On the Journey

Our church staff took a drive through our community today to get an up close look at places around us. For many of us it was a first look at some places we had only heard about and never seen in person. It was an eye-opening experience and helped to make the conditions around us very tangible as we search for ways to be intentionally missional.

While we were riding around we passed one of our local food banks. A partner from Northridge was outside the bank with a truck and trailer full of food for families. We seized the opportunity to pull over and spent some time working together to help their volunteers unload it. It worked up a good sweat for all of us and also gave us the opportunity to serve in a very unexpected way. None of us had planned on stopping there, but God presented the opportunity and we felt led to take action.

I don't think it's a coincidence that we were focusing on ways to make a direct impact in our community and then immediately had the chance to do something about it. God will give us chances to work together and put our faith into practice if we're willing to take action when the moment presents itself. We've just got to have our eyes open and be willing to stop and work when we get the chance.

Like-Minded

This morning I was able to have breakfast with 20-30 like-minded leaders in our community. We met in a local civic center to pray and to discuss the state of our town. I was able to see friends I know very well and was also able to meet new people who invested in the health of our community. It's hard to determine what will come out of today's gathering, but at the very least we were in agreement about the need to be engaged in making a difference. Sometimes there is great benefit gained just by knowing we don't stand alone. 

In circumstances where the odds might seem stacked against progress, we can be encouraged by a strong-willed, purpose-driven group of influential individuals. The desire to see positive change, redirected lives, and hopeful options can be the impetus for a community revival. All movements of restoration had to start somewhere. Why not with us?

The Trap of Busyness

A book I recently read convicted me about the busyness of my schedule. In fact, my full calendar had become an area of pride and a marker of professional significance. Obviously, this is less than healthy as it leads me to avoiding rest and looking for ways to inflate my self-worth through a full slate of activities and meetings. As a result, I’ve been meditating on ways to change my perspective and alleviate some of my self-imposed stress.

My personality and work ethic won’t allow me to simply “pull back” and ease up on the accelerator (at least not for extended periods of time.) I’m discovering I need to take a two-pronged approach to altering my pursuit of busyness. First, I must take more intentional time to rest. This starts with a regular weekly observance of Sabbath and also ways of resting my mind and body throughout the week. This will hopefully refresh me on a more regular basis and allow me to keep up a more regular pace.

The second focus is on being busy in the right way. I don’t believe all busyness is negative, but instead of allowing "all things" to dominate my schedule I need to be strategic with what I do. I need to be clear on my personal and professional purpose and do the things that lead me further along that path. This is the principle of missional velocity—moving intently in a direction with the purpose of fulfilling my calling.

I’m not going to fix this overnight, but I also haven’t become a “busyaholic” that quickly either. I’m striving to become more intentional about the balance of rest and purpose and feel certain I’ll be in recovery for the rest of my life.

Step Up

When you have the opportunity to have a positive impact that unifies your community you need to step into action. Recognizing the unique moment, sharing the vision, mobilizing a team, and fulfilling the goals are keys to change. It's the call of the church to lead the way in restoration and genuine compassion.

Harrisburg Community Center from Northridge Christian Church on Vimeo.

Single Vision

The world has always been changed by individuals who felt the tension between what is and what could be and then committed themselves to doing something about it. This dedication to positive missional living is a powerful force that brings about inspiring movements and radical transformation. There is no negating the influence of individual people, but those efforts are magnified exponentially when we work together. A unified community (even a small handful of people) can restore hope, rebuild trust, and and regenerate purposeful living. 

What are you doing to make this a reality where you live? Don't minimize the potential effectiveness of a singularly focused group of people living out their mission.

As One

There were over 20 people who gave up a good chunk of their Monday night to work together on improvements to a local community center. Our church has been engaged in this process for a few months and we moved much closer tonight through our combined efforts. It was a powerful sight to see people from Northridge and from that community step along side each other to serve. We discovered more common ground than we might have originally thought and were able to team up to accomplish more than we expected.

I believe night's like tonight are the best way for our communities to improve as a whole. We have to find ways to stand together for what matters most. The process begins with our open willingness to build trust with each other and the follow through to get the work done.

Step It Up

No matter what you've gone through, you can still do a lot with what you have. 

Veronika Scott

Regardless of your past, you can still make a significant difference in this world. Are we able to take our experiences and let them motivate us to do something substantial? Are we willing to carve out a legacy of positive impact? Let's see what happens if we commit our lives to adding value in innovative ways.

Community Minded

If you want to have an impact on your community you need to be part of it. You need to get out and walk through crowds and spend time where the people are. Find a place to volunteer and give up a chunk of time to make a difference. Invest your resources in organizations that are working to reach people and provide opportunities for growth. Coach little league sports, read in nursing homes, help hand out food, mow a lawn for an elderly neighbor, and buy someone a cup of coffee. 

It doesn't always take a lot to make a substantial difference, but it starts by deciding to have an active presence in your community.

On Mission

I believe that we always need to be missionally minded. This means that we are constantly aware of the influence we want to have on our community and are continually looking for opportunities to further that mission. If we interact with the people around us with that mindset we will see our mission have the impact on our community that we desire.

I had two poignant reminders of that this week. We were serving breakfast to teachers at a local high school and had two dozen biscuits left over. One of our staff took a bag to the local police department to let them know how much we appreciated them. As the rest of us left the school, a prison detail showed up to mow the grass. We checked with their supervisor and were able to give them each breakfast and have a word of prayer with them before leaving. It was a powerful moment for us and I hope that these prisoners were blessed as well.

I was also out picking up some fresh catfish at my favorite local fish market this week. As I was talking with the owner she introduced me to a customer who is heavily involved in a neighborhood revitalization effort. Our church has actually partnered with her before and we were able to share a vision for a new project she is beginning. Before I left we had agreed to work together on another community project that will involve some of our men investing in the young men in this area.

When we realize that being on mission isn't a burden, but a privilege of community-minded Christ-followers it changes our perspective. We can then eagerly anticipate the new opportunities we will find to make a substantial difference simply by looking for those moments in day-to-day life.

Genuine Sorrow

"And when he (Jesus) drew near and saw the city (Jerusalem), he wept over it"  Luke 19:41

I read where a pastor and author described this verse by saying "Jesus wept over his zip code." He certainly possesses great compassion because of his nature as God, but I believe it was more than that too. Jesus was filled with sorrow over the plight of this city, the lost people, and the pain of their decisions. He recognized their problem and knew that He was going to be their only real solution.

Do we identify with Jesus' level of compassion? Are we genuinely sorrowful over the conditions in our own community? Are we truly heartbroken over dysfunctional homes, abuse, poverty, ignorance, and sin? Genuine concern is more than an emotional response that leads to philosophical discussions. If we truly care we have to ask: what are we doing about it?

• Pray: nothing can be done without this
• Repent: realize that we have ignored our community's problems for too long & resolve to change
• Invest: use our resources (time, energy, money, abilities) to help address some of the physical problems our community faces
• Share the good news: while we have a responsibility to help with physical needs, the church's greatest calling is to share a life-changing relationship through Jesus Christ. Without this transformation we are merely providing superficial patches to deeply ingrained wounds.

We will either be part of the solution for our community or we are contributing to the problem. If we claim to care about our people we have to take a risk and do something to make a difference.

Reflections: Family Tradition

I have been serving in Arizona for the past eleven years and my wife has been part of it for nine. For most of our children's lives we have headed out west each spring while they spent a week with their grandmother in Tennessee. They knew it was a special time for them, but they also came to appreciate the work that we were doing as we shared stories and pictures with them. I think that they have always understood how important this trip is to us and how much we care for the people we get to serve alongside.

The sharing of our trip has changed over the past two years as we have started to bring our daughters out with us. It has always been a rite of passage to observe as they had to wait until they were in high school before they could come with us. Our oldest daughter made her second trip this year as our middle daughter joined her (our youngest will make her first journey next year.) It's a place that we have been eager to share with our girls and we couldn't be happier about the impact it has had on them.

It is the fulfillment of my own personal dream to have our family serve together and to do it in a place that means so much to us is especially valuable. It's a part of raising our girls that shows them the contribution they can make to people around them and the great value in consistently serving those in need. I can't guarantee the results, but I feel confident in the lifelong lessons we are teaching them and hope that they maintain that passion as adults.

Reflections: Mission Minded

I am still processing all that I experienced on this year's trip to Arizona and will need a little more rest and think-time before I am ready to take action. While I still need to sort through everything there are two over-arching areas of thought that hit me most:

1. What can I do to help in Arizona on a continual basis between trips? 

2. What did our experiences teach us that we can put to use here in Milledgeville?

Those two questions form the framework for positive mission work in my humble, but accurate opinion. It's a powerful thing to be affected by a mission experience, but the greatest impression is felt when it lasts longer than the trip itself. If we truly intend to be committed Christ followers we need to dedicate ourselves to supporting the distant and the local mission field on a consistent basis. I don't have the complete picture of what that looks like, but with passionate team members and God's guidance I am certain we'll find a way to move forward.

We Care

We sent around 100 missionaries into Milledgeville today to let our community know that God's Church cares about them. It took the form of mowing, trimming, weeding, cleaning, painting, a car wash and acts of generosity and kindness. We wore t-shirts saying, "Northridge Cares" and put sweat equity into helping our city. New friendships were made and stories are pouring in of the impact on the people and organizations we were able to benefit. 

My hope is that this is not a simple calendar event that brings us together and temporarily energizes a crowd. It should stir up in us a desire to be intentionally missional as a Church. This isn't a bucket list item, but a way of life as God's people.

Missionally Minded

The word "missional" is used in church lingo to describe an organization that is very focused on fulfilling its purpose. It indicates a church that is very concerned with reaching out to the community around them and also to the rest of the world. People debate whether a church should use it to describe themselves since it is the calling of the church to reach the world to begin with. It can be considered redundant to describe a church with a word that is supposed to be part of its DNA.

Therein lies the problem. If the Church (God's people throughout the world) is actually fulfilling its mission there is no need to use the word "missional" to describe who we are. It's simply what we do by nature. It's the lack of that focus in the Church and her people that create a gap that must be filled. We waste time focusing on inane discussions of things that don't matter while our enemy, satan, works hard to disrupt any momentum that we might gain.

Satan understands and is passionately engaged in fulfilling his mission. Shouldn't the church have the same motivation-especially when we are guaranteed of victory? It will be costly, but any prize as valuable as life with Christ is well worth it.