Stranger is Babylon: What is Worship?

http://www.baylor.edu/player/index.php?id=205683&gallery_id=9367

Seeking The Welfare of the Temporary City

                My family spent a few days with Mission Arlington and Mission Metroplex this week. FBC Waco’s youth were there working with Rainbow Express.  Meredith is a volunteer in our youth ministry, I am their pastor, and we want our own kids dealt in early so we made some calendar time and went. We love Jamie McCallum and our youth.  Watching my daughter watch Tillie Burgin was a gift I’ll treasure.  It was a great experience.

                Mission Arlington is a fantastic group of humble and very normal people. They don’t try to act like angry prophets or heroes. They are joyful and loving. They take a genuine interest in the kids that come to volunteer and labor for their spiritual formation.  If you are a student worker I can’t recommend a partner in ministry more highly than Mission Arlington.

                I carried a bag full of helpful ideas away from our experience. There wasn’t anything novel about the ministry. They do ancient things well. They have fleshed out a missional lifestyle that is attractive and contagious. Tillie Burgin says more profound things accidentally than most of us pastors do on purpose. She was teaching from Hebrews on night and was focusing on God’s sturdy trustworthiness when she tossed out a reference to 13:14 – “For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” I know the context of the verse is about Jerusalem and the importance of Jesus’ death taking place outside the city but the extension of the principle was pretty amazing. Here was a lady pouring out her life for a city she was convinced had an expiration date. She, like Abraham, was looking for a city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  She seeks the welfare of a temporary city while looking toward the city illuminated by the face of Christ. This approach makes a profound difference in the way we engage the mission of God. I can think of three immediate implications:

1.       It encourages humility.

2.       It encourages hope.

3.       It encourages two winged engagement (social ministry and evangelism).

Help me think about additional implications. Email msnowden@fbcwaco.org or comment on www.brokensteeple.com

 

 

The Serve

 

I am a sports fan. My hands down favorite is baseball but I also enjoy football and college basketball.  I have some friends that are crazy about tennis.  I have a hard time sharing their enthusiasm but I am happy that it makes them happy. They seem to believe that tennis is as existentially important as baseball. Maybe they are right.

 I recently read a piece about the importance of the tennis serve that I thought was instructive. The writer said that consistence is more important than placement or power. The serve is a ritual. I know from pitching a baseball and serving a racquetball how true this is. You must do the same thing over and over and over - magnificent monotony.

Serving Christ and community requires the deep magic of ritual. We dip our fingers in the wash basin. We take up our cross. We climb on the altar – again and again and again. God’s grace empowers this because we experience the Spirit’s presence and power in the midst of the serve. The Spirit lifts the cross and washes feet because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ.  God is very Christ like.

Summer is a good time to begin or renew the Spirit fueled, Christ forming, ritual of service. Our church has sent teams to West, Texas and the Mississippi Delta. Our students will spend a week at Mission Arlington. Church members will work in various community ministries.  Pray that a lifetime rhythm of service will start with a pile of new folks. If your wash basin is dry and your cross is lying in the dust recommit to the grace of service. You will find the Spirit there.

 

Alleluia Worship Conference Baylor 2013

I am happy to be part of this worship conference and hope to see a few friends. I'm not sure I am comfortable being a clinician - will have to figure out what that means.

http://www.baylor.edu/alleluia

 

...and God spoke.

Summer Sermons at FBC Waco

What should I do now? What should I do? What shall we do tomorrow? What shall we ever do? What shall we do with ourselves this afternoon, and the day after that, and the next thirty years? F. Scott Fitzgerald scribbled down these questions in 1925. Gatsby’s world was a wasteland of shallowness. His acquaintances chased after Solomon’s wind and found themselves in Eliot’s rat’s alley. The spirit of that age is alive and well.

Men and women still pause to realize the vanity of shallow pursuits and followers of Jesus are still tempted to be squeezed into the patterns of the world. Scripture brings us back to the life of grace, life filled with the creator’s wonder, hope and purpose.

This summer we will journey through Genesis on Sunday mornings and 1 Peter on Wednesday evenings.  These biblical writings are serum against the poison of vanity. They root us in God and God’s purposes in the earth. I hope you plan on gathering with your church family this summer as we connect with God together.

Getting It Done In West

Thanks for contributing money and supplies toward the work in West, Texas. We have remained in contact with John Crowder over the past few weeks and he has told us amazing stories of God's faithfulness and the love of God's people. There will be  volunteer labor needs in West through the summer. Please consider giving some time. You can give a day, a week or more. A step everyone can make today is signing up to volunteer through the Baptist General Convention of Texas. This announcement from Curt will walk you through it. -

 

Local Mission Trip to West, TX--July 1-5, 2013--Our friends at FBC West are actively seeking volunteers for West Relief work and asking them to sign up the Texas Baptist's Disaster Relief Network.  Volunteers are needed all summer long, but FBC Waco will be helping as a church family from July 1-5.  Texas Baptists are coordinating the relief efforts, which will include everything from simple clean up to skilled labor.  Adults and children grade 6 and above are invited to help.  To participate, you must sign up in advance online at www.texasbaptists.org/west .  When you register, under location select "Add'l Volunteer Opportunities in West, TX" and enter the dates during July 1-5 when you can participate.  Cost for the week is $15, which covers required supplemental insurance.  Let Curt know if you're planning on helping! ckrushwitz@fbcwaco.org