PAUL MARTIN: SOUL SURVIVOR USA

PAUL MARTIN: SOUL SURVIVOR IN THE USA:
Soul Survivor started in England as a simple youth conference back in 1993 and has since grown into a global youth movement of worship and servant evangelism. Today, an estimated 225,000 young people have attended Soul Survivor events in the UK, South Africa, Holland, Norway, Australia, Canada and the United States of America.
Early on in the movement, there was a theological message that worship and care for the poor were Biblically inseparable ideas. Soul Survivor began to be every bit as much about creating humanitarian agents of change as it was about providing a great worship experience.

Soul Survivor USA began after Paul Martin visited a Soul Survivor UK festival in the summer of 1998, while on a work placement in London. Martin and his wife, Erica, originally had no intention of starting any new movements in America. At the time, Martin was in England as the President of Vineyard Music Group, UK, but this job had a built-in expiration date. “One of my job descriptions was to hire and train my successor because I was only allowed a two year work contract,” says Martin.

After attending that Soul Survivor event, Martin and his wife new that God was calling them to start something just like it in Southern California.
Challenged by the reality and authenticity of what they saw, Paul and Erica Martin returned to America to launch the first US Soul Survivor youth event.
However, the Martins discovered very quickly that getting a ministry like this started would be a greater challenge than they first realized. “There are twenty million people here in Southern California alone,” says Martin. “This is a country of it’s own almost. Soul Survivor Holland, (is trying to reach) a total population of three or four million, and we’re looking at twenty million in Orange County.”

Beyond the sheer size of the potential missions field in front of them, Martin and his wife also faced a cultural barrier. Using the tried and true UK format for Soul Survivor didn’t attract thousands of youth. Instead they started attracting people in their thirties.

To make things work, Martin had to make some hard decisions. The biggest change meant catering to the American Christian Summer Camp model. “One of the things I loved about the UK event was that it didn’t smell like a Summer Camp,” says Martin. “We’ve had to adapt to the American church culture where Summer Camp has been part of the youth culture for decades. It’s just what it means to be in a church as member of a youth group. You go to Summer Camp in the summertime. Everything in me resists the Summer Camp line, (but) it’s the language the churches speak and that’s what they respond to. Call it a festival and people will bring their worship team, call it Summer Camp and they’ll ask you how much and where is it”?

In July of 2002 Soul Survivor USA completely switched their approach to reaching youth in America. “We said, ‘If you’re over 17 you cannot come to a Soul Survivor event,’” says Martin. “We said to seven hundred people you can’t come anymore, which was very painful, but we doubled the High School number.”

With a new focus on reaching teens, Soul Survivor events in America have since drawn thousands of people from a broad range of denominations, and over 18 states.

A typical Soul Survivor event involves worship, ministry time, arts and music, but the sum is greater than its parts. “After the main session (involving worship and teaching), these various venues open up. From 8:30 pm to midnight, there are bands, they have dance and hip-hop venues and the art tent, and it’s a scene,” says Martin. “People don’t have to go to anything, it’s not required, but because they don’t have to go to anything, they go to everything, you know?”

The response to the arts tent at Soul Survivor events has been one of the most staggering. “It’s as if they are dying for water,” says Martin. “The kids can come in and paint as much as they want. Some of the stuff is scary, some of it’s not really religious art, and most of these kids have not really painted since they were in kindergarten,” he says, “It’s another value to incorporate the arts into our Christianity, it’s again, an holistic approach.”

Soul Survivor is a ministry that does more than provide a place for youth to gather and worship and hang out. They’ve organized large-scale servant evangelism events worldwide to demonstrate the compassion of Christ to a world that’s never seen Him. “The idea is to very simply not just preach service to the poor, we’re going to model what it looks like so the Youth pastors and the kids can get a vision for it,” says Martin. “It’s one thing to say, ‘we need to go pick up trash and paint an orphanage’, it’s another thing to get in the car and go paint. It’s more important what we do than what we believe or say,” he says. “We work alongside the city managers and we kept our mouths shut, no witnessing, just service, and it is amazing.”

What Martin has discovered as he leads these types of community service events is that young Christians in America are eager to serve. “Young people are the most open to this. The clay is still wet. It represents something in the youth culture today where they’re tired of hearing stuff they just want to get out and do it,” says Martin.

Martin has even greater dreams of touching Orange County with the tangible compassion of Christ one day. “I really see the injustices that have been done in South Los Angeles burning in my heart. I think that community has suffered a lot. There’s just something in me, to have ten or twenty thousand middle class kids coming into communities like that expressing their faith and their love for humanity in practical ways,” he says, “That is something that can keep me up at night. (My goal is) to create Christians who just have a deep understanding of the true totality of the Gospel,” he says. “We’re trying to slowly model the idea that worship and justice are very normative notions that need to be part of our daily walk.”

Martin explains some of the appeal for what Soul Survivor does as being directly related to their entire approach to the Christian life. “There’s something broader than this,” says Martin. “So by what we’re doing, in this holistic approach to life, a lot of these teens are seeing a something new. It’s like, ‘What? I get to go paint and skate and express my feelings and dance and this is all inclusive in what it means to follow Christ?’ So, in all that, our hope is that these youth pastors who bring their kids to Soul Survivor can go back to their churches and maybe find other ways to relate to their teens, as opposed to some of the ways that have been handed down before, based on laws and rules.

“As long as the churches are saying that what we’re doing is a good thing, and that their kids lives are being impacted,” says Martin. “Then our goal is just to keep going.”

IN CONTROL by Keith Giles

IN CONTROL

By Keith Giles

Relax. Everything is under control.

Your employer only has enough money to pay you one more month. Your family has to pack up everything and move out this weekend and you have no idea where you’re going to move into. Maybe you’ll have to rent a storage unit, move everything inside for a few months, and sleep on a few floors.

Everything is under control.

Of course, it’s not under MY control. I can barely see over the top of the steering wheel right now. I’m on my knees in the back seat of this car, praying that we make it to where we’re headed in one piece.

The last five months of my life have been some of the most stressful and challenging you could possibly imagine. Even more challenging than the year and a half I spent among the ranks of the unemployed, sustained only by the hand of God and the generosity of others, learning firsthand what ‘Daily Bread’ is really all about. Yes, even more stressful than the day I had almost $2,000 in bills to pay with no fulltime job, and less than one hundred dollars in the bank.

Over these last five months, my wife and I have suffered a miscarriage, gone three months with only half our normal income, endured week after week of uncertainty about where we would live and who I would work for, and now we face the countdown to homelessness.

Everything is under control.

About two years ago I began this journey. I suddenly realized that the Gospel I grew up on wasn’t really the Gospel that Jesus preached at all. It rocked my world. It turned everything upside down.

Following my little epiphany came the realization that I had spent most of my teenage and adult life following Jesus without taking up my cross.

I learned that it’s easier for us to die for Jesus than it is to live every single monotonous day for Jesus.

After this I began to dig into the idea of discipleship, or “follower-ship”, to Jesus. I began to seek first The Kingdom of God and to apprentice myself daily to Jesus as my Lord, and not just my Savior.

Just the other day it dawned on me what the last five months have been about. It’s simply the fruit of my desire to die to myself, to put Jesus first and to carry my cross (the instrument of my personal death to the flesh). Nothing more, nothing less.

So, now my life is out of my control. I have no say in where my finances come from. I have no clue where my family will live next. I have no idea where, or if, I’ll be employed in the next three months.

This is part of what I signed up for.

Of course, just because I don’t know the answers to these questions doesn’t mean that it won’t all work out for us. It just means that I’m not the one in control. God is.

The real question for me is, “Am I ok with that”? Am I ok with not being consulted when it comes to where we live, where I work, how much money we make, or even where we go to church? Because if turning my life over to Jesus is really what I’m all about, then not being the one in control of my life is a major byproduct of that decision.

I have to walk into the darkness ahead of me, leading my family along behind me, with no idea whether or not or next step will be into the abyss or into a blessing.

Everything is under control.

THE MISSION: OUR VISION, OUR VALUES

So, as we move forward in our plans to start a House Church here in the O.C., here's a "work-in-progress":

THE MISSION

OUR VISION: To be a community that models the life and love of Jesus to our world and to one another.

OUR MISSION: We are a community in love with Jesus. We are the Church. We have a mission to be Jesus to our friends, neighbors and our world.

WHO WE ARE: We are an outward focused Christian community with an inward commitment to love and disciple others to Jesus’ way of life.

WHAT WE DO: We worship God with our entire life. In homes, on the street, at work, in the marketplace, wherever we are there is worship. We are Christ’s ambassadors. We are compelled by the life and love of Jesus to share all that God has given us with those who need Him.

OUR PRACTICE AND VALUES:
We value the Word of God, therefore we will read it, study it, talk about it, meditate on it and, by the Grace of God, we will put the Word of God into practice every day of our lives.

We value the Gospel of the Kingdom which Jesus came and died to proclaim, therefore we will proclaim the message of God’s Kingdom as “here, and not yet”, and live our lives in obedience to His commands, as citizens of His Kingdom and servants of the King..

We value people, therefore we will gather together to eat, fellowship, sing and pray for each other. We will invite people into our homes. We will make people feel welcome. We will listen to others. We will embrace their pain. We will make their burdens our own. We will see their need and share whatever God has given us to share. We will laugh. We will rejoice. We will celebrate together.

We value service, therefore we will make ourselves available to those who are in need. We will invest our time and talent and energy into the work of the Kingdom of God, serving others as Jesus did, expecting nothing in return.

We value giving, therefore we will demonstrate our dependence on God for all things by freely sharing what God has given us with others. We will give to God the tithe that belongs to Him, considering it as “sacred revenue”, set aside only for those who are in need and we will keep none of this for ourselves. Beyond this, we will share the rest of what we have been given as He directs us.

2 MORE REASONS: THE HOUSE CHURCH

As I've been researching the House Church model, I've discovered two more great reasons why I prefer the House Church way of "being church":

1- EVANGELISM: If a mega-church of 1,000 or more people were converted into 56 churches of 51 people each, they would reach 1,670 people for Christ every 5 years, easily doubling their own number.

If that same church of 1,000 plus members stays a mega-church, they’ll only reach 122 people in the same 5 year timespan.

Another way of looking at this is that the mega-church is actually preventing 1,548 people from coming to Christ every 5 years.
*(Taken from the book "Natural Church Growth" by Christian Schwarz)

2-FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: The House Church model literally makes money because they produce more than they consume, by design. The modern, traditional church model cost enormous sums of money to establish and even more to maintain and propagate.

A WEDDING EVERY WEEK? by Keith Giles

Has the modern church become a “Wedding-A-Week” event?

Think of what it takes to pull off a wedding. You need an event planner just to make sure everything comes together logistically and that the ceremony is successful. Someone has to take care of the flowers, the food, the cake, the dresses, the tuxedos, the gifts, the parking, the DJ, the lights, the video, etc., etc. It’s a very big deal and no one in their right mind would attempt to put on a wedding every weekend…or would they?

Think of what goes into a typical Sunday morning worship service. Someone has to put together the bulletin, the order of service, the flowers, the coffee, the visitors table, the information booths, and clean the building before and after the service. The band, or the choir, has to be practiced, prepared and ready for the performance. The announcements have to be loaded on the power point slides in advance. Someone has to make sure that the ushers are ready, that visitors are welcomed, and that the Sunday School and child-care workers and rooms are all set up and staffed.

We haven’t even mentioned the pastor and his sermon yet.

Most Sunday morning worship services are a big production.

Is that what the early church went through?

Not even close.

The early church met in homes. They read scripture. They prayed for each other. They sang hymns spontaneously and they shared a common meal among their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Here’s another thing I find interesting about weddings. Do you think that community happens during a wedding? Not really…but why not? Isn’t a wedding a gathering of two families and all their friends into a single place? They’re even in a church building. So, why don’t we have community at weddings?

Before I answer that, let’s take that same family and look at what happens when they get together for Thanksgiving or a family reunion. Do you think community happens during these gatherings? Probably so…but again, why is that? It’s the same family isn’t it? What’s the difference?

The main differences are that, in the home setting of Thanksgiving dinner, no one is acting as an event planner. No one worries if the kids play outside before or after the meal, or if Grandma wants to tell her fond stories about the old days before desert or after they say “Grace”. The gathering is spontaneous. It’s about being the family, not acting out roles.

Something happens when you take that same family and place them in an event or a performance. They loose the environment necessary to facilitate community.

It’s almost funny to me to hear pastors and Christian leaders go on and on about how they wish their churches could develop community. We all wonder why talking about it and reading books about it and having potlucks don’t solve this problem.

We ask ourselves, “Why can’t we have a sense of community the way the early church experienced?”

The answer? “Because we’re not living the way those early Christians lived. We’re not meeting in homes they way they did. We’re not sharing all that God has given us with our neighbors and our fellow Believers. That’s why we don’t experience the same sense of community.”

One family gathering is large, and focused on following an event schedule. They other gathering, of the same family, is smaller and less formal, focused on being the family and enjoying a shared meal in a home.

Which of these is most like the early church?

Which is most likely to provide the atmosphere necessary to inspire community?

The early church was a divinely inspired system designed to create community, facilitate discipleship, mentoring and exponential multiplication, and we should be grateful that it was successful or else none of us would be here now.

For 300 years the church that Jesus inspired and that the Apostles crafted withstood persecution, created disciples, evangelized the lost, penetrated the culture and “turned the world upside down”.

I for one feel that it’s time for the people of God to return to this system of being the church and embodying the message of the Gospel, rather than bringing people to a building where they can hear a message.

By Keith Giles

Greater Things? by Keith Giles

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the father".
-John 14:12

Ok...as I read this, Jesus first says, (paraphrased)- "If you believe in me, you will DO what I have been doing." (This has nothing to do with miracles. It has to do with obedience to Jesus and discipleship/apprenticeship to Him..as evidenced in the verses just below this one where Jesus says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command.")

The next sentence says, (paraphrased)- "The one who is my disciple (following me in doing the works of compassion I have done) will do even greater things BECAUSE I AM GOING TO THE FATHER." (And because Jesus is going to the Father, He is sending us the Holy Spirit to live in us, teach us, speak to us and do the work of the Kingdom - see verse 16).

Here's a parallel concept to make it clear....A professional Indy 500 Race Car driver tells you, "If you do what I teach you, and learn what I have to show you, you'll be a better race car driver than I am one day."

You wouldn't expect to just jump in the Indy Car and qualify for the race would you? No, you'd spend the next few years learning from this guy about how to be the best race car driver you could possibly be. It wouldn't happen by "magic" or by "osmosis" but because you "had faith in" this driver and you actually did everything he told you to do.

That's my perspective on what Jesus means in this verse.

We don't magically become better than Jesus by some mystical transfer of Holy power.

Ask yourself this..."Would you expect to do even greater works than Jesus if you never even attempted to do the basic things that he did while he was here on Earth?" That's like someone who doesn't even have a learner's permit or a driver's license thinking they can grab the keys to that Indy Car and take off as a winning driver.

A PSALM OF FAITH (or the lack thereof)

A PSALM OF FAITH (or the lack thereof)
by Keith Giles

God, have I come to the end of your provision?

Have I found the limits of your Grace?

Is there no more of your mercy left for me or my family?

Will you allow us to plunge off the cliff and into the valley of despair below us?

My confession is that I am weak. I confess to you my lack of faith.

I’m all out of hope. My last drop of strength is gone.

Please, Father, Abba, Daddy….

Do you see us? Do you hear me?

Are your eyes closed to the suffering we’re going through now?

When will my sons see the wonderful miracles of God?

When will my family be swept up into your arms of rescue?

When will you show up, God?

You are all we have left.

And if we slip off the edge and into the deep, what then?

And if we box up our lives and find nowhere to lay our heads?

And if we become the poor we have longed to serve?

What then?

We will still sing of your goodness, God.

We will still testify of your amazing love.

We will redefine what it means to trust you, and to walk with you, and to put our hope in you.

If we have come to this place by your own hand, Father, then into your hands we commit our spirits, and by your hands we will emerge as you desire us to live.

Again, you bring us back to this place of uncertainty.

Again, you ask us to lay everything on the altar.

Again, we place our hope on you, and you alone.

AMAZING GRACE by Keith Giles

AMAZING GRACE by Keith Giles

God has done an amazing work in my heart and life over these last three years.

Before we had even begun an official Compassion Ministry at The River, my wife Wendy discovered that we were near a home for Seniors called Tustin Hacienda and found a way to get us scheduled to visit the residents there once per month.

At first this was something that we invited our Kids Rock kids to join us in. We wanted to provide a tangible opportunity for our kids to “be Jesus” to those in our community who were lonely, poor and alone.

Those first few months were awkward. We had no worship leaders on the team and so the kids would stand in the main room and sing worship songs accapella. We’d get odd looks from the people there who didn’t know the songs we were singing, and they clapped mostly out of a kindness of heart, probably not too sure what to make of us.

We went from room to room knocking on doors to step in and sing these songs to total strangers. Some of them smiled, some of them didn’t even turn down their very loud television sets as we attempted to sing or pray for them. Others were thrilled to have visitors, especially children.

I must confess that, at first, I wasn’t personally so excited about this ministry. There were times when any excuse for me to stay home was preferable to me. I didn’t really feel a strong connection to these people or see the value in what we were doing, other than to help those kids get a taste of what ministry could be.

It honestly didn’t begin to seep into my heart until the end of the second year of our ministry there. As we got to know the people at the Hacienda more intimately I became emotionally connected to them. I got to know “The General”, a wonderful man who had served in World War II and was wheel-chair bound. I can remember praying with him and seeing the tears in his eyes when he told me that, if were able to, he’d gladly re-enlist to defend our country. When I thanked him for what he’d already done he squeezed my hand tighter. Even though he couldn’t form the words to speak to me, the emotion in his face was enough for both of us to understand each other.

When he died it was as if my own Grandfather had died. I wept for him. I got to share in the grief of those who knew him best. We all missed him. He had been part of our family at Tustin Hacienda.

Over time we got to know the stories of people like Alvin who had been General George Patton’s cook during WW2. He even received a medal for his bravery under fire and for serving up meals that were better than they got at home, all while being shelled and shot at. He looks just like Santa Claus and even spent many Christmas seasons holding children on his knees at South Coast Plaza, a local mall, posing for pictures and making kids smile. Maybe some of us put our own children on his lap without even realizing it. I wonder.

We learned about Anne and how she used to sing at nightclubs. We heard Gladys tell us how she actually died on the operating table at 100 years of age and how God brought her back. She’s now 102 years old.

We got to meet George, a wonderful English gentleman with a great fondness for Texas and a spectacular career in aviation which has been documented in trade journals and in articles he’s written for the US Government. I’ll never forget the time George told us that he’d “find it unfortunate to die unnecessarily” due to a missed flu shot.

Lloyd, a dear man of God who pastored his fellow residents, was always quoting his favorite scripture to me, “For no eye has seen, and no ear has heard what God has in store for those who love Him.” Papa Art was always thrilled to see us. He always asked us to pray for him and he kept every picture and photo we ever gave him.

Dorothy, if we’re allowed to have favorites, would probably qualify for most everyone’s list. She lost her husband the same year we began to visit there. It wasn’t until much later that I learned from the workers that Dorothy never left her room for any reason, never made friends with the other residents, and wouldn’t have anything to do with anyone other than her own family….and us. We’re so grateful that God allowed us into her heart and to help her to open up her door to people who loved her and cared for her.

I could go on and on. I haven’t even told you about Lily, Hazel, Beulah, Brother Ralph, Rhoda, Robert, and so many dear, sweet, lovely other people.

Those of us who made the time on the third Saturday of each month are so much richer for having been part of these people’s lives.

Without them, where would we be? How much poorer would my life be without having known, and loved, these dear ones?

So, I want to say “Thank You” to God for His patience with someone like me who resisted His goodness and held little value for His people, or His good will in my life.

We started out with the desire to bless the residents of this home, as if we had everything to give and all they had was emptiness, but in the end, we were the ones who took home the treasure in arms of love. We were the ones who received the blessing and the amazing grace of God.

Welcome to the Kingdom.

“Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." Luke 14:12-14

WHY THE HOUSE CHURCH?

Lately my wife Wendy and I have felt a calling towards the planting of a House Church out of our home.

This journey began, roughly, about two years ago, although the final piece of the puzzle fell into place for us roughly about three or so months ago.

To understand the “Why” of this, I have attempted to outline just a few of the core convictions and values that I have come realize are part of how God made me. These are factors that have helped us to come to understand the nature of God’s calling for us.

I will deal with the why the House Church model appeals to us after this list of statements, but hopefully this will pave a foundation to build upon.

How I’m wired:
I have a desire to be part of a church where the teaching and sharing of the Word of God is highly valued.

I have a desire to be part of a community where service to others, intimacy (with God and one another), and mission is practiced and encouraged.

I prefer a more simple, small, and uncluttered style of doing church, where it’s more about the building up of the disciples in their faith and the simple adoration of God for who He is and what He’s done.

I have a strong desire for the Church to be counter-cultural in practice and lifestyle, yet serving others in humility outside the four walls of the Sunday service.

I have a strong repulsion for the modern trend of the Christian Church towards a corporate-based model of doing church. I feel very passionately that the Christian Church should take most of her cues from the early church, and from the writings of the Church Fathers and the great “cloud of witnesses” we have available to us throughout the History of Christianity. (i.e.- Jonathan Edwards, William Wilberforce, etc. instead of Peter Senge or John Maxwell, etc.)

I have a strong conviction that leadership is done by example and that values expressed from the pulpit be put into practice in our actual life.

I have a strong conviction that a pastor should be available to those whom he is called to serve.

I believe that the Christian life is not a spectator sport but is a way of life that a follower of Jesus, a disciple, undertakes daily and therefore requires ongoing fellowship, pastoral care and immersion in the Word of God for direction, hope, guidance and life.

I believe that the Christian faith is very much about a lifestyle that follows the pattern of a “Jesus way of life”, more so than a series of meetings, a statement of beliefs or a prayer of salvation.

So, that's me in a nutshell. Because I'm wired this way, I've been feeling more and more called to an expression of Church that follows a similar pattern of conviction.

WHY A HOUSE CHURCH?

As my wife and I continued to dialog over these past few months regarding the planting of a church, we were informed by the writings and teachings of Dallas Willard, Todd Hunter, Professor Scott Bartchy, David Ruis, Greg Russinger, Mike Pilavachi, Justo L. Gonzalez, and several others.

One final piece to the puzzle was an article by Ray Mayhew concerning the radical practice of the early church towards giving of the tithe (or the “sacred revenue”) to the poor, rather than spending that money on itself.

The discussions that Wendy and I had after reading this article and discussing the implications lead us to the conclusion that what we were really hungry for, in the area of community, worship, service, missions, fellowship, and giving were all wrapped up in the simple, and yet revolutionary, model left to us in the form of the early church.

Why the House Church?
Here are just a few of the reasons:

Historical. The house church is the biblical church. All of the churches in the New Testament era were small assemblies that met in homes.

For the first three-hundred years of its existence the church met primarily in the homes of its members, not in specially designed buildings. Keep in mind that the United States hasn’t even been around for three hundred years. This is a huge statement to the effectiveness and the potential of these sorts of meetings. I have been reading a lot of great historical documents regarding the early church and have been excited and encouraged by what I’ve discovered so far.
*(See below for Scriptural references on the early house church)

Growth. The most explosive growth of Christianity in our own time has taken place in the likes of the People's Republic of China where its only expression has been the illegal, underground house church. Historian Del Birkey's studies (and several others) have led him to conclude that the house church is our best hope for the renewal in our times.

Resisting the Culture. Our faith is constantly being pulled towards conforming to the culture around us. (See Paul’s warning about this in Romans 12). The house church has always been counter-culture for this reason, just as Jesus said that his disciples should be in the Sermon on the Mount. **(See below for more notes on the Sermon On The Mount)

Practical Considerations. It is often argued that a large church is better equipped than a small church (or, in this case, a house-church) to organize and finance the sending of missionaries. However, this assumes that local churches are to be completely independent of each other. It certainly does not argue against a network of house-churches which cooperate with each other in the sending out of missionaries.

In fact, the argument backfires. One mega-church with one-thousand members could never match the resource potential of a network of house-churches with one-thousand members, for the mega-church must allocate huge amounts of its resources for the building itself.

According to one recent survey, as much as 82% of church revenues in an average Protestant church goes toward buildings, staff, and internal programs, while only 18% goes toward missions!

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS
The church of the first century did not equate "bigness" with ability. The words of Paul to this effect bear repeating: "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him" (1Co 1:27-29). The world system operates from the principle that bigger is better. To those in this system, success is measured by size and might is measured by muscle. In contrast, it was the “weakness and foolishness” of the Gospel and the lifestyle of the early Christians that “turned the world upside down”.

Mission. There are several opportunities in our communities that are especially suited for the house church. An invitation offered to a work-place acquaintance to a home is much less threatening than one to a church, just as one example. Another is the unique value of the house church as a ministry to "the damaged" and the poor and needy and the possibility of learning the joy of giving by elevating that practice to a personal level.

So…this is, in part, why we’re feeling God tugging us in this direction. We still have a lot of unanswered questions at this point, (like, “Who would go with us?”, “Where will we live next month?”, etc.) but the framework is clear and God’s calling to us has been very specific.

We pray now for God’s continued provision (for my employment situation and for a new house to live in before the end of this month), and for God’s direction regarding the formation of this (potential) House Church.

More later…

Peas,
Keith


Notes:
* Romans 16:5 (as well as 1Co 16:19) speaks of the church that met in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. When Paul wrote to Philemon he also addressed his letter to Archippus and to the church in his house (v. 2). Likewise, when he wrote his greetings in Col 4 he mentions the church which met in the house of Nympha (4:15). When Paul taught the newly formed churches, he did so from "house to house" (Ac 20:20). There is an allusion to a church in Jason’s house in Ac 16:5-6, in Lydia’s house in Ac 16:40, and in Mary’s house in Ac 12:12. In 2Jn there is a warning to the church not to receive false teachers into their house (v. 10). Contrary to popular belief, this is not referring to individual Christians who might have unbelievers in their homes for social and evangelistic purposes; rather it is a warning to the church not to allow false teachers to participate in the meeting. Since participation in the meeting implied the opportunity to speak it would have meant potential harm to the church if a false teacher were allowed in the meeting. Hence there is much evidence for the "house-church" in the New Testament.

**Sermon On the Mount: That sermon outlines how the powerless disciple can be salt and light in a dark world (Mt. 5:13-14), how to withstand evildoers (Mt. 5:39) by showing God's love to the world through suffering at the hands of persecution (Mt. 5:39), foreclosing landlords (Mt. 5:40), and occupying Roman authorities (Mt. 5:41). It speaks of giving and lending to the most hopeless credit risks (Mt. 5:42). It speaks of a praying community ("Our Father, who art in heaven ..." Mt. 6:9) that fasts (Mt. 6:16), gives of itself (Mt. 6: 21), and depends completely on God (Mt. 25ff). It speaks of the non-judgment of individuals (Mt. 7:1), just as it speaks of the need to judge those who would be authorities in spiritual matters (Mt. 7:15ff).

SQUISHBALL.COM - "GET THE FUN FROM THE BALL"

SQUISHBALL.COM
My oldest son, Dylan started his own website when he was in first grade.

The name of the company, the logo, everything was his idea. I just got a good friend to do the website and the rest is a thing of beauty.

Please visit and maybe even buy a t-shirt or a coffee mug with the SQUISHBALL logo for your friends. They make wonderful gifts!

So proud of him.

SQUISHBALL
http://www.squishball.com/

WHERE TO NOW?

WHERE TO NOW?
By Keith Giles

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20


This is the journey.

In the last few months I have felt, more and more, the hand of God upon my life. It is heavy. It is hard. It is not an easy thing.

God is imposing His will upon my life. All I can do is sit back and say, “Yes, Lord.”

Of course, this is exactly what I’ve prayed for. Night and day I have come before Him to ask that He would allow His Kingdom to come and His will to be done in my life…no matter what.

My wife and I have been through these times of transition before. Several years ago I was laid off from a job I loved, only to wander in the wilderness for over a year and a half without fulltime employment.

During this time I learned what it means to depend on Him for daily bread. Literally there were days when we had used the last of the eggs, paper towels and milk, only to have someone show up at our doorstep unexpectedly with eggs, milk and paper towels in a gift basket.

There was the day when we needed over a thousand dollars to cover rent, registration on our car, a smog check and our monthly medical insurance payment. I was in the car on the way to my temp job praying for God’s provision for us since our bank account was empty and we had used our Discover card to pay for groceries only days before.

By lunchtime I had a check in my hand for exactly the amount necessary to cover all of these bills, from people who had no idea what our exact needs were at the time.

God is good.

We’ve also been through a season where we had to move and had no idea where we’d end up, only to have God provide miraculously a house for us only a few blocks away with a giant backyard, an avocado tree, and plenty of room to host a small group for our new church. He even gave us a dream a month earlier to show us how He would provide this house for us, and then He did it…at the last minute.

I think now our family knows in a deeper sense that God will take care of us. We have seen His hand closing doors in our life and in our ministry over these last few months. We’ve started packing up our belongings, still with no clue where we’re moving to next, or even when.

We’ve said goodbye already to people we dearly love who’ve moved away from us.

We’ve prayed, for the last time, over people who God has allowed us to minister to for nearly three years with tears in our eyes.

We don’t really understand exactly all of what and why God is doing this. But we do know a lot.

We do know that God is good. We know He loves us. We know that it is His hand closing these doors. We know that He will open new doors for us soon. We know that we are called to be His ambassadors. We know that our family has a calling from God. We know that He has given us a ministry and that He has revealed to us what we are to do next….which is to simply trust Him.

We also know that God seems to like the last minute. He’s never late, but He’s rarely on our time table.

I was thinking just the other day that it’s seasons such as this that build our faith. These are the times we look back on and see the hand of God upon us. It’s these times we will be drawn back to re-live over and over again in the form of testimony and praise.

Why would we not want God to bring us through times such as this?

This is the life.

This is the journey.

“Giddy-up!”

DRAWING NEARER by Keith Giles

Jesus called everyone to come near to him. Some who came after him did so out of a sincere desire to follow him. They truly left everything to sit at his feet and to put his words into practice. Others who followed Jesus drew nearer only to see a sign or a miracle, having no intention of coming under his teaching or his authority. They were only there to see the show. Still others drew nearer to Jesus so that they could catch him in a mistake and discredit his ministry.

Jesus was searching for people who would draw near to him, not for what he could offer them, not for the experience or the “show”, but because they were willing to give him their heart.

'These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” Mathew 15:8

Jesus called everyone to draw near to him. He wasn’t picky about it, but he did want those who came after him to come honestly and sincerely. He was searching for those who would come after God with their whole heart and seek Him “in Spirit and in Truth.”

He even went out of his way to seek out those who couldn’t come to him. The lame, the sick, the outcast, the broken, all of these were the ones that Jesus sought after and to whom he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

MORE THAN REST
Not only did Jesus call those who were lonely and outcast to come to him, he asked them to “learn from” him, to trust him as a teacher and as a friend.

This was in contrast to the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees, who were harsh, critical and oppressive to the masses, especially to the poor who couldn’t even be in their presence, nor worship in the temple.

As I look at this passage, I both long to know the rest that Jesus offers, and also to come under his yoke of learning. I want, I need, to become more like Jesus. I desire with all my heart to be transformed into someone who looks, acts, thinks and loves as he does.

That doesn’t happen by accident. No one “falls into” a transformed life. It takes a strong desire; A daily decision to put away my kingdom and to make a great exchange with the King for His Kingdom of hope, and life, and peace.

MY YOKE IS EASY?
If you want to know what a hard life is, just look at someone who is addicted to drugs, or in prison, or living with alcoholism, or any other path than is “other than” what Jesus offers. This is why Jesus can honestly say that his burden is light and his yoke is easy. The decision not to follow Jesus bears its own fruit of despair and ruin.

Still, there are times when it seems that Jesus isn’t so “near” to me. I can seek him in prayer, search the scriptures, worship him in song or in the quiet of my room, and yet he doesn’t “feel” close to me. Why is that?

I believe it has to do with faith. As I undergo these momentary lapses of the awareness of God’s closeness I have to make a decision. I have to decide if I trust my feelings, or if I trust God. I have to decide if I believe the “Truth” or if I believe “Experience”. Because the “Truth” is that God is near enough to reach out and to touch. He has promised us that he will never leave us nor forsake us. That is the truth and no human experience can change it. No amount of darkness can ever extinguish the smallest candle flame of light.

“Come near to God and He will come near to you.” - James 4:8

We were made by God for a relationship with Him. Our hearts, our minds, our emotions, our intellect, everything about us was designed by God for an intimate interaction with Himself. That’s why creation exists…and because of this, anything less than a complete intimacy with God is not just “sub-Christian”, it’s actually “sub-human”.

Think about that. To be anything less than completely intimate with the Creator is actually sub-human.

Don’t settle for anything less than 100% of all that God is, and desires to have, in your life.

Spend time with God. Read His Word. Pray without ceasing. Worship Him with song, with your thoughts, with your whole life.

Draw near.

THE CHURCH COMES HOME

I am intrigued lately with the notion of the House Church.

Even just discovered that there's one on my own street that's been meeting for the last 3 years.

Weird huh?

I'm looking at several books right now too, recommended to me by Professor Scott Bartchy at UCLA.

"The Church Comes Home" by Robert and Julie Banks

"House Church and Mission" by Rober W. Gehring

Need to pick these up..and a few others by Justo L. Gonzalez.

What I love is the sense of simplicity and the return to the early church model of community, fellowship and service to others and the community as a first priority.

More on this later...

Peas,
Keith

Comments Welcome

Ok...I've done some house keeping due to several comments from the two or three of you who actually read this thing about not being able to post comments.

NOW YOU CAN POST COMMENTS WITH NO HASSLE!

See?

I do care.

Peace,
Keith

FORGIVE ME....

...It's been ten days since my last blog entry.

I don't normally post items of a personal nature here, you know like what's up with my job, my family, my favorite films, etc.

This will officially be the first blog entry deemed "Personal" in nature.

Honestly, I can't really understand what God is doing in our lives right now.

Over the last few months, God has begun to systematically close doors in my life.

He's closing doors in my ministry, in my job, even on the home we've rented for the last 3 years (we've got to move out in 60 days).

It seems now that there's not very much holding us down here in the great "O.C." anymore.

Wendy and I have been sensing for a while now that God might be getting ready to move us on to newer things. (ya think?)

I should know one way or the other by this coming Monday evening whether or not I will have a job at Soul Survivor, or if I need to start looking elsewhere.

Lately I've been very intrigued with the idea of starting my own design house with Scott Laumann and a couple of other guys. It's a sound biz model. Not much up front cost and no workman's comp, insurance, etc. since it will be a virtual company with myself running point and 3 other designers handling jobs on a project basis.

I do think we'll eventually get this rolling...but the truth is, my family needs money NOW! Like...I don't know where we'll get the cash to afford a new apartment or house rental here in the O.C. if we don't get about $3,000 in the next few weeks.

Yikes!

I've been waiting and waiting for God to move...and for events to unfold around us...but now it is looking pretty grim.

Wendy and I have full confidence that God is good. We know that He is the one who is in control of things. He is the one who has closed these doors...and we're praying He is the one who will (very soon) begin to start opening doors for us....very soon...we hope...and pray...please....God?

We've also been sensing that God might be leading us to become "missionaries" into our own culture. That might involve starting a house church down the line, or maybe becoming honest-to-gosh missionaries into our culture, to the poor and the lost around us...with our two elementary age sons in tow.

Yes...it's scary.

Yes....it's a little insane.

I've actually turned down offers for full-time employment recently because it didn't fit into this calling we find ourselves in.

Crazy. I know.

My father would slap me naked and hide my clothes if he knew this..but luckily he doesn't read this blog...and pretty much no one else does either so this is sort of like talking to myself in the bathroom mirror...but without the echo.

Hello?

Good night.

Peace,
Keith

Survivor Story: 6-Year-Old Leads Five Toddlers, Baby To Safety

Survivor Story: 6-Year-Old Leads Five Toddlers, Baby To Safety
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9230423/


(FROM WLEX-TV)
In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard in New Orleans last Thursday, one group of survivors stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about two years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A three-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

Thousands of human stories have flown past relief workers in the last week, but few have touched them as much as the seven children who were found wandering together Thursday at an evacuation point in downtown New Orleans. In the Baton Rouge headquarters of the rescue operation, paramedics tried to coax their names out of them; nurses who examined them stayed up that night, brooding.

Transporting the children alone was "the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead" or that they had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove them out of New Orleans.

"It goes back to the same thing," he said. "How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies?"

So far, parents displaced by flooding have reported 220 children missing, but that number is expected to rise, said Mike Kenner of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which will help reunite families. With crowds churning at evacuation points, many children were parted from their parents accidentally; one woman handed her baby up onto a bus, turned around to pick up her suitcase and turned back to find that the bus had left.

At the rescue headquarters, a cool tile-floored building swarming with firefighters and paramedics, the children ate cafeteria food and fell into a deep sleep. Deamonte volunteered his vital statistics. He said his father was tall and his mother was short. He gave his address, his phone number and the name of his elementary school.

He said the 5-month-old was his brother, Darynael, and that two others were his cousins, Tyreek and Zoria. The other three lived in his apartment building.

The children were clean and healthy -- downright plump in the case of the infant, said Joyce Miller, a nurse who examined them. It was clear, she said, that "time had been taken with those kids." The baby was "fat and happy."

"This baby child was terrified," he said. "After she relaxed, it was gobble, gobble, gobble."

As grim dispatches came in from the field, one woman in the office burst into tears at the thought that the children had been abandoned in New Orleans, said Sharon Howard, assistant secretary of the office of public health.

Late the same night, they got an encouraging report: A woman in a shelter in Thibodeaux was searching for seven children. People in the building started clapping at the news. But when they got the mother on the phone, it became clear that she was looking for a different group of seven children, Howard said.

"What that made me understand was that this was happening across the state," she said. "That kind of frightened me."

The children were transferred to a shelter operated by the Department of Social Services, rooms full of toys and cribs where mentors from the Big Buddy Program were on hand day and night. For the next two days, the staff did detective work.

Deamonte began to give more details to Derrick Robertson, a 27-year-old Big Buddy mentor: How he saw his mother cry when he was loaded onto the helicopter. How he promised her he'd take care of his little brother.

Late Saturday night, they found Deamonte's mother, who was in a shelter in San Antonio along with the four mothers of the other five children. Catrina Williams, 26, saw her children's pictures on a web site set up over the weekend by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. By Sunday, a private plane from Angel Flight was waiting to take the children to Texas.

In a phone interview, Williams said she is the kind of mother who doesn't let her children out of her sight. What happened the Thursday after the hurricane, she said, was that her family, trapped in an apartment building on the 3200 block of Third Street in New Orleans, began to feel desperate.

The water wasn't going down and they had been living without light, food or air conditioning for four days. The baby needed milk and the milk was gone. So she decided they would evacuate by helicopter. When a helicopter arrived to pick them up they were told to send the children first and that the helicopter would be back in 25 minutes. She and her neighbors had to make a quick decision.

It was a wrenching moment. Williams' father, Adrian Love, told her to send the children ahead.

"I told them to go ahead and give them up, because me, I would give my life for my kids. They should feel the same way," said Love, 48. "They were shedding tears. I said, Let the babies go.' "

His daughter and her friends followed his advice.

"We did what we had to do for our kids, because we love them," Williams said.

The helicopter didn't come back. While the children were transported to Baton Rouge, their parents wound up in Texas, and although Williams was reassured that they would be reunited, days passed without any contact. On Sunday, she was elated.

"All I know is I just want to see my kids," she said. "Everything else will just fall into place."

At 3 p.m. Sunday, DSS workers said good-by to seven children who now had names: Deamonte Love; Darynael Love; Zoria Love and her brother Tyreek. The girl who cried "Gabby!" was Gabrielle Janae Alexander. The girl they called Peanut was Degahney Carter. And the boy whom they called G was actually Lee -- Leewood Moore Jr.

The children were strapped into car seats and driven to an airport, where they were flown to San Antonio to rejoin their parents. As they loaded into the van, the shelter workers looked in the windows; some wept.

The baby gaped with delight in the front seat. Deamonte was hanging onto Robertson's neck so desperately that Robertson decided, at the last minute, to ride with him as far as Lafayette.

Shelter worker Kori Thomas, held Zoria, 3, who reached out to smooth her eyebrows. Tyreek put a single fat finger on the van window by way of goodbye.

Robertson said he doubted the children would remember much of the helicopter evacuation, the Causeway, the sweltering heat or the smell of the flooded city.

"I think what's going to stick with them is that they survived Hurricane Katrina," he said. "And that they were loved."

JIM WALLIS: "WHAT THE WATERS HAVE REVEALED"

What the waters have revealed
by Jim Wallis

In what may be the most catastrophic natural disaster in American history, the waters of Hurricane Katrina are washing away our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty, our reluctance to admit the still persistent connection of race and poverty in America, and even the political power of a conservative ideology that, for decades now, has seriously eroded the idea of the common good.

The pictures from New Orleans have stunned the nation. They have exposed the stark realities of who is suffering the most, who was left behind, who was waiting in vain for help to arrive, and who is facing the most difficult challenges of recovery. The face of those stranded in New Orleans was overwhelmingly poor and black, the very old and the very young. They were the ones who could not evacuate; had no cars or money for gas; no money for bus, train, or airfare; no budget for hotels or no friends or family with room to share or spare. They were already vulnerable before this calamity, now they were totally exposed and on their own. For days, nobody came for them. And the conditions of the places they were finally herded to ("like animals," many testified) sickened the nation.

From the reporters covering the unprecedented disaster to ordinary Americans glued to their televisions watching their reports, a shocked and even outraged response was repeated, "I didn't realize how many Americans were poor." Powerful images have emerged along with the pictures. "We have now seen what is under the rock in America," said a carpenter in Washington DC. The vulnerability of the poorest children in New Orleans has been especially riveting to many Americans, especially other parents. Many say they had trouble holding back their tears when they saw mothers with their babies stranded on rooftops crying for help or jammed into dangerous and dirty places waiting for help to arrive. And the pictures may get worse as countless bodies are brought out of New Orleans. Even Homeland Security Director, Michael Chertoff, is warning that it will be horrible and gruesome. Clearly, a very high percentage of those bodies will be poor, black, elderly, and even children. The public anger may grow.

As a direct result of Katrina and its aftermath, and for the first time in many years, the media are reporting on poverty, telling Americans that New Orleans had an overall poverty rate of 28% (84% of them African-American), and a child poverty rate of almost 50% - half of all the city's children (rates only a little higher than other major cities and actually a little lower than some others). Ironically (and some might say providentially) the annual U. S. Census poverty report came out during the Hurricane's deadly assault showing that poverty had risen for the fourth straight year with 37 million Americans stuck below the poverty line - and they were the ones most stuck in New Orleans.

Katrina has revealed what was already there in America; an invisible and mostly silent poverty that we have chosen not to talk about, let alone to take responsibility for in the richest nation on earth. This week, we all saw it; and so did the rest of the world. And it made Americans feel both compassionate and ashamed. Many political leaders and commentators, across the ideological spectrum, have acknowledged the national tragedy, not just of the horrendous storm, but of the realities the flood waters have exposed. And some have suggested that if the aftermath of Katrina finally leads the nation to demand solutions to the poverty of upwards of a third of its citizens then something good might come from this terrible disaster.

That is what we must all work toward. Rescuing those still in danger, assisting those in dire need, relocating and caring for the homeless, and beginning the process of recovery and re-building are all top priorities. But dealing with the stark and shameful social and racial realities Katrina has revealed must become our longer term but clear goal. That will require a combination of public and private initiatives, the merger of personal and social responsibility, the rebuilding of both families and communities, but also the confronting of hard questions about national priorities. Most of all it will require us to make different choices.

The critical needs of poor and low-income families must become the first priority of federal and state legislatures, not the last. And, the blatant inequalities of race in America, especially in critical areas of education, jobs, health care, and housing which have come to the surface must now be addressed. Congressional pork barrel spending which aligns with political power more than human needs must be challenged as never before.That requires a complete reversal of the political logic now operating in Washington and state capitols around the country - a new moral logic must re-shape our political habits. In the face of this natural disaster, during a time of war, with already rising deficits; new budgets cuts to vital programs like food stamps and Medicaid, and more tax cuts for the wealthy in the form of estate tax repeal and capital gains and stock dividend reductions, would now be both irresponsible and shameless.

Restoring the hope of America's poorest families, renewing our national infrastructures, protecting our environmental stability, and rethinking our most basic priorities will require nothing less than a national change of heart and direction. It calls for a transformation of political ethics and governance; moving from serving private interests to ensuring the public good. If Katrina changes our political conscience and re-invigorates among us a commitment to the common good, then even this terrible tragedy might be redeemed.
***
(Re-printed without permission from the Sojo.net daily e-newsletter)

What's Wrong With This Picture?

What's Wrong With This Picture? by Keith Giles

Seventy percent of the world’s wealth is in the hands of those who call themselves Christians. Out of this, only three percent is tithed to the church and less than this is given in support of missions.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Dallas Willard had a great perspective on this issue. He said, “You can’t separate the belief from the action. That’s the illusion–the idea that you can be all right on the inside and not act it out–and it has affected us in many ways. That’s a part of the idea that professing is enough.We have churches full of people who profess all kinds of stuff that they don’t believe. They think that by professing it they’re doing something good. Really, they’re just deluding themselves. In the area of social righteousness we cannot be right on the inside and not do it. We cannot! Of course we have people who pretend that they can, but it simply isn’t true. If we are right on the inside, we will address these issues straight-forwardly and take a stand on them, and, if necessary, die for them. We will be that committed.” –(from “Renovation Of The Heart”)

Where have we gone wrong? Where have we misunderstood what Christ redeemed us for? More importantly, how can we get back to a true, authentic form of Christianity that involves more than just professing a belief, moving into actually living it out?

A friend recently brought to my attention that Lot, although a godly man, was comfortable in Sodom. Even as God was ready to strike down this city for its vile practices, Lot was drawn to the allure of this place. The hearts of Lot and his family had been colored by their time in this land. How can we not see that we too have grown enamored with the world we live in?

Ezekiel 16:49 says that Sodom was “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” We always look at Sodom and Gomorah as cities of homosexual perversion, but it cannot be ignored that God’s word condemns them just as much for their indifference to the poor as to their sexual practice.

Are we comfortable in Sodom? Have we forgotten that “Friendship with the world is to be the enemy of God?”- (James 4:4)

Jesus was always trying to get his disciples to have the right perspective on things. He urged them to “seek first the Kingdom of God” because He knew that this was where all of us would spend eternity.

It’s why he tells us “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” because He knew that our perspective should be more about the Kingdom of God than the cares of this world.
One day each of us, you included, will stand in the physical presence of Jesus. This life will be over and our time in Eternity will begin. At that point each of us, you included, will look back on this life and regret the way we lived.

At that point, we will realize that all the time we wasted in pursuit of cars and clothes and status was a complete waste. We’ll realize that we squandered endless hours of our precious time on television and other empty distraction. We will see that Jesus gave us each an incredible potential to have an eternal impact on the Kingdom of God, and we blew it.

Jesus is urging us to take a step back, get an eternal perspective of our lives, and seek first His Kingdom. He doesn’t want us to blow it.

The great nineteenth-century evangelist Charles G. Finney warned believers in his day that God requires us to surrender to Him the ownership of everything. He contended that a Christian must never consider anything as being “owned” by them. Finney even went as far as to suggest that "young converts should be taught that they have renounced the ownership of all their possessions, and of themselves, or if they have not done this they are not Christians”.

I don’t know about you, but I need to get a fresh dose of this Kingdom perspective every single day. I need to take my eyes off the problems and concerns of my little life and start trusting that God has it all under control. There are only a few more days, maybe hours, left in my life before I enter into the actual, physical presence of Jesus. I want to be able to look back on this time I’ve been given without any regret for how I spent my life.

John Wimber once said that we’re all pocket change in God’s hand. He can spend us in any way He chooses, as long as we surrender ourselves to His control.

I’m ready to be spent.

-Keith Giles

DREAMERS BY KEITH GILES

Recently, I was confronted with the sad reality that we Christians are no different than those in the world around us. I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised, really. I mean, we eat the same foods, we wear the same clothes, go to the same movies, we are prone to the same sins.

I suppose I just hoped for more. Unrealistic? Maybe. But, I guess I’m still a bit of a dreamer.

You’ve heard it before. When an unbeliever first comes to the saving knowledge of Christ, they are all excited and “on fire”. How long is it before someone says, “Oh, give him or her a few months and they’ll get over it. You can’t keep that up forever.” Maybe it was you who even said that. Or if not, I’m sure you at least thought it.

Why do we encourage those who are babes in Christ to calm down and join the rank and file of the “frozen chosen”? Is it because they make us look like we’re not as happy as we should be? As we wish we were?

Imagine, instead, a world where we didn’t have to lose that excitement, a world where every second of every day we were close to tears when we considered our own sin. A world where every single Christian actually loved every person they met, and even went out of their way to show that same love and forgiveness that Christ had shown them.

I imagine that, in a world like this, that those who were unbelievers might even take notice. They might even be touched by such sincere love and generosity. They might even be curious about what was making these people behave in such an unorthodox manner.

On a grander scale, such a great display of love and forgiveness might even turn into the latest nightly news topic. I can almost see it now:

Local news helicopters hovering over a crowded interstate, wreckage strewn across the shoulder at the scene of a horrific pile-up…and there, over in the corner of your TV screen…why, it’s one of those Christians again!

It looks as if he’s risking his life to save that person in the burning car…and in other news, more Christians converged on an orphanage downtown to give homes to hundreds of lonely children…and the local Hospitals and Nursing Homes have had to extend visiting hours to make room for all of the believers who have crowded the hallways to visit the sick and the dying,

I suppose I am just a dreamer, after all. Because my local news doesn’t look like that. I imagine yours doesn’t either.

But I guess it’s just as well, I mean, who would expect us to live such an extravagant life of giving and love? Can you think of anyone who would actually expect us Christians to really act like that?

I’ve always been challenged by Jesus command in Luke 6:27. You know, it’s the verse where he tells his followers, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” (NIV)

Those are potent words. They are challenging. They are impossible words.

But, Jesus asks us to do the impossible for a reason. He goes on to say,

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:32- NIV)

Jesus actually expects his disciples to do the impossible:
To love in the face of hate.
To give even to those who steal from them.
To stand silent, even when attacked.
To do good, even to those who delight in doing evil.

Jesus asks us to give to everyone who asks. Without qualification.

Jesus expects us to chase after the guy who just stole our television just so we can let him know, “Hey, you forgot the DVD player!”

Why does Jesus ask us to do these unbelievable things? Because we’re supposed to be “called out” and “set apart” from the rest of the world. (This is the meaning of Sanctification).

But, this “being separate” isn’t so that we can look down on others. It’s not because “We’re Special”.

It’s actually so that we can show those who aren’t aware of the kindness of God what it really means to be loved, forgiven and shown mercy.

Yes, Jesus expects us to actually do these things.

Yes, it will hurt.

Yes, this is how the lost can know that God loves them, Christianity is the “real thing” and forgiveness is for them.

There’s nothing remarkable about the kind of love that the world has.

The purpose of suffering in this way is so that we can demonstrate the true, life-changing love of Christ to the world.

Imagine a world where we all actually did this stuff on a daily basis.

Would it change the world?

Would it change the world’s idea of Christianity? Of Christ?

Would it set the teachings of Jesus apart from every single other religious figure who had ever lived?

I find it amazing that the most radical thing a modern Christian could possibly do today is to simply do exactly what Jesus tells us to do in Luke 6:26.

How often do we pray for those who hate the church? Jesus view of love is somehow radically different from the culture's view of love. This kind of love involves denying oneself to the point of being continually exposed to abuse.

Jesus expected us to love with a purpose. To change the world with love.

So, my dearest wish for you, and for myself, is that we might all have the worst week of our lives. That we might start to see our difficulties as opportunities to show the world what real love is really all about.

I am a dreamer. Maybe you’re a dreamer too. Maybe it’s time that more of us woke up from this dream and started to live it out in reality?

THE WAITING ROOM

I wrote this article about a year or so ago. I thought I'd post it here since my wife and I are going through a series of changes these days and we find ourselves once again before God in the "Waiting Room" of discovering His will for our lives.

Enjoy!

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THE WAITING ROOM by Keith Giles


I’ve been part of a new church-plant in my home community now for just over a year now. To be honest, I’ve now become fully convinced that the last thing the world needs is another church.

In fact, I’m convinced that the last thing the world needs is another sermon, or another worship song, or another column about Christian living, for that matter.

Pick up the phone book and you’ll no doubt see a plethora of Christian Churches in your own area code alone. We do not need another Church on the street corner.

We have more than enough Churches and we have more than enough sermons on tape and on mp3 and the Internet to keep us all busy listening for eons to come.

What the world needs now is not another sermon.

If you attend church in any semi-regular fashion, you’ve no doubt noticed a very real, and very visible, mystique surrounding the modern church today.

You know what I’m talking about. I call it, “The Drive-Thru Church” mentality.

You show up on Sunday, drop off your kids to someone else for a few hours, get your coffee and your donut and sing some songs, listen to a speech, maybe even get some prayer, and then go home and live your life any old way you please.

That Drive-Thru Christianity is certainly not the sort of thing that we need any more of.

Be honest, if you wanted a church like that, you could walk out your front door and find one in less than fifteen minutes.

But, I still have a sense that God is birthing a new thing in our culture. It feels to me that a hunger is building in our world for something that is real and true and life-changing. At least, that’s what I feel that God is doing in my own community.

Still, sometimes I get the feeling that we’re all still waiting to see what it is that God is going to do?

Do you find yourself asking God, “What are you waiting for?” “Why is this taking so long?” “What is it you’re going to do?”

As I’ve been contemplating this, I’m reminded how Jesus was followed by large crowds of curiosity-seekers that he frequently attempted to thin out and even get away from whenever possible.

I think a large portion of those who participate in Drive-Thru Christianity today are these sorts of Christians. They come to church for various reasons, but they’re not serious about following Christ.

There’s the tendency, in America especially, to think that all that’s necessary to be a Christian is to accept, in their minds, that Christ died for their sins, pray a prayer and then, BOOM, they’re saved and the rest of their life is theirs to do with as they wish.

But, if you look at 1 Corinthians 6:19 you’ll find that the opposite is true. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” (NIV)

You and I, if we’re truly SURRENDERED to Christ, no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in us.

I mean, think about that word, “surrendered”. Do you feel like you’re living a “surrendered life”? Do you feel like Christ lives vicariously through you?

Let’s think about this for a minute.

Why would Jesus, leave the splendor of Heaven, be born in a smelly barn, grow up in comparative poverty, live a perfect life, allow himself to be beaten, mocked, whipped, crucified on a Roman Cross, rise from the dead three days later, ascend into Heaven and then come to LIVE IN YOU just so you could sit on the couch and watch T.V.?

Do you die to yourself so that Christ can live in you and just come to Church once a week and get entertained?

Does that make any kind of sense to you? To anyone?

No, if Christ did all these things, with the aim of COMING TO LIVE WITHIN YOUR LIFE, then it was for a specific reason.

And, yes, it does involve WORK.

We’ve got it into our heads somehow that works are something bad.

Now, I’m not saying we’re saved by our works. A good analogy that I’ve always used to illustrate the difference between doing works because you’re a follower of Christ and doing works to be accepted by Christ is this. “SWIMMING WON’T MAKE YOU A FISH, BUT IF YOU’RE A FISH, YOU WILL SWIM!”

This isn’t about Salvation, it’s about the Christian Life.

The Christian Life involves action.

If there’s anything that this world needs to see today, it’s Christians who are Spirit-Filled, Spirit-Lead, Spirit-Empowered and who are in action!

People who put their money where their mouth is.

No more sermons. No more talk. But, real, honest, service.

BUT…WHAT ABOUT GRACE?

According to Ephesians 2:4-10, we’re “saved by Grace, not by works”, but we’re also “created to do good works prepared in advance by God.” The same verse that tells us we’re saved by doing nothing also says that we were created for doing good works as a natural response to that salvation.

So, my point is. Many of us who feel that God is about to do something awesome in our midst need to take a step back and think about all of this.

I believe that God is the one who is sitting and waiting for you and I. He’s the one who is asking, “I wonder what they’re going to do?”

I want to encourage all of us, even if you have what you believe to be a small talent, do not let it go to waste. Use your gifts and your talents for the Kingdom of God. This is where you grow, where you learn to take part in the Body Of Christ.

You are necessary. You count.

The rest of the Body of Christ needs you.

God’s entire plan for His Church is to give each of us different gifts so that we need each other, help each other and love each other.

I sincerely believe that God will do an awesome thing in this day, but it will only be when we totally surrender to Him, put our gifts and our talents at His disposal and totally abandon ourselves to serving Him and encourage one another on to do good works in the name of Christ Jesus.

And I believe that’s what God is waiting to see us do.

What are you waiting for?

by Keith Giles.

Keith Giles is one of the pastors of a new church plant in Tustin, California called The River. He is currently writing a book about his time in the wilderness, as well as putting together several subversive projects designed to impact the culture for Christ. You can check out one of these at: WWW.PARABOLICJOURNAL.COM