2nd funeral of the week today…met a great couple wanting to plant a Haitian congregation yesterday…church planting class this weekend…trying to prepare a presentation for a NAMB group at Exponential…questions for an interview with a Doctoral Student while at Exponential…will be gone all of next week…so catching up probably won’t happen today.

trying to decide what to write about…taxes…nah, enough people griping already…Obama, nah, way too many inappropriate comments about our President, the subtle calls for his death on facebook are way out of line…about to delete some more people because of it…

could talk some more about the CP class for this weekend…gonna have two of my favorite church planters address the class and talk about reaching their communities with the gospel…whether you agree or not member growth is a measurement of the health of the church (another facebook conversation this week)…the only people i know complaining about numbers being a measurement are those not growing, even most pastors who are not seeing numbers increase are concerned about it…anyway Steve Whipple and Michael Lukaszewski in class this week…

then there is small groups…Rodney Hunt…small groups pastor extraordanaire from WRC will talk about small groups…did i forget to say again I love church planting…gotta go late to a meeting with a church planter…catching up with him after a few months…better busy than sitting around contemplating my navel (which is way to big, but that’s for another day)

this week in the church planting class one of the topics is mission. sometimes we get confused when we talk about mission and vision, purpose and all of that stuff. i wish that Bob Logan, Church Planters Tool Kit and Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Church had consulted with each other before putting different nomenclature out there. (btw nomenclature is your big word of the day, look it up if you don’t know the meaning)

vision is what you want to be – mission is how you intend to get there. vision is that far off mountain – mission is the journey over the thousand hills to get there. i’ve probably told this story before but here goes anyway. a few spring breaks ago my wife and i decided to go to San Francisco (the girls were in Jamaica). one day we got off the trolley to look at some rich guys mansion. after we were finished we went back to the street corner to catch the trolley. me, being an impatient person said to wife, “wife, look the pier is just over that hill, why don’t we walk?” wife agreed. about two hours later and after crossing not one hill but at least seven hills we finally reached our destination.

that is how it is with vision sometimes. the mission changes, the vision does not. now that raises the question. “doesn’t every church have the same mission?” in general yes. we ought to be doing what Jesus did…seek and save the lost (i know he does the saving, hang with me) and to make disciples…pretty simple huh?

but the individual mission is how you will do that. the mission defines how you will do outreach – lots of choices – revivals, street evangelism, serving your community, launch, attractional, small group, etc, etc. the same is true of discipleship – how will you do discipleship – small groups, Sunday School, age graded, interest groups, work groups, ministry teams, etc, etc.

and then in the midst of all that is your context. that is often how vision and mission get confused. every church has a specific context. does what you want to be match who you are. does what you want to do match your context. vision wise and in context if you start a church in the city it will be difficult for you if you envision a church with a 100 acre campus. on the other hand it will be difficult in the suburb if you want a completely multi-cultural experience. our community for example is 8 or 10% ethnic. we are multicultural if we have a couple of hundred different ethnic groups in the congregation. i am told, although not completely convinced, that you can’t do attractional in the city. that is context.

vision – be/mission do

all in context.

had a few days of rest last week. a very few because i ended up dealing with a few “issues.” but i got to spend time with my daughter from Baltimore. not that we did much, but just having her hanging around is enough…maybe one day she’ll return to GA.

today i’m participating in a funeral for a family in the church. this family was baptized as a family group on the first ever Easter worship of WRC way back in 1998. the father served the church by playing percussion in the band for a long time. their son had a hard time adjusting to issues in his life. a 23 old son should not be having a memorial service.

talking with the parents and his sister has been tough. i’ve been in ministry now for over 35 years in some way or another. funerals are never easy, a child is the worst. but funerals are where most pastors earn thier keep. oh it’s important that you preach a great message, and that you lead the church according to the vision, values, and mission that God gives you…but deep down when you are sitting with a family that is experiencing tragedy and you are bringing God to real life issues and answering questions like “why?” “how?” “where?” is when you better have more than a good sermon prepared…you better have your life prepared…you better know the theology of the “why?’ more than a Sunday School answer…i find this is where pastors often struggle.

pastor, it ain’t the great eloquent sermon that most will remember…it is when you sit with them, cry with them, ask questions right beside them…that is when the people of the parish learn that their pastor has been with God. so thankful that Brian is a great example of a man that has weathered the storm…and can sit with integrity and answer the questions of life…

pray for the Marsten family…

Isaiah 53: 11 “After the suffering of his soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied.”

what a great promise. most of this week i have concerned myself with the suffering Savior…we esteemed him not…he carried our sorrows…wounded for our inquities…and now the reward…HE WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF LIFE AND BE SATISFIED!

it was pretty amazing to me that Barna discovered that 37% of the evangelical church members could not identify the main reason for Easter?!! RESURRECTION! in my old traditional church we used to sing, “HE AROSE, HE AROSE, HALLELUJAH CHRIST AROSE!”

i think too often we forget the significance of that…the importance of that…and the need for that. the need – my sin, even if you are perfect i needed Jesus…the significance – salvation for “whosoever will” i know that still bugs the Calvinist. the importance – abundant life, eternal life. too often we forget that first part – abundant life.

so glad Jesus included abundant life…Christianity is not just the sweet by and by, but help with the nasty now…”i came that you might have life and life abundant…” doesn’t mean Cadillacs and BMWs…but love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, and gentleness  against these things there are no laws.

thank you Jesus that you went to the Cross as my sacrifice…thank you that you Arose my Savior…so that I could have life.

Celebrate - if you’re in the ATL (or in the west ATL area) West Ridge celebrates Communion at Noon on Good Friday…if you are leaving for Spring Break – we have a service on Friday Night at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 5 and 7. Sunday at regular times.

no matter where you are remember – “HALLELUJAH CHRIST AROSE!”