JTTurner.Net

Living for Others

jtturner — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:47:11 +0000

John 17:23 – “…May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Living for others is an odd conception. I suppose from a Naturalistic perspective it may even be antithetical to the actuality of human nature. Some have proposed “reciprocal altruism”[1] which really is just reciprocal egoism (sort of an “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” type of mentality) but really I think it’s accurate to say that only a Christian can accomplish actual altruistic living. I suppose that last bit is up for debate, but what is not up for debate is that the Christian life is about others. My friend Andrew Schools posted a small quote on his blog earlier in the week which really does sum up the Christian purpose and the life of the C(c)hurch: “The church is only the church when it exists for others.”[2]

The reason I bring this up is not only because it has been captivating my thoughts over the past year and a half but because, more recently, I had the opportunity to meet with a church-going Christian who felt the need to leave a local church in their area for reasons that only concerned them. On the surface it seemed like a fine reason: “I need to be fed, I need to be challenged” etc, but it was the underlying mentality that I found startling. It’s the idea that we as Christians, when part of a local body of believers, can act autonomously without thought to the other members of the church. This is overly prevalent in our current “Christian” society. It’s what we see nearly every Sunday, people coming in saying “feed me” then leaving out the back door. It’s also demonstrated in people who want to come and get “plugged in” but only mean that they want people to plug into them so they don’t have to make the effort of doing the plugging.

Like I said above, it’s not that getting fed or getting “plugged in” is bad. Not at all. But it’s the attitude that seems to keep popping up that is sinful. That attitude most often displays itself by Christians’ unwillingness to accept the messiness of the church and forgoing the continuance of covenant with fellow members for the growth of the body, both in edification, sanctification, and in evangelism (among a host of other things) (Ephesians 4). It’s about understanding that the local body of believers is a family unit. And, just like in any family unit, we do not make autonomous choices. We make choices and decisions based on how they will edify our family. Because I belong to Jesus and I was bought with a price, I know that I am no longer my own; and as such, I know that being a part of the body of Christ allows me to actually live out that “not-my-ownness.” In short, we live for others…we live altruistically. At conVerge we have a saying “every person matters.” And what we mean to say is, love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39). This should flow out of the greatest commandment which was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” (Matthew 22:37). So, it seems to me that if we love God and obey that first and greatest commandment then we will be able to rightly obey the second one. Thusly, we can appropriately love our church body and make decisions that are truly edifying to the others in our church body and not decisions that just “edify” ourselves. ‘Edify’ is in quotation marks because it seems to be the case that it will not be edifying if decisions are made egoistically/self-centered. While altruism is in the Christian’s self-interest, it is wholesale different from self-centered. I guess then, the laboratory for the Christian altruism experiment is the local church. It rises and falls on it (1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14).

[1] Satris, Stephen. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Moral Issues. Guilford, CT: Dushkin Pub. Group/Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1996. (Louis Pojman’s essay contra egoism).

[2] http://thefieldmanual.blogspot.com/

Election Got You Down?

jtturner — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:47:02 +0000

Well, it’s that time again…time for a good ol’ American Presidential election. Christians everywhere unite! It’s time to get the word out to vote and enact legislation that will enforce Christian principles! Or wait; where is that in Scripture? Can someone point to me in the Bible and show me where Jesus or any of his disciples tell us to get worked into frenzy about social legislation and government? I submit to you there is no such statement or even allusion in all of the New Testament. If you’re going to point to the Old Testament and to the Nation of Israel, you need to first understand that Christ fulfilled what the Nation of Israel was supposed to stand for…so, though God reluctantly gave Israel a government, the fact that Israel was a shadow/type of the coming Christ is why God gave a crap about any of its governmental affairs. Well my friends, that day is gone. Jesus Christ came and told us what we need to do to establish His kingdom on earth. When is the last time you read Matthew 28: 18-20? As Christ is leaving the earth He most certainly does not tell us to put our hopes and cares into man-made government or in the kingdoms of this world. Nope, all Christ said was to focus on the His mission…go and make disciples! So, this begs a huge question we need to answer as Christians, the body of Christ. Why do we spend endless hours and endless amounts of money propelling governments? Think about all the money wasted on pagans like McCain or Obama to get into some role of “leadership” that amounts to zero on the eternal scale. Why don’t we, the Church, spend that time and energy making disciples? Why? Please, someone tell me! Why aren’t we using this money to, instead, fund churches, church plants, missionaries, and fledgling church communities in remote areas? Furthermore, the church trying to instantiate Christianity through a government is the height of absurdity. Do you know who the apostles and prophets chastised for sin? The covenant community, the community of faith…not the Gentiles! You know why? Because the Gentiles did NOT care…and they don’t care now. What we ought to do, instead of ramming government lead “morality” down their pagan throats, is to actually make meaningful relationships with pagan people and bring them to a saving knowledge and life pursuing Jesus as His disciple. Then, and only then, will we see a culture transformed and people’s hearts turned toward morality…and not for morality’s sake, but because they are following Christ and living to obey His will and commandments. Politics is empty and so is the “hope” found in it.

Being biblically literate is missional

jtturner — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:31:55 +0000

It’s been a while, and I apologize for the lack of updates. The biggest reason is that my wife and I only recently had internet hooked up in our home. While I have been idle in my blogging some things have popped up, disturbing things, that have caused me to pause and consider what the mission of Jesus entails. While the answer to that question contains a many-layered answer, one thing for sure, and perhaps not expressed often enough, is “biblical literacy.” What is biblical literacy? Well, it’s not merely being able to read the Bible. But rather, as Gordon Fee puts it, being able to read the Bible “for all it’s worth.” This is a missional concept, a very important one in fact. What this implies is that as disciples of Christ, who are hoping to make more disciples, we must be incredibly familiar with all aspects of Scripture. Historical milieu, crucial points of doctrine, context, context, and oh yes…context! We’re not to be “proof texters” by throwing out one-liners to people but rather we must have a grasp on as much Scripture as possible. Am I implying that we can exhaust scripture and plumb all of its depths? Heck no. But what I am implying is this: God does not reward lazy study and does not magically give the unlearned every ounce of insight just by looking at the pages. God, of course, does provide insight; the internal instigation and witness of the Holy Spirit will guide people into truth but this is not some random occurrence…this is a direct result of HARD WORK.

To be able to disciple implies we must BE a disciple. And the most obvious way to start that is by trying to learn everything God has to say through His written revelation. I am definitely a believer in sola scriptura. Being able to reason through the scriptures is not only evidenced and praised in Scripture (Acts 17) but it is also commanded that we hold fast to true doctrine (just check out Paul’s letters to Timothy). Being able to properly teach and disciple is what being missional is all about. We don’t want to have baby-believers running around conforming to every new hip, wind of doctrine and forgetting that they are to be tethered firmly to our source of truth, Scripture. That is just about as off mission as someone can possibly get.

I am a huge proponent of apologetics, it’s a passion of mine. While I have begun to understand that apologetics is not the end-all-be-all of discipleship it does contain one great component which is not foresakeable for any believer; we are commanded to know what we believe and why we believe it (1 Peter 3:15). We are commanded to be familiar with it so that nothing sways us from the true mission of Christ. Our focus isn’t to be on “healing revivals” or knocking someone down with “Holy Ghost power;” no, our mission is to bring fellow believers into an understanding that we are to take the message of reconciliation to as many people as we possibly can (II Cor. 5). And our mission to unbelievers is to tell them that they need to repent of their former life and follow Christ….and then show them how! We cannot do this if we do not know what we believe. We cannot do this if we do not understand Scripture in its literary and historical context. We cannot do this if we buy into every feel-good phenomena that uses the name of Jesus. We cannot do this if we try and blow them away with wild “supernatural” shenanigans. We can only do this if we wake up every day and understand that the mission God has given me (don’t confuse me with saying the mission will fail because God doesn’t need me for that) will fail if I do not understand what God is teaching through His word.

Oh yes…and all of this must be done within the context of relationships. Relationships that are formed on the basis of being able to teach someone the great truths of the Gospel so that a given person repents of their former life and turns to walk with Christ on His mission.

-JT

The Plague of Comfort?

jtturner — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:07:41 +0000

Probably the most odd realization that I have come to over the past few months, and more specifically the last few weeks, is the dawning realization that comfort in life can often, if not most times, yield few positive and productive results. My brother, who is a pretty smart guy, and another really smart guy at conVerge, Caleb, have been discussing recently on blogs, facebook and in general discussion the stark reality that the reasons we, the American Church, are dying is because we’re far too comfortable. Being a Christian is far too easy…at least the Christianity that the American Church has been marketing; what Caleb has so aptly called “nominal Christianity” (check out his blog at www.calebturner.com (no relation :))) . Prima facie this seems odd…afterall, as Christians in America we have often lauded the fact that we are free to worship who we please and are still free to pursue all the great advantages of the “American dream.” But interestingly, through history, the true Church..the true Christian life never seems to actually flourish in this kind of setting. Roger, my brother, touched on that on his face-book page. It’s an interesting thesis…and one I’m starting to believe. Are we wrong in this?

To add to this is a discussion that I had with my wife before we fell asleep last night. It started off as a conversation about not worrying about what a future “career” might be and our discussion that “career” isn’t important so long as we are always strategically positioning ourselves to spread the gospel. Obviously we must do our best in whatever job we find ourselves in, but the jobs are only a means to an end…a strategic way-point in our mission to further the Kingdom. This is precisely backwards from what most American Christians will say, even my family has never told me that and they’re all authentic believers. This is where I believe that Caleb’s post hit’s the nail on the head…the movement we are trying to reestablish in conVerge is a call to repentance to the Church…more specifically the American church. The American dream has triumphed over the necessity of the gospel and has been a distraction. Look at the Apostle Paul. The man was a tent-maker. Why? It afforded him the opportunity to evangelize and move about on his mission. He wasn’t a professional missionary nor did he have a “career” path. He worked a job as a means to an end..and that end helped change the last 2000 years of history. Well, like I said…the conversation only started this way. Soon it traveled into our wonderings of whether conVerge could be a real, lasting movement. I believe it can and will be. And like all movements, it will be very difficult to overturn the cultural milieu and setting we find ourselves in. After-all (like we keep saying) no one will disagree (Christian’s that is) that the mission of Jesus is paramount and the priority. However, it is one thing to get someone to agree; it’s entirely another to get someone to act. To get someone to actually move with God. To change their life, to drop their careers, to reorient their entire life for the mission of Jesus. I’m in the process of doing it. Six months ago my only thought was to finish my MA, go get my PhD from Notre Dame (Go Irish!) and teach philosophy of religion the rest of my life in some cake university job. Sure, I’d share the gospel and defend the faith every time the opportunity presented itself…but…look at that! “Presented itself.” What the heck does that mean?! No, no, no!! Part of the mission of Jesus implies that we put ourselves in the way of the mission…to put ourselves strategically in position to spread the gospel to the unbeliever and bring other Christian’s to the knowledge, the true knowledge and practice, of the Gospel.

That’s one difficulty. That’s the less “scary” part. But what about the other scary parts. What about real persecution? I’m not sure how many of us in conVerge, let alone the entire body of Christ, understand the actual perils of missional living. We need look no further than the thousands upon thousands of brutalized, tortured, and murdered martyrs who have fought valiantly to keep the Truth, His Gospel, going and bring real people from the grips of Hell. The ironic thing about this type of persecution, however, is that…I’m willing to bet anyway… it would in a sense “galvanize the troops.” I’m not saying that persecution is something we need to hope against hope for, but I think there is a reason that scripture says to count yourself blessed when it occurs.

Perhaps “plague” is too strong of a word to describe comfort, but I really believe that if we look to the very first Christian movement (the actual first Christians) they were more than willing to bring on some discomfort in order to save real people from a real, eternal, Hell. They were in stark contrast to the rest of society…we are not. So, how about we do just that…make ourselves uncomfortable, put ourselves out there, sacrifice our lives and wants to the mission of Jesus. How can we not…people are going to Hell. Is your 401k more important than that? Your “career?”

This was a bit rambling…but, any thoughts?

-JT

Seeing the truth and believing it are two different things…

jtturner — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:31:13 +0000

This post isn’t so much about me as it is a retelling of an experience my brother had/is having. Currently he’s been spending between one and two hours a week with some Latter Day Saints (i.e. Mormons) over the past 3 months or so. It’s been kind of neat to see Rog interact with them (when they come to our church) and to hear his tales about how he’s been able to minister to them and speak the real truth of the real gospel. It’s honestly really cool…he’s gotten their relationship to such a stage to where they all feel very comfortable being very frank and honest about disagreements they have. I sort of say all of this to lead up to what happened last night…

Roger had been telling me of two passages in the Book of Mormon which look to contradict each other. In one passage it claims that God ( this is Heavenly Father in their vernacular) made the earth and in the other it states that Jesus (the Son) created the earth. And also they refer to Jesus as Lord God omnipotent. A couple of problems arise here: 1. They aren’t trinitarian so they see these two beings as being ontologically distinct and completely separate. They are not one God in three persons in Mormon doctrine, rather they are three separate beings; God is one, Jesus another, and the Spirit another. Ok, that’s problem (1) with the passage…who in fact created the world, God or Jesus? Problem (2) is that it refers to Jesus being omnipotent. If Jesus and God are separate beings, they cannot both be omnipotent. That violates the laws of logic and really the law of non-contradiction. God could both be cancelled out and not-be cancelled out by Jesus and vice versa. That’s completely illogical, ergo, completely wrong. There were a host of other problems that Roger hit on in his discussion with his friends stemming from this problem but I won’t go into them here, ask him to retell the story if he’s up to it…but suffice it to say, that Roger proved their God as being a complete logical impossibility.

Why do I say all of this? Well, because of their reaction. This is what they said: “That is wrong because the Book of Mormon is true, I just don’t understand because it’s out of my ability to comprehend such things.” So, why were they not convinced of the truth? The answer is, logic does not convert the affections alone towards God, only the Holy Spirit can do that. Logic and argument can help, and they are certainly biblical for a presentation of the Gospel (1 Peter 3:15), but they are not sufficient. It is crazy, in my mind, how thick the fog of satanic deception can be. To where a normal person with otherwise properly functioning faculties can stare in the face of logical contradiction and cling to its validity just because they believe it to be true.

It truly is one thing to be shown the truth and entirely another to accept it. In the case of the affections of the human soul, only the internal instigation of the Holy Spirit can provide the “missing premise” as-it-were.

Please pray for the two LDS guys Rog has been discussing with. Pray for Roger as well to continue to speak out of love and let the Spirit guide his words.

-JT

conVerge groups

jtturner — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:22:13 +0000

I just wanted to post, really quickly, that those of you who have looked into conVerge church and have possibly attended one of our worship experiences and are not involved in one of our conVerge groups, you’re really missing out. They, currently, are being held at Liberty Ridge (that’s right behind the Wingate Inn) and are a great time to come into community with other believers so that you (myself included) can be equipped to live missionally the next day and reflect back on ways you could have lived more missionally in the previous days. Remember that we are not islands and we cannot do this alone. Living missionally is impossible without God and the community of believers…that is how God designed it.

For those of you who are not Christians and are perhaps interested in what you have read on this blog, or others, and the main site…I encourage you to come out as well. We’re not stuffy fundamentalists that have no connection with normal society. You’ll see that we can identify with ordinary people you meet every day, we simply claim Jesus Christ to be our God and we believe that He literally died and resurrected for us and you (and everyone for that matter). I say all this to say…we want you to come so that we can actually show you the love of Jesus Christ and how to get involved in changing the world and your life. Also, I like to think we’re all decently friendly and fun to hang-out with as well 8-).

If you need directions you can email info@convergechurch.org or you can email me at jt@convergechurch.org.

- JT

So far…a positive response

jtturner — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:50:31 +0000

After church two Sundays ago, myself and the rest of the “band” members received a really positive response. This is great for two reasons…1. This style of music has not been attempted in a praise and worship portion of church (at least, not to my knowledge) and 2. we really had to write music in a very quick period of time. To be honest, I wasn’t as much concerned with the outcome of number (2) because Nate, Roger, and I have all written lots of music before…and all with each other, so it wasn’t that hard to pull riffs together and get back in the flow of song structuring and so forth. However, number (1) was something I was a bit nervous about, and really still am nervous about. Though the vast majority of what I heard in response was good I did hear of two complaints through a 3rd party and that is kinda what I have focused on the last couple of days. That’s a bummer. I don’t know why I’m focusing on that, but I am. The irony of this is that I actually figured the reaction would be far in favor of the negative than the positive and I was still all about giving it a shot. Now, none of this is to say that we in the “band” are going to switch styles or go against our philosophy of music, but that is to say that I need continual prayer for the courage of my convictions. And my particular conviction regarding praise and worship music is that it be talented, energetic, relevant to the times, and above all…scripturally sound and worshipful. So far, I really believe we’ve accomplished all of the above and I think that as we put together more new material (of which we have a few more) that we will continue in this fashion.

It is also odd for me to think of this music as something that I take creative pride in, but I know now that I do. I’m not sure how to feel about that…what sense of pride should I have in this? To what degree must I take a criticism personally…even a small one? A big one? It was different, at least in my estimation, when I was doing this professionally for a label and trying to sell records and please critics… I understood that there was an underlying competitiveness in the music industry, but what competitiveness is there now? It seems that there should be none. So, why does it count against my confidence to hear of people who didn’t like the music at conVerge the other weekend? I don’t know if I have the answer to that…I am still sorting out if there is a deeper issue to be searched for. At the very least it keeps me humble.

I really want the music at conVerge to strike a chord with the Christians of today and to be relevant to non-believers. Of course they will not understand the Who we are speaking about or a lot of the “whats,” but I don’t think a non-believer should walk in and be confused by the sound of the music. Heck, I’m a believer and I’m confused by the sound of other churches music! I believe there is a need, a huge need, for change in the music of the church and I and the rest of the guys, are trying to set the course. I don’t say that in a prideful or boasting tone, I simply say that as a matter of conviction…

Music is meant to be worshipful and for praise in the church….our goal is to do exactly that. If you haven’t been to a conVerge worship experience I encourage you to come out and worship with us. Maybe there is more than two ways (traditional and “contemporary”) to worship God through music, and maybe you’ll really like it. I know I do, but I might be biased…

Sunday, February 10th, 7pm

-JT

Was it a miracle?

jtturner — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:32:51 +0000

Wow! We had the launch of conVerge Church last night and I am just stunned. I have never been a part of something so big in my entire life, something that I could feel God moving in and really working in…not to this degree anyway. There were just so many things that had to come together in such a small amount of time that I honestly thought it was going to be so much less than it was. I know I definitely thought that there was no way the music would have been together for this past Sunday. And, honestly, it wouldn’t have been done if it hadn’t had been for God. I know this may not fall into most philosopher’s and theologian’s definition of miracle, but, I have to say…this was a miracle. There is just no way it could have happened without Him. So, did it violate the laws of nature? I dunno…possibly…but, this is for sure, omnipotence was required to pull this off. So, thank God for all that He did!

What’s convicting about all of this is that I definitely doubted God and my place in all of it. Many, many times I thought to myself “people aren’t going to like this music, I’m not the guy who should be doing this, we cannot do this, I don’t have the time, I don’t have the talent…etc, etc.” Well…in truthfulness, some of that is true. I couldn’t have done it myself. But, what isn’t true is that I wasn’t supposed to be a part of it. God called me into this if for nothing else than to orient my life around mission. But He did more than that…He’s actually allowing me to use the talents He’s given me to make music that I believe answers a problem in the church. So, hopefully it will continue in this manner and I, and all the guys in the “band,” can remember to keep the point of the music focused on Christ and His worship.

If you weren’t at conVerge for the launch last night you really missed a great message. Steve did a fantastic job giving the “why” of conVerge…as in why are we here, in Lynchburg, right now? I am honored that I get to work with Him as the pastor of my church and that I get to see God develop him as a teacher of the word. February 10th should be the next step in his progression and the next step in conVerge as Steve lays out the “how” to living missionally. He was right on Sunday when he said that people in the churches want to know “how” to live on mission…and the cool thing is, I believe that God is going to use conVerge to show His followers how to do it. The church has left the question unanswered for so long now, that I’m thrilled to hear the answer and seeing people start changing the world by reaching people for Christ and training them to be disciples.

Gosh, there is so much more to be said…but it just seems that trying to put last night into words leaves a lot more to be explained. Was it a miracle? If I had to give an answer I would have to say…yes!

-JT

How come we’re afraid of the truth?

jtturner — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:34:51 +0000

It strikes me as odd that people are afraid of the truth…even Christians! I was sitting in my New Testament World class this past week listening to Dr. Percer discuss how Christians borrowed terminology from the pagan cultures in order to better communicate the gospel to those same pagans. This makes perfect sense to me…it’s the very sort of thing that Paul does in Acts 17 using the “unknown god” as a springboard into a gospel message. Yet, in our American (and perhaps other parts of the world) Christian culture loads of Christians have the knee-jerk reaction of “this cannot be!” when someone says that Christians truthfully borrowed pagan themes to communicate the gospel. So, why is this so fearful? Is it not possible that there are pieces of the world religions that do actually point to God? I mean, after-all…all truth is God’s truth. So, if it’s true…then it’s true. What’s wrong with that?

I actually really enjoy that quality of God…that even in logical thought God’s character can be seen. The similarities in our moral law from society to society, values, standards, dieties etc…even though, for all but orthodox Christianity, they end up being wrong…there is still truth to be found. And like Paul did, instead of running away from that truth, we should be using it as a platform to begin evangelizing. That’s exciting stuff!

Remember the slogan at the top of my blog…”faith in Christ is not a blind leap into a chasm of credulity.” So, if we can be confident in our hearts and minds that our faith is valid why do we need to fear truth even when it is presented by something untruthful? If you truly believe that your faith is rational…then be glad! You now have more tools at your disposal for evangelism that an unbeliever has just handed to you!

Anyway, back to what sparked this evangelism idea…is the notion that Christians fear when skeptics point out that certain parts of the Christian story were borrowed from other religions and thoughts. I see it as just the opposite…it really gives an added apologetic to the Christian faith when combined with all the other kinds of evidences we have (evidence for the resurrection, archaeological evidence, teleological evidence (fine-tuning anyone?), cosmological evidence, ontological evidence, etc.). So, let us all move past our ignorance and instead involve ourselves with the study of Gods truth, His Word, His history, and everything else we can so that we may know Him better. Not only will this improve your walk with Christ, but it will help you evangelize in the same way Paul did…to informed skeptics!

Acts 17

Romans 1

1 Peter 3:15

-JT

A Busy Semester Ahead

jtturner — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:53:46 +0000

Well, the Spring semester is upon us (or at least me). The school year is back in full-swing and my schedule just stepped up two notches at least. That being said my responsibilities to the music at conVerge are still in full-swing and to be quite honest, are becoming very productive. James, Nate, Roger, Tyler, and I have been hard at work at organizing the music for next weekend (next weekend!!!) and it is really taking a nice sounding shape. I am so incredibly thankful that God has allowed this team to come together so quickly and that everyone has been so on task and accommodating to the needed time for song writing. So far we have the following:

Phos Hilaron - This is a 1st century hymn to be sung at night (which is very cool since conVerge’s first meeting is at night). There have been a couple of renditions of this hymn through the centuries and ours is another addition.

Psalm 16 - We’ve taken the ESV version of this Psalm and put it to some pretty rockin’ music. I’m hoping everyone will find the lyrics of this song motivation to worship.

Holy, Holy, Holy - We needed to have at least one familiar song so people could identify easily with the music being played. This won’t be a typical version, but I’m hopeful that people will easily be able to pick up the tune and will enjoy worshiping God through the classic beauty of this song.

I really cannot tell you how excited I am about all of it. James, our singer, comes from a largely different musical background than I, Nate, Roger, or Tyler comes from and to see James’ face get excited and to hear that he legitimately thinks that the music is good for praise makes me think we’re on the right track.

In other news, conVerge had a leadership meeting last night and it was very encouraging. Steve Gentry and Nate Schlomann really have their stuff together and it’s really remarkable how on point and exciting their vision is. I am hopeful (and really…certain) that others are going to catch on in a big way. I can really say that I believe that this movement is (to speak in Christianese) of God. There is just so much possibility I see and that I hear in their larger goals that I and my wife Bethany are excited and blessed to be a part of it. We’ll be meeting on Sunday so that they can go over a variety of things that conVerge needs from some of the first “members” for next Sunday’s service…and I think that tomorrows meeting will be a great time of encouragement as well.

Speaking of the meeting last night; Steve said something so obvious that it shocked me that I have overlooked it in all of my preparation for next Sunday. People might get saved. Whoa, that is ridiculously huge. I am ashamed to say that I’ve never been a part of something where I honestly believed that someone’s salvation was going to be genuinely effected. But, wow, I really believe that it will happen in the next couple of weeks and may just happen next Sunday. I’m also ashamed to say that it wasn’t something I had been thinking about. I had been thinking about the church living missionally and seeing people get saved on the outside but I hadn’t thought (well, more accurately I suppose I hadn’t been expecting it) about people who were coming to conVerge as unbelievers leaving with their lives radically changed and on mission for Jesus. Now, however, I am expecting it (not in the ridiculous “positive confession” sense) but I am going to pray that God keeps me prepared to lead someone to Christ should I be asked to do so come next Sunday. My heart is shaking in excitement at that thought.

8 days away…

-JT