A Look Back at a Decade: PART ONE

As I have contemplated this past year and decade, I’ve quickly become grateful for all that God has done in and through Jubilee. It’s a lot, so I’ve broken it down into four parts: 1) People Impact, 2) What that Impact Has Produced in Us, 3) Leadership Training, and 4) Our Future.

People Impact

Saved and Added

As we concluded 1999, Jubilee averaged 66 people in our gatherings. We now gather 330 worshippers in St. Louis City and Wentzville combined (about 400 including Union). My gratitude goes well beyond the numbers because each one of us has a story. It is a story of God’s grace and redemption. It is a story of how we were once strung out, addicted, on the verge of divorce, broken, lonely, without purpose or plan, with no hope and no future—but God’s grace saved us. We were once a God-less people, but now we are the people of God! It is with His grace in full view that we gather together for celebratory worship and to be equipped so that we can worship Him by serving, giving and telling others of His wonderful works. (I really, really would like to hear your specific story. I would be blessed and encouraged if you took the time to email your story to office@jubileestl.org so I can read it.)

Saved and Sent

Now Jubilee’s people-impact goes well beyond our current gathering of 400. Over this past decade, dozens of people have felt the call of God to go elsewhere and we have had the pleasure of sending them. I think about people like the Largents and the Eftychious who in 2005 went to help plant Jubilee Church (Atlanta, GA) led by Carl Herrington. Jonathan and Leigh-Anne Eftychiou are a leading couple. Jonathan was on staff with us and oversaw worship. Both of them are classically trained musicians and were a huge blessing. Dave and Tasha Largent are a spunky couple who are very evangelistic. It was rare that they were not bringing someone with them on Sunday to hear the gospel. There have been several others, including Sam and Marlene Poe, who were with Jubilee in the beginning. Sam and Marlene moved to Tacoma, WA in 2006 to help plant New Community Church led by Bo Noonan (Bo will be speaking at Mobilise USA 2010 and to Jubilee on January 17). Sam Poe is highly prophetic and plays a huge role in our Newfrontiers family of churches to preach the gospel in nations who have yet to hear of Jesus Christ. He spearheaded a charge to develop a system of communicating the Bible through storytelling in order to reach oral learners who represent 70% of the earth’s population. Sending people is bittersweet. I love these people and wish they were still here, but I am encouraged how God is using them and feel honored that we were able to play a role in their lives.

Scattering Seed

Over the past decade, we have preached the gospel to hundreds of people who may not have stuck with us, but I am confident we impacted their life. Sometimes you reap where you do not sow, and sometimes you sow where you do not reap. When this life is over, we will not be judged by the results that we see but by the results that God sees. Our primary call as a church is to be witnesses of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For some the gospel is the power of God but for most it is the stench of death. Although we want to see people converted, it is outside our abilities to convert them. Our part is to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel and allow the Holy Spirit to do all the heavy lifting. However, we have seen literally hundreds of people make commitments to Christ and have baptized more than a hundred of them. There is nothing more encouraging for me as a pastor than to lead someone to Jesus or to hear that someone else has. It is why we do what we do.

Next Post: What God Produced in Us

Jesus is Knocking

I find it amazing how much God desires to be with His people and demonstrate His love for them. Over and over in Scripture you see this desire. Crowds of people with all kinds of needs flocked toward Jesus and he graciously met with them over and over again. This idea is most clearly seen in Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." Jesus comes right out and says that He so wants to meet with us it's like He's standing right outside our door knocking, alerting us to the fact He's here! All it takes from us to meet with Him, to dine with Him, is to open the door. That's it!

I am writing about this now because I sense that Jesus is knocking on our door a little louder these days. When I look around at our church and here the stories of people encountering God, I see evidence of a louder knock. Salvations are on the rise and healings are on the rise. People are encountering His presence in an increased manner. I'm hearing about "chance" meetings with old friends that God is working powerfully through those encounters.

Here's the point. God is a God who loves His people and wants to administer healing in our lives. He is standing at our door...your door and He's knocking. Are you going to let Him in?

A New Normal

A person who is normal is one who conforms to the dominant behavior in a particular society or community of people. Whether you realize it or not, you have a desire to be normal.

Normal Christianity in the New Testament meant to completely sell out to following Jesus. It meant to completely devote yourself to Scripture (living it, not just reading it), prayer, unity, one another, the poor, and the evangelization of the whole world. The early church looked after each other's needs (physical, emotional, and spiritual), they were honest with one another, they regularly confessed sin, there was a sense of awe because of the demonstrations of Holy Spirit's power, and they had a loose grip on this world and a tight one on the Kingdom. The word of God spread quickly but it cost many of them their lives. There were no pretenders or casual attenders because to say you followed Jesus was risky business.

Now, normal church life in America is quite different. To be a Christian in America simply means to go to church on Sunday, read your Bible, pray at meals, give a few dollars and perhaps volunteer once in a while. The Christianity we experience today is in large part sub-normal to that of the Bible.

However, in recent days, I believe that God is speaking to me that He wants Jubilee to experience a new normal. A normal that includes an increasing number of salvations, healings, miracles and joy in His presence. This new normal will be resisted by our desire for the status quo, but we must contend for all that God has for us. To not settle for a sedentary Christian lifestyle that can lead us to experience spiritual atrophy. I believe He wants to awaken our hearts and revive our souls through the power and the coming upon of His Holy Spirit. This new normal isn't for our benefit, but for the benefit of those God has called us to reach who are many.

I would encourage you to be in prayer as God so desire to move upon your life in ways you can't imaging (Eph 3:20) to demonstrate His love for you and the world.

Expanding Our Borders

Isaiah 54:2-3, 2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3 For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.

A consistent theme in the prophetic call to God’s people is to make preparation for expansion. It is a promise of blessing in order that we might bless others. However, to receive this promise, we must in faith make preparations (changes) in order to make room for the blessing God wants to pour out.

I have spent the last couple of days in Northeast Missouri…about 25 miles south of the Iowa border. It is very rural and with lots of farms. Any farmer knows that you have to build a silo before you can harvest. Moreover, the size of your silo (or the number of your silos) depends upon how big you expect your harvest to be.

Jubilee has always lived with the expectation of a big harvest, and has sought to be the kind of church that has prepared for growth before it’s happened. This has meant we have:

1. Rented or bought facilities bigger than maybe we needed at the time
2. Developed and trained more leaders than we needed
3. Remained very flexible with our systems and methods of going about our mission.

Our hope and plan is to continue to “enlarge the place of our tent”, to lengthen our cords and strengthen our stakes.

This Sunday, December 6, the roughly 75 people that currently make up Life Church in Union, will officially come under the leadership of the Jubilee elders, making them a part of Jubilee Church. This is an exciting time…the family is growing!

The Nations Are In Our Basement

The call to go to the nations is clear. There are oodles of verses in the Bible that command us (Christians) to go "into all the world to preach the gospel" (Mt 28) or to be His witnesses "to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1) This is a command that should effect the ministry goals and plans of EVERY church.

One of the great advantages of living in a global society is that the call to go to the nations no longer requires you to get on a boat or an airplane. You do not have to look far to reach the nations because the nations have come to us. Within just a few miles of our Kingshighway building, there are dozens of languages spoken by people all over the globe. In recent years, south St. Louis city has experienced the biggest influx of people from Bosnia, Iraq, Vietnam and Eastern African countries. Some of you may or may not know that there is a food pantry in Jubilee Church St. Louis City Location's basement that primarily serves these new Americans.

My Action Track served there this morning by giving away donuts and coffee to nearly 100 people as they waited in line to receive their food. Everyone in my group was blown away by this experience to interact and befriend others from a different countries, listen to their stories and even pray for a few.

If you are a part of Jubilee, I would encourage you to check it out one Saturday morning. If you're in an Action Track in the city, encourage your track to serve there as a group.

Sharing the Gospel

Every Sunday, it's my aim as a communicator/preacher to shed light on the gospel. It may not be as direct as the "Roman Road" (Romans 3:23; 5:8; 6:23; 10:9-10; 10:13), but my hope is that everyone (Christian or non-Christian) walks away with a better understanding of the gospel.

However, this Sunday my hope is to be direct and take dead aim at explaining how God makes knowing Him possible. The friends you bring along with you (you are bringing a friend right?) will receive about a 35-40 minute explanation of the gospel of grace, and in doing so, my hope is also to provide you with a model of how you can also explain the gospel. Here's rough outline of my message that you can use:

1. "...(God) took on flesh and dwelt among us..." (John 1:14)

a. God became one of us to identify with our lives

b. He dwells among us to so we can really know Him

2. The invitation of salvation is for everyone (John 3:16)

a. People no one else wants to relate to

i. Samaritan woman (John 4)

ii. Woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11)

iii. Mary of Bethany (John 12:1-8)

b. People who are low on the totem poll (Peter, James and John - Luke 5)

3. Jesus came to show us truth and grace (John 1:14)

a. He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life (John 14:6)

b. We don't earn anything it's grace

i. unmerited favor

ii. through the death of Jesus

4. Sin deserves death (Rom 6:23), but by trusting in Jesus we get life

a. Why did Jesus die if he didn't sin?

b. He took our sin and we get his perfection! (2 Cor 5:21)

5. Now what?

a. We don't walk with a swagger as if we did anything (humility - Eph 2:8)

b. We don't loathe life as if we are still under condemnation (Rom 8:1)

c. We worship with our whole lives (Eph 2:10; Rom 12:1)

I'll see you and your friends on Sunday!

What is an Elder?

Read this great post about eldership by Rick Hein.