Deep and Wide

I just finished reading another amazing book.  It is Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley.  This book is an explanation of the ministry he has developed at Northpoint Church, which is located in the Atlanta area.  In this book he gives insight into how this ministry started and the model they developed.  He also gives us understanding of how they decided what they would include in their ministry and how they would filter all the decisions that would have to be made in the future.

Basically it’s a book about leadership, and oh, how it has made me thirsty for this kind of leadership.  And I’ll tell you why.

The past few weeks I have been teaching a series of lessons in Kids’ Club leading up to Easter.  They were based on some great lessons my friend Adam taught at camp this past summer.  Wednesday night I was able to finish up with a lesson on how Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was better than the animal sacrifices that had been used up to that point.  And then I was able to invite the boys and girls to step out if they wanted to accept His sacrifice for them.  We had a great response and several kids gave their life to Christ.  It was great to have several adults there ready to talk to them about their decision.  What a privilege it is to be a part of what God is accomplishing in their lives!

Although I was very happy for the response, there was a part of me that was sad.  I was sad because as I look back over all the years of working with youth and working with kids, I look around and see very few of them still even attending church, let alone engaging in the ministry of the church or stepping up into leadership.  It makes me feel like a failure.  It makes me realize that I am part of a church culture that is failing the young adults that are dropping out of church.

And that’s where I come back to Andy Stanley’s book.  He is calling us to create a church that unchurched people will want to attend and serve in.  He calls us to rethink how we do church, and think about why we are losing the young adults in our culture.  It all comes down to being willing to let go of a lot of the things we’ve always done and embracing a whole new model.

I am part of this problem every time I continue the status quo without really evaluating whether it is effective or not.  I am part of the problem every time I don’t call for change in what we are doing.  I am part of the problem every time I don’t challenge the leadership that is in place to consider every action we take, every dollar we spend, every minute we have to engage those in our sphere of influence.

I am finished being part of the problem.  I am ready to be part of the solution.

Blessed are the Poor? No Way!

I have been teaching in Kids' Club from the Sermon on the Mount and talking about the beatitudes.  They seem like simple statements, but when you take time to really think about what Jesus is saying you realize that these are hard things.

When I told the kids Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor," they looked at me like I was crazy.  People probably looked at Jesus the same way.  Poor people are blessed?  Really?

I recently read Philip Yancey's The Jesus I Never Knew, and he had some interesting things to say about Jesus' teachings.  Here is the passage about this beatitude:

"Catholic scholars coined the phrase 'God's preferential option for the poor' to describe a phenomenon they found throughout both the Old and New Testaments:  God's partiality toward the poor and the disadvantaged.  Why would God single out the poor for special attention over any other group?  I used to wonder.  What makes the poor deserving of God's concern?  I received help on this issue from a writer named Monika Hellwig, who lists the following 'advantages' to being poor:

          1.  The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.
          2.  The poor know not only their dependence on God and on powerful people but also their
               interdependence with one another.                  
          3.  The poor rest their security not on things but on people.
          4.  The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance, and no exaggerated
               need of privacy.
          5.  The poor expect little from competition and much from cooperation.
          6.  The poor can distinguish between necessities and luxuries. (I am adding...except in the US.)
          7.  The poor can wait because they have acquired a kind of dogged patience born of
               acknowledged dependence.
          8.  The fears of the poor are more realistic and less exaggerated because they already
               know that one can survive great suffering and want.
          9.  When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds like good news and
               not like a threat or a scolding.
          10.  The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain abandonment and
               uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything."

Yancey also suggests turning these around like this...
           1.  The rich DO NOT KNOW that they are in urgent need of redemption.

And so forth.

This will give you something to think about.  I am wrestling with what I think I am supposed to do with all these ideas.  How should I live in the light of what I'm reading?  How do I set an example of how to live for the kids in Kids' Club?