While Paul affirms the ‘right’ of everyone proclaiming the gospel to get paid he also subjects that right, along with all his other rights, in order to reach more people. Love for people is what remains constant even to the point where Paul’s life may seem inconsistent.

Paul’s stance on his pay reveals a bigger issue of how we use the freedoms we have as Christians for the sake of loving others.

So Paul’s posture is not, what ‘right’ do I have or what can I do with my freedom? This boils down to what do I want and still fits into the category that God is okay with.  But his posture is ‘how can I better reach people for the gospel’ and this is a very different starting point. The second question is not self-oriented but begins with what is God asking in the  gospel? This is why self-control is so important in loving others. We can’t love others until we get past what our own desires are. I have to think about the relationships God has me in (I Cor. 7:17) and consider how I can lay down my life (biblical definition of love) for those people.

Some examples of freedoms I have but I might give up in order to be more effective for the gospel:

1. What coffee shop should I go to today?

Self focused: What’s the most convenient? Who has the best coffee?

Gospel focused: Which shop have I begun to build relationships with people?

Am I free to go to any coffee shop? Yes, but I restrict that freedom for the sake of the gospel.

1. I am driving my children around in our car, what music should I listen to?

Self-focused: I really want to listen to the new Bon Iver album.

Gospel focused: What children’s music can I listen to that will help advance the gospel in my children’s lives (Steve Green has been a favorite of our family).

Am I free as a Christian to listen to any music I want? Yes, but I restrict that freedom to love my children.

Tips for Self-Discipline

1. Begin with small things. Learn to discipline yourself in small things because these lead to big things.
2. Clean your environment. Clean your desk, room, house, garage, etc.  Become discontent with a mess in general.  Get to the place that orderliness matters.
3. Make a schedule and learn to conform to it. You only have so much time in this life.  You should budget it just like you do other limited resources like money.
4. Wean yourself off of being entertained. Entertainment is often a time-thief. To be self-disciplined, entertainment must become something that you can take or leave.  Train yourself to do things that are productive when you have excess time.  Read, take a walk, plant flowers, have a conversation.
5. Be on time.Order your little universe so that you can get to where you are supposed to be on time and in your right mind.
6. Keep your word, even in the littlest things. Do things when you say you will and how you say you will.  This calls for discipline before and after you make the commitment. Discipline before you make a commitment is required so that you do not over-commit yourself, and discipline after is required to fulfill the commitment.
7. Do the hardest task first. It is probably the most important. And the rest of your tasks will seem like you are coasting…
8. Finish what you start. If you start it, finish it. This will also help you say ‘no’ to things you wont be able to finish.
9. Practice self-denial just for the sake of self-denial. It reminds you that you are in charge of you.
10. Volunteer. Forces you to leave a little space in your life and forces you to order your life such that you have a little extra time to do something that is not part of your agenda.

There was something Jesus couldn’t do… share his life with everyone.

Jesus simply could not share his life effectively with everyone. He had to say “no” to ministry and the needs of others because he was so committed to his community of disciples (the twelve).  He knew if he tried to reach everyone he wouldn’t reach anyone.

Success in church is driven by a bottom line, like a business. However, profit is not a very godly way of defining success so the church evaluates it based on attendance. This, interestingly enough, correlates with profit. You will typically hear things like, “when God is at work the crowds will come.”

We, in the church, have bought into the idea that more is better. Bigger is better. We even have Christian celebrities and those who associate themselves with Christian celebrities. It seems like more than just business principles have crept in.

But crowds are not always a definite sign of success in the economy of Jesus. In fact, the kingdom is compared to the narrow road as opposed to the popular one. It’s also compared to a mustard seed, which is small and insignificant. It is not a very good church growth strategy to be lumped in with the few and the insignificant.

Jesus’ church planting strategy was to avoid the crowds so he could effectively share his life with a few. Jesus believed investing in a few and even a few of the few (James, John, and Peter) would be the most effective way to advance the gospel.

I love Jesus and I actually think he knew what he was doing by concealing himself to the masses and deeply revealing himself to his few.

So then:

Who are your few? Who are the few you are pouring into?

Or have you based success on how many people show up?

The best thing you can do for those you love is pray for them.

“Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.” E.M. Bounds

When we pray we are acknowledging God’s sovereignty, power, and control over our world. He is the creator and sustainer of every detail. When we do not pray we forfeit God’s involvement in these things and take on the burden of doing things ourselves. Forfeiting not only the impact God can have on a situation, but also extending ourselves into a role that we do not have the capacity to fulfill: God’s role.

There are so many reasons we do not pray.  That is exactly what the enemy wants us to do: whatever it takes to keep us relying on ourselves instead of God. Once God is allowed into the equation, nothing is impossible.

Grande Vanilla Church… No Whip

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to host a Pastor from Albania, here in the States. In a conversation, I asked him what he thought would be some of the challenges facing the American Church. His answer surprised me, but over the last eight years of pastoral ministry I have found his words to be more and more true.

The Pastor from Albania told me the greatest obstacle in the American church would be “choice.” Choice, really? I was taken off-guard. With everything else that could possibly hinder the church how could “choice” be that important? He went on to explain that in his country, one of the poorest in the world, he does not have many choices. For example take something basic, like shopping for meat in the store: he purchases whatever the store has on that particular day. Sometimes the store has two kinds but usually there is only one. In contrast, here in the United States, think about how many different choices of cuts, types and grades of meats we can choose from. Or what about toothpaste? Do we really need hundreds of different types of toothpaste?

While choice, in and of itself, is not wrong, living a consumer lifestyle can have a negative impact on our spiritual lives. In our minds we tend to think more choice is better because it “frees” us. However, the Albanian Pastor’s point was that Americans live with the illusion of control and our lives and choices are built around our personal preferences constantly. Without even realizing it, we operate in an “I get what I want” world down to the smallest minutiae.

Our right to “choice” doesn’t stop in the supermarket, but infiltrates how we think about church. “Church shopping” is a common phenomenon in the American church. “Church shopping” is when someone shops around for a church that meets their needs. By needs, church shoppers mean preferences. They “shop” for a church that meets their preferences. “Church shoppers” are choosing a church like shopping for anything else. Isn’t it ironic that people think they have the ability to choose something for their own needs, almost as though they best know how to meet those needs and that they ought to be in control?

The result of our consumer lifestyle and having access to so many choices is we start to believe we are actually in control of our lives, and that our will is what matters. We tend to have a difficult time submitting to someone else’s will, whether it’s God’s or the leadership in our church, we believe we deserve to choose everything. If we disagree with someone in the church we just move to another church where more of our needs are met.

One of the most beautiful parts of following God is releasing control of our needs to him and letting him have control. We are not actually letting him, but rather acknowledging that in reality he already has control, that generally we are just trying to take his place. He is the only one who can meet our deepest longings and he knows them better than we do. He is the creator and we are the creatures.

The church does not exist to meet your need but to be a light to the world. We all have desires the church should fulfill WHILE we are on mission. Desires like being a part of a body or giving of ourselves to a purposeful community.  But that is not the purpose of the church.  If people lift up those things or other things as the reason why we a part of a church, people will continue to “church shop” because no church is designed to meet those needs. The purpose of the church is to be a light to the world. The color of the pews really doesn’t matter that much.

“Not my will, but yours, be done.” – Jesus, praying to the Father

Friends of the Common Church are those outside the Common Church family and are a part of the world in the sense that they are under the judgment of God for their sin and in need of a savior.

Friends of the Common Church are those groups or individuals with whom we have relationships with but who have chosen not to commit to the values and convictions of the Common Church Family.

We do not judge the behavior of the Friends of the Common Church because they have not committed to King Jesus or to being under his rule. Therefore we have relationships with them, even to the point of involvement in their activities as long as they are not sinful, in order to be the gospel to them (I Cor. 5:9-13).

The Common Church Family

The Common Church Family will make efforts to judge one another in love (I Cor. 5:9). Members of the church family are committed to other family members within the church in everyday life and intentionally bringing the truth of the gospel to each other. We are to mutually encourage one another under the reign of King Jesus to live more and more consistently under his rule (Phil. 2:9-11).

Baptism is the visible expression of the invisible reality of salvation. It is the right of passage for those who are moving from a community under the judgment of God (darkness)to the community under the reign of King Jesus (light).

Values and Commitments:

We will submit our whole lives to authority of God’s word and the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:42-47). Therefore we will bring God’s word to bear on each other’s lives to more consistently live under God’s reign as his people in the world.

God is the one who builds his church (Matt. 16:18). Therefore our primary activity as missionaries is prayer.

We will worship God with our whole lives, living life worthy of the gospel (Eph. 4:1) and we will not limit it to a worship event or meeting. Worship impacts our whole lives (Romans 12:1-3), therefore we will seek to live “gospel worthy” lives in everything we do.

We understand God’s mission has a church, or in other words: God’s mission is through the church. The church is called into being for the central purpose of being sent into the world to advance the gospel by making disciples (Matt. 28:16-20).

We will advance the gospel through faith in Christ and belief in his living presence and rule today (Phil. 2:9-11). Therefore we will put ourselves in positions where we need faith in God to advance the gospel.

We will commit to gospel ministry that is long term, low key and relational (I Thess. 2:1-12). Therefore we will not overemphasize “events” at the expense of gospel ministry in everyday life.

Mission is a group activity where the gospel is displayed in our love for one another (John 13:33-35). Therefore we will not commit to individual missions but do mission together, putting ourselves in positions where we are together as a church in the world in everyday life.

We are the people of God because of the work of Christ. As the family of God we can have fellowship with God and with each other. Therefore we will practice communion regularly with those in the family, making visible the invisible reality of our relationship with God and each other.

The gospel saves us FROM something FOR something

• We will not give in to the individualistic form of Christianity that says God is ultimately saving individuals. While that is true, it is only a part of the story. The entire story involves saving US as a people for his purposes, namely redeeming the entire world culminating in his glorious return. That means our everyday life now is filled with meaning as a part of this grand salvation story.
• The gospel is being shown in this group of us (Church) who share the same father, spirit, hope, baptism, and Lord. If this story of God is true, then our love for one another must be consistent and be in our everyday lives where it can be seen by a watching world. Loving each other once a week on Sunday morning in a building that is isolated from the world is an anemic understanding of the church.
• The Family of God previews the coming age with our shared-gospel lives. This dictates the priority of our commitment to one another in the church. We are previewing the Kingdom that will soon be revealed by our shared life together.

Jesus said: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:34-35)

“We need to be communities of love and we need to be seen to be communities of love. People need to encounter the church as a network of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a place you enter.”-Tim Chester

Sunday Nov. 21, Robbin Hatten will be joining us to talk about what is happening in Los Angeles County in regards to adoption.

Robbin as five adopted kids of her own and is an amazing example of sacrificial love. Her and her husband have an amazing story and we are excited to learn from them. If you are interested in listening in join us on Sunday at 10am.

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction…” James 1:27

Robbin Hatten – Chosen to Be Loved; Olivecrest Adoption Agency

Most of us are familiar with the passage. Jesus says everything revealed about God up to that point has been pointing towards us doing one thing – becoming professional lovers. “Love God and your neighbor” (Matt. 22:37). This is the point of all the Law and all the prophets’ teachings. Become a better lover of God and people.

Paul had a similar message in his important section on the Holy Spirit in the church (I Cor. 12-14). These three chapters tell us so much about life in the church: our interactions, the purpose of those interactions, and the characteristics of those interactions. Yet, in the middle of Paul explaining how the church should operate he writes a worship song about the importance of love (chap. 13). Love is a necessary condition for all things to fulfill their intended purpose, which is to glorify God.

But love in our culture is used to describe some sort of feeling: someone falls “in” and “out” of love, for instance. Love is portrayed as some sort of state of being rather than what the Bible portrays it to be.

Jesus is very specific about what love is.  He defines it as “laying down our lives for our brothers.” We can only be professional lovers of God and people if we are dying daily to what we want or literally laying down our lives for our brothers. Applying the cross, moment by moment, so that we can become professional lovers of God and others.

What keeps you from being a professional lover?

How can you lay your life down for your brothers/sisters/neighbors?