Posts tagged Church

Merry Christmas Jacob’s Well!

Dec20
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Nate Ray

Dear Jacob’s Well,

This Sunday we won’t gather together for worship as a church. But remember:

We are the church.

We may not gather corporately this Sunday for worship, but we can worship. We can always worship.

Worship is much more than singing; much more than a Sunday Gathering. Worship is remembering the extravagant love shown to us through Jesus and living all of life in light of this reality. That is worship.

We can always worship.

So remember and celebrate this as we gather with our families, friends, and loved ones. We can worship as the church while we scatter and when we gather.

May you all have a blessing and hope filled Christmas, and may we all root ourselves again in the story of Christmas, which points us towards the story of the death and resurrection of our God – forgiveness of sin and new life offered to all and given to all who follow Jesus!

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$123 Million for a “spiritual oasis in the heart of downtown Dallas”…

Oct12
2011 1 Comment Written by Nate Ray

First Baptist Dallas is a church of 10,000 members in Dallas, TX. They’ve recently made the news because their pastor recently said Christians shouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney because he’s a Mormon, and Mormonism is a cult, and instead they should vote for Rick Perry. He has since backed down to call Mormonism a “theological” cult, but has also gone on record saying that Christians could vote for a non-Christian before voting for Barack Obama (read it all here).

All this political jargin from Christian leaders just gets me upset.

But that’s beside the point I’m going to write about here. What I’m about to write about gets me far more upset than any of this silly political stuff happening in Texas.

First Dallas is in a building campaign right now. As it says on their website, “Dr. Jeffress is currently leading the First Dallas congregation in a $123 million campaign to re-create its downtown campus.  The project is the largest in modern church history and will create a “spiritual oasis” in the heart of downtown Dallas.” (You can read that here on FBC Dallas’ website.)

THIS is sick. $123 million. For a building.

First Dallas has 10,000 members currently. Let’s say that their new “downtown spiritual oasis” seats twice as many people. Let’s say 20,000 people. You are spending $123 million for 10,000 more people. Their website says, “The project is the largest in modern church history,” but I’m not sure this is something to be proud of.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s wrong to have buildings.

But I am saying Jesus spoke of the destruction of the temple, and at His death, the curtain was torn in two, and in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed, and we read all over the Scriptures there is no more need of a temple. Jesus’ people are his temple. We don’t need fancy buildings. The Spirit of the living God doesn’t reside in human buildings. The Spirit resides in human hearts. We need communities of people looking to live together as Jesus’ body on earth.

It’s good to come together and worship on Sunday, but that is not the point of church. And the point of the church is not to do everything within the confines of a building throughout the week either. The church is God’s covenant people – Jesus’ believers and followers. And God’s covenant with His covenant people has always been to to use them as a blessing machine for the world (Genesis 12:1-3).

I could go on and on, but I just want to dream for a second… to create a hypothetical situation…

What if, instead of using the $123 million for a new fancy downtown facility – “a spiritual oasis in the heart of downtown Dallas” – they used that amount of money to fund church planters in Dallas… with that money they could fund 1230 church planters with $100,000/each.

And then, what if each of those church planters goes on to plant a church that runs an attendance on Sundays of around 100 people…

1230 church planters, with 100 people each, is 123,000 people…

123,000 people, or 10,000 people?… which will more effectively penetrate the city of Dallas with the message of Jesus?…

Don’t most of our churches have it all wrong?… we seem to always be looking to grow, to find ways to fit the next 100, the next 1000, the next 5,000… we seem to always be looking at addition…

And we forget the power from multiplication…

I don’t think Jesus wants another fancy building. But I don’t think Jesus minds buildings either. I think Jesus wants people fully devoted to following Him, sharing life and mission together. I don’t think buildings will take the Jesus’ life-giving message to the ends of the earth. I think people will take Jesus’ life-giving message to the earth.

The church is the people. Let us not forget.

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A few things I learned from Chuck Hermann…

Aug05
2011 1 Comment Written by Nate Ray

Chuck Hermann died yesterday. He was 50.

You may not have known him, but I can just share a few things I learned from this man?

There are those who are hospitable, and then there are the Hermanns.

When my family first moved to Rochester, MN in 2003 I was a senior in HS. To that point, that move was the toughest time in my life. And the Hermanns, from the very beginning, were welcoming to me, my brother, sister, and parents. Seth, Jess, and I were over there MANY nights every week. The Hermanns know how to love people. REALLY love people.

“If it weren’t for God using Chuck Hermann, _______________ wouldn’t be a Christian.”

This is too long a list to fill. Chuck talked to anybody and everybody about Jesus. Because Jesus was the hope of Chuck’s life, and he knew Jesus was the hope of everyone else’s life too. For me, the name in the blank are Dave (known then as DQ Dave). I don’t know who the names are for you, but I thank God for Chuck Hermann loving my friend Dave enough to share Jesus with him!

“The way a husband loves his wife shapes his wife…”

Pam Hermann is a beautiful lady inside and out. Said another way (to steal from the movie Fireproof), “A woman is like a flower: treat her wrong she withers, but treat her right and she blooms.” Chuck helped me understand this in a way that without Chuck, I’m not sure I would have. He helped me understand the weight of my calling as a husband to love my wife, and to continue loving her. He helped me understand that the pursuit of a woman doesn’t stop with marriage, but is a lifelong pursuit of love.

Chuck taught me the love of Jesus is for hitchhikers and people whose cars are broken down on the side of the road too…

On our way to Promise Keepers in 2004 (?), our group picked up a hitchhiker and took him to Promise Keepers. Chuck had an extra ticket and had said he was praying for the chance to pick a hitchhiker up on the way there. The hitchhiker didn’t stay long, but this was not abnormal activity for Chuck. He did this type of stuff all the time.

I was reading an article yesterday on Chuck’s death. It was short, but below were the comments of some people who had known Chuck. One commenter was a writer who wrote a previous story on Chuck. He shared a snippet from that story:

“My prayer has been, ‘Lord, use me today in a mighty way,’” Hermann said. “That’s how I start my day. He deserves the glory.” …

“Lord, use me in a mighty way today”…

We could learn a lot from Chuck on how to start our days… asking to have eyes to see the opportunities God places before us, and then grabbing them by the horns.

Chuck, we’ll miss you. We can learn so much from the way you followed Jesus with your life. Days like these days, I am so grateful for the hope of the resurrection because of our Savior Jesus.

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Just Wrapped Up a Week of World Changers

Jun19
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Nate Ray

For those of you unfamiliar with World Changers, it is a ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources and the North American Mission Board that mobilizes students by providing construction and community based mission trips to church youth groups in mulitiple cities across the country.

I was the speaker for the Salt Lake City project this past week, but over the course of this summer, World Changers and PowerPlant will mobilize over 25,000 middle school and high school students on mission trips all over the country.

Check out the blog from the Salt Lake City project, as well as the podcast from our Thursday night worship service!

What a blessing to partner with these church groups, their students, and the churches of SLC this past week!

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My hair cutter stylist person’s name is Betty…

Dec22
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Nate Ray

It’s not really Betty, but I didn’t want to use her real name.

I’ve been returning to the same hair stylist for over 2 years. For a few reasons. Namely, she gives the best head massages in the world, and she gives great haircuts! On top of that, if you continue to go to the same person, you sort of build a relationship with them.

Today Betty, just sort of out of the blue, told me that a few days ago her and co-worker were outside and were approached by a few people who were connected with a church somewhere.

They asked if she had a few minutes, and I guess offered to pray with her to try and learn about her?… They told her they thought she was from a family with a deep religious history (sort of vague, sort of reminding me of Ms. Cleo and terot cards or a psychic or something). Well, this was true. Her grandma is VERY religious she told me. And her grandma often tells her she’s praying for her.

Well I guess these churched people then asked if Betty and her mom had got into a fight that day. Well, they hadn’t, but the next day they did, Betty tells me. “Kinda freaky,” she says.

So then she’s talking with them, and I think she’s talking with them because she may honestly hope they’re right, or be seeking, but she tells them she’s always just asked God for a sign. And these churched people told her, “On your drive home, you’ll see your sign.”

Betty told me, “Nothing happened on my drive home. No sign.” She said it was like they’ve ruined it for her again.

Dear churched people who believe you have the gift of prophecy and can discern about people’s lives,

You better KNOW you have this gift. Because if you think you do, BUT YOU DON’T, you’re going to lead people astray like my friend Betty. This is a dangerous game to play.

And it’s frustrating. VERY frustrating.

I told Betty I’m naturally a cynic with this stuff. But this is why! Too many phonies!

What I’m not saying is that certain people aren’t gifted with the ability to discern these things, because I believe certain people are. I know these gifts exist. But what I am saying is a lot of people haven’t done the discerning work and just think they have this gift when they really don’t. If you have this gift, then you can’t be wrong. And if you’re wrong, you don’t have this gift.

Betty said she keeps asking for a sign. I told Betty, “Perhaps your sign’s already around you and you just have to see it.” I said, “It’s a miracle I exist. When I slow down and think about the fact I’m a thinking being in a complex world… soak in the beauty around me… I can’t help but believe there’s some grander purpose and Someone behind it all. This seems too good to be just happenstance.”

So that’s my story for the day. Betty doesn’t need some crazy psychic experience. She needs her eyes to be opened to the design and beauty all around her. And that God is there, and His name is Jesus, and He desires to show her a life she never would’ve or could’ve dreamed up on her own.

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Shout out to my cousin Pat

Jul30
2010 1 Comment Written by Nate Ray

My little cousin Pat also has a blog. I dig him, and his blog. His latest entry is worth the read. I was challenged and convicted.

Check it out and give him a few more readers.
pat

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Incarnation, the model of missions

Jul07
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Nate Ray

It’s worth a half hour.

Money and Power: Oscar Muriu from Urbana 09 on Vimeo.

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