Guest Blogger: Blog Written By Michael Finley 

Recently, Redeemer held our first Turkey Bowl. It was a fantastic and fun time hangin’ out, playing football, and eating too many hamburgers and hotdogs, for the purpose of meeting people who may not normally come to a church gathering. Everyone got to be on a team, and everyone got to play.

One of the awesome things about being a Christian is that when God saved you, he drafted you onto his team and put you into the game. Every believer is called to care, individually and corporately, for those around us by having an outward, missionary focus in our lives (Matt. 28:18-20). 

___________________________

Crossing Paths

The point of being missional is to be obedient to Jesus imperative "make disciples" and to see people meet Jesus. Recently, I was reading through the fifth chapter of Luke and noticed two things about mission. The first was from the healing of the paralytic (v. 17-26). In that situation men brought their friend to the place where Jesus was teaching in order to meet him and be healed. This example shows how as Christians we often invite people to interrupt their own life patterns and get into Jesus' path in order to meet Him and to be healed. For us today, an example of this approach may be inviting someone to church or a bible study. The person invited goes outside their regular path of life to come into an environment where Jesus is glorified and proclaimed. Many people have met Jesus this way.

However, it seems in this day and age where church-going is not as esteemed as it once was, this approach to mission is not as effective as it was fifty years ago. People do not necessarily believe that there is healing for their circumstances in a church. This is where the second example is so telling. After healing the paralytic Jesus went from there to the tax booth where Levi was working (v.27). Levi was not one to ever set foot into a religious meeting, he was a sinner of sinners and an outcast of his people. What is helpful when reading this is Jesus didn't wait for Levi to come to him but interjected himself into his path of life, revealing Levi's ultimate need for healing; his need for a savior.

As ambassadors for Christ and witnesses to his grace we can look at these passages and see Jesus' heart for sinners and his desire to save. We can also see two ways that people meet him: They get in his path or he gets in theirs. Today, God reveals his grace in numerous ways but more commonly he uses us, we as ambassadors bring people into Jesus' path or we bring Jesus into theirs.

Generally, Christians seem to have more difficulty telling people about Jesus than asking someone to go to church with them. Telling people about Jesus can seem intimidating and awkward, but it doesn't have to be. It's not like cold- clocking someone with the gospel, but rather engaging into their lives with them with gospel intentionality. This means spending time them, loving them, and helping them. All while waiting and trusting that God will provide an opportunity to share the good news of Christ.

Crossing Paths In Practical Ways

This all starts with meeting non-Christians. Entering into the paths of non-Christians seems to be a major barrier, but it shouldn't be. In no way extensive, I would like to share some very practical ways to make the initial step of crossing into their paths.

1. "Free Food" - this seems to be the universal invitation that few turn down. My family recently moved to Bellingham and decided to invite our new neighbors over for dinner. We told the neighborhood we are cooking some good food and not to bring anything except yourself. 30 people showed up, 26 who do not know Jesus. We have continued to do these dinners and from them we now have a Gospel Community Group and two Discipleship Groups. We did not have to be weird or force anything. Through natural conversations God gave us opportunities to talk about Jesus and Redeemer Church.
2. "The Meet Seats" - When you are out in public there are certain seats in public places such as coffee shops provide good opportunities to meet people. At a local coffee shop I frequent for studies, I purposely sit in one of four seats that awkwardly face each other. Almost every time I have sat at one of these seats I have met and engaged with someone new. Not so long ago the conversation naturally presented a significant opportunity to share Jesus.
3. "Pub Hubs" - Another spot I found to be a great meeting spot was local restaurants and pubs. In these establishments community is already being promoted by having big family style seating where strangers regularly sit together. The difficult part of engaging is removed.  So sit at one of these tables instead of by yourself. On a date recently with my wife, we met two sets of folks at a table like this and two of them, broke art students, are now planning on joining us for a dinner and game night. Like I said everyone likes free food especially broke artists.
4. "Party Like Levi" - When Jesus saved Levi, Levi threw a party and invited all his buddies who didn't know Jesus. The bible says he threw a great banquet. In other words, he didn't hold back; his party was off the hook! Good food, good drink, good tunes, I mean a good party. And why wouldn't he? He just met Jesus! There are many reasons we throw parties: birthday parties, graduation parties, candle parties, costume parties, and holiday parties. Those are all good reasons to party, but not as good knowing Jesus. There is no good reason why non-Christians shouldn't be invited to those with you. My wife and I use every party we throw as a way to meet people who don't know Jesus and cross our paths. It brings people together for a common reason, to celebrate, and into your life. We invite coworkers, neighbors, family, church family, and people we meet at coffee shops and restaurants. Sure they might say no but we have found more times than not, they say yes.

The translation for the great commission can be read "as you go, make disciples". This means as you go about doing life, entertainment, relaxation, shopping, or getting a cup of coffee remember you are on mission and an ambassador for a God who pursues and saves. Some may not accept an invitation to come to church but many will accept an invite to your dinner table.

 As you pursue others, remember You are not alone; Jesus is with you always. It's not awkward, it's loving. It's not weird, it's obedient. If you are willing God will provide opportunities for people in your life to respond to Jesus' call, "Follow me."

photo credit: Isobel T via photopin cc

"Since 1863, on the fourth Thursday of November, families and friends in the United States have gathered to commemorate an old tradition linked back to the early European settlers.

You know the story: The pilgrims and Native Americans came together for a happy feast to celebrate the harvest and forge new friendships. A few hundred years later, this event became a legislated holiday and got Norman Rockwelled into the fabric of American life. We call it Thanksgiving." - Jonathan Parnell

Hope and Desire

This time of year is always a joyous time to gather as family and eat a ton of food. And this year we want to give everyone practical helps to make this Thanksgiving enjoyable but also very fruitful and intentional. Below we linked a few blog posts that will be helpful for you this holiday season as you prepare for the madness. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Opportunities | Remembrances 

5 Simple Ways To Have A Missional Thanksgiving: These five things will help you and others understand what thanksgiving looks like. Doing the things on this list will lead you away from a me understanding and into a we understanding. How can I not just say thank you to God but learn to walk out that thankfulness in the everyday. The principles above in this blog post can start to be walked out in many ways that don't have to happen just at Thanksgiving.

Who Are You Inviting to Thanksgiving?: In order to fulfill the Great Commission, we need to know whom Jesus wants us to invite to our Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving on Mission: What if God had more for our kin this Thanksgiving than the Macy’s parade, tryptophan-induced naps, and NFL football? What if we saw our gatherings with extended family not as a chance to check out, but as an opportunity for Christian mission? 

TensionsHow to Deal with Holiday Family Tensions?: Here are a few quick thoughts on what followers of Jesus ought to remember, especially if you've got a difficult extended family situation.

Rethinking Thanksgiving: I’ve always thought of Thanksgiving as a day to count my blessings, to take an inventory (at least a partial one) of what I’m grateful for, to try not to take God’s providence for granted. This year I’m wondering if there’s a risk in blessing-counting, at least when those blessings are things...

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photopin cc

The Christmas season is soon upon us and that means it is time to celebrate the wonderful season of Christmas with family and friends. Recently at Redeemer we encouraged the people within our Gospel Communities to start hosting parties and invite their neighbors and non-Christian friends to these gatherings. We want our Gospel Communities to throw such great parties that our neighbors that don't know Jesus want to come and join you. Yes this blog post may seem a bit soon before the season begins but we want you to start planning now. And these parties don't all have to be just seasonal, start now and invite neighbors over.

Mission is central in the life of our Gospel Communities and within those who are found in Christ. Christ came into this world on a mission to bring sinners back to God. Jesus had a mission, he did not sit back and not do anything, he was active and cared for us even to the point of death on a cross. As Christians we are called to care about all those who don't know Jesus. One of the primary reasons we gather as the body of Christ outside of Sundays is to reflect the glorious truths of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This Christmas season let us be active within our neighborhoods and be on mission.

So here are 3 easy steps to throwing a great party this Christmas season to get to know your neighbors. This is just a list of suggestions, but our hope is that these steps will spark disciples of Jesus to embrace being missionaries within every area of their lives.

_______________________________________________

1. Come up with a catchy seasonal name for your party

It's important to come up with a name for your Christmas Bash. Don't do something simple like "Samish Neighborhood Christmas Party". Think outside the box! Do something like "The Ultimate Christmas Bash"! Make it unique to pique the interests of your neighbors and friends. God created you with a creative bone, so be creative and have fun with it.

Ideas for different Christmas Parties: 

• Gift Exchange
• Have a "Best Ever Christmas Enchilada Contest".
• Progressive Dinner Party (For those in a GC who live close in proximity)
• Christmas Caroling (Outside with candles, of course, the kids will love it)

2. Gather your GC Family to Pray and Plan

At this GC family gathering it is important to first and foremost ask God together to use this neighborhood party to bring glory to His Son Jesus Christ and ask Him to bring opportunities to get to know your neighbors and care for them. Ask God to give you creative minds to pull off a great party that is welcoming to people. Ask God to provide moments to talk about your King Jesus (Disclaimer: Don't be weird, listen to your neighbors and ask questions about them: more about this below)

After your time in prayer with your GC family, it is time to plan the party. Assign different jobs for people to do so you don't have to do everything.

• Who's designing and/or making the invitations? (Physical invites are helpful for people to come, no Facebook. Don't be lazy, go door to door and invite people with a friendly smile to your Christmas Party) Easy Invitations to make.
• Who's making the food? If it's too much to cook for a ton of people, plan the Christmas Party for after dinner, do dessert. Fun Food Ideas for Christmas Parties.
• Make a guest list (At least know how many people is too many for you to connect with). Look at the location you are hosting your party. If space is limited, don't invite more than 8 people in your neighborhood. The smaller the place and the more crammed people feel at the party, the more people feel more guarded and shut off. Think of your environment carefully and choose how many people is too many. 
• Assign people from your GC family will come to the party to do odd things around the house so you can be present talking to your neighbors. Not everyone from your GC needs to be at the actual party as that gets a little weird. (Have assigned people in your GC serve food, do dishes, refill drinks). These people should be present but not distracting. 
• Know the space you intend to use and organize it accordingly. Check link for some great ideas on making the most of the space you have.
• Plan which games to do. Even if it is cold outside, that’s ok, do games outside. Give people something to do besides just talking. Plan games for both adults and children. (Example of some games are horseshoes, corn hole, Red Rover, tag, and three legged races. Three legged races with parents and kids can be a huge hit and great icebreaker for everyone involved.) Other Great Party Game Ideas.

3. Have Fun and Get to Know Others at the Party

You are throwing the party to get to know your neighbors and become friends with them. So ask questions about your neighbor’s lives. Care about others by listening to them. You don't have to always talk, ask a lot questions. 

Sample Questions:

• What do you do for work? Do you like the job? What's your dream job?
• Do you have any children? What sort of things do you like to do for fun with them in ______ (Insert town name here)? 
• What do you like to do for fun when you're not working? If it is something genuinely interesting, ask if you might have them show you some time. (Disclaimer for men and women: Before you go and ask someone to invite you along with them, to be above reproach, make sure you say this to gender specific people. This will just elevate any weird or false signals)

The goal is to have fun, get to know your neighbors and throw a great party. Be on mission this holiday season and may God continue to save people by His grace.

photo credit: Justin in SD via photopin cc

What is a Gospel Community?

People often (and rightly) wonder, “is there any real difference between a Bible study or small group and a Gospel Community?” Though Gospel Communities study the Bible and gather regularly, a Gospel Community (GC) is quite different from a small group or a Bible Study. To put it simply, a GC is a collection of regular people growing as disciples while making disciples.

Gospel Communities are really about a group of disciples growing as disciples while making disciples in their particular neighborhood as a family of believers serving Christ by serving others, learning as humble truth-seekers, and sent as witnesses of the Gospel to all people.

The Foundation of Gospel Communities

People often (and rightly) wonder, “is there any real difference between a Bible study or small group and a Gospel Community?” Though Gospel Communities study the Bible and gather regularly, a Gospel Community (GC) is quite different from a small group or a Bible Study. To put it simply, a GC is a collection of regular people growing as disciples while making disciples.

Gospel Communities are really about a group of disciples growing as disciples while making disciples in their particular neighborhood as a family of believers serving Christ by serving others, learning as humble truth-seekers, and sent as witnesses of the Gospel to all people.

A Big Goal For GC’s: One Degree Vision:

That every person in Whatcom County would be connected to someone in a GC. May we as a church pursue Christ, walking in response to His grace and allow that grace to push us out into the different contexts that God has us in. May our response to His grace be we want to know people who do now know Jesus and may we befriend our neighbors who don't know Jesus and show them that Christ is worthy of their worship.

Helpful Resources for Gospel Communities

These resources are for anyone who is leading a Gospel Community, are apart of a GC or simply just interested in being apart of one. If you are interested I hope these resources help you to understand what it means to be apart of community that is on mission. 

Jeff Vanderstelt and his Missional Community at Soma Communities share their heart for wanting to see Jesus glorified in their neighborhood and all of Tacoma.

From Strangers to Missionaries: A Strategy for Mission : Tim Brister gives us a great glimpse into the strategies it takes as a Gospel Community and as individuals to help us be more missional in our communities and our individual lives.

Blog post by Kati Berreth How can I be a missional mom?

So moms how are you doing? Almost 2 full weeks of kids being home from school or taking a break from formal schooling with little to no routine. It is freeing and also can be exhausting as most kids are used to a schedule and the change and inconsistencies in their day can throw them off. And if you are anything like me, you are spending a lot of time and energy trying to do activities to make the summer super fun. And this is as it should be when we do this out of love for our children since we are called to love them in Titus 2.4.

And yet ladies, I believe that there is and can be more to our summers than simply taking our kids to the dollar movies, driving them to this camp or that VBS, or even sitting by the pool while our kids have swim lessons texting our friends. We get the opportunity to instead do all of the above things but with Gospel intentionality.

Deuteronomy 6.4-7 says:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

And Mark 12:38 adds:

“The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Turning our everyday life experiences into missional moments

What if the day you plan to take your kids to the dollar movies you invite one of your or your child’s non-Christian friends to come along and simply do life with you? Simply inviting others into the normal rhythms of your life is one of the best ways to introduce them to Jesus. They get to see real life Christians, which makes caricatures so much harder to embrace. They get to see you love and forgive and fight and mess up and all the while point to Jesus who never messed up.

And in order to help your kids see this as a missional opportunity, plan on spending time in prayer for those friends before you go for boldness and openness in conversations to discuss how amazing Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is and how it is impacting your life. Not only does this show your kids how to “love your neighbor as yourself” but it is also “teaching them diligently” to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

You can also do this by inviting friends to VBS with your kids or to the Firs or other camps and especially as you sit by the pool or the soccer field or the basketball court at camps. Sports are an amazing way to get to know other parents and families. There are not many other opportunities in life that give you a minimum of a solid hour to engage with strangers. And although it is tempting to take these “break times” where your child is engaged and use them to run errands or read a good book, these times can also be well spent engaging the lost. Now, don't get me wrong, take breaks times too. That's good and right and Godly. But also, see these as missional opportunities as that's good and right and Godly too.

Over the years at swim lessons and soccer and basketball practice, Rob and I have met some great friends as well as had the opportunity to share the gospel – all because we were given hours each week to spend time with the same people getting to know them and share our lives with each other. It has been a great chance to be intentional with our time as well as a chance to disciple our kids by teaching them to be missionaries, which is an essential part of who we are as ambassadors for Jesus. They need to see mom and dad experiencing life with people that don't know Jesus so they know how to do life with people that don't know Jesus.

How the Gospel applies to our attempts, efforts, and ineptness at being missional.

And yet ladies, as I write these things, my fear is that you, like me, will say, “Sure, Kati, I can do this.” And it will become just one more thing to add onto an already busy day or be a burden to you as you think about the fact that during swim lessons is the only chance you get to sit in peace for an hour during the day.

Please take these suggestions and pray over them. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move you to have a heart for the lost and have words to share when you get the opportunity to. Pray and ask for wisdom for where you do need a break and trust that Jesus' work for you is enough. Pray and ask for confidence that you are accepted because Jesus is the perfect missionary, not you. Pray every morning for your love of the Lord to grow so that you might love Him with all your heart, soul, and might desiring to teach this love to your children and share it with your neighbors. And pray for God to control your days – your summer and that you might use it to be missionally intentional because Jesus is amazing and we want the world to know Him.

grace and peace,

Kati

photo credit: Rifat Attamimi via photopin cc

The following Blog post is by Kati Berreth The call for your GC to be missional:

A few weeks ago I laid out a call for us to make this a summer of missional intentionality. And as summer is quickly approaching with Western finishing in a week, many of the public schools only a few days after, and the sun making an appearance daily it is time to think and pray about how you will use your summer to make disciples of all nations.

A great way to do this is by inviting your GC to be on mission this summer. Although during the summer many people travel and attendance can be a struggle for having a critical mass in your living room, this is a great opportunity to join a tradition/celebration that is already established in your community and get to know you neighbors and the people that live in your city.

Think about when you go to a coffee shop or a restaurant regularly. If you are intentional with these visits and friendly, then I am sure that you at least know your servers names and have maybe even chitchatted. Well, this is the same for attending an event in Bellingham, Lynden, or Ferndale regularly. You will get to know people, and even better, you will be doing it with other people in your GC that can make this type of relationship forming even easier.

Along with getting to meet new people who need to hear the Good News of the Gospel, this would also be a great time to invite those in your sphere of influence into community. Why not invite your co-worker to join your GC in playing ultimate Frisbee once a week since you know he loves to play but hasn’t found a team to play on. And while you invite him, pray that his eyes and heart would be open to hearing the Gospel and that you would be prepared to share it.  I promise that God will use your faithful attempts, whether well articulated or not, for your good and His Glory through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Places for your GC to be missional:

So now all you need to do is find a place to regularly attend this summer. Although you might be tempted to stay in your backyard with the safety of a fence and a gas grill, I challenge you to find an event that is being put on in your city. There are lots of different events throughout Whatcom County and many are even free! Below is a partial list just to get you started.

Monday nights 6.3-7.15 first race starts at 6 pm  - All Comers track meets - $

Tuesday nights 6 pm – All Paces Run/Walk with Fairhaven Runners – free (other runs throughout the week as well) http://fairhavenrunners.com/weekly-drop-in-runs-and-walks/

Wednesday afternoons 12-5 pm – Fairhaven Farmers Market – free unless you buy stuff http://bellinghamfarmers.org/Wednesday-Market/215.aspx

Thursday nights starting 6.27 from 6-8 pm – Elizabeth Park Concert Series – free http://www.cob.org/services/recreation/activities/concerts-in-the-park.aspx

Saturday nights starting 6.22 when it gets dark – Fairhaven Outdoor Movies - $

Hope this gives you some ideas to help your GC engage your community and have some fun this summer as you seek to be missionally intentional with your time!

photo credit: ecstaticist via photopin cc