The Gospel (a.k.a. 'Good News!') tells us that we can now have a righteousness from God credited to our account.  It's the very righteousness of Christ! Jesus takes our sin away from us and gives us His righteousness in its place. Can you say 'Awesome!?'

Paul wrote in Romans 3, "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

When I'm preaching this Good News I talk a lot about the importance of following Jesus. It's important that our lives increasing reflect His goodness.  Sometimes I wonder if people leave thinking that they have to do more.  And maybe they do!  Maybe there is more to be done in their lives to make them like Jesus and they need to be about it!  The rub is that the righteousness from God through faith in Jesus is given to us freely by His grace. We don't earn it.  There's nothing for us to do.  With Jesus it's not D-O, but D-O-N-E! (Love that.)

So why the emphasis on following Jesus?  Why is righteous living so important if the righteousness we need is given to us in the Gospel apart from anything we do?  Here's why:

Following is evidence of Faith

Read again Romans 3 (above). The righteousness from God comes 'through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.' Following Jesus demonstrates your faith in Him. Following through yielded obedience shows that He has the authority in your life. When a Christian doesn't follow Jesus we sometimes say that he is 'unfaithful.'

Faithful and following go together powerfully. I'm thinking that they are inseparable, in fact. Would anybody yield to the Lordship of Jesus if they didn't believe in Him? It's equally unthinkable for someone to have faith in Jesus, trusting in Him for salvation, and not follow Him.

We want to create a 'Culture of Following' because nothing else in the whole world demonstrates saving faith in Jesus more than yielded obedience to Him. Let's grow in our devotion to Christ. Let's be 100% sold out, willing to go anywhere and do anything for His glory.

Let's follow Jesus.

Sunday, January 22nd

RT @GeorgeGliddon

I've been chewing on the idea 'Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast' for a year now. If you're scratching your head as to what that means exactly, I get it. It's a little esoteric, for sure.  Maybe an example as to HOW 'culture eats strategy' would be helpful.

At Norkenzie we have a simple discipleship process we call the 4Gs. As we make disciples for Jesus we explain that everyone has a next step in their walk with Christ. The 4Gs are the large areas where next steps are taken. These Gs are the things that disciples do. Variations of them make up the activity of a disciple's life. They're not our identity... our identity is firmly grounded in Christ and what He has done for us.  In our pursuit of Him, however, there are things that we do. 

This is our 'strategy' for discipleship at Norkenzie:

GROW - GATHER - GIVE - GO

We Grow in our relationship with Christ.
We Gather together as family.
We Give our lives away in meaningful service.
We Go as missionaries into our world.

This is our simple 4G disicpleship strategy to help all of us take next steps in our Christian lives. We want to become more like Jesus! But culture eats strategy for breakfast. Let's take one of our Gs as an example.

GATHER - We want to gather together as family.  Scripture tells us that we are the 'family of God.' We encourage people in this G, and it's easy to understand.  We need each other.  There is strength in the community.  The Kingdom of Heaven advances as we Gather together in His Name.

The strategy is simple to understand, but if the culture is 'anti-family' then spiritual growth isn't going to happen in that area. If the church is cold and uncaring, that culture will eat the Gather strategy for breakfast every time! It doesn't matter how vitally important the strategy is, the culture always wins. People may try 2 or 3 times to live out the strategy because they can see how important it is, but after a few times of being disappointed by the lack of meaningful relationships, they give up on it. They decide that they don't want to be a part of that after all. Why would they?

Now imagine the reverse.  A new person comes into the environment of the church and the culture is that of a loving family. The people hug, laugh and love being together. They are open, caring and receptive to new people too! They want others to be a part of their church family. The words of Jesus ring true, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35). It's clear to the new person that the people of this church love one another! When the Gather strategy is shared with that person, what will their response be? Yeah, I want to be a part of that!

The culture of our church must be consistent with the strategy for the strategy to have a chance. As the two are aligned... great things happen!

How have you seen 'culture eat strategy for breakfast?' Or lunch.

Twelve years ago we had just lived through Y2K and were excited about the future.  All of our belongings were in boxes and we were moving with our two girls, Katie (3) and Mary (1), from Seattle to Eugene.  I had even found a University of Oregon hat at the local Fred Meyer, which was strange living in Husky-ville.  It felt like that hat was just for me.  And $5 was a great price!  I was in the apple tree 3 or 4 years ago and that hat fell off my head.  Before I could climb down, the dog had chewed it up.  He had fun, but I wasn't happy!

It's interestesting when I tell people that I've been at Norkenzie for 12 years.  The response, especially from other pastors, is one of amazement.  'They' say that the average tenure of a Senior Pastor is 3-4 years, so I guess 12 is uncommon these days.  Too bad, too, since 'they' also say that years 7-14 are the most effective for a pastor.  I don't know what happens after 14.  I'll let you know. 

Norkenzie is a special place. The leadership and the whole church family expect such longevity. The looks of amazement are never from Norkenzie people. It's what is expected. It's normal for us.

The biggest contributing factor to my serving a dozen years (so far) at this same church is the level of unity among the Elders. They treat me as a brother and contributing member of their leadership group and they have a fantastic process for reaching true consensus.  It's a beautiful thing when the consensus process is utilized.  I love it.

A few years ago we had some very difficult days in the church, but the Elders were galvanized in their unity during that time. It was a blessing having such humble and yielded men as these lead me, the staff and the rest of the church family.  That unity and humility trickles down, I think, and we are blessed. I am fully under the authority of these men. Gladly.

I am reminded at times that for many pastors the greatest problems they have to work through are because of their church's Elders. I am often guilty of taking Norkenzie's Elders for granted. Right now that is not the case.

I am grateful!