I went to church and left slightly disappointed and angry…not at the sermon…but about other things. After church I was crying and angry. So I went to Monte Sano to get away from things. I was reading my Bible…or at least trying to.

Fifteen minutes passed and I see a girl drive into lookout point where I was. She gets out her car and sits on the bench for a second or two then heads back into her car. I look at her and she looks in need. I felt the Lord trying to nudge me to talk to her. But I didn’t have enough guts until she got back in her car. She looked so sad.

It was about time for me to go.

I headed back to my car but made a slight detour toward hers. I knocked on her car window trying not to startle her as she just lay there contemplating. I gave the signal to roll down the window. She did. My first words were “Are you okay? My name is Heather. What’s wrong?”

Gathering interest here.

2T31 World Ministries is considering a medical-gospel missions trip to Tanzania in the summer of 2007. Assuming we go, I will lead a smaller team of around 15-20 members. We would work with a pastor that Doug Wever, myself and others have trained.

The pastor leads a church in Moshi, at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. He has been sharing Christ with at least one Maasai tribe in the area.

Changing Tires for Jesus

I was thinking about David’s message this morning and the reference to 1 Cor 10:31: Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

One of the most humble, godly, spiritually-powerful men I ever met was Ed Drew, a U.S. Army chaplain in Italy 20 years ago. Ed shared with me how, before he came back on active duty as a chaplain, he was working as a tire changer at Sears. He was also restless and unfulfilled ….. until he came to the point where he told the Lord he was willing to change tires for Him for the rest of the his life, if that was what God wanted. Ed had come to the point in his life where he was literally (and joyfully) willing to change tires for Jesus for the rest of his life. Why? The principle articulated in 1 Cor 10:31 took hold in his life.

Every church plant should have a strategy for the evangelization of its city. What does that mean? And what does it look like for Sojourn?

I will write from two angles:
(1) philosophy of disciple-making, and
(2) methodology of disciple-making

PHILOSOPHY
Followers of Christ are commanded by King Jesus to make disciples. Check it out in Matthew 28:19-20. This sounds like a task to tackle. However, that is only a part of a whole. The Greek language captures that the beginning of this passage could be interpreted, “As you are going disciples should be made.” Put another way, if we are living as missional disciples, there should be disciples in our wake.

There isn’t anything that frustrates me more than being too busy. And I think there is a reason for this: God doesn’t want it!! One thing that characterizes my “busyness” is a schedule that is crowded with much activity, but without focus. Busyness creates an attitude in me of getting from one activity to another, and ruins my focus on the people involved in that activity. And this is God’s objection to our busyness: we lose our focus on Him and on His mission.

Simplicity is a word that comes up over and over again in our conversations and teaching in our Sojourn gatherings. What does it mean to simplify? During the past few months, as I was recovering from my bicycle accident, I was forced to miss many activities that would normally fill my schedule. I had to look at each activity and discuss with the Lord, “Is this what you would have me do with the certain amount of energy that I have to spend today?” I discovered that I had to make choices that sometimes I didn’t like (and sometimes others didn’t like!), in order to make it through the week. I had to simplify my schedule. But you know what I found? I was much more “present” at the activities that I attended. You know what I mean… my heart was there, I could focus on the people I was with, and on what God might want to do in that situation. What a cool feeling this was, though – in contrast to my normal distractedness!!

The office Christmas party. The neighborhood Christmas party. Your friends’ Christmas party. Your pseudo-friends’ Christmas party. What do you do? Go! Jesus would. Jesus did. He spent a lot of time with his neighbors, friends and acquaintances. The Jews loved to celebrate. If you have kids, budget the extra money for baby-sitters. If you do not have kids, book your calendars in advance.

Enjoy the conversations. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the drinks. But do not be bore, a glutton or a drunk. Partake of the gifts, but do not abuse them. Be especially careful to use discipline if you drink alcohol. Employees have been fired because of their drunken antics at Christmas parties. At best, you can lose respect or credibility by drinking too much.