Aug 25 Recap & Audio

We kicked off our "Storytellers" teaching series with a straightforward discussion on salvation. Here are a few highlights from the message.

You can listen to or download the audio by clicking here.

Aside from Jesus, why do we often view Bible characters as some sort of superheroes that we'll never be?... Perhaps it's because we've actually watered down the gospel to the point that people don't think having this kind of relationship with God is the essence of salvation? James 5:17 reminds us that people in the Bible, like Elijah, were just people with a nature like ours.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-20

Reflect on your salvation experience... Did you invite Jesus into your story or surrender your life to be used in His story? There's a major difference between these two scenarios... To miss understand the order of salvation is to miss Jesus altogether.

Salvation comes from God revealing His love toward us as sinners, Him calling us to life with Him, and us giving up control!

• Salvation doesn't come from feeling guilty, although there must be a sense of conviction regarding sin.
• It doesn't come from not wanting to go to Hell, although Heaven is a much better choice.
• It doesn't come from wanting to do better or go to church more, although salvation will lead to you becoming like Christ and desiring to experience authentic, Christian community.

Experiencing life with Christ demands that we shift the way we see people. After all, He has made us His ambassadors. At the same time, we must become comfortable with speaking of Jesus. All too often we simply reference our pastor or church, but let's not forget we are ambassadors, messengers, and witnesses of CHRIST! Our message is to share/overflow what He's doing in our lives!

For a Christian to live a life that is "sent-less" and "story-less" may very well mean that person is actually "Christ-less."

Coach Butch Jones Talk About Church

Okay, so the title is a little misleading. Coach Jones, who I'm absolutely thrilled to have as the head coach at UT, didn't literally say anything about the church. However, one of his quotes made a great parallel to one of the common misunderstandings people have regarding church and following Jesus. When being interviewed by a reporter about what would happen on the team's day off, Coach Jones replied,

"There's no day off. We don't practice, but first of all..."

Coach Jones wants the players and everyone around the football program to understand the importance of doing everything right, even on the days when they don't have an organized practice or game. Helping people develop a perspective that demands great attention to all the details of life is what it'll take to turn the UT football around. Without this perspective, they'll never experience the success they long for on the practice field and in the games.

For those of us who are followers of Jesus, aka the church, we have to start embracing a similar perspective on our relationship with Jesus if we ever want to see a true move of God in our lifetime. There are days we may not gather with the rest of the church, but there's no days off from following Jesus. The Holy Spirit doesn't cease to be actively involved in our lives just because we aren't listening to a sermon or a worship song. I'll even go as far as to say the Sunday service isn't even the main event for us as the church even though we typically act and talk as if it is. The main event is each and every day! It's your rhythms of life and responding to the Holy Spirit as you go to work, school, walk through your neighborhood, go to your kid's ballgames, shop at the grocery store, and eat at your favorite restaurant. There's no day off!

James 2:22 says, "But prove yourselves to be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves."    

This word "delude" actually means to make a mathematical miscalculation. In other words, James is saying  that if we fail to understand the importance of walking in step with God on a regular basis (being doers of the Word), then we've greatly "miscalculated" what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We've convinced ourselves that following Jesus is something that it isn't.

Unfortunately though, the church is typically organized and structured in a way that overemphasizes attendance on Sundays. I believe we've taken Sunday gatherings and made them the end of all our Christian faith when they should simply be a cumulative celebration of all that we've experienced with God throughout the week. Churches often profess to be creating a movement in the Kingdom of God, yet the primary movement that's taking place doesn't extend beyond people attending a service on Sunday. So I ask, "How will we equip the church to advance the Kingdom throughout the rhythms of life and beyond the scope of a worship service?" 

As Overflow Collective, we've put a majority of our focus toward answering this question. We still have a long way to go in regards to applying the answers we're finding. However, we know there's no days off, and we've realized we must start thinking and behaving as the church in such a way that channels our energies and expectations of success to reach into the rhythms of life!

We'll be posting more about how we're doing this as we redo our website and move into the fall, but for now, here's a basic overview of how we're trying to do this... http://overflowcollective.org/#/churches-mccs