Sharing Life and Christ

God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27 “ The kingdom of God is like this,” he said.   “A man scatters seed on the ground.   He sleeps and rises night and day; the seed sprouts and grows, although he doesn’t know how…” Mark 4:26-27 These verses remind us that at the core of the Christian faith is mystery.   In one sense, mystery in Scripture speaks of something that God chose to keep hidden and has since made clear.   That’s Colossians 1:27.   Christ was revealed, and until He was revealed, no one would know and understand and experience the hope of glory.   But even since King Jesus has been revealed, there is still much about Him that is veiled, that remains mysterious.   This is simply because Jesus is infinite and eternal and holy, and we are not.   Imperfect, finite creatures simply cannot fully comprehend the One in whom the fullness of God wa...

“I’ve been to the mountaintop.”   I hope Dr. King would approve of me borrowing his famous line to share an update.   It’s a very appropriate statement for this season that has been simmering in my mind for a few weeks now.   I’d like to try and share why with you. How do I stay focussed on the dream of planting and pastoring a multiethnic church among the disadvantaged when everything is slapped with a big To-Be-Determined sticker?   The answer is becoming clear: because I’ve been to the mountaintop.   For the past number of years, the Lord has had me on a journey of discovery.   I’ve come to be in close contact with people who are dramatically different than me, and I’ve learned their stories.   My eyes have been opened to realities that have irrevocably altered my theological framework and my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus.   And I worship God for this journey.   The situations many friends find themselves in is clos...

    It’s been awhile since we updated everyone on things, and this seems like a particularly pivotal time to do so.   June 14th is my last day of service as associate pastor of Christ The King Church, Kenosha, WI, where I’ve been privileged to serve for the past three years on staff, and where, more importantly, Elyse and I have been built up into Jesus for the past 7 years.   Our relationships and experiences at Christ The King have been instrumental in both our personal sanctification and in our sense of call toward church planting, specifically a multiethnic church, and ministering to the poor and marginalized.   I’ve become a little bit better at preaching, a little bit better at leading, and I hope both spring from being a little bit better learner of Jesus, my King.   I’m fully aware of my deficiencies as His student, but nonetheless there is an unwavering commitment to keep at it since where else could I go to find the words of eternal life? ...

What do Joseph, Jonah, Paul, Naomi, David, and Job have in common?   Besides all of these folks’ lives being recorded for us in Scripture, they also all suffered serious trials for God’s good purposes.   Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.   Jonah got a sunburn (it was worse than it sounds!).   Paul was shipwrecked, bitten by a viper, stoned, beaten.   David was chased by a spear-chuckin’ king for years.   Job lost all of his wealth and all of his children.   Naomi lost her husband and two sons from famine. Amazing things resulted from many of these situations.   Joseph saved God’s people from famine when he rose from a slave to second in command in Egypt.   Paul planted who knows how many churches and saved countless people after evangelizing the entire known world in the first century.   Naomi’s lineage eventually brings us Jesus the Savior.   Job’s sufferings shamed satan by showcasing why a man would worship God despit...

I’ve been camped out in Acts 10-11 for almost a week now, which is pretty rare for me to spend more than a couple of days on a particular text before moving on.   But it’s been so rich that I’ve wanted to linger.   It’s God’s heart for all people that has provided the savory reflections on Acts 10-11.   These chapters reveal, in narrative form, God’s heart for all people, and there is something particularly compelling to me seeing Peter’s perspective change and align with God’s.   To provide a short recap, Ch. 10 begins with this Roman centurion named Cornelius, a God-fearing man, receiving a vision that commands him to send for the Apostle Peter to hear what this man is proclaiming (about Jesus).   The story then moves to Peter receiving a vision of a sheet carrying all kinds of “unclean” (to the Jew) animals descending from heaven.   God commands Peter to “rise, kill, and eat” to which Peter, as a devout Jew, refuses to do.   This t...

In the first post, I tried to answer the question, “why plant a church?” by speaking of the necessity of the Church as the possessor and proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   It’s worth reading my initial thoughts on that question before diving into what follows.   My aim in this writing is to answer the title question: Why plant a multiethnic church? Church planting itself seems daunting to begin with.   Strategically, launching a new church with as few obstacles for growth as possible seems wise.   We want to fast track to self-sustainability after all, don’t we?   We want the new church to succeed for the sake of the gospel.   Besides that, a multiethnic church requires a very narrow range of potential locations.   Typically, the place where multiple ethnicities reside in close proximity is the city, and more specifically, in economically diverse (and challenged) areas of the city.   This creates an even greater burden and po...

This is the first of (Lord willing) many writings that have a two-fold aim.   First, I hope in chronicling the journey to sharpen my ability to articulate the vision and burden for church planting that God has put on my heart.   Along these lines, I welcome any push back, questions, or clarification you have.   My thinking isn’t a finished product!   Second, I hope to inform and encourage you who would read.   Whatever God is up to is worth celebrating and leveraging to stir us up to love and good deeds. It makes sense to try and answer the obvious question first:   Why plant a church?   As the title suggests, there is both a biblical conviction and a sense of God’s call, a “ must ness ,” about it.   One is objective and unchanging.   The other is subjective and open to alteration, correction, or surrender depending on what the current assessment process concludes.   But combined, the two realities answer the question:...