Unless the Lord Builds the House...

Things were really crazy around The Street the past two weeks, especially for a person who loves order and organization.  The second year of the Leadership Institute has been exciting, but as with any new program, it has been full of changes in schedule, going with the flow, and a lot of flying by the seat of your pants.  I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to schedules and organization, and will work until I get blue in the face to make an air-tight plan that is completely foolproof.  However, that very attitude of schedules, agendas, and programs is contrary to the very core of Mercy Street's mission: to spark Christ-Honoring relationships that develop the future leaders of West Dallas, not to develop Christ-Honoring programs.  Schedules are rigid, people are flexible.  Programs are orchestrated by man, but God calls us to be led by His spirit.  Things we do are temporary, but people's souls last forever.  Therein lies the beauty of the ministry of Mercy Street's mission- to be willing to drop any program, any phone call, and change any plan to facilitate the opportunity to develop a relationship.  It has been refreshing and puts my busy mind in a position to ditch the agenda and allow God to move.  I saw this idea play out in such a cool way during our weekly elementary outreach program, Super Thursday.

We had our first Super Thursday of the summer last week, and most of it was planned and orchestrated by the Senior Interns. We lead the Bible studies and planned the crafts, and took care of most of the programming.  We lead the music and made sure everything went just as planned.  But at the end of the day, while talking with one of the junior interns who had been planners for Super Thursday before, I begun to realize that I wasn't teaching any sort of leadership in this way.  I was "leading by example" by planning and organizing and making sure everything ran smoothly, but not helping any of my junior interns take ownership of the program and learn  how to lead.  This was doer-ship, not leadership.  My heart wasn't content with that.  And to make things worse, despite the super-smooth program, I didn't see a crowd of kids begging to accept Jesus or thirsting to learn more about Him.

So, this week I took a completely different approach to the week: let's delegate everything.  The Bible story would be taught by a junior intern, as well as the other activities in class.  Let them lead, and let them fail if need be.   It irked me, it bothered me, and I wanted to just do it myself so we could make sure it went well.  I noticed the other Senior Interns following suit- the group time and stage direction was done by the high school students.  It was neat to see, but behind my smiling face, my head was spinning with questions: Have they thought about this?  Who is doing what?  Will they be able to explain the lesson as I would?  But, just like the t-shirts tell me to, I kept calm and carried on.  And thats when stuff got interesting.

As I stood in the classroom doorway and the kids filed in, I was full of confidence (and pride?) at the cool activities that we had come up with for the day.  But kid after kid kept filing in.  And then more kids filed in.  And more and more.  Suddenly, my confidence was stripped.  We had prepared activities and crafts for 8-10 kids and 6 leaders, but suddenly we had a room full of about 30 sweaty and excited primary-schoolers all wanting to talk and be noticed at the same time, as well as 6-8 volunteers from Bethel Bible Church.  How was the plan going to work?  How would we make it turn out perfect?  We were telling the story from Matthew 7 in which the wise man builds his house upon the rock, and had this awesome plan to make a fort out of sheets and have them all sit in it to listen to the Bible story to get the point across.   But there were far too many kids for our plan.  We couldn't even fit all of them inside the fort!  To make matters worse, I'm not sure anyone could pay attention to our awesome junior intern telling the Bible story because they were distracted by the tent we all thought was so awesome.  After the craft we had prepared was a bit of a flop, I would normally have just chalked the day up as a loss and tried to fix the kinks to do all I could to make the next week perfect.  But God was teaching me things.

I looked back at the course of the day and saw beautiful things.  While we had three times as many kids as the previous week, which screwed up the plan, we had three times as many kids there to hear the Gospel!  What a gift!   While not everything went perfectly, we had high school aged interns articulating God's word to a younger generation.  While their telling and interpretation wasn't flawless, what makes me think mine would have been?  I began thinking, wasn't this what Jesus was meaning when he called us to make disciples?  Wasn't it about people who love Jesus teaching other people who love Jesus how to tell others about Jesus in the best way they can?  That's far more beautiful than a schedule or a program, and sure includes far more interruptions and by-the-seat-of-your-pants moments.

I finally stepped back and realized that in all my schedules and plans and ideas of how things should go I am a lot more like the foolish man building his house upon the sand of his own ability.  That pointed me to Psalm 127:1a:

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
Those who build it labor in vain."

It appears that even if the house is a fort made of sheets, Jesus should always the builder.

The Mudskipper by Trey Hill

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

I flipped to the National Geographic Channel the other night, thankfully interrupting the Good Luck Charlie marathon that was happening in our house, and I saw a segment on this curious little fish called the mudskipper.

The mudskipper is an amphibious fish that has adapted to its environment in order to move on land and breathe by holding water in its gill sacks. Now this odd looking creature, like other gobies (the family of fish in which the mudskipper is a part) was made to live in water. However, over time, it has evolved so that now it lives most of its life out of water. And though this is impressive, it is fatally dangerous too, because if the mudskipper strays too far from the water it will eventually die. So here is my point: I am a mudskipper, and I suspect you are too.

Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). But I don’t believe it—too often I don’t live like I believe it. I try to fill my gills with just enough Jesus to get through the day, week, and month. I try not to stray too far from the Living Water—you know, just in case. But this is not how man was designed to live.

We were made to live dependently on God. God uses all kinds of metaphors to impress our dependence on Him. He says we are to “abide in the vine” (John 15:5), “eat of the bread of life” (John 6:35), and here to drink from springs of living water so that we “will never be thirsty again.” God made man to be completely dependent on Him for everything.

His intention, His design, His command is that we would rely on Him moment by moment for the life-giving sap that only comes from Him; that we would feast on Him for our daily nourishment and drink deeply of His grace and be satisfied. 

But like the mudskipper (and all mankind), I try to adapt from my original design. Instead of drinking deeply from the Spring of Living Water to sustain me, I try to get just enough to hold me over until my next sip. I like to stray from the place I am meant to be. “I’ve been a Christian a long time; I already know the Bible. I don’t have time to pray today; I run an important ministry. I’ve been to seminary; I don’t need to go to Bible study. I am saved by grace; spiritual disciplines are just ‘works.’”

Sometimes I start drinking from other wells hoping they will give me life. I drink from the well of performance, desperately wanting people to be impressed with me. I drink from the well of materialism, thinking that somehow something will make me happy. I drink from the well of self-pity when I don’t get what I think I deserve. I drink hoping these wells will give me life, but they never do. In fact, when I drink from any source but Christ, I find myself frustrated, empty, depressed, and even thirstier.

I’m guilty of the same sin for which God charged Israel: “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13).

Another danger for the mudskipper is that it is slow-moving on land—so slow that it becomes easy prey for its predators.

As I stray from the living water and the life-giving power of the Spirit, I too become easy prey for my enemies—the flesh, the devil, and the world. The false promises they offer seem more real, tastier, and more pleasurable than the promises of Scripture. “Maybe a different career, one not spent trying to help others, would be better,” I sometimes surmise. “Earning more money would surely make me happier,” I think. “Beautiful surroundings would certainly satisfy my soul,” I daydream. But they won’t, because they can’t. At 45 years old, and as the founder of an inner-city ministry, one would think that I would have learned this by now. But I haven’t. I’m still learning, I guess.

If you are like me—a slow learner—and find yourself thirsty today; Jesus bids you to come to Him, the Fountain of Living Water, and dive in until you lose yourself in blissful, self-forgetfulness, overwhelmed by the immensity of His love for you to the point that, “If His grace were an ocean, we’re all sinking” (David Crowder,How He Loves Us). Finally, unlike the water from which the mudskipper came, the ocean of God’s grace is where we are meant to be and where we breathe most fully

Not Just Another Monday...

After being ultra-oriented, the Summer Leadership Institute is finally up and running.  Yesterday marked the first day of a "normal" week with the Junior Interns.

It started out with breakfast, crazy games, and fellowship with the youth of Bethel Bible Church.  They have come to serve and grow alongside us this week.

Then off to my favorite time of the day: Quiet and Small Group Time.  This summer we are going through N.T. Wright's Matthew study.  Tuesday's passage, Matthew 6, repeats "your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you," (Matthew 6: 4,6, and 18) in reference to giving, praying, and fasting.  The sweet girls in my small group seemed to really have understanding of this concept.  We discussed how the ways we serve and the things we do for the Lord, should be done For the LORD.  We do not serve so people will see us as great or really Godly, but we should serve because God deserves the glory.  Which was a great segway into our after lunch activity.

Service projects: Every Monday, the future-leaders of West D split up into groups of about 5 to serve at various locations around the community.  Voice of Hope, an out-of-school time program, allowed some of the interns to come and put on a skit and do crafts with the children participating in their summer program.  At Brother Bill's Helping Hand, another group got to stack and organize food for their Grocery Store.  Another group was able to help Readers 2 Leaders Label and re-cover books for their library.  Lastly, H.I.S. BridgeBuilders allowed a group to come and sanitize the toys for their church's nursery.  You can find more information about these organizations below! 

Voice of Hope:     http://voiceofhope.org/
Brother Bill's Helping Hand:  http://www.bbhh.org/
Readers 2 Leaders:   http://www.readers2leaders.org/
H.I.S. BridgeBuilders:    http://hisbridgebuilders.org/