the encounter

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken…. – Rich Mullins

Where have you seen Jesus lately?

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redemption stories e-book

over on my weekly podcast site, we’ve just released a FREE e-book, redemption stories.

(I say “we” but Stewart did most of the hard work in bringing it all together and doing the layout.)

Redemption is the story of our faith.

A broken world, in need of a Savior. God incarnate walking amongst us — living and dying to redeem us through love.

The e-book includes stories, pictures and verse, but all of them tell a story — a redemption story.

We received great input from Adele Sakler, Ben & Joy Thomas, Laura Bridge, Jason Duke, Adam Howie, Christine McIntosh, Trent Yaconelli, Emma Boyd, Angus S. Mathie, Paula Spur, Avril Cutler, Emma Boyd and Rob Griggs-Taylor.

Every submission was wonderful but these few paragraphs from Ben Thomas really grab me…

John Wesley said, “catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn”. This reminds me of Jim and Patty. Ten years ago, their neighbors wanted their boat. Today, they are a inspiration to hundreds of others in our community of what God can do when you allow Him unrestricted access to your life and resources. Our lives may become less predictable, but as our desires slowly start melting away and blending into God’s desires, our hearts become oddly comforted by the uncomfortable.

I think being a fixer means being okay with these messy, imperfect situations. Doctors mustn’t be squeamish, mechanics mustn’t be afraid to get oil on their pants. Being fixers with Jesus means we’ll encounter questions we can’t fully answer and pain that can’t be explained away by pat answers and bumper stickers. Often, the fix is simply our presence, reassuring the broken world around us that “no, God has not forgotten about you”.

Its hard-wired in us all to fix something. If you want a neat and tidy situation to fix, you should probably stick to fixing up your kitchen. If you’re up for something a bit more adventurous and long lasting, consider following this Jesus character, who invites us into a Fixers’ Collective called the Kingdom of God, where we’re invited to enter into the broken mess and tell a story about a God who loves the unloveable, reassuring them that “it’s okay” because “you’ll get better soon”.

I hope you’ll take some time to download the book, read it, chew on it and then share it with friends.

Shalom!

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From the Ooze.TV:

What do a scratch academy DJ and church pastor have in common? More than you’d think, according to DJ Hapa and Kimberly Williams. Hapa is director of the internationally acclaimed Scratch Academy and Kimberly Williams is a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, whose paths crossed when Kimberly began exploring the metaphor of “pastor as DJ.” Hapa describes a DJ’s unique form of musician-ship as one of de-composition and re-composition. The DJ can’t just passively listen to music and say, “I like this or that,” but instead has to figure out what’s going on underneath the surface sound. When you listen to the words, the sounds, and the beats, you can find connections in songs that you never thought had any synergy.

You can get into a rut even as a DJ, says Hapa — playing the same club, the same music tracks Friday night after Friday night. This may be what the listener wants to hear-or think they want to hear. But when Hapa began to dig into the music, taking apart and putting back together the pieces in different ways, he rediscovered music and himself. He thinks the DJ’s role is then to take the re-composed music to people and expose them to something new (as opposed to a disc jockey that plays a 3 or 4 minute song without interruption and simply fills a role of announcer).

Kimberly thinks sitting at the feet of a DJ can help her become a better pastor. Instead of ‘playing” the same themes over and over-perhaps even the popular topics that people want to hear-pastor’s need to dig into scripture, rediscover it, and re-compose it in a way that makes it new and alive for the listeners. This can help both pastor and listeners alike from getting stuck in a rut, from doing the same old thing week after week, and better connect people to each other, and to the Word.

How can you play the role of DJ in your community?

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