Next steps in facing injustice and slavery

Two weeks ago I was invite by my friend Nathan Oates of Emmaus Church Community (also in Lincoln... look collaboration in the same town... I will resist to comment further). It was a really honor to share about our journey as a faith community into the places of injustice, oppression, and need from Cambodia to Lincoln, CA. The context of the interview was primarily around the brokenness of our lives, communities, and systems. This past summer I had the chance to have a front row seat for the heinous, heart-wrenching and soul splaying evil of human trafficking, namely sex slavery of young girls. Many asked after hearing all the brutal and disturbing stories, what can I do. Here's my attempt to answer that here in suburbia.

Dear Emmaus Church Community,
I was deeply blessed and inspired by your willingness to address the uncomfortable and disturbing topic of human trafficking a few weeks back. It is a tragedy that shakes us to our core when we really stop and
realize what is truly wrong with the world (and us). The emotions can be very awkward, raw and somewhat surreal. We do not see often (if ever) this evil up close and when we do it still seems far away from our suburban lives. Yet, for so many around the globe (and even in Sacramento) it is a daily reality. But with all the emotion and even anger, what’s one to do? I mean, really do about these heart-wrenching stories of injustice and abuse? Here’s a few places to begin.
Pray: It’s always the first and best response to the oppression of people. God heard the suffering of His people and it moved Him to action (called Moses out of comfort and hiding to dangerous engagement).
Support: Whether its financial or relational support for those who are on the front lines of this battle. Please check out AIM4Asia.org and International Justice Mission online.
Go: It might be that God is placing a burden on your heart to actually go and work along side these amazing organizations and leaders. Feel free to email me at onelifechurch.org about traveling to Cambodia in summer 2010. Also, I know Emmaus will have global missional opportunities as well. Go for it.
Seek: This is perhaps the hardest and potentially dangerous responses. Read the local communication sources (Lincoln News Messenger, Sacramento Bee), surf online for local and regional issues related to human trafficking and seek a way to get involved. There are local coalitions that seek to be a transformative force in our region.
Share: Tell others about what you are learning and experiencing. Share the move of God in your heart and the restlessness of not being idle as so many are oppressed and used in our world. Who knows God may do a work in their hear and they seek to get involved.

Lastly, Jesus spoke about the “least of these”. He talked about the over-looked, the ignored and the avoided (communities, tribes, or people groups). His heart went out to them, he pursued them, engaged with them and touched them. He even said that the Kingdom was for them. To be like Jesus is to be in the places and with the people he was. You’ll find the life that is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17-19). Grace and Peace, Troy

Prayer of Surrender

On the first Sunday we launched Recovering Life, we faced the reality that we are not God and that our attempts to control our lives has made them uncontrollable. Our attitudes, addictions, bad habits often trap us from going forward and growing in life. We shared together in a time of surrendering prayer. Kent, penned a Prayer of Surrender, inspired by Paul’s brutally honest confession in Romans 7. Here are the words we prayed aloud together as a faith community:

My Lord and my God, I come to you in my weakness,
knowing that living life my own way leads to destruction.

I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For what I do is not the good I want to do,
but I keep on doing the very evil I do not want to do.

I ask you now to take my weakness,
pain and brokenness
and replace it with Your
strength, healing and wholeness.

Increase my faith,
and rid me of my pride.

I surrender to Your love.
I surrender to Your grace.
I surrender to Your mercy.
I surrender to Your will.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.

Don’t just sit there, do something!

But do they walk the talk? Put up or shut up! But what abut the needy, the poor and the under-resourced? These are all question or statements that originate from those of us who are primarily Athletes. Athletes work hard. We have an internal motivation that does not allow idle, lazy or lackadaisical response in life. We live it. We make a difference. We make things happen. If not, who will? We honor God with integrity and we dispel hypocrisy when we act according to our beliefs. Jesus, after all, did not come to be served but to serve. We can rest when we die. That might sound a bit strong but, the desire to help today and not wait until tomorrow is deep in the soul of the Athlete. Much gets done, in the name of Jesus, by those who are willing to get their hands dirty. Truly helping another is enough reward and the soul is strengthened when we do this as often as possible. Do good today. These are the tireless servants among us, until they finally burnout. The tension here is not to either burn out or rust out for Jesus, but to find a rhythm that is effective in the long-run. Sabbath rest are a part of God’s pattern of life. It even shows up in His “Top Ten” (Ex. 20:8). Those of us who primarily engage with God in the tasks of serving and helping have a unique challenge. Can we love God by acts of service and good works alone? No. He recreated us to be sons and daughters not slaves and servants. Our service is to spring from our gratitude for His service to us, namely the sacrifice of His Son. He wants to “be with us” as we go.

Geeks unite or Theology matters

Interesting. Thought-provoking. Intellectually Challenging. If you are the type that reads and listens to great minds and love to think discuss brilliant thoughts, then you might be a Learner. Those of us who respond best to rational and well-presented content truly need the stimulation of mind-stretching reflection and dialogue. We best connect with God when we hear, listen or read concepts that are new or challenging. Theology becomes a source of inspiration. When I hear a well presented case for some aspect or characteristic of our Everlasting God, I actually will cheer aloud. Wow! When we are engage in intelligent and interesting investigation of the Holy, we experience spiritual growth. Nuances of a passage of scripture, a perspective we had not previously seen, and revelation ancient culture, language or history, all help stimulate our connection with our Brilliant God. This does not mean that we fancy ourselves as rocket scientists. We simply enjoy the journey of thinking great thoughts about God. The perhaps, obvious caution here is to not take hold of a prideful position toward those who do not pursue God with their mind. The Pharisees and Sadduccees knew much more about the philosophical and theological underpinnings of our heritage faith than we might ever understand, yet it seems by scripture’s description, they knew Him not. Don’t underestimate the importance of our capacity for emotion that God gave. Jesus wept.

I’m not a fighter, I’m a lover

Warm fuzzies or cold pricklies? That’s the terms I was taught in grade school for my emotions. For those of us who approach our connection to God with our heart, we seek to experience His love, closeness and a deepening intimacy with our Creator and Rescuer. We earnestly desire a sense of relational depth and the genuine emotions that accompany that personal connection with another. Lovers, gauge their relationship with God with emotional language and perceived closeness.The Bible reminds us that God is love and that His primary posture to us is that of a Father longing for the return of his runaway children. Home is where we are meant to be and we are lost and homesick until we return. Mercy, compassion and grace flow from a heart enlarged by an encounter with the Great Heart. Jesus truly died of a broken heart on the cross. The caution here is to not rely on the outward manifestations of a romantic or slightly idealized connection with God. If our emotions are not rallied or heightened when we take time to meet with God in prayer, reading the Word, or journaling, we should not be dismayed or saddened. We need not ride the emotional rollercoaster with Our Father. He never changes and Paul observed, “God is closer than you think.”

Lover, Learner, Athlete – How do I really connect with God?

A few weeks back we talked about how we connect with God. We asked, “what is our preferred and primary spiritual pathway?” How do we really connect with God? This series attempted to release us from false expectations from ourselves and others about how we grow in our personal relationship with God. We often fall captive to what preachers say or friends promote or the newest and hottest Christian living book published. We struggle with a Christian walk that is full of “tips and techniques.” A mentor of mine constantly reminds me that the gospel (good news) is relational not propositional. In other words, its not what you do, it Who you are getting to know. To say it simpler, if at the end of the day we have done some Christian/holy/religious activity but have not had a meaningful encounter with God, nothing happened. Now it would take a month of blogs to investigate the adjective “meaningful” in regards to encounter with God. Let me just say briefly here that it rarely involves goose-bumps and only sometimes an epiphany or “aha” moment. Most of the time it is just being present and putting your heart in a posture of listening. With that said, here’s my take on how many of us could better connect with God. It involves a bit of reflection on how we may have in the past and how we have been wired up by God in our approach to relationships. You can be free to connect with God in a way that is natural, healthy and unique. Do not neglect prayer and reading of scripture, but how you engage in these spritual practices is the key to really connecting with our Triune God; Creator God, Rescuing Son, and Empowering Spirit. Which do you relate to best, Lover, Learner, or Athlete?

Under the mango tree

Under the mango tree is where our church began. Then God provided a small covering with a metal roof and now we have this beautiful building. To you and I we might not see it as beautiful. As Americans we are used to multi-million dollar facilities with gymnasiums and dedicated children's centers. This "building" is a wooden shack on poles (because this area floods annually). THe stairs leading up to the one room are barely wide enough for the ball of your foot.

This small church is led by a gifted and passionate woman who has seen heart ache in their village community. Almost apologetically, she shared how the church is smaller today because so many of their friends and family have moved to Thailand to be day laborers because work is so hard to find. These Cambodians are the illegal day laborers of this region. If there were a Home Depot across the Thai border they would be standing outside hoping to get work so they can eat another day.

We spent time with this gracious congregation singing, praying, playing and making a craft with the numerous children. They shared theirs hearts and a dozen coconuts harvested that morning for our thirsty palates. We left only after laying hands on the core leaders of this village church. I was humbled and encouraged as we saw how God uses the simple places of this world to confound the sophisticated. Praise Jesus for his loving and extending church.

If God does it, it's easy

We arrived in Battambang after a 5 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. We were warmly greeted by the gracious brothers and sisters at Hope Bible Institute. Christopher Lapel gave us a history and tour of the Institute and we were amazed by what God did in order for this church and facility to exist, here, in Cambodia. Christopher's story alone is amazing, but we will leave that for another post.

But all the while he shared with us how God provided the land, the permit to exist as a church group, the buildings, the electricity, he kept repeating on phrase, "When I try to do it, it's hard; when God dies it, it's easy." They attempted twice to get permission to be a legitimate religious group and it always failed. But, finally after prayer and waiting, God opened a door that only he could and through a former donut shop owner in Long Beach, CA now turned Ministry of Religion; God opened the door and they could officially exist in Cambodia. One of the very few for which this is true.

Maybe, I can learn from them. Pray, seek and then let God do the heavy lifting. He is mighty and can do more than any of us.

Grace and Peace,

Troy

Taipei – Taiwan again (May 22 7:00 AM)

We just landed in Taipei and will take off again soon for Phnom Penh. I forgot that I landed here that last time. Economy sure looks different... Starbucks has closed its small cafe here and a local business has taken its place... $3.00 for an American style coffee. I don;t do the coffee thing but Mr. Mehren is needing a fix. We will just finished 13.5 in the air and will do another 3.5 before landing in Phnom Penh. The off to the hotel and get our "khmer" on. That's "cambodia" to you and I. Team is doing great... I can tell everyone is very excited. Not a ton of sleep on this last flight... too much anticipation.

Youth San Francisco Mission - Spring Break

Hey All-

This post is from Cheryl Dobrowski as she shares from her heart and experience with our youth team as they served in the Tenderloin during Spring Break. This Sunday the team will take over a portion of the morning and share about all that God did in them that week. Enjoy!

My heart is so full as I return from One Life's Spring mission trip to SF. The week prior to Easter, our spring break, we took seventeen people, mostly our Jr. and High School youth group to City Crossroads Church located in SF on Mission St., near the Tenderloin, where myself and our youth group taught Vacation Bible Study to inner city kids (ages 5-12) of all cultures for three hours per day, and served food, prayer, and supplies to the homeless who where literally camped and living outside the doors of the church! We slept in the church basement, hearing the sounds of sirens, and people walking and talking at all hours through the night and early morning, truly it is the "City that never sleeps." Amazing times of walking by faith with God, individual growth, play and bonding with each other and with those God brought us into contact with. Our hearts and faith expanded as we were sent out treading on new, and unfamiliar territory for some, including myself as I left all my materials and scripts for teaching and setting up visuals at home, having to rely on God to lead and give me daily creativity to create an interactive bible study each day! Once past the sudden attack of fear and my frantic attempts to retrieve my lost info, I settled into a peaceful reliance that deepened my trust with our gracious, loving Father who IS and has an endless supply of all we need to meet the need. After all it is His Trip! In the midst of what most people would consider, dangerous, dirty, hopeless, hardened, drug and alcohol infested streets, we experienced the love and power of our living God as did those who live daily in these conditions. The darkened streets of the inner city were transformed as God's lights went out and prayerfully walked, prayed, and gave hope. Suddenly, with each step, the ground under our feet became God's loving dwelling place. The names and faces of the homeless and the 26-36 children that came each day were etched in our hearts as precious flowers blooming in the garden of our Lord., I know we all yearn to return soon and reconnect and embrace those He touched and many more. The names and faces of Kyle, Evan, Nave, Alex, Josh, Jake (Terri), Jeremy, Levi, Taylor, Lydia, Sarah, Amanda, Kelsey,and Ellie,were a daily God sighting and source of joy for their fearless, fun, fantastic youth leader Ned Schaut, and we brave, young at heart co laborers Marcia and Cheryl honored to serve alongside this devoted, loving, focused, talented and hard-working sincere team of young Leaders. Praise to God who has caused us to Overcome fear and death, to lose our lives that we may gain it and give it away! We'll Never Be the Same, "You Can Trust Him." (One of our daily worship songs with the kids) -- Cheryl

The Neighbor We Neglect

At One Life Church we are currently in a series called Neighbor. Our goal is that we all begin to be much more intentional about being neighborly in our own neighborhoods. If you haven't heard the messages yet, I encourage you to listen to the podcast. We really hope we all will see the street we live on as a mission field, not just a place we live. This could truly transform our community.

As I think about the notion of neighbor, and specifically about how we in the Church at large treat our neighbors, one glaring shortcoming stands out: the way we treat those in the gay community. This was brought to the forefront a couple of weeks ago on the Academy Awards show. No, I'm not talking about Sean Penn. His comments about Prop 8 were no surprise given his outspokenness over the years. What I'm referring to are the comments made by Dustin Lance Black, the young, talented man who won Best Original Screenplay for Milk. As I listened to him accept his award, I noticed the words he spoke did not come out of a Hollywood-left agenda, but rather out of the experience of a life lived as a gay man who has felt far too much hurt and rejection by those who should have shown him love. His plea, as he accepted his award, was to others like him to not forget that God loves you the way you are, no matter what the Church or the government tells you. Ouch. Not a very positive view of the Church. Yes, Dustin comes from a Mormon background, but the truth is that the Evangelical Church is just as guilty for treating the gay community like enemies and outcasts. Whatever your views are on gay marriage, the truth is that because of the battle lines we in the Church have drawn, most in the gay community view evangelical Christians, and perhaps even Jesus Himself, as their enemy. How sad is that.

I believe it is time we take a step back from the war against gay marriage and try and see the bigger picture. I am not asking you to reconsider your view on marriage, nor to cease praying for God's will to be done in our state and country regarding marriage. What I am asking is that we look beyond the community of gays and lesbians and see the individual. Ask yourself the question, "How do my actions help my gay friends, neighbors or family members experience the love of Christ?" For me, far more important than what sort of couple the State recognizes as legally married is the salvation of the individual souls who are in the gay community.

This week the California Supreme Court will be hearing arguments regarding the constitutionality of Prop 8, and I know many of you will be praying about this. My plea is that we spend as much or more time praying that our gay brothers and sisters will come to know the love, forgiveness and acceptance of Jesus, just like the rest of us sinners who call ourselves Christ followers have. And the truth is that they will be much more open to Jesus if his followers were not so afraid of becoming their friends. Maybe we can even love them. Isn't that the neighborly thing to do?

A Do-Over for the Church

In our series, "Do-Over" we have been seeking a second chance in different areas of our lives. From our spiritual life to our finances we all need a another shot to do better. The same goes for the "Church".

One Life is just one of many, many local churches around the world. Each church has its strengths and weaknesses, usually due to key leaders. One Life is no exception. Ask me and others in our church family and we can tell you pretty honesty where God has given us grace to excel and where we need His grace to improve. But, beyond our individual churches, we are a part of a vast movement of churches around the world. When you compile the statistical data (The American Church in Crisis) and poll people for their opinion (UnChristian) you find a certain trend in the results. The American Church is not doing well.

I am not trying to be a "Chicken Little" running around proclaiming doom, but I do want to be honest. I am filled with great hope and anticipation at what our All-knowing God is up to in strengthening and re-directing the Church. Yet, I do feel a sense of duty to call, those of us who choose to make the local church a significant part of our spiritual formation, to address the reality we are faced with today. So here are a few observations I made this last Sunday. I will blog again (with more hope) later this week, so don't go get depressed or get defensive. But, I would like compassionate feedback.

1. World is more skeptical than we want to admit
2. People are more disillusioned than we want to admit
3. Church is more irrelevant than we want to admit
4. Christians are to blame than we want to admit

Because of this we have:

1. A world that is in great need
2. People that are desperate and empty
3. A Church that is preoccupied and shrinking
4. Christians that are distracted and ineffective

Grace and Peace,
Troy

Get Lost in a Good Story

I love a good story. I'm always reading at least two novels at a time, and I'm a sucker for a movie with a good story line. In fact, one of the great things about what we've witnessed this week in America is the story behind the story. In other words, not just the story of the life of Barak Obama, and how he came to be the 44th President of the United States, but the greater story of African Americans in the United States. For in this story we see enslavement, oppression, emancipation and progress, culminating in perhaps the ultimate success: the first African American President. It is a story of struggle, injustice, freedom and empowerment. This is why I shed a few tears as I watched so many people celebrating his inauguration in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial.

Speaking of a good story, I am about to finish reading the Bible from beginning to end. This time I used a different approach, reading the Bible as a narrative. Using The Books Of The Bible: TNIV, (http://www.ibsdirect.com/p-574-tniv-the-books-of-the-bible-tbotb.aspx) I have been reading the Bible as Story. This version is very helpful as it arranges the books in logical and/or chronological order, and it removes chapter and verse designations (which were not in the original texts anyway). By reading Scripture in this format, one is able to read much larger portions at a time and get a sense of the complete Story. I can't recommend this enough. I have read through the entire Bible (including the intertestamental books from a Catholic Bible) in only 6 months. It has been a great experience for me to see the overarching themes throughout the different stories related in Scripture, such as exile and return, sin and repentance, and most of all, God's relentless pursuit of His children whom He loves. It is God's story, a story of love and redemption, and it continues today.

Another recommendation is the book, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight. (http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Parakeet-Rethinking-Read-Bible/dp/0310284880/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232668722&sr=8-1). This is an extremely thought-provoking book that will challenge you to think through how God intended us to read Scripture. If you're wondering what a parakeet has to do with Scripture, in essence it refers to passages in Scripture that we really don't know what to do with, so we try to tame them and cage them, stripping them of their true context in the big Story. We must remember that each book of the Bible was written in a particular historical context for a specific purpose to a specific people. It is imperative for us in the 21st century to be able to discern what the original context was. In other words, what is the story behind the epistle? or prophetic book? or narrative? To know this is essential for us to discern the "so what?" McKnight proposes that by reading the Bible properly (as Story), "We are summoned by the God who speaks to us in the Bible to listen to God speak, to live out what God directs us to live out, and to discern how to live out the Story in our own day." (pg. 211). That is exactly what should motivate us to read God's word.

So I encourage you to approach the Scriptures a little differently this year. Get lost in a good Story.

Grace and Peace,

Kent