I just started reading The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us?  by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision. I hope to post much more in the coming days, but so far it looks to be a gem. Here is a short bit from the introduction:

I write this book from a very biased perspective. I believe that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And if Jesus was willing to die for this troubled planet, maybe I need to care about it too. Maybe I should love the people who live on it more. Maybe I have a responsibility to do my part to love the world that Jesus loves so much.

The idea behind The Hole in Our Gospel  is quite simple. It’s basically the belief that being a Christian, or follower of Jesus Christ, requires much more than just having a personal  and transforming relationship with God. It also entails a public  and transforming relationship with the world. 

If your personal faith in Christ has no positive outward expression, then your faith — and mine — has a hole in it.

I was reminded today of this post from a couple of years ago that helps us see clearly God’s heart for the poor, widows, orphans and foreigners. If you have any doubt about the volume of scripture that speaks to this topic, then consider this sampling:

Exodus 22:21
“You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 22:22-23
“Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me. I will certainly hear their cry.”

Exodus 23:3
“And do not slant your testimony in favor of a person just because that person is poor.”

Exodus 23:6
“In a lawsuit, you must not deny justice to the poor.”

Exodus 23:11
“. . . but let the land be renewed and lie uncultivated during the seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest whatever grows on its own. Leave the rest for wild animals to eat. The same applies to your vineyards and olive groves.”

Exodus 30:15
“When this offering is given to the Lord to purify your lives, making you right with him, the rich must not give more than the specified amount, and the poor must not give less.”

Leviticus 19:10
“It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 23:22
“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 25:35
“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and cannot support himself, support him as you would a foreigner or a temporary resident and allow him to live with you.”

Deuteronomy 15:7
“But if there are any poor Israelites in your towns when you arrive in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward them.”
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The church growth movement taught church leaders that the key to healthy church was that people have a positive experience in church. The program of the church needs to be excellent to attract a crowd. The speaker must be entertaining. The music must be excellent. The programs must be fast paced and offer relationship with nice people, and the parking must be sufficient.

If we do this well, people will be attracted to church, and this will expose the masses to the Word of God and the gospel. In this approach, we are really converting people to church attendance. The program takes most of the pastor’s time. He is the director of an event. Christian fellowship is then reduced to individuals consuming church together.

All of this, I argue, is not the cause  of the church’s increasing irrelevance but is rather the consequence of a much larger and more foundational mistake. The church has forgotten that it is to be a witness to, a sign of, and a foretaste of the “now but not yet” kingdom of God. Central to the kingdom is God’s desire to renew, restore, and reconcile all things. For the church to truly be the church, it must announce, embody, and participate in this work of God in the world.  

–  Death by Church by Mike Erre

Do you ever desire to set aside more time for prayer?  Maybe even a whole day dedicated to listening and discovering what God is saying? But perhaps you haven’t been certain on how to best organize such a day. Or maybe you thought it would be helpful to participate with like minded people in such an endeavor.

If this is the case in your spiritual journey, then we hope you can join us for a one day guided prayer retreat on Thursday, June 4th here in Kansas City. We will be meeting from 9:00am to 4:00pm at the Tall Oaks Conference Center. Tall Oaks is located in Linwood, KS half way between Kansas City and Lawrence. For a map and directions to Tall Oaks you can go here. 

Our prayer “guide” for the day will be Dr. Liam Atchison. Liam has been a seminary professor and church planting pastor, and is an historian and teacher. He and his wife Precious co-authored a book called Grief, published by NavPress. Liam is a graduate of Kansas State University, where he received his PhD in the history of hermeneutics, and Dallas Theological Seminary, where he received a Master of Theology. He was founding editor of the Christian cultural journal Mars Hill Review and has written a number of articles on history and on spiritual growth. He is the founder of Emmanuel House, a graduate theological study center in Manhattan, KS and Lincoln, NE that emphasizes knowing God and knowing ourselves as a theological basis for becoming effective readers of the biblical text, people, and culture.

Liam directed the biblical counseling program at Colorado Christian University in the halcyon days of the 1990s, where Dr. Larry Crabb was both a colleague and mentor. Liam went on to be a founder and the academic dean at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary’s Seattle (Now Mars Hill Graduate School) campus, before founding Emmanuel House in 2002. He was the ancient history teacher at K-State from 2005 to 2008, when he was nominated for Professor of the Year by his undergraduate students (he didn’t win, but what was cool was that the national professor of the year won!). A coffee snob from his years in the Pacific Northwest, Liam sees baseball as a spiritual exercise, loves telling stories, and seriously, seriously bleeds purple.

The cost of the one day retreat will be a very reasonable $15 (which even includes lunch!). If you are interested in joining us or have questions please leave a comment or email me at brad.brisco@gmail.com

Hope you can join us on June 4th.