Keep It Simple Stupid!

Yes, you did hear me correctly. I said it correctly, Sometimes we are just too stupid for simplicity. Unfortunatly I think we have made the life of Christ, the life we Christians are supposed to live soooo complicated.
A friend reminded me yesterday of this verse from the Bible: "the Lord has told you what is good,and this is what he requires of you:to do what is right, to love mercy,and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
KISS! keep it simple stupid! I think it is kind of profound how we catagorize our lives of faith and put levels on our spirituality. Jesus said all of the law and the prophets can be summed up in this "Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lordyour God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'(Matt 22:37-40)
Why don't we just start right here and live this first, before anything else?
So I pose this question: can Christianity be reduced to such simplicity?

What do you think?

Soccer Again

Well it's another Saturday, time for a full day at the soccer fields spent coaching, cheering, hollering at refs and praying I dont loose my Christianity in front of the kids (or the Adults who think I'm perfect :)... good thing there are none of those present!)
In coaching soccer one of the things I focus on is the ability to recognize the weaknesses in our teammates so we can assist them in their weakness and make the "team" stronger. I wonder if Christians spent less time worrying about what their spiritual appearance was, and more time living real while looking for ways to serve others in their area of weakness if the whole community of faith would become stronger and more vibrant?
I'm guessing thats why God said in His word to Samual that God doesnt see things like man see's things, man judges the outward appearance (i.e. do we look holy enough to the other people who are trying to look holy) while God judges our hearts.
I pray we get this heart thing down soon so we can give up the nonsense of our pious religion and begin to start impacting people's lives through the grace and empowerment of God...in our weakness!

To quote from O'Rielly: "What say you?"

Bob's House Fire

For anyone interested in seeing the damage done to Bob and Michelle's house the pictures can be viewed here: Bob Carder – pictures after the fire

Please continue to pray for Bob and Michelle as they struggle through the next few months. They have lost everything. Again if you would like to help with some of their needs email us at centerpointediscipleship@comcast.net

Wedded Bliss

It is March 20th, the day that 14 years ago I watched as my beautiful Bride strolled down the isle of a small church to take my hand. I remember back to how, on the first day I saw her I knew in my heart that this beauty would be my bride... She however was not that easily convinced. I thank God every day that she heard in her heart that He wanted us together. Wedded Bliss? Hardly! Marraige is always a work in progress, and we have had our days of work till we sweat to make it. Still I wake to find her, always by my side, always beautiful, and thankfully: Always my beautiful Bride.

Thank you Liela for your faithfulness all these years. You will forever be my beautiful bride!

Carl Van Vliet

Fire

Bob and Michelle Carder have suffered a house fire. Michelle is unharmed but Bob is in the Hospital in St. Louis.

For those of you who dont know who Bob is he is someone Liela and I call a our friend, he serves the Lord through the Missionary Church USA denomination, a former Senior Pastor now he is responsible for missional church development in the midwest district (I have no clue what his title is) and he has been helping Liela and I hash through some of our issues with church and help us as we develop what God is doing here in Independence. He often comments here on this site and always trys to encourage everyone to find their real mission in life.

Bob was trying to get his motorcycle ready for spring and started it in the garage. He then went inside and a neighbor came over yelling that his garage was on fire. Bob grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the fire. In the process he suffered burns to his left arm, shoulder, and head. Most are 2nd degree with a couple of spots that are 3rd degree. He said he barely got out in time. The house is heavily damaged.

This is a very traumatic time for the Carders and they will have many needs arise that may not be covered by insurance. If you would like to give a special gift to them you can email me at centerpointediscipleship@comcast.net
Please make it a priority to pray for them regularly and if you can help during this time please email me! if you would like to encourage the family post your comments here and we will make sure he sees them!

Where does this fit in your church?

In our traditional church model, can you tell me how your church applies this verse?
"When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you."1Corinthians 14:26

In your church service do you share how God has worked in your life this past week? Do others? Share with us how your church allows attenders to become participators in building up their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Which would you prefer: A Scalpel or a Broadsword?

I have in my Bible study of late become more and more intuned to the fact that ALL of life is a matter of the heart. Everything pertains to the heart. This is how God made us, to be creatures of the heart, to live out of the heart, to love out of the heart, to experience joy out of the heart. Our parenting, our relationship with our spouse, our relationships in our workplace. All of who we are is from our heart. In the Bible so much is spoken about how the heart dictates the flow of our lives.
Because of this understanding I have come to the realization and the questions that follow:
If the heart is key to our lives, why do we rely on a church/church event or service to help us with our hearts? You see as I look back over time and see how the church has developed I have come to realize that the church God created in the New Testament was a scalpel, and we have taken that to a broadsword. Let me explain, if you went to see a cardiologist because there was some issue with your heart, you would not allow him to do surgery with a broadsword, nor would you allow him to try to perform heart surgery on a group of 300 at one time. In the context of the New Testament God called us to be makers of disciples, and the process of making disciples is done in a much smaller context (my preference is one on one) yet we have created the atmosphere where we call everyone to a service or event, and the speaker swings a broadsword at your heart to try to help you change it, to allow God to mold it… and in the process many leave with a heart condition that cannot be healed because of the sword rather than the scalpel.
Now more programs have been added to the church to try to resolve this condition, programs like Sunday school, Small groups, Youth groups and children's groups. We have women's Bible Study and Men's Bible Study, breakfasts and brunches… well you get the idea, and these are not bad things, and for some they have helped, but for most they are ineffective. At some point two things must happen as I see it in order for this to change:
1)The church goers must in themselves realize that what they are currently receiving is not sufficient to change their heart condition in many aspects of life…(I do not mean salvation per say, but rather the WHOLE of life that God has for them) or to help them grow to the potential God has for them. This realization must lead them to a disciplemaking, disciple driven ministry, where they can connect with a disciple maker who will pour themselves into their lives.
2)The church as it sits right now needs to put down her broadsword and pick up a scalpel and begin to move away from the event focused "come here to get" ministry to a disciple generating ministry where discipleship is more important than the size/numbers of your congregation or the size/numbers of attenders on a given Sunday Morning.
Neither of these things are easy to grasp, but I know many who are struggling and are beginning to see a need for change, changes in their own lives that they are not finding answers to in the church as they attend it now.

It would be so helpful to many who are dealing with these type issues if you would share your story with us, what do you think, are you being discipled by someone? Are you discipling someone? Do you think church as it is right now is discipling you? Do you wish someone would take the time to disciple you? These are questions many are facing with no one to help them hash it out, post a comment and help someone else (maybe even yourself).

Carl Van Vliet

Community

On one of the Blog's I frequently find my self reading I found this excellent article on authentic community:

Before modern chemistry was king, there was alchemy, an ancient science that sought, among other things, to change base metals like lead into precious gold. The eighth century alchemist, Jabir Ibn Hayyan, suggested that properly rearranging the hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness of one metal would transform it into another kind of metal. Sounds silly from the viewpoint of modern science, doesn't it?
But in the 20th century, churches began attempting to engineer community in much the same way. By properly arranging location, building design, music production, speaking style, and other elements, it was thought that authentic community could be sparked into existence. Much of that belief still influences the churches we see today.

Jump over Hungry and thirsty to read the rest of this excellent article called Contrived Community:

Hungry and Thirsty

Where do you fit?

Where do you see yourself in God's plan? Is it as a spectator, perusing God's workmanship like a person peruses an art Gallery viewing and thinking "I wish I had that piece on my wall". Or is it as a character, a part or the portrait God is painting. Where people peruse how God has painted you and wish that your painting was on the wall of their life?
It is in your place in His plan that community is developed, and lives are changed. If you see yourself as a peruser rather than a participant then you miss out on much God has for your life.
Won't you join me in the participation in God's plan, or would you rather continue perusing your way through life looking and longing for what God is painting in the lives of others?

Common?

Common

There is a passage of scripture that used to give me great comfort, and in ways it still does, but these days I find it less comforting as I see it in light of a different understanding. Let me share if I may:

In the book of First Corinthians 10 and verse 13 the Bible says no temptation has seized you (come over you/grabbed hold of you) except what is common to man…(KJV) (the NLT puts it: the temptations in your life are no different than what others experience) Now I used to find that comforting, that the things in life I deal with, am tempted by, or struggle with are things that everyone else has to deal with as well. There was a connection then for me to not feel alone, someone else has been there done that and is wearing the teeshirt today after having gone through it. That thought I much enjoyed entertaining in my head. I gained even greater comfort as I dealt with things in my own life, family, and relationships by that passage as it continues that God will provide a way out from the temptation (situation).

Funny thing about that which is common to man I have found: WHAT MAY BE COMMON TO MANKIND IS CERTAINLY UNIQUE TO THE INDIVIDUAL GOING THROUGH IT! (capitalized for emphasis) The comfort for me recently has been shred by the new understanding that it matters little what someone else has gone through when I am going through it alone. It makes the situation now unique to me, the common is gone. It decreased my comfort even more to come to more of an understanding than ever before that God works through people. His primary vehicle to touch lives today is through His people. Yet still this unique thing I am going through I go through alone because the vehicle God uses to make my unique common, the vehicle God uses to provide my way of escape from is a vehicle broke down on the side of the road. I say this because we have replaced real relationships with church attendance. We see people so little in our suburban busy lives we have little time to share something that could be common,
but is now unique.

I wish that we would spend more time in peoples lives and less time in the pews, and we could very well make all our situation/temptations common as a community of faith and make them less unique to the individual going through them! And maybe then we could hold each other up and be God's answer to get through it.

What do you think?