Have you noticed that prayer has a way of becoming depersonalized? Eugene Peterson tells us that we depersonalize prayer because we have a tendency to generalize God – to slip into a place where we treat him like a force or an idea or a concept, or we make prayer into a task that gets checked off the list rather than an ongoing conversation with our Friend and Father. When this happens he is no longer a person to us but an “it,” and we can’t have a relationship with an “it.”

Any of us who have ever tried to live a prayer-filled life have experienced this, and apparently Jesus’ disciples did as well. In watching Jesus pray they could tell that he had something they did not – that he approached God in a way that was qualitatively different from the way the disciples did. The disciples asked Jesus about this, and the words he gives and stories he tells in response forever changed the way people look at prayer. Sunday we will spend some time learning from Jesus how to pray.

And speaking of prayer, I have a piece of pressing family business I want to ask you to pray about. This week we begin our summer/fall session in children’s ministries, and we do not have enough workers to staff all four rooms. Our team is comprised of a number of truly heroic veterans who have been with Life’s kids since the beginning and are literally watching them grow up in Christ! We also have some great newbies who have jumped in and are giving themselves to this great ministry as well (and praise God, we keep adding more kids too!). But we’ve also lost some of our team due to moving, illnesses, and scheduling issues, and are coming up short handed.

Will you consider serving in this area? Children’s ministry is truly one of the most crucial things we do, and we need to do it well. We have the privilege and responsibility of raising our children to know and love Christ, and this ministry is absolutely critical for our outreach as well. More and more of those who are brought by friends are coming with kids, and we need to be well equipped to receive and bless those children too. The commitment is one Sunday a month for six months. Will you jump in? This is a crucial ministry of the church, and we need your help to make it happen well. To sign up or get more info, please email Bridget at bcp0138@lausd.net.

Thank you friends for being the church. Lord bless you, and we’ll look forward to being with you this weekend -

Tim
Mt 6:33

Have you ever been in a social setting where someone out of the blue turns to you and asks a question about God, and though you might be eager to answer it just feels awkward – wrong place, wrong time? Maybe in your mind you are responding with a masterful combination of profundity and wit, but as you hear your own words coming out they sound canned, forced, out of place for the setting. People smile politely but both you and they know things just got weird and look for a way to move the conversation along to something else . . .

It’s not much of a generalization to say that church people are comfortable talking about God in churchy settings with churchy people, but often struggle talking about God with those outside the church. Maybe it’s because we’ve really only learned to talk about God in that one way, and in other settings it doesn’t always translate well.

There is a section in Luke’s gospel where Jesus takes a long detour from his most frequented territory of Galilee and Judea (aka very churchy places full of very churchy people) and goes through Samaritan country – where people hold some unorthodox ideas about God, don’t look at the Bible with the same reverence the Jews do, and hold a good deal of skepticism about the religious establishment. And we see that on this detour Jesus’ communication style changes. Where a lot of preaching and teaching happens in Jewish territory, in Samaria it’s almost all parables. As Jesus travels along he tells stories that slip past the defenses of his listeners, explode stereotypes about what God is like, and connect God to the happenings of everyday life. And these stories endure as some of the Bible’s most powerful teachings on life with God.

Between Sundays you and I live in Samaria. We need to learn from Jesus how to live our everyday lives immersed in him, and how to talk to others about God while we’re on the journey. Series starts this Sunday.

Lord bless you friends, and looking forward to being with you this weekend -

Tim
Mt 6:33

This Wednesday we will be launching into our summer Theology Lounge, which we’re doing something a little different with this year. We are partnering with a group called Crown Ministries and a couple of other local churches to offer a series on what the Bible says about our personal finances.

I think this is so key for us, especially with the number of young couples and families we have in our church. Did you know that the average family in the US saves -4% of their income (or in other words, they spend 4% more than they make?) Did you know that money is the number one source of fights in marriage? That financial stress is the number one cause of divorce? And with so many investments going bust and our country in recession, there is no better time to get our financial houses in order. And even if we know finance, most of us haven’t really studied the over 2000 verses on money in the Bible. God gives us enormous wisdom on this (including getting out of debt, working, spending, saving, giving, investing, teaching our kids, etc), and we need to utilize it in leading our families.

This is hard core stuff, and requires you and your spouse (if married) to commit, purchase a workbook, do weekly homework, etc. It will be a large/small group format on Wednesday nights through summer, with some lecture and some table discussion, and your table will essentially go through the material as a small group. Over the years I have consistently and repeatedly heard people say that Crown changed their lives, introduced new levels of freedom, reduced their stress, and even saved their marriages.

If you would like to participate but have not yet signed up, email me asap to do so.

(And this Sunday - consider it an “epilogue” to our series on calling: what place does my work have in God’s call on my life?)

Lord bless you friends, and looking forward to being with you this weekend -

Tim
Mt 6:33

Hey friends –

As our series on calling comes to an end, this is my prayer:

Loving Father, you made us for yourself, and you made us for a purpose. Will you lead us into the plans you have for us, fan into flames the gifts you have given us, sharpen the skills you have entrusted to us, stir up our passion for your glory and enlarge our hearts for this world you love so much. Help us to hear your voice, to be filled with courage, and to follow you deeper into the call you have for us. And collectively, as a church family, may we be blessed to be a blessing, may we have impact for your kingdom in our homes, workplaces, and city, in churches planted near and far, in your loving mission lived out locally and globally. Lord make it so! We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

Below I’ve printed out the exercises that go with each of the previous weeks’ teaching, and if you have not already prayed through them I encourage you to make them part of your daily devotions in the days to come. (And if you missed any of the teachings you can download them from our website or subscribe to them on itunes via our podcast.)

And one final reminder:

This Sunday we will be joined by our friend Wayne Carlson (Director of Church Planting with our denomination’s Pacific Southwest Conference) as we pray through some new opportunities in church planting and beyond.

Looking forward to being with you! Lord bless you -

Tim
Mt 6:33

calling exercise – putting the pieces together

Ordinary
In your ordinary, day-to-day life, what are some ways in which you are able to serve God’s purposes? To make your sphere of influence look a little more like the kingdom of God? To be a blessing to others in Jesus’ name?
• List at least 5. (But don’t stop at 5 if you have more. List even things that seem mundane or almost not worth mentioning)

Foundations – refer to sovereign foundations exercise (below)

Failure
Have there been times when you felt called to something but got scared and quit? Or where you approached it your way rather than God’s, or others somehow undermined your efforts and failure resulted?
• Revisit these instances, list them, and pray through each. Ask: “God what are you/were you doing in that situation? What do you want me to learn from it and carry with me into my present and future calling?”

Encounter
Hearing God comes only through practiced listening. Make the following a daily listening exercise.
• As you prayerfully read the Bible, ask “Father what are you saying to me in this Scripture? How would you have me respond?”
• At the end of your day, take some minutes to reflect in prayer on the events that transpired and people you interacted with. Ask “Lord are you speaking to me through any of these people or events?”
• Keep a daily journal of how God directs you and of insights he gives you.

Doubts
As you think about living into your calling, what fears, objections, and insecurities come to the surface?
• Prayerfully submit these to God, and ask him to give you what you need to accomplish what he calls you to.

Enough
“What is in your hand?” – What has God given you (talents, abilities, spiritual gifts, resources) that you can use now for the good of others?

[sovereign foundations exercise]

Block out at least two hours of solitude and prayerfully work through a “time-line” of your life, asking God to help you better grasp his sovereign foundations in your life. Here are some questions to help guide you:

Shaping people and circumstances:
• What are the life and family circumstances, both positive and negative, that most shaped me as a child? Teen? Young adult? Older adult? What did I learn from these?
• What are the critical incidents, both positive and negative, that have most shaped you? What lessons did you learn from each of these?
• What qualities, interests, and values were present in childhood that are with you still? What do they say about who you are?
• List the critical people God has used to influence and shape you (both ongoing relationships and briefer “divine contacts”). What did God impart to you through each?
• The qualities of character I admire and desire for God to shape into my life are _______________. Why?

Gifting and passions:
• Which spiritual gifts best help me sense God working through me?
• When I think about how I would like God to use me in the future, I am especially drawn to ______________. Why?
• People who know me well believe I am most used by God when I am involved in _______________. Why?
• My activities, church related or not, that contribute most to God’s kingdom are ______________. Why?
• I am deeply moved to sorrow or joy by ____________. Why?
• If I knew I could not fail, what would I want to do with my life?

Summing up:
• What common insights or themes emerged in your time line?
• If I were to write the next chapter in my timeline, what would it include? Take a step of faith and prayerfully write out in a sentence or two what you think God might be directing you toward.
• Get feedback from someone who knows you well. Write out the first five steps you would take if moving in this direction.

“Calling is the place where your deep longing and the world’s deep need meet.”
- Fredrick Buechner

So this Sunday we will be concluding our series on calling - putting the pieces together and moving deeper into action! I appreciate hearing about the different things God has been revealing to many of you as you’ve sought God and are beginning to act on what he is showing you. These are not concepts to be understood but actions to live, and I pray that God uses this series in our living out “the good works which God has prepared in advance for us to do.”

To keep on your radar:

Sunday, June 14 – big night – Wayne Carlson, Director of Church Planting with our denomination’s Pacific Southwest Conference will be with us as we talk vision and collectively seek God in prayer.

Wednesday, June 17 – our summer Theology Lounge kicks off – This year’s topic is a timely one: what the Bible says about money (with Crown Ministries, and in partnership with friends from several other churches). The Bible has far more to say about money than most of us realize (2000+ verses). Topics covered include: getting out of debt, earning, investing, saving, spending, budgeting, giving, and teaching our kids about money.

Finally, thanks everyone for giving the Buetzow’s such an amazing send off. Way to go church!

Lord bless you guys, and we’ll see you this weekend –

Tim
Mt 6:33