A Paul, A Barnabas, and a Timothy

I can picture my favorite professor in seminary whom we nicknamed, Prof, saying "Gentleman, every one of you always needs a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy in your life." Little did I realize at the time how true that statement really is.

Every one of us needs a Paul - someone who is mature in the faith investing in our lives. Someone who is teaching us the ins and outs of living the Christian faith.

We also need a Barnabas - someone who constantly encourages us and stands by us through the failures, hardships, and difficulties of the Christian experience.

And, of course, we need a Timothy - someone we are investing in and helping develop their Christian walk.

God has always provided each of these three kinds of people in my life since I was in grade school. But I talk with a lot of you who haven't been as fortunate. Ask most people, "Who is your Paul? Who is your Barnabas? Who is your Timothy?" You get blank stares and many claim they just don't know where to start.

Here's how you start: First, pray that God would bring these kinds of people into your life. Second, cultivate these qualities in yourself. To have a Paul, become like Paul - mature in your faith. To have a Barnabas, be an encourager. To have a Timothy, be faithful, be available and be teachable. Third, get involved in First Free's Five Years of Focus. Become part of our disciples making disciples ministry. Help us train the next generation and pass the baton to them. Ask someone to be a Paul to you and serve our community together. If you need additional help, call me.

Who is your Paul? Whom are you a Paul to?

Who is your Barnabas? To whom are you a Barnabas?
Who is your Timothy? Who can become a Timothy to you?

Blessings,

P.S. Ever wrestle with what God's will is for you? Does God's will seem mystical to you? Need some help with decisions in your life? Come to the 9:00 or 10:30am service this Sunday as we address some of these things. Oh, and bring a friend with you.

An "engaging" challenge

Recently, I have been convicted by the Holy Spirit through my preparation of the sermons on Sunday morning. The early church had leaders like Paul and Barnabas who knew how to create opportunities to talk about Jesus rather than creating conflict. They were very good at engaging the culture of their day.

Many Christians like myself know that it is important to engage those in the culture around us with the message of the Cross, but we don't know to start. It seems a little intimidating to hang out with those who aren't followers of Jesus and it's just more comfortable to do things with our Christian friends - it feels safer just to stay in our "holy huddles".

The Apostle John wrote "greater is He who is in you, than he (Satan) who is in the world." We need to recognize that the power of God is greater than the power of the enemy. Let's all begin, if we haven't already, to overcome the commitment to do nothing and start engaging our culture. Below are eight things I am striving to do to accomplish this. Why not join me and fulfill our calling to be lights to our world?

1. Start conversations - with your neighbors, the person you're in line with at the grocery store, your waitress, your barista - just start talking to people.
2. Hang out with people who enjoy the same things you do - book clubs, sport leagues, PTA, service organization, etc.
3. Volunteer somewhere - local school, sports team, Matt Talbot kitchen, Lincoln Pregnancy Crisis Center, Friendship Home, adoption agency, People City Mission, City Impact, etc.
4. Tell stories - about your life, your faith, etc.
5. Pray with others - if someone has an issue, stop and pray with them - even unbelievers will appreciate this.
6. Invite others to join you - engage the culture with another Christian friend.
7. Get to know your community by asking questions - What matters to people? What frustrates them? What do you love? What would you like to change? Listen and ask questions.
8. Address the physical and spiritual needs around you - just meet needs.

Start small - do one thing this week. You just have to start somewhere.

essings,

P.S. You won't want to miss this Sunday, April 21st! The pop-rock band, Everfound, will be with us for Sunday morning worship and again at 6:30pm for a concert at the church. The band consists of 4 Russian brothers who credit their passion for music to their Christian faith. See you there!

What is the mission?

God is at work in the world, and He wants you to join Him. This is what we call mission. Mission is your service to unbelievers in the world. Ministry is your service to believers in the Body of Christ. God created you to accomplish both. Your mission gives your life meaning. What is this mission?

Jesus said "Go to the people of all nations and make them disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them everything I have told you."

That's your mission and that's my mission. We all have the same mission and this mission is mandatory, not optional! You may be unaware but the truth is that God holds you responsible for the unbelievers around you. This mission is not given just to Pastors but to every follower of Christ. In fact, the word "mission" comes from the Latin word for "sending". We are all sent out into the world as a representative of Jesus Christ.

What a privilege we have to work with God and represent Him to our sphere of influence. Not only does this mission have eternal significance for us but it impacts the eternal destiny of others. The magnitude of living out your mission will last forever.

If your neighbor, coworker, or friend had cancer or AIDs and you knew the cure, it would be criminal to withhold that lifesaving information. Even worse would be to keep secret the way to forgiveness, purpose, peace and eternal life. May we never forget how hopeless and lost people are without Jesus.

May I encourage you and you encourage me to be urgent about our mission. The clock is ticking down on your life mission, so don't delay another day. Get started on your mission of reaching out to others now! We have all of eternity to celebrate with those we've brought to Jesus, but we have only our lifetime in which to reach them. Invest your life in unbelievers now.

Right now.

God bless,

I am utterly amazed of how many of us (yes, myself included) cannot move on to the future that God has for us because we are dominated by the mistakes and sins of our past.

 We must always remember that if we don’t let our past die, then it won’t let us live. So many Christians forget that. They forget that once they trust in Jesus their identity is not in what they have done but in what Jesus has done for them.

You can’t find your identity in who you used to be but rather in who you are in Christ. If you're ever going to move beyond your past, you need to accept three unleashing truths found in the Bible.

First, in Christ you are completely forgiven. Don’t let the enemy convince you that there is some sin that can’t be completely forgiven. If Jesus has forgiven you from the sins of your past, so should you.

Second, in Christ you are valuable. The value of something is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for it. Jesus paid the ultimate price for you – His life. That's how valuable you are to Him.

 Third, in Christ you are unconditionally loved. Remember how Paul said nothing – death, life, demons, fears, worries, powers of hell – nothing can separate us from the love of God.

 

I may not be the person I need to be, but I am not the person I used to be. Jesus Christ has set me free from the prison of the past and He can do the same for you.

 

P.S. Ever wonder if God truly can use you for His service? Do you ever ponder why God chooses to use you? Get ready for an action-packed Sunday as Ricky Kennedy unpacks these questions!

For the first time in a long time I was speechless. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? In 35 years of ministry I didn’t know what to say. A person asked me a simple question, “Who is the ideal church member?” I’ve never been asked that. I’ve been asked what makes the ideal Pastor or ideal church but never what makes the ideal church member.

I told the person asking the question that I’d get back to them once I had some time to think about it. Well, here are nine characteristics I suggest could be the answer to the question.

The ideal church member…

1.       Understands and identifies with the mission and goals of the church. Can you state the mission, vision and two goals of First Free for this year?

2.       Attends worship more than once every three weeks. The first sign of a person beginning to drop out of church is declining church attendance.

3.       Feels a sense of spiritual progress. Do you feel more conformed to Christ today than yesterday?

4.       Has taken the formal steps of partnership. The church needs partners (members) who will own the achievement of their church’s mission.

5.       Has friends in the church. The average friendships in church is seven. Two or less usually leads to dropout.

6.       Has discovered, developed and deployed his/her spiritual gift. This indicates a person truly is assimilated into the church.

7.       Is involved in a life group. People in life groups seldom dropout of church - we needs others to speak into our lives.

8.       Gives at least 10% to the church.  Assimilated people are committed to the ministry that ministers to them.

9.       Regularly and intentionally shares the Gospel with family and friends. Relationships are still the number one reason a person trusts in Christ.

There you go! My thoughts on the ideal church member. How do you feel you are measuring up?

Image Problems

Christianity has an image problem. People today view the church and the people in it as hyper political (75% of those polled), out of touch (72%), pushy in their beliefs (70%), and arrogant (64%). The most common perceptions are that we as Christians are homophobic (91%), hypocritical (85%) and judgmental (87%).

The reasons people today abandon the church is just as sobering: no value in attending (74%), no time (48%), not interested (42%), they always ask for money (40%) and boring services (36%).

So, how do we reach a culture for Christ when we have such an image problem? I think part of the answer is building relationships with unbelievers. (By the way, they don’t like being described as unbelievers but you know what I mean.)

A friend of mine told me this week of how he and his wife have been building a relationship with another couple who are unbelievers. I think there are some lessons to learn from their experience. He and his wife ate breakfast at the same McDonalds about 300 times a year. Eventually, every employee knew them on a first name basis and started sharing their life with them. Often times, my friends would say “we will pray about that for you.” They didn’t preach, just showed genuine concern.

A solid friendship was established with the manager of the McDonalds – even to the point where she invited my friends to the annual Christmas Party! She was about to have her third child with her third boyfriend when she discovered the baby had Down syndrome. Amazingly enough, she confided in my friends asking them what she should do?

My friends encouraged her and her boyfriend to have the baby – this became the tipping point for her to put her faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Lukey was born and my friends were asked to be godparents. They attended the eventual wedding of the couple and the first three birthday parties of little Lukey. My friends led this McDonalds manager to Christ and are now longing for the husband to trust in Christ as well.

Their story reminded me that in order to correct our image problem we need to listen to the unchurched, genuinely love on them, engage in conversation with them, accept them for who they are and explore with them what an authentic relationship with Christ is all about. One on one might just be the way we change our image.

iBlog

I came across a fascinating article in the Boston Globe entitled “The New American Dream” written by Neal Gabler. He talks about the American Dream and how it's changed over the last fifty years. The dream is no longer about seizing opportunity but about realizing perfection.

Therefore, the career has to be perfect, the spouse has to be perfect, the children have to be perfect, the home has to be perfect, the social circle has to be perfect. And we will seemingly do whatever it takes to attain this perfection, from plastic surgery to gated communities of McMansions to the professionalization of our children’s activities like soccer and baseball to pricey preschools that prepare 4-year olds for Harvard.

Gabler concludes the new American Dream is no longer opportunity to get an education and strive to reach your full potential through persistence, dedication and hard work but has morphed into perfection where we think it is birthright to be rich, beautiful, brilliant, powerful and to live not just the good life but the perfect one.

If you would eaves drop on our cultures thinking, you would sense a shift of the American Dream into the Great American Right: “I am entitled to the perfect car, house, spouse, job, fill in the blank.” So we do not expect a chance at a job but the guarantee of one.

If there is a theme to our day, it’s that it is all about me. The names say it all: YouTube, MySpace, iPod, iTunes, iPhone and so on.

It can be very easy for all of us to carry this same “entitlement attitude” into the church. I am entitled to my musical style (and it better be perfect), my seat, my parking space, my style of preaching, and my ministry.

Paul said we need the attitude of Jesus who gave up his divine privileges, humbled himself to the point of death...all for the sake of others. (Phil 2) Let’s help each other take on the attitude of Jesus and live our lives contrary to the cultures attitude. Remember, it’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s about others, especially those who don’t know Jesus personally.

PS. Ever think that some Christians are nothing more than fakes? Ever struggle with hypocrisy in your own life? You won’t want to miss church this Sunday as we address these issues!