Foot Washing Isn’t Always About Feet

Last Sunday at Refuge I preached on John 13, the foot washing and developing a servant’s heart.

Today I ran across a helpful article by Elyse Fitzpatrick that extends this idea into practical ways of service.

She writes:

You know, our feet are one of those places that, unless we’re very limber or under the age of five, we can’t really see very well. Not long ago I was taking an evening stroll with a friend on the beach. We were barefoot, and I couldn’t clearly see where I was walking. At some point I stepped on something sharp that felt like a bee sting, and by the time I got back to my car it was itchy and painful. Then, try as I might, I just couldn’t get a good glimpse of it.

Finally, when I returned home, I needed to have Phil take a look. I needed his eyes to help me see what turned out to be a little thorn that I was apparently allergic to. I don’t think it’s inconsequential that Jesus framed this discussion around our feet. We need to wash one another, to carefully probe, cleanse, disinfect, and heal each other, and this isn’t something we can see clearly enough to do on our own. We need the eyes and hands of others.

If nothing else, our souls are humbled as we experience Christ’s humility, but we are also cleansed in the process. As a biblical counselor, I can personally testify to the hundreds of times I’ve been encouraged, cleansed, convicted, and blessed when I helped someone else with their sin.

What I’m suggesting is that you look at the relationships you have with other believers in a new way. I’m hoping that you have begun to see yourself as an instrument that your Savior will use in your friends’ lives, and that you’ll begin to look for opportunities in which a friend can help you get at that painful, itchy thorn you just can’t see. Because I’m assuming that this might be new in your experience, I’m going to give you some practical suggestions about how to begin to live out gospelized fellowship.

First of all, let me encourage you to start small. Our Savior had twelve disciples, but he also had three close friends and one best friend. Start there. Start with two or three others who are willing to get together for biblical fellowship once a week or so. My guess is that you probably already do get together with your friends fairly frequently. So why not turn this visit, at least part of it, into a time of true biblical fellowship? If you’re very busy with small children or long commutes, then why not commit to talking on the phone at least once a week, with a commitment to visit in person for a couple of hours once a month?

It’s my opinion that this kind of biblical fellowship happens best in small groups that meet regularly during the month. My husband, Phil, and I presently facilitate a small group as part of our church’s communal life where we are primarily focused on speaking into each other’s lives through words of encouragement, correction, accountability, and the open confession of sin. I recognize, however, that most churches, even if they offer small group opportunities, do not structure the groups in this way. So, even if your church doesn’t presently offer this, you could still get together with your friends informally.

If you’re thinking that getting together with friends is what you’ll try to pursue, you could say something like this to them:

This is not primarily a time for us to chat. It is a time to share openly about our sins or temptations to sin, to point one another to our Savior, to speak of our graces and the way that the Lord is growing us. It’s a time for prayer and a time to ask questions about struggles mentioned in the past.

It can happen anywhere: at a coffee house, or in a home, or while taking a walk together. Biblical fellowship doesn’t mean that every single time you get together every one of the objectives must be met, but there should be given time for each and the expectation that something more than a superficial visit will be attempted.

Read the whole article here.

Who Will You Serve?

Yesterday at Refuge Church we talked about Jesus washing His disciples feet and calling us to do likewise.

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13:13-17 ESV)

How will you serve?  Though I’d encourage you to find daily ways to “wash feet”, there are occasional big ways that we can serve.  Those times often stretch our faith, build new confidence and give us a hands-on experience of working in God’s grace.

My dad recently went to Kenya to help bring water to under-resourced people.  Here are some reflections about his time of service:

“One of my fondest memories of working in Northern Kenya (Turkana and West Pokot districts) was watching the children when the engineering team and I did a borehole pump flush,” added Bernie Schaaf of Tinley Park, Illinois, who also spent three months in Kenya. “The children had never seen that quantity of water gushing out, before. The women immediately filled their water containers. But the children were so thrilled to see the water – they had such big smiles. It was wonderful to watch the children so enjoy life for that moment.”

“Another fulfilling part of the work was that we were able to get water to an internally displaced person (IDP) camp. The community got water after the borehole drilling was completed. Previously, the people were walking 4km to get water from an irrigation ditch which was full of pollutants. Children were sick with diarrhea from the contaminated water, but now they had a safe water source. “

(From CRC News)

“Don’t Suck”

“Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.” -James 5:20

My daughter isn’t allowed to use the word “sucks” … especially at school.  Her 5th grade teacher will catch her classmates using slang like “sucks” and have them write an essay about what the word really means.

(So Mr. Larson … I’m sorry … but this is an important topic and I can’t think of a better way to get the point across.  If it helps, I’m quoting a teenager who would have benefited from sitting in your classroom.)

When it comes to church communications (signs, stuff on the screen, posters, emails, letters, etc.) I found some simple advice from a teenager. “DON’T SUCK.”

Ty Buckingham writes:

There are some things that just get to me.

• When I leave the Taco Bell drive through knowing, without even looking into the bag, that they have messed up my order.
• I certainly don’t like it when I end up shaking hands and it was supposed to be a fist bump. That’s just awkward.

Those are little.

What seriously gets to me is when there is a lack in how the church talks to us. Especially as a teenager in high school, I couldn’t feel more neglected by the church at times.

I would walk into a service, and I would feel like I didn’t belong. The flag people weren’t even the biggest problem, it was the fact that the clip art used for announcement slides, the sermons had no branding, just some nice title like, “Giving the Givers’ Gift” in Arial (Helvetica’s ugly cousin). Really creative. Nothing was talking to me.

We (teens) are a group who want to belong. When we step into a church, the first thing that should happen is feeling targeted and having a genuine experience:

Targeted
It’s one thing to tell us we’re important, it’s another thing to show us. We can tell when you spend two minutes or two hours on an event flyer. Or if the design was by your secretary or by a real communicator/designer.

Side note: Everything matters: the colors you use, the layers you put on each other, the graphics you use or don’t use, and the way you give it to us. We can quickly tell how much you want us, by how hard you try.

If we don’t feel targeted, you lose us.

Experienced
I want to be able to go into a church and have a serious experience with God. Once you’ve targeted me into coming, I have to experience something in order to both be impacted and to have that compelling reason to return.

Everyone has an experience, it’s the churches’ goal to see that experience is a great one.

There have been some things that work:

• When church logos have deeper meaning than just a picture.
• The times when churches go all out on events, they hand out illustrations, give you an experience; for example I saw a picture of a youth group that not only did a “Game Day” theme but they put fake turf on the ground put up stage lights. It looked like the real deal.
• When I’m not handed a bulletin but an illustration such as a movie ticket, 3D glasses, or anything someone can hold, and hold on to as a remembrance of what happened. I can tell you took it seriously so I take it seriously.
• When I walk in church, there’s no seats, and you just worship the whole time.
• Straight up, when you do church differently.

Side notes: Events are good, relationships are better. Anyone can have a concert, a blow up bounce house and free pizza. To be able to within that hour and a half service feel like I made friends, then you’ve got me. I’ve taken the bait.

OK, yes, I am the son of Michael Buckingham of Holy Cow Creative, so sure there are some biases, but you must understand me and my friends constantly got things in the mail that sucked and didn’t do the job well (by the way, we don’t read your emails or your postcards—send personal text messages). So please, on behalf of all teenagers, go get em’.

From Church Marketing Sucks Blog

Refuge 101 – Improving Our Serve

This is a guest post by Trish Hallmark.  Trish helps put together the weekly CGS Newsletter, and is passionate about helping people step up so that they can serve God.  She writes:

Serve.  Service.  Servitude. 

All of these are renditions of the basic principle:  To work for.  Be it to work for God, giving homage and obedience; or to act toward another in a specified way.    Here’s the thing.  As we work together to improve our Serve, enhancing our processes, developing training and feedback, we want to be mindful of the balance between improving our Serve with measurable and positive results without taking away the joy of serving our God regardless how one chooses to do it.  What the goal is in improving our Serve is do the Lord’s best in our day-to-day activities like ushering, greeting, making coffee and checking in the children.

Sometimes just serving is joy enough and sometimes the joy is overshadowed by the function and the process; this can be an obstacle that prevents one from serving in these structured roles.  There are times that I have walked out of a church feeling very lonely.  Longing for someone to nudge me, notice me, or talk to me.  We all want to be mindful that as we move through the Renewal Project, the element of Improving our Serve is not accomplished in a bubble without you.  We all have a role to play in serving God and it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an usher, though the usher can be hugely impactful for a newcomer.  Can we agree that whether you are in a structured role or simply smiling and shaking hands with a new face, we all Serve.

Improving our Serve may not include you becoming an usher or making the coffee, but can we ask that it include the basic goal of giving homage and being obedient to God?

End Malaria

With my dad in Kenya and some good friends moving to Thailand, issues like this are becoming very real.  Take some time today to thank God that “the buzzing in your ear doesn’t mean that you’re about to die” … and ask for the grace to be generous so that others can be spared as well.

The following is from Seth Godin …

Six weeks ago, at midnight, I found myself awake but wiped out from jet lag. I was in a lumpy bed, in the dark, in an obscure, $20 a night, John-Waters’-esque former country club. I was in Kitale, Kenya, near the Ugandan border.

A mosquito was buzzing in my ear. (Why do they buzz in your ear?). I had meds, of course, but what if I didn’t? What if, like so many who live here, I had kids and no money for medicine?

Try to imagine that for a second before you click onto the next thing you’ve got on your agenda for today.

Today is End Malaria Day.

Right this minute, right now, please do three things:

1. Buy two copies of End Malaria, an astonishing new book by more than sixty of your favorite authors. In a minute, I will explain why this might be the most important book you buy this year (not the best book, of course, just the most important one). You should buy one in paperback too so you can evangelize a copy to a colleague.
2. Tweet or like this post, or email it to ten friends (It only takes a second.)
3. And, visit the End Malaria Day website and share it as well.

What would happen if you did that? What would happen if you stepped up and spent a few dollars?

Here’s what would happen: someone wouldn’t die.

A child wouldn’t die from malaria, a disease that causes more childhood death than HIV/AIDS.

It’s that direct. Malaria bednets are simple nets that hang over a window or a bed. They’re treated with a chemical that mosquitos hate. The mosquitos fly away, they don’t bite, people don’t get malaria.

Every single penny spent on the Kindle edition goes to Malaria No More, giving them enough money to buy one or two bednets and to deliver them and be sure they’re used properly. Low overhead, no graft, no waste. Just effectiveness. And if you buy the beautiful paperback edition, you can easily give it away when you’re done and the same $20 donation gets made. None of the authors or anyone at the Domino Project sees your money, there’s no ulterior motive, just the fact that a kid won’t die.

Wait, there is one ulterior motive: You might be inspired. One of the sixty plus contributors might share a gem or spark an idea.

And I guess there’s a second motive: Stepping up feels right. It’s a few clicks to buy a book, one you might be able to afford. And for the rest of the day, or even a week, you’ll remember how it felt to save someone’s life.

Please.

(HT Seth Godin)

How Much Should I Give?

Giving is always a tough subject.  The general “rule” is for people to tithe (i.e., to give 10% to the church).  Sometimes this leads to interesting conversations.  Many people will debate whether their tithe should be on their net income or gross income.  Others will (successfully) prove the point that tithing is not mandated in the New Testament.

Interestingly, I’ve never had a discussion around these topics where people were arguing for reasons to give MORE.

The truth is that tithing has been a helpful rule since Abraham first gave a gift to Melchizedek and that people who love God have freely given from 10%-100% of their resources to support God’s mission and His people.  We never see giving demanded as a way to earn God’s favor.  Instead, we see followers of Jesus freely giving their money as needed.  (See Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-37 and 2 Corinthians 8-9 for starters.)

C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, says it simply.  When in doubt, give more:

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.  In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.  If our charities [giving habits] do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.  There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities [giving] expenditure excludes them. – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

To learn more about giving to CGS, click here.

The Best Tired I’ve Ever Felt

Fred Craddock was the visiting preacher at a church one Sunday afternoon when a van full of ragged teenagers pulled in. They looked in bad shape as they sat on their bedrolls, waiting for their parents to pick them up.

Craddock asked them what was going on. He learned they were returning from a week of mission work. They had joined other youth and built a little church.”You tired?” he asked one boy.

“Whew, am I tired!” he said. “But this is the best tired I’ve ever felt.”

That is the reward of service–”the best tired I’ve ever felt.”

(Craddock Stories, Chalice Press)

Why Are Some People Poor?

If I were God, the world would be a much shiny-er, idol-filled mess.

For example, I would make sure that there were no poor people.  My friends who are unemployed would find work.  Children in impoverished nations would have X-Boxes and flatscreen TV’s … not distended stomachs from crippling hunger.  New Jersey would be completely edible, like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.  That’s just where I’d start.

Why does God allow people to be poor?  Spurgeon, in on of his devotionals, considers this question.  He knows that God could make it rain bread and quail.  He knows that the streets of heaven are paved with gold and precious jewels.  He knows that making people materially rich would be an easy thing.

He also knows that making people rich with money isn’t God’s ultimate goal.  He writes …

…[God] allows them to suffer want, he allows them to pine in penury and obscurity.

Why is this?

There are many reasons: one is, to give us, who are favoured with enough, an opportunity of showing our love to Jesus. We show our love to Christ when we sing of him and when we pray to him; but if there were no sons of need in the world we should lose the sweet privilege of evidencing our love, by ministering in alms-giving to his poorer brethren; he has ordained that thus we should prove that our love standeth not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

If we truly love Christ, we shall care for those who are loved by him. Those who are dear to him will be dear to us.

Let us then look upon it not as a duty but as a privilege to relieve the poor of the Lord’s flock—remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Surely this assurance is sweet enough, and this motive strong enough to lead us to help others with a willing hand and a loving heart—recollecting that all we do for his people is graciously accepted by Christ as done to himself.

Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening : Daily Readings, Complete and unabridged; New modern edition. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006).

“The very motto of a Christian should be, ‘I Serve’.” - Charles Spurgeon

Why Be Generous?

Sometimes it feels like churches just want people’s money.  While that’s not really true … we do need to talk more about money than we normally do.  Money is a basic necessity in our ministry culture.  More-so, it is a powerful tool that can be used by the Devil to twist us … or by the Spirit to transform us.

We have 3 guidelines when we think about giving: tithe, sacrifice, and responsibility.

The tithe guideline points us to times of both spontaneous giving and structured generosity.  The first tithe was given by Abraham spontaneously after he won an important battle. (Gen 14:20)  Later, believers were required to give a tenth of their income to the church in the Old Testament.

Though the New Testament doesn’t specify a tithe, we have greater responsibility for generosity this side of the cross. The tithe for us is a minimum. The Macedonian Christians demonstrate sacrifice. The Bible says “they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability”. (2 Cor. 8:3). The responsibility guideline means balance, in Acts 11:29 Christians give “according to their ability”. Planning is necessary for Christians in order to give responsibly.

More important than that we give, is why we give. Giving must be a joyful response to God’s grace! Paul put it this way: “I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:8-9). What a test! Paul says the difference between giving to gain favor with God and true Christianity is that a Christian wants to give as generously as he or she received. You always give effortlessly to those things that give your life meaning.

Investing in the Church of the Good Shepherd is strategic, wise, and far-reaching. Strategic because CGS has a unique ability to bring the good news of Jesus to hurting people. Wise because God has done a great work in the past 40+ years through CGS, and this legacy continues as new people join our community every week. Far Reaching because when you impact the city, you impact the world. As the place where you have the greatest personal accountability and commitment, and as the place that is feeding and equipping you, we ask you to invest in CGS, making it your priority in giving.

What Motivates Employees?

Fortune Magazine recently did a survey of what motivates the employees of some of America’s best companies.  If you had to guess … you’d probably think that people were after better money, opportunities for advancement and stock options.  No-so-shockingly, people seem to be more motivated by a good team, meaningful work, time with family, and a feeling of being their personal “best.”

To me, this is great news!  We can’t pay every volunteer at CGS (hence the term “volunteer “) … but we can offer people a chance to connect with family, to be around quality people and to take steps toward being their personal best.”

So help me continue turning CGS into a Gospel-Saturated community.  Let’s be a motivated team … on fire for Jesus!