Archive for February, 2009
Special Thanks to The Refuge
This past Sunday I had the privilege of hanging out at The Refuge in downtown St. Charles where my friend Trey Herweck interviewed me as part of his series on Colossians. I believe we got the interview videoed and if everything works out right, I should be able to post that on here in the coming weeks as a way to share our story, our mission, and our timeline.
I want to give a special thanks to the people of The Refuge who blessed us with a generous church planting offering while we were there. It is clear that God has inclined The Refuge to be a church focused on planting churches that plant churches that plant churches…and to thus spread the gospel as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8.
Thanks for your generosity, Refuge, and may you be blessed.
A29 Winter Regional
This coming weekend I’ll be spending some time in Omaha at the Acts 29 Winter Regional hosted by Coram Deo. Coram Deo is a strategic partner for Project 2 Pillars and I’m looking forward to spending sometime with the guys there as well as connecting with some friends from Core Community.
While I’m there, I’ve got a few people from the Lincoln area that I’ll be hooking up with over breakfasts and lunches to start exploring the concept of a launch team. I’ll also be giving a brief description of Project 2 Pillars during one of the “call-backs from break” at the conference on Saturday and another at Core Community on Sunday morning.
The conference itself is on the topic of Church History: The Roots of the Reformation. Be sure to check out the conference website and also a related blog post, Is the Church History Conference Worth Your $30?
If you’re in the Lincoln-Omaha area and would like to connect this weekend, let me know by sending me an email via the “Contact Project 2 Pillars” link under Pages.
Seek Refuge
This Sunday I’ll be hanging out with my friend Trey Herweck down at The Refuge in St. Charles. Trey planted The Refuge a couple years back in conjunction with Acts 29 and The Journey and will be interviewing me as a part of a new series they recently started on Colossians.
If you’re in the St. Charles area, come check it out. The Refuge meets at 10am on Sunday mornings in the Memorial Hall Building in Blanchette Park.
The Vision of 2PC
Imagine if God wanted to start a new Christ-centered, missional-focused church in the urban center of Lincoln. Imagine if a group of dedicated disciples became bent on mission to reach the unreached for Christ in Lincoln. Imagine if they became bent on transforming the city by loving God and loving people. Imagine if they really went for it; if they dedicated their lives to it.
Imagine if God began to use these dedicated disciples to reach the unreached for Christ in Lincoln. Imagine these unreached meeting Jesus for the first time. Imagine them experiencing true and pure forgiveness for the first time and in turn offering it to others. Imagine the casual Christians in Lincoln moving from a vague, cursory notion of Christianity to becoming engulfed in the gospel. Imagine them not just seeking answers for the deepest questions in their minds, the deepest quandaries about life, the deepest longings of their souls – but actually finding them in Jesus. Imagine them growing in their love for Jesus. Imagine their lives transforming. Imagine their relationships being redeemed. Imagine their marriages becoming biblical and their families becoming centered around God. Imagine their view of vocation and possessions and church changing.
Imagine if God pulled all of these people together and started the church that he wanted in downtown Lincoln. Imagine a community of missionally focused disciples at various stages of spiritual maturity motivated to love Jesus, worship Jesus, and serve Jesus. Imagine a church that unashamedly preached the gospel; proclaiming the glory and wonder of God. Imagine a church that was more interested in engaging in worshiping the Creator of the universe rather than in being entertained. Imagine the people of this church loving Jesus, loving each other and loving the city of Lincoln; caring for it rather than using it simply for their own benefit.
Imagine if God turned the few into many. Imagine this church breaking down barriers between the church and the unreached such that the only stumbling block that remained was the Cross. Imagine a church that drew people in and simultaneously reached out, meeting people where they are at. Imagine hundreds of engaged college students worshipping the Lord of Lords. Imagine hundreds of Lincolnites trading in their notional Christianity or spirituality and joining the mission of reaching the unreached for Christ and transforming the city by loving God and loving people. Imagine the homeless worshipping alongside the businessman. Imagine public baptisms and hundreds giving their lives to Jesus. Imagine this church becoming a city within the city of Lincoln.
Imagine God growing his new church into a thriving body. Imagine a network of missional communities meeting all over the city to pray together and study God’s Word together and to do life together; not just in their homes, but also in public places. Imagine deep relationships forged between Christian brothers and sisters and between Christians and the unreached as transformed lives turn into authentic and transparent lives of love born in them by the Holy Spirit. Imagine a church not completely bogged down with programming, yet retaining a healthy discipleship system without overburdening the members to a point where they have no time to engage the unreached around them. Imagine this church revitalizing the urban center of Lincoln for Jesus. Imagine this church hosting public forums on issues that matter in our culture and society: listening to the people, engaging with the people, and offering them a biblical worldview. Imagine this church hosting practical seminars for single men, single women, single men and women, young married couples, married couples with kids, business professionals, and community leaders. Imagine this church not being associated with a building, but a body of believers interested in growing the body and glorifying God.
Imagine God multiplying his new church. Imagine this church raising up leaders from within. Imagine this church training those that God calls; offering them experiences of growth and leadership in addition to formal training. Imagine God wanting to start additional Christ-centered, missionally focused churches throughout Lincoln and surrounding areas and cities. Imagine God beginning to use dedicated disciples from this church (leaders and members) to reach the unreached throughout Lincoln and the surrounding areas and cities. Imagine God using these dedicated disciples to pull together new groups of people and starting new churches in these other areas and cities. Imagine God turning these groups of a few into many. Imagine God growing these new churches into thriving bodies. Imagine God multiplying these new churches.
Imagine God causing all of this to be in order that he would be more greatly glorified.
The vision of 2 Pillars Church is deeply rooted in the mission to reach the unreached for Christ and thereby bring glory to God. The only way to do this is to hold loving God and loving people in the perfect tension that Jesus intended us to. That perfect tension consists of proclaiming the unchanging gospel of Christ to an always-changing cultural landscape (via appropriate contextualization) for specific, ecclesial consequences. With that in mind, the vision of 2 Pillars Church is to create a community of missionally-focused disciples motivated to love Jesus, worship Jesus, and serve Jesus while also growing in relationship with Jesus as well as loving and serving one another and the city. In doing so, our vision is to be a city within the city as Jeremiah describes to the exiles in Babylon.
The Mission of 2PC – Part 5
The mission of 2 Pillars Church is to reach the unreached for Christ and transform the city of Lincoln by loving God and loving people. This is the fifth and final post in this series aimed at unpacking this series.
Why the part about “loving God and loving people”?
When asked what the greatest commandment of all was, Jesus responded with this:
“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
We don’t exist to simply love God. We don’t exist to simply love people. There is a perfect tension that must be held. We cannot over-emphasize one and neglect the other. The two-fold command is singular: love God and love people. The command is two-fold in the fact that there are two aspects to this command. It is singular in the fact that loving God with all of our being must include a love for other people. To love God and to not love people is to not love God.
To love people and to not love God is to love people out of our impure motives – motives of pride, selfishness, comfort, greed, and self-actualization. We cannot appropriately love others if we do not love God. It is his Holy Spirit alone who implants a pure and sincere love in our hearts for others. In building on our love for God and enacting it through loving others we bring glory to God. The focus of everything that we do on this earth is to glorify God.







