Dear Church Family,
It was such a joy to host Scott Boren this past weekend. Scott is the author of many books on small group ministries, but what sets him apart from most Small Group experts is his emphasis on the words of St. John of the Cross, “…to put love where love is not…”
Throughout the weekend, Scott led various workshops and then preached on Sunday morning. I really hope you were able to hear Scott preach, if not I would highly suggest listening to his message on our website (cojchurch.org). Throughout our time with Scott, we continually reflected on the words of St. John of the Cross. We were challenged to consider ways we might put love where love is not in our homes, in our church, in our small group, at work and in our recreational activities. This is the heartbeat of the Missional Church movement: to put love where love is not, wherever we find ourselves… especially in our daily lives.
So much of church life has focused on the Doing over the Being: Doing things over Being a Disciple who reflects Christ in their every day lives. Doing things can be great fun! I think of Doing as events or community initiatives, and these things are critical to church life! But are doing events really the reason Jesus created the church? Doing events are very important to a church’s life, and honestly they are very fun! But the more I study Jesus’ teachings his emphasis is on Being a Disciple: things like how we interact with others; how our faith informs our daily actions, at home, at work.
I wonder if the normal church focus on Doing has provided us with a way to focus our attention on tangible things to do. Our calendars are filled with church so we can neglect the Being of discipleship: actually showing love, patience and kindness in places where we would rather not show love and patience and kindness, thank you very much! Disciples are called to reflect the heart of Christ in our lives, that is the most important thing we can do!
Focusing on Being over Doing is not a normal endeavor. It’s where the hard work of Discipleship lies. One of our sessions with Scott was all about realizing how over-extended most Americans are. We then spent time considering tangible ways we can de-compress our daily calendars and schedules so that we might have the time to practice putting love where love is not. We don’t want to add things to already extended schedules, we want to start looking for ways that we can “put love where love is not” in our daily lives as they already stand.
This is not what people normally do in life… but it is what happens when we strive to follow Jesus’ command in Mark 12:28-31,
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Practicing loving God and loving neighbor is about being a Disciple of Jesus Christ. Scott McKnight has called these words the Jesus Creed. Think about our normal, daily lives—what would change if we really strove to live out these words from Jesus every minute of the day? Don’t you think this should be the goal of a follower of Jesus Christ?
This weekend, we are beginning a new sermon series entitled, “Breaking out of Normal: Living the Jesus Creed.” Our goal throughout these messages is to pursue Jesus’ command to Love God and Love neighbor in our daily lives, wherever we are. Please join us this weekend as we strive to live out the Jesus Creed together.
In Christ, your Pastor
Bryan White
