What role does focus play in the life of a follower of Jesus? And what should our focus be?
By: Daniel Lobo
I answer this question in my latest podcast. You can listen to it on the bottom of this post, on iTunes, or on Stitcher.
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Do small groups help or hinder followers of Jesus becoming more missional? My answer: depends on the groups!
I answer this question in my latest podcast. You can listen to it on the bottom of this post, on iTunes, or on Stitcher.
If you like it, would you please rate it and even leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher? That would be super cool!
Thanks!
By: AIGA Wisconsin
I think we all have that one friend, co-worker, or family member who insists on being annoyed that anyone else has anything good going on for them. Do you know what I’m talking about?
This condition is called “envy” and it is really pretty unseemly and downright ugly!
But I think if we’re all honest, then we know that we exhibit lots of envy in our lives too. So that means that our behaviors, words, and attitudes make us pretty ugly to others too. (Did you see what I did there…”pretty ugly”…get it!?)
Green with Envy
Recently my wife and I were having a conversation and I was talking about someone that we both know. Everything in his life has seemingly just come together without much effort while many things in my life have taken great struggle and persistence. I went on and on and eventually I veered off into envy territory. I started saying things like “Well, if I were him…” and “It would be nice if my life were as easy as his…”
My guess is that this story resonates with you. Envy is real and its reach extends to each one of us.
What’s so bad about envy? Some people argue that envy doesn’t really hurt anyone, so why would God tell us not to envy what our neighbors have (cf. the 10 commandments)?
Well, I think there are two reasons, at least:
So what’s the answer to envy? Well, I don’t think there’s a quick fix.
Honestly, I think we have to start by being totally satisfied with God and God alone. If we lost it all but still had him, would we be okay? Would we be happy? Or are we so tied to our stuff and relationships that we can’t exist without them?
A second area to work on would is being content with what we have (cf. Philippians 4). Do we really need more shoes, more gadgets, more square footage, and more fame? Will it ever be enough?
And a third way to combat envy would be to surround ourselves with community, the kind of community that will love us, correct us, encourage us, and hold us accountable. So when we start exhibiting signs of envy, they can call us on it and help us change.
Lastly, a fourth way would be to pray. We need to ask God to help us. We can’t do this on our own — we’ll always default back to envy. We need the internal power that only God can provide through the indwelling presence of the Spirit.
What do you think? How big of a problem is envy and what can we do about it? Let me know in the comments below.
Perhaps a working definition of humility would go something like this: Having an honest appraisal of oneself that allows for the interests of others to pursued and deepens the desire for this pursuit.
So humility doesn’t mean lying about your accomplishments because you don’t want to seem too arrogant. And it doesn’t mean trying not to achieve anything of value for fear of accolades. And humility doesn’t mean having false humility when someone give you praise.
You can listen to it on the bottom of this post, on iTunes, or on Stitcher.
If you like it, would you please rate it and even leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher? That would be super cool!
Thanks!
The family that Jesus calls together goes beyond blood or marriage. His family is a fictive family — a family called together by something else, something deeper.
That something is a someone — Jesus. And the glue that holds his fictive family together is his mission.
Fictive family is a phrase used by researchers to label a kinship group or a community that is brought together not by DNA or marriage Instead, these communities are formed on some other basis.
There are numerous examples of this but perhaps the most popular one is the military. The television series Band of Brothers captured this idea well. A diverse group of young men, who weren’t related in any traditional sense, developed a deep sense of connectedness which caused them to sacrifice for one another, even to the point of death. What brought them together initially was patriotism or the draft (or both) but what enabled them to move from men in proximity to a fictive family was their mutual suffering and their mission.
They each went through the rigors of boot camp and training. They had horror stories of drill sergeants putting them through the ringer. Then they had hours and hours of sometimes boring specific assignment training. And when they were together on the field, they faced danger, hunger, and loneliness.
But sharing in suffering doesn’t automatically create a fictive family. But when you pair shared suffering with an exciting, risky, and real mission, that’s when you get the first inklings of fictive family!
The soldiers begin to learn that not only do they have the same sob stories as their brothers in arms, but they also have each other’s backs. They begin to see for themselves power and beauty of fictive family when they are literally at death’s door together.
This kind of closeness, this fictive family, is somewhat rare. Why is that? Why aren’t we humans more inclined toward being fictive family?
I could probably list a hundred or more reasons, but here are the first few that come to mind: we’re scared to be open and vulnerable, we think we will look or become soft, we’d rather not share the glory and fame, and we’re just plain ol’ selfish.
I mean, really, who wants to give of themselves until it hurts?
As followers of Jesus we commonly use familial language, calling each other brothers and sisters and claiming that we’re all part of the family of God.
But we all know that we’re often just parroting empty language that was parroted to us. We don’t always treat one another with real affection. We don’t always create interdependent relationships that fictive families have. And we don’t always sacrifice for one another the way we might for family.
Why not? Why aren’t we more like family? Why are we more akin to acquaintances within in the church?
Here’s my belief: It’s because we aren’t on mission together, we don’t operate under the same purpose.
It seems to me that we Christians, especially those of us who consider ourselves Evangelicals, have made it incredibly difficult to live within fictive family well. For years (centuries really) we have focused so intently on individual faith and Jesus as a personal savior that we’ve made community, i.e., fictive family, a luxury and not something that is expected.
Christian community is not optional! It is absolutely necessary in order for us to follow Jesus actively in the real world!
But how do we do it? How do we begin to form fictive family as followers of Jesus?
Here’s what has worked in my own life — I got on mission with some other followers of Jesus. The fictive family formed quickly! Being on mission together gave life and meaning to our worship together, our service of one another, our prayers for one another, and our reading of Scripture together.
The real question this is this: What is this mission and how do we get on it?
Mission is from a Latin word (missio) which means “send.” Therefore a mission is something we are sent to do. It’s active and it comes from God. Our mission isn’t something that we think up or that we lean on others to find for us. It’s revealed from God.
And the basic missio Dei, mission of God, in the Bible is simple — God wants to reconcile all things to himself through Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5.19-20).
And it is this one idea, reconciliation, through which we should filter all of our potential thoughts about mission.
So our thinking should go like this: Do the activities we engage in as a fictive family, as a Christian community, promote reconciliation (the mending of broken people, relationships, and things)? If so, then we should prayerfully pursue them in the power of the Spirit. If not, then we should avoid them like the plague because all they’ll do is distract us from God’s one mission in this world, to reconcile all things.
Friends, real connection is formed between followers of Jesus when we are on mission together, when we are engaging in God’s reconciling work together.
And being on mission like this will form us into loving, vibrant, and attractive fictive families in which we love God, love one another, and love others.
What do you think? What do you think holds Christian community together? Is it mission or is it something else? Let me know in the comments below!
(This is the third part in a mini-series on the health and wealth gospel and what a missional response might be. Here is part one [CLICK HERE], here is part two [CLICK HERE], and here is part three [CLICK HERE]. Be sure to check back for more! Or just subscribe to my blog using the sign-up form on the right or at the bottom of the page if you’re using your mobile device.)
The prosperity gospel, AKA the health and wealth gospel, is a force to be reckoned with within Christian circles. There are millions of people who believe in its principles in the United States, and many millions more in the rest of the world (especially in Latin America, Asia, and Africa).
By: Keith Cooper
It’s central claim is that if you believe just so, which you demonstrate in part by funding ministries financially, then God will bless you with material things, money, and health. And while there seems to be some biblical support for this (see Jeremiah 29.11, Genesis 12, and Mark 1.29-30), upon closer investigation the basic claim of the prosperity gospel is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom.
This discontinuity can be seen plainly by the fact that Jesus consistently tells his closest followers to expect hardship, persecution, and the like. Why? Simply because they follow him!
Listen to a few of Jesus’ thoughts about this:
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9.23)
Taking up a cross and denying oneself certainly doesn’t sound like getting blessed financially or with health!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 10.25)
Why would God bless his people primarily through money, stuff, and health if in so doing he was making it harder for them to live under his kingship? That doesn’t make sense!
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6.20)
Notice here that Jesus explicitly says that the poor are blessed. How would that work if God only blessed folks with stuff, money, and a clean bill of health?
I could go on. There are many, many, many more examples. But let these three stand as chief examples of the fact that the gospel that Jesus preached and lived was not about giving people money or ensuring that they were always going to be healthy.
Sure, Jesus fed some folks and he healed some too. But Jesus didn’t always do either of these things.
But he did make a promise to us, a promise of blessing. In Matthew 28.20 Jesus promises to always be with us, until the very, very end. That’s his primary blessing. That’s his ultimate promise. Anything that would distract us from that promise should not be a a chief pursuit for a follower of Jesus.
In my estimation, proponents of the prosperity gospel engage in abhorrent and manipulative practices which often target the poor and they also seem to be theologically distant from what we see in the life and teachings of Jesus.
But there’s an important twist to this story.
It’s really easy for me to wag my finger at the prosperity gospel people, but I should be careful. Jesus has a thought or two about this: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7.3).
So what is the plank in my eye with regard to the issues that make me angry about the prosperity gospel? I think there are two and I’m sure that I’m not alone in this struggle:
And when I think about it, most of the churches that I’ve been a part of have demonstrated that they struggle with these things too, both individual congregants and the churches and their leaders too (myself included, of course).
I think this shows up most clearly when people in church contexts talk about what the will of God is. What we typically mean when we want to know God’s will goes something like this: Which college will I go to, what will I major in, what kind of job will I get, who will I marry, how many kids will we have, how big of a house can we get, should we move to a bigger house, when and how should I retire, etc.
Now it may just be the churches that I’ve been in, the people I’m friends with, or my own makeup and struggles, but in America is seems to me that we’ve made God’s will look a lot like the average pursuits of a middle-class family. God’s will has to be more than that. And it is! In 2 Corinthians 5.18-19 we see with some clarity that God’s will is to reconcile all things to himself through Jesus. Our health and wealth would only play a small part in that, surely.
So when we go to great lengths to criticize the prosperity gospel and its proponents, are we also going to great lengths to see if we struggle with the same desires ourselves?
And are we leading the disciples we are making to care more about pursuing God’s kingdom no matter the cost or have we fallen prey to the prosperity gospel ourselves through our desires to look and act like a typical middle-class person in America?
I believe in a prosperity gospel too. I try to hide it. I try to push it down. But my flesh cries out for health and wealth just like everyone else’s.
But as an active follower of Jesus who is sent into this world incarnationally to share and embody the good news, I must begin to cry out more for God and his righteousness!
What do you think? Are we all tempted to pursue the prosperity gospel in our own ways? What should we do about it? Let me know in the comments below!
For an assignment at work I’ve been re-reading all the Gospels, which has been great! And just the other day I read the Gospel of John all in one setting and I noticed something striking: there is a ton of “sent” language in John!
By: ND Strupler
Everywhere you look in John someone is being sent. Usually it’s Jesus who is saying that he was sent by the Father. But there are times when Jesus says that he will send the Holy Spirit and there are a few important instances of Jesus saying that he will send his disciples in the same manner in which he was sent.
As you [Father] sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world (John 17.18).
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20.21).
From a missional perspective, these are two of the most important verses in the entire Gospel of John. Why? What makes them so special?
What do you think about the idea of being sent? Are we all sent?
Let me know in the comments below!
We hear a lot about acceptance and tolerance today. In fact, in certain Christian circles acceptance and tolerance are at the top of bad word list!
At some other time I want to tackle the idea of toleration — so let’s turn our attention instead toward acceptance.
By: Jesslee Cuizon
All of us want to be loved for who we are. We want people to validate us and our feelings and we want them to make us feel good about the choices we’ve made. We want to be accepted.
And we want this acceptance to be conditional: the one accepting us can’t ask us to change, expect us to change, or hope that we’ll change. Nope. Instead we want them to simply take us as we are, warts and all.
And to be honest, if there’s something about us that we know needs to change, we still don’t really want people to call us out on it.
It’s almost as if we want people to accept us and then to ignore everything about us that is preventing us from living up to our God-given potentials.
We want love without risk, grace without truth, and acceptance without change.
If we stopped to think about it, we would gather that this kind of cheap, no-strings-attached acceptance is shallow at best. We would figure out that it’s more or less meaningless because no one is asking us to be better, to be stronger, or to be more clued in.
But when we find someone who can accept us for who we are and then love us enough not to let us stay there, we will latch onto them for dear life!
I’m sure that as you read the last sentence you thought of a person or two in your life that simply makes you a better person. Sure, they offer you unadulterated acceptance. But they also have high expectations of you. When you fail them, they don’t dismiss you; instead they help you grow. When you hurt them, they don’t run; instead they teach you how not to be selfish.
It’s people like this that are worth holding onto! In fact, if we’re lucky enough to have one or two people in our lives like this, we’re super blessed!
I can’t think of a better example of someone who demonstrates healthy acceptance than Jesus. We can catch a glimpse or two of his acceptance style in John 3.1-15.
In those verses Jesus has an interaction with a religious leader named Nicodemus. Since Nicodemus was an important person and since Jesus was a bit controversial, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night (John 3.2).
He desperately wanted to engage in conversation and dialogue with Jesus, but he was a bit scared to be seen with him.
I don’t know about you, but if someone treated me this way, I might be tempted to say something like this: “Come back during the light of day. I can’t work with you if you’re ashamed to be seen with me!”
But this is not how Jesus responds. Instead Jesus enters in to a discussion with Nicodemus. He’s patient with him. But he teaches him.
Jesus doesn’t just accept Nicodemus and let him stay there. Jesus allows Nicodemus to come to him as is and he makes sure that he leaves a different man.
Now the transition from spiritual lostness to foundness was slow for Nicodemus. Nicodemus and his pal Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus but in secret, helped ensure that Jesus’ body was taken care of after he died (John 19.39-42). This was a big deal because doing so would be at least semi-public and because the spices and tomb for Jesus were not cheap. Nicodemus and his friend had to make sacrifices because of Jesus.
Jesus accepted him, and then a long time later Nicodemus demonstrated his love for Jesus.
Tradition has it that Nicodemus continued to follow Jesus and was killed for his faith sometime during the first century. This isn’t verifiable but it has a nice ring to it.
Maybe Nicodemus’ faith started slow and grew incrementally. And maybe it continued to grow and to grow and to grow.
And it all started for Nicodemus because Jesus offered him the gift of acceptance.
Why do we find it so hard to offer acceptance to folks who are far from God? If we want to follow Jesus and lead others toward his love too, then we must offer them acceptance. What can we do to be more accepting? Let me know in the comments below!
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By: Chad Cooper
People are watching folks who follow Jesus. They see what we are doing. They’re watching how we live. They notice us.
Why does this simple fact — that the world is watching — matter?
Well, it matters because our words communicate some but our lives speak much more. Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages, has studied this matter a lot and has determined that 93% of communication is nonverbal (body language, nonverbal vocal cues, etc.). That’s crazy!
Think about that for a minute. What we do and how we do it communicates a ton, way more than our actual words do!
So what does this mean? Well, this is not a call to legalism. You may be thinking, “But if what we do matters to people, then shouldn’t we always behave uber-properly, so that they get a good view of Jesus?”
Here’s my short answer: “No” and “Yes.”
Here’s the longer answer: “No” because if we get focused on the details of doing what we think is right (or what we’re told is right) people see that too. They’ll pick up really quickly that we care more about doing what’s proper than we do about people. And “Yes” because behaving ethically and in ways that promote justice are centrally important. Ethics and the pursuit of justice are different than following rules out of obligation. Why? Because ethics and seeking justice have to do with making sure that other people in the world are taken care of (Phil 2.3-4), whereas legalistic behavior is inherently self-centered.
People will see the difference. They’ll notice if we’re following rules because doing so is right or if we’re seeking the best for others despite whatever personal cost there may be.
Who can serve as a good example of living an others-centered life well while the world is watching? None other than Jesus!
Check this out: “During the Passover feast in Jerusalem, the crowds were watching Jesus closely; and many began to believe in Him because of the signs He was doing” (John 2.23 in The Voice**).
Did you see that? People were watching Jesus too. They saw his life. They observed the signs he performed. They saw his love for his close friends. They witnessed his miracles and concern for the marginalized. And, of course, they heard his teaching.
And what did people see Jesus do in John 2? They saw him turn water into wine, thus preventing a wedding party from being lame and bringing shame on the groom and his family, and they saw him exercise his passion for proper worship and justice when he cleared out the temple.
They saw Jesus’ actions, actions which were for the benefit of others. John also says that people saw other signs he was doing, and if these unspecified signs were anything like all of Jesus’ other signs, then they too were done for the benefit of others.
Here’s the crux: People saw what Jesus was doing, and when the watching world looked at him they saw him living for the benefit of others.
The answer to this question has been studied quite a bit. Here’s what researchers have found: When people are asked to describe Christians they saw we are judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashioned (78%), and too involved in politics (75%).
The fairness of the criticisms may be unfair. But what is not up for debate is that these descriptors are what people see in us. This is how the watching world describes us.
This situation is sad, of course. But all hope is not lost.
One relationship at a time with people who are watching us, we can change people’s opinions. We can be accepting the way that Jesus was. We can be less judgmental and more loving. We can learn to be shockproof when we encounter messed up stuff in the world. We can be more open and honest about our own sinfulness. We can stop pretending we have it all together and that we have all the answers.
In short, we can live others-focused lives the way Jesus did. To paraphrase a theme from one of my favorite books, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth, by one of my favorite authors, Hugh Halter: A follower of Jesus is a person who lives Jesus’ human life in his or her human life.
How do we live Jesus’ human life? Well, we need to find out how Jesus lived by reading about his life in the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Then we need to gather some friends around us who also want to live Jesus’ life in their lives and start doing the things we see Jesus doing. We need to pray for each other, celebrate together, hold each other accountable, and encourage one another.
I can’t emphasize this enough: DON’T TRY THIS ALONE. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, didn’t even try this alone! What makes you or me think that we can do it? Here’s a good place for you and your friends to start together: The Tangible Kingdom Primer, by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.
So, the watching world is watching us closely. What are they seeing? And what can we do about it?
** The Voice is a newer translation of the Bible that I highly recommend. It was put together by a team of biblical scholars and artists, so it is faithful to the original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) but it is written in very easy-to-read English. This is a perfect Bible to give as a gift to someone who is part of the watching world who gets interested in Jesus!
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