Day Three ~ The Cold and Snow of Winter

Today is a day like no other day.  It has never happened befroe and it will never come around again in this exact form.  It is a gracious gift to you.  And it arrives ready to unwrap at this particular moment.  Enjoy it by being a blessing to someone today.

If you are a 'Grand Sweep' person (our congregational effort to read through the Bible in 2012) you have been rediscovering the life and ministry of Moses over the last couple of weeks.  Chris Seay teaches about Moses today and connects the life of Moses to the invitation of Jesus to 'come unto me'   I am just wondering, are you ready to come?  Is your life drawing you closer to Christ.

If you are connecting with the comments you heard the question about what God is teaching and how long will it take.  Can we learn it over a long period of time or can we expect something sooner?  In truth, it is a day by day discovery.  It is like a great painting on a beautiful stand but it is draped for now but the grand reveal is happening moment by moment.  It is not a tease...it is just always ready when we are ready.  Lent is about getting ready.

Blessed are those who ....

May the peace of Christ and be blessing of warmth be yours today.  Care for those who seem to have neither blessing or warmth.

Day Two ~ Solidarity

Today is a day of thanksgiving.  We celebrated Ash Wednesday.  Our journey has official been launched with a spirit of repentance and fresh commitment.  It is a joy to walk with you as we discover more about what God has in store for us as a group and as individuals.

Please watch the video and then be sure to add a comment so we can all discover new ways of serving together.  The comments will thread so you can engage others who are taking part in our journey.

The blessing of Jesus be yours!

Day One ~ Ash Wednesday

Welcome to Day One!  We are off to a good start.  The starting line is one thing ... but remember ... our goal (in all things) is to finish strong.  Stay the course and God will expand your discipleship journey.  Thanks for being a part of the team!

Please leave a comment below if you would like.  We would be interested to learn what you are doing to engage poverty and how you are shaping your season of fasting.

Introduction to A Place At The Table

Today is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday is the marking spot for the start of a spiritual season we call Lent.  Lent is a journey through time that will take us over a period of 40 days (not counting Sundays) as we make our way to the great celebration of Easter.

Easter is a wonderful gift to the Christian community.  It is the day of Resurrection, a day of great hope, and a time of renewal for our faith.  To arrive at Easter is only dependent on our ability to cross off enough days on the calender.  But to arrive at Easter with a heart that is prepared...that is another matter!

It is a journey that is well worth the trip!  Our trip for 2012 will involve the development of a greater sensitivity and awareness of poverty in our own communities and around the world.

There will be four basic daily steps to our Lenten process. (1) get a copy of A Place At The Table by Chris Seay.  Read the first four chapters and be ready on Ash Wednesday to start with the Day 1 devotion. (2) log on to www.chrisseay.net to view the daily video that corresponds to the daily devotion.  (3) Check in with this blog (randyjessen.blogspot.com) to reflect together in written and video form. (4) engage a fast that will challenge your spiritual life with your daily journey.  Read Chris's suggestions about fasting and feasting so you are on target with the process.

In the meantime, learn all you can about the issues of poverty in your own community.  Engage, pray, learn, grow, and discover a new edge to your journey of faith!

Before we start...my apology for the face that launches the video.  Who knows what lurks in the heart of a person...sometimes in all comes to the surface in the first frame of a video!

Lenten Journey of Faith Development

Friends:

Here is the detail I promised about our Lenten experience of solidarity with the poor!  The process will unfold with four primary features.

• First, is your own personal commitment to read, discover, reflect, and engage the journey with a heart that is open and prepared by prayer.  This will include a personal commitment to discovering ways that you can fast by eating the foods that folks in poverty around the world eat every day (or when ever it is available).
• Second, is the daily reading we will do together from A Place At The Table by Pastor Chris Seay.  Each participant will be responsible for obtaining a copy of the book.  It is readily available on line, in Christian bookstores, and in electronic form.  I have a hard copy that we purchased at Ecclesia and I have an electronic Kindle copy ready to go. 
•  The daily readings will begin with Day 1 on page 51 of A Place At The Table.  Day 1 will be Ash Wednesday February 22, 2012.  Remember, Sunday is always a Feast Day!
• Prior to Day 1, you will want to read the first four chapters to understand how our fast will unfold.
• Third, I will be inviting you to log on to www.chrisseay.net (click on Daily Videos on the top banner) to watch the short video that Chris has recorded for each day.  The videos are clearly marked for each day of the reading in A Place At The Table.
• Fourth, I will also be inviting you to log on to this blog page to watch a video that I will post or material that I will share daily.  You will also have the opportunity to post a comment and to connect the comment thread to your daily prayers.

Note: Even though our official start is Ash Wednesday...I will post a preview video on Tuesday February 21st.  Some folks call this Fat Tuesday (a literal translation of the French Mardi Gras) but it really is Shrove Tuesday which identifies a spiritual day of confession and preparation.  It has become a eat-drink-and-be-merry day of celebration but it is actually a day that launches us forward to a time of personal renewal, sacrifice, and reflection.

It is my prayer that our journey will not be a burden but a blessing.   Pray daily for the poor in your community.  Get to know where they live, what they do, and what they eat.  Engage the various parts of the world that will become the focal point for each day.  Eat only what you need, conserve your resources and support your favorite food distribution center with a wonderful blessing.

Lent is a time of reflection and discovery with a focus on growing closer to Christ.  As we draw close to one another...as we develop a heart for our neighbors...we will discover the love of God and the heart of our faith.  That heart belongs to Jesus Christ who is Lord of all the earth.

Let's journey together.

Lord, we ask that you would start now with the inner preparation we will need for this journey of faith.  Do your work within us.  Open our eyes to the needs of others.  

Teach us how to pray, how to serve, and how to be your people.  Walk with us Lord.  

For this we ask in the name of Jesus, the name that is above all names.  Amen

A Place At the Table

I want to invite you to join me in a Lenten journey of faith.  Our focus will be on understanding and living in solidarity with the poor.  We will do more than just pray for the poor in our communities and around the world.  It is essential that we pray, but we will do much more than that.  We will eat what they eat, we will walk where they walk, we will learn about their needs, and we will hear from Scripture as we discover a new calling for our Christian journey.

We will be using three different tools for this journey.  First, we will use the book A Place At the Table by Chris Seay.  Second, we will use a series of videos that Chris has produced to help introduce us to the issues of poverty around the world. Third, I will post a daily video on this blog site to help us think and pray together.  I hope you will join me on this journey.

I will post more detailed instructions and web locations in the next few days.  For now, I invite you to get a copy of A Place At the Table.  Read the introductory material and the first four chapters.  That will set the stage for a unique time of biblical discovery, personal learning, and a fast that will shape our journey.

You can obtain a copy at your local Christian bookstore or online at your favorite Internet retailer.  It is available in hard copy and for electronic readers.  Get a copy today so we can begin our conversation about a fast that just may change your life.

The Grand Sweep

So here we are, it is week number 6 of the Grand Sweep.  We are about to move out of Exodus and into Leviticus.  Here is my best advice, whatever you do...do not get stuck in Leviticus (or anywhere else for that matter!).

Years ago, Sue and I were working with mission teams that were serving in the Four Corners area through Four Corners Native American Ministries of the United Methodist Church in Shiprock, New Mexico.  We had a great time with the people and found wonderful joy through that ministry experience.

At one point the Four Corners ministry was building mobile church buildings on the frame of a double wide mobile home.  They would build the facility and then tow it to a location in the middle of nowhere in the Navajo Nation to provide a regional place of worship.

I remember one traveling church facility that left Shiprock and headed for Chinle, Arizona.  On the way the tow team ran into an unexpected and quite rare rainstorm.  The rain created a classic flash flood along with mud galore.  The mobile home frame sank past the axles in heavy mud.  Every effort was made to dig it out, but it was stuck for good.  As a result, the folks just looked around and said, this must be the place God intended to plant a church.  To the best of my knowledge, that church is still there and has been serving as a place of worship for over 25 years!

The moral of the story seems to be twofold.  First, don't get stuck!  But (second) if you do get stuck, make sure you provide a place for the Lord to do his thing!

Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy...here we come!  Use four wheel drive whenever you need it!  Shift down, climb that hill, and make it happen.  God will bless you as you go!

New Reading Materials

I just finished two books that really spoke to my heart.  The first is a new work by Reggie McNeal.  Many of you will recognize Reggie as a prolific author of incredible value.  His leadership, church change, and missional work is remarkable.

This one is called Missional Communities: The Rise of The Post-Congregational Church.  It outlines the primary missional conversation and then provides real life models of missional community in action.  The two that spoke to me were the Future Travelers and the chapter on Mission Houston with Jim Herrington.  Incredible.  See Will Mancini's post about Future Travelers and the work of Alan Hirsch.  http://www.willmancini.com/2010/02/movement-making-with-alan-hirsch.html

The other book is actually a wonderful resource for the 40 days of Lent by Chris Seay.  I had a chance to touch base with Chris at Ecclesia last weekend.  I can tell you, his teaching, writing, and vision process is really remarkable.  Like the Advent Conspiracy, this work helps us understand and walk with the poor of the world.  A Place At The Table: 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor is a wonderful tool for engaging your personal faith with the daily experience of the poor around the world.

The heart of the missional movement beats with several different rhythms.  Sometimes it feels like the conversation needs a pacemaker to keep it in alinement.  But, in a strange way, the beauty of the movement is the variety that it produces.  Some simply  denounce the attractional or church growth model while offering little to take up the slack.  Others focus on a radical lifestyle that becomes neo-monastic and harsh.  Still others try to look at leadership traits and discover the DNA of a congregation.

In the end, it is about doing church differently.  It is a movement away from building good church folks who understand, support, and participate in the structured organization.  It invites us to identify, adopt, and live fully into a Kingdom mentality.  In this process we discover new ways of loving God and serving our neighbor.  We discover that the church is really bigger than a set of doctrines and a stable of rules.  It is about worship that shouts 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel' and then moves into the streets to smell the reality of life.  It is the mission of God that becomes the ministry of the people.

These are books that will offer a head-lamp unto your feet.

BTW: if you have not seen 58:The Film (http://live58.org/thefilm/) now is the time.

Back from the Houston Ministry Adventure

We made it!  15 brave souls from around the world converged in the third largest city in the United States to explore mission and ministry.  We came to serve, share, learn, and to expand our vision of how God loves to work in the world.  The group represented ministry leaders from the United States, South Korea serving in Dallas, South Korea serving in Nepal,  Japan, Estonia, Mauritius, Singapore, Liberia, Romania, Columbia, and Zambia!  What a blessing it was to share time with the cultures of the world!

Each year our adventure includes many of the same ministries with some new experiences peppered in to keep everyone moving forward.  This year, we experiences a joyful surprise by visiting the Lanier Theological Library for the first time.  What a gift to the world!  Check it out at www.laniertheologicallibrary.org.  It is a hidden gem!

On the other end of the spectrum (on the same day) we shifted from the quiet and ancient beauty of the Lanier to enter a much more difficult setting.  We moved from a place of study and reflection to the chaos and confusion of the streets.  We worshiped in the dark under a large tree with the folks from Houston Street Reach and Youth With a Mission.  For years they have been faithfully building relationships with children and adults who live in the darkness of the inner city streets.  Some members shared water and snacks with folks who were sleeping under the  freeway while others worked with youth who are locked into prostitution, drugs, and destruction.  Others sought to build relationships with people from the transvestite community that lives in secret and struggle. I can promise you this, there was no shortage of people to encounter!  Midnight came all too soon.  Check out www.joewilliamsministries.org and www.ywamhouston.org.

Personally, after seven years of leading this ministry immersion, the key turning point events always seem to be the same.  I am always challenged by the missional life style of Jim and Betty Herrington (www.harborchurch.com or www.faithwalking.com).  I am energized by the positive and chotic climate of Mercy Street recovery community.  (www.mercystreet.org) And I am always blessed by the calm, clear, biblical approach of Chris Seay and the people of Ecclesia (www.ecclesiahouston.org).  This year, the people of Ecclesia are literally lining up to sign up to get a series of body art tattoos that will create a stations of the cross exhibit for Lent!   And check out Chris Seay's new book called A Place At The Table if you want to expereince a 40 day Lenten journey with the poor.  I am challenged and changed because I sit with these people.

Pastor Rudy Rasmus always has a word that encourages, shocks, and transforms my soul.  Rudy and Juanita have demonstrated a long and faithful walk with the Lord in a very difficult situation.  Drop on at www.stjohnsdowntown.org to get a quick look at the extensive ministry they have created.  But you really need to open the door on the corner of Gray and Crawford to experience the real blessing.  Take time to do it, you will be blessed!

Oh, one more thing (maybe two!) that brings blessing to my soul.  Have you ever worshiped in five separate settings, under five different leaders, in five unique worship styles, in less than 24 hours?  What a blessing!  And...we were served the Lord's Supper in three of the five settings!  Contemplative and quiet, loud and choreographed, raw and energetic, soft and reflective, along with an AA meeting on steroids with a preacher and a band.  That is the heart of the Houston journey that will refresh your soul, add question marks galore, and lift your spirits to soar at new heights.  It is good to worship the Lord!

My thanks to our church planting friends, the folks who feed us, the people who lead us in worship, the pastors who teach and inspire, along with the journey of living life together in a van.  Peace to you all.  We may never meet again, but there will be another group, and you will be inspired to create your own experience in the city of your choice.  Start planning it today!  Peace!

Houston Experience

For those who will be taking part in the 2012 edition of the great Houston ministry immersion...Welcome aboard!

Our journey will start with Faithbridge UMC and a conversation about church planting.  From there we will experience Pastor Jonathan Williams and the Wilcrest Church.  It is an incredible ministry that is thoroughly multi-cultural.  Then it is off to The Woodlands UMC where we will see a large complex congregation in action under the leadership of Dr. Ed Robb.

The Lanier Theological Library will provide insights into private resources for in depth study.  Next we will literally hit the street with Joe Williams and Houston Street Reach.  We will worship at the street church and then spend the evening (and early morning) in ministry to folks on the streets of the Montrose.

Saturday finds us at the Power Center and the ministry of Windsor Village UMC with Pastor Kirby Jon Caldwell.  Amazing!  But if you think that is good, wait until you get to the Kingdom Builders Center and the Corinthian Point housing development.  It will open your mind to entrepreneurial ministry and leadership.

Dr. Jerry Webber will help us understand the contemplative traditions of spiritual formation at Chapelwood Church.  From there we will be ready for Mercy Street.  A worship setting for folks who are in recovery.  Mercy!  What a blessing it will be to share a late evening sandwich with the Mercy Street team.

Then Sunday rolls around!  Lakewood Church and pastor Joel Osteen is first on the agenda.  The largest church in the USA.  The music will blow you away.  From there we will find an incredible contrast with Pastor Rudy Rasmus and St John's Downtown where we will worship with homeless folks in an inner city setting.  St John's is a unique ministry that literally reaches around the world!

Dr. Jim Jackson will provide teaching about his new discipleship model and the fine art of raising funds for mission and ministry.  That kicks us into the evening with yet another worship service.  This time it is with a young adult ministry called Ecclesia under the preaching of Pastor Chris Seay.  Ecclesia is changing the world!  No fooling!

Now for a real blessing, we will have breakfast with Dr. Jim Herrington and hear his family story of inner city missional ministry.  Every time I hear the story I am encouraged and challenged.  This one will be a real blessing.

We close out the journey with a one-on-one conversation with Chris Seay.  Don't miss the New Testament translation called The Voice!

North American pastors and church leaders and international Christian leaders alike will be blessed.  We will be 17 strong so there will be plenty of time to interact.  Buckle your seat belt, catch an early nap, and get ready to roll!

See you there!