Christianity in China

Here is an interesting article from the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/religion/chi-jesus-1-1-webjun22,0,1980190.story

To Whom It May Concern...

Pictures from the first week of CYIA training are up on facebook.

Edit: pictures from the second week are now up too.

Leviticus - The Grain Offering

We are just two weeks into our study of the book of Leviticus at Regeneration (http://www.bvchurch.org/regeneration). I preached Sunday night on Leviticus 2, 6:14-23.

This is a text written for a worshipping community—the camp of Israel. It basically lays the groundwork for a grain offering where the worshipper and the worshipping community thank YHWH for (1) delivering them from Egypt, (2) entering into a covenant relationship with them, and (3) forgiving them of sin (in the burnt offering, which we studied last week). The worshipper and worshipping community demonstrate commitment to the covenant relationship. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, whether in sickness or in health, they are committed to YHWH (who is already committed to them).

It also lays the groundwork for the camp of Israel to be a place where each member of the camp was involved in meeting the needs of the other members. The priests mediated between the worshipping community and YHWH. They met the people's need for worship. The worshipping community, in turn, met the priests' need for daily bread. It is a beautiful picture.

Here are the notes I used: http://www.movedigital.com/go/spinwizard/126419/grain_offering_teaching_outline.pdf. They were thrown together rather hastily, but hopefully you can still get the idea.

And here are my PowerPoint slides, if you're into that sort of thing: http://www.movedigital.com/go/spinwizard/126420/lev_ch2_ch6vv14-23.pdf

That's all folks!

CYIA Training

Whew! We just completed our two weeks of summer ministry training. I operated on little sleep and lots of caffeine, but hey, it's only for two weeks out of the year and it is totally worth it! Pictured above is our group of kids who are teaching this summer, along with the four team leaders - Hannah, Jessica, Sarah, and myself (click on the picture for a larger image). They are so much fun to work with/hang out with and each have such a unique personality. What a great group!

For the first week, we joined the regional training camp up in Wyoming for classes, study time, and spiritual formation. The second week we returned to Denver and conducted training in our local office (near Santa Fe & Mississippi), with each team working hard to practice and flesh out the concepts we studied the first week.

Starting Monday (June 23), we are sending out four teams to teach kids' Bible clubs around the city. For the first week, my team is going to a daycare in the morning (in Arvada) and a trailer park in the afternoon (in Broomfield). If you would like, please pray that we would teach effectively and build meaningful relationships with the children.

(Note to self: I love my job.)

Getting to Know the City

We have a brand new urban ministry track at CYIA training this year. I am teaching a session called, "Urban 5-Day Clubs: Getting to Know the City."

In my research this week, I have been heavily consulting an article by Tim Keller (pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and author of the recent book, The Reason for God) called, "Advancing the Gospel into the 21st Century: City-Focused Strategy." It is absolutely fantastic.

If you are a Christian and you live in the city, read this article! It can be found here: http://theresurgence.com/tim_keller_2004-02_advancing_the_gospel_into_the_21st_century_part_4

Chapel Sermon

I had the opportunity to preach for Student Senate Chapel during the Spring 2008 semester at Calvary Bible College (Kansas City, MO). I thought I would make the sermon available for download for anyone who might be interested:

http://www.movedigital.com/go/spinwizard/123945/2-01_The_Events_At_Caesarea_Philippi.m4a

In the sermon, I basically work through the text of Matt 16:13-28, which asks and answers two questions: (1) Who is Jesus? (2) What does it mean to follow Him?

If it sounds like I am rushing through the second half of the text, it's because I am. I probably had enough material prepared for two sermons! :-)

You can follow along on the PowerPoint slides here:

http://www.movedigital.com/go/spinwizard/123946/chapel_slides.pdf

If you have a chance, spend some time in Matt 16:13-28. There were a lot of great themes that I didn't have time to explore. It is such a rich text of Holy Scripture!