I want to see the wonders of God’s great love.

January 25th, 2012

During my regular quiet time today I read the first half of Psalm 17. In this prayer David comes to the Lord and asks to see the “wonders of his great love” (Psalm 17:7a NIV). Isn’t that what we all want? Don’t all of us that believe there is a God want to see the “wonders of his great love?” I know I do. That’s why I moved my family to Ann Arbor to launch Agape Ann Arbor. I want to see God’s love manifested in this city. I want to see my friends, and neighbors experience God’s love. I want to have a deeper, fuller experience of God’s love. I want to experience God like Jesus did when he was here.

If we all want to see the wonders of God’s great love, why don’t we here more stories of people seeing it? Is God hiding it from us? Is life some cosmic game of hot and cold with the prize an experience of God’s love?

No. God’s not hiding his love. I think we’re just looking for it in the wrong places and the wrong way. I think a clue to seeing the wonders of God’s great love can be found in Matthew 9:35-38:

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Jesus experienced the wonders of the Father’s great love because he loved the same things the Father loved. When’s the last time you looked at the people walking down the streets of your town and felt compassion for the ones who don’t know Jesus? When’s the last time you tried to show someone the Jesus’ love them? If we want to see the wonders of God’s great love, we will see it when we express it to those he loves around us. As we express God’s love to the people he loves we will experience the wonder’s of his great love.

What’s one thing you can do today to express God’s love to someone you live near or work with?

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The Missional/Incarnational Cycle

January 18th, 2012

In the past several weeks I’ve had many opportunities to describe what we’re doing at Agape Ann Arbor. It’s been a fun a challenging experience to try to explain this idea that we have. Fundamentally our goal is to live the Jesus-life in Ann Arbor and invite other’s to do the same. In so doing, we will build a community experiencing and expressing God’s love.

But how does that work? What does that look like?

It starts with individuals intentionally living the Jesus-life in whatever context in which we find ourselves. We focus on getting out into the community, building relationships and loving people. As we build these relationships we invite people to spend time with us.

Mostly, this means we have parties. And truthfully, what’s more Christlike than having a party? Don’t believe me? Take some time to read the four stories of Jesus life, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament. You’ll find that Jesus loves a good party.

As people connect together socially with us and our friends and start showing some interest in Jesus, or Agape Ann Arbor, or just express curiosity about religions, we invite them into our community. At these gatherings focus on learning who Jesus is and what it means to live the Jesus life. The goal of our community gatherings is to encourage, equip, exhort, and empower people to live the Jesus life.

The people in our community then go out and live the Jesus-life in whatever context in which they find themselves, and the missional/incarnational cycle starts over again.

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Missional Starts at Home

December 26th, 2011

Yesterday after opening all her Christmas presents my six-year daughter Brenda, paused by the Christmas tree to pray. When she was done I asked what she said. She told me she wished Jesus a Happy Birthday. This beautiful moment actually started a couple of weeks ago. We were hanging out in the living room looking at the Christmas decorations. She asked me, “Daddy, on Christmas Day after breakfast, can I come out here and worship God?”

A couple of months ago, I was eating lunch with someone I used to attend church with. He asked me what I do to “train up my children in the ways of the Lord.” Yes that’s a very churchy way to ask that question but I still got the point.

That was a really hard question for me to answer. I immediately started thinking about specific times where I sit down with my kids and talk about God and how to live like Jesus. There aren’t any. We don’t have a set rhythm where we all sit down and talk about living like Jesus. Yet Brenda, of her own volition, regularly talks to her baby brother about Jesus. She regularly talks about God with me and Jen. She applies biblical teaching to life situations. God is working in Brenda’s life and I can see her responding by the way she acts and talks about God.

We don’t have a “family devotional time” (although every night Jen reads a Bible story to Brenda and I pray with her before she goes to sleep). We simply live out our faith and talk to Brenda about what we’re doing and why we do it. We talk about living like Jesus when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up (Deut. 6:7).

In my opinion, that’s what the “missional/incarnational” life is all about. It’s about living like Jesus and then when the time is right, explaining why we do what we do. It starts at home. The first people to whom God has sent us is our family. We share the Jesus life with them and then together we share it with our neighbors, our city, and the world.

What about you? What are you doing to be missional at home?

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How the Evangelicals Lost Christmas

December 13th, 2011

This Christmas season in evangelical churches all over the United States you’ll be able to hear amazing well written sermons about how Jesus was born in a manager, lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross to atone for our sins and arose on the third day proving he had defeated sin and death. While all of these things are biblically true they have nothing to do with Christmas, except for the born in a manger part.

We evangelicals have lost Christmas. We are so caught up in the atonement that we forget the incarnation. Even in our Christmas sermons we blow by Christmas to get to Easter, because that’s the good news after all. Or is it? Jesus sent John’s disciples back to him with the message that the good news was being proclaimed (Matthew 11:5). The message that Jesus proclaimed wasn’t that he was going to die to save us from our sins (Although this is very good news and I don’t mean to minimize it). The message that Jesus proclaimed was that the Kingdom of God was near (Mark 1:14 and many others). The Kingdom of God was manifested in the life of Jesus.

The incarnation is about communication. The incarnation is about displaying a life lived in the Kingdom of God. Jesus lived his life in full submission to the Father and invites us into that life, the life that the Apostle John termed eternal life. Christmas is about God “making his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). The incarnation shows us how to live in relationship with God. The incarnation is a model for our lives. Then on the cross Jesus redeemed us restoring our relationship with God and after the resurrection he ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to live that life.

As Christians, we’re called to live our lives from the perspective of the incarnation. The community we’re forming in Ann Arbor is all about this kind of incarnational living. Agape Ann Arbor is a community experiencing and expressing God’s love as modeled by Jesus in the incarnation. We would love for you to join our community. There are several ways you can be a part of this incarnational ministry. You can contact us to find out about our next meeting. You can join our prayer team and commit to praying for us. You can support our ministry financially.

More importantly, however, you can make the choice this Christmas to reclaim what we’ve lost. During this Christmas season, don’t skip to Easter. We will celebrate the glorious resurrection of our messiah soon enough. This Christmas, celebrate his incarnation.

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Christian’s in a Zoo

November 22nd, 2011

A couple of months ago on one of our trips to the zoo we had the opportunity to pet a learn about an opossum (which we found out is different than a possum). We see opossums all over the Midwest. In particular, the little critters love to dig through our garbage and make a mess of things. An interesting fact I learned about opossums is that they’re not originally from the Midwest. They migrated here from Central America. As immigrants to our region of the world they’re not well adapted to our climate. Opossums in the Midwest are often very thin compared to their relatives to the south and the damaging effects of frostbite can be seen on many of them.

We’re a lot like the opossums in the midwest. We weren’t created to live in a fallen world. We were created to live in a sin-free world in a close relationship with God. We’re, therefore, not well adapted to live in this environment and the damaging effects of sin affect our lives. They can be seen in the anxiety we experience, or in our struggles to maintain healthy relationships. We all carry the scars of sin like midwestern opossums cary the scars of frostbite.

In the zoo, opossums are protected from the dangers of the Midwestern climate by zookeepers who love and care for them. In Christ, we have access to a similar kind of protection. God loves and cares for us. By sending Jesus God created a zoo for people. In the zoo, we are free from the power of sin. We can live in a close relationship with God. Jesus’s death on the cross opens the gates to the zoo and allows us in. To enter the zoo we walk through the gate by trusting that Jesus’s sacrifice paid for our admission. We stay in the zoo by choosing to live our lives the way Jesus lived his.

We all belong in a zoo. Are you in the zoo?

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What is Love?

September 12th, 2011

The vision of Agape Ann Arbor is to be a community experiencing and expressing God’s love. Unfortunately most people in our culture don’t really know what love is. We seem to have connected love inseparably to romance. We define love as that feeling we get in our chest when we’re near someone we’re attracted to. For the record, that’s not love. That’s a hormonal response to physical attraction.

So, what is love? Oftentimes, I find it easier to describe something by its opposite. The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s selfishness. Love is looking at others and sacrificing of yourself for them. The purest example of love is Jesus. Paul describes Jesus’ love in his letter to the church in Phillipi:

Though he was in the form of God,
He chose not to cling to equality with God.
But poured himself out to fill a vessel brand new;
a servant in form
a man indeed.
The very likeness of humanity,
He humbled Himself,
obedient to death –
a merciless death on the cross!
Philippians 2:6-8 (The Voice)

Jesus gave up everything including His life for us. That is the ultimate expression of love. “There is no greater way to love than to give your life for your friends” (John 15:13 The Voice).

That is what Agape Ann Arbor is all about. We’re about giving our lives for the City of Ann Arbor. We’re here to make Ann Arbor a better city through our investment here. We’re here to give of ourselves, our time, our resources, and our abilities to the people around us so to make their lives better. We will do this in such a way as to draw them to the One who sacrificed everything so that we could have life and “have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV).

How about you? Do you love the people around you? Are you ready to sacrifice yourself for the 98,000 people in Ann Arbor, MI who don’t know Jesus? Join the movement. Follow us on Twitter. Like us on Facebook. Join our prayer team.

Jesus said that the world would know we were his disciples by our love (John 13:35)

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Another Church? Why?

August 30th, 2011

Does Ann Arbor really need another church in it? There are already more than 70 churches in the City of Ann Arbor. At least five of those churches are new plants that started within the past three years. In some ways it seems like adding another church into the mix is just muddying the waters.

Yet, in spite of all the churches in Ann Arbor almost 70% of the population is not part of any faith group. This includes non-Christian expressions of faith. Nearly 70% of the people living in Ann Arbor are atheist or agnostic. Moreover, there are 98,000 people living in Ann Arbor that do not know Jesus.

Yes, Ann Arbor needs another church. I believe that it is only through trusting in Jesus death and resurrection to overcome our sin that we can have a relationship with God now and forever. I believe that only through that relationship are we able to be the people that God created us to be. If I truly believe that then I need to do something about it. If I truly believe that Jesus fulfills our deepest desires and enables us to be who we’re truly meant to be then I need to do everything I can to connect people around me to Him. I need to show the people of Ann Arbor that I love them, God loves them, and Jesus died for them. The way I’m going to do that is by planting Agape Ann Arbor; a community experiencing and expressing God’s love.

Agape Ann Arbor is different from many other church plants. Many church plants focus on launching worship services. They focus first on getting a lot of people to gather together on Sunday mornings to hear the gospel. While I celebrate the influence those churches have on their communities, I feel like they’re focusing more on doing church on Sundays than being the church. That’s why we’re not launching Agape Ann Arbor as a worship service. We are launching a community.

We will worship together. We will have weekend worship services where we can celebrate God together and hear God’s word preached. That, however, is secondary. Our focus is to connect people in community to each other and to connect them to the God who loves them and died for them. We will build small communities where people experience and express God’s love.

You can help. You can join the movement: Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter,
Subscribe to our newsletter
, or contact me for more information.

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Experiencing and Expressing God’s Love

August 23rd, 2011

In my last post I talked about why we’re starting Agape Ann Arbor. I talked about how we want to break the stereotype of Christianity in Ann Arbor. The vision of Agape Ann Arbor is to be a community experiencing and expressing God’s love. How do you do that? How do you build a community that experiences and expresses God’s love?

Experiencing and expressing God’s love requires contact. It can’t be done from a distance. Experiencing and expressing love happens eyeball to eyeball. We’re starting Agape Ann Arbor with a focus on relationships. We’re focusing on connecting people to each other. We want people to connect in small groups where they experience God’s love through the people around them and have the opportunity to express God’s love back to the people around them.

We’re looking for people who want to be a part of a new movement in Ann Arbor Michigan. We’re looking for people who want to experience and express God’s love. Are you interested? Do you want to join the movement or know someone who does? Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
Subscribe to our newsletter
. Or just contact me so we can talk.

God’s changing lives. Are you going to be a part of what God’s doing?

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What is Agape Ann Arbor?

August 18th, 2011

Have you ever spent time thinking about what you’re known for? Joe Montana is know for being an amazing quarterback. Oprah Winfrey is know for being a media mogul. Snooki and the Situation are known for taking themselves way too seriously.

What about Christians? What are Christians known for? In his 2007 book unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters David Kinnaman found that in America Christians are known for six things:

1. Hypocrisy
2. Concern for conversion more than the person
3. Antihomosexuality
4. Sheltered
5. Overemphasis on politics
6. Judgmentalism

These are the things the average American ages 16 – 25 thinks about Christians. This is what Christians are known for. It’s a far cry from what Jesus said we should be known for, isn’t it? In John 13:35, Jesus said that the world would know we were His followers, Christians, by our love for one another. There is nothing loving in any of those statements.

This is where Agape Ann Arbor steps in. Agape Ann Arbor is a new community of Christ-follwers. Our goal is to break the stereotype. Our goal is to be a community of people known for our love. We want to be a community where God’s love is experienced and expressed. We want the City of Ann Arbor to see us and know that we love them, God loves them, and Jesus died for them. And God willing, we will break the stereotype in Ann Arbor. Christians won’t be known for their politics or their hypocrisy. We’ll be known for our love and what we do here in Ann Arbor, MI will change the way America and the world views Christians.

Would you like to be a part of this change? Would you like to break the stereotype and be known for what Jesus called us to be known for, our love? There are a couple of ways you can get involved. You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. You can
subscribe to our newsletter
, and receive weekly email updates about how to specifically pray for us. If you’re in Washtenaw County and would like to become part of the team you can contact me and we’ll get together.

Please pray for us. There are 98,000 people in Ann Arbor who don’t know Jesus. We’ve got a long road ahead of us, but we’re excited to be a part of what God’s doing in our city.

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Apologist to Apologizer

December 23rd, 2010

In my early 20s, I started getting serious about my faith again. Like many Christ-followers I found myself attracted to apologetics (defense of the faith). The goal of apologetics is to defend orthodox Christianity from outside attacks. Apologetics develops arguments to counter the anti-Christian arguments of secular philosophy and other religions.

There are two reasons why apologetics was so attractive to me. First, I like to argue. Growing up my dad and I would choose opposite sides of a subject simply so we could argue about it. Second, I like research. I’m kind of a nerd. I enjoy studying. I enjoy digging into books and learning new things then presenting my findings. A good apologist is will also be good at argumentation and research.

I dove into apologetics with gusto. I read everything I could. I learned the classic arguments. I studied the arguments against Christianity and learned all the holes in them. With my arsenal of arguments ready I set out to prove the legitimacy of orthodox Christianity. I was convinced that if I could present unassailable arguments for faith in Jesus that people wouldn’t be able to deny Jesus and would have to trust in him. I presumed that I could argue people in heaven.

In that time, I won a lot of arguments.

During that same time, I lost a lot of friends.

As I came to this realization, God slapped me across the face with John 13:35, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (NIV). I was known for a lot of things at that time. I was known as someone who was convinced of the truth of the Gospel. I was known as someone who could and would happily share every argument as to why you should believe in Jesus. But, I was not known as someone who loved.

God changed me with that verse. I no longer try to argue people into heaven. (It’s not possible anyway.) I no longer work to be known as someone who can defend every nuance of orthodox Christianity. My goal is to be known as someone who loves. My goal is to be known as someone who shows love to everyone with whom I have the privilege of spending time.

I’m no longer an apologist. I don’t work to defend Christianity anymore. Jesus doesn’t need me to defend Him.

I’m an apologizer. I apologize for all the times my life has not reflected Christ. I apologize for when my fellow Christ-followers (whom I love dearly in Christ) have failed to reflect Christ. If you’re not a Christ-follower, please note that although those of us who are Christ-followers don’t look like it all the time, Jesus still loves you and wants a relationship with you. As Christ-followers we fail at this a lot, but we are trying diligently to show you the God who loves you, died for you, and wants a relationship with you. Please don’t let our failings keep you from the God who loves you and never fails.

And if you’re one of those people I was a jerk to when I was an apologist, let me take this opportunity now to apologize to you. I’m sincerely sorry. Please forgive me.

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