KSP Reggie McNeal

Last Thursday we (the leadership team) went down to Columbus for a Kingdom Synergy Partnership (KSP) meeting. It was a pretty exciting day. A new network was formed to plant another church in Cleveland and a Network from Kentucky wants to fully fund another plant in Cleveland. For a city that was once lacking in Restoration churches it is getting ready to have four. Wow! What an impact for the kingdom in a city that desperately needs some resurrection.

We also had the privilege to listen to Reggie McNeal. Reggie McNeal is a church consultant that really has a pulse on the shifts churches need to make in order to become God led. He really stressed the importance of changing the scorecard. Typically the churches scorecard looks at attendance of church activities as success. That the destination for people is the church, not Jesus or the abundant life.

Jesus came to give people life both physical and eternal. We have the tendency see the church as the destination when the Biblical truth is that Jesus is the destination.

As church leaders we need to determine what our scorecard is going to look like. For example, Northwest could decide that their scorecard is going to include church planting. So we decide how many church plants we are going to be involved in over the next ten years. We may decide we are going to bring some life to a low income housing area, which can change the complexion of our city.

The idea is to take the church to the streets rather than asking people to go to church. The destination becomes Jesus, not the church. The truth of this strategy is that the church will begin to grow as it focuses on bringing Jesus to the world.

Bricks for the Preachers House

Here are a couple photos I recieved today of the men making bricks for the preachers house I was talking about yesterday. They need 15000 for each house.

Preacher's House

When I go to Zimbabwe next month one of the things our team is going to do is work on a house for the preacher at a new church plant. I just recieved a list of some of the things we need to raise money for in order to build this house. I am posting part of the list and asking if you would like to contribute you can send a check made out to "Northwest Ave. Church of Christ." Send it to Northwest, c/o Scott Baker, 737 Northwest Ave., Tallmadge, Ohio, 44278. When you send the check, make sure you mark what it is you want to purchase for the house. The total cost to build a house in Zimbabwe is . . . are you ready for this? . . . anywhere from $5122 to $6422, depending on the type of roofing.

Here is part of the list of the items needed which will be purchased in Zimbabwe:

68 50lb. cement bags @ $10 a bag
30 litres of exterior undercoat @ $3 a litre
40 litres of exterior paint finish @ $3 a litre
40 litres of interior undercoat @ $3 a litre
60 litres of interior paint @ $3 a litre
10 litres of Roof & Stoep black @ $3 a litre
3 windows @ $55 a window
3 windows @ $65 a window
2 windows @ $75 a window
2 door frames @ $90 each
3 door frames @ $45 each
3 flash doors @ $25 each
1 stable door @ $55
1 hardwood door @ $50
2 B.I.C. doors @ $20 each
1 Wash hand basin @ $110
1 single stainless steel sink @ $65
10 rafters @ $20 each
3 Wall plates @ $20 each
10 brandering @ $5 each

And by the way, it is going to take 15000 farm bricks that the villagers are going to mould.

If you can help please try to get it in by Oct. 4

Christianity is Messed Up

Christianity is messed up. I hesitate saying this because by definition Christianity is about following Christ. So some could say (and I am sure they will) that I am saying following Christ is messed up. That's not what I am saying. What I am saying is the religion of Christianity is messed up.

Why? Because we have stopped following Christ. There, I said it! We have gotten away from studying the Bible to gain better understanding. We would rather hold on to traditions and interpretations by man rather than seeing what God says. When we do hear something that is different than what we believe we are in the habit of saying things like: "Well that's your interpretation," "I don't believe that," or "That's wrong."

I was in a discussion just recently with someone about a certain topic. I quoted a Bible verse to a question that really speaks for itself. The person said, "Why do you always go to that verse?" The reason is because God's word spells it out quite clearly.

My question is if there is something in the Bible that does not line up with what you believe, "Why aren't you trying to figure out why it does not line up?" Our pride will not let us examine it because we may have to admit we are wrong. I would rather admit that I was wrong than live in wrongness all my life. And you know what, I have been wrong many times.

But there is one thing I will do. In my pursuit to live like Jesus I will study the Bible striving to get as close as I can to the way Jesus would want me to live. Even if I have to challenge what I have always been taught growing up in the Restoration Movement, the independent Christian church/church or Christ. My great grandfather was a preacher and my grandfather was an elder in the church of Christ. They would disagree with a lot of what I believe from the Bible.

I blame my dad. He taught me to study for myself and challenge in places that do not line up with the Bible. But I thank my dad because I have a better understanding of who Jesus wants me to be rather than what the church I grew up in wants me to be. I learn stuff all the time that is different from what I use to believe and every time I do, I seem to grow a little closer to Jesus.

Why Can't We Just Be A Church?

Growing up in a the Independent Church of Christ/Christian church has been a blessing and a curse. It has been a blessing because I am a part of the Restoration Movement. A movement which truly started out to restore the church to first century form. A movement which strives to drop man made creeds and get back to Jesus. It strives to simplify Christianity rather than complicate it with so many divisions. It tries to make it easy for people to follow Jesus rather than have a bunch of man made traditional hoops for people to jump through to become a member of a specific church or denomination.

The curse is that it is hard to explain to people that we are nondenominational. When people see a title like Church of Christ or Christian church they assume there is a loyalty to a bigger organization. It is the Restoration Movements fault though. When you read early documents written in the Restoration Movement they will refer to the church as: Christian church or church of Christ. Notice that the word "church" is not capitalized. Why is that? Because the goal of the Restoration Movement was to be a "church" that followed Christ. It was never meant to be a title. The goal was to just be a "church" that followed Jesus. When we started capitalizing the word "church" we started to give the perception we were a denomination.

The hope is that we get back to the basic intention of the Restoration Movement. It is the hope that we just get back to following Jesus rather than man made creeds whether they are written out or just understood.

Why can't we just be a church?

Blast from the Past

Last night I was watching my normal evening line-up on Fox News when the phone rang. I answered it and a guy asked if this was the Scott Baker from Salem, Virginia. When I confirmed to him it was he said, "This may be a blast from the past, but do you remember Darryl A." I knew who he was immediately. We sat by each other in home room at Salem High School. He had played tackle on the offensive line that I was the center.

He is now living in Oklahoma and tracked down my number through a mutual friend that I have on facebook. This friend we have in common told Darryl where I lived and he tracked me down. I know some people do not like facebook, but this is a reason that the social network is amazing and can be life changing.

Darryl called me because he has two sons in the military. One of them is in Iraq and the other is headed to Afghanistan. He called me to see if I would pray for them. We prayed on the phone together and then we talked for a little while. Darryl proceeded to tell me about his life after high school. He told me he had made some bad choices in his life. It turned out to almost be a confessional. I was able to talk to him about Jesus, how much Jesus loves him and grace.

It has been 26 years since he has talked to me. We really weren't the closes friends when we were in school. We knew each other but never really hung out. He tracked me down he said because he always knew I was a man of God (I know some would beg to differ). What a compliment. You never know who is paying attention as you try to walk with God.

I would like for everyone who reads this to pray for Darryl and his two sons: Preston and Mark. Pray that the boys will be protected and that Darryl will be healed spiritually and physically. Then pray for some Darryl's from your past.

Conversation with a Hindu (4)

Last night I had a conversation with my Hindu friend. He has invited me to go to a meditation class he leads next week. This led into a discussion on prayer. I told him if I were to go, I would take that time to focus on God. I would take the time to pray and listen to God.

He explained to me the idea of meditation. That the goal was to remove your thoughts from the conscious (10% of the brain we use) and move to the subconscious part of our mind. He said the deeper we get into our subconscious the closer we get to becoming one with god (meaning we become god).

Here is the thing though, I learned something about prayer. Many times we pray intellectually. What I mean by that is we pray within the 10% of our brain we use to reason. There is something to be said of clearing our minds of our thoughts and focusing on God. Paul tells us to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions" (Ephesians 6:18). I am not saying we need to go into a subconscious state of mind(there is a danger in relying on our subconsciousness to lead us), but we do need to clear our minds of fleshly things so we can engage in a authentic conversation with God rather than a surface conversation.

The second thing we talked about was Jesus. The enlightened master my friend is a disciple of speaks of Jesus as an enlightened master. My friend would consider Jesus as an enlightened master as well. My Hindu friend said that his perception of Christianity is that it is anti-christ.

Why would he say such a thing? He has studied the teachings and life of Jesus. As a matter of fact he knows the Bible pretty well for not being a follower. So he looks at the life of Jesus and compares it to the lives of those who profess to be Christians and sees two different lifestyles.

We can be angry that he would say such a thing and react in one of two ways. 1) We could blow off his statement and not believe it, continuing to live our life the way we always have. 2) We could listen to what he says, look at the life of Jesus and examine ourselves to see if we really are following Jesus. The Bible tells us, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you--unless, of course, you fail the test?" (2 Corinthians 13:5)

I believe we all need to examine ourselves to see how we are doing when it comes to following Jesus. The problem is we will most likely need to make some life adjustments. We may need to take some unpopular stances within our church. We may be seen as a radical or revolutionary. If this is the case chances are you are on your way to following Jesus.