Growing up in an affluent suburb of metropolitan Detroit, I learned a lot about the power of a job title.  My surroundings taught me that a person’s job title, the title listed on one’s business card, determined the car you drove, the house you lived in, the number of friends you had, and the amount of joy you had in life.   The better the job title, the better the car, bigger the house, the more friends you had, and the more joy you experienced.  I was taught that one’s fulfillment (a person’s joy) was directly proportionate to the prestige of his or her job title.  It was a simple formula really, one I could easily grasp, that is, until I actually had the job title and didn’t have any joy.

At the age of 21, I had the car, I had what I thought to be friends, and I had the money, but no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t have any joy.   Ecclesiastes 5 tells us that, “The lover of money will not be satisfied with money, nor the lover of wealth with gain.”

I rediscovered joy (and God’s peace) when I first heard my little sister sing almost ten years ago. I can still remember hearing her voice as she sang for the very first time.  I couldn’t believe my ears, her voice radiated with confidence and love.  It was filled with pure joy, something I desperately wanted.

My little sister is one of the reasons I became a pastor.  With her joy-filled song, she invited me to join her at church.  She asked me if I’d be willing to give up some of my time to join her youth group.  She asked me, “Scott would you be willing to be a chaperone for our youth group?  And would you be willing to drive one of our church’s vans?”

My little sister was the first person in my life, who actually invited me to give up some of my time, to give up some of my money, to give up some of my commitments in order that I might begin a journey of faith.  Within three year’s time of her first invitation, I left my position in the investment world in order to become a pastor.  I cashed in my IRA’s, I spent my savings, and I sacrificed my job title in order to live out a life of faith, and in so doing I found life.  I met my wife, I found my voice, and I discovered that my life was being filled with God’s joy and peace.  My heart had been touched and turned inside out, my grip had been loosened, and my life no longer depended upon my job title.  My little sister invited me to encounter the Holy Spirit, and I said yes.

I believe that God is calling you similarly.  I believe that God is calling you to give of yourself, to give of your time, to give up some of your commitments in order to give back a portion of the things you hold onto so dearly, in order that you might be filled with God’s joy and peace.  I wonder, have you been ignoring God’s invitation?  Have you been neglecting a call to action?  Have you been unwilling to let go of your commitments in order to free yourself to give back?  My friends, God is calling you to sing.  God is calling you to serve.  God is calling you to live a life of generosity and joy.

I am a preacher’s kid. My dad was in the pulpit every Sunday when I was in church growing up. Going to church was not something that felt forced upon me, it was just something that we naturally did as a family. My parents first planted the seed of God’s Word in my life. It began to grow slowly throughout the early years of my life, however it was not until high school when those seeds really took root and began to grow on their own. I remember a moment in which I recognized Jesus as my savior and Lord and began to earnestly seek to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Today I believe and hope that my life is good soil for the seed of God’s Word to continue to grow. There are some areas in my life which I know could be better soil for God. With God’s help, I hope to be able to transform these areas into the soil for rich growth.

Busyness is one of the concerns that most often crowds out God’s kingdom as the top priority in my life. I know that slowing down and recognizing God’s presence in each moment of the day may be helpful in addressing this issue. Recognizing that God is ultimately in control will help address my need to feel busy.

In today’s passage the Apostle Paul discusses how a Christian community should respond to a brother who has slipped up & fallen into sin. Let’s consider this idea literally to see what Paul might have to say for us today.

So a friend in faith (we’ll call him Trip) is walking down a freshly mopped tile hallway. The plastic yellow warning signs are posted urging caution & there is a sturdy handrail nearby for support. However, Trip is distracted with reading Galatians 6:1-10 on his Blackberry. He suddenly loses his footing on the slick floor & falls flat on his back. Trip is now lying on the tiled floor in dire need of saving. How should a Christian respond?

A group of fellow believers (led by a friend we’ll call Lee) rushes to the scene of the fall. But instead of offering immediate assistance, Lee & his friends question Trip extensively about the circumstances of his tumble. They begin to lecture Trip for disregarding the many warning signs & not using the available handrails. Lee & his friends draw the distinct contrast of their fallen brother & their own fine style of walking. They would probably be eager to demonstrate for Trip exactly how they would have held onto the handrail & carefully navigated the slippery floor. (They might want to do this 2 or 3 times, just to make sure their friend “understood.”) Perhaps Lee’s friends would compare their now enviable record of “fall-free-days” with Trip’s current record of zero “fall-free-days.” Of course through all this, Trip is still lying on the floor in need of saving. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine that Trip is beginning to seriously reconsider the spirit of “helpfulness” of his fellow believers.

Now, lets consider a 2^nd approach to Trip’s predicament. This group (led by a friend we’ll call Phil) takes Paul’s urging to “bear one another’s burdens” to heart. Phil & his friends immediately come to Trip’s aid. They do everything they can to lift him up from his fallen condition. Their goal is to help their brother be restored to his previously upright state. Phil & his friends recognize that they, too, could have very easily slipped. Phil realizes that we all make silly mistakes that we regret. Their hope would be that if they should fall, that they could count on their fellow believers to be there to help them regain their footing & continue on their journey. While Trip still has a nasty bump on his head as a consequence of his fall, he feels encouraged having been surrounded in Christian love.

The question now before us is which group best exemplifies the spirit of Christian love? The response from Lee Galistic’s group to Trip’s fall? Or should we aim to follow the actions of the group led by Phil Adelphia? The choice is ours to make.

Darren Lippe co-leads the “Loving God” Learning Community at The Church of the Resurrection.

I’ve never been much of an athlete, because coordination, quite frankly, isn’t one of my gifts.  The one sport I ever played with really any consistency was golf.  In college, one of my sorority sisters was the only woman on the golf team.  One Thursday night, she pleaded with us, if anyone has a set of clubs, please join the team or it will cease to exist.  Well, I had a set of clubs – my father is an avid golfer and he’d had an old pair of his clubs cut down and given to me.  So, I thought, why not.  My very first tournament was also my very first time to play an entire round of golf.  I can remember the first time I was paired up with someone from another team.  Each of us had to keep score for someone else and you could tell that this one girl who was taking mine was being very diligent as I began.  But slowly, it was ever so apparent, that I wasn’t going to beat her.  In fact, I wasn’t even going to play an entire hole all the way through.  You see, we had this rule, that if you got double par on a hole, that you could simply take that score, pick up your ball and head to the next hole.  So, at the end of the round, my score was 144 (double par of 72)– or as my friend Ben used to affectionately call it, buck 44.  That was my score for each and every match.

You know I thought to myself, this game is fun, and it’s nice to know that you can play a sport and not be competitive. But, I guess it was that easy, because I wasn’t really that good at golf and I kind of knew that going in.  However, when it was something I was good at – it was a whole different story.  Athletics wasn’t my gift, but I always did well in school.  Suddenly, the competitive spirit that most people feel on the field came out in the classroom.  I might not have been peeking at the scores of my opponents, but I was trying to see the grade on my classmates test.  Then afterwards, depending on their score, I would either say to myself – “at least I didn’t do as bad as that guy” or “I should have studied harder.”  As I read the passage for today’s GPS guide, I found myself resonating with the last couple of verses.  “If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.”  Most of us can agree that on the whole we are truly happy when others succeed, and that we appreciate the gifts that others have to offer.  However, somehow things are different when we share the same gifts as someone else, or have the same goals as they do.  We turn into people who are jealous of others’ success and flaunt our achievements.

But, truth be told, I had a lot more fun playing golf in a spirit of fun than I did taking a test with a spirit of competition.  And that’s really what I think that Paul was talking about.  If we live in the Spirit, and don’t allow competition, envy, and conceit to rule our lives, then we will have joy in our hearts.  And we’ll be kind to one another, patient with each other, and generous.  Peace and gentleness will rule and we’ll practice self-control.  Above all, love and faith will rule our hearts.  There truly is more happiness in our lives when we live in the Spirit.

This Sunday I had the honor of teaching our Confirmation class on “What does God expect of us?”  (Confirmation is a class for students 7th -12th grade who want to learn about Christ, faith, the church and publicly confirm their love of God for themselves, as acknowledged in their baptism. For more information about Confirmation, click here.)   We talked about the two greatest commandments of loving God with our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving others as we love ourselves (from Mark 12:29-31). At first, I thought this is a simple message. Then, I found myself wrestling with these commandments because of the theme from today’s reading.

Today’s Scripture reinstates the type of love we are to show to one another: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”(1 John 3:16).   My picture of loving others changes drastically when I picture the love of Jesus and the cross.

Here are a few descriptions of love I observe from Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

Christ’s love is,  no matter the situation, we give others respect and dignity.

Christ’s love is, no matter the situation,  we offer hospitality, grace and forgiveness.

Christ’s love is, no matter the situation, seemingly  overwhelming and undeserving, but we offer it anyway.

Christ’s love is,  no matter the situation, there is an action that is beyond our comfort level and calls us to respond.

We are people who must love one another with Christ’s love. It’s beyond being nice. It’s a soul-twisting, life-changing love that makes an impact on others and on us. This is where the wrestling begins…because this is easy to say but not so easy to do. We remember that we do not have the strength or the natural ability to give this love.  So, we ask God to give us this love to give to others.

Today, offer this love to someone you know that needs it.   You can offer it through a smile, a kind word, any outward expression of the inward decision that you are making to begin to love one another radically.  Find that one person that it is hard to love and start now.   May you experience God’s presence as you offer this radical, life-changing experience.

While on maternity leave, I had the opportunity to visit some other churches on Sunday mornings.  One Sunday, at another United Methodist Church, I was walking towards the sanctuary with Joy, who was 4 weeks old at the time.  A woman looked at us and made that “awww…” face that lots of people make at babies and then said, “you better hurry and get her in the nursery, they are getting ready to start their fun songs.”  I responded, “oh, she’s not going to the nursery, I am taking her to worship with me.”  This was met with an “oh…” that had a tone of disdain, and as I walked away I heard the woman say to her friends, “uh, another one of those.” 

I was a bit shocked.  I assume that the woman’s disapproval was because she doesn’t like the people who take their infants (and perhaps other children??) into the worship service.  Perhaps she finds them disruptive.  I noticed that there were lots of other parents with young children in the worship service.  As I went into service, my shock and disapproval continued to grow.  How could someone be so inhospitable?  Is that how visitors, or worse yet, non-Christians encounter the church?  Are our children only welcome to worship the God who created them if they can keep their mouths shut in the pews? 

We all need a good dose of Paul’s instructions on how to be the church.  In Romans 12:9-21, he is trying to teach us how to be the church, how to live as the body of Jesus Christ in this world.  As I look through what he says, many of the individual directives seem fairly attainable, at least in short segments of time.  When I read the verses together, however, and consider the whole passage, I’m a bit overwhelmed with the gap between who I am and who God calls me to be.  Be patient in affliction, really?  I wonder how our church is doing in being faithful to these directions–all of us together as a community.  Are we ever conceited?  Isn’t it good enough just to be nice?? 

The truth is… to be the church is to be the physical presence of Jesus in our world, and that’s a pretty tall order.   And for me, this whole “being like Jesus” thing really does make me RETHINK CHURCH.

Molly is the Campus Pastor of Resurrection’s West Campus in Olathe and can be reached at Molly.Simpson@rezwest.org.

The passage today indicates that God is holy and that God has made it possible for us to be in God’s presence in an close and intentional way. The opportunity to “enter the Most Holy Place” does not come from a God that is separate, but instead one who draws near to us and desires for us to draw near to God.

I have needed trusted people to give me a boost in my life of faith at times in my life when I have found it most difficult to move through every day activities. There have been times in my life when I have been overwhelmed by the things for which I am responsible. I had friends in my small group and other trusted persons who helped me through those times to a sense of calm and awareness of God’s presence.

I have found it important to be in community as it brings me closer to God and others serve as tangible reminders of God’s presence.

An “article” on archaeology noted the recent discovery of the following text exchange from circa 33 A.D:

SID:  Peter, I’m glad you’ve asked Miracle Consulting Company for our input on the launch of your new product line.  I have to catch the 5:05 caravan to Jericho, so let’s just knock around the bare bones of your plan.

PETER:  Fine by me, but it isn’t a new product line.  We just want to tell others about the good news of Jesus Christ.

SID:  Check.  What would be your mission statement?

PETER:  To go & make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of God, to teach them to obey everything Jesus taught us.

SID:  All nations?  Even Samaria? 

PETER:  Yes. Man-made borders & divisions can’t limit God’s love.

SID:  Sounds ambitious!  What are you looking at for your media buys?

PETER:  We are planning on just using “word of mouth” as our advertising plan.

SID:  Really?  For an international launch?  O-k-a-y.  Tell me about your staff: education levels, experience, status in the community, international backgrounds, language skills, whatever you got.

PETER:  We have 11 dedicated staff members.  Education is probably considered lacking, very little formal schooling.  Status is minimal.  They aren’t well known in their communities.  No international experience.  Language background is very sketchy.  They are mostly from the Galilee area & haven’t traveled much.

SID:  For such an aggressive push, their credentials are a tad ordinary.  Hang on I’m going through security.

SID:  Okay, I’m back.  Tell me about your support budget:  backroom staff, expense accounts, employee benefit plans, commission/bonus budgets, the works!

PETER:  We have no budget.  The 11 of us will simply go & tell others about Christ & get by as best as we can.  We have no expense budgets.  While we will enjoy the Fruits of the Spirit, no formal benefit plan.  We aren’t on commission, but we know our reward awaits us in heaven.

SID:  Wow!  You & your team must really be dedicated!  Listen Peter they are about to pull away the stairs from my donkey so I’ll probably get cut off.  Here’s my quick take:  Are you a praying man, Peter?

PETER:  Definitely.

SID:  Then here’s what you do:  pray to God for His help.  Without Him, there is NO way this is going to work.  I know you are impulsive, but you can’t really expect to get your message out with this rag-tag operation & shoestring budget.  I’d limit your push to the Galilee area, set quotas of 10 believers/month & then maybe set up a satellite campus in Nazareth.  With any luck, in a couple of thousand years you might be able to create a small market niche in Northern Israel.

PETER:  Thanks for your input.  I think we’ll follow our original plan.  With God, nothing is impossible. 

SID:  I hear you.  Thanks for using Miracle Consulting Company.  As our slogan states, “If you like our advice, it’s a miracle!”  Let’s do lunch next week.  [SID has signed off.]

Darren Lippe co-leads the “Loving God” Learning Community at The Church of the Resurrection.

I recently attended a team training session for a mission trip I plan on taking this fall with the church.  If you have not taken a mission trip with Church of the Resurrection, one of the assignments in preparation for a trip is to construct your personal faith story and then be prepared to tell it within a three to four minute time frame.  This way each person is be prepared if someone asks him or her on the trip to offer a personal “testimony.”  For experience has proven that these personal testimonies can have a profound impact on people and situations during a trip.

Now, as a pastor, it is not unusual that I am asked to give my testimony, but rarely am I limited to a three-minute timeframe.  Although, I’m sure there are some who wished they had placed a time limit on my story!  As I prepared my abbreviated story, I found this exercise to be very helpful.  It forced me to organize my story, to subtract all the extraneous details and to really think about what was important in my commitment to Christ, so that I could tell it succinctly.

As 1 Peter 3:15 reminds us, we should always be ready to explain what we believe, not just when we’re planning a mission trip.  The reality is we step into a mission field everyday when we leave our homes and, in most situations, we may only have a three-minute window to make a difference in another person’s life by offering our witness.  

I want to encourage you to think about writing down your story so that the next time someone asks you at the water cooler why your faith or your church is so important to you, you have a 3-minute response all prepared.  It may be the only opportunity you get.

Here are a couple of suggestions that the Mission team gave us to consider when writing our story:

• Central theme of life struggles
• Appropriate Scripture verse
• Attention-getting story or phrase
• Story outline:  

                  My life before knowing Christ; 
                  The way I came to Christ or fully committed to Him; 
                  My life after receiving Christ

When you get your story worked out, I’d love to hear it sometime.

Over and over again in Jesus’ ministry we see examples of what scholars call, “the great reversal.” As a way of demonstrating God’s abiding compassion for those at the bottom rungs of society, Jesus exalts them and grants them positions of favor. Women – who in the time of the first century were considered less than second class citizens – were given places of honor and authority in Christ’s ministry. Tax collectors – barred from entering the Temple due to their  status as traitors and “unclean” in the eyes of devout religious leaders – found themselves called by Jesus into his inner circle. It is as if Jesus is trying in every way he can imagine to say to the world around him (and to us), “The things you consider valuable and the things God considers valuable are often quite opposite each other.”

This verse is another great example of that same kind of reversal. But it serves two purposes for that original audience. First, it serves as an exhortation to early Christians to follow the example Jesus established and to devote their efforts to raising up the downtrodden. If indeed God’s business is to comfort the afflicted, that should stand as the primary task of God’s church also.

Secondarily the writer is very intent to encourage the community of believers themselves. This passage seems to be addressed to a community of believers who have struggled recently and encountered difficult passages in their ministry, perhaps facing rejection at every turn. When the writer speaks to them about Jesus being misunderstood and rejected, he is encouraging them to stand firm whenever they are misunderstood or rejected. How could you not possibly be encouraged when your spiritual mentor writes a letter in which he declares that you are, “… a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”

We are challenged as we read this passage to reflect the very values that Jesus lived by. We are challenged to be the faithful believers who see intrinsic worth in every human being. We are challenged to be those who advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves. We are challenged to welcome “the last, the least, the lost” with open arms into our community. And finally we are challenged to turn the values of society on their head and prepare to be misunderstood and even ridiculed.

The question is: are we up to the challenge?