Inreach and teaching

Hahaha. I feel that I should throw in my own two cents. CCF has had a larger focus on Evangelism and outreach ministries this term. Not being a part of that, I'm not really sure how well those outreach attempts are working, just that I hear about their works once in a while. I've been part of too much "should we have Lifesong?" discussions to really want to get into outreach projects...haa.

I found it kind of interesting that, of all initiatives to start, the two newest ministries is Outreach (outward) and Caring (inward). And after listening Mikee talk about the importance of evangelism and outreach, in taking the Word to the people and being a lamp on campus, I feel that I should do a bit of the same for the ministry that I represent.

Lets start with the classic passage:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

- Acts 2.42 - 47 (Fellowship)

It's a good passage, describing to us what the first church is like. There is actually alot one can get out of this. But just in case, I'll write them out.

• Devotion to the Word (so the Bible was important to them) and to the fellowship (so was each other), to breaking of the bread (significance of Christ) and to prayer
  
• Wonders and miraculous signs...yes, the Holy Spirit was very visual in the time period.
  
• All the believers were together...well. They obviously hung out together. This one took a little more insight. Matthew Henry suggested that they separated themselves from the nonbelievers and poured the time into each other instead. Yet he also mentioned that they spent time with the Jews (recall that this is all happening in Jerusalem)
  
• Everything in common...There was alot of communal stuff. Sounds like Westcourt. Hahaha.
  
• Lord added to their number daily. Hmm. This entire paragraph talking about the early church, and this was the only reference to any form of outreach. From reading just this, one would think that the people didn't really even do anything. Just stuck to taking care of each other and teaching and praying and whatnot...and God did all the heart-tugging and pulled people in.
  

...he asked [Jesus], "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

- Matthew 12.28b - 31 (Greatest Commandment)

• Love the Lord your God...the first 4 Commandments has something to do with this. Gotta be important.
  
• Love your neighbour...which pretty much encapsulates the remaining 6 Commandments. Assuming, that is, you don't steal or lie to people you love.
  

I think, ultimately, this is the point I want to get at. We can get so focused on the Great Commission's call for outreach, that we sometimes forget people don't know as much as we do, or are as connected in the church. "Seeker-friendly" environments may get people in, but if there is no followup, there is no growth. Oops. The environment we fellowship in must be one that is conductive to growth. For many (and I confess, myself included), CCF Friday nights is a time to hang out with people. I recognize the difficult for us to generate a program that will absolutely floor everyone. For many, the growth we obtain from CCF isn't in its Fridays...but from cell group discussions and non-official meetings, such as the Acts Bible study that's going on. But many people don't go to those things. How much do they grow then? Love your neighbour...yes, that means feeding them bread (or contextualized to Waterloo...hmm. It'd probably be Mikey's)...but shouldn't it include spiritual feeding too? And so if we can't take care of the people around us...and indeed ourselves either, how can we hope to rise up new followers of Christ?

"Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" Then I will tell them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evil-doers!"

- Matthew 7.21 - 23 (Sermon on the Mount)

Jesus has spoken. This will happen. And the thing is...these people believed they were followers of Christ...my pastor once told me that this is the passage that he fears the most. It is his job to figure out who are "Christians"...and who are Christians.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not downplaying the importance of outreach. Ultimately, Christ came to die on our behalf. But in all His spare time, He was performing outreach. He was adding to His number of disciples. He was teaching. If we say that baptism or communion are things we do these days cuz Christ did it first, then we can't discard evangelism as something insignificant.

Perhaps, we should take a look at our general call for outreach:
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

- Matthew 28.18-20 (Great Commision)

• All authority...Jesus is in charge. Awesome. I serve Someone ownage.
• Go and make disciples...it has been pointed out to me that this chunk doesn't say "go and convert"...but "go and make disciples". What's the difference between a disciple and a convert? The same difference between people who only come on Friday nights and people who attend random Bible studies. The same difference between people who want to be spoonfed, and people who serve. The same difference between people who reach out, and the people who stay within their circles. What is the cost of discipleship?
• Baptizing...name of the Father...Son...Holy Spirit...and so we're instructed not to do this on our own powers. My blab is only so effective. It's really God at work here.
  

At the end of the day, Mikee could rant about outreach and I can rant about inreach, but seriously. We're only university students, nothing we have to say is really all that new. Our ideas are all at least two thousand years old, when Christ walked on this Earth. Our words are simply that, a bunch of words. A few references to the Bible. Alot of hand waving. All this is meaningless with the His conviction in you to drive you to want to tend to your neighbours, both inwardly and outwardly. Building His kingdom in the ways we've been called to...one person at a time.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

- 1 Corinthians 12.7-11 (Spiritual Gifts)

This is a large chunk of the Bible study passage that will happen at CCF this week. A few remaining things...

• Although this passage is often cited as one regarding Spiritual Gifts, it actually talks more about Unity instead. If you keep reading in Chapter 12, the "One Body" passage is found. Things like inreach vs outreach. Charismatic vs Evangelistic. All these things are good and Biblical stuff. But without balance, without that unity, then they are pointless.
• And just as how the Spirit grants very crazy (tongues, prophecy, healing) gifts...He also grants some rather ordinary gifts (knowledge...in other passages, administration, mercy). Are any of these gifts better than others? No. They're all from the same Spirit. Same God. Each of them have their own place and purpose. And same goes for this inreach vs outreach bit.
  
• Actually. I take that back. There are actually three gifts that are better than the rest.
  

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

- 1 Corinthians 13.13

Gears of the engineer

A few of us got talking about how engineers think differently than non-engineers. I've never really understood that. I figure that all the other engineers out there are getting the same type of education that I am. A bunch of calculus. Some circuits. Block diagram reduction. Some imaginary values. Throw in a few microvoltage IC boards and megavoltage motors. In terms of design, we're pretty much left to our own devices. So it doesn't really feel that much different than high school, where it's just massive amounts of knowledge jamming, and figure-out-your-own-application type situations.

Apparently, I'm so submerged in the Waterloo culture that I assume everyone in the outside world is like this. After all, I fit in rather well when I was in Western. I didn't really stand out when I was in Calgary. So when I generate my random analogies (latest: a dime of focus...quite a bit of focus, I'd say) and goes off on my tangents like I always do (woot. non-linear thinking. haha), or pull knowledge that I thought was common (WHAT?! You don't know Euler's formula?!), it always suprises me when it's not easily understood.

I also got to rant a bit about communication. One of the most annoying thing about being Communications back in my 2B was the fact that I had to go make announcements. Planning NSR was okay, the speech was hard. A few days ago, CCF had a QA session, where I had make a few comments. I think, as poor as my stage articulation skills are, it's alot better then what it was before. When I shared this with a second year who told me that she really doesn't like public speaking, she was surprised. After all, I had, earlier that week, answered a handful of questions over a microphone in front of about 60 people. Hmm. So I did.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is...we often speak of growth. People who are focused on physical growth. People who focuses on mental growth. Spiritual growth. Sometimes you don't know that you're growing. Sometimes the situations are too mundane, or the battles are too insane. Sometimes, all you're focused on is to hit the next checkpoint. I was told that, since we're poor assessors of ourselves, we should look to the people around us to tell us how much we're growing. That, even if we can't tell ourselves, we would know when we're not growing at all. That's pretty much when complacency sets in and we all get gg'ed.

Hmm. Perhaps this molding process is too slow. But I suppose one shouldn't ever rush an Artist at work, however tempting.

Haha. I still don't quite get it. What exactly is it that we engineers think about that is different than everyone else?

Mars Hill - Loneliness

So I slept a bit late last night and decided that I'm just going to fall asleep if I attend service, so I took an extra hour then fired up Mars Hill when I got up (yes yes I know I know. I could've gone to Elevation, but I wanted some quietness). Looking through the list of possible sermons I could've loaded up, my eyes got attracted a sermon on loneliness. As someone involved in Caring, I thought it'd be a good idea for me to refamiliarize with this stuff. The following is the notes I made.

Mars Hill Church - "Rebels Guide to Joy in Loneliness" - Mark Driscoll

- There is a decrease overall in hanging out, making friends, and unwilling to make the first move. Within just the context of CCF, one can see that. The sheer size of CCF was a deterrent for me when I first came in, and is still a deterrent for many in our group.

- Even within Christian circles, a survey showed that 40+% of the people feel lonely constantly. Make no assumptions that people are covered.

- God is Trinity -> the three aspects can fellowship with each other -> from this, we want to seek company. "It is not good for the man to be alone." I suppose that verse could be taken to mean more meanings than just wives.

- Sin caused distrust in God and in people...thus we're lonely

- Friendship isn't the solution. It's often invoked by physical proximity or affinity (like similar things) -> but when proximity and affinity change, the relationship changes too. The roots weren't there. Time and distance tests friendship; this is why.

- Paul proposed a Gospel-based relationship -> the sin that causes mistrust and distance between people needs to be addressed, by God, so that people can come together. Give and receive.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

- Philippians 1.2-11

- Note that Paul opened this with "grace to you"...that we're expected to give grace to each other as God gives grace to the repentant -> this leads to peace in the relationship

-Paul talks about joy...considering that he's in jail, have no family, friends arin't anywhere near by -> Joy is not an emotion. It's a state of mind. The understanding that Christians should be happy leads to people faking it all. Paul put his joy in the forward movement of the Gospel, thus he is able to a very bad shape, but still feel joy

- God is at work. Even if we can't see the seeds grow sometimes

- Remember that grace isn't pivotal on what we're doing. You can't wear out Christ's grace. Recognizing this will make you want to share this grace, thus you end up praying for them, and this type of connection (sharing of grace and prayer) is firmer than proximity and affinity. He will carry the rest

- Christ's renewing abilities will transform. Preserve, and keep your eyes focused. He will equip you with what you need.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

- Hebrew 4.15

- Would Jesus understand loneliness? He was isolated for 40 days of temptation. His family denied him. His friends ditched Him. Hey...even..."My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" ... what do you think?

System errors

I don't like incompetence. Especially when it's on my part. The more often you try, numerically, the more often you'll fail. Some things are just difficult to grasp or perform. But I still don't like incompetence. Especially when everyone else gets it, but you.

CCF Retreat - Hands of Discipline

So we ended up talking about alot of different things at Retreat, but I'll focus on the one closest to heart: Discipleship Group workshop. (Yes I know this is super late. Life has been busy)

The presenters talked about Discipleship as something beyond just knowing God.

...Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations (make followers of Christ), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (so to convert), teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you (and educate them)...

- Matthew 28:18-20 (emphasis mine)

So the Great Commission goes beyond just converting people. A report came out a while ago, talking about how "seeker-friendly" service does not help. Among the issues cited was the fact that once we've got them through the door, we do nothing to retain them. They're not taken care of, and thus they never really grow. Our idol becomes the number of attendees.

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

- Matthew 7.21 - 23

This verse has always sat at the back of my mind. It's difficult to underestimate its implications...there is a difference between true Christians and people just going through the motions. It's possible to attend church all your life, and still not understand. Much less what fellowship can provide someone.

What's the point of all this? Discipleship and mentorship is part of this whole system. Woo, big words. What do they mean?

Mentorship: a formal relationship between a student and a professional adult to further the student's knowledge, skills, or career. (As defined by Dictionary.com)

Discipleship: process of being transformed into the image of Christ from the inside out by the power of the Holy Spirit. (As defined by DG workshop).

Yes...more big words. It's basically saying...mentorship is between two people. Discipleship is between you and Christ. Awesome. The people at the workshop proceeded to list these stuff (I've found no direct Bible support for this, I'm simply listing it without giving it too much thought at the moment...)

• Bible Reading
• Scripture Memorization
• Praying
• Silence and Solitude
• Fasting
• Serving
• Evangelism
• Worship
• Confession

Okay cool. This Walk thing is between you and God. Not between you, your buddy and God. Just you and God. So what's this Discipleship Group business? Think of it more as supportive add-ons. Like the com-sat station to the Terran Command Centre. Such group are designed to bring care, support and accountability to the system. To support this idea, the workshop leaders pulled Acts 2. I'll just list the stuff here. Here are the characteristics of such groups...

• Being Together - Chances are, when you gotta take time off (from fellowship, church, etc), it's when you need God the most. Check up on those people. If you have to hammer at a group to come out, chances are that they dont' know why they are there. This group is designed ot help them.
  
• Sharing and Accountibility - It's about being open to be caught and rebuked. Growing doesn't actually feel good. Not at the moment, anyway. Over time, the little things we do starts to feel normal. The bad stuff becomes to get diluted. Simple truth gets confusing. We need people to "snap us out of it."
  
• Confidentality - Okay. You gotta be able to trust your teammates. Enough said.
  
• Prayer - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Phil 4.6
  
• Reading the Word - "Take ... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." - Eph 6.17

Seek support. Give support. I firmly believe that God gave us this concept of friendship because He knew that we can't do it alone. So He stuck people around us to point us right when we turn wrong.