Jerusalem

So hotshot, you're going to Africa, South America, and the Middle East; what about that first part of Acts 1:8? What about your Jerusalem?

Several events transpired (conspired?) that continually brought this question to mind. It's one I'm constantly dealing with, as are others in my ministry. Basically, if you're going to other countries and teaching and preaching church planting, yet coming home in your local megachurch, what does that mean? Oy vey, conviction.

Our Sunday School class, er "connection class" has begun an outreach project in a local neighborhood. We're slowly walking through church planting steps; however, I have no idea if we'll plant a church or attempt an "in-drag" rather than an actual "outreach." I'm still working my way through the book, "The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation adn Mission for the 21st-century Church." The authors have my head spinning as we reach out to this local community.

Here's our current challenge in a nutshell: After 6 weeks of prayerwalking, how do we really "engage" the community? On paper it seems simple, in practice it's actually quite difficult, particularly when you don't live in the neighborhood.

How do we engage, without compromising the gospel, in the most culturally contextualized way possible? How do we check our hearts so we develop real relationships based on love, not just a notch-in-the-gun-handle motivation? We recognize that our church actually has some barriers to entry. Not on purpose, it just is what it is. What do we do with those?

We're seeking the Lord to help answer these questions, and yes, I'll read this next.

The cool thing that has happened already is to hear and see God moving in our lives as we obey. John 14:15, "If you love me, you'll obey my commands." Jesus.