Mental Post-Its

Thoughts, Notes, and General Mental Mayhem

Tag Archives: Church


by 1 Comment

Be The Blueprint

As expected, Sunday was a really good church service at Blueprint. I knew I would go in and get pumped up by the New Year energy of the crowd, and be encouraged to start January off right. I needed the fuel to get a jump start on my theme for 2013, be renewed after the weird year that was 2012, and grab an early anchor point to dig in and move forward in new possibilities. I was not disappointed with the new “Be The Blueprint” series.

In fact, I decided to outline some of my notes from Sunday here in case you could use a good dose of perspective and inspiration as well.

  • Too many times we reflect not on our blessings, but what we feel God is withholding from us. We take a victim or woe is me attitude.
  • We aren’t here to simply exist. There is a reason you and I exist. What do you exist for? (Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” KJV)
  • Too often we don’t spend our time living, but trying not to make God mad.
  • Blueprint’s DNA: The gospel changes people, and people change the world.
  • Blueprint’s mission: To unleash healthy people to do ministry where life exists.
  • Blueprint’s strategy: Growing in the gospel in the context of family while living on mission.
  • We are less proactive in church, but usually more reactive and defensive. We need to be on the attack. (Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” ESV)

5 Reasons We Need to be Burdened By Mission

  1. Mission grows our affections for Christ, taking us from conceptual to effectual.
  2. Mission aligns our hearts with His, causing us to move from passive to compassionate.
  3. Mission reestablishes our identity, remind us we are God’s chosen vessel.
  4. Mission reminds us of our deficiencies, driving us to pray.
  5. Mission reminds us of His sufficiency, strengthening our faith. (Did you ever think that maybe the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000 weren’t for those fed, but for the disciples?)

I’m praying you find your mission, or continue it, in 2013. It’s not easy, but totally worth it. Living differently is definitely living better. I think I’ve had a few different missions during my life, depending on my life stage and circumstance. The one I’m currently on has been building over the past few years, and it’s still really exciting to me. I’m excited and curious to see where it leads me this year.

It was a breezy 50 degrees when I walked out of the church service on Sunday, but I didn’t care. I was on fire.

 

If you want a little more, here’s a great blog post on the Blueprint site from Pastor John on the New Year.


by 13 Comments

King David was Bipolar

180471960Anyone else ever have that thought?

It wasn’t until I was diagnosed as depressed/borderline bipolar about 10 years ago that the thought occurred to me. Shortly after, I was reading a Psalm and it struck me. Black and white, literally. This guy’s emotions are all over the place. Verse to verse—it changes constantly, many times within the same Psalm.

I’m not trying to be silly or anything. I actually took, and still take, great comfort in that idea. I’ve heard so many sermons in my life about David’s sins, and how God still considered him a man after His own heart, but I’ve never heard one about David’s mental stability. I rather like my perspective. It makes the Bible even more relateable to me. We just don’t hear enough about mental issues in the church. It’s a shame. A lot of us deal with those issues. And frankly, a lot more need to. Three cheers for counseling, and sometimes medication. 😉

King David was bipolar.

And he was still a great king, and

…a man after God’s own heart

…a giant slayer

…a warrior

…a son

…a father

…a husband

…a brother

…a poet

…a friend

…and so much more.

He’s one of my heroes.

He’s messed up, just like me. He needed God, just like me. He’s loved by God, just like me.

By the way, if Psalms were meant to be sung, has anyone ever considered how horrible they would sound? Many of them are so harsh it would be just scary to hear them set to a melody. Kinda like a slasher film set to an opera.

Just one girl’s opinion.

 

Check out my new favorite version of the Bible to read.

(Note: Amazon links are affiliate links.)


by Leave a comment

Missional Communities

Many of you have asked me what this “missional community” thing is that I’ve immersed myself in. I recently found a good explanation from my friend, Gailyn Van Rheenen, who has a heart for training people to be a part of this movement. Here is what he says…

Missional churches are theologically-formed, Christ-centered, Spirit-led fellowships who seek to faithfully incarnate the purposes of Christ. They are communities formed by the calling and sending of God and reflecting the redemptive reign of God in Christ (http://www.missiology.org/mmr/mmr34.htm). These become church planting movements because a missionary impulse is embedded within their DNA. They are simple, replicable, and thus able to spread like a virus over a geographic area. These missional churches are, however, fragile in their inception because the first step is “making disciples.” This disciple-making takes time because followers of Jesus must be nurtured as they grow to spiritual maturity and become God’s sent people on mission with Him. I believe that missional DNA exists in every faithful Christian and every local church but nurturing and equipping are necessary to unleash it in neighborhoods, families, work places, and third places.

That is probably a much more eloquent way than I’ve been explaining it, so I hope this helps. I will certainly be talking more about it here and to many of you verbally, but just wanted to throw this out there.

Happy Friday!


by Leave a comment

New Wineskins

I’m in the middle of a 21-day journal focused on “Renewal in the Body of Christ”. Each day only has a short thought and scripture, but I always find it challenging. One, in particular, stuck with me this week. I’ve thought about it repeatedly over the past couple of days, pushing myself to really explore it’s message.

Below is what it said. I hope you find it challenging and thought-provoking as well…

——————————————————————

SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 9:17 (NLT) “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”

PERSONAL REFLECTION:
An old wineskin is hardened and cracks easily when new wine is put into it; as the new wine ferments and expands, it runs out of room due to the old wineskin’s inability to be flexible. The Body of Christ must be willing to be flexible as he pressure of our changing world demands that we expand to include new ways of thinking and reaching those who are lost. In a rapidly changing global environment, our old ways are not going to be as effective as they once were. We must learn how to be Spirit-led and Spirit-formed so that we don’t camp out in any one way of doing ministry. Ask God to release a new wind of the Spirit upon the church to guide His Church in the right direction. Pray that the church has an open ear and willing heart to understand and take action on the Spirit’s direction.

PRAYING THROUGH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 (MSG) “Jesus, we know your Spirit isn’t content to flit around on the surface, but instead you dive into the depths of God and bring out His plans to us. Only you know what you’re thinking and planning – but you let us in on it, giving us a full report. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We don’t have to learn by reading books or going to school – instead we can learn person-to-person through you and pass it on in a personal, firsthand way. As your church, if we are spiritually alive, we can have access to everything you are doing. We don’t have to wonder ‘what you’re doing’ – you know and we have your spirit within us. Let us be open to each new direction and instruction, moving fluidly with you to be Spirit-led and Spirit-formed.”

—————————————————————–

At the end of each day’s page, it asks, “Going forward I’m committed to…”. My short answer was to become a new wineskin and to encourage others to do the same. Having grown up in the church and participating in a local congregation, I know I can be short-sighted sometimes. I get stuck in the way I like things. I forsake change for my own comfort. But in doing so, I can easily listen more to myself than the Spirit. After all, you start doing that and you are just asking for trouble! But I must remember that I’m not called to be comfortable. I’m called to be part of a larger story, one that doesn’t grant me center stage. (Whoa, hit to my ego.) But the greatest and best things I’ve done in my life were areas where I took risk and listened to the Spirit. I got in a little trouble. I got rid of the old wineskin.

So now I pray for you, Church, be new wineskins. Stretch. Grow. Look at new ways of doing ministry. Open your hearts and let the Spirit speak. And when He does, be prepared to move.

Oh, and how would you answer?