The Centrality of Proclamation

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. – 1 Corinthians 1:18

It is easy to miss the surprising nature of this statement.  What is the power of God?  How are we saved from God’s judgment?  How are we reconciled to God?  Paul does NOT say that the cross is the power of God as we might expect.  He says that the message of the cross is the power of God.  God’s power and Christ’s saving work are present through God’s word.  So if the priority of the future drives us to seek the reconciliation of people with God through the cross of Christ, then this in turn must drive us to proclaim the word of the cross.

Proclamation of the word simply means sharing the message of the gospel with people.  It can take many forms including dialogue and conversation.  It is NOT exclusive to a preacher in a pulpit.  It is more likely to take place over a cup of tea or reading the Bible with an unbeliever.  Whatever the form, making known the message of the gospel must be central (see Luke 8:4-21; 10:38-42; 11:27-32; 16:19-31; 24:25-27, 44-47).

In social involvement, in Seed, there will always be a commitment to the reconciliation of our neighbor, whoever he/she is, with God through the gospel.  The proclamation of the gospel must be at the heart of Christian social involvement.  Our aim will always be that the poor and our neighbors are blessed in this life and for all eternity.

Are you sharing the gospel with those whom you are serving?  Or are you merely doing good deeds hoping that they will “get it”?

What are your next steps to sharing the gospel with your neighbor, co-worker, friend?

Seed and Evangelism series has been adapted from the book Good News to the Poor by Tim Chester.

The Need for Reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ [1]

We see all sorts of needs around us.  But the priority of the eternal future means that the GREATEST NEED for all of us is to be reconciled to God and so escape his wrath.  This is the greatest need of the poor and of our neighbors.

The bible is clear:  we are all alienated from God – young and old, white and black, male and female, rich and poor.  Paul talks about us as God’s enemies.  It is not just that we have become God’s enemies, God has become our enemy.  Our sin has broken the relationship with God for which we were made.  God would not be God if he ignored this rebellion.  He would not be just if he ignored the pain and suffering it causes.  He would not be worth worshipping if he was indifferent to evil and inhumanity.  And so OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM we all face is the problem of God’s judgment.  Our GREATEST NEED is to be reconciled with God.

But God in his love and grace has sent his own Son to die in our place, to take our punishment, to pay our debt.  So we can be reconciled to God and we can escape his wrath through Jesus Christ.

Moving Beyond Felt Needs

This is familiar to most of us, but we need to be clear about its implications.  It means that it is NEVER enough to address people’s felt needs (think Seed Projects).  Seed Projects can be a good starting point because the gospel addresses the human condition in all its complexity – the whole gospel to the whole person.  But, we need to move beyond people’s felt needs.

People (i.e. insert the name of your next door neighbor, co-worker, grocery store clerk) think they have all sorts of needs and often they are real and pressing needs.  But there is a much greater need of which people are unaware.  It is our job to warn them of the coming judgment of God.  We cannot wait for people to express their need for reconciliation with God.

Time and time again this has proved to be the greatest challenge facing Christian social involvement (i.e. Seed) – to keep in view the greatest gift we have to offer a needy world:  The words of eternal life.

We were made in the image of God, created to be in a perfect relationship with our Creator.

But the world is not as God made it.  People are no longer in relationship with God.  The doctrine of creation means that cultural and social involvement are valid, but the doctrine of sin and the offer of salvation mean that to engage in social action without evangelism is to fail the people we profess to love.
Do you often think about the eternal fate of your neighbors?

How have you failed to love your neighbors through the ministry of the Word?

Join us on Monday nights and get exposed to Word and deed ministry.  We share gospel truths every Monday night with neighbors who need Jesus and also need material goods.  Contact Jesse Moss at jmoss@sojournchurch.com to join us.

[1] Adapted from Good News to the Poor: Sharing the Gospel through Social Involvement, Tim Chester, 50-58.

The Greatest Need[1]

What is the greatest need of people in your area?  Your answer might depend on where you live.

Germantown/Shelby Park:  Safety, racism, physical health, unemployment, slumlords, fatherless youth.

East End/ St. Matthews:  behind the nice homes are people facing loneliness, domestic violence, emptiness, and household debt.

Ethiopia:  clean water, proper sanitation, health care, housing, education, and regular income.

We might well agree with these needs.  But the Bible opens our eyes to a much broader horizon.  It reveals that people have a need much greater than any mentioned above and of which we are largely unaware – the need to be reconciled to God and so escape his wrath.

The Priority of the Future

As we reflect on social need and social involvement with our neighbors (deed ministry), the place to start is the end.  We must begin by considering the end of history.  The Bible is a story that is heading towards a climax when Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.

If this is true, then blessing in God’s future is more important than blessing in this life.  Jesus himself tells us this when he said,

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:19-20

“If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have tow hands or two feed and be thrown into the fire of hell.” – Matthew 18:8-9

In the same way, we need to say without embarrassment that it is better if someone is converted but remains poor than if they become healthy and wealthy but remain unconverted.

The Bible consistently says we should make the eternal future our priority.

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” – Matthew 10:28

The issue is NOT whether the soul is more important than the body.  Jesus says we should be concerned for both soul and body.  The issue is that our eternal fate is more important than what happens to us in this life.

Do you believe this?

by Andy Robinette

After college, I was confronted with two options as I left Memphis that summer: continue to live as if God could only be worshiped on Sundays or submit to the truth that my Savior is worthy of all my life.   Furthermore, I came to realize that every believer is called to full time ministry and that each of us should use whatever gifts we have been given to administer God’s grace (1 Peter 4:10).

This is where the Sojourn handyman ministry comes back in.  God has opened our eyes and burdened our hearts that there is a) a great need for home repair in the neighborhoods closest to the 930 and b) there are people in our church who have the skills required to meet those needs.    The equation works like this: a) + b) = Prime opportunity for us to be good Samaritan-type neighbors and enter into the personal world of those God has called us to serve.

Of course we don’t go assuming that it is only our neighbors who are in need.  We are needy people, too, just perhaps in different ways.  But ultimately, it is God who will meet all our needs, both physical and spiritual.  That is why the handyman ministry is being designed as one of both word and deed ministry.

A physical home repair is merely a temporary fix because rust and moth will destroy and thieves will break in and steal.  Our world is broken and decaying and it is not a band of handymen that are going to fix it.  Our aim is that each and every home repair will be a signpost of this greater reality; only Christ can bring complete peace and restoration to our lives.  Will you join us in proclaiming this glorious truth?

Sojourn’s handyman ministry, Hands of Grace, is seeking willing servants of all skill levels to join us in this ministry of renewal.  If you are interested, please let us know by filling out this survey or by contacting mercy@sojournchurch.com.

By Andy Robinette

A few months ago, the idea was presented to start a handyman ministry as a part of Seed.  After reading the announcement in the bulletin, I got really excited.  The excitement was probably much like that of a sweepstakes winner who gets a knock at their door and opens it to see their front porch invaded by a “ginormous” check with their name on it. P.S. –I haven’t won any sweepstakes so I don’t really know what it feels like, but I think it must be similar.

So why was I so excited?  Well, let’s go back a few years.  The summer after my freshman year in college, I had the time of my life working on homes in an inner-city neighborhood of Memphis, TN.  I was living on Cloud 9 as I strolled around the Binghampton neighborhood in my S.O.S. work truck, sweating like a pig, managing 4 repair projects, and meeting sweet, elderly homeowners like Ms. Murphy and Ms. Rosie.  For the first time in my life, I felt like God was using everything in me to serve Him and though I was drained each day, I was full of joy and life.

That summer was transformational for me and my Christian walk because I had finally come to the realization that my life wasn’t about me.  I had finally begun to grasp what it meant to be a steward of God’s gifts.  Godly stewardship certainly includes, but goes far beyond material possessions.

I became convinced that my engineering degree, work ethic, problem solving skills, home repair abilities, physical health and strength (what little there is), leadership capability and organizational O.C.D. tendencies were not attributes or accomplishments that I had attained myself, but rather gifts God had given me.  And because He is a jealous God, these gifts weren’t to be used to magnify my image or increase my status in ascent toward the “American Dream”.    These gifts were given with the intent of using them to make God look good and spread His fame.

That is what the HandyMan Ministry is all about.  It is about you using your God-given gifts to God’s glory.  In the neighborhoods surrounding the 930, the average home is 110 years old.  It is not uncommon for homes to need new ramps, windows, gutters, and a host of other maintenance needs.  The team also exists to equip community groups to plan and accomplish tasks that they could not do on their own.  As a way to respond to need, get to know neighbors and share the gospel, consider joining up with the team.

Fill out the skills survey if you are interested in joining.  Let us know your gifts and how best we can help you use them to advance God’s kingdom.  Simply fill out the form by CLICKING HERE.

Andy Robinette is the Logistics Coordinator for Hands of Grace, the HandyMan Ministry of Sojourn.  He can be reached via email at mercy@sojournchurch.com.

Not only do we mature individually when we serve others, we also grow as a body.

Corporate Renewal…Hands-on service enriches us as a church body because:

1. It helps us to think of the church as a community that lives out the gospel as opposed to an institution where programs are held.
2. It helps the church community begin to see and meet true need within the church community.
3. It forces us to face outwardly, seeing the needs of those outside the church community.
4. It drives the community to a deeper excitement and hunger for God’s Word as we see it lived out in community life.
5. It enlivens our worship gathered on Sunday mornings because Sunday morning worship is seen rightly as one expression of worship that should flow from our lives of worship throughout the week.

Are there other ways that you have experienced corporate growth as you have served together with God’s family, the church?

Ways Service Will Grow You

In God’s wisdom, serving others not only demonstrates God’s care and love for others, but we grow as a result of our obedience.  We grow as individuals and as a corporate community.

Individual Renewal…Hands-on service enriches us personally because:

1. It allows us to enter into God’s heart of mourning for sin and brokenness.
2. It confronts us with areas in our own lives where we need to repent and seek God’s transforming grace.
3. It yields new insights into Scripture, as we see it brought to life in the course of ministry.
4. It brings us closer to God’s passion for justice.
5. It strengthens our faith by giving us tangible evidence of God’s hand at work, while at the same time demanding a deeper level of trust.
6. It leads to greater dependence on God’s grace and wisdom.
7. It drives us to draw closer to Christ.
8. It helps us discover and develop spiritual gifts we might not otherwise have known about.
9. It expands our understanding of God’s providence.
10. It deepens our appreciation for our own salvation.
11. When we encounter Christians among those served, we learn important lessons from economically poor but spiritually rich fellow believers.

In what other ways has serving others grown you individually?

If you haven’t embraced your Servant Identity, then consider coming to Mercy Monday, where we serve and minister to the neighbors in the Germantown/Shelby Park neighborhoods.  Email Jesse Moss at jmoss@sojournchurch.com for more information.

As I was reading my Bible this morning I read the following:

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:  She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and did detestable things before me.  Therfore I did away with them as you have seen… – Ezekiel 16:49-50

The ESV Study Bible comments on this verse…”People usually think of the sins of Sodom as sexual transgressions (Genesis 19:5-9), but Ezekiel indicted the city for its materialism and neglect of the needy (although “detestable things” might include sexual sins).  Jesus made a similar comparison with Capernaum in Matthew 11:23-24.”

Those who have ears, let them hear.  God takes very seriously the Christian’s call to be a voice for the voiceless, to care for the needy, to love the unlovely.  Let’s briefly take the verse in order and see if you can relate.  This was the sin of Sodom:

1. The city and her inhabitants were arrogant.  They had an exaggerated sense of their own importance.  Is this you? Check yourself:  Does preoccupation with yourself – your own needs, dreams, and plans – quickly drain you of any additional time to focus on the needs of others, especially the poor, needy and thus forgotten people made in God’s image?  Perhaps you are arrogant.

2. The city and her inhabitants were overfed.  They had more than enough material possessions.  They lived in luxury, fed themselves like gluttons and chose not to care for the poor – whom God created, along with all humanity, to reflect his communal nature of goodness, righteousness and justice.  Is this you?  Check yourself:  Do you lack the basic necessities that are needed to sustain life? Examine the luxury items you over-indulge in that hinder your ability (financially and relationally) to serve the poor – gourmet coffee, video games, your Friday night on the town ritual?  Do you spend on yourself till you have nothing left to give, including your time, talent and paycheck?  Perhaps you are overfed.

3.  The city and her inhabitants were unconcerned.  They showed a lack of worry or interest.  Is this you?  Check yourself:  When was the last time you thought about someone who is poor?  Do you know a poor person by name? When was the last time you prayed for the needy, suffering and dying?  Can you consider a person who is materially poor to be your friend?  Have you served someone who is needy in the last week?  Perhaps you are unconcerned.

Honest reflection is difficult because we must own the reality that we are deeply sinful.  Do you exceed the guilt of Sodom?  Confess to the Lord your arrogance, gluttony, and lack of concern for the poor and needy.  Mere confession, however is not repentance.  You must turn from your wicked ways.  Christian, you must turn from your sin.  You must turn from your ways and walk in God’s.  There is wonderful news – that those who are in Christ are new creations – there is not only forgiveness of sin, but power that leads to right concern, motivation, and action.  If you are in Christ, then God’s Spirit will warm your heart and affections toward the poor and needy.  For that is what we all are, poor and needy before a holy and righteous God.

What does repentance look like for you?  How will you tangibly demonstrate God’s care for the poor and needy?

There are many ways to get involved in Seed.  Join us every Monday night at 6:30pm as we love, care for, and visit the sick, unlovely, poor and needy.  You just may discover that your heart burns with delight as you embrace and experience God’s special concern for the poor.

The only true and enduring motivation for the ministry of mercy is an experience and grasp of the grace of God in the gospel.  If we know we are sinners saved by grace alone[1], we will be both open and generous to the outcasts and the unlovely.

There are two powerful effects that the gospel of grace has on a person who has been touched by it.

1.  Grace and Loving Outcasts.

The person who knows that he received mercy while an undeserving enemy of God will have a heart of love for even (and especially!) the most ungrateful and difficult persons[2]…He thinks:  “Spiritually, I was just like these people, though physically and socially I never was where they are now.  They are outcasts.  I was an outcast.”

God gives mercy to the ungrateful and the wicked – that is what we were.  So shall we be like our Father in heaven if we show mercy even to these.  See the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matt. 18:21-35. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

The language of the Christian Heart sounds like the following:  “I am only where I am by the sheer and unmerited mercy of God.  I am completely equal with all other people.”  This understanding from the heart wells up compassion for all people who need the mercy of God.

2. Grace and Generosity

The second major effect that the gospel of grace has on a person is that it creates spontaneous generosity.

One of the reasons that Jesus puts the Samaritan in the parable is that he, by virtue of his race and history, has no obligations at all to stop and give aid.  Yet he stops.  Why?  Luke 10:33 tells us he was motivated by his compassion.

Mercy is commanded, but it must not be the response to a command, it is an overflowing generosity as a response to the mercy of God, which we received.

Often books and speakers tell Christians that they should help the needy because they have so much.  Of course this is true.  But this approach is very limited in its motivating power.  Ultimately is produces guilt.  The Bible does not use the guilt-producing motivation, yet it powerfully argues for the ministry of mercy.

Mercy is spontaneous, superabounding love, which comes from an experience of the grace of God.  The deeper the experience of the free grace of God, the more generous we must become.

What motivates you to love the poor?  the outcasts?  the unlovely?

Do you think of yourself as someone who is spiritually poor, a sinner, and in need of God’s mercy? Take some time to reflect on your need for God’s mercy.  Own your sin and your need of a savior.

Now, reflect on the grace of God showered upon you through the gospel.  Go and do likewise.

Much of the content of this blog can be found verbatim in the book Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller.

[2] Romans 5:8ff