Hey Ethan, What are you Learning about Evangelism?

I asked my friend Ethan to tell me what he's learning at Urbana about reaching out to others.

What Am I Learning at Urbana?

Here's my friend Ethan who came down to Urbana with me. Pray for us as we wrap up the convention today. We'll be partying it up tonight right up to our midnight communion service.

Incarnational Mission at Urbana 2009

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Urbana 2009 Theme: He came and dwelt among us! I'll be posting some videos of folks here at Urbana with me from Omaha. Check the posts below on session speakers.

Dude! Take a hammer to your evil I-Pod!

Shane Claiborne was the other session speaker last night at Urbana. If you aren't familiar with Shane...dude...you've gotta give him a listen. He's got a message about God's love, living simply and doing mission that is a breath of fresh air. His message:

If you can't give your stuff away to live in greater simplicity, then you don't own your stuff... your stuff owns you and limits your freedom to serve Jesus. "If you can't part with your i-pod...maybe the roles are reversed and the i-pod is really the owner and you are in its possession!

Ouch. I just got my first I-pod this Christmas, Shane, are you sure about that?

Check out Shane's ministry The Simple Way, and go find a hammer!

Quick, Clinical, Easy.... NOT

I've been to a number of Urbana Missions Conventions. Well… let's put it this way…8 of them to be exact! I’ve listened to a lot of speakers and lots and lots of expositions. I would have to say that it's been a while since I've heard someone like Oscar.

Oscar Muriu is pastor of Nairobi Chapel in Kenya. And Oscar can bring it! He made a stirring case for incarnational mission in tonight's plenary session which included a strong emphasis on dealing with money and possessions in the pursuit of the global mission of the church. Conference director Jim Tebbe led 16,000 students in a challenge to give $63 each so that a 1.0 million dollar gift can be given from the students at Urbana 2009. Back to Oscar...

“If I were God, I would not have taken so long to get around to the mission of saving the world.”

Oscar’s point was that all the time Jesus was living in humility among people and our dysfunctional ways, he was learning obedience and the ability to relate to our lostness. God’s way was slow. Gracious. Incarnational. Not Quick...Clinical...Easy.

In coming to earth to do the Father’s mission, says Oscar, Jesus walked through 4 doorways Christ followers today must be willing to adapt in our mission strategies:

Door One: From Pride to Humility – Christ did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but gave up his status. We have to set aside our “Christian pride” in order to reach out in authencity.

Door Two: From Power to Powerlessness – Jesus did not assert all the power he had available to him – he entered earth in a family that knew poverty and at points homelessness! Our mission is not driven by power.

Door Three: From Privilege to Poverty – The disciples Jesus sent out in mission were to take nothing with them and even dare to live a life of interdependence with those they were sent to minister to (Mark 10). People don’t need us and all our stuff…they need Jesus and they need us to show him to them.

Door Four: From the Harmony and Beauty of Heaven to the Brokenness and Dysfunction of Earth. Jesus set aside unimaginable glory in the presence of the Father to live in the world our hands have scarred and abused. Christians need to be willing to stay engaged in a broken world and not use our faith as a form of escapism.

How Do You Find a Spiritual Hero?

"Joy and suffering are completely compatible. Joy and bitterness are not. When you do God's will, his way, you will never lack his provision."

It's a blast worshipping God in the house with 17,000 other people! Even better is sitting next to Ethan, one of our new Christian Chinese scholars singing his lungs out to Jesus with the rest. I love watching this guy grow! I got to see Ethan baptized just a few weeks ago at Christ Community. Tonight I got to sit next to him as we listened to Patrick Fung. Patrick tells his story about leaving his dreams for practicing medicine in home country of China, to be a medical missionary in Pakistan. He and his wife (both physicians) decided to save several years of their earnings and gave it to their parents as a way of honoring them.

Ethan is a medical researcher here from China working on post-doctoral research at UNMC. I can tell by sitting next to him, that Patrick's message of willingness to risk and bold faith in God's provision is striking a chord in Ethan. Ethan is getting to see a real giant of faith in Patrick Fung - someone who shares his culture and medical background. Someone who took courageous steps to give his medicine to the mission of Jesus. Pray for Ethan. Pray for Li Qian. Pray for Phil and Kaytie and Lydia and Mackinzie. God is stirring the hearts of these talented, young lives. Pray that God will fill them with vision and passion for his kingdom. Pray that this week will be a pivot point in the direction of their lives.

Check out Patrick Fung's bio on the Urbana web-site.

Urbana 2009!

Just landed at the end of a mile-long registration line and thought I'd swat out a quick blog-post. 7 of us from Christ Community Church will be experiencing InterVarsity's Triennial missions convention called Urbana.

Check out this link to see what Urbana is all about. 18,000 delegates spending a week together in scripture, worship and the world mission of the church. I'll try to post things as we go through the week. Watch for media tabs on the Urbana page and try to catch some of the sessions on-line. I'll send you a link for that if I find it.

I've got to get to the main session here in a minute!

PS - I'm also having a great time connecting with my staff comrades of 19 years! Familiar faces everywhere!

Jesus Class is Coming!

Let me give you 111 reasons I'm stoked about Jesus Class.

For starters there are exactly 100 people who attended last weekend's Case for Christmas who indicated on their follow-up card they are interested in The Jesus Class. This week we're busily making connections with them and helping them get signed up.

Second of all I'm thrilled with the fact that there are 10 Jesus Class teachers currently meeting and getting ready to teach TJC (The Jesus Class) starting Jan 10th. Each venuue, 9am at Old Mill, 10:45 at Old Mill and 10:45 at Sarpy, will have more than one teacher during the 8 week TJC experience.

Last... and most thrilling, TJC offers 1 fascinating subject: the life, teachings and actions of Jesus. See some of my previous Jesus Class posts. Here's more info on what its all about:

TJC - The Biography of Jesus According to the Gospel of Mark

An Eight-Week experience looking at the life and teachings of Jesus. Class participants will read Mark's account of Jesus in manuscript format.

Class time will be divided between small group interaction and whole group dialogue with the class teacher. There will be lots of opportunity for question and answer each week. Seekers, people new in their faith and life-long followers of Jesus will all enjoy the interaction.

Participants will receive a complete, 3-ring bound manuscript of Mark's gospel, informative handouts and a package of color pencils! Homework assignments and personal application will stimulate learning outside the classroom.

There will be a $10 fee for materials – pay when you show up at class!


Hit this link to register for TJC.

Eye-witness, Early, Earmarks

What a great weekend at CCC with Lee Strobel! Here's a few stats from the weekend you might find interesting and encouraging.

Lee Strobel: The Case for Christmas

7 services starting with over 800 people on Saturday night... and ending with 220 people at Gathering Sunday afternoon!
Total weekend attendance 4,625
119 people indicating that they prayed with lee to receive Christ.
Nearly 100 people interested in the Jesus Class! See my next post on that...

I love how concisely Lee can package his message. Here's the quick take if you missed it. Also, catch Lee's talk on our media page.

Are you a shepherd or a wise-man in your approach to the Christ child? The shepherds "when and investigated everything when they heard the news." This was Lee Strobel's experience as he investigated his way out of his atheism into the arms of Jesus. The wise-men where those already convinced of the significance of Jesus - showing up already prepared to shower Jesus with gifts and praise.

Three Es...

1- Eye-witness evidence points to the credibility of an event. The consistency of the eye-witness reports of the life, teachings, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus holds up to rigorous scrutiny.

2- The historical evidence of Jesus' life originates via the gospel writings. The gospel records we have available to us in manuscript form are amazingly consistent with each other and date to a time relatively near the events they report.

3- The ear-marks of authenticity point to the credibility of the New Testament documents. When one considers "the criterion of embarrassment" the New Testament documents themselves don't seem like legendary hype invented to propagate a new religious movement. They contain the fingerprints of real human characters doing things that are recording in all their rustic details (warts and all) and not at all like a myth with idealized characters.

Give Lee's talk a listen and swat the link on to a friend you think would find it interesting. Consider checking out the biographical evidence we find in the New Testament for yourself by grabbing a Bible and reading Mark's Gospel.