Consuming Jesus

The  2-day “Drum Majors for Love, Truth and Justice” conference on November 20-21st led by civil rights leader Dr. John M. Perkins and Dr. Metzger addressed various issues to inform, encourage and challenge church leaders towards a theology of engagement, holistic participation in the gospel and redemptive reconciliation. Perkins, Metzger and the community leaders who joined them for panel discussions offered meaningful reflections that helped those gathered to keep marching forward to the beat of a different drum in community development work. We are witnessing today the need to break through social comfort zones and develop true community that takes us beyond simple acts of charity and affinity groups.

 In the first session entitled “The Need of the Hour,” Metzger and Perkins discussed the need for raising up leaders and churches whose concern for the poor far outweigh their own self-concern. In the second session, Dr. Metzger challenged us with the statement that, “none of us are free if one of us is chained” (referencing a Lynyrd Skynyrd song). We have a hard time sensing that we are bound up together in solidarity with one another for good or for ill. In the third session, Perkins addressed the three r’s of his community development model: relocation, reconciliation and redistribution. The second day of talks focused on spiritual formation and building a network of ministry and service partnerships where the church of the greater Portland-Metro area learns how to work with others toward helping people in community own the pond together.

This all requires a genuine paradigm shift. Right now, we live in a culture that tells us to congregate with those we like. We are often encouraged to sacrifice little and gain much. We are sometimes told to take back America and take out our enemies. But the gospel paints a different picture. And it is one that we, facing 21st century challenges, are called to respond to and participate in.  Christ has called us to join him in his grand narrative of identifying with “the least of these.” But how do we get beyond the brokenness, the individualism, the segregation, the gentrification to respond holistically and redemptively, struggling for solidarity with others through our union with Christ Jesus?

There is an upcoming Drum Majors for Love, Truth and Justice event in the Portland area, on November 20-21.  Dr. Paul Louis Metzger and nationally acclaimed civil rights leader Dr. John M. Perkins will be leading this event, offering a biblically rooted message about the theology of engagement for running a marathon race of holistic gospel service.  This conference is open to anyone interested in developing a theology of engagement for a lifetime of service.Check out the Drum Majors Event Details for more information on this event!

Is it possible to be consumed without knowing it or acknowledging it?….I think YES.  God has proven to be a God who upholds promises even when I was unaware that I was part of the promise.  The promise was that I would sacrifice my deep selfish desires of BEing somebody in order to SERVE somebody else, and in so doing be a part of sharing God’s love with people face to face in many different ways.  I’m not someone who is specially called in a way that others are not…I’m just listening and seeing what God is doing.

God has taken a hold of me as opposed to me taking ahold of God.  In 2005 I moved to Portland and I’ve seen some amazing times of service in the name of Christ, which has brought some horrible times of pride, selfishness, etc. Nevertheless, I press onward in the knowledge that I’m serving God and working through the ugliness.  I’m a pastor for Clear Creek Community Church.  This small church has made an incredible advancement in God’s kingdom because it understand the principles of selflessness and serving Christ/Community.  In 2006 a couple of us got together because we had a vision….What would happen if churches united to provide free health care to our neighbors who can’t afford it?  Compassion Rockwood, a free medical/dental/vision etc event, was born and has since grown to include dozens of churches and serve hundreds of people.  One doctor was so moved by what he saw he quit his practice and started a full time “patch adams” clinic in Rockwood.  This event has served nearly 1,000 people and has now spread all over the city of Portland.  More importantly it has revealed the Kingdom of God to civic leaders and social service leaders.

It is because of this revelation that Clear Creek Community Church has been contacted by many different leaders from city, school, newspaper when help is needed.  One significant call came from the assistant DA who asked if the church could do anything about the worst corner in the city of Portland, in regard to crime rate.  It also happens that God placed my wife and I in an apartment on that exact corner 1 year prior.  We decided we would go out on the corner every friday night to LISTEN.  We put up signs: “free hot chocolate”, “free chili”, “Tell us Your Story”  We have been there friday nights since Oct. 07.

On that corner I understand the principles of being consumed by the love of Jesus…I have to drop my ego, I have to reach out to the broken hearted, and I have to go beyond the “comfort zone.”  The people know we are there and they can rely on us to listen to them all the while “speaking” the love of Jesus into their hearts.

This is a small speck of what God is doing in the lives of those who give of themselves as a lifestyle….and I know if you are reading this you are probably in the same boat.  This means our responsibility is to call others out of the wilderness and into the promised land…some may call it the “trenches” others may call it “home” either way Jesus invites us there.  If you are interested in uniting churches to serve their community please join me on my journey.
www.compassionconnect.com   www.clearcreekpdx.com

Your Brother in Christ,
Milan Homola

Recently my wife and I moved from Chicago’s western suburbs into the city. We lived in the suburbs for eight very good years. For five of those years I was an associate pastor at our church. While the church exhibited some socio-economic diversity, like most churches in the western suburbs it lacked noticeable ethnic diversity. Two years ago some friends of ours who pastor a church in Chicago asked if I would consider joining their pastoral staff. Their invitation was especially intriguing because New Community Covenant Church was founded six years ago as a multi-ethnic congregation.

I won’t bore you with the two years it took to finally accept their invitation. Suffice it to say that though we had never felt at home in the suburbs, leaving our community there was one of the most difficult things my wife or I have ever done.

I am now a few months into my new assignment as Pastor of Community Life at New Community and am convinced that the move into Chicago was the right thing. That is a great feeling! While transitioning into my new position I was reading Consuming Jesus. It was encouraging to read the book and notice all the ways that my new church was intentionally pursuing many of the things Paul Metzger articulates in the book. For example, for the past five weeks the church has gone through a sermon series called Race Matters. During this series the congregation has seen how reconciliation is at the very heart of the Gospel. We have been challenged in very practical ways to acknowledge the active or passive racism in our lives. In a couple of weeks we will offer breakout session for the black, white, Asian, Latino, and international folks in the congregation. Led by trusted facilitators, these sessions will be a time where people can be brutally honest as they confess, ask questions, and vent their frustrations.

In my role as Pastor of Community life I am responsible for the church’s small groups. One of the tricky things about New Community’s small groups is working towards diversity in our groups. I am finding that as new people wish to join groups I have to work closely with the small group leaders to find a group where the new person will experience the diversity that is so important to us.

Consuming Jesus addresses something that will be important for our church to continually be vigilant of: the affect of consumerism on racial reconciliation. Our church is mostly made up of young professionals, many who are making plenty of money. As we continually cast a vision for multi-ethnic and missional community that seeks to bless our city, we are aware that this regularly goes against the dominant paradigm of the city. We are currently raising money to lease a warehouse in the most troubled corner of our neighborhood. In addition to worshiping on Sunday mornings, this warehouse will allow us to have an incarnational presence in this neighborhood seven days a week. I am hopeful that as we ask the congregation to sacrificially give to this aspect of our mission we are also challenging patterns of consumption. Our presence in this under-resourced neighborhood will also make it clear how important socio-economic diversity is to the health of our church.

The type of reconciliation articulated by Paul Metzger is a lot of work! The divisions, skepticism, and complexities run deep. But after just a few months in a congregation who understands the significance of Gospel reconciliation I know there is nowhere I’d rather be.

David Swanson is the Pastor of Community Life at New Community Covenant Church and blogs regularly at http://davidswanson.wordpress.com.

Bethany Evangelical Free Church in Littleton, CO has been on the missional church trajectory since 2004. Yet it was only in 2007 that we had significant progress. Through demographic research (Percept Studies and Caleb Project’s Crossing Cultures), we discovered that North Littleton (Broadway to Santa Fe, Littleton Blvd. to Belleview) contains one of the largest constituencies of Hispanics in the state of Colorado (69% Hispanic in contrast to 3-5% Hispanic of surrounding communities). This community is only one mile from the church I pastor, Bethany Evangelical Free Church.As the result of this information, we decided to further survey this community. We reserved Powers Park in North Littleton one Saturday during the month of May in 2007 and hosted a Fiesta in the Park. We served hamburgers, green chili, distributed Mothers Day presents, played Latin music and used a simple questionnaire surveying the basic needs of the people.During this time, God graciously sent us a Hispanic pastor with a core group of twenty five Hispanics looking for a facility. God was graciously honoring the small steps of faith Bethany was taking. Not long after this May 2007 event, Vida Nueva Para Denver started, which is Bethany’s Spanish speaking church.  There are currently ten nations represented including Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Columbia, Venezuela, and Argentina.Not long after starting Vida Nueva, which meets in the Underground Worship Venue at Bethany at 10:45a.m., we also started a Multi-Cultural Adult Bible Fellowship. This provided an initial place for integration of English and Spanish speakers. Pastor Francisco Mendez runs this Adult Bible Fellowship in both languages. We also started a multi-cultural service every six weeks including the two services of Bethany Evangelical Free Church and Vida Nueva. Lastly, Pastor Francisco Mendez has a radio program on Tuesdays at 2pm on a local Hispanic AM radio station in the Denver area.Then God blessed us when Alejandra Harguth met Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior through Pastor Francisco and Vida Nueva last September 2007. Alejandra just so happens to be the Director of the Littleton Immigration Initiative in Littleton, CO. She is a gatekeeper into our community. Not long after Alejandra’s conversion, she asked if we would host ESL (English as a Second Language) classes in conjunction with Bemis Library. Our response was, “This is what we’ve been praying for, for the last couple of years. We would love to host ESL classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights.” Bethany now has vibrant initiatives reaching Hispanics in our community.I must say, God is honoring our simple steps of faith. Honestly, we have no idea what we are doing other than  becoming like Christ in character and in priorities. Since starting Vida Nueva, Bethany now has a Philippino bible study on Thursday nights, an Asian constituency (including a Japanese band that led Vida Nueva recently) and an African American constituency coming to Bethany. Building a bridge for Hispanics was building a bridge for all ethnic groups in our experience. Our prayer is that Bethany Evangelical Free can become a living testimony of a church that transitioned from an inward programmatic mono-cultural Evangelical church to a congregation that is aware of and evangelizing the culture of the surrounding community.Pastor Kevin J. Navarro

We are going to be introducing a new category to the Consuming Jesus blog.  This category is titled “From the Trenches,” and will give us an opportunity to hear from pastors and practitioners that are active in engaging in the ideas presented in the book.   We hope that it will be another good way to spark discussion about how Jesus’ consuming love calls us to address these race and class issues in the church.