This is the second half of a piece I read to the church on Easter of 2011: the raw truth about Church of the Open Door.

We’re Here to Tell You

We’re here to encourage you by telling you over and over again that the life you’ve been living is not the life Jesus wants you to have. To help you believe that you are worth far more than what the voices of this world tell you you’re worth.

We’re here to tell you that life is more than the weekly lineup of reality shows, the vacations you go on, the restaurants you eat in, the fine wine you drink, the golf courses you play on or the sports teams you follow.

We’re here to tell you that your worth is not limited or even defined by the car you drive, the home you live in, your fitness factor, your significant career, your education in a prestigious university, your political party, or your status in some sick codependent performance-based religious tradition.

We’re here to tell you that you do not need to medicate the pain of life with booze, drugs, exercise, materialism, portfolios, education, career, control, or even theology.

What We Know!

We know that we live in a world where few people keep their promises or remain faithful to anything or anyone. We want to introduce you to Jesus, who does keep His promises and will remain faithful. And we beg Him to strengthen us so that we can become the exception to your experience by keeping our promises to Him, you, and one another.

We know that you need a new vision for your life. We know from God’s Word and from personal experience with Christ that you do not have to hang onto this hurtful world with the death grip of someone who isn’t aware of a better option.

We know that you may feel like the better options are for others.

Donald Miller, in one of my favorite books, Blue Like Jazz, tells the story of a group of hostages taken by terrorists in a remote corner of the world and held there in a dark room for over a year. When the Navy Seals got to the building, opened the door and announced, “You’re rescued; you’re free. Come out into the light!” Not one of the hostages, huddled in a mass on the floor, moved a muscle. They had been in the dark for so long they didn’t believe in the light anymore. Or, like most of those who live outside the grace and mercy of God, didn’t think it was for them. So one of the seals took off his gear, got down on the floor, wrapped himself around the nearest hostage, held onto them tightly, whispering over and over and over, “It’s all right. You have been rescued. You’re safe. You’re free. You can walk out into the light.”

What We Want To Do

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Vision of a Church: The Choice

This is the time of year when a lot of pastors feel the pressure to announce some big vision for the coming year. I used to do that. But I stopped it a few years ago. It’s not that we don’t have plans and dreams. It’s not that we don’t have a theme for 2012. As I’ve written before in this blog, it’s bible.cod–studying every Book of the Bible in 2012-13. We even have a promise to go with it: You give us two years, and we’ll give you the Bible.

But does a church really need a vision in the same way a bank or a hospital needs a vision? What we need is the truth.

Leaders of churches have a choice. We can try to impress people by describing our church in glowing nuanced terms that present a picture of what we think people want to hear or what we secretly wish were true about our church. Or we can just tell the truth and trust God for the results.

I’m at the stage in life where I’d rather tell the truth. The truth is that a “perfect” church is not a healthy church because we all suspect what the leaders and God know—there’s a lot of stuff they’re not telling us. Spiritual health, by its very definition, insists on truth. Healthy churches admit that we’re struggling toward spiritual maturity together—that it’s a messy but wondrously redemptive process.

So, you want to know what’s really going on in the healthy community of faith we call Church of the Open Door? Here’s the raw truth—in all its messy glory!

The Raw Truth—What You’ll Discover

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Not Analytical But Synthetic

I love teaching through a Book of the Bible analytically—a verse-by-verse exposition of the text. In the almost sixteen years I’ve been pastor of Church of the Open Door we’ve studied the following Books analytically, usually devoting an entire year to each individual Book: Philippians, Ephesians, John (chapters 1-12), 1^st John, 2^nd John, 3^rd John, Acts, Romans (2-year study), the Minor Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, 1 Peter, Colossians, and Galatians.

But there’s another way to teach the Bible. It’s called synthetic teaching. A synthetic treatment of the Bible is more of a big-picture view of a Book or section of God’s Word.

We’re going to devote the next two years to the synthetic teaching of the entire Bible, all 66 Books! I hope to deliver on the promise I made to our congregation on Sunday, January 1^st, when I introduced this new series—bible.cod:

You give us two years and we’ll give you the Bible!

Many people, even serious Christians, have never read through the entire Bible. They may know a verse from Isaiah and some stories from Genesis or Luke, but they couldn’t really place the verse or the story in its historical, geographical, and textual context.

So beginning February 26^th we will march through the entire Bible together. On that day I will cover the structure, geography, and message of the entire Bible. Then we’ll do the same for the Old Testament and the Pentateuch (1^st 5 Books), and then it’s Genesis and we’re off—a book a week!

Here are 3 Reasons Why I’m Teaching This Series

1. Every word of every book was written to change our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
2.  To rekindle our desire to read through the whole Bible.
3. To equip us to understand God’s Word in context.

I hope you’ll join us!

Question: What is the primary reason most Christians have never read through the entire Bible?

Galatians 5:7-15

Galatians is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. It’s a powerful little book. We’re studying it this year at Church of the Open Door. In Chapters 5 and 6 Paul applies the messages of justification and sanctification by faith.

 In the first section of the epistle proper, 1:11-2:21, Paul defended his apostleship. In 3:1-4:31 the Apostle clarifies the implications of justification and sanctification by faith and why it’s true. His final section demonstrates how this grace works in life. Grace works through liberty. Christ set us free to demonstrate His righteousness in ways that transcend any enslaving set of rules or moral codes (5:1-12). This liberty isn’t so that we can indulge the self-centered desires of our flesh as we did before we trusted in Christ. Using our freedom in that way will cause us to lose our inheritance in the coming kingdom (5:13-21). We’ve been set free to walk in the Spirit (5:16-18) so that we can display Christ’s righteousness through the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-25). But even this transformation isn’t about us; it’s about Christ and others. What we’ve really been set free to do is to love and serve others (6:1-10).

The big picture of Paul’s glorious presentation of Christian liberty contrasts two systems of righteousness: works-righteousness, which always enslaves and grace-righteousness, which always liberates. It also forces us to see that true liberty is always about Christ and others. And it all begins with standing firm in grace because we understand what is at stake:

Here’s the link to the sermon, study notes, and discussion notes from my exposition of  Galatians 5:7-15:

Use Your Freedom!

I love being a part of a grace-trusting, disciplemaking community! That’s what Church of the Open Door is to me and hundreds of other worshipers of the Lord Jesus. When grace is trusted and disciples are made, the Holy Spirit unleashes the giftedness and creativity of God’s people.

This is what happens!

This week’s Tipping Point is but one example of what happens when a community trusts grace enough to make disciples to Jesus Christ. What follows is an excellent article written by one of our young men, Greg Loumagne. He’s not on staff; he’s just a guy who loves Jesus and has been equipped to serve him. Greg grew up in the church and serves on our high school ministry team. Oh yeah, and he’s also a pretty good writer!

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

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Recently, my friend George Verwer shared his heart for world missions with Church of the Open Door. I’ve always enjoyed George’s passion for the Lord Jesus and his ability to remind us of the millions who have never heard of the Lord Jesus.

You can listen to his entire message on our church website here.

George’s message includes many great insights, but here are the three that meant the most to me:

Missions is Messy. This the most repeated phrase from our time with George. If a local church or an individual Christian is interested in missions, prepare to be hurt, confused, and bewildered.

Missions is Glorious. A local church or individual Christian, who is willing to trust Jesus through the mess, will have stories to tell. God pours His power on those who make disciples of all the nations.

Missions Begins With Availability. The first step toward the mission field for a local church or an individual Christian is to let God know we’re available to Him for “whatever.” Too many times a believer gets all fired up after a missions sermon and declares, “I want to go to Madagascar!” To that person George would say, “Your first step is to get involved in your local church, your neighborhood, and the rest of your world here. Then, if you remain faithful and learn lessons of faith, you’ll be ready to head to Madagascar when God tells you to make that transition.

It was a great day for our community of faith, Church of the Open Door. A lot of people made that commitment to availability, and I’m sure some of them will, someday, be directed by God to their “Madagascar.”

Question: What does your life tell God about your availability? If you’re not willing to share your life here, He’s not going to send you there. You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Radical

Radical is a word thrown around frivolously in the church today.

Problem is, if everyone’s radical, nobody is.

But this Sunday at Church of the Open Door, you’re going to meet a radical.

George Verwer

I’ve known George and been praying for his personal ministry for over twenty years.

George Verwer may be one of the five most sold-out disciples of Christ I’ve met.

He shares his radical heart for the Lord Jesus, discipleship, worship, and missions this Sunday @ Church of the Open Door.

Two Radical Services

George will be speaking at two identical services @ 0900 and 1100.

If you want to fire up your radical heart for Jesus, you’ll be there.

Our biblical text this year will be the Book of Galatians. Paul’s “Magna Carta of Christian Liberty” is all about accessing the grace of God in ways that release new life in Christ. I’m going to be teaching it with our specific community of faith in mind. This means that all of us, together will be saying, “We want to help you trust the grace of God in ways that will release your new life in Christ”.

This brings a huge commitment on our part. As we’re saying this to others, we should be asking ourselves, “How do we treat people as special as they are to Christ?” Our discussions and actions over the next 12 months will center on determining how we multiply groups, multiply and equip leaders and organize ministry so that we stay in touch with those who need God’s grace, encouragement, and guidance. The overarching Breakthrough Prayer we’ve settled on is simple but stretching: Please mature us as a church as we extend grace to more and more.

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