A LIFELONG WALK WITH GOD

During a recent study of the life of Joseph, I also took a new look at the life of Jacob, his father. Jacob’s life not only influenced his son, Joseph, and prepared Joseph to become a great leader and a man who trusted God completely, he also shows the way for us to walk with God through the highs and lows of life. As such, he can also help us show people in the church and seekers that we influence for Christ how to have a lifelong walk with God.

Jacob certainly had some issues in his life. It began with his name which means “the one who deceives.” He lived up to his name as a liar and a cheat. Jacob deceived his father into giving him the family blessing that by all rights belonged to Esau. He then had to run from Esau, and ended up with the family of Laban who would deceive Jacob into a marriage with Rachel. Laban and Jacob would deceive each for years until Jacob finally deceived Laban one more time and then took his family and returned to Canaan. Even on that journey, Jacob’s family had plenty of tragedy.

To put it in contemporary terms, Jacob had a dysfunctional family. He reminds me of the people who come to God because their lives have been torn apart from difficult marriages to troubling children, from job difficulties to bad business decisions and relationships, from financial woes to hurt feelings. Even we who follow Christ face these challenges.

Yet Jacob had four memorable encounters with God that shaped his life:

(1) When Jacob fled from Esau and stopped for the night at Luz, he had a dream of a stairway reaching to heaven. There the Lord spoke to him and told him he would give Jacob the land on which he slept. The Lord promised Jacob, he would be with him and watch over him wherever he went. Jacob’s response was to name the place Bethel, “the house of God.”

(2) As Jacob brought his family to Canaan after leaving Laban’s household, he spent the night alone. That night a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip, leaving him with a permanent limp. Jacob would not let the man go until he blessed him, and the man changed his name from Jacob, “the deceiver,” to Israel, “the one who struggles with God.”

(3) As Jacob and his family moved into Canaan, God appeared to him and told him to settle at Bethel. Once again God appeared to him at Bethel and told him again that he would bless him. Then Jacob changed the name of the place once more to El Bethel, “The God of the House of God.”

Despite the difficulties Jacob faced all through his life, I imagine these encounters with God stayed with him. Joseph surely learned about them, took them to heart, and determined to walk with God himself.

Yet Jacob continued to face his own troubles, including losing Joseph, his most-loved son, through the deception of his other sons. He finally had to make two decisions to send his sons to Egypt for food. The second one is especially difficult because the “prime minister” of Egypt demands that they only return if they bring the youngest son. Jacob sends Benjamin with them, making the difficult decision to trust God. The text in Genesis tells us he was once again called Israel.

(4) Then Jacob has one more encounter with God. He has found out his son, Joseph, is alive and is the “prime minister” of Egypt. When Joseph sends for him to move the family to Egypt, he sets out and spends the night at Beersheba, the southern-most point in Israel. There God appears to him again and promises that he will go down to Egypt with Jacob and will bring the nation that will come from Jacob’s family, back to the land of promise.

Most of us and most of the people we minister to will face difficulty and tragedy in life. We may face those things after we have walked with God and had some great moments with him. When the difficulties come, we need to remember those experiences. We need to teach people to remember how God has changed them. Our early days with God do not need to fade as distance memories. They need to constantly remind us, as they did for Jacob, that God will walk with us through all of life. Teach people to have a lifelong walk with God.

Westwood Message

Great Communion Coming October 17

Great Communion 2 will be hosted by Mandrake Road Church of Christ on October 17 at 10:00 AM. That will our Sunday morning service that day, and I hope you will plan to attend. The worship service will feature a worship service led by people from the four congregations attending and a message that will be delivered by ministers from the four churches. We will conclude the service with a time of communion together, and we will take an offering that will go toward this year’s Crop Walk, which will be held that day in Madison.

Mandrake Road Church of Christ is located on the north side of Lake Mendota at 4301 Mandrake Road, about three blocks north of Northport Drive. We will have maps and directions available at Westwood on Sunday. If you would prefer to have a ride to and from the service, please contact us at the Westwood office, and we will make arrangements.

Madison CROP Hunger Walk on October 17

Westwood had participated for a few years in the Madison CROP Hunger Walk. This year, we will be participating with a twist. We will be walking, but our fundraising will come from the offering taken that day at Great Communion 2. If you are going to walk this year, meet at First Congregational Church, 1609 University Avenue, Madison, at 12:45 PM on October 17 to register. The walk will begin at 1:30 PM. The Madison fundraising goal this year is $70,000.

CROP Hunger Walks help children and families worldwide -- and right here in the U.S. -- to have food for today, while building for a better tomorrow.

Each year some two million CROP Hunger Walkers, volunteers, and sponsors put their hearts and soles in motion, raising over $16 million per year to help end hunger and poverty around the world and in their own communities.

And you are part of it!

Have You Seen the New Senior Citizen Cell Phone?

For our senior citizens: if you are looking for a cell phone that you will instantly know how to operate, here it is. No more figuring out how to make or answer a simple phone call.

TRANSFORMATION: It Starts In the Heart of One

I read two enlightening — and alarming — surveys in recent days about Americans and their religious knowledge and the effect it has on their lives. They are especially informative as we are currently looking at the theme of “Transformation” from Romans 12-15 on Sundays.

The article for one of the surveys had the headline over it, “Americans don't know much about religion.” The opening paragraph pretty well summed up the results: “A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.“

The survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life sought to test religious knowledge by asking questions about understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The overall result: Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers out of the 32 questions, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15.

The other survey, conducted by the Barna Group, had the headline, “Survey Finds Lots of Spiritual Dialogue But Not Much Change.” In summary the survey found that the explosion of communications devices and technology has substantially expanded public dialogue about religion, but that “has translated into very little change in people’s faith life.”

Only 7% of those surveyed said they could think of any religious beliefs, practices, or preferences they had altered during the past five years. By age, the most likely to have shifted their religious positions or practices were young adults (18 to 26 years old) at 13%, while the least likely were older adults (over 65 years old) at 3%. Evangelical or born again Christians were neither more nor less likely to change than were atheists, agnostics, and unchurched adults.

It is one thing, of course, to come to a conviction of truth about Jesus and then change your beliefs. Some people do in fact abandon Christian faith. It is quite another thing to have a conviction of the truth of the Gospel and not be able to identify or state basic Christian beliefs or to not have your behavior and lifestyle changed — transformed — by convictions about Christ.

Change in behavior can come at any age if the Gospel brings conviction to an area of a person’s life. Consider these polls. Be the exception. Let the Gospel continually transform your life.

Westwood Message

Where’s Your Passion

While in Colorado last week for a retreat for church planting leaders and for some vacation, Christine and I worshiped on Sunday at First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, CO. There are only three churches in this small town, and the Presbyterian church itself is small, but we enjoyed our visit with them.

The congregation was formed in 1869, and their building, which is affectionately known as the “Little Stone Church By the Stream” was dedicated in 1874. The congregation thrived in the 1870’s and into the 1880’s , but a period of decline followed. The Depression years were especially difficult, and they considered discontinuing services. But they persevered, with the church members even being asked to bring pieces of coal for the offering to help heat the building.

Today, the congregation has a bi-vocational pastor who has been with them for twelve years. They had a well-planned service that any follower of Christ could have worshiped in. The made us feel more than welcome, inviting us (almost to the point of insistence) to stay for their coffee and refreshments after the worship service. We stayed and had an enjoyable time visiting with several people.

The point of my relating this experience, though, is to tell you about the pastor’s sermon. His text came from one of Jesus’ stranger parables, the parable of the Shrewd Manager that you can read in Luke 16:1-9. It is the story of a manager who was wasting his master’s possessions. When the master dismissed this dishonest man, the manager, in order to gain favor for himself after losing his job, went to some of his master’s debtors and had them pay the master less than what they owed him. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.

Jesus said about the manager, "For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

Jesus commended the manager’s shrewdness, not his dishonesty. He calls for his followers to use what they have in this world to influence people for eternity. This calls for us being more passionate about eternal matters than what we are about earthly matters. We can be passionate about many things, but how passionate are you for the things of God and for helping people to know God? The pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, CO, made this point very nicely last Sunday. It is something important for us to think and pray about.

Great Communion Coming October 17

Last October, we hosted and enjoyed a Sunday morning worship service with other Madison Christian churches and churches of Christ. The service was well-received, and many people said we should do it again. So, we are going to do it again on October 17 at 10:00 AM. This year the service will be hosted by Mandrake Road Church of Christ. That will our Sunday morning service that day, and I hope you will plan to attend.

We are currently at work preparing a joint time of worship and a message that will be shared by ministers from four churches. We will conclude the service with a time of communion together, and we will take an offering that will go toward this year’s Crop Walk, which will be held that day in Madison.

Sermon Series on Transformation

Transformation: A radical change in form, appearance, or character. Transformation is not just a minor shift or a small nuance, it is a complete alteration of the state of something. Think about it this way…it is the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It is the process of yeast causing bread to rise in the oven. It is the process of a small seed developing into a giant redwood tree that is hundreds of feet tall. It’s transformation and that’s what we’re going to be experiencing throughout this new sermon series.

God is in the transformation business. He wants to transform us. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We … are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.” When we open ourselves up to God, we become open to transformation.

God wants to transform everyone into his image, but it begins with you and me. It begins in the heart of one. We cannot expect God to transform the people around us unless we allow him to transform us first. God wants to transform those who are not now followers of Christ. If we are not careful, though, we can think that God’s transforming work is for them, but it begins with us. In fact, the Scripture passages where the apostle Paul clearly calls for people’s lives to be transformed are written to Christians.

Our scripture for this sermon series will come from selected passages in Romans 12-15. Much of the great doctrine of the church is laid out by Paul in Romans 1-11, but in the closing chapters of the book he describes how we are to live in light of what we believe: we are to live transformed lives.

I hope you will come and find out in the next few weeks how God can transform you. Let it begin in your heart.

DEVELOPING 3C COMMUNITIES

Community Christian Church of Naperville, IL, has developed from a new church planted by college friends into a mega-church with multiple services on multiple campuses. In addition, they have developed The New Thing Network, whose mission is to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches. They are a church worth learning from.

The mission of Community Christian Church is “helping people find their way back to God.” They carry out their mission by leading people to become 3C Christ followers. They define a 3C Christ follower as someone who is growing in three experiences: Celebrate, which is primarily about our relationship with God; Connect, which is primarily about our relationship with the church; and Contribute, which is primarily about our relationship with the world.

In their book, Exponential, Dave Ferguson, pastor of Community Christian Church, and Jon Ferguson, teaching pastor of the church, describe the history and strategy of the congregation and New Thing Network, in order to lay out their strategy for starting a reproducing church movement. Instrumental in their process of developing reproducing churches and movements is developing communities of 3C Christ followers that “focus on serving people and are able to reach people who would never walk through the doors of our churches.”

So what is necessary to reproduce such communities? In their book, the Ferguson’s present some ideas and philosophies that have worked for them. Let me summarize some of them.

(1) Believe That Acts 1:8 Was Meant to Be Accomplished.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus’ mission for the church as he presented it to his disciples was meant to be accomplished, and the Ferguson’s say it “can be accomplished.” Once we believe this, we will realize that “we cannot build facilities big enough or fast enough to keep up with what God wants to do.”

(2) Teach People to “Go” and Not Just “Bring.”

Most churches for many years have primarily used the “attraction” model of evangelism. That is, we encourage believers to invite people to church and we develop programs that will attract people to our services. While that is a legitimate way to reach people, we also need to find ways to go and reach people that will never come to our services and events, especially as our culture becomes more and more secular and resistant to the church. Community Christian even gives their people permission to skip their worship services to create opportunities to go and reach people. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, in their book, And, suggest that both bringing and going are legitimate forms of evangelism for the church.

(3) Plant the Gospel Before Planting a Church or Starting a Group.

Communities of people on a mission “will go and live among the people with a readiness to serve them.” Author Alan Hirsch suggests that most churches operate from Ecclesiology (the church) to Missiology (the church’s mission) to Christology (the Gospel). Instead we should operate from Christology to Missiology to Ecclesiology. The early church started by planting the Gospel in people’s hearts and allowed the church and Christian communities to develop as people’s lives were transformed. We will need to operate with this model more and more in the future.

(4) Get Comfortable With Chaos and Failure.

Most of us who have served in the church for a long time will have difficulty with this idea because we have been trained to plan for success. However, the Ferguson’s say, “If we give our leaders permission to go out and start missional communities and churches that will reach people for Jesus, it will not be perfectly organized and it will certainly not be one hundred percent successful.” We should do everything possible to reach people with the Gospel, being willing to go outside of our comfort zones and take risks.

That is just a sampling of what the Ferguson’s suggest is involved in reproducing our churches and Christian communities. Their book is certainly worthwhile reading and learning from. Perhaps they can help you think through how to make your church a reproducing church.

TRANSFORMATION: It Starts In the Heart of One

As many of you know, in addition to my role as minister at Westwood, I also serve as Executive Director of WCMA, a church planting organization for Christian churches based here in Madison. Westwood has a stake in WCMA’s ministry as they support WCMA.

Along with other organizations and churches, WCMA is part of a networking initiative known as 10-10-10 Initiative. The name comes from the date October 10, 2010. Here is the way this effort is described:

“The 10-10-10 Initiative is a cross-denominational emphasis on the urgency and importance of starting healthy new churches. The 10-10-10 Initiative seeks to help 100s of ministries partner with 1,000s of existing churches to see 1,000,000s of lives transformed through healthy new churches.  The initiative seeks to serve networks, denominations, churches and individuals by accelerating the impact of how God is already at work through them.  10-10-10 represents the exponential power of “10” through multiplication.   10 to the 3^rd power is 1000.   Imagine 1,000 new churches birthed in October 2010  and thousands of existing churches unified on the call to engage in new church work.”

The theme for this effort is “Transformation: It Starts In the Heart of One.” That is, if 100s of ministries are going to partner with 1,000’s of existing churches to see 1,000,000s of life transformed through healthy new churches, it all begins with our own lives being transformed into the image of Christ.

Beginning on September 12, we will examine the theme of Transformation at Westwood through a series of five messages from Romans 12-15.

We will begin the series with two of the great verses in the Bible: Romans 12:1-2. Included in those verses is this statement: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In Romans 1-8, Paul explores the great doctrinal themes that hold the church together. Then, he calls for transformation in the life of the believer and explores the practical areas of life in which we must let God transform us. Let God transform your heart, so 1,000,000’s can know Christ.