Category: Missional Church

Several Ways to Help Hurricane Evacuees

Posted on September 12, 2008

Here are some ways to help Hurricane Ike Evacuees:

Clint Small Middle School has been designated as an emergency shelter for evacuees from Hurricane Ike. About 400 people are sleeping on the floor, and most of them do not have bedding. Here are some donation opportunities:

· Bedding – blankets and pillows.

· Diapers – for adults and children

· Formula – powdered

· Wheelchairs!!

· Magazines and newspapers for them to read

Two ways to take your donations:

1.  Go directly to Clint Small Middle School. Call Albert Perez, the City of Austin manager on site, and tell him you’re delivering items.  He will send someone out to get them from you as they don’t want people going in with loads of items because people might rush you!  Albert’s number is 589-1962.

2.  Bring your donations to the HITC office by 5:00 today.

ALSO, there is a huge need for volunteers at the shelters across the city.  There are 75 shelters that need volunteers to run them.  If you would like to help, go to the Volunteer Center at 2913 Northland (RR2222) and they’ll process you and give you an assignment.

Colossians and Missiology

Posted on September 12, 2008

This Sunday we launch our Fall long series in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. Due to the insignficance of Colossae and its peripheral location in the Roman empire, Biblical commentator J.B. Lightfoot remarked that “Colossae was the least important church to which any epistle of St. Paul was addressed.” It is curious that Colossae would be percieved as the lowest of the churches when its letter contains some of the highest Christology of the New Testament! Why would Paul present such a creative, compelling theology of the resurrected Christ to a such an unimportant church?

Several reasons.

Missionary Priority. Paul includes robust christology precisely because Colossae was “out there,” philosophically and geographically. Colossae’s remote location from the Western trajectory of Paul’s missionary activity placed the church on the edge of the early church planting movement. Though the neighboring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis both had churches, Colossae was less significant and further east. We should give our best theological efforts to frontier churches, whether in Austin or Burma.

Multiply Theological Influence. The letter to the church at Colossae was to be circulated: “And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea” (4:16). The robust theology set out in this letter was intended for chruches not a church. Paul intended the Colossian hymn in chapter one to be sung by many saints, for the ethics of chapter three to shape many communities, for the gospel-centered counsel of chapter two to change many hearts. We should strive to multiply our theological influence through many mediums, provided that we spend more time developing and articulating our theology than we do creating websites, podcasts, videos, and so on.

Jesus Christ the Lord. Nothing is more central to the Christian faith that the supremacy of Jesus Christ. The great task of the follower of Jesus is to grow in comprehending and integrating the lordship of God in Christ in every facet of life. The Colossians were no exception. In fact, given the diverse philosophies and religions in that part of the Roman empire, an authoritative Christology was critical. Paul responds to their needs with some of the most exalted Christology in the NT. When engaging cultural issues we must be careful not to exalt culture over Christ, but rather, to demonstrate how Christ can be both exalted and distorted by culture.

Reasons for a Second Service

Posted on September 11, 2008

Here’s the other side of the coin in considering the addition of a second service:

1. Why turn away people from hearing the gospel of Christ? If more people will come to our gatherings to hear the gospel preached, who am I to turn them away? Jesus went out of his way to keep the unregenerate masses around to hear his sermon on the mount. He went out of his way to feed them and broke them into small groups to share his provision. Peter addressed thousands. Paul packed out houses with people falling out of windows (acts 20:9). As Jacob Vanhorn said, “The first century church didn’t get to put their finger in the dam when God added 1,000’s of new, clumsy believers. I don’t think we can either.” The challenge is to keep preaching the strong gospel of Jesus, and to not accommodate increased consumerism that people bring with them.

2. See the second service as another gathering of the church during which people can be discipled into gospel-centered missional community. Daniel Montgomery once asked me which form of the church was most pure, missional communities or Sunday gatherings? It was a loaded question. He avered that, if done well, both can be “pure” expressions of the church, and I tend to agree. The challenge, however, is to spend as much time recalibrating gatherings as we do recalibrating smaller communities. Austin City Life is in the process of trying to develop a more intentional “liturgy” whereby Sunday gatherings become more of a discipleship experience, not just a service. Missional, steady state, gospel-centered community should happen through public and private gatherings.

3. A second gathering will increase business for the coffeeshop in our building, enabling us to futher support local business. The unoffical slogan of Austin is “Keep Austin Wierd,” which is multivalent. One of the things it means is keep things indy, support local business. We like to do that when possible to be a blessing to our neighbors and city.

4. A second gathering will enable volunteers to serve and to worship every Sunday.