faithrunner

This past Sunday morning, instead of our typical worship experience, we gathered at Legacy Church to be reminded of what the church is and pray before we went to serve in our community . Before we left, I told them we did this for four reasons : Our presence in public places during the time when most people are either in church buildings or with no thought of being in one was a picture of the church scattered. Our presence alone was a witness to God and His people. Our partnership with the City of Plano and the Gulledge Elementary PTA said we are sent servants to our community to meet needs bigger than anyone alone can meet. I reminded everyone we partner with many other ministries and organizations to carry out our mission. Our actions on Sunday were the outward practice of our core values of Worship and Service . If "worship is a lifestyle," we will risk one Sunday worship experience to practice what it looks like to serve as an act of worship. Picking up trash in a park...

We are not the first to do this , but I am pleased we will join others who have discovered the impact of being the church in its community on the day most people see us huddling inside our buildings doing things they don't understand . People don't get "church," but they do understand people serving in ways to help others. This Sunday, we will gather at our facilities at the corner of Legacy and Preston Meadow at our usual time for worship , spend 30 minutes in instruction, encouragement and prayer, and then head out to serve our community . We will partner with the PTA of Gulledge Elementary to revitalize a courtyard at the school. Beauty and education are values we share with our schools, and we are happy to provide the effort to improve both of them. Others of us will partner with the City of Plano to pick up trash in the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve . This is in no way a glamorous job, but "sent servants" don't always get to pick the work they d...

Last week, I traveled to Pachuca, Mexico , with my wife and our Director of Literacy Missions to see about partnering with a church there to teach English as a Foreign Language and train them to use this tool to build bridges into their community for the sake of Christ. On the way from the airport to the city, which was about 1.5 hours NE of Mexico City, our host Jonathan Baker with CAM Int'l , took us to see The Basilica of Guadalupe , which claimed to be "the most visited Catholic shrine in the world." It is built on the supposed site of the Lady of Guadalupe's apparition to Juan Diego, who convinced the Bishop through the image of the virgin on his cloak to build a temple to her and thus to unite Mexico under her care. I noticed some interesting things about the places of worship. First, the Virgin is the focus of everything . In the earliest building, the encased image of the virgin is the center-piece of worship. The people in the picture are saying "Hai...

Read Hosea 11 . In God's revelation through his servant, Hosea, we get an imaginative picture of the heart of God as he wrestles with what to do with his wayward child, Israel; and, in turn, we learn how God loves us. God's love is like that of a loving father who patiently puts up with a rebellious teenager . ( Hosea 11:1-4 ) Any parent who has walked alongside a child becoming an adult gets how God loves/feels in this situation. Hosea also reveals to us that God's love lets us experience the consequences of our choices. ( Hosea 11:5-7 ) God let Israel choose their kings and whom they would worship. God simply let all their choices play out in their history. Many of us blame God for our circumstances, but I'd say 90% of my messes I am in, I made! The troubles are simply the results of my free, self-patronizing choices--and being the human I am, I keep making them. God waits for me to admit my self-centeredness and turn to him. One more application : Too many parents ne...

While on a break from my routine, I took my Five Fingers to Cameron Park in Waco this morning. I have completed a couple of 50k runs there, and I still believe it is the best kept secret in Texas for mountain biking and trail running. I love the park, and with the many new improvements, it's better than ever. The trails rise and fall to the river and you can run in stands of Cedars and Bamboo. It's rugged, wooded, with steep elevation changes . Things every tail runner loves. The trails are well-marked , and if you need hill training or just want to get outdoors, it's the place to go. I covered some of the hardest and longest in the Park: Highlander, Powerline, and Powder Monkey . I took some green trails, too, but no black ones--that I know of. The trails have exposed rock face as well as packed dirt . Where water had drained and loosened the limestone rocks was the hardest on the feet. I put in 2 hours on the trails . Here's my take on the continuing argument for o...

As some of you know, I have begun to run and exercise in Vibram Five Fingers . After a rocky start , I have settled down to running and exercising (boot camp mostly) in them regularly. (I also do my lighter yard work in them.) Once my calves and Achilles tendons stretched enough to keep my heels on the ground, I have been good to go. I don't plan on going back to elevated sole running shoes again. I have run as far as 6 miles on concrete without complications and over an hour on trails with only an occasional stick between the toes and rock on my instep (the worst-but rarest-pain of barefoot running). The muscle and hip pains that halted my running in shoes have subsided, and running like I did when I was a kid has put me back on the road and trails at age 56. So, what does barefoot running have to do with discipleship? For those of you here because of the barefoot running title, discipleship is a biblical term for an apprentice of Jesus . When someone trusts Jesus is who he says ...

When the friend who recommended reading The Tangible Kingdom asked me how I liked it, I said, " It's missional church served with a lot of beer ." My statement came from the authors/village leaders' strategy of living out their kingdom life in what they call "incarnational community." This meant to them spending time where people hang out and joining them in normal celebrations and gatherings in order to build intentional relationships- something more Christ followers need to be about. Halter and Smay are practitioners , and that is what I like about their work. It is built on how they live out their mission and vision week in and week out as Adullam, a church in Denver . Little theory, much practice. My favorite chapter title is "The 1,700-year Wedgie," the best description of the institutionalization of the church I've read. I like the book because it parallels much of what Steve Pate and I wrote about in Evangelism Where You Live . (Chalic...