One of my modern day heroes, Bono, has been very busy this week. He has teamed up with Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News to raise awareness for the plight of the African continent.

Check out the short but fascinating clips here:
Monday [simply fast-forward to 11:40]
Tuesday [take it right from the top]
Wednesday [fast-forward to 19:10]

Other links:
one.org - determined to unite the world against extreme poverty and disease
Official U2 website - determined to unite the world around great music ;-)

My best friend's mom is an extremely involved lady. She has no official position, job, or title, but she gives nearly full-time hours on a regular basis to serving refugees who have newly moved into her area (primarily people from the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa). This is hard work! And yet she is sharing the love of Jesus in dynamic ways through her actions. I wish there were many more Linda's in our communities! She wrote the following as a response to my post last week, and I think it would be well worth your time as well. Enjoy! ---Paul

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It probably appears that people just walk in Sunday morning, sing some praise songs, endure listening to a sermon, sing a few more songs, and go home and forget about church until the next Sunday rolls around. While I am sure there are people that do fit that description, it doesn’t have to be like that! And most likely there are things happening near you that you're not aware of.

Here would be my advice:

1. Ask around :: Ask the pastor and other leaders what outreach ministry the church has. Sometimes there are already great things going on that you could simply partner with. However, if they aren’t doing much you’re interested in, then:

2. Decide what you are interested in :: What talents and passions do you bring to the table? If you have a heart for helping the poor, the needy, people immigrating to our country, head for the closest World Relief office. If you want to help learning-disabled children, go to the schools and talk to special education teachers. If you run into “privacy” issues where they cannot assign you kids then start up a Girl Scout troop and invite some of the kids you meet to join the troop. Wow, there are tons of ways to make contact with people that need your help. And the interesting thing is that once you have found one or two—you will meet all their friends (who also need help!). Most agencies are dying for volunteers that will work without expecting to be paid!

3. Include others :: Once you find an area of need that you want to help, then approach your church and ask for people to join in. Explain what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how others can help you. When people see that you are already involved, that you are enthused about helping others, and that you can clearly explain how others can help you, then you will get a response. At least I sure did!

4. Don’t expect “the church” to organize things for you :: If you are the person in the field, then you are the one who see the needs at hand. Realize that once you are walking in the shoes of the poor, you will begin to see that they are approaching problems very differently than suburban America does. And learning to accept their thought forms will be a challenge to you as much as others in your church. For example, a poor person asks you for money for new shoes for their child. Well, because you are friends with this family and have been in their home, you know that both the husband and wife chain-smoke and spend tons of money on cartons of cigarettes. You also know they have a pet, and lots of money goes for cat food, cat toys, the vet, etc. You also were shown the new games they just bought for their computer….but they have no money for their kids shoes! This is just one example of things I struggle with constantly—and the people you recruit from your church to help you will also notice this! So I’d try to organize your helpers from the church yourself. You will know what people will mesh the best with what “needy” person you are reaching out to.

5. It can be scary :: Whenever you are doing an “outward focused” ministry, you are entering territory that is not comfortable - and often not predictable. I was helping a family as they suddenly got hugely emotional and began screaming at one another! I honestly thought they were going to kill each other, or kill me! Then two weeks ago I went to pick up a van load of refugee children to take them to a children’s program at our church. I was driving down a street near the low-income housing complexes when a sharp, loud CRACK noise hit my car. The children started yelling, “Those big kids are throwing rocks at your van!!” Some of the children wanted me to stop my van so they could “punch them out.” Obviously, I kept driving. When we arrived at the church I saw the dent in the van with the paint chipped off. Luckily the rock just missed the side window. Had it hit, it could have sprayed glass all over the children. This is only a couple examples, but sometimes the fear that other church members feel is well-founded. But, I just trust that God will keep protecting me for as long as He wants me in this type of ministry.

6. Keep your time alone with God very strong :: Read and meditate on His Word for strength. That is how you get wisdom. Pray often about situations. I know that the current trend is to want to do things in community all the time. All I can say is that my greatest strength in working in outreach ministry is drawn from my personal time alone with God. Friends will often encourage you or give you worldly answers, but God gives it to me straight! God lets me know when my attitude is struggling with an old prejudice that I thought was out of my life—a friend had told me I was in the right, and the other person was wrong. But, during time alone with God, I saw that I needed God’s strength to overcome attitudes from my past.

In our American culture…everyone is so BUSY!!! (So am I!) People that work full-time just have a hard time fitting in outreach ministry, especially if you are driving children to tons of sports practices, attending games, involved in youth activities, tending to family responsibilities, etc. etc. But, I have found a core group of people in my church that ARE willing to help with outreach, if they are approached with specific duties that need to be done. Most don’t now, because they have no idea where to begin. And, they don’t have the TIME to invest in others when the needs of their own family members are crying out loudly.

However, every church needs a person to continually bring the needs of an outreach ministry before the congregation’s eyes, and reminding the church of their responsibility to help those in need. And I hope you will be the person who can bring together a plan of action that will benefit many people in your area that are in need.

Good luck!
Linda S.

To borrow the five purposes of Purpose Driven fame as a framework, many suburban church attenders experience inauthentic community, showy worship, attractional evangelism, lack of service/sacrifice, and inward focused ministry. No wonder many young followers of Jesus are expressing discontent with American, suburban churches. Those who sense the Scriptures calling us to be a faith-filled community of authentic disciples are not willing to settle for the spiritual consumerism that permeates many churches.

I empathize with this discontentment. Thus far my story is one of being raised in American, suburban churches only to purposefully distance myself from them. Ultimately I have found my place in them anew, but the motivation is completely different. The following is my journey within, away from, and back to the American, suburban church.

- I grew up in and participated in several large churches ranging from 400 to over 1500 in attendance. That was the norm for me.
- During the college years I was really challenged in what Biblical community looks like as opposed to an individualized Christianity. This sparked some of my discontent with the churches around me.
- However, if I had gone directly into full-time ministry out of school my dream would have been to go on staff at one of these larger churches.
- Instead I traveled overseas for over six months and a lot changed and shifted through that experience. Particularly the two weeks I spent in Brisbane, Australia living with and amongst a missional community called City Church.
- In this small Australian community I saw disciples living out their faith in vibrant ways, and that was the expectation. By comparison, American church seemed like a country club or a haven for spiritual consumers rather than disciples.
- The pendulum swung really far for me. I was convinced that the traditional model (Christendom model) of church was broken and new forms of church must be pursued (a la Frost and Hirsch’s The Shaping of Things to Come). I liked what I was seeing in the inner north of Brisbane; I liked it a lot!
- After continuing to read emerging/forward thinking books (Younger Evangelicals, all things McLaren, Pagitt, and others), wrestling with friends, and sorting stuff out in my own mind I started to come to some conclusions. Though I loved what I saw in Brisbane I realized it would NOT translate to the culture of millions and millions of Americans – they simply don’t live in the inner city alongside refugees, homeless, pseudo-homeless, mentally ill, etc. They live in the suburbs. I could go start a missional community in inner city Denver, Detroit, or Dallas . . . and re-create what I saw in Brisbane . . . but I’d still be leaving the majority of Americans hanging. That made me start digging deeper than just wanting to reproduce exactly what I saw in Brisbane.
- I took a risk on an idea. Maybe there were kingdom values at play that were alive and well in the Brisbane community that I was attracted to, and it wasn’t just the ‘model’. Maybe with the proper leadership holistic community, incarnational ministry, sacrifice, service, participation, team leadership, risk, hospitality, generosity, creativity, and getting hands dirty in faith could be instilled in an American suburban church to increasing degrees. Maybe discipleship could happen and it didn’t have to just stop with being attractional spiritual consumerism.
- I suppose that’s what I’m giving myself to right now. My church will never be a missional community like I saw in Brisbane. But maybe we can grow in holistic community, incarnational ministry, sacrifice, service, participation, team leadership, risk, hospitality, generosity, creativity, and getting hands dirty in faith. Maybe we can align with kingdom values and live in the way of Jesus.
- I am seeing baby steps and it’s exciting ;-)

So how have I dealt with this genuine discontent? By embracing the church as she is and partnering with God to redeem her as He sees fit. I pray that we can become a force wherever we are that calls people to costly discipleship, to dying to self and taking up a cross. We need people who are striving for the whole gospel. But I also pray that we never disengage from the church or turn our back on her or call her sick and busted like I almost did. I think nobody wins when we do that.

Things I wish someone would have told me:
Things I wish I would have listened to when someone told me:

After college . . .
(geared for ministry students heading out into the world; applicable to many more)

. . . your community life is going to disappear. I went from the pinnacle of community life my senior year of college – living with my best friends, scores of other great friends around, amazing professors to connect with – to staring out of windows as I eat my meals alone. Maybe if you get married it will be a bit better, but from what my friends are telling me that isn’t foolproof. You’re most likely never again going to have the quantity, quality, and availability of great friends that you do now. Prepare to feel lonely and disconnected from the ones you love. You’ll longingly think back on the college years. There’s hope, though. After a season of extreme loneliness, you’ll adjust your expectations and start to build new friendships. You’ll look back less and begin to cherish the meaningful relationships that you have developed.

. . . some of your friends (maybe you, too?) will lose their faith. For the most part it’s a healthy process. You’ve grown by leaps and bounds in the spiritual incubator of a Christian college, and now it’s time to stretch your legs in the real world. You’ll face adversity, trials, and plain ole disillusionment. You might begin to doubt a lot of things that you once held dear. You’ll go through a refining process of chucking what isn’t really valuable. And what you end up with will be worth living for. There will be some casualties, though. Maybe even some of your friends. People you looked at as real spiritual leaders will be selling knives for a living four years later. It could happen to you. One tip: don’t see doubt as the enemy; rather see it as a necessary part of faith. You’ll pull through.

. . . finding your dream ministry job probably isn’t going to happen. It doesn’t matter how good your grades are, who you interned with, who your professor friends are, or even how well you interview. The fact is not many people want to take a chance on a 23 year old straight out of school. If I was a senior pastor, I’m not sure I would fork over $25,000 plus benefits for a rookie when I could find someone with a little more experience. Sure, have high expectations and go after your dream. Realistically though you probably just need to find a ministry position that is relatively healthy and where you can gain some valuable experience. (I’m not 100% sure yet, but I might have found my dream job. So maybe this is just a load of crap.)

. . . financial stuff becomes increasingly important. In college everything goes on “the tab” – school loans. After college, “the tab” has gone from being your friend to being a thorn in your side. You’re tight on cash and you begin to realize what a rich life you lived during college. You must make wise choices financially or else. Your parents are out of the picture now and the buck stops with you, literally. House payment, utilities, car payment, insurance, food, etc. Gain some skills in this area and plan ahead. It’s quite possible to bank heaps of money, but only with wise lifestyle decisions.

. . . vacation time is a golden commodity. During college I had roughly five months a year to do whatever I wanted with. I could work a little, go on hikes, travel overseas, take ski trips, road trip with friends, or whatever else. Time was on my side. Once you land a ‘real’ job, you’ll be lucky to have more than two weeks a year to do what you want with! What!? From over twenty weeks a year to a measly two! That’s a shock to the system. All those dreams you had of visiting your friends on the coast, attending a certain conference, or just having some downtime are just that. Dreams. Fortunately I have three weeks off a year and I enjoy my job, but it’s still a massive mental adjustment!


The above list may appear to be depressing upon first glance. I promise I’m not trying to talk you into starting a second degree! I think some people have failed to make the mental adjustment away from college, and as a result their life has become depressing. BUT, I’ve brought these issues up for a reason. If you take them in stride they won’t be a huge hurdle. You’re already steps ahead of lots of people because you’re aware that these adjustments are on the horizon. I believe that each one of these issues has a silver lining.

- You’ll learn to appreciate the friendships you do have in ways that you just can’t now.
- You’ll grow in your faith in ways that aren’t possible now.
- You’ll land in a place of service and ministry where God can use you, rather than where you’ll be pampered.
- You’ll be thankful for the things you do have instead of buying into America’s materialistic culture.
- You’ll learn to build recreation into your regular schedule instead of always looking forward to that next adventure.

If you navigate the adjustments well, there’s no question in my mind you’ll be so glad you’re not in college anymore! It’s a great season, but there’s a lot more to life than classes, papers, late nights, and cafeteria food.