Viral Faith

The Great Giveaway I was explaining to a co-worker that generosity is part of the character of God. God, as part of His essence, is generous. When you think about the great themes of the Bible, you can clearly see His generosity overflowing. Throughout scripture there is a push from God that the people who are to reflect His person and image, are to be generous with others. However, when we look at the American Church by analyzing its behaviors, we begin to see that those who idenitify themselves as Christians are not very generous (Rodney Starks, What America Believes). We tend to give of our income, time, and resources in ways that approaches those who are outside the church. Why is that? I think it stems from living in a consumeristic environment where we measure everything by "what does this do for me". In fact, most of us still measure our church attendance that way (The church is a community of people called together to carry out the mission of Jesus; its not real...

Seeds of Grace 2 Corinthians 4:1-2 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, (NASB) In God's economy, our weakness reveals His strength, our shame reveals His grace, and what we understand as the trash of our lives, God sees as treasure. It is interesting that God's movements seem to pick up steam when His people are most broken. The Apostle Paul understood that our ministry and service to others is a reflection of the mercy that we have received. I do not mean that in the generic sense in which all of our talents are a manifestations of the generosity of God. What I mean, and what I believe the Apostle meant, was that God ministers most powerfully through the means of grace in which we have experienced and tasted. As we continue to follow the Spirit of God to develop a movement that impacts and influence our glocal community, I see seeds of grace that demonstrate that God's power is made perfect in our weakness and that His l...

Speaking the same Language I have a confession. I love the church. I love reading about church, thinking about church, and dreaming about the church. It consumes me most of the time. As I was thinking about church I began to realize that when people speak about "church", we are often speaking about different things. I recently had a conversation with a pastor in which I realized that we were talking about two different things. He was talking about overseeing buildings, and I was talking about people and purposes. Not that building maintenance is not important, but that it often eclipses the "main thing" which is Jesus Christ moving in and through people who are completed devoted to him. Biblically speaking, the church represents communities of disciples of Jesus Christ who fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ to bless/redeem/heal our broken world. It is not buildings, traditions, or a collection of creeds and doctrines. It is this special community of discip...

Leading for Growth and Movement New Hope is in a wonderful place right now. Lives are being transformed by the love of God in amazing ways. Its a privilege to behold and an honor to be part of a movement of God. As the lead Pastor, you have probably heard me speak of being a "movement" many times. About two weeks ago, Pastor Louis Colon of Heart and Soul Church in Rochester, asked me about this term, "movements". I shared with him that as I labor in prayer for New Hope (its members, its ministries, and its mission) and God's presence and power in Rochester, God continually impresses upon my heart that He desires New Hope to be a movement that fulfills the mission of Jesus to bless the world. A movement is: A Collective, sustained challenge to the status quo (the predominant culture and beliefs) I believe that God desires that we begin to be a movement or a catalyst of change for the Rochester community. Our movement is centered around the person of Jesus ...