soul talk: Psalm25:5

At least I hope so…

Things are not always “smooth” around the Adams’ household.  In spite of the efforts of my amazingly beautiful and loving wife, and my two stellar daughters, life just seems to spin toward complexity.  The honest truth is “normal” life situations come up every day that require a decision from me, and I do not know what to say….I am at a loss for answers – often!

• Your child said she feels bad, should you let her stay home from school today?
• Home work was late, or incomplete, should you push harder?
• Financing college requires a completed FAFSA, which requires completed state and federal taxes, and the end of the process the question  remains a mystery. Will we be able to pay for college next year?
• Friends can’t stretch their income to meet expenses, do you send money?

These aren’t simple questions such as “what should I wear today?” or “what should I have for breakfast?” The questions I struggle with have no clear right answer, unless “It depends” can be classified as a “right answer.”

So, what will I do when I don’t know what to do? I’ll admit my ignorance, and seek the best counsel available, and make the best decision I can make.  Maybe someday I’ll be more certain that I know all the right answers. But today I’m hoping admitting ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.

“Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ…. For each person will have to carry his own load.” Galatians 6:2, 5

It is the heart of the Christian community to meet each other’s needs, to care for widows and orphans, to set free the oppressed and care for the afflicted. But there is a limit, and it is simply this, “Don’t do for somebody what they can do for themselves.”

It is better to equip someone with the skills they need to provide for their needs than it is to meet their needs in an ongoing way.

If you’ve seen the movie “Slum Dog Millionaire” you know the extreme hardship of orphan children on the streets of India. The hardships depicted in the movie are a real and honest portrayal of the oppression these children face. They are treated as outcasts, trash, worthless.

A year ago our church bought land to build an orphanage in India. The orphanage is named, “New Life Children’s Home” and is home to 164 children. We also partner with the “Light of Love” children’s home which is home to over 500 children.

I was touched by the story of one of our members. Kim, who visited these orphanages recently. Kim was profoundly impressed by the love these children express to the Westsiders’ who visit. It is a scene that is hard to describe. Hundreds of children swarming to give hugs, and dancing with joy.

As Kim reflected on this experience she shared a personal revelation. These children are deeply grateful that Westside has rescued them from a lifestyle of poverty, and the streets of oppression. We provide them a home, school, food, a safe place to call home, and we tell them the story of Jesus and His love.

Kim said that God’s been waking her up to the idea that He has rescued her, and all of us, from the same lifestyle of hopeless oppression. This rescue is cause for celebration and joy overflowing.

This story challenges me to take a moment to reflect on the amazing rescue that God has provided.  I am asking Him to help me to know the love and joy that our children in India feel each day.

• 19% of the children in the world live in India.
• 50% of the unreached people groups in the world are in India.

This past weekend the message was at Westside was about anger. Our worship time included an open alter for prayer. We lined the front of the room with counselors. In three services I met and prayed with: a woman angry with God over the death of her husband from cancer, a man deeply wounded by the betrayal of his wife, a family with a two year old dying of cancer.  I could not hold back the tears. I barely got out the words to voice a prayer while choking back my emotions. 

Our God heals marriages, comforts the grieving, and knows our deepest heart ache. I believe one of His greatest blessing to us is each other. My heart breaks at the kind of stories I heard this weekend. But my heart is full of hope in a God who loves us and gives us each other to love.

With many thanks to my technological mentor, Jason Morris, I am slowing advancing my knowledge of technology.  I now have a Facebook account, twitter, web blog, Google reader account and link them all with something called twitter feed. The best of it all is Google Reader which allows me to read about twenty blogs that I follow in about 15 minutes. I can easily share a blog that’s interesting to me and automatically update both twitter and Facebook with a tiny URL of that blog.

I’m not going to stop learning. We’re exploring ways to enhance our volunteer equipping and discipling through tech tools. So, there’s definitely more to come.

I drove to Springfield, MO today for a meeting with a couple of small group pastors. As I arrived in town my phone received a message that said, “SpringfieldMoCVB (Springfield CVB) is now following your updates on Twitter”.  Forty minutes later “Ozark’s Red Cross (OzarksRedCross) is now following your updates on Twitter.”

Someone smarter than me is going to have to tell me how SpringfieldCVB and OzarksRedCross knew I was in Springfield, and how they found me on Twitter.  This would be scarry if it weren’t so cool!  I’m thinking there must be a cool application for churches in this.

Eric Sparrman is one of my heroes. Eric has been the pastor of the Harvest Ridge Covenant Church in Shawnee, Kansas for a little over twelve years, and for the last 7+ years Eric has been my friend. What is truly special about Eric is his warmth and love for other pastors. Every six weeks Eric hosts an area pastors bag luncheon.  Eric makes the coffee and always has a dessert ready. This gathering of brothers, and sisters, is a time of fellowship, sharing and praying.

We met today. I won’t share all that we talked about, but one thing I will share. At the end of our time together we agreed to meet next at the church building of one of our friends. The building is still under construction, but we will gather there to pray the people who will gather there. For God’s kingdom to be advanced through the ministry that happens there.

This isn’t unique, but what amazes me is that this is a gathering of methodist, lutheran, covenant, baptist, etc. All followers of the one Jesus.  We could argue some of the finer points of doctrine, but we don’t, because we are in the fellowship of Jesus.

One of our newest group leaders came by to talk this afternoon.  He’s new to the church, and loves it! He tried to lead a group with our “Blessed?” series, but the group didn’t make it.  Two guys in the group did, however, agree to meet with our new leader to continue to study the Bible outside of the group.  That’s  a win!

The question came when he discovered one of these guys has been attending our church for almost six years, and still didn’t own, or read, a Bible. His first Bible study lesson was, “now here’s the table of contents.” 

I know this seems like an exageration, but when my new leader asked me if we were doing more than reaching thousands on the weekend I had to admit – we have a lot of work to do.  He knew all about our discipleship strategy, our next steps brochure, our purpose classes, etc. But still he asked, are these people closer to Jesus because they are attending our church.  Admittedly, this is not a new question for us.  It is something we as a leadership team are taking very seriously.

I said plainly, “you’ve identified a serious problem and we’re working to address it, but you have to decide…do you want to stand on the outside and point out the problem, or stand on the inside and help us fix it?

Here’s what I think…he’ll help us fix the problem.  A year from now, if I’m right, we will have 4000 people in small groups. Every group will be reading and applying the Bible, praying, and serving. This will be a huge win – especially when you consider that for 2500 of our current attenders the weekend is their only exposure to the Bible.

I love my church, and I embrace this challenge. We are already taking significant steps to grow our people, and we have lots of steps still to take. Tonight, I thank God for young men like this new leader, who are bold enough to ask, and willing to invest in making a difference.