God of This City v3.3

Good Intentions

Confession time:
If I told you I wash my feet twelve times a year I would be lying. If I said six times a year I would still be lying.

Four.

I’ll go with four. (On average – depending on leap year and the phase of the moon and whatnot) four times a year I intentionally wash my feet. I mean, my feet do get into the shower with me at least once a day – sometimes twice, but washing your feet isn’t the easiest or most fascinating chore. Think about it… you’re on a slick, angled, porcelain like surface that becomes slicker as the shower water sprays directly on it. Now, you are expected to stand on one foot and soap up the other. Once the first is done the second becomes twice as difficult because you have to swap over to a super slick soapy foot. This may be easy for you, but I’ve realized that the older I get the harder it is to actually reach my feet! This makes my shower experience a balancing act as well as an excellent opportunity to win $100,000 on that funny video show. Therefore, I believe four times a year will suffice.

It’s not that I neglect my feet, like I said they do get into the shower with me every time I get in the shower. They do get some attention – just not the attention they deserve on a regular basis. They do get clean, but they might be a little rougher around the edges than they could be if I spent more time with them. I guess I need to be more intentional when I’m taking a shower.

We all have good intentions when it comes to our personal lives. We intentionally get up in the morning to go to work or school. We intentionally take the trash out so the house won’t stink. We intentionally wash our clothes, brush our teeth, pet the cats, yada, yada, yada... [If you’ve ever watched Seinfeld you automatically know what yada, yada, yada means. If not, just use your imagination.]

But what if we intentionally made God the God of This City? What if we went out of our way to show others who God is? What if we were a little more intentional about evangelism?

You see, evangelism was never designed to be accidental. Sure there are times when evangelism is a by-product of another church function, but even then it is intentional. I’m not exactly sure when this happened but somewhere between 33 AD and today some people decided that meeting on Sunday for an hour would draw the non-believers and non-followers [yes, as a matter of fact I do believe there is a difference] to The Message. No… Jesus was clear that we are to go into the world to spread the Good News.

Now, please don’t think I am against our Sunday morning worship services. I’m not – in fact I believe worship services are an excellent opportunity for “by-product” evangelism. However, what I’m talking about here is the command that Jesus gave us to reach those who don’t know who He is. Just as we are called to connect with our circle of influence [the people we see on a regular basis], we are also called to reach those that we don’t already know personally. We are called to be intentional.

During His time on Earth, Jesus was a master at intentional evangelism. He understood that in order to encourage people He had to know people. I believe that Jesus knew that if He showed interest in someone, “that” someone would give Him their attention.

An example? Certainly!

3 He (Jesus) left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, `Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." 16 He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here." 17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, `I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly." 19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."

27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?" 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. (John 4:3-34, NASV)

I don’t think it was any accident that Jesus went through Samaria and stopped at this well. Remember, during that period in history the Jews hated the Samaritans – so for Jesus to even explain Salvation to this Samaritan woman was radical. However, what I believe is more radical (although rather simple) is the fully intentional approach Jesus made to reach her. His strategy was simple: 1.) Go where she would be, 2.) Show interest in who she was, and 3.) Share the Truth of Salvation with her [radical, right?].

Interestingly enough, He never invited her to church [don’t go throwing sticks at me… we will discuss this in another blog. I really believe that Jesus’ plan was for His followers to lead others to Him, not just a preacher on Sunday mornings.]

So, I figure if Jesus was intentional, we should be too. We all do intentional things, right? We all go out to eat, put gas in our cars, go shopping, go to the library, go to the doctor, go to work out etc. What if, when we went out to eat, we went to the same place at least once a week and asked for the same server each time. What if we built an intentional relationship with this server on his or her terms and showed interest in who that person was [this will be harder than you may think. Servers are there to serve you – but for intentional ministry to truly work you will need to serve them. This is not the place for bad tips!] What if, over time, we come to discover who this person really is, where they are in life, what motivates or discourages them, and/or why they believe they exist? What if, during this process, we have the amazing opportunity to share the Truth with them about Jesus, His love, passion, and saving grace? What if?

As a follower of Jesus I believe I have been given the command to share Christ with other people, whether I know them or not. Consequently, for God to be the God of This City it must be my objective to be intentional with my every day life. What will this involve? First, prayer is essential to keep this from being a hit or miss deal. I pray that God will lead me to the person He has for me. Secondly, it will cost – time, money, etc. If I buy my gas from a convenience store that raises their gas prices over a competitor, it may cost me a little more for a gallon of gas in order to build an intentional relationship with the store clerk [I once heard a wise man say that pay at the pump is a killer of intentional evangelism.] Finally, consistency is key. I will absolutely, positively, without a doubt have to be constantly consistent – both with my faith and with my scheduling. If I plan to eat lunch at the same restaurant on Tuesdays to build an intentional relationship there, then I should be consistent with my scheduling. However, if I’m having a lousy Tuesday, maybe I should weigh the odds on whether or not my visit will be positive. If my attitude isn’t consistent with my faith then my authentication will suffer.

Remember my illustration about my feet? It is not that I neglect to clean my feet; it is that I am not cleaning them intentionally. The same is true for our intentional ministry. It is not that we aren’t seeing new people every day, it is that we are neglecting to build intentional relationships with those people.

Really, this all boils down to taking Jesus with you wherever you go, building intentional relationships once you are there, and then intentionally sharing the love that Jesus has to offer with them. Jesus completes His thoughts from the above passage this way:

“34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 "Do you not say, `There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” (John 4:34-35, NASV, italics added)

Now is the time for us to be intentionally reaching others for Christ.

God of This City v3.2

Under the Influence

In my house there lives three cats. Each cat is different – each cat is unique. However, they have something in common… All three only see three humans most of the time – myself, my wife, and my son. So, I think it is apparent to say they have a limited circle of influence.

I don’t see much TV anymore unless it is in PBS form [Caillou is my new fave], but I do recall a commercial for Alltel Wireless (now part of Verizon) in which the main selling point was a service they offered called the “My Circle Plan”. Basically, the plan was designed to allow Alltel customers the freedom to choose who they would talk to the most, no matter who their mobile phone service was through. Thus, if I new I would be talking to Billy Bob or Sally Sue, and each of them were with completely different mobile service providers, I could add them to “My Circle” for free calls to and from my phone from their respective phones.

[I know, I made it sound much more complicated than it actually is.]

The point? We all have a circle of influence. Whether it is a small circle, such as my house cats, or a wider circle with many faces, we all have a circle of influence.

Now, lets do some re-defining of terms in light of our theme “God of This City”, and pull us back on track.

When we think of God of this city, lets change it to God of our city. And when we think of God of our city, lets change that to God of our circle of influence. And just for kicks, lets re-define circle of influence as being the people that we come in personal contact with on a regular basis. Now, to further confuse us, lets put this all together as:

(The) God of the people we come in personal contact with on a regular basis.

[Catchy huh? I thought you’d like it. I bet Chris Tomlin would have a hard time singing that!]

Now, think about this for a moment: If we decided that our goal was to help make our Savior the God of the people we come in contact with on a regular basis, then we could change the whole make up of our city, our state, our country, and our world!

Are you willing to take that chance? Who are the people in your circle of influence? Who are the people you spend your time with day-in and day-out? Who are the people that you know – who are the people that you see? Are you willing to join the challenge of promoting Christ to the people that come into our lives on a daily basis?

Paul of Tarshish was. He took it on as a personal ambition to endorse Christ as the one and only Savior to the people of his circle of influence. Now, this Tarshish native was no slouch when it came to delivering The Message. In fact, he had a pretty interesting scheme. He lets his secret out in his first letter to the church in Corinth:

19bI have become a servant of everyone so that I can bring them to Christ. 20When I am with the Jews, I become one of them so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law, so that I can bring them to Christ. 21When I am with the Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law, F47 I fit in with them as much as I can. In this way, I gain their confidence and bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. 22When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. 23I do all this to spread the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy its blessings.
I Corinthians 9:19b-23 (NLT)

Paul’s plan was simple: He was not going to offend anyone unless it went totally against the Word of God. If a persons customs, traditions, habits, actions, (etc.) didn’t infect the gospel of Christ then Paul was, quite frankly, “cool” with it. It was as if he said, “Maybe as I get involved in things that don’t matter (in the grand scheme) with you, then you will get involved in things that do matter (in the grand scheme) with me”. In other words, it is all about perception. When Paul was with one group of religious people he took on their customs and traditions, and when he was with another group of religious people he took the same approach. He only wavered when their traditions and customs went against the Truth that is the Gospel. He understood that Truth does and will offend, but only the truth should offend. Customs and traditions only distinguish beliefs, the Truth sets one free.

Here’s the Burton Coffman Commentary perspective:
"Paul felt no obligation whatever to keep the forms and ceremonies of the law of Moses; yet he observed and kept such things in circumstances where his failure to do it would have antagonized the Jews, and in cases where their observance did not violate the spirit of the new law in Christ Jesus. Thus, Paul shaved his head; but there is no record that he ever ate the Jewish Passover. As he said, 'Christ is our Passover.'"

(http://www.searchgodsword.org/com/bcc/view.cgi?book=1co&chapter=009)

Novel approach, right?

Is this your motive within your circle of influence? Paul’s goal was simply to bring others to Christ. He knew that in order for God to be the God of “his” City he would have to work so that God would be the God of his circle of influence.

Recently I made a new friend. Honestly, if I came across this guy at Wal Mart I would probably go the other way. He’s a big guy with his ears pierced, tattoos, a bald head and a long goatee. Oh, and he is a biker that hangs around with biker people in a biker gang.

And he’s a Christian.

His goal is to reach bikers with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If he went to the clubhouse in a three-piece suit and a “professional part” he would probably be killed, but because he has become all things to this group of people and has encouraged the Truth among them, he has become respected by them. Thus, he has the opportunity to influence them.

If God is to be the God of This City, then we have to first make Him the God of the people we come in contact with on a regular basis. Before this city is changed, our circle of influence must be changed.

Are you up for the challenge?

God of This City v3.1

What is Chris Tomlin Thinking???

It’s true; Chris Tomlin is an accomplished musician. In fact, although it is hard to believe, I think he is a much better musician than I am. Not only is he a great performer, he also has great hair and that cool soul patch thing going for him. Now, he is no David Crowder when it comes to hair, but musically speaking he is one of the best.

At least that is what I thought until I started thinking about the song “God of This City". (Click the title to see a cool youtube video of the song.)

Originally I took to the song like a fat kid takes to a cupcake… I was all over it! The driving beat, the catchy chorus, the easy to follow verses – this song has everything a great praise song should have all wrapped up in a quintessential “You are!” I even bought it off itunes for my ipod. But then the question was brought to my attention, “what is it about this song that you like so much?” Well, if you have been reading this you obviously know what attracted me to the song [check it out… four lines up], but those are just things I like about the song. There is nothing special, earth shaking or life changing about a good beat or an easy to follow rhyme scheme. In fact, lots of songs I don’t like have those same attributes.

So then I start to really evaluate what it is that has sold me on this song. I began to ask myself some questions like: is it because it’s a Chris Tomlin song? Nah, I don’t really like all of his stuff (just most of it). Is it because we sing it at church? Nope, all the songs we sing at church don’t grab my attention like this one has. Is it the words of the song? Hmmm…

Maybe. Maybe the words sold the song for me.

“Greater things have yet to come, Greater things are still to be done in this city, Greater things have yet to come, and greater things have still to be done here.”

Eureka! That’s it! The words [who would have ever thought the words would make or break a song?] sold the song for me. If you’ve heard the song and are sold on it, it is possible that the words sold it for you too!

Greater things have yet to come…
– Wow… what?! Where? In this city? No way… Huh???

And thus my despair, “What is Chris Tomlin thinking?”

I look around my city and don’t see God. I mean, I know he is supposed to be in the churches and with preachers and stuff, but can I really see Him. I hear about the crime in our streets and the abuse of drugs and alcohol, but can I really see Him. I see the homeless, the lonely, the broken, the sexually abused, but can I really see God? Am I supposed to expect them to believe that greater things have yet to come… and greater things have still to be done?

I believe so!!

The Apostle Paul must have helped in the writing of “God of This City”, and I believe he sums up our responsibility to the afore mentioned anthem through this excerpt in his letter to the believers in Rome [Italy, that is.]:

11Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this--heart and soul--will ever regret it." 12It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. 13"Everyone who calls, "Help, God!' gets help."
14But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? 15And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims,
A sight to take your breath away!

Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God! (Romans 10:11-15, The Message, italics added)

Call me old fashioned [or call me happy, smart, fancy, good looking, a great musician, etc], but I believe that ANY and ALL believers in Christ have the responsibility to share with their fellow man or woman the good news that Jesus helps by saving them from whatever is weighing him or her down. In fact, “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.” However, it is the role of the Christian to tell of this incredible news; it is the responsibility of the Christ Follower to tell all the good things of God!

I chose The Message translation to convey my thoughts, but I really like how the more traditional translations put verse 15(b): As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (NIV)

Are my feet beautiful? As a Christ Follower I can’t say that I’ve been telling all the good things of God… I’ve not been living out the freedom that only God can give me. I’ve been going through the motions and not taking the risk.

What is Chris Tomlin thinking? I believe he is thinking we all need to get to work.

How can “they” hear unless “we” tell them that greater things are yet to come?

In the next two installments I will offer some insights into how I believe we can prove that God is the God of This City.