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I’m bad at resolutions. Hopefully I’m better at goals. This past Sunday we had our first full group Student Ministry gathering with our student community at Journey Church. I knew that I wanted to share something that would inspire our students to begin this new year with a new perspective on what it takes to be in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

The main point of my talk was that I did not want our students to rely on myself, our church, and other adult leaders in their life as dispensers of spiritual knowledge. Instead I challenged them to allow our moments together to inspire them to seek God at a new level on their own. From their I shared these points ideas centered around the idea of setting some personal spiritual growth goals for the new year:

1. You have to know where you’re going before you can get there (write it down).
2. Your direction determines your destination (your actions determine where you actually go).
3. Share with someone. Accountability is key.

I then had each student write down some goals. Some actions steps to go with those goals. Then they shared some or all of them with the group. It was awesome!! I loved hearing what the students felt like they needed to do in order to take the next step in their personal relationship with God.

Being faithful to my own principle #3 above, here are my goals:

1. Read the whole Bible (this is partly a personal desire, and partly necessary requirement for a pastoral process I am going through.)
2. Study the Redemptive Story of God at a deeper level (this is a concept that I have been engrossed by lately…)
3. Further develop and understand my personal theology. Some people use their theology as a weapon… I’m not interested in that. I do however feel like it is important to know what you believe, and why you believe so. I think this is an ever evolving process.
4. Intentionally develop and disciple another Christ follower. Every believer should have someone in their life that they are loving on, and journeying with. It’s a calling on each of our lives.

Those are my goals for 2009. They scare me. They excite me. How about yours?

If everywhere you go you have a problem with other people. Guess what: You are the problem. It’s called brokenness. God sends (or has sent) you people to love you, speak truth to you, fellowship with you, and help lead you towards wholeness. You’ve pushed them away. You’ve offended them. You’ve convinced yourself that you are right and they are wrong. You’ve believed the lie that you are unloved by them, by God. Anything but admitting that you might be flawed, that you might be broken.

The prideful selfish heart of man may be our greatest downfall. We all fight it. None are exempt (especially me!). It was a primary side effect of the Fall of Man way back in the beginning. The difference is that some revolt against it, want no part of it, and beg God to replace their prideful selfish hearts with loving hearts concerned more with others than themselves. It is only then that we have the capacity to become whole people, no longer leaving others hurt in our prideful wake.

Nothing breaks my heart more so than when I observe the effect of this type of hurt. Especially within the Church. No one wins. One person sinks deeper into depravity. Another person gets their heart and spirit wrecked by brokenness. The Church becomes less healthy, and thus less appealing to those who need her most. There has to be a better way…

Tonight marked the third straight Christmas season that we have taken the student ministry from Journey Church to what has become a very special place for myself, our adult volunteers, and our students. The place is Brookside Extended Care in Mason, Ohio. Brookside is an AMAZING long term care and learning center for the severely mentally and/or physically handicapped. Many of the residents at Brookside are teenagers or young children… all of them are wheelchair bound, and only a couple can audibly communicate.

For the third year in a row the group of teenagers that we brought to Brookside absolutely blew me away. Here are a bunch of cookie cutter suburban teenagers walking into a room full of kids, teens, and adults in wheelchairs, and unable to physically function at a high level… I can’t imagine the mindset of our teens walking into that moment. Each time we’ve gone, our students have stepped out of their comfort zone, and into the lives that they can hardly imagine. They color with (for) the residents, they make crafts to hang in their rooms and on their wheelchairs, they talk to them, they joke about cute boys and pretty girls, they talk about sports and TV shows, most of the time with the only response being a moan, or a stare from a drooped head. It’s sobering to witness and participate in.

Tonight when we left, on the drive back to the high school, I asked my car full of junior high boys what they thought of the experience, and if it reminded them of anything from Scripture. Here are some responses:

• It was really cool for us to visit them since they don’t get many visitors.
• It’s hard to believe that’s how/where they live their lives everyday.
• It’s tough to think about the fact that they are just teenagers like us.
• On Scripture: It reminded each of them about the stories they had heard about the lepers. Specifically how in our society, we often outcast the handicapped, and avoid them when we encounter them in public.

The most amazing thing about our trips to Brookside is how each time we intend on “blessing” those residents, and each time we leave feeling so much more “blessed” by them. (I put those words in quotes because I’m not even sure what that means… it’s a churchy way of saying that we feel fuzzy inside I think.) Our teams from Journey Church that go to Guatemala each year end up telling a similar story. We go to show love to those people, and end up feeling as much or even more love in return.

What’s up with that? I think the answer lies somewhere in Jesus’ words at the end of Matthew 25. When we serve the “least of these”… we are serving Jesus Himself. Jesus is pleased when we serve the downtrodden, the forgotten, the handicapped, the unloved, the ostracized, etc… When we do this, we make Jesus happy, and we make our own hearts happy… it “blesses” us. It makes me wonder whey we don’t do it more often…

I had a really engaging small group discussion with some of the high school students in Journey Church’s student ministry last night. We talked about a variety of subjects, and the conversation got pretty deep. Questions were asked by me that were over their heads, and questions were asked by them that were over my head! Good stuff! Probably one of the highlights of my year.

Ultimately the conversation centered around the question why. More specifically, how would we answer questions like these:

• Why do you love God?
• Why do you go to church?
• Why do you even do this “Christianity” thing?
• Essentially this: What’s the point of God/Church/Christianity?

I have a great fear that there are thousands of people sitting in Christian churches each Sunday, who have been in the pew for a long time, but have no clue how to answer these questions. I’m not suggesting that there is ONE right answer, but I think there are some key principles and ideas that people simply fail to understand, or lack the ability to communicate about.

So… how about you? Why?

I gave birth to a sermon this past Sunday morning. I realize if there are any ladies that read my blog, you may be offended, and tempted to write me flaming comments about how I “Don’t even begin to understand…” and you’re right, I don’t. It’s probably a bad analogy, but the only one I can think of.

The short story is that God has been doing some remodeling of my heart the past few months. It’s pretty easy to trace the starting point back to my trip to Guatemala with Journey Church in August. That was the beginning. Another key landmark on this journey has been the reading of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. It rattled me to my core… I still haven’t dealt with all of the ramifications from this book. More recently, I came across the Advent Conspiracy video which I’ve posted on this blog twice in the past couple of weeks. I was inspired by the words, imagery, and music. I was shaken by the keynote statistic that Americans spend $450 Billion Dollars on Christmas each year, and it would only take $10 Billion Dollars to provide clean drinking water to all of earth inhabitants. The lack of clean drinking water is the #1 killer of human life in our world today. I actually planned to use this statistic as one of the primary illustrations of my talk on Sunday, and completely forgot about it. When I realized that Monday afternoon, I wished I had a time machine so I could go back and share it.

So basically, God has been working on me in this area of poverty, wealth, America vs. the world, rich & poor, and my place in all of that. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to give birth to some of what I’m wrestling with, and what God is teaching me. If you were not

 at Journey Church on Sunday, I encourage you to listen to this talk. Not because it’s me, but because the Message God is sharing with me, and wants to share with you is so important. It could change everything…

Click here to visit the CincyJourney media page and listen to the talk. You’ll find it as the uppermost link in the list of talks. You can also search for “Journey Church West Chester” in iTunes and subscribe to our podcast.

Forgive the delay in my series of “Live Big” posts. I’ve been out of town quite a bit the past two weeks. Nonetheless, I’m jumping back in with some thoughts on what it really means to “Live Big”. See previous posts for details on the concept of Living Big.

*Warning, there is a good chance this post will make you uncomfortable. You’ll likely squirm in your seat and feel like you need to do more…. like you are called to do more. At least that’s what I’m hoping you feel. It’s how I feel….*

In this post, I want to present a simple idea. Something that seems obvious, but we often fail to realize. Something that should be second nature for any Christ Follower, but something that is often ignored and overlooked. Those who carry the banner of Jesus are called to be radical, extreme, over the top givers. There is no way around this truth that God expects, requires, commands us to give. Give our time, money, effort, resources, etc… to those around us. To those less fortunate. To those who have need. To those far away from us. To our neighbor’s. To our enemies. We are called to give. Look no further than some of the following scripture:

• Luke 12:33 – Sell your possessions and GIVE to the poor.
• John 3:16 –  God love the world so much that he GAVE….
• Deut. 15:10 – GIVE liberally and ungrudging when you do so….
• Matt. 25:40 – … Whatever you did for the least of one of these, you did for me.
• Isaiah 58:7 – Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you se the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh & blood?

If one hundred people represented the world’s population, fifty-three of those would live on less than $2 a day. Do you realize that if you make $4,000 a month, you automatically make one hundred times more than the average person on this planet? Simply by purchasing this book, you spent what a majority of people in the world will make in a week’s time.

As promised, I’m going to be devoting some space on this blog over the next few days regarding the phrase: Live Big.

For those unaware, first let me give some context for the phrase “Live Big”.

Way back in the spring of 2005 the lead pastor of Journey Church, along with some key leaders set out to define through words what a new church in West Chester might look like. Like any good church or business for that matter, they set out to create a meaningful, inspirational, life changing set of mission, vision & values. What they ended up with was quite good… it was also a lot for the run of the mill new church visitor to retain. They decided that they needed one good phrase that spoke to the heart of this new church, and summed up all of their core values. The outcome was: “Inspiring People to Live Big”. As if this wasn’t short enough, it didn’t take long for the phrase “Live Big” to rise out up and become the motto for Journey Church.

The phrase and the thought behind “Live Big” comes from a couple of places in scripture. The first is found in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 which in The Message paraphrase simply says this: 

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

The second, and the more oft repeated passage from which Live Big was comprised is found in John 10:10. In this passage, Jesus is talking to a crowd of people that includes a group of Pharisees, Jesus’ disciples, and a man who was just healed from a life of blindness. Jesus shares a truth that is a must for each of us to hear if we are going to grasp what God desires for us in terms of our lives:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

So if this is the background of the phrase: “Live Big”, then what does it mean? Check back here over the next few days and I’ll do my best to put into words my understanding of what Living Big looks like in our daily lives.

Our motto at Journey Church is: “Inspiring People to Live Big”. While simple, it is still rather vague in the sense that people can often find themselves asking: ‘What does it mean to Live Big?’

Over the week or so, I’d like to devote some digital ink to defining what it means to LIVE BIG!

To kick things off, I must share the following video with you. When I saw the text on this link, I couldn’t believe it… the video is awesome. The actions displayed by the person in this video are a quintessential example of living big!

This Sunday at Journey Church we will be looking at what the Biblical book of Proverbs has to say about the tongue (the kind in your mouth). 

I’m 99% sure that the person preaching will be sharing this story about an apology that came years after it was owed. Better late than never…. Read here. 

Oh yea… you might want to keep an eye on Shaun’s blog (the guy in the story above). He is about to plant a ridiculously passionate church in what is without a doubt the coolest venue I have ever seen. God is about to be magnified in a big way in the ATL.

Typing this from my iPhone in bed at the ministry center, so forgive me for errors, and short length.

My #1 thing I’m looking forward to – Sharing God’s love in a practical way here in Guatemala, and then taking it home to so the same in my daily life! This week we will be doing several tasks; tiling a floor, building chicken coops, and working at a feeding center, (among others). These are all very good and practical things. The reality is however, we are here to do so much more than that. We are here to do God’s work among his people. We are on a covert mission to share the love of God with everyone we come into contact with through practical acts of kindness. Whether it be through a social service, a physical gift, a hug to a new friend, or a futbol (soccer) match with the children of the town…. We seek to share the love of our Savior with people who may not know him.

I don’t intend to let it stop there however. I am praying, and asking God to show me new ways, fresh ways, consistent ways to do the same in my everyday world back home in Ohio. Sharing God’s love in practical ways should not be reserves for mission trips, it should be a daily practice for any Christ follower! My prayer is that God will make that a reality in me.

My #1 Fear regarding the trip to Guatemala – Not being able to write this post! I had convinced myself that this trip would not happen. Something would go wrong at the airport, with my passport or ticket, or even worse, something would go wrong with the flight. I’m a little paranoid like that! But here I sit, writing this post, and I couldn’t be more excited. There are so many things running through my head, I just can’t wait to see what God has in store for Jen and I (and our team).

Be sure to visit the Jpurney team blog for the latest info. It will probably get a little more love than this site for the next few days (although I will be updating here as well). Find the team blog here: http://cincyjourney.org/guatemala2008