Ken

The Christian life is a collaborative effort between a person, the triune God, and the Christian community. God never intended a person to slug through life alone. Jesus promised us we would not be orphans (John 14:18) and the New Testament writers often referred to the church in relational terms (family of God, the body of Christ, etc). The collaborative nature of the church is important when it comes to helping people find their way back to God. Years ago I heard Andy Stanley use the phrase "invest and invite" to describe how North Point Church builds a culture of evangelism. It basically boils down to two things: Invest in a relationship with a non-Christian. As I wrote earlier this week, the best form of evangelism will always be friendship. If you are serious about seeing people enter a relationship with Jesus, it will cost you time, energy, and possibly…

As a pastor, I'm often asked by folks what is the best way to reach their friends, neighbors, and coworkers. While there are many good things you could do, the best way to reach another person with the gospel is this: Be their friend. People are not projects; they are people. As living, breathing people they have hopes and fears, dreams and aspirations. Depending on their life stage, they will have questions about how to raise their children or navigate the waters of divorce. As a Christ-follower, the best gift you can give them is a redemptive friendship. But what does that mean? That means ... since the grace and love of Jesus has changed your life, it ought to change the way you do relationships as well. As a redeemed person, part of what it means to be follow Jesus is to bring his redeeming qualities to life in…

In the Oscar-winning movie, Annie Hall, Woody Allen plays a character named Alvy Singer. True to Allen's own personality, Singer has a slightly skewed view of life. In one scene, he tells an old joke: "Two elderly women are at a Catskill restaurant. One of them says, ‘Boy, the food at this place is just terrible.’ The other one says, ‘Yeah I know. And such small portions.’ Well, that’s essentially how I feel about life. Full of misery, loneliness and suffering and unhappiness – and it’s all over much too quickly." Life certainly has its difficulties. The question is, "How will you choose to see them?"

At Mountainview, we recently started preaching our way through the book of Ecclesiastes. At first glance, you might think it would be a downer ... everything is meaningless, everything is vanity. OK, it can be a bit of downer -- but perhaps only because it strikes a bit close to home. I recently covered this passage: 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the…

While at my nephew's wedding reception, I had the chance to visit with one of my older brothers about the church we both grew up in. Theologically, we have both moved past where some of those good folks might be comfortable. It's not that we deny the virgin birth of Jesus or his bodily resurrection -- we haven't moved that far and never will. We still uphold the Bible as the inspired, authorative Word of God. We still believe Jesus is the Christ and no one comes to the Father except through him. We love the church. We believe in missions. Honestly, from the larger Christian perspective, we haven't moved all that far. But I know my heritage and I know many of the churches I once worshiped in would be hesitant to hire me as their preacher (which, when you think about, might not be a bad hesitancy!). There was…