The Craziness Matrix blog #1
So this is the first of a series of blogs I will be doing here on My Crazy Life and I'm titling it "The Craziness Matrix" because that's what it's about. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
There's a 6 week program through CollegeLife at church this summer called "The Matrix." 150 of us get together at 6am two days a week to study the Bible, then we get together in small groups once a week to do service projects. This summer's focus is on "incarnational ministry." I'll be fleshing out that concept and doing some brainstorming/thought blogging about it as we go this summer. Today was an overview of the structure and it's as follows:
- We'll be reading two books this summer, and reading about 10 - 20 biographical articles about people in the past (or present) who did/do "incarnational ministry." We have journals to fill out and questions to answer for the books, and we'll be discussing the biographies. I like to read, but this is going to be a challenge because I generally read fiction. At least the biographies will have a story to tell. All of this reading is, of course, in addition to our own Bible study times, and contmeplating the passages we study at the sessions. Woohoo!
- Each week our service project with our small group will be something that challenges us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We'll be doing activities such as ministering to the homeless, to the needy (people in homes with no money), the elderly at nursing homes, grieving people at hospitals, random people at different hang out spots in town, as well as our own friends and peers. The goal is not to make these activities a one time project, but let this be exposure to these kinds of activities so that we might continue them later. Shea, the CollegeLife director, made one point very clear this morning:We will not be making grieving, hurting people simply a "project"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is wrong and terrible in every way. Yes, part of our intention is to learn to minister to people, but our goal is to truly minister to, comfort, and help them, not just practice or check it off a "to-do" list. This will take prayer and dedication. But I think we have that. :)
- Two guest speakers will be joining us. Shea won't say much about who they are. Guess it's a surprise. My hunch is they're missionaries from our church. The missions department here uses the idea of "incarnational ministry" across the board. Everyone who is a missionary from our church has studied, and tries their best to practice this model of ministry.
So what is "incarnational ministry" anyway? Well, today we covered the basics. There are three parts of "incarnational ministry" - 1) identifying a need, 2)Coming up with an idea to address that need, and 3)DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT! As you can see, step three is the most important of them all, but it's also the most challenging, especially for Christians today. Most of us would rather sit around together and hang out and let this fallen world in need of love just go on without us. Based on John 1:1-14, however, we see that Jesus didn't do that. He could have hung out with God and the Holy Spirit up in heaven and said "Well, y'all screwed up. I know y'all need my help, but I'm happy here so I'm just gonna let you fend for yourselves." Nope, instead He saw the need: "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:10-11). The idead for a solution was: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:12-13). The ACTION TAKEN to implement the solution was: THE INCARNATION - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14). There we have it, literal incarnational ministry. The need in this world is to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God, whom we actively reject. The solution is for those who would humble themselves to become children of God and be forgiven. The execution of the solution was God putting on flesh to reveal himself to us in a way we could understand, and die instead of us that we might be forgiven.
So how does this apply to us? Are we deities that put on human flesh in order to "incarnate" and minister to others? No! We are only human beings. But can we learn a lesson from Christ's incarnation about how to live in and minister to a culture that we might find alien and uncomfortable? Absolutely! Christ came to us here on earth, met us where we were, and sacraficed all He had that we might understand the things of God. Can we as Christians not also do that in our culture? Can we not go to where people are and pour out our lives in service for the sake of tell people about the ultimate sacrafice made on their behalf? Yes, we can and we must! This is what I'll be studying in The Matrix for the next 6 weeks - reaching out to others the way my Savior reached out to me!
I'm really excited about this. It's going to be difficult, but it's worth it to touch one heart, one life, even in the smallest way. I had better start praying NOW.
Ah! Caffeine crashing! NO!!!!!!!!!!!
There's a 6 week program through CollegeLife at church this summer called "The Matrix." 150 of us get together at 6am two days a week to study the Bible, then we get together in small groups once a week to do service projects. This summer's focus is on "incarnational ministry." I'll be fleshing out that concept and doing some brainstorming/thought blogging about it as we go this summer. Today was an overview of the structure and it's as follows:
- We'll be reading two books this summer, and reading about 10 - 20 biographical articles about people in the past (or present) who did/do "incarnational ministry." We have journals to fill out and questions to answer for the books, and we'll be discussing the biographies. I like to read, but this is going to be a challenge because I generally read fiction. At least the biographies will have a story to tell. All of this reading is, of course, in addition to our own Bible study times, and contmeplating the passages we study at the sessions. Woohoo!
- Each week our service project with our small group will be something that challenges us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We'll be doing activities such as ministering to the homeless, to the needy (people in homes with no money), the elderly at nursing homes, grieving people at hospitals, random people at different hang out spots in town, as well as our own friends and peers. The goal is not to make these activities a one time project, but let this be exposure to these kinds of activities so that we might continue them later. Shea, the CollegeLife director, made one point very clear this morning:We will not be making grieving, hurting people simply a "project"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is wrong and terrible in every way. Yes, part of our intention is to learn to minister to people, but our goal is to truly minister to, comfort, and help them, not just practice or check it off a "to-do" list. This will take prayer and dedication. But I think we have that. :)
- Two guest speakers will be joining us. Shea won't say much about who they are. Guess it's a surprise. My hunch is they're missionaries from our church. The missions department here uses the idea of "incarnational ministry" across the board. Everyone who is a missionary from our church has studied, and tries their best to practice this model of ministry.
So what is "incarnational ministry" anyway? Well, today we covered the basics. There are three parts of "incarnational ministry" - 1) identifying a need, 2)Coming up with an idea to address that need, and 3)DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT! As you can see, step three is the most important of them all, but it's also the most challenging, especially for Christians today. Most of us would rather sit around together and hang out and let this fallen world in need of love just go on without us. Based on John 1:1-14, however, we see that Jesus didn't do that. He could have hung out with God and the Holy Spirit up in heaven and said "Well, y'all screwed up. I know y'all need my help, but I'm happy here so I'm just gonna let you fend for yourselves." Nope, instead He saw the need: "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (John 1:10-11). The idead for a solution was: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:12-13). The ACTION TAKEN to implement the solution was: THE INCARNATION - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14). There we have it, literal incarnational ministry. The need in this world is to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God, whom we actively reject. The solution is for those who would humble themselves to become children of God and be forgiven. The execution of the solution was God putting on flesh to reveal himself to us in a way we could understand, and die instead of us that we might be forgiven.
So how does this apply to us? Are we deities that put on human flesh in order to "incarnate" and minister to others? No! We are only human beings. But can we learn a lesson from Christ's incarnation about how to live in and minister to a culture that we might find alien and uncomfortable? Absolutely! Christ came to us here on earth, met us where we were, and sacraficed all He had that we might understand the things of God. Can we as Christians not also do that in our culture? Can we not go to where people are and pour out our lives in service for the sake of tell people about the ultimate sacrafice made on their behalf? Yes, we can and we must! This is what I'll be studying in The Matrix for the next 6 weeks - reaching out to others the way my Savior reached out to me!
I'm really excited about this. It's going to be difficult, but it's worth it to touch one heart, one life, even in the smallest way. I had better start praying NOW.
Ah! Caffeine crashing! NO!!!!!!!!!!!