Marks of a Disciple :: CONFESSION September 29, 2008

Last night we unpacked another mark of a Christ Follower – a willingness to confess and be forgiven.  We watched a Nooma video (Lump) by Rob Bell which helped us connect with the reality of our sin and the unconditional love of God the father.  This opened up the imagery of blankets for the night.  (In the video Rob’s son has lied and when he gets busted he runs to his parent’s room and hides under the covers.  He lays under there, sweating in his shame, until Rob comes home.  He assures his son that there is nothing he can do to make Rob love him any less – drawing the obvious connection to God’s love for us.)  We talked about how desperately God longs for us to pull the blanket back and reconnect with Him – to fess up and restore our relationship – to plant a sweaty head on God’s chest and know that all is ok.  Confession – forgiveness.

BUT, we realize that there is more to it than that.  Our connection to God is huge – it’s the VERTICAL, but God is also interested in the HORIZONTAL.  Our connection to eachother.  The Bible tells us that the most important thing is for us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  That’s vertical.  Then Jesus says, that’s not all – “the 2nd is like it” (which really means you can’t have one without the other) and the second command is our call to love our neighbors as ourselves.  The vertical and horizontal are directly related.  And it takes both to show the complete picture of God’s love - a picture that reflects the cross.   

Britta Alton did an object lesson with us – using a volunteer and a pile of blankets – to help us see what happens when we let the layers of sin, worry, guilt, shame, etc to pile up on us and subsequently get very much in the way of our ability to love God or neighbor.  Once our volunteer was weighed down, we had others come forward to help undo the mess he had created, by pulling off those blanket layers.  We then had a visual on how important confession is to our connection with God and with neighbor.

It was time for a response for the moment and an invitation for later.  First, we worked through a liturgy of confession together.  We used our voices and hands – it went something like this:

<<Hands palm-up in lap>>
God of grace and glory, source of all that makes life possible, giver of all that makes life good: we come to you as your daughters and sons, as individuals and as a congregation.

<<Hands on the shoulders of those near>>
We come in the brokenness of our lives and land, aware of our mistakes, missteps and misdeeds. Help us to be willing to bow before you now in true repentance.

<<Hands clinched and lifted into the air>>
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed. By what we have done and by what we have left undone.

I invite you to silently name those things that you need forgiveness from, as you do so, open your hands, symbolically releasing those things to God.

<<Hands back to your heart>>
Help us make room in our hearts and lives for you. Free us, revive us, and reshape us in your image. And now, through your grace we are forgiven,

by the mercy of God our Father <<touch forehead>>
through the love of Christ our Savior <<touch chest>>
and in the power of the Holy Spirit <<touch each shoulder>>  AMEN.

This confession cleared the air verticaly.  Then we invited everyone to make ammends horizontally.  We talked about the power of this process and how it is worked out in the 12 steps.  I shared about my experience with receiving ammends through that process with my dad.  And we read through these verses: 

Romans 13:8 (MSG)
Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along.

James 5:16 (The Message)
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.

Matthew 5:23-24 (MSG)
“This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

So to encourage people to follow through, we gave them little clear glass beads (symbolic of the clear air confession brings, or maybe of a tear drop over the seperation of sin) – the thought was the bead would sit in your pocket and be a reminder to go make amends with the person(s) you need to.  Then you could give them the bead, telling them about the “horizontal and vertical” and encourage them to do the same for the relationships in their lives that need the freedom of confession.

We then responded to God’s grace by singing Unashamed (Starfield) and From the Inside Out (Hillsong Untited) closing with a word from our pastor and singing Mighty to Save (Hillsong United.)  We had opened with Your Grace is Enough (Tomlin).   

God was present – people are making relationships right – It was a great night.

Marks of a Disciple :: LOVE September 15, 2008

Week two of this series: Christ followers who are growing in their faith are marked by an all encompassing love.  They love everybody!  Even the difficult people AND they remember that lots of the time they are the difficult people!  We used Romans 12:9-17 as a guide for the night.  Here it is in the form of a spoken benediction that we ended with:

May we not pretend to love others.
May we really love them.
May we hate what is wrong and hold tightly to what is good.
May we love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
May we never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. 
May we rejoice in our confident hope, be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.
When God’s people are in need, may we be ready to help them.
May we always be eager to practice hospitality.
May we bless those who persecute us.
May we not curse them; but pray that God will bless them.
May we be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.
May we live in harmony with each other.
May we not be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.
And may we remember that we don’t know it all!
May we never pay back evil with more evil, but do things in such a way that everyone can see we are honorable.
May we do all that we can to live in peace with every one.
May we bear the marks of a disciple.  AMEN.

So we started the night with some thoughts from John (pastor) about the scripture and our call to love ALL.  Looked at the examples of this that Jesus gave in his life and living.  Considered our call to live like that, and then reminded everyone that we, too, are often hard to love.  From there we segued into the interactive part of the night.  We passed out name tags and markers.  We asked everyone just to be honest – we all have issues, traits or habits that make us “difficult”.  So we fessed up and wrote them down – “Hi, I’m Tina, and I’m impatient.”  I heard some great ones, that I could have written on my tag: controlling, arrogant, angry, selfish, lazy – yep, that’s me! 

Once everyone had a name tag on we began Phase 1 – mingle – introduce yourself and your hang-up to as many people in the room as you can.  Then we sang a song: Unchanging by Tomlin. 

Phase 2 – apologize, which we don’t do often enough.  Hi, I’m Tina, I’m impatient, and I’m sorry.  People moved around the room in humility with grins and thoughtfulness as we got a little deeper.  Then we sang a song: Famous One by Tomlin. 

Phase 3 – create a small group of 3 and share in your group how God is helping you overcome the issue you struggle with.  How is he helping you let go of that thing that gets in the way of you loving all and being lovable?  Then we sang: Who Am I?  by Casting Crowns. 

Phase 4 – pray with your group.  Each person prayed for the person on their right – then they traded name tags.  We asked that they use that name tag as a reminder to pray for that person the rest of the week.  Then we sang: You are the Light by Steve Fee.

We wrapped up by watching a short video that reiterated we are all one in Christ - that there should be no divisions among us.  He died so that we could love all people, not just the ones we already like.  Then we closed with that spoken benediction.  It was a good night. 

Next week is Youth Sunday – they will lead worship (so I won’t be blogging) and cover the third mark of the series: Disciples are marked by being a part of the BODY – it’s about committment to the fellowship of believers.

Prayer requests this week:  
Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Pray for Tina’s friend – Jackie.  She’s going through a very rough patch.

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work, so pray also that they can figure out the logistics of how this will work. 

Marks of a Disciple :: RENEWAL September 8, 2008

We started a new series Sunday night – Marks of a Disciple.  We’ll spend the month looking at what Christ followers look like.  As our faith grows, and we mature in Christ – what should the world see in us?  We’re using Romans 12:1-2 (The Message) as a theme for this series:

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

 

If that’s what we want, if we want to grow in Christ as disciples of love and truth.

If we want to be Christ followers, what will our lives look like?

 

1) A disciple is marked by transformation – of being made new – marked by RENEWAL.

2) A disciple is marked by a grace filled life – of loving all equally – marked by LOVE.

3) A disciple is marked by the family of God – of being a part of a fellowship of believers – marked by the BODY.

4) A disciple is marked by a clean slate – of choosing to forgive & forget – marked by CONFESSION.

 

So that’s what we’re going to work through this month.  Last night we started with renewal.

We did an art excercise to start – everyone had a marker and a piece of cardstock.  We asked them to draw out their lifeline.  From birth to present – to draw out the ups and downs of their life – marking all the significant points along the way.  We then had them mark where on the line they saw God working.  Looking back at their life, when was it that he was helping, shaping, renewing, comforting, etc.?  Finally they were to draw a self portrait of who they are – where they’re headed, how they feel, what they’re holding on to, who’s traveling with them? 

 

We had everyone pair off and share their lifelines.  Then we had a couple of folks who shared theirs with the whole group – it’s a very safe place!  We transitioned into the topic of the night by recognizing that God has been and is working to renew this image and history.  We talked about the process of renewal and about how transformation like that takes an everyday effort by God and us – that it is much more than a one time thing when we say yes to God initially.  But a daily choice of placing God over all. 

 

A planted actress popped up spontaneously from the congregation and read to us from a letter that was from Paul to the church (in Ephesus and Ringgold) – she felt it was imperative we hear what he had to say to us.  She read through Ephesians 4:15-24, encouraging us to take it seriously and hear what it meant for our lives. 

 

“God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other.  His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.”

 

From there we did some meditating on that word and what it meant for our lives – silent time with guided questions on the screen.  Those questions segued into a video – “Starving Jesus” that I bought from Worshiphousemedia.com - great video!  All about how we hold on to junk that stops us from fully embracing what God has for us – RENEWAL!  People were challenged to consider what dirt they are gripping onto that is getting in the way of their relationship with God – of being made new.  This was the first Sunday of the month – so we were scheduled to have communion.  We incorporated a ritual hand washing prior to receiving the elements – just had a couple glass bowls of water and towels out.  With the imagery from the video in their minds (you should go watch it!) they opened their hands in that clear water and invited God to renew and refresh.  Then they remembered the depth of that love through the sacrifice of Jesus’ body and blood. 

 

We sang a few songs – “Here I Am to Worship” & “Came to My Rescue”.  Ended with a spoken benediction and a very upbeat ”Marvelous Light”.  It was a great night!  The kids had joined us from their normal program for communion - we gave them a special call to dance during the bridge (the “lift my hands and spin around” part).  Beautiful to see the family of God worshipping together – from 4 years old to a saint in his 70’s that came back for the 2nd week in a row!  God is so cool! 

 

We definitely have prayer requests this week.  Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space Drop Boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Dale Duckett’s sister passed away Saturday.  Pray for the family as they grieve a great loss.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend – Jackie.  She’s going through a very rough patch.

:: ALPHA started!  Pray that those present will find it a powerful tool to connect to a loving God!  And maybe along the way we can better understand the meaning of life!

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work, so pray also that they can figure out the logistics of how this will work. 

Understanding God’s Will in a Text Msg World :: Part 5 September 2, 2008

Last Sunday we finished this series about understanding God’s will for our lives.  The thought behind the night was that God’s will for us is that our hurts never be wasted.  We talked about the reality of our broken world - that bad stuff happens to good people – that we daily deal with dissapointments – that life often hurts.  We sang a couple songs, then John (pastor) shared some - used a great story about a man who turned his grief into a powerful ministry.  Then Eric (husband) shared about the jewish tradition of rending your clothes in grief.  We unpacked the history of that ancient practice and tied it into an understanding of how God is walking with us in our grief today – not just over death, but as we deal with the dissapointments of life, with the broken parts that we experience. 

We were invited to think through and identify those hurts as Eric tore some fabric and we listened to Kevin & Brandon play through a great version of “Everybody Hurts” by REM.  Then it was our turn, to come forward and take a piece of cloth = to name the hurt that we are grieving, and to tear it symbolically (the Jews believed rending opened a space for our emotions and heartache to be released.)  We set up some cushions so people would have a place to kneel and pray and in the background we watched a video of rainy nature scenes – they looked like sorrow.  “Small Enough” by Nicole Nordeman and then “Trying to get Through” by Hothouse Flowers were in our ears as we prayed and rended and contemplated those dark places in our lives. 

As we finished that response, I talked a little in summary and then played “God Believes in You” by Pierce Pettis.  We turned the corner from the grief and rested in the truth that no matter how bad it gets, God never stops believing in us.  Then we sang in closing “Everlasting God” the Tomlin version, and celebrated the strength rising as we waited upon the Lord.

It was a great night – holiday weekend – small crowd – but we rearranged the chairs for the night, rounded them out and brought them closer in.  It was a very intimate - even more than normal.  I got choked up while I was trying to sing the last lines of Everlasting God as I opened my eyes to see a man in the back with both arms exteneded and lifted up in praise to his God - I love my job!

This Sunday – new series!  Marks of a Disciple…

 

Here are our current prayer requests.  Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space drop boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: ALPHA starts this Wednesday - an 11 week study that is aimed at folks who are full of questions about their faith.  This first class will have more church folks in it than intended – but it should be a good experience and good training as we offer it again in the future.  Pray that whoever needs to be there is, and that moving forward Alpha reaches farther and wider in its potential as a ministry!

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work, so pray also that they can figure out the logistics of how this will work.