lifeasmission

Is This Real Life?

February 25, 2009 // 9962 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/02/is-this-real-life/Is+This+Real+Life%3F2009-02-25+17%3A52%3A07JR+Rozko

I put this on Facebook, but I just can’t help but make sure it gets as much play as possible.

My sides hurt.

Posted in funny, video

Missional vs. Attractional Equipping

February 21, 2009 // 9913 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/02/missional-vs-attractional-equipping/Missional+vs.+Attractional+Equipping2009-02-21+18%3A46%3A29JR+Rozko

As a pastor, I spend a lot of my time thinking about and actually attempting “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up,” – equipping.

Sadly, the extents to which ministry has been professionalized, consumerism and individualism have distorted our notions of the gospel, and Christendom has undermined the nature and purpose of the church, often serve to confuse us as to what this actually means.

In attractional models of church, many are satisfied with merely finding people to fill slots so that stuff gets done.  Others lay guilt trips on people for not serving enough.  But even when we do the right thing of helping people discover their giftedness and passions and then inviting them into opportunities where those life-giving things might find expression, we often have a view toward the external mastery and refinement of skills and talents so that their use of them will “attract others.”

I would never say that getting better at what you enjoy doing is a bad thing, but I would say that missionally, the equipping of others has mainly to do with cultivating spiritual maturity so that gifts and passions may be stewarded well not with being polished and excellent by socio-cultural standards.

Case in point…

Last night I and several others of my house group had the opportunity to serve at Calvary Rescue Mission in downtown Memphis.  This is an organization that serves homeless and displaced men by providing food, substance abuse recovery, and the deep love of Jesus.  When we go, we get to help serve food and one of us is invited to share a message.  Last night, my friend Sam had the chance to share.

On Thursday I called him and we talked a bit about what was on his heart and what he was planning on sharing.  He expressed some nervousness about feeling “qualified to teach form the Bible.”  To which I replied with something like, “That’s probably the very thing that actually does qualify you to do this.”

Sam doesn’t have a Bible degree.  He’s relatively new to the whole church scene.  And he’s certainly not accustomed to preaching regularly.  But, Sam shared from his heart last night what God has been teaching him through his study of the book of James and the ways in which Jesus is becoming more and more real to him everyday.  Sam (and I’m sure he’s cool with me saying this) is not the sort of speaker that your average church community would put up on stage week in and week out, but sadly it has nothing to do with his not being spiritually equipped to teach.  Rather it’s on account of his inability to entertainingly capture the attention of celebrity-driven, linear thinking, consumer-oriented folks (I don’t excuse myself from often falling into this category).

In the same sort of vein, one of our friends from the mission sang a solo.  His voice was not good.  He had absolutely no stage presence.  And he wore a sweatshirt that read, “Jesus is Awesome.”  Again, this is not the sort of guy your average church would want leading others in worship, but is has nothing whatsoever to do with him not being spiritually equipped to do so and everything to do with our misconceptions of what it means to be equipped.

Despite their cultural-defined techincal inabilities, grace, hope and love overflowed from both Sam and our soloist friend.  All those present left encouraged and changed as Jesus met with us through the ministry of these two guys.  It grieves me to think of how often we miss out on the ways in which God uses those we would never expect (or perhaps more shamefully, prefer).

Posted in christendom, church, consumerism, culture, friends, individualism, memphis, missional, preaching/teaching, spiritual formation

Equippers as Environmentalists

February 20, 2009 // 987No Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/02/equippers-as-environmentalists/Equippers+as+Environmentalists2009-02-20+16%3A49%3A07JR+Rozko

My friend JR (great name right?!) Woodward has recently finished up a series of blog posts on “Equippers as Environmentalists: Re-Imagining Leadership in Today’s Western Church.”  I have been following it all along and sharing each post thought my shared feeds so I hope other have been catching it.  In case you haven’t, he has provided a summary post with an outline of each individual post.

His thesis is that

…if the church is to faithfully rebirth herself in the Western context and cultivate a fruitful missional ethos, she must awaken the five equippers to live as environmentalists instead of master programmers.

As one vitally concerned about the state and future of the Western church as we experience the move from Modernity to Postmodernity and Christendom to Post-Christendom, I am despearte for us to embrace this season of cultural transition as an opportunity to reconsider and rediscover the nature of the church, which is precisely what JR sets out to do.  Leadership, of course, is a major piece of that puzzle and JR has some great stuff to say on the topic.  Hope you’ll head over there and give it a read.  He is also planning on posting it in pdf form soon in his writings page.

Posted in church, leadership, missional, modernity, postmodernity, western culture

5 Days, 4 States, and All Kinds of Goodness

February 18, 2009 // 9793 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/02/5-days-4-states-and-all-kinds-of-goodness/5+Days%2C+4+States%2C+and+All+Kinds+of+Goodness2009-02-18+21%3A43%3A16JR+Rozko

Time to come clean. I can hide no longer. The Amy G. I have mentioned and interviewed, well… we’re actually a couple. I know, never saw it coming did ya?! That being said…

This was a whirlwind of a Valentine’s Day weekend for us. Though Amy has traveled all over the world & lived in both Los Angeles and Chicago, she had never been to NYC. My brother and his girlfriend live there, so for Christmas, I got Amy 2 tickets to the city. But, as has been the case with all our other times being together, we sought to pack as much in as we possible could.

Our journey began in Indianapolis where I got to meet some of her close college friends as well as a bunch of people she used to work with at Global Partners. Then, we traveled to NYC where we were able to spend time not only with my brother and his girlfriend, but 2 of my good friends who were in from OH and DC.

We took the Staten Island Ferry to view the Statue of Liberty.

Saw ground zero.

The flat iron building.

And went to the top of the Empire State building – an unforgettable experience!

We also got to see Grand Central Station and Time Square.

For Valentines Day dinner, my brother managed to get reservations at a swanky Tapas bar that (though sadly small in size) offered some amazing tasting cuisine.

Quite serendipitously, we got to spend time with a good friend of mine and a good friend of Amy’s, both of whom happen to be part of the same church community that we were visiting on Sunday morning – and got to have lunch at the Seinfeld restaurant!

On Sunday, we traveled down to Princeton together. We got to see and stay with 2 of Amy’s good college friends, Dave and Holly and their 2 little girls. Dave is working on a PhD at Princeton and they were good enough to take us by “Schuller Field,” recently named for a good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago after finishing the first year of his MDiv there. Here’s a few pictures of small plaques fixed to two benches at the field.

The next day we got to take a nice stroll through Central Park, followed by visits to the coolest looking Mac store around and FAO Schwarz (remember the piano scene from Big?) where Amy got to choose any stuffed animal she wanted for her Valentine’s Day present.

Monday afternoon we traveled back to Chicago where we got to spend the evening with our friends Noel and Ashley in Lawndale.  Tuesday morning it was back to Memphis for me.  Told you we packed alot in!  Some more pictures here if you’re interested.

Posted in Amy, family, friends, travles

Some Me Stuff

February 4, 2009 // 9608 Comments »http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2009/02/some-me-stuff/Some+Me+Stuff2009-02-05+00%3A19%3A30JR+Rozko

It’s been a while since I did some sort of a, “here’s what’s going on with me” sort of post.  Well, the wait is over.

Where to begin?  Remember my interview with famed, “Amy G.”?  Let’s start there.

That was right before Christmas, and then for Christmas, my mom and brother came to town.  None of us really have any money right now (a gloriously freeing reality) so our Christmas morning was spent opening up tons of random stuff that I had picked up at the dollar store for everyone.  I’m not sure I can even remember a Christmas morning that was so full of laughter and enjoyment.

That’s right, I’m wearing shorts for Christmas!

The day after Christmas we all had to go our separate ways.  Mom, back to OH, Alex, back to NY, and me, off to Kenya.

A few days after I got back, as part of the contract we had negotiated for the interview, Amy G. came down for a follow up interview.  This one lasted for a few days and was filled with plenty of serious conversations.

This is from when I asked some questions on sensitive subjects and she tried to choke me.

The highlight of the middle of the month was offered by way of my friend Jimmy and his floor seats to the Memphis Tigers basketball game at the FedEx Forum.  We sat down a ways from Penny Hardaway!

I love living in midtown and have been anxious to find a way to get more involved in the community.  That desire has finally taken shape in being able to help teach ESL (English as a Second Language) classes to a group of beautiful adult refugees on Monday evenings through the Refugee Empowerment Program of Memphis Leadership Foundation.

The capstone event of January was a trip to Chicago where I serendipitously ran into Amy G. who invited me to go see her family in Davenport, IA and do some bald eagle watching off of the north Mississippi River.

Not bad for the first month of the new year.  Can’t wait to see what February has in store.

Posted in Amy, family, memphis