A Gospel Sermon

Indian Creek is currenty in a season  which we've been challenging people to live as missionaries.  Part of that missional challenge includes leading groups through the Tangible Kingdom Primer.  I got to share during that series a couple weeks ago and here is a copy of that message.

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away.... At least, on a different continent in a different hemisphere - things were not going so well for the Republic.  Which was really too bad, because things had started out so well for this fairly young nation.  But since the assassination of the nation's leader, the country had been in the throes of civil war. Years of bloody civil war.  Eventually, one man was able to unite several armies and gain control over the Republic.  Finally bringing peace back to a nation that had been torn apart by bloodshed.

This leader turned out to be more powerful than anyone had originally imagined.  He took this national Republic and turned it into a global empire - an empire that dominated the known world.  Every Empire needs an Emperor - and he was that Emperor.  This Empire promised perpetual peace and financial wealth.  And the Empire delivered on that promise.  At least to its citizens.  The Empire crushed anyone crazy enough to threaten its peace, prosperity or strict obedience to law.  And the Empire continued to expand its wealth and dominance by conquering more and more of its surrounding neighbors. 

The Emperor crushed rebellions.  Took more and more territory. Won battle after battle.  And after each  battle, representatives of the Emperor would run from city to city, from town to town and all the way to the far away villages - announcing the good news of the Emperor's victories.  The good news was that the Emperor and his Kingdom was unmatched and undefeated. 

The citizens of this Empire spoke Greek.  And the greek word we often translate as good news could also be translated another way - gospel.  The biblical word "gospel" actually came from the Roman Empire.  To a first century Roman citizen, the news of the Emperor's conquests was "gospel" or "good news."  The "gospel" of Caesar.  The good news of Rome's Kingdom.  Although, this wasn't such good news if you were one of the ones who were conquered.  Or a non-citizen.  But to learn more about that, read the book of Revelation. 

Rome's "gospel" started with their "son of God, Prince of Peace" - their first Emperor - Augustus.  Caesar Augustus had united Rome from its civil wars and had conquered all of Rome's enemies, making life pretty sweet for Rome's citizens. And that gospel continued, through the victories of Augustus' successors - Tiberius, Caliqula, Claudis, Nero and on and on.  To a first or second century Roman, their Kingdom seemed unrivaled.  It seemed like a Kingdom with no end.

Imagine then, the gall, the audacity, the stupidity even, of a small group of Jews - Jewish outcasts - who began to refer to the life of their crucified Rabbi as "gospel."  They called it the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In fact, one writer, Luke, even started his retelling of the Christian "gospel" by declaring that it was a peasant born Jew, not Caesar Augustus, who was the Son of God/ Prince of Peace/ Ruler of a Kingdom that would know no end.  Feel free to break out into some Handel's Messiah right here...

First century Christ-followers took the word "gospel" from the Roman Empire and redefined it to mean "the Kingdom of Jesus." 

There's a reason Christians were thrown to the lions, crucified and set on fire; it's because they boldly declared that Jesus was Lord.  They broke their nation's laws. They refused to add to "Jesus is Lord" the good patriotic belief, "Caesar is Lord."

And the gospel for which they were dying was not the watered-down, neutered version of "gospel" that has been prominent in most Evangelical churches since the revivalist movements of the 19th century.  If you were to ask most American Christians to define the gospel, they would say something like this; "the gospel is the good news that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, so that if I put my faith in Christ, I can be forgiven of my sins and have eternal life with Jesus."   Right?  That's probably how you would define
"Gospel."  That's what I had thought for most of my life.  Whenever I preached and gave people the chance to make an individual decision for Jesus, I was say that I had "presented the gospel."  But what I had actually done, what most of us have done, is to mistake the biblical idea of person salvation (Jesus dying for my sins) with the larger idea of Gospel.  pause - think

Let me say that again.  This is the part of the message where you have to be open to reconsidering strongly held opinions.  Jesus dying on the cross for my sins - that's not the gospel, at least not the entire gospel.  Rather, that's the plan of personal salvation.  Personal salvation is one part of the larger biblical idea of Gospel.  We aren't the main idea of the good news.  It's so much bigger.  Which is good news.

The Biblical idea of gospel is almost exactly the same as the Roman idea of Gospel.  But instead of the hero being Caesar and his Kingdom, the hero is Jesus and his Kingdom.  Ever since the tragedy in the Garden of Eden, the universe has been in a civil war of sorts, God's creation has been in rebellion against its creator.  But the good news is that Jesus has started the process of setting everything right again.  And one day, Jesus' Kingdom will have permanent residence in this world.  God's original intentions for his creation will eventually replace the present, sinful reality.  That process is not yet complete, but it has started.  The Gospel message is that Jesus is setting everything right again.  And anyone connected to Jesus gets saved.

With that working understanding of the Gospel - the entire Gospel - let's look at a passage that outlines for us this story of Jesus.  The passage is from 1 Corinthians 15 pass out bibles.  Before any of the words of our New Testament were actually written down, Christ-followers had been telling and retelling the Gospel of Jesus.  So when Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth, he is simply writing down what Christians had been repeating to each other for decades.

1 Corinthians 15:1-7 After this part, Paul starts to go on a bit of a tangent, but the retelling of the Gospel tradition picks back up again in verse 20.

1 Corinthians 15:20-28  The bad news is that the creation has rebelled against its creator.  The good news is that King Jesus is setting everything right again.  All things are being redeemed and renewed.  Even us sinful humans. 

I want to make a few observations about this passage:

The Gospel is the completion of Israel's story  Jesus didn't show up out of nowhere.  Jesus' story is rooted in the story of Israel - the stories of our Old Testament.  Day one of the Tangible Kingdom Primer talks about God's calling of Abraham.  That's really where the story of God remaking the world began - with God calling a people to be his representatives in the world.  God first chose to reveal himself through Abraham and his descendants. Then through Jesus.  And now - through the church.  In Romans, Paul says that we are grafted into Israel's family tree.  Ultimately, Jesus is the completion of what God started with Abraham and the people of Israel.

Personal salvation flows from the Gospel  Jesus dying to forgive my sins is not the entire gospel story - but it is a part of the gospel story.  Through Jesus, God is rescuing the entire world and that includes individuals.  Through Jesus, we have been reconciled to God.

The Gospel is the entire life of Jesus  So often, we focus only on Christmas and Good Friday, skipping everything in between and even everything afterwards.  But Jesus did so much more than just die for our sins.  He taught, he was resurrected, he appeared after his resurrection.  And one day - that day really is coming - he will return to earth and set everything right again.  Jesus isn't going to snatch us away from this earth and then blow the whole thing up. While you might find that in the Christian bookstore, you won't find it in Scripture.  Rather, Jesus is returning to this earth and will restore this earth.  In Revelation, the New Jerusalem comes down to earth. Culmination of the story.  But we don't have to wait until the end.  We get to be a part of restoring creation right now.  The Gospel story is not yet complete, but it has started.  And we get to be a part of it. 
Here's another way to summarize the gospel message:

Jesus lived, died, was buried, was raised, was exalted and is the ruling King who is coming back again.  The Gospel is the story of Jesus and we get to be a part of that story.

Geoff and Sherry Maddock are two people who are living out the gospel story.  About 15 years ago, they moved into the poorest part of Lexington, KY.  A part of the city that is ravaged by the effect of sin - both personal sin and systemic sin.  No grocery stores in their part of the city, making it hard for families to find nutritional food.  Just corner convenience stores full of cigarettes, lottery tickets and junk food.  Simple things, like trees - are hard to find in their neighborhood.  No parks for the kids.  Things we often take for granted but are essential for healthy living in a city.  The ascetics of the neighborhood are terrible, too.  A bunch of abandoned and neglected buildings.  It's an ugly place to live.  The destruction of sin is evident everywhere.  The bad news seems to be the dominant story. 

So when Goeff and Sherry moved to this part of Lexington, their intention was simple - to live out the gospel - the entire gospel. I had the privilege of hearing them speak last week and they kept repeating one phrase over and over, "God is making all things new and everything is included."  So their plan of sharing the gospel with their neighborhood did not involve knocking on doors and telling people the four spiritual laws.  No, their plan to share the gospel was to start cleaning up the neighborhood.  Knowing that as they changed the ascetics of the neighborhood, they would be living out God's redemptive, re-creative plan for their city.  In other words - the gospel.

They started working with the corner convenience stores to get healthy food into the stores, so the kids could have more options than just cheetos.  They painted buildings and fences.  They helped plant trees in empty lots.  Eventually got the city to let them plant an orchard that takes up several city blocks.  Where there were just weeds, there are now trees from which kids can pick fruit off the branches when heading to school.  Think about that.  And in a lot where there used to be just a burned out building, they have now planted a community garden.  People from all over the neighborhood get to contribute to and take from the garden. 

One neighbor helped them grow a watermelon plant.  As the watermelons ripened, Sherry began to get more and more excited about enjoying that watermelon.  She didn't mind giving them away, because there was still one she was keeping for herself. Sherry was keeping her eye on one ripening watermelon.  Just as she was about to go out into the garden to pick that watermelon, another neighbor who had been helping her garden came over and asked for that watermelon.  Just as she was getting ready to pick it.  Sherry knew she couldn't say no. But she was kicking herself for not going out to the garden just 5 minutes earlier.  Sherry even let some self-pity overtake her. "I give so much to others, why couldn't I just have the one watermelon that I wanted?" 

The next morning, the neighbor came by to thank her again for the watermelon.  He told Sherry, I've got it sitting in my fridge cause my entire family is coming over today to enjoy that watermelon."  He then told Sherry that even his two sisters, sisters he hasn't talked with in 5 years, were coming over to his house that afternoon.

That's the gospel.  The recreating of this fallen world.  The bringing of the Kingdom of God into sinful corners of the world.  Bringing healthy food to kids who don't normally get balanced meals.  Making an ugly neighborhood beautiful.  Turning abandoned city lots into thriving community gardens.  And helping estranged family members reconcile over a big, ripe watermelon.  The gospel is that the King is fixing his universe. And we get to be a part of it. 

When Geoff and Sherry's neighbors ask them questions - guess what? They get to tell them why they're doing this.  They get to tell them about the love of Jesus and God's plan to make everything right again.  What Geoff and Sherry have done in their neighborhood is a perfect picture of how we proclaim the gospel.  There is a quote often attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, "Preach the gospel at all times.  If necessary, use words." 

The Gospel requires a response.  No one will force us to join in Jesus' story of salvation.  It's up to us to choose how will we respond.  Part of the response to the Gospel is to choose Jesus as Savior.  To allow Jesus to begin to cleanse all of the junk in our lives and to remake us into the person he created us to be.  But the Gospel requires that we not only choose to make Jesus our Savior, but to also choose to make him our Lord - our Leader - the one who calls the shots in our lives.  Which means that we join him in helping to restore his creation.  That may mean we help clean up our neighborhood or maybe it's some other area.  But we get to be a part of God's story of redemption.  That's good news.  That's Gospel. 

As we move toward communion, I want to share a quote from the Tangible Kingdom Primer. 

A Kingdom life lived on mission is really about living ordinary, everyday life in community, with great gospel intentionality. 

Almost every time we gather for worship, we get to physically re-enact the Gospel.  We get to feel and taste Jesus' story of redemption.  We do this when we celebrate communion together. 

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 

When we choose "Gospel" we are saved.  And we join Jesus in bringing salvation to the world around us, too.

So when you take the bread and juice this morning, let this be an act of choosing the Gospel. Maybe you're making the choice for the first time ever or the 700th time.  But don't take the elements without choosing to join in Jesus' story of Gospel. 

Living in the Present

I’ve been known to ruminate over the past (going over and over past mistakes) and to obsess over the future (plotting out every possible future scenario).  As I’ve written about before, though 2012 is a year of waiting on God, a year of giving up my need to prove my worth by what I can accomplish.  2011 saw the ending of two great endeavors meant to make this world a better place; one had a slow and painful death and one crashed-and-burned, but they both ended.  It’s so tempting to want to jump right back into another world-changing endeavor.  And while I am serving in a couple different ways, church and inner city while also thinking and praying over some future possibilities, most of my energy is focused upon enjoying the moment and finding my identity as God’s child rather than God’s servant.  This is not easy for me to do, but unless I want to drive myself crazy, I have no option but to learn that lesson during this time of waiting.  

With that backdrop, check out the quote I just read from Greg Boyd’s book, “Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now.”  

“How much of your thought life is spent in the past or future, and what is the purpose for this nonpresent thinking? You may be so accustomed to living in the past and future that you find it difficult to notice how much of your thought life is spent there, let alone why you spend so much of your thought life there. But if you are completely honest with yourself, you’ll probably find that most of your past and future orientated thoughts revolve around you and are centered on your attempts to feel worthwhile and significant.

When we live perpetually hungry in the flesh, we spend a great deal of our thought life savoring past experiences or possible future experiences that make us feel worthwhile and significant. We also spend a great deal of time ruminating over past experiences that make us feel less worthwhile and significant. All the while we are strategizing over how to position ourselves to have more of the worth-giving experiences and how to better avoid the worth-detracting experiences.



Most of us are so accustomed to being hungry for Life and living in the past and future that we don’t realize this is what we’re doing. It’s hard for a fish to notice the water it swims in. But the fact of the matter is that we are rarely in the present moment when we’re hungry and chasing after false gods. This is yet another aspect of the grand illusion that entraps us. The very process of trying to acquire Life on our own forces us to miss most of life, for real life is always in the present moment. When we live as though we can acquire Life from things other than God, we inevitably live as though reality wasn’t always in the present moment.

Only a person who is no longer driven by insatiable hunger can consistently live in the present moment, and only a person who has learned how to find Life in the present moment is no longer driven by this insatiable hunger.”

My Prayers for 2012

Now that I've pretty much recovered from a season of loss and stress, I've now entered into a season of praying, waiting and preparation. In fact, my good friend Joe Kumor even told me in a message the other day that he was excited to see the next adventure God had for me.

I recently read a book by Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker, that talked about praying circles around important people and our future. In response to that book, the three circles I've made for this year are: My family/ adoption, justice/peace and teaching/ preaching. While I was already thinking and praying about those things, this book helped me focus my efforts. Here is a bit of info on where I am now with each circle and where I hope to be by the end of 2012.

Family / Adoption I've made more an effort lately to be praying for my wife and my son. I'm also praying about where to begin our next adoption process. Dawson basically fell into our lap, so I'm guessing the next child will take some effort on our part. I have a list of some agencies we can look into, I just need to actually do it. I'm also encouraged by the fact that my employer, Farmers, has a $4,000 adoption credit.

Preaching / Teaching teaching and preaching the scriptures is a gift that God has given to me. Not being in a regular pastoral role, however means I'm not in a regular rhythm of using those gifts, but I'm working into a new rhythm. I will be preaching at IC Gardner every six weeks or so and will be starting a discipleship group for new Christians.
But how will this move ahead in the future? I've been thinking for a couple of years that I'd love to start a ministry that educates people on Jesus' nonviolent teachings and example. I've been thinking lately that it would be great to teach some college level ethics classes. So it might be time for me to pursue some sort of doctoral degree. Yesterday morning, a life-long mentor of mine, Randy Beckum, gave me some great ideas for a doctoral program.

Peace / Justice Clearly, I have a passion to help make this nation slightly less war-hungry (at least among Christians) and slightly more just. Randy Beckum also told me that my alma matter, MidAmerica Nazarene University is starting a Center for Social Justice. I'd love to work for something like that. The educational ministry mentioned above would be a part of living out this passion as would some teaching opportunities at another initiative of MNU.
In the present, however, I'm continuing to read war history and nonviolent Christian teachings and sharing those on my blog. I'm also volunteering, and trying to recruit more volunteers, for the Urban Scholastic Center in Kansas City, KS. I'll write more on that later.

So those are my "prayer circles" for 2012. If you'd like to occasionally join me in those prayers, I'd greatly appreciate it.

A Car Wreck

I'm now working as an auto insurance adjuster. I do all of my work from the office,so if there are any injuries resulting from the accident, the claim automatically gets reassigned to an adjuster in the field. There are some serious injuries, obviously, but even if there is the possibility of a minor injury, the claim still gets sent to a field adjuster. If a person has just a small pain in their neck, there still needs to be an investigation because while that pain could end up going away in a day it could also turn into a chronic neck injury. So no matter the extent of the injury, an investigation is always required. We also keep a record of where each person is sitting in the vehicle. A curious reality of car accidents is that one person may walk away from an accident relatively unscathed while another person sitting in different part of the vehicle could suffer a serious injury. As long as the injuries and passengers are put in the file at the time the claim is filed, future treatments may be covered by the insurance company. Another curious thing about injuries is that they may not present themselves until months after the accident.

A few days ago, I had the privilege of having breakfast with one of my college mentors, Dr. Sondra Cave. In addition to being a mentor, she was also my "mom" while I was in college; letting me cry in her office after Erin dumped me (thankfully she eventually wised up) and later serving as Erin's wedding coordinator. Despite all she had done for our university and even despite being named alumnus of the year, a year ago Sondra was laid off from our alma matter. To put it mildly, it was a painful experience for her and she's still working through some of the effects of that betrayal. On the positive side, however her consulting business has taken off now that she's been forced to market her incredible gifts.

That morning, Sondra and I swapped stories about the hellish despair we've both gone through lately. I told Sondra some of the emotional breakdowns my short stint in the Kansas City Missouri School District had caused me, some of which I'm still not comfortable sharing on this blog. We also talked about how we've both come a long way in our recovery Physically, I'm back to normal but I'm pretty sure I'm not yet fully recovered emotionally.

While I've been given some great opportunities to use some of my teaching and leadership gifts withing Indian Creek Gardner, I'm intentionally holding back somewhat; being hesitant to commit to some things that I know I could do and working to protect my time with my family and my time to myself. I've also had some discussions about potential full-time ministry opportunities but I'm very hesitant about those, too. Right now, it's wonderful to work my 40 hours, leaving the job at the office and to come home to a night of playing with Dawson, jogging on the treadmill, reading a book or working on a sermon for Indian Creek.

I know this place I'm in isn't long term but it's a really nice place to be; a fact that actually scares me. I'm scared of being complacent and missing something great God may have for me because I'm too busy enjoying my comfort to sense his nudge. Which makes that conversation with Sondra so timely.

Sondra expressed my 15 weeks of Teach for America/ KCMSD as a car crash; a short but intense experience that launched with huge hopes and dreams before violently crashing into a reality of guilt and shattered dreams. The grief and guilt of which is compounded by the grief of Trinity Family Gardner ending the day before I was accepted into TFA. The thing about a car crash, Sondra reminded me, is that it may take months for all the injuries to appear and even years for those injuries to recover.

So just take it slow, she advised, allow yourself time to recover and trust that God won't let you fall asleep in complacency.

Dang, it feels good to be a .... Preacha'

After almost half a year away, a couple of weeks ago I finally got back into the rhythm of preaching; the reflection, study, preparation and delivery. And what better way to get back into the swing of it than with the tension, history, despair and hope of an OT prophet.

Here is my message at Indian Creek - Gardner from a few weeks ago. The passage is Isaiah 7 and the message is entitled, "The Wonder of Hope."

Also, I talk about my TFA experience in the last 1/3 of the message.

The Wonder of Hope - Gardner Campus from Indian Creek Community Church on Vimeo.

A Lingering Legacy - Part II

This is part two of a tree part series on some of the lasting legacies of Trinity Family Church in Gardner. Of course, TFC still lives on in midtown Kansas City.

Last week, a group of ladies from Indian Creek Gardner helped Erin create and deliver the gift bags for this month's Love Wins ministry outreach. It's been great to see the Love Wins ministry find a new home and a new life with ICG. What's maybe even better was the conversation I had with our old pal, Guido who was impacted by our Love Wins ministry back when working at one of the clubs.

Guido called me the other night excited to share a story with me. After playing phone tag for awhile, I finally got to hear his story.

Guido is now working with a club in Topeka. There just so happens to be a large church near that club. That church has taken the relational approach of most Conservative Evangelical church in interacting with groups who don't share their morals; they don't have a relationship and try to use power overcome that group. Guido says despite his offer to get together with the pastor, the church refuses to talk with them and have used the Christ-like approach of picketing the club.

While the employees of this club have been complaining about the judgmental Christians, Guido has been passionately assuring his co-workers that not all Christians are like that. He then went on to tell them about how much TFC and Love Wins changed some of his views on Christians and even on God. "You guys had a really big impact on me, more than you know." A ministry like Love Wins, however was not just in Guido's past, but soon to be in his present.

A little while later, some timid looking ladies knocked on the door of their club and nervously explained they were from a church in town and wanted to pass out gifts to the dancers in their club. Guido burst out laughing, instantly shattering the confidence of the ladies at the front door. Guido quickly built their confidence back up, though by telling them all about his experience with the ladies from TFC. He shared the positive impact we'd had on them, shared with them the address to this blog, how the TFC ladies had become comfortable in the club and even how they'd thrown us a baby shower.

It looks like there's about to be another positive relationship developing between some church ladies and some workers in the adult entertainment industry. And because this pastor and wife are adopting, there might even be another baby shower.

A New Calling - teaching in the inner city

Two years.


I've spent two years thinking and praying about this.


Two years asking God, "is this really where you want me to go?  This seems like the right path.  If not, please, please stop me."


Not only did God not stop me, but with my job offer to teach through Teach For America, He pretty much laied it all out for me.  More on that in a future post 


About two years ago, several different strands began to come together.  The first was my desire to do ministry in a non-traditional setting.  Some missional writer whose name I can't recall wrote (Although this seems like something Reggie McNeal would say) wrote in a place which I can't remember something along these lines, "pastors of the future need to find a profession beyond regular pastoral ministry." 


When asking myself what I'd like for that other career to be, I thought back to my days in college when I'd joke with some friends preparing to teach and coach, "if I wasn't called to preach, I'd be doing exactly what you're doing."  I'd always said that teaching and coaching would be my second choice, if God was okay with it.  Well, now with my new teaching job and my possible role at Indian Creek Gardner, I might be able to do both - though those details still need to be worked out.  That strand had lain dormant for awhile but came back to life after reading that quote and through my coaching experience in 2007.


My 2007 coaching experience was wonderful.  I'd forgotten how much I'd missed football until being back on a practice field and listening to the pop of shoulder pads.  I took an immediate liking to the sound of being called, "coach."  It was such a great experience that  I almost cried when leading the team onto the field for our first game.  As the head 7th grade JV coach, I was able to touch the lives of some kids while also helping them to improve and even win some games.  Due to how well the kids responded to my coaching and the feedback from the school's administration, I assumed I'd be rehired that next fall.  But the head coach, a former college teammate of mine, was required to give hiring priority to a teacher over me.  A conversation with a friend in the District's administrative department, however, inspired me to seek out educational certification.  That search lead to Rockhurst University, where I've been accepted into their Masters of Education program.  Coincidentally, Rockhurst is one of the KC partners with TFA. 


Another strand in this new calling is my growing desire to serve the people Jesus' modeled and taught us to serve, "the least of these." 
To summarize this, here's a part of my initial letter of intent from my TFA application:

I grew up on an Iowa hog farm; far removed both culturally and economically from the under-resourced school districts of America’s inner cities.  It was during my graduate studies at Nazarene Theological Seminary that I became aware of the systemic injustices existing in our nation.  While studying the Old Testament Prophets I realized that governments and institutions can be just as guilty as individuals in committing acts of oppression against the more vulnerable groups and individuals of society.  I came to understand that while the destructive choice of an individual is one cause of poverty, systemic oppression is another.  This was a big change of perspective for a conservative, Iowa farm kid.   

This change of perspective has come from some reading I've been doing over the past few years.  Here's who this strand turned into a calling to serve the inner city.
- In 2008, I read Jesus for President (all these books are linked on the side of this webpage) by Shane Claiborne.  One line in particular has stuck with me,  Claiborne's challenge to go into the places that the Empire has forgotten.  In our Empire, that's the inner-city. 
- In reading Lies My Teacher Told Me, I learned how our nation's educational system is set up to help affluent students succeed while poor students are robbed of those resources while at the same time being told the reason for their failure is their own lack of a work ethic.  Our educational system teaches some kids that they're worthwhile and other kids that they're worthless, then backs up that teaching through the inequal distribution of educational funds.
- Last summer I read Savage Inequalities.  That book stocked the fires of righteous indignation first set ablaze by Shane Claiborne.  One line idea from that book sticks with me (and I paraphrase), "Of course some people will be generals while others will be soldiers, but we can't continue to designate some people as those with the chance to be generals while others are given only the option of being soldiers due simply to the economic status into which they were born."
- In January I read Generous Justice by Tim Keller.  Post 1  Post 2  That book provided a good biblical foundation for this new calling to teach in the inner city.  Keller reminded me of what I already knew, Jesus spent time with the poor and those ignored by the rest of society and then he expected that his followers would do the same.
Finally, Crazy Love challenged me to be willing to give up everything to serve the poor.  At that time, I made a commitment to invest all that we'd saved into the Masters of Education program at Rockhurst in order to get a teaching job in an inner city school.  With TFA, that process has gotten less expensive and much quicker.  But I needed to be challenged the way Francis Chan challenged me. 

During my TFA interview, my interviewer asked me, "Am I sensing a strain of social justice in your desire to work with TFA."  I laughed out loud then explained everything I wrote above. 

Finally, the TFA strand.  You can read about Teach For America here.  Basically, this organization is all of the above strands come together.  Their motto is, "that one day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education."  TFA selects and trains proven leaders and put them in under resourced school districts, which also giving their teachers money for their educational degree.  I had heard bits and pieces about TFA before, but until the episode of The Office  "IT Guy" walked away from his job saying, "I'm going to each computers for TFA, " I hadn't actually researched the organization.  When I went to their website, I realized "this is it."  And as I explained in this post, it was quite a coincidence the way it all came together.  And my next post will be some even more non-coincidental coincidences that lead to this new position and new form of ministry.

When I was called to preach at the Iowa District Church of the Nazarene teen camp in June of 1994, I was given the distinct calling to preach the gospel, particularly to those who had never heard it before.  And while this new endeavor feels a bit like a new calling, I think it's actually just a new take on the same calling.  My methods will certainly change but the calling to proclaim (or "preach") the good news (i.e. gospel) that my life is still guiding my life. 

A Transition for TFC

I'm going to post below what I shared with the congregation this past Sunday.
It was not an easy day, but it was a very good day. Now that the transition is out in the open, I'm free to share a lot of the thoughts I've had lately. While I won't share many now, I do want to share how amazed I am at how well everything was recieved on Sunday. Yes, it was hard and people were crying but people were also understanding, encouraging and excited about the future.
One guy, who has been with us since the beginning, immediately came up and gave me a hug saying, "it takes a lot of courage to stand up and do what you just did."

I was also later sent this message from a leader in our church, "I know what you did today had to be one of the hardest things you ever had to do but I have to tell you again what a great job you did articulating all the details about the transition we are going through. You went over and beyond how I thought you would present it. You and the family are always in our prayers."

For so long, I thought leadership meant having it all figured out, having all the answers and knowing exactly where to lead. I've learned to let that go and be more honest about not having it all figured out while also learning how to suggest rather than demand. Ironically, my influence as a leader has grown a lot during that process. I guess another word for that process is simply "maturity." But I'll blog more on that later...

It's just amazing the level of affirmation and support I recieved after sharing this (below) on Sunday. It seems that during my greatest weakness came my strongest leadership.
                                                                                                     
7 years ago, I was finishing up my last semester in Seminary and preparing to move to Gardner to start the yet-to-be-named Church. My all-consuming passion for starting this church was to reach people who were currently not in church, what we pastor-types call the “unchurched.” And we have been able to do exactly that. Even before our church officially launched, we had unchurched people joining our community. And it has continued to happen throughout our church’s existence. For many of you, TFC is your first church ever or your first church in a long time. I’m hoping he can share his story soon, but Brett Limer, just recently made the decision to live for Jesus. And he hung around TFC for almost 2 years before making that decision. And on Wednesday evening, Shelby told me we’re the first church she’s called home since the 80’s. She told me, and I quote, “you restored my faith in church fellowship.”
Well, as I shared in a likely too-brief email this past week, we’ve got a big announcement to share with everyone. The announcement is this. After 7 wonderful years of reaching unchurched people, we’ve decided to stop. It’s been a good run, we’ve helped a lot of people, but it’s a LOT of work. It’s exhausting. Let them build a relationship with God on their own, the church doesn’t need to help with that anymore. I’m kidding – obviously

If you were here two weeks ago, you heard Pastor Andy and his Love Wins team share how they were able to influence a lot of CHURCH leaders at the M-11 conference. The impact came as they shared stories of how TFC Midtown is reaching the people that no other church is going after. Which follows the example of Jesus we see in the gospels. Jesus hung out with the people that good, respectable, religious people would never be caught dead with.
You also may remember that last summer, I began sharing a dream for a new way of doing church. Although we’ve never been conventional and we’ve always been others-focused, TFC was still started, and basically still operates, under a more institutional model. What I mean by that is organization lead by a paid pastor, programming and all the other stuff thought to be ‘normal’ in today’s church culture. I started having a dream for a church structure with several unpaid pastors, a form of gathering for worship that is in the midst of a community and a budget that gives away more than it spends on itself. You may also remember, that when I shared that dream in June, I promised to do my best to lead us there. But I wasn’t sure whether I personally would have what it takes to get us there.
This past year I’ve been working part-time at FedEx, going to school, trying to be faithful in my role as pastor, while still being a dad and husband. Honestly, it’s just about killed me. There have been times in which I’ve been sitting in my office chair, staring at the upcoming Sunday morning like a deer in the headlights, trying to muscle-up another biblical teaching to give to the congregation that deserves it from me. Other times, I’d pull back up to a dock at one of my stops on my FedEx route and just sit there for a few minutes, overwhelmed by the weight of everything. Sometimes a few tears would slip out before I forced myself to go make the delivery.
Eventually, I realized, while staring at the cold, hard numbers, that TFC was quickly going the wrong way financially. While we’ve had enough money in savings to last through June – the end of our fiscal year. The reality is that our current institutional model of church is no longer financially viable. We simply don’t have enough money coming in to continue in this model of church – rent, pastoral salary, programs, etc. And that puts me and my family in a tough spot. Because while I believe in that model of almost-volunteer staff, my two degrees are training for just one job – leading a church as a paid pastor. And I’ve got a lot of work to do still before finishing a degree that makes me marketable outside the institutional church.
I can sum up where we’re at with these two statements: 1) The church no longer has the financial means to pay me what my family needs. 2) I no longer have the ability to give what a church needs from their lead pastor. repeat
But in the midst of my own struggles. And the financial and people struggles of TFC Gardner. God has been faithful to us. In starting TFC Midtown, we have continued to reach people not in church. And we’ve effectively began a church community that follows this non-institutional / missional model.
Over the last month, the Advisory Council has been weighing the good and bad of what I’ve just shared. They’ve assessed the promise of TFC Midtown and the resource-deficit of TFC Gardner. And they’ve come to a decision that is both exciting and painful. We’ve decided to move Trinity Family Church out of Gardner and to the midtown area. Repeat Trinity Family will continue to exist, but with a new address. TFC Gardner will no longer exist, but the history, mission and community of TFC will continue on through the Midtown campus.
I realize this is a hard thing to hear. It’s a hard thing to say, honestly. That’s why I wrote everything out word-for-word. It’s just that in considering all the options, this seemed like the best thing to do. A lot of the New Testament is letters written to churches. None of those churches still exist in the same form in which they existed 2,000 years ago. The Church as a whole still exists, and there are churches and Christians in those same cities – but they’ve changed. All churches change. But what could be hard about this change is that it’s happened more quickly than a lot of church change. With this change, there’s a lot of hope, but also some pain. I realize this.
You probably won’t process all of this as I share it with you, but here are the main details which you need to know.
1) Pastor Andy will be elected as the lead pastor of TFC-Midtown Pending DS’ approval.

2) We’re encouraging everyone to consider moving with TFC to Midtown
However we realize this isn’t possible for everyone, especially people living in Gardner or south Johnson County and/or those with kids. So, we’re proposing another step that can help to maintain the relationships we’ve built over the past several years.

3) We’re encouraging those who want to stay connected with a church in Gardner to transition as a group into the Indian Creek – Gardner church
Let me reiterate, this idea is to help preserve as many relationships as possible. We encourage you to consider making the move to Midtown. But if that simply isn’t do-able for your family, we’re asking you to consider transitioning into ICG. Let me share some reasons we’ve chosen ICG to be the church into which we transition.

ICG is the closest thing to TFC that we could find in Gardner. We’re fairly similar in several ways – theologically (they’re Wesleyan), missionally (they’re outward focused and the little bit of growth they’ve had over the past two years has come not from transfer growth but from formerly unchurched people), worship style (their worship style is a lot like ours was when we still had the manpower to put together a full band on a regular basis), atmosphere (they seem to have the same “safe place” feel that TFC has), and even size (they’re the same size we were two years ago before we started our numerical decline – right around 100 people in worship).
While best-case scenario is that we continue as-is, that simply isn’t possible right now. We’re trusting that transitioning into ICG will be the second-best-case-scenario.

I’ve known the pastor for a couple of years now. Some of you may remember Ben, he preached here one Sunday last April. And while we’re not best friends or anything, what I’ve seen of him has impressed me. I trust him. And I’d better trust him, because I’m leading some of the people I’ve come to love – come to love with the love that only a pastor knows - into his church.
If you choose to transition into ICG, you’ll have the advantage of coming into a new church with pre-existing relationships. Of course, you’ll get to know other great people as you get involved in the life of ICG, but you’ll have a safety net of sorts by having other TFC families come with you. Let me re-state, we’re doing this in an effort to help keep as many people together as possible. Ideally, everyone would choose one of two places – TFC Midtown or ICG.
But we also realize that one of these two options may not be the best for some of us. So we’re encouraging another option, too.

4) Pastor Donnie and the Advisory Council will work to help those not joining Indian Creek Gardner or TFC Midtown to transition into another church
This is particularly for those of you who would like to stay in the CoTN but don’t feel that Midtown works for your family. But even if it’s not a CoTN, we’ll help you transition into whatever church works best for you.

5) Pastor Donnie and the Advisory Council are willing to meet with families and individuals to help them process their decision We’ll be doing this for as long as it takes. I’ll be here through at least June, helping with the transition. Sign ups
But that leads to the other question you’ve probably all been asking.
“Donnie, what are you going to do?”

6) Pastor Donnie will focus upon the transition into Indian Creek Gardner and other churches besides TFC Midtown

7) Pastor Andy is willing to meet with anyone considering joining the move to the midtown area
Again, we want to encourage everyone to make Midtown their first option, with ICG being their second option. Having lunch after worship with anyone interested.

Those are the main details. Let me know give a timeline of how this transition is going to happen. It might feel a bit abrupt, to be honest. But again, we thought a quick move would be the best thing for everyone.

March 20th – follow up with congregation during regular worship time 
 We’ll gather at our regular place and time next Sunday for worship and for a chance to continue discussing all of this. It’s going to take some time to process it all and you’ll likely have more questions, so next Sunday will be a chance to have another church-wide discussion. You can also always email me.
Thursday, March 24th and Sunday, March 27th – “Previews”
This will be your chance to join TFC Midtown for their Thursday evening worship gathering and to worship with ICG on a Sunday morning. Pastor Ben is planning to meet with whatever TFC people come for worship that Sunday morning.
Sunday, April 3rd – last regular worship gathering of TFC Gardner
This will be a time of sharing some stories from the past seven years and looking ahead to how the story of TFC is going to continue. Be prepared to share some stories that day. It’s going to be an emotional day. It will be a good day and a difficult day.
Sundays April 10th and 17th – possible times of meeting with Pastor Donnie and the Advisory Council
In order to process your decision on where to go next. Might also be working on taking inventory of all our equipment those mornings.
Easter Sunday, April 24th – Encourage everyone to worship in their new church home that morning
Our hope is to have big groups at both Midtown and ICG on that morning. While it may not be your long-term decision, we encourage you to be in a church that morning – hopefully with fellow TFCers.

That’s everything. If this just hit you like a ton of bricks, I greatly apologize. Please know that our leadership is open to letting everyone process and even grieve this change for however long it’s necessary.