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Now there is a title that caught my attention! I am a “revival” kind of guy and have been praying for that for many many years. What could

be better than that?

The article was in Christianity Today, a great publication. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/june/25.38.html

This is an example from Argentina on how city-wide transformation is more signifiant than a “revival event.” For these pastors and churches it is critical for the body of Christ to be “one.” The unity they have is astounding.

Most pastors and Christians would agree with “one church” kinds of issues but not really practice it on a every day level. Not a new theological problem at all! Most of the things we “believe” have a hard time working themselves out in how we live and act.

“The Buenos Aires pastors believe their city of 13 million should have only one church.” Wow, I know, that doesn’t even seem realistic. BUT, honestly, it is.

One Church, many different fellowships with one Mission. The things that unite are stronger than the things that divide. Crucial to understand and live out. Diversity doesn’t have to prevent Unity. This city is a glowing example.

My prayer and my dream is that is will be true of my city, Terre Haute Indiana. 62,000 people and one church!

Prov. 14:34 ¶ Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”

Clean us up Jesus as a people and a nation!

We all have our political and national wishes and choices to make America well and strong. These are all well and good and as they should be as a republic. BUT

Those things are like cleaning up the outside of a tomb as Jesus said. It looks good and certainly has the appearance of wellness, but inside are dead peoples rotting bodies.

Whether you like a lot of our history as a nation or you find big problems, the truth lies in the heart of a “nation under God.” Yes, I know, we are a pluralistic nation that grants freedom of worship to all faiths. For that I am grateful. But it does not change the reality of the universe! There is only one God, Yahweh, He is a jealous God and there is only one way of following Him and that is obedience.

Our nation wants to find favor in allowing the worship of all gods and not only The God. We have to return to a worship of The God and at the same time allow the worship of other gods to exist without violence. I would like a peaceful existence with those who do not believe as I do. That historically has not always happened. Our nation tries hard to make it reality and for that I am grateful.

As I have plowed through the Old Testament again this year it is apparent as always, we cannot worship other gods and come out smelling like a rose! That mixture will always bring about a bad result. That is the mess we live with in reality today. I wrestle along with other leaders in every generation as to how to handle living among a people of unclean lips and with those who don’t worship my God.

Daniel and Jeremiah both struggled with this ordeal. Both successfully as you can read. Yes, I believe I can live among them and even pray for them and at the same time Worship the One True God. Not without problems or sometimes even persecution and suffering. But we must if God is to bless us as individuals or as a nation.

Don’t surrender your right as a follower of God to worship Him alone fully and totally! That would be truly giving away the land many have died for! We are a remnant that most pray for the prosperity of our nation and stay holy to our God.

Have a blessed Memorial Day!

This Sunday May 23 is Pentecost Sunday. This is an annual reminder of the birth of the Church. It is a great reminder of the spiritual origin of God’s earthly entity we call the Church.

The Holy Spirit generated the earthly family of God on Pentecost as recorded in the book of Acts. Wow, what a day that was! It is one of the key texts that Pentecostals base much of their theology, and rightly so.

I must admit I long for another day like that! As a pastor I get so frustrated with human directed, human empowered and human organizations. I need a move of God in MCC and the Church of Terre Haute! I long for God to rend the heavens and come down and stir us up to what we could be and should be! Only the Holy Spirit’s fire can change our fleshly motives and powers.

Since 2001 the world has been invited to the largest prayer gatherings in history. These gatherings are all over the world and in 220 nations. It is referred to as the Global Day of Prayer. It originated in South Africa. We as Americans are slowly grabbing hold of it as it creeps toward a conclusion possibly this year.

Our gathering here in Terre Haute will be at First Baptist Church on Poplar (2 pm). Thanks Bernie for hosting us! Churches from al across our city are encouraged to come and pray. For repentance and the healing touch of God from heaven. Our world needs revived! Our city needs revived! Our churches need revived! The Church of Terre Haute needs revived! The Church in America needs revived! I wonder if I didn’t get all covered, but I tried.

I believe God pays attention to his people when they gather corporately to pray and worship. I feel an intense need for this gathering in our city. I need the presence of all God’s people in a location crying out together as the body of Christ without denominational labels. Just His kids crying for His help.

Let’s be a “city on our knees” as Toby Mac sings. Sinners and Saints in a beautiful display. Why not now? Let’s start here!

“Ironically, if we speak about spiritual formation purely in individual terms, we will not be able to form individuals well. Part of what is needed for our formation is membership in and submission to and compassion for a community larger than or individual selves.” John Ortberg

* Membership is about relationships. We want them, need them and flourish in them. Being a member of the body of Christ is life and health. A needed place of care, support and encouragement. (Heb. 10; Acts 2)

* Submission is about humility. There is a God, it is not you! We live under authority for the good of God’s kingdom and not ours. (Jam. 4:7, Rom. 8:7)

* Compassion is about loving God and our neighbor. The great commandment, fulfilling the Law of God. Selfishness is overcome as we give to others. Bearing each others burdens and meeting their needs is being a follower of Jesus. (Mt. 22:37, Gal. 6:2)

“A community of people” is a core value of MCC. We are not individuals on a journey so much as we are a family on a journey. We travel together, with each other and for each other.

Are you a part of a community of followers of Jesus? These are the nuts and bolts of church membership. Far more important than a lot of people realize. We are not a club or just another non-profit helping people. We are the household of God and the door of fellowship is always open!

After 37 years of preaching, I am not preaching this Easter! Wow, what a strange feeling!

I am excited about “Illuminate” and all the great work and prep in the services that will happen tomorrow. I have such a wonderful staff of great people who have really prayed and worked hard at presenting the resurrection message. It will be awesome! One of the truly highlights of every year.

Scot Longyear will be preaching a nine part series called “Wide Soul” beginning April 11. He will be doing it two times a Sunday. This is a part of our transition from two communities to one @ MCC. Justin will be doing the same music along with the same message each Sunday. It will be an exciting and challenging new day for everyone involved both staff and congregation.

I will be teaching various Bible studies on James and a class called “The Me I Want To Be.” I love teaching and this will be a whole new season for me as a pastor and leader. I have been really excited about the James class I have been leading with one of our Elder Interns Dan Gisel on Tuesday mornings at Art Reach downtown. Great group of young guys learning together and doing theology together.

I will be doing the study on Sunday afternoons and on Wednesday evening with a small group I have been leading. The emphasis on James comes from the texts that Scot will be using in the “Wide Soul” series. This will be a new opportunity to pair preaching and teaching in a new way. Chance for people to go a bit deeper in study and relationships.

The Thursday night class on “The Me I Want To Be” is taken from a new book by John Ortberg. Spiritual formation is so crucial in this day and this will be a great way to help us grow in this area. It is a video curriculum combined with a great book and study guide. It is also accompanied by a web based tool to help with individual growth plans called Monvee. We have been a beta congregation in its development. Great future for this tool.

I am so excited about the future of MCC and some new roles I will be playing on the team. God is good! All the time! And this new time is so good!

Here is an article in Leadership Journal that summarizes much of what I have been teaching on for the past four weeks. It is a good summary of things in his new book The Me I Want To Be.

Article: ChristianityToday.com

Here are some quotes from the participants during the weekend:

“I have never seen Christian love in action like this before. It’s a shame that I had to come to prison to see and experience Christian love…and, it’s a shame that you guys had to come here to show it to me.”

“What the D.O.C. has failed to do ever since it came into existence, Kairos is accomplishing. That is, rehabilitation.”

“The talks on forgiveness really hit home and it’s forcing me to deal with this issue. It’s been a real blessing.”

“I’ve slowly pulled myself away from the church the past 16 years, but I know I belong in the body even if I’m only a toenail.”

“I demonstrated agape [with the cookies] when I got back to my dorm and they were shocked.”

“I have a lot of holes and what I’ve been taught here has filled the voids. I’ll die representing Jesus.”

“It’s been great meeting ‘all my relations’.”

“When we can truly man up, what will we be? Now that’s true leadership.”

“I’m muslim and came for the food and got a lot more than I bargained for. I’ve been here 10 years & you’ve got something good and I mean it.”

“I see now that I’m not alone in life.”

“Before Thursday I didn’t know who God was, but I’ve always felt there’s someone behind me and now I know who it is.”

“I’ve been in over 18 years and I’m 35. Been in lots of hairy situations – stabbed & shot before 16 – but I have never ever felt anything like I have the past 2 days. I can promise I’ll never be a perfect Christian, but I promise I’ll do my best to keep getting back up. I’ve been thinking the past 3 hours how to tell my mother – she’ll never believe this! I’ve been waiting all my life to hear her say she’s proud of me. I don’t know how to make her believe this. I guess I’m just going to have to SHOW her.”

“I learned that God’s bigger than all of us and what agape really means.”

“Even incarcerated men like us can live a life of hope and love each other and be in service to Jesus.”

“It’s not how you start life but how you finish. We’ve decided as a family to do that with Christ Jesus.”

“This wasn’t just heart warming, it was life changing. I’m taking away a new life.”

“The love was in your face.”

“When I first arrived I felt I was growing spiritually and I found a lot of men here [this weekend] that were great examples of faith. A lot of humanity has given up. They’ve had faith in lots of things that have let them down. You all are proof that God has not given up on humanity.”

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;”

The last aspect of spiritual formation in “The Me I Want To Be” is the practicum. It is the action item of spiritual growth. As you can see in this familiar text on spiritual gifts, it is critical to “use them.” Having them is one thing, using them is quite another. Practice may not make us perfect, but it does help us grow more perfect!

Living in the flow of the Spirit means I use my gifts in the context of my daily life. Experiences are what we do in life. Most people spend over half their lives “at work.” Our work is our arena of experience.

“Work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do……the medium in which we offer ourselves to God.” Dorothy Sayers

“You come to know God by experience at His initiative as He reveals Himself to you. As you experience God, you come to know Him more intimately and personally.”

YOU COME TO KNOW GOD BY EXPERIENCE AS YOU OBEY HIM AND HE ACCOMPLISHES HIS WORK THROUGH YOU.

Some Insight into Work:

I. Discover your strengths (Marcus Buckingham, Now Discover Your Strengths)

II. Understand what you receive when you work

III. Let your work honor God (Col. 3:22)

IV. Make work a part of your calling

V. View work as a service to God

VI. Adversity “can” lead to growth.

1. Rising to a challenge reveals abilities hidden within you (and beyond you!) that would otherwise have remained dormant.

Temptation has a way out; not necessarily adversity!

2. Adversity can deepen relationships.

3. Adversity can change your priorities about what really matters.

4. Adversity points us to the Hope beyond ourselves.

Ernest Hemingway, “Sooner or later, the world breaks everyone, and those who are broken are strongest in the broken places.

MAYBEyou need to stretch and plan an experience that would stretch you in a new way.

MAYBE you need to offer up your “ordinary life” to God as a means of learning more and giving more.

SF My Experiences: SF My Experiences

Went to WVCF today for our instructional training.

When one of the guys from my table came in he was all smiles and holding out a yellow envelop for me to see. He said, “You won’t believe what God did!”

This is the man who gave his life to Christ on the anniversary day of his incarceration. When that happened he told the guys, “I don’t know what my mom is going to say. She has never said she was proud of me one day in her life.”

Turns out he called his mom this week. She was ecstatic! She squealed and praised the Lord. She said she had been pray for him for so long! The card was from her. The opening line in the card was, “….I am so proud of you!” He took that as a true sign from God that what he had done was totally right.

Way to go God! What timing you have and how you bless your children! This same week, he got into college and had a job interview.

Now I know, this isn’t all proof of God’s hand that everyone would understand, but for this man in this situation it was a total miracle.

I am home from Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. I am very tired but so very filled with the awe of God. It is so amazing every time I do a Kairos weekend to see how these guys meet the Lord through the love and care of followers of Jesus. The Body of Christ at its best. Just check out Mt. 25. One of the guys at my table reminded me of that today. “You know, we are the ‘least of these’ and you guys come and care for us.”

We had 36 prisoners, can’t give names, but the Lord knows and I have them fresh on my heart. They all saw a demonstration of how God can come in the flesh through His people and remind them they have value.

Two of the guys at my table made first time commitments to follow Jesus. One guys is doing 40 yrs; 20 more to go; has been in prison for over half his young life. Yesterday was the anniversary of the last time he was arrested and put behind bars for the third time. One of the speakers challenged the guys in that room to choose life “today” and to become a Christian. He decided that was a sign that he needed to make a change in his life. Way to go God for meeting him at that “kairos” moment. It was a special time. I hurt for him and rejoice with him.

Another guy at my table, was hard, still is. He made a baby step toward God. He has someone he hates for “putting him in here for the next 40 years.” Who knows all the details, but he is learning what it is to forgive and start a new life. He was in tears as we took turns going around the table and praying for each other. He said he had never had another man pray for him or ever prayed for anyone in his whole life.

We had three men of Muslim faith who were on this Kairos. They all three testified to a huge new understanding of the “people of the book.” They expressed their warm appreciation for the love shown them and said, “we have a great thing here in Kairos and maybe it will change this prison.” Of course, that would be the goal! One man at a time makes a difference, you could not miss that fact.

It was awesome to hear from the guys from last year! One in particular gave a 10 min talk to the new guys. He was and is an amazing example of what God can do with a big, strong, hard guy. He traded his “hammer” last year for a cross. He was baptized into Christ about 8 weeks after that and is now one of the key leaders for the Christian community behind the walls at WVCF. To God be the glory for “Trooper.” A real modern kind of Saul of Tarsus. I know you that was a huge statement, but in many ways, more than you will ever know, it is true.

I have to say may tears began to flow, and they are now as I write this. We are not allowed to touch the guys as they leave the closing. They simply have to march out by cell house to a sack lunch and into “the old way.” I see my brother Chuck, every time I experience this moment. I can’t imagine living like those guys. Yes, I know what they have done, many have told me. BUT, except for the grace of God you see, that could be me. Two of my brothers spent the vast majority of their adult life behind prison walls.

If Jesus hadn’t rescued me when he did, I remind myself, that really could be me. Thank you Jesus! I don’t know why me and not them, probably will never understand that. But I have a brother who follows Jesus now and who lives in a dark prison environment. I pray that others come and see him and care for him like I have opportunity here to do. He deserves that too.

It truly was another “kairos” moment for me and all the team. It was special because all of us are special and God finds ways of making special moments for us. Why not make a special moment for someone you love when you get a chance. Loving God and loving people is what it is all about. No more, no less.