PJ Point: The Generous Life also focuses on Service. Winston Churchill famously said: “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”
PJ Point: We have to decide just what kind of life we want to live: a life that so centered in Christ that we can’t help but serve like Matthew 23:11 The greatest among you will be your servant…or…a life so centered on ourselves that serving has to be squeezed out of us by others.
PJ Point: The message of missions and serving and peace and justice for the world is God’s passion…and it is literally the binding that holds all of Scripture together.
26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:26-28
PJ Pondering: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy of the church is not that Christians do not care about the poor but that Christians do not know the poor.- Shane Clairborne.
We have to ask how do we know the poor?
PJ Point: We as Christians can be very quick to serve one another – and even the world –but we like to do so on our own terms. Not on God’s terms and what matters to God. Because God’s terms almost always involve risk.
PJ Point: Bishop Robert Schnase asks this question: “What have we done in the last six months to make a positive difference in the lives of others that we would not have done if it were not for our relationship to Christ?”In risk-taking mission and service, both the servant and the served are transformed.
38 When did we see you as a stranger and welcome you, or naked and give you clothes to wear? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 “Then the king will reply to them, ‘I assure you that when you have done it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you have done it for me.’
Matthew 25:38-40
PJ Point: The simple but highly profound truth is this: when we serve others, we serve Jesus Christ.
PJ Point: Bishop Schnase says “The stretch of Christian discipleship is to love those for whom it is not automatic, easy, common, or accepted. To love those who do not think like us or live like us, and to express respect, compassion, and mercy to those we do not know and who may never be able to repay us –this is the love Christ pulls out of us.”
PJ Point: As Jim McMahon, puts it: “Yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing taking.” Christ calls us to relationships. Not results. We are called to be fruitful but we called more to be faithful even when we are not fruitful.
10 God isn’t unjust so that he forgets your efforts and the love you have shown for his name’s sake when you served and continue to serve God’s holy people.
Hebrews 6:10
PJ Point: Are we an internally focused church or an externally-focused church” Let me ask it another way “If Good Shepherd were to leave our community tomorrow, would anyone notice? Would anyone care?” I think that the answer has changed from 6 years to now in many ways.
PJ Point: Pastors Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw in their book The Externally-Focused Church, say that most churches, blatantly or subtly, have an unspoken objective—“How can we be the ‘best church in our community?’”—and they staff, budget, and plan accordingly
PJ Point: They say that becoming an externally focused church is not about becoming the best church in the community. The externally focused church asks, “How can we be the best church FOR our community?” That one little preposition changes everything.
24 And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds. 25 Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25
PJ Pondering: What needs are there that have yet to be met? What is 525 doing to meet the needs of 37075 and the 615? What are Christ’s purposes for us at the corner of Glenbrook?
PJ Final Point: Sociologist, activist, and author, W.E.B. DuBois said: “The most important thing to remember is this: to be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.” I believe that we at Good Shepherd are getting ready to move again from that place 6 years ago where we have been to where Christ wants us to go.
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