Small Church. Big Task.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
1 Coritnthians 12:27-30

ReConstruct has had over 12,000 people volunteer from churches all across the U.S. Of all those church groups, there’s one story I never get tired of telling. It was the year 2000 and a small church group from Hardin, KY came to ReConstruct for its first mission trip. This church had an average Sunday attendance of 40 people. Their bi-vocational pastor told me they didn’t want to get into anything real big as far as home repair. They just wanted to come and paint a house and that’s it. “No problem.” God had other plans though. They were serving a homeowner in East Nashville when, on the last day, a woman came walking through the back yard. She asked if anyone had a cigarette. They didn’t, of coarse. The woman started to leave until one of the older ladies from the church stopped her and they began to talk. Come to find out the woman was in her early 40’s, a prostitute and a drug addict. She lived in the projects with a 70 year old man. She expressed that she wanted to “get out.” Later that day, the group was telling me this story and asked if there was a place we could refer her to. I had no ideas. The next day, we were wrapping up with the group and they asked for directions to a particular street. I gave directions and asked, “Why are you going over there.” The leader replied, “Well. We made a few calls back home last night and set up a place for her to live, a drug counseling program, and a temporary job for the lady and we’re going to offer her the option to go home with us.” Needless to say, my jaw dropped. This story ends with her going home with them, she accepts Christ as her Savior, cleans up her life, and stays gainfully employed. Just when we think we have it all figured out, we find that God has such a grand plan for our lives. For this group, we all thought it was to paint someone’s house.

Think about this. How many spiritual gifts were used to bring this one person to know Christ? The gifts didn’t come from just one person. Every Christian has a spiritual gift that is to be used for the Kingdom. Also. God used this small church with 40 members and limited resources for this one person. I’m a member of a large church. Some might even call it a Mega. I don’t. This doesn’t mean we’re better. It means that we have opportunities to do more with the people and resources He’s blessed us with. “To whom much is given, much is required.”

Sacrifice as Worship

I don’t know where you stand when it come to your church but I love my church. I go to Brentwood Bapstist Church. I’m convinced that God has put the staff, the leaders and members of BBC here to carry out the Great Commission in ways we’ve never dreamed.  One of the elements of BBC that I  enjoy is the worship time on Sundays. The staff in the worship ministry at BBC plan all week to worship in a “fitting and orderly way” so we, as worshippers, can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. Worship is praising, honoring, and celebrating. We celebrate what God has done in our lives and get renewed so we can do more. Our worship, however, shouldn’t stop with just the Sunday “refueling.”  In Romans 12:1-2, Paul talk says we are to “present out bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual act of worship. In other words, give ourselves up and worship God by serving. Who do we serve? We serve those in need, “the poor.” We’re all gifted in so many ways to do this. Later, I want to share an experience that I had through ReConstruct. It’s about sacrifice, service, giftedness, and worship. Stay tuned.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.     Romans 12:1-2

How do you define “Poor?”

 What is your attitude toward the “Poor?”

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.
Deuteronomy 15:11

The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.
Matthew 26:11

When I begin to write about something, one of the first things I do is look up the definition. I looked up the definition of “poor.” There are 16 different definitions when the word is used as an adjective like poor food, poor health, poor audience, or poor dog. You know how many definitions there are as a noun? One. That’s when we use it in the context of “the poor.”
In scripture, the poor is mentioned many times, but a couple of verses stuck out to me. In Deuteronomy 15:11 it says, “There will always be poor people in the land.” After the lady poured the expensive perfume on Jesus’ head, He settled an argument between some of the disciples about how the perfume could have been sold and the money used to help the poor. He said in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.” This puts us into reality. We’ve always had the poor and always will. God is not more interested in those that are not poor. He sees us all equally as his creation. What He does say is that because of Christ and His sacrifice for us, we are to help the poor.
We talk about teaching people to fish in order to feed them for life instead of just giving it to them. To some extent I believe that, but in my experience with ReConstruct, this is not always reality. We work with church groups to provide free home repairs to low-income homeowners. Because of different circumstances, some people are disadvantaged to the point that they can’t be “taught to fish” or in other words be taught to repair their homes. Therefore, we give it to them.
“The poor” will always be with us. Some can be taught to help themselves but for the most part they will need us to give them help. Isn’t that really what God wants us to do? Give?

The Dove Films

I don’t know if you’ve seen these two videos. The first one is a great example of today’s beauty manipulation. Enjoy.

This one is just down right funny

From Nashville to Gulfport to Nashville to Frederick to Dalton

This weekend Phil and I were in Frederick, MD meeting with a group from Summit Trace Church. They came to Gulfport, MS in the summer of 2006 and at that time met Phil. At that time, Phil had been serving in the area for a 6-month period. From that relationship Summit Trace then came to a ReConstruct project in Nashville this past summer. They’re a small young church plant with a huge heart for God. We also had the opportunity to worship with them on Sunday. They meet in a movie theatre. Their spirit of authenticity was refreshing. It was a great time with them and hearing about their plans for missions in 2008. ReConstruct will be in that mission plan in Dalton, GA next year. They’ll be bringing about 25 or 30 people. Eden Westside Baptist Church from Pell City, AL, who has been to ReConstruct the past 4 summers, has also committed to serving there as well. God has provided these two churches to help ReConstruct carry out its vision.
Discerning the way in which ReConstruct served in the Gulf coast area after Katrina was a tough process. Phil Venable committing 6 months away from his family and doing some the hardest work he’s ever done was only accomplished by the power of God.  We always knew that going to Gulfport was what was “right.” It’s truly amazing how God used that process and work to connect us with the relationships we’re building with churches like these. His plan is never like ours, but it’s always a better plan.

Another reason why I love coleslaw

I love coleslaw. I know that only 5% of the world’s population probably likes it but I don’t mind being part of that group. I love the mayonaise based and vinegar based as well. The vinegar based is especially good on a BBQ sandwich. I could spend the next 500 words telling you about all the great coleslaw dishes I’ve had, but it might be TMI. I found another reason last night for liking coleslaw even more. I’m in St. Louis this weekend for the National Youth Workers Convention. We had lunch on Thursday and for the first time I had a batch of coleslaw that I couldn’t eat. It was a real bummer. It just didn’t have any taste. Well. After a long day on Friday, we had a late dinner at the hotel buffet. It was pricey but good. Honestly, they had the best coleslaw I’d ever put in my mouth. I asked our server about it and he offered to get the recipe. There was another server standing there and we just started talking about the different types of coleslaw that we’ve had in our lifetime. We talked for 10 – 15 minutes about it. We joked about how not many people like it and we’ve spent this much time talking about it. She never really thought about all the different styles of coleslaw and how different kinds go with different foods. We even discussed the difference between Captain D’s and Long John Silver’s coleslaw.

Now. Let me get to my point. As we were leaving, she said, “You really made my night. You made me laugh about coleslaw.” I could tell she’d had a tough evening. I was just making what I thought was senseless conversation. I do that a lot. But for her, talking and joking about coleslaw made here day. It was simple and small but turned out to be a blessing. This simple conversation made her day which in turn made mine.

From now on, I have another reason to love coleslaw.