Volunteers or co-workers

We actually pound into people that we’re not here to meet your needs but to serve the city. So we pound that into them, that we’re not a consumer place, that we’re not here to meet your needs but to serve the city. ... So no publicity, not at all hip, almost no use of technology, definitely consider it a worship service, do not do much in the way of pat answers and how-tos in the sermons but really have people wrestle with the issues—but we do it in such a way that the interests and aspirations and hopes and doubts of non-Christians are constantly addressed. Tim Keller

My dear friend Jen reintroduced me to Tim Keller after initial second-hand contact in 1989. She's radically attending his church as well as working there. I hope she likes the word radial! I've just read Jared at Gospel Driven Church who quotes an interview with Tim Keller at First Things. (Here)

I had a nice meal tonight and fun hanging out with people tonight but it was a "volunteers" night. I appreciate the appreciation and the efforts of those in leadership but perhaps a family celebration time would have been better. We come from a theology of the priesthood of all believers don't we? Perhaps this image of Geri Halliwell, Spice Girl, carrying a broken cello expresses my disquiet.

Being valued is important. But everything here comes from issues inside myself. At the moment I'm struggling with the term volunteers for those who work with me, alongside me in ministry. They are essential, they have gifts and abilities and resources I don't have. If I honour that we are trying to be a team then I need to change my understanding. I need to change my language to co-worker because I feel volunteer cheapens their commitment and role with working towards a common goal. I need to value their commentary, and ideas and God's calling in their lives. All I'm doing is giving them a focus for service.

Geri's cello is broken if you look closely at the place where the scroll should be. At the very top where the strings are close to the tuning pegs, the section is broken. The instrument in the main is intact but impossible to tune and fulfil its existence as a cello because it won't stay in tune. The head isn't where it should be!

For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. 1 Cor 3:9

The greatest

The greatest competitor churches face is recreation. The greatest obstacle churches face is comfort. Mac Richard - Common Grounds

I suspect we're all agreed about this but what's the solution? I am convinced because our vision is wrong and we are blind, our ears are plugged and we are deaf, our trust is in methods and schemes and our soul life is oriented incorrectly, we lack passion and our hearts have yet to be washed clean or purified. Whatever happened to discipleship? Living the real or authentic life.

Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ? Who may stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who do not put their trust in an idol or swear by a false god. Psalm 24:3-4

RIP

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Matt 5:3

We all have good and bad days and today was a bad news day. Somehow I went into college today when I wasn't intending to go in. Then I found out that Margaret had passed away a couple of weeks ago. She was an international student I knew from last year but she didn't return after Christmas. She was sad and depressed and struggled desperately for acceptance, which she could not feel even when it was offered. A beautiful young woman deeply disturbed, but even then I was aware of a gentleness and graciousness of spirit.

Going away to university or college can bring excitement and freedom but it can also bring disappointments, struggle, pain, even the need for acceptance. Ten hours later and I'm still stunned and really don't know what to feel. Relief that she is free or sadness she is gone. But I know Death touches us all in someway somehow all the time. But I also hate "get over it" talk because it cheapens the life that is gone. Forgetting and moving on dishonours the person and their importance to you. I think she had purity of heart within her for even then she was God's child.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matt 5:8

grace - the full potential

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. Zechariah 12:10

I get frustrated nowadays when grace is cheapened or reduced to human activity. In the season of Lent this year somehow my extra Lent disciplines have not really fallen into place. Instead a deepening understanding of grace has been emerging in having to explain many things. Grace is an expression of love - an activity of love. It is both gift itself and the giving of gift because of its source and intrinsically the recipient's undeservedness. Often characterized in Christian terms God's Rescue At Christ's Expense there is so much more. In recent discussions I have had to look again and again at Judas and Peter. From the human side we see betrayal and denial, but when we look closely we see two of the most painful responses that can be made to love itself. One step further is in seeing God's love in action and this knowing that betrayal and denial will be the responses of Judas and Peter, makes that love even larger. Even one step further on, the Love of God has for both of them the potential of forgiveness and restoration,. This makes my view of love as only divine and thus also grace.