Getting our LENT on in the 'Hood!

I grew up in a tradition that didn't follow the religious liturgical calendar. In our young church plant we have several people who grew up in traditions that did follow this calendar. It is usually used as a means of trying to kick a habit or start a more positive one, or as a way to appease God for at least 40 days so that we can achieve some measure of favor or better luck in our life.
     WHY then is PAXnorth making a big deal of these forty days of focus? Have we gone all 'catholic or anglican'? Our intention is to use this rhythm of our calendar year to cause us to truly look to the incredible grace of God poured out to us at Easter. We believe that God sent Jesus on a mission to seek and save those who are lost, us and others. We both want to celebrate and be intentional about the Gospel mission in our neighbourhoods. So we are using this time to fast, pray, get to know and plan 'events' to reach those around us.
Here's what that looks like for us:
What is LENT?
It is typically kicked off on "Ash Wednesday" which is 46 days before Easter in the western world (passover in the Eastern world). LENT is taken from the 40 days of Jesus' fasting in the desert and subsequent temptation by Satan. This came before launching His public ministry to fulfill the mission of revealing the love and power of God to a world that would ultimately reject Him. Even in this God works out our ultimate redemption! Ash Wednesday is a means of signifying a desire to participate in the struggle of Christ (ashes are the symbol of mourning). 
 Christ comes on a mission to our world as a man living in the midst of our desperation, fighting against the curse of sin, embracing the passion of the cross, returning to life in victory and opening the way of life with God for a hopeless world. This cross-centered mission is what we focus on during LENT.
Why LENT at PAXnorth?
We often talk about Jesus being more/different than religion, and that He did not come merely as an example for us to follow but to be the very Savior of our lives . We are encouraging you to enter into LENT this year because Jesus did come to your world, has entered into your brokenness and taken your desperate sin to the cross. He does offer the reality of a transformed life as you live out the hope of an Easter resurrection daily. The same mission He accomplished for us, He continues through us to our hopelessly seeking world.
How exactly is PAXnorth doing LENT?
FAST Commit to fasting for the 46 days of LENT (Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22 until Easter, April 8) Fast from something that you are in the habit of doing daily; i.e. coffee, twitter, facebook, music on your way to and from work, etc.) KNOW Download/get a “PAXnorth>> in the hood” form for your neighbourhood/work space/apartment/dorm. Prayerfully fill out this form thinking of those you feel you need to get to know.
PRAY Take the time to pray for your ‘neighbours’ every time you think of the item you are fasting from.
REACH  Make the time during the months of FEBRUARY, MARCH and APRIL to host an event, open your home or grab coffee with those for whom you are praying. Use this opportunity as a place to build a friendship that will introduce Jesus in a low pressure, casual setting.
D-GROUP FOLLOW UP If you are part of a D- Group consider hosting an event where people can invite their friends, neighbours, or people from their community. Consider opening this up to the rest of PAX or just keeping it to your small group or a specific neighbourhood.  
  TELL EMAIL the event details to Nevin and Brad so we can continue to promote or to share the results of Getting our LENT on in the 'Hood'.
   Want some help thinking though how you approach your ‘neigbours’? Read these links to encourage you in the why and the how:
11 Ways to Love Your City
Talking to Your Neighbours about Jesus

Demands of the King of Grace: Meekness

"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."
Someone has said that trying to count spiritual character in somebody is like trying to count rocks at the beach, or stars in the sky- often times what you thought was a star turns out to be a slow moving satellite, or what looked like a rock was a clump of dried mud.
When it comes to the Beatitudes we feel this same burden, is this a quality I possess? Do I just need to work on it harder? Am I hopelessly unable to ever really do this so, I might as well forget about it?- counting stars. These 8 short statements that make up the Manifesto of Jesus, often seem hard to pin down as to what they seem to be measuring or pointing us towards. What may be even more difficult for us is that the beatitudes do not describe a bunch of different groups of people who possess a variety of character strengths that God will one day bless. The characteristics herein described are inclusive. If you are a blessed one, one who finds favor in God's kingdom, these characteristics- all of them- are supposed to be evident in your life. The question of where and how will be answered if we will do a deeper study of the teachings of scripture regarding these characteristics.
The beatitude of meekness may be one of the hardest ones to define, or truly identify in our lives or the lives of others. Let me try and help our understanding by pointing us to other places in scripture where meekness is demonstrated:
1. Numbers 12:1-4 Moses shows us that Meekness Takes a Hit/Punch/ Absorbs Offense Moses is accused, by the spiritual leaders around him of being a selfish, arrogant leader - who thinks that only God will talk through him. These other leaders doubted it and decided to confront him about it. Right in the middle of the struggle- where you expect Moses to stand up and point to his record of phenomenal miracles- we get the verse "And Moses was the meekest man in all the earth." This then is followed by God who advocates for Moses. Meek people are able to let God make the wrongs right, they just absorb the hit, take it to God and wait.
2. James 1:19-21 Meekness Takes a Backseat/Is Reasonable/Teachable James, as he often does, gives us a comparison of two different types of people one is quick to anger, quick to speak up, quick to hold to their opinion as the absolute right opinion. The other person is quick to listen, slow to anger, profoundly aware that they might not be right about everything all of the time. They are willing to learn, open to reasonableness. Have you ever been in a discussion where someone says, "Well you have your opinion and I have mine. I guess we are just going to have to disagree." They say this, like at a board meeting, as some great act of their intelligence of getting along- the real story behind the opinion is, I am refusing to be open to a reasonable argument. I will not allow my opinion to take a backseat to the collective wisdom of others who may also have spiritual insight on this matter. They are not willing to change if they can be shown error in their thinking because they are not willing to see- therefore they do not possess meekness, even if their statement to disagree comes across this way.
3. Galatians 6:1,2 Meekness Takes a Gut Check/ Self Suspicious Jesus, in absolute meekness, when encountering evil, deceit, harmful doctrine, and ungodly behavior confronted, rebuked, threw over tables and whipped people. How are we to act in humility when we need to confront? ACT- confront in a spirit of meekness but keep watch on your self. Gut check, self suspicious of our own faults even as we confront and journey with someone to restoration. Jesus will bring up this same issue further along in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:1-5). He doesn't say, "Meekness ignores sin." Meekness confronts the sin while being careful to take our own sin and weaknesses to the cross first.

Meekness can only be shown in these external ways if we first possess meekness internally. True Meekness may be difficult at times to identify but false meekness is quickly seen as fake when conflict arises. What gives the Christian a courageous meekness in how they view life and relationships? Each beatitude has as its conclusion a promise- For those who have meekness, "they shall inherit the earth". Why do I have to be right, own the biggest car, the biggest house, be known as 'the big man around town' and hold all the correct opinions about everything important, when I have a Heavenly Father who owns the entire city? Meekness is indeed a shift in trust. From trusting our own agenda to trusting our Heavenly Father to have the answers, hold the truth and being willing to be used for His glory, not worrying over our own. This is where internal meekness begins- recognition and surrender to the will of the Father. This is a Jesus' type of meekness.

F.O.G. Friday's- Function of the Gospel in My Relationships

We are knee deep into the Holiday season, so as I reflect on how the Gospel functions in my life I am forced to face 'family'. Isn't this one of the great and not so great things about holidays for most people? Don't we all have a weird uncle who shows up at the most inappropriate times and makes a bunch of rude comments that ticks off all the mostly sane members of the family? Relationships are what we are made for and long for, so why are they so often our greatest point of hurt, stress and regrets? How does the Gospel lived out affect these important relationships in our lives?
We have been studying the book of Genesis at PAXnorth, as you can tell if you read some of the more recent blogs. One of the things I love about the Bible is that it doesn't pull any punches. We don't get a beautiful 'saintly' utopia feel from the lives or family life of those we often call saints. More often we get the full on truth of their messy families, broken relationships and poor ungodly decisions. If you don't believe me read Genesis 3-11 and count how many messed up relationships emerge. The good news is that we are not alone, the challenge is how do we do something different in our relationships? For the next couple of Friday blogs I want to address some of this family brokenness in light of the Gospel.
First let me remind you of the irreducibles of the Gospel of Jesus. What is the Gospel? I Corinthians 15:1-3 reminds us that the Gospel is Christ, crucified, and risen from the dead on our behalf. What does this have to do with my relationships?
Take a piece of paper and list on one side all that the Cross of Christ means to us:
Forgiveness, Atonement(at-one-ment),temptations of sin waded through and overcome, God's holy just wrath satisfied (propitiation), our sin removed from us (expiation), a relationship with God is possible and a reality by an exercise of faith in Jesus! These are only a few things, read Ephesians 1, and Romans 8 to continue the list. Now on the other side of the paper list how this matters to my relationships. For instance
because God does not hold my sin against me because of His son- I can live out of a posture of forgiveness to my spouse, my parents, my family. After all isn't this the process of "working out our salvation?" (Phil. 2:12) or also called the process of sanctification. Over the next couple of Friday's I want to blog about how this fleshes out in our relationships. How does this address generational hurt, abuse sin? How does this work out in conflicts and criticisms? How does this work out in even the mundane, everyday maintenance of relationships. So take some time this week...make the Gospel list.... try and work out the reflections of this in your relationships...I think you'll find this has the potential to change your outlook and bring about incredible change in your relationships! You never know it may actually help us to enjoy family in a whole new way over the holidays.

Prayer Pursues the Prodigal

"The prayers of the righteous are powerful tools"

A street worker friend of mine called me late one afternoon to see if I could go across town and pick up a young lady who was in desperate need of a drive to detox. I made my way across the city, in the middle of rush hour, to meet her and her boyfriend- I put her suitcase into the back of my van and watched as she said good bye to her boyfriend.

As we made our way through the traffic and to pick up my street worker friend- she, little by little unfolded her story. Her and her boyfriend had come into the city from Christian homes, and had soon gotten involved with some very insidious elements. Elements that deliver death instead of the promised high.

She came into the city to be with him. He came into the city to find freedom. Both found addictions and their very life being taken from them.

I don't know how long they have been in the middle of this 'pig pen' but both have had the prayers of parents calling out to God to pursue them by His Spirit and awaken their hearts. A month ago God led me to them. The very same day I emailed Christ followers in four different continents and simply shared the need for prayer. Over the last few weeks I have received phone calls, emails and questions every week asking what was happening with this young couple. My answer has been, "Keep praying, the cycle of darkness continues".

I sat yesterday at a cafe with a man who I serve alongside of in some streetlevel focuses. He joined into several of these only a few months ago. We were meeting to share java and like spiritual passion, to see the church make a greater impact by living out the gospel among 'the least of these.'

In the midst of conversation I asked him about his family. He told me of his wife, and two boys- one 29 the other 21. With a voice strained with the pain of heartbreak he said his son was an addict in the city. Then he told me the unknown details of the story of two young people who 'escaped' to the city. Yeah the same story that I have just written above.

I waited for him to continue to pour out the pursuit of God's love on these two prodigals. Last week the parents met with the two young people- discovering that they were holed up in a crack house. They were besides themselves with what to do? They prayed, and you were praying with them. Last weekend the ex-hell's angel who owned the crack house over dosed and died; the police came in, closed the house down, putting those hanging out there onto the streets. After a day of being without drugs the couple was hurting physically, mentally and spiritually- they called home. The parents came to the city to find them on the streets and in the rain. My friend told his son that they could come home only if they got help- God's pursuit of us is relentless! He disciplines us because He loves us...yes He loves us. That day on the streets of H-fax two prodigals began the journey of being found!

Both are in separate detoxes out side the city. Both are enrolled in separate follow up programs in Christian recovery organizations. As I shared with this dad my side of the story and that God had used you to pursue this couple in prayer- he and I just sat in amazment. God loves and seeks the prodigal. We were so moved to witness the Hound of Heaven chasing hard after His lost sheep.

THANK YOU!! On behalf of these families, these kids....THANK YOU for praying! Your prayers were a part of the protection and pursuit of God on our streets. These two young people still have a long way to go...don't stop praying now.

"I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him,...
My thirsting mouth.
Nigh and nigh draws the chase,
With unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy ;
And past those noisèd Feet
A Voice comes yet more fleet --
"Lo ! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me." ....

"And human love needs human meriting :
How hast thou merited --
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot ?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art !
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me ?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :
Rise, clasp My hand, and come !" "- from The Hound of Heaven

The Question I Must Answer the Most:

"So like....what are you hoping your church building will look like?"

I was first asked this question last summer. A well meaning lady asked me what our church would look like and I began to answer with words like- eclectic, organic growth (nothing to do with hydroponics btw), missional.. She stopped me, "No no no, what will your church look like? Will it be a little white building in the middle of the city? With things like worship hangings?" Looking her in the eyes, and with, what I hope was a gentle spirit, I replied, "Look lady if you think that is what the church looks like, we are really far from having a meaningful conversation."
We have been on the ground running (mostly up and down stairs unloading boxes) for four weeks now. I have visited four different churches right in our area. Most with decent facilities; most with hurting, dwindling congregations; The big question seems to be, "How do we get people to come to our buildings, and yeah to Jesus too." We have a great facility for them to serve in and to grow into what a disciple of Jesus is to look like. I truly feel for the leaders of these churches, many of which are amalgamating with other congregations (often those they wouldn't fellowship with a few years ago), because they have to find a way to keep the doors open, the pressure is great.
Don't get me wrong, I know that God calls different people, different congregations to do different ministry and fulfill different niches in the kingdom. It is for Him to fit and join the parts of the building, His church. Still I wonder if Urban churches and maybe even suburban churches need to have a drastic shift in thinking- instead of building buildings we have to fill- how about filling spaces within the culture with the Church of Jesus and worship - I read how Paul did this a lot when he was developing disciples of Jesus.
Just wonder how many other people will ask me this week..."So what is your church (building) going to look like?"
Just so you know- our plan for 'space' is to have a space in the midst of the city culture (targeting Gottingen Street) that will be used as a center to meet the needs of a hurting world, and bring value to the place we are planted- then we hope to have access to a worship space that will be a place that is familiar to the people of our city (praying for the Marquee Club).
BUT what we will look like as a church will be radically different then what our building allows us to do. While we are on it- funny how we try and program what should come naturally in an agape love relationship with each other...things like discipleship and mentoring...hmmm gotta go read Acts again see if Paul left us a discipleship program I can download?

"I keep praying for you, that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation that you may KNOW GOD!" -Eph 1:17
Pray for us too...