Hey everyone,

Or more specifically, Luke and Luis. Here's the finished list for Sunday:

Hosanna (Praise Rising)

Blessed Be Your Name

Beautiful Lord

Ancient Skies

Mighty To Save

Worth Fighting For

This weeks Text: John 15:1-17

This Weeks Theme: 7 Practices of a Community on Mission for God

This weeks title: Atheist or Achurch?

In a nut shell: Most people don't have any trouble believing in God, what they have a hard time with is the Church. Why is that? Has the church become obsolete in our culture or is there something else going on? And, if it's not obsolete, how can we "get out of the way" so that people can know God?

I believe in the Church. And, I believe that the church, Jesus' ideal of church, is something worth fighting for. What is the church suppose to be and how can we get there?

This week we will set the stage, our build a foundation, for the church in our culture today - and our foundational building blocks are conversation (not conversion), community (not individualism) and Communion (eating with Jesus).

7 Practices

In August of 2009 (9/9/09 - to be exact) a movie, called 9, was released. The story is a dark on, set at the end of humanity, the death of society. As the humans die off slowly, one scientist (a mad one by the looks of him) creates 9 little dolls and then gives them the breath of life. When our world ends, their mission (the mission to restore the world) begins.

Frankly, I have not yet seen the movie - it's really just the plot that caught my attention. (Warning: All of the shorts and clips I've seen have been dark and scary - but, thats the world we live in!) It is easy to see the spiritual parallel here - the destruction of Shalom and we, being a people given the breath of life through the death of someone else, commissioned to go and restore the world.

This is the basis for the new discussion series taking place on Sunday mornings, a series which I am calling "7" rather than "9." Rather than dolls, my sermons will focus on 7 actions, practical practices, that we as the church and as individuals can do (and be) that will bring restoration and Shalom back into our world.

Here is a short outline of the series, they are all to be found in Acts 2:42-47 but we will come at them from other places...

Week 1- Setting the stage: Conversation, Community and Communion: Loving God and Loving People.

Week 2- Radical Hospitality - Opening our arms to the world, as Jesus opened his arms

Week 3 - Passionate Worship - What is worship, when does worship start and end? Passionate worship is rooted in the here and now, is focused on God, reveals our shortcomings, extends forgiveness, and sends us back out (the cycle of worship.)

Week 4 - Intentional Faith Development - Growing up into a people who look and act like Jesus, Three Journies (Up toward God, Inward to our weakness, and outward toward our fellow man) The process of "being saved".

Week 5 - Risk Taking Mission and Service - Not just sitting idlely by as the world destroys itself - but being agents of change for the sake of the King and His Kingdom. Risking it all to the Kingdom cause.

Week 6 - Extravagant Generosity - Sharing our wealth and resources with one another. Plunging God's gifts into service for the sake of the Kingdom. Giving without counting the cost.

Week 7 - Active Rest - Creating space in our lives for God to speak and to act. Living within the margins of our time. Recentering ourselves in God.

I'll be posting the specifics on this weeks message next!

Sermon Text for Pentecost 5/23/10

This weeks Text: Luke 4:14-28, Isaiah 61:1-4, Psalm 126 (Secondary Text - Acts 2:1-4)

This weeks Theme: The clear mission of Jesus, imparted to every follower of Christ and the power to change the world.

The weeks Title: The Last Temptation of Christ - The Temptation to be normal

Keywords or phrases: Making old things new, beauty for ashes, sow in tears - reap in joy, sent with good news, Joy, renew, make new.

In a nutshell:

This week we will end our series "Into the wilderness," arriving at the culmination of the temptation event in the desert. Jesus returns home to his village in Galilee, go's to Temple and is asked to read the scriptures to the Temple goers. He could have chosen any passage from the book they handed him - the book of Isaiah - but, instead he chooses Isaiah 61, a passage about the long awaited Messiah - the savior of the people.

In reading this text, Jesus clearly communicates his mission on earth, a mission that anyone following Jesus today shares in. He also defeats one last temptation - the temptation to return to life as usual - to live a normal life. Jesus recognizes just who he is and what he is called to do.

As I said, we share in this mission and calling, but we lack the power of God to accomplish it on our own. That is the beauty of the event that we will celebrate this Sunday - Pentecost - the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit into our world to empower Christ Followers to live out "Shalom," peace between God and Man, between man and man, between culture and faith.