March « 2007 « Godgrown

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Mark 3:25 pm on March 29, 2007 Permalink | Reply

A Church Planting Movement

Humans love putting labels on what God is doing. That isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just sorta funny to see it happen sometimes. The big phrase these days is “house church” and “church planting movements”. Neither of these terms are in the Bible, but similar ideas like “the church that meets in your house” and “a gracious outpouring of God’s Spirit” are all over the book of Acts describing similar phenomenon.

Below is an exciting video describing the realities of our world today. While the vocabulary words, music, and narration are kinda corny, I think it introduces people to the ideas that I’m wrestling with in my prayers and studies in just about a straightforward way as possible. In many ways, this video describes the kind of work of God that I am praying regularly about for the people of Abilene and Chicago. What would happen if a sweeping spirit of renewal hit our land? Only God knows.

Will you partner with me in praying for this? — Father, I pray that you will heal our land and bring your Spirit to every person, giving them the joy they need to live a life that matters. I pray for an unleashing of a tidal wave of workers that are sent out into your harvest, and for myriad churches to be planted and countless lives transformed by the Good News!

I love that I will not have to take charge of all that mission work! I love that people across the globe – regular, run-o-the-mill CHILDREN OF GOD have the capacity to join Father in such amazing ways! My job will/is like a “missions coordinator” simply helping along what is already taking place naturally…setting up the tee so they can take the drive. I want so badly to see God take back what is rightfully his, and this seems to be a major way he is doing that in our day.

Don Fanning 9:52 pm on March 29, 2007 Permalink

Excellent video. How can I get it to show in classes and put on our web site.

Dr Don Fanning
Liberty University.
Mark 10:46 pm on March 29, 2007 Permalink

Dr. Fanning,

My apologies for not putting the info directly into my post. (D’oh!)

Head to http://www.churchplantingmovements.com/

Here you will find David Garrison’s book “Church Planting Movements” that I have read and recommend to anyone even remotely interested in what God is doing around the world, and how we might join him in what he’s up to. On this main page you’ll also find a free downloadable e-booklet that gives the gist of the book in only a few pages.

You’ll also find the movie at http://www.blip.tv/file/149518/ or you can order the DVD to play online through the CPM website shown above.

Don, tell me a bit about yourself and what you teach at LU!

Mark 10:52 am on March 28, 2007 Permalink | Reply
Psalm Twenty-Three

I was reading Psalm 23 in the Hebrew, and as I began to dig into some of the words, I was amazed at what I found. I’m still not sure on some of the phrases (“my owl is full?”). But I am convinced that this Psalm has a lot more to say to my life right now than most of its English counterparts. Be blessed:

Psalm 23 – A Psalm for David.

The LORD is my shepherd; I am never lacking anything.

He causes me to lie down in green spaces; he brings me upon a place of quiet waters.

He brings back my soul. He guides me in tracks of justice, for the sake of his name.

Even as I walk into the valley of the death-shadow, I will not fear evil, because you are with me.

Your family and your (holistic) support they comfort me.

You arrange in the presence of my enemies a Table; you have anointed my head in oil, my cup is saturated. (or…my owl is full?)

Only a good and loving loyalty will pursue me all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever and ever.
miller, Mark, and Agent wife are discussing. Toggle Comments
- Agent wife 11:03 pm on March 28, 2007 Permalink
  
  wow- thanks for sharing. I like the part about him bringing back my soul and guiding me in tracks of justice and Him being with me. Awesome.
  
  Also, I’m interested in the story technique of sharing you had mentioned briefly. Is there a post coming about it?
- Mark 7:53 am on March 29, 2007 Permalink
  
  Thanks Agent Wife! Yeah, I should make it a point to get on about the “storying” post. I think that storying is going to be a critical way we relate God’s Word to each other in the coming years – especially among the poor, the a-literate, and the over-media-ized (poor in spirit).
  
  A few updates to my translation since talking with my Hebrew professor:
  
  “Tracks of justice” could also be seen as “the trust-worthy entrenchments” – God as our shepherd will only take us down roads that he knows won’t lead us to danger.
  
  “Valley of the death-shadow” – “gloomy valley” or “gross-darkness shadow” the low part of the mountain where raiders or wolves might be stationed.
  
  “for ever and ever” = “for the rest of my days” small point, but it might make a big difference to know that Hebrews had no concept of eternal living with God in heaven.
- miller 10:11 am on March 29, 2007 Permalink
  
  mark,
  
  great work! i particularly like the part about the green spaces…
  
  kinda resonates in my heart
  
  peace
Mark 8:52 am on March 26, 2007 Permalink | Reply
Tags: Secret Agents (2)
My Kick-Butt Ninja Weekend…of Prayer

Great times over the weekend.

Friday night was the big night – TMNT came out in theaters!!! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were an epicenter in my growing up years, and for the last several years they have been a means of deep, meaningful, personal reflection…and kick-butt ninja action!

The flick was CGI, so you felt like the 5th turtle as you watched mutant turtles with bulging muscles swinging and flipping across NYC’s skyline. The story was all about how after the Turtles defeated the Shredder, they couldn’t find a real reason to stay a family – so they begin to drift apart. What unites them is learning to appreciate each other’s unique strengths, rather than using each other to defeat evil. An interdependent team of 4 rather than a 4 person (turtle) team. Sounds a lot like Ephesians 4! (What’s with the four’s in this post?)

So in honor of the ninja turtles, me, my bro, and some others dressed up in ninja turtle garb and ran into the movie theater, with ninja kicks and “hi-ya!”s. When all the kids saw us, they literally flipped out, especially the younger ones. Some actually thought we were REAL ninja turtles, and one asked me if I liked pizza. We had a pre-show ninja fight, which got us really pumped up for the flick – and got the kids screaming with delight. I’m sure the parents loved us…

Saturday was our second ACU “Discover Abilene” day. Its basically a day of missional prayer, where students and anyone else interested head out all over town to “see what God is already doing” in our city. We sent them out in 28 groups of 2, and gave each a certain zone to pray over. Agent B apparently saw one of these groups take a picture of Obi Wan’s house, which is just goes to show that God truly is placing “workers (or secret agents) in his harvest field” (Luke 10:2).

As we discussed on Saturday, its not that there isn’t enough work to be done, its just that there aren’t enough harvesters!

Trina and I went down to an area with a lot of retail and coffee shops, as well as a lot of post WWII houses and a new uppity neighborhood with huge lawns and sparkling cars. Among houses, we saw old-run-downs next to old-but-maintained, with huge mansions-with-corvettes just a couple of blocks away. It made me wonder what all these people could really have in common.

At one of the coffee shops we visited, there is a fountain that is usually turned off. What good is a well that has no water? Trina and I discovered that part of our job as missionaries is to find those wells that don’t have any water, and to help those at these dry wells learn how to retrieve it.

Christ is the living water – and people dig down to find a distorted version of that life at coffee shops or mini malls, or sometimes at church buildings or lots of other places people gather. But entertainment and coffee is not the deepest, most satisfying aquifer we can find. Missionaries call on people to dig deeper at their wells; to discover the living water that awaits them – that lives within them!
Mark, and Agent B are discussing. Toggle Comments
- Agent B 6:38 am on March 27, 2007 Permalink
  
  For the record…it was Agent Wife who saw folks photographing Obi-Wan’s house. I was working in Jones Co. But the 2 become 1, I guess.
  
  And yea, old cruddy houses mixed in with mansions…
  
  Before I live where I do now, we lived in and around Highland coc for 5 years and walked all over that neighborhood. Once there was literally a run-down shack inhabited by homeless folks located ONE block away from Sayles Private Drive (700 block of Sayles) where the houses are worth over half a million $. Weird.
  
  The shack has since been bulldozed…
  
  …and I heard about your TMNT gig. Funny.
- Mark 6:47 am on March 27, 2007 Permalink
  
  So I am inclined to say that this whole gentrification thing is BAD NEWS for the poor – that the rich setting up shop just blocks away from lower-income housing would only bring more injustice to the underprivileged… but I could be missing something.
  
  Could there be something God is trying to do in the midst all this rich-people-tearing-down-impoverished-homes-to-build-mansions (gentrification)? I’m just postulating; could the rich be moving in mere feet away from our nation’s poorest “for such a time as this”?
  
  I’m just trying to imagine how God is going to use this situation for his glory. Any ideas?