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Getting Ready for Covenant!
Covenant Season begins in October. I'd love to see you there!
To give you a quick preview, here is an outline for our first night of study:
I. The Structure of Scripture is Covenant (a.k.a., The Story of Scripture is Covenant)
Scripture is a story about God's covenants with man
OT covenants
The "old covenant"
The "new covenant"
Different phases, one covenant
Why dispensationalism sucks (mostly)
II. The Why of Covenant
God is a relational God: Trinity
We are relational beings: Imago Dei
Christ's relational ministry: Incarnation
III. The How of Covenant
Covenant and our faith
Covenant and our baptism
Covenant and our address (the utter importance of place)
Covenant and intention
Conclusion
No Podcast This Week
Ya know, it's funny how the Lord works.
I am beginning to realize that he has been teaching me something over the last few weeks, and that "something" is how there is a limit to my own ability - there is a thick concrete ceiling above my head when it comes to fixing things and making things right and pulling things off in my own strength.
Which I tend to try to do.
A lot.
Take this past Sunday for instance. I arrived early at the church, as usual, to get everything set up just so and to make sure the technology was all dialed in. As we set up the projector we realized that the power cord for the laptop was missing - it was on a couch watching football, no doubt, about 45 minutes away in Bolton. Nick, the hero of the evening, raced deep into the boondocks to retrieve the cord (going only the speed limit of course, as you would expect from a leader at Dwell).
We began our music time without projection and lyrics, and it was...wonderful. Incredibly, people poured into the space and seemed to melt right into the worship in progress, and voices were as loud as ever. You might even say that when the cord arrived with Nick 15 minutes later, and lyrics lit up the screen, there might have even been a decline in the atmosphere and mood. It was oddly less...special.
However, with the big white square lit with images, all seemed right with the world. Techbuggery would not foil our plans for the rest of the evening.
Or so I thought.
Until I went to edit the recording tonight.
Alas, sound/recording system snafoos abounded in the very sad excuse for audio from Sunday's gathering. And now I am blogging.
I wonder if my frustration at the editing controls (i.e., my macbook) tonight are any indication of a complete misplacement of all perspective and focus, if but for a moment; and alas, I hear a little voice whispering, "Yes." Look back, look back now, two days ago - what happened?
Well, I'll tell you. A miracle happened. 50 people from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures and subcultures and families and tribes gathered in a little old Methodist church because the Holy Spirit is doing a work in our day, a work that he began during a Pentecost feast some years ago, a work that continues against all odds, in 2009, in Burlington, VT. And what is that work, you ask?
Well, I'll tell you. It is the gospel work that began when Jesus split time in two by conquering that enemy called death and inaugurated a new era in which men's hearts would be brought near to God like never before and into his program for reconciling the world to himself. It is the work, the miraculous work, of the Spirit called the kingdom of God - the church.
There is no miracle on earth more beautiful than the church. Jesus died to save her after all, and he will bring his kingdom in its full glory someday to accompany his eternal union with her.
And so a podcast suddenly seems not so big-deal-ish.
And neither do my petty attempts at controlling outcomes and ordering events and generally pulling things off. Because the point is that I learn my weakness in lieu of his strength. The point is that I learn, as we read on Sunday, to approach his throne boldly for help in time of need, and to realize that there is such sublime blessing in the approaching.
Glimpse of Community
This is a post from my dad's blog MissionNow, and something he shared in our call to worship this week. It impacts me everytime I read it! So here it is, from Jim Hoag...
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I want to throw out some thoughts on a "worshiping community." Worship is huge. And it includes coming together as community to recalibrate around Jesus. To me it's equivalent to an event- a transforming God encounter. As I said last week, I have an increasingly greater appreciation for community. I also mentioned a kind of early intuition that 2010 was going to be a radical year for Dwell Missional Church. I believe the genuine "ethos" or life force of this community - the timely and necessary distinction this community brings to the mix - will continue to unfold and fill out more of its sphere of influence. And all of it flowing out from relationship with Jesus under the influence of His grace. Here is where Jesus is shaping community. How incredible is it that the church, unleashed as community, is the means of grace by which God chooses to express Himself (Eph.3:10)? I mean, even after you leave a community gathering, there is this profound, unbreakable, and mysterious continuity of it by which Christ is present (Eph.5:32). Dwell then becomes community in the greater community; a community testifying not of itself but as the Message Bible says, "opening up our lives to others, prompting people to open up to God..."
As we approach 2010, I believe greater understanding is coming about the way in which we inhabit community and move out from it; that is, understanding about the way of living in and out of the reality that God is forming - "which is His body." I love the body metaphor because with it you get a picture of this radical, living, anatomical connectedness. Though sometimes messy, there is this relational supply between the parts. It's this uncanny interaction between strengths and weaknesses. It's not the externalized or mandated "love of the brethren" stuff of religion, but the outflow of relationship with God that in some way actually accomplishes the work of grace.
As I said awhile back, we come together as community in worship to "reboot" - getting our "software" in sync with the "hardware" of God's Word and in fellowship with one another. This re-orientation around Jesus changes everything and empowers our witness. Why? Because "in Him are all the treasures of wisdom and all the riches of spiritual knowledge."
Lastly, Paul tells us,"Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it" and that we "are parts of His body-of His flesh and of His bones." I don't want to "time-share" in that, where I retreat now and then when life is getting a bit hectic. No, I want to live in that "body" reality, drenched in the Gospel, under His divine influence. See, in community, the grace Jesus brings to His followers and what they become by it is incredible! Between the Son of God "made flesh" and His Church, there is, again, this profound, unbreakable and mysterious connection by which He is present. This presence of Jesus (not just some vague "presence") is the reason for our joy. What better reason to gather in community and worship Him as community?
What is the Gospel?
I threw this video up on the Story page. Let me know what you think.