06:00

Over the past couple of months Jenni and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia to our son Noah. It's been great seeing him get into these books, the stories, the characters, and the meaning behind it all. No he doesn't get all of the allegory that's there in the books, but he gets bits and pieces. Like when Aslan is slaughtered by the witch and rises from the dead to defeat the witch being similar to the way that Jesus took our place, died and rose again in order to defeat Satan. The picture that C.S. Lewis paints of Aslan, the God-like figure, is one of a ferocious lion who stands against the evil forces in the world He created and yet is gentle and loving to those who fight with him against the evil. A great line in the second book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is where Mr. Beaver describes Aslan to the children, "He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion."

Here C.S. Lewis is trying to teach us about our God through the character of Aslan, and there's much truth there if we were to say the same about our God, "He's wild, you know. Not like a tame god." That's exactly what we've made Him out to be too. We make the Creator of the universe, the Savior of the world, the Sustainer and Comforter of our souls out to be a dispenser of goods and services for when and where we want them. We have made Jesus to be who we want Him to be, and not who He really is. Alan Hirsch writes in his book Untamed, "We are projecting our self-concern onto God, and it ends in co-opting God to serve our agendas. He becomes a national god, a projection of our collective or individual hopes, a focal point of our narrow concerns, or simply a projection of 'me' on a good day." We read the Scriptures and try to cram Jesus into our lives rather than letting His Word speak truth to us and reveal His presence and participation in our lives the way that He wants.

We would be well to heed the words of C.S. Lewis and Hirsch in order to see that our God, revealed to us through the person of Jesus Christ, is not tame. He is not who we make Him out to be. He is wholly and completely Himself. If we miss this or dismiss this then we go on to worship, serve, follow, and live in the image of ourselves and our own self-constructed god. Take a good look at Jesus and take a good look at yourself. Do you see Him as merely someone who loves, comforts and cares but never punishes or disciplines? Or do you see Him as a man's man who busts heads and kicks butt only to miss His mercy and compassion?

As disciples and followers of Jesus we are called to see Jesus for who He is. We are also called to come and follow Him. We are called to lay down our lives, to have compassion on those who are outcasts, to love the loveless, and to call out brothers and sisters in love when they stray. There's so much more that Jesus has for us than what we see or want to see. Take a good look at who Jesus really is. He's not a tame God.