A Re-Re-Post.

This is mostly for my own benefit som I don't forget this thought from Ron at Cross & Crown. Thanks Ryan (www.5and2fish.com) for the reminder.

“What if just one small group of people from 1/4 of the churches listed in the phone book picked a specific area of their community, set up a “home base” and just started doing what Jesus did? They would begin meeting their neighbor’s needs, meeting each day to pray, intentionally invest into the youth and children of that community, share their life and faith. What would happen? I bet you could use your imagination. I think you would have some very frustrated news stations. They would have to spend their time reporting on all the cool transformations because fewer bad things would be happening. The city would change. Other towns would take notice. Why don’t we do it?"

Ancient Future Worship.

Yesterday evening as I entered the house around 5:45pm or so I noticed that a new book from Amazon had arrived and was waiting for me on the arm of the couch. I always get an email update letting me know that my order has shipped. So I was anticipating receiving "Ancient Future Worship" by Robert E. Webber.

http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Future-Worship-Proclaiming-Enacting-arrative/dp/0801066247/ref=pd_sim_b_img_3

I have been reading through some of Webber's writings and leaned on them during the season of Lent (you may have noticed). Through getting familiar with him I realized that he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Robert Webber died of pancreatic cancer on April 27, 2007. So this would be his last work. As I cracked its cover and even now as I write I was overpowered by the work and words of a man in his final months, weeks, days and moments of life. These are among his final words to the world, to the church, to us.

Here is an excerpt from the back cover:

God has a story. Worship does God's story. There is a crisis of worship today. The problem goes beyond matters of style--it is a crisis of content and of form. Worship in churches today is too often dead and dry, or busy and self-involved. Robert Webber attributes these problems to a loss of vision of God and of God's narrative in past, present, and future history. As he examines worship practices of Old Testament Israel and the early church, Webber uncovers ancient principles and practices that can reinvigorate our worship today and into the future. The final volume in Webber's acclaimed Ancient-Future series, Ancient-Future Worship is the culmination of a lifetime of study and reflection on Christian worship. Here is an urgent call to recover a vigorous, God-glorifying, transformative worship through the enactment and proclamation of God's glorious story. The road to the future, argues Webber, runs through the past.

Robert E. Webber (1933-2007) was, at the time of his death, Myers Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois, and served as the president of the Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, Florida. His many books include Ancient-Future Faith and The Younger Evangelicals.

Luby's Love.

Okay, so I have a bit of a confession to make. My family has been to Luby's the last two Wednesday nights. I secretly like going to the cafeteria. I think I like it because it has ties to my childhood when we would meet my Grandparents there for lunch many Sundays after church. The crazy thing is I still recognize some of the employees. The cool part is that on Wednesday nights kids eat for free, so it makes it a great option to eat out and still get some veggies in your kids.

Last night as we walked in I instantly saw a new friend and ministry partner, Matthew Myers. Matthew owns a company called Giant Partners, which recently purchased Catalyst, etc. (www.CatalystSpace.com). Matthew was there will his lovely wife, Kim and their two delightful children, Tess and Jesse. Matthew invited us to join them for dinner. So they stepped out of their place in line and joined us at the back of the line so that we could share dinner together. I was taken aback by their willingness to engage my little family with such kindness. You never know what you're going to get when you invite a family with a 1.5 year old and 5 year old to join your for dinner. You just might end up mashed potatoes in your lap, etc. But nonetheless, they braved the elements and made the invite. It was a gesture that will not soon be forgotten.

As we sat down to enjoy our meal. I realized that Matthew and his family have been coming to Luby's on Wednesday nights for some time. And each time they come, they always invite someone in line to join their family for dinner. Most of the time it is a elderly single person. You see Luby's is one of those happy and sad kinds of places. You have families dining together. You have a diverse racial mix. But you also have little old men and women eating alone. And I am proud to have a friend like Matthew Myers who is not afraid to give a little Luby's Love!

Mars Hill Update.

Easter is the season of HOPE. The message of Easter is that the way of being in Jesus, the way of living the new resurrected life is through participation. The original metaphors of the faith found in the New Testament and early church are old metaphors that need to be made new. The Easter Season (the time between Easter Sunday and Pentecost) is the time to recapture some of these old metaphors and make them new and fresh. The primary metaphor for the Easter season is the church as the resurrected people living a resurrected spirituality. Because of Easter we are in union with Christ.

Please mark your calendars and join over 80 churches for Sharefest ( www.ShareFestOKC.org) on Saturday, April 19th from 9-3pm. We will have several working teams to engage the neighborhood surrounding KAMP's with kind acts and practical help. We need all kinds of lawn and tree trimming equipment to tackle some of the projects we have planned. Please let me know if you are willing and able to contribute in this way.

This Sunday is the Third Sunday of Easter: Worship. Worship is the constant celebration of the Easter event. It is in worship that resurrection spirituality is learned and experienced. We gather - To hear the good news - To break bread together - To go forth and tell others. Inside this fourfold pattern is the content of the death and resurrection and the message of hope.

Our work in worship is to do the work of remembrance and hope. In worship we remember God's acts of salvation in history, especially God's work in the death and resurrection of Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sins and to be a victor over the powers of evil. Therefore in worship we anticipate his coming again, the total destruction of evil, and the reign of God's shalom (meaning: peace, nothing missing, nothing broken, and complete) over the entire created world.

So worship signifies God and God's mission to rescue creatures and creation. But note what this kind of worship does. It does something for those who do the work of proclaiming and enacting God's work. It transforms them. Every Sunday is a "little Easter," a celebration of the Easter event (Robert Webber).

I look forward to sharing and celebrating communion with you this Sunday, April 6th to be followed by dinner together.

Shalom.
Ben.

City Rescue Mission.

Last night I spent a couple of hours with Ryan Edwards over dinner at Lido.


Ryan and I go back a few years now to when we were living in Colorado Springs. It's amazing to think about how God has led Ryan through a wild journey in the last year or so.


Ryan connected with the mission and vision that surrounded the Mars Hill Journey from the get go. He and I spend Friday afternoons in Colorado just talking and dreaming about the future of this church that did not yet physically exist but existed very much in our hearts.


Ryan quit his job, left his friends and moved to OKC where the only people he knew was my little family. He has faithfully served this church-planting effort in ways that only God can adequately reward him for.


Today, he is living among the beautiful and broken people at the City Rescue Mission along with Ester Kim from the Mars Hill Community and several others. I love that young men and women in their twenties are pursuing and spreading a kingdom that lasts forever.


And yes, that's peanut butter easy cheeze style - disgusting, I know!

Chinese Proverb & Jewish Prophet.

A little truth for you on a Monday morning...

Go to the people, Live among them, Learn from them, Love them, Start with what they know, Build on what they have: But of the best leaders, When their task is done, The people will remark “We have done it ourselves.” —Chinese Proverb

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. - Isaiah 58:6-12

Bee Movie.

Another fun movie we checked out this weekend was Bee Movie (www.BeeMovie.com). I found this thought shared at the very onset of the film to be rather fascinating for one reason or another.

"According to all known laws of aviation a bee should not be able to fly. Its wings are to tiny to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible."