Affected by Numbers

70,000 – Number of people killed in an earthquake in Sichuan, China. 5 million are still homeless.

84,000 – Number of people killed in a cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma). 2.4 million are still in need of aide.

14 – Years that civil war has been raging through Sudan.

230,000 – Number of people displaced due to the Georgia-Russian Conflict.

10,000,000 – Number of refugees worldwide. Half are children.

3,000,000 – Number of people who die of malaria each year.

33,000,000 – Number of people infected with HIV/AIDS. 2,000,000 died from AIDS complications in 2007.

25,000 – Number of children that die each day from malnutrition.

27,000,000 – Number of men, women and children held as slaves.

2,000,000 – Number of children trapped in forced prostitution.

80 – Percent of human trafficking victims that are women or girls.

32,000,000,000 – Dollars of profit made each year by the human trafficking enterprise.

300 – Number of Christ-followers killed each day because of their faith.

25 – Percent of Christians in North Korea held in prison.

50 – Percent of US marriages that end in divorce.

21,000,000 – Number of Americans suffering from major depression.

17,600,000 – Number of Americans that have a problem with the overuse of alcohol.

Next weekend, our church will hold services in which we will focus on intercessory prayer. These facts, along with others, will serve as the focus of our prayer time.

Ten Learnings from the Leadership Summit

There were so many great take-aways and things I am going to need to process/implement/chew on/wrestle with/think about, but here are ten of my learnings from the 2008 Leadership Summit:

1. “What happens if we invite people into our churches and they never change?” – Then you’ll be like Jesus. Jesus invited Judas in to his inner-circle and he never changed. (John Burke)

2. Sometimes you do everything for God…and die. Happiness is not the key. (Craig Groeschel)

3. Successful ministries have a “laser focus.” More ministries don’t make your church better. Better ministries make your church better. (Craig Groeschel)

4. Reach out and love across EVERY barrier. (John Burke, Effrem Smith, Bill Hybels)

5. “Jesus didn’t come to make us safe. He came to make us brave.” (Gary Haugen)

6. When non-believers ask hard questions (i.e. “What’s your church’s stance on gays?”), there are deeper questions being posed. (John Burke)

7. Pray this: “Bring it on, God.” (Catherine Rohr)

8. Sacrifice privacy for accountability. (Catherine Rohr)

9. “When Jesus returns, that is when true justice comes…but until then, it’s just us.” (Efrem Smith)

10. Don’t allow yourself to become a full time pastor (or church employee) and a part-time Christ-follower. (Craig Groeschel)

The Church and Same-Sex Marriage

During the last weekend of July, we focused our services on addressing the issues of homosexuality, California’s Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage.

Ideally, we would have liked to address these topics on our own terms; however, the growing fervor of this issue in California, specifically among the “Church World,” caused us to expedite our process. A large number of churches in California, especially in San Diego County, are involved in a campaign to get Proposition 8 passed. We, at Journey, felt as though God was not calling us to be an active part in this political push. Rather, we knew we were called to do what Greg Boyd talks about in The Myth of a Christian Nation and be a “power under” sort of body – one that serves and loves others.

We did feel like we had to live in the tension of both the grace of Jesus and the truth of God. Therefore, we needed to speak honestly about how God’s scripture informs this issue. At the same time, we wanted to ooze the grace of Jesus – we really wanted it to flow out of everything we said that weekend (and in our lives, for that matter). To attempt to paraphrase the message or give a comprehensive (and concise) overview would be futile – this is really a message that needs to be listened to in it’s entirety. (Ed’s message here. It would also be helpful to listen to Sound Bites, Part One first.) Sufficed to say, it was an incredible message, one that not only communicated overwhelming love toward homosexuals and those of the LGBT community, but also opened the door for a continued conversation. Simultaneously, and this wasn’t expressly planned, the weekend was a recasting of the vision and purpose of our church – To reach as many people with the good news of Jesus.

One of the things that came out of the preparation for this weekend was what we’ve come to call our “Statement on Same-Sex Marriage” – which, sounds ominous, but we really wanted to have a cohesive vision of how we, as a church, would respond to Proposition 8. I was honored to have been asked to be part of the team that crafted this statement. Here it is:

We, at Journey Community Church, desire that everyone would come to know God and understand that there is an indescribable grace available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We desire to see many people, regardless of sexual orientation, live in a way that is God-honoring, aligns with God’s plan and restores them to wholeness.

We believe that, according to our understanding of the teachings of the Bible, that God designed marriage to be between one woman and one man. It was and is His desire that marriage be a covenant, designed to be a human expression of God’s relationship to humankind. Accordingly, Journey Community Church, its pastoral team and its staff believe that same-sex marriage is not God’s desire and does not align with His plan.

While we do believe that our values should inform the way we vote, we do not believe that God ever intended his Church to be a political organization. Therefore, Journey Community Church encourages individuals within the church to defend human life, family life, and advance the common good through active participation in the public square as citizens – we are committed to providing scriptural and pastoral equipping and guidance to aid individuals to this end.

However, we are committed to keeping our focus on our purpose – “to reach as many people as possible with the good news of Jesus Christ.” The kingdom of God, as expressed on earth through the Church, is a body that was created to serve others. In mixing it with political activism, that intent can be undermined.

Therefore, while we are not in support of same-sex marriage, we will not enter into the specific public policy debate or make that the focus of our ministry. Journey is a place designed to serve and love people, a place where those who are far from God can come and find Him, a place where hurting people can discover restoration.

It is our desire as a church to reach out to all people – gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender – we desire for our doors to be wide open. We believe that using our influence for the cause of public policy would compromise our ability to continue to make Journey that sort of place.

(Downloadable version of Journey’s statement here.)

Our community actually applauded when it was read in our services, some people actually wept when they heard it. It was so cool to know that our church is filled with people who so want Journey to be the sort of place that is defined by love and grace. As Ed said in his message (paraphrasing): We don’t have the luxury of talking about the “sinners out there,” we are them – there is no they. We are sinners. We are people who have come to know grace. We are people who were so far from God, people who hated him, people who didn’t know love, people who you would never find in a church.

I was so proud that we are a church that doesn’t ever want to water down God’s gospel – a gospel of insane grace, a gospel of unhindered love, a gospel that has saved sinners like us – like me. One of our taglines at Journey is that we are a “come-as-you-are church” – and we really mean it.

For several good posts on this message and this issue, visit Ed’s blog.