Voice Box

A Hole in our Gospel - Chapter 3 - You Lack One Thing

What is your net worth?

How does one even define and determine net worth?

Basically, net worth is the grand total of all of your assets minus all of your liabilities.  So, in light of the gospel, how does one determine net worth?

The story of the rich young ruler told in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18 is one of the more inspiring... and haunting... in all of the gospels.  The man did what was right.  He had a big house.  And his house was in order.  But Jesus asks him to calculate his net worth using a different formula.

What is the sweet spot, the zone, the pocket?

In music or sports, or even in business and relationships, the sweet spot, the zone, the pocket is that mysterious and meaningful time and place where what you have and who you are is reaching maximum potential.  It is where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  It is shalom - everything in its right place.

Does God call us to live in the sweet spot, the zone, the pocket?

According to author Frederick Buechner, 'The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.'

What makes you glad?

What is the world hungry for?

Is that your sweet spot?  Is that where you live?

Back to this idea of net worth...

A whole gospel (not hole gospel) approach to calculating net worth would see us adding up all of the gifts and experiences and abilities and opportunities and passion and grace that God has given us and subtracting from that the debt of love we owe. 

You are rich!  You are wealthy beyond imagination!  And you are invited to give it all away.

What are you waiting for?

Please join this Advent book club by reading The Hole in our Gospel
and this blog every day until Christmas.

The Hole in our Gospel - Chapter 2 - A Coward for God

When given the opportunity to take a risk, to launch an adventure, to give valuable things away, to blindly embrace change, to recklessly accept a call... what do you do?

And the question doesn't have to be as shocking as that.  What do you do when presented with an opportunity to bring the flavor and shape of God's grace and justice into someone's world, right here and right now?  Do you stop and ask whether it's the right thing to do or not?  If so, I can answer that question for you.

Richard Stearns, author of The Hole in our Gospel, an Ivy-league MBA, and a highly successfuly corporate CEO, came to a crossroads.  There was sacrifice involved, and there was so much potential too.  He calls the day that the World Vision board of directors offered him the position of U.S.-based president 'one of the lowest points' in his life.

A low point?  One of the lowest points of his life?

When faced with decisions that will change everything about our life, it can bring us to the end of ourselves, to the end of our rope.  It can make us feel, well, low. 

But there were other low points in Stearns' life.  Like when he was fired twice in the same year, first from ParkerBrothers, and then from Franklin Mint.  Like when he spent 14 months as an educated, highly qualified, and unemployed father of 5... wandering through the wilderness. 

Like the freed slaves trekking from hard labor in Egypt to heavenly promises in Canaan, wandering through the wilderness.  And along the way, hunger ensues, and helplessness too.  When we are left with nothing, hands empty, hearts dry, it is then that we find everything we are, everything we have, and everything we need comes from God and God alone.

Stearns took a call in 1984 from a friend, Bill Bryce, and advised him to confidently and faithfully go to work for World Vision to help the world's poor.  In 1997, Stearns took another call from Bryce.  This time Bryce asked Stearns to join him in also giving his gifts and skills to helping the world's poor.  Stearns resisted.  He felt that World Vision was looking for someone who was part CEO, part Mother Teresa, and part Indiana Jones.  Sounds exciting, but unlikely. 

Finally, a provocative and jarring question moved the process forward.  It's a question we should ask ourselves, today and always.

'Am I willing to be open to God's will for my life?'

Two other questions help us find the kingdom-shaping adventure in our lives.

'Why did God make me?'

'What kind of disciple am I willing to be?'

These questions aren't just for the Mother Teresas and Indiana Joneses of the world.  It's not just for the prophets and apostles.  Not just for the preachers and poets.  These questions are for each of us.  So... are you willing to be open to God's will for your life?  Why did God make you?  What kind of disciple are you willing to be?

Please join this Advent book club by reading The Hole in our Gospel
and this blog every day until Christmas.

enduring comfort (Advent 1 sermon on Matthew 3:1-6 and Isaiah 40:1-9)

You can listen to my sermon from Sunday here:

Enduring Comfort

The Hole in our Gospel - Chapter 1 - A Hole in the Whole

Before we can address the 'hole' in our gospel, we should come to some understanding, or at least a working definition, of what the 'gospel' actually, really, truly is.  The dictionary tells us it means glad tidings or good news.  This news is that people separated from God can be reconciled to God.  This is what it means to be 'saved'.  The gospel is all that... and so much more too. 

The gospel has implications not only for the afterlife, but for real life - for life here and now.  Jesus has much to say about God's kingdom - a place, a time, a realm where the poor, the sick, the grieving, cripples, slaves, women, children, widows, orphans, lepers, and aliens - the 'least of these' - were to be reconciled to God and society.  People that hear and believe and experience this good news are then to be agents of this historical and cultural and universe-shattering shift from alienation and isolation to community and connection... an earth transformed by transformed people.

But this beautiful and redemptive gospel has been hijacked by those who have turned the good news of Jesus simply into 'fire insurance' - an afterlife guarantee - an exit strategy.

Jesus had a mission statement.  And if we carefully and prayerfully read this statement, we'll see that Jesus cared about the whole person, not only the soul of a person.  This mission statement is found in Luke 4.

Jesus mission is to tell poor people something good and promising and peaceful and hopeful.

Jesus mission is to unlock prisons and refugee camps and ghettos and give people freedom.

Jesus mission is to heal the sick, the blind, even the dead.

Jesus mission is to turn over the systems and structures and people and politics that oppress and push down on the poor, the prisoners, the sick, the slaves.

Jesus mission is to open up the realities and promises of Jubilee - an ancient Jewish idea (historians aren't sure if it ever actually happened) when slaves were freed, debts were forgiven, land was returned to its owners, and the whole society was at rest.

This is a mission for first century Palestine.  And it is a mission for our twenty-first century world as well.  But it's been shot full of holes.  We've been distracted and discouraged.  This Advent, let's be honest about the holes in our gospel, about the hollow places and missing pieces.

Please join this Advent book club by reading The Hole in our Gospel
and this blog every day until Christmas.

still time to buy the book

There's still time to get your copy of The Hole in our Gospel before tomorrow's Advent book club begins on this blog.

friday listening party: K'Naan

I was introduced to K'Naan over the summer by a dear friend and the medical director of Doma International, Amber Kaufman.  I fell in love with K'Naan while in Ethiopia earlier this month.  His content is meaningful and provocative, and his samples, beats, and melodies are inspired by East Africa, where he lived until moving to North America at age 12.

 

 

 

 

employment opportunities with Doma International

Watch this video to learn about ways you can serve as staff or intern with Doma International.  Go to www.gcmweb.org/what to learn more about how Great Commission Ministries and Doma International have partnered to mobilize support-based missionaries.

Advent book club: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Sunday begins Advent, a season of preparation, a season to look ahead to the hope that Christmas brings.  Beginning Sunday, November 28, I will blog everyday until Christmas about a book by World Vision CEO, Richard Stearns, called The Hole in Our Gospel.  I invite you to buy the book now.  Follow this link, buy it, and read it with me.

bread of life (sermon on John 6:22-35)

You can listen to my sermon from last Sunday here.

Bread of Life

You'll also hear a little about Doma International's recent trip to Ethiopia.

doma’s annual party comes to BoMA on November 18!

doma’s annual party comes to BoMA on November 18!

Your one-night trip can become your life-long journey.

Grab your virtual passport, and travel with doma to experience how we are embracing children, empowering women, and impacting the world!
...
Souvenir Stop: Gallery of Hope

Bid on artwork reflecting images of hope from local Columbus artists, and purchase unique items from countries where doma serves.

Entertainment Stop: Music and Dance

Observe excerpts from Red Light Red Letter performed by Columbus dance troupe XClaim, highlighting Human Trafficking awareness.
Experience folk music and movement from Eastern Europe and Africa.
End the night by singing and dancing to some of your favorite Beatles tunes performed by The Polliwogs

Dining Stop: Global Cuisine

Taste specialty dishes from countries where doma serves.
Enjoy good beverages at the open bar.

Enlightenment Stop: Guest Speakers

Dan Clark of doma and Upper Arlington Lutheran Church will be the night's M.C.
doma’s Amber Kaufman – live from doma's medical outreach in Ethiopia
doma’s Julie Clark – fresh stories from the team's October return from Russia
The Honorable Judge Paul Herbert – hear how ladies in Columbus are moving from Human Trafficking victims to restored survivors with the help of doma

Renovate. Restore. Redefine home with doma.

Visit www.domaconnection.org and click on our Donate button to order tickets.