So last week, someone got on my case about the length of the last post. She (Manda, cough) was like, "If you want to talk about Organic Church, then blog about it. But Nomad blog is for Nomad announcements and Nomad stuff..."
Well, she has already set me up with another blog: nomadjohn.blogspot.com
So I'll try to keep my longer posts over there.
TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1) September 19th at First Church of the Naz (Downtown L.A.), we will be hosting a seminar entitled, "What Is Organic Church?" I'll be co-teaching with Darrell McLearn, an AWESOME man of God doing work for the Kingdom in Dallas, Texas. It's going to be a huge event and seats are limited. If you're curious about first century church and want to hear what Organic Church is all about, come!
Email me: jhuddle3@gmail.com
2) Organic Church University in Austin, TX. A one day seminar not enough to get your Organic Church fix? Come to the three-day seminar in Austin. Here's a link.
www.newchurchspecialities.org/Organic_Church_University
And the regular junk!
Yo!!!
Nomad! Tomorrow night! Westchester Park (Friday) at 6:00 pm for Football!!! Football ends at 7 and food is eating at 7! Then family time with each other, God's word, maybe some worship. Kids welcome, elderly welcome, disabled welcome, everyone in the city is welcome!
Bring something you'd like to share (talking about food now).
Pray for Hannah who is really sick.
Pray for all the folks at the park, that God would establish a place for us to reach out in love to all around us.
Pray.
Mark 9 - the pluck out your eye, chop off your hand stuff at the end. Violent Jesus...yeah, that's what we're talking about!
Love you all.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Meet Me At The Wrecking Ball
Had a guy ask me last week, "Sum up organic church in just one sentence."
I said, "What's your sum of church?"
He said, "Worshipping God."
I said, "An activity, cool." Then I hit him up with my one liner: "Doing what missionaries do internationally right here at home, on the domestic level."
That's a good line, I think. But it didn't "stick". So we kept talking. I hit him with some stuff about "ecclesia". Check out nomadjohn.blogspot.com for more on that, but it essentially means "the sent ones." It is a description of a people.
"Eccelsia" is the word Jesus used for "church."
"People who worship?" he asked.
"Of course," I said. "But we're more than that, I think, as a people."
That got him going, in a good way. And the conversation became very rich, very quickly because we got our focus off of Sundays at 10:30am when we sing songs and we put our focus on the ecclesia, the Kingdom of God, and once you land there you have to talk about Jesus.
Jesus says in Matthew 16 that his ecclesia will be at the gates of Hades - and it will prevail over those gates! This means that the ecclesia - the church - should never, ever be on the defense. We are always on the offense.
Now, when you think of "offensive church people"....wow, the mind boggles, doesn't it? Let's just pause there for a moment, please. A little clapboard chest banner action, anyone? Letters in blood red? Maybe a Q-Beam and a fog horn/megaphone?
Not what I mean by offensive. Isaiah puts it best, I think. Check out Isaiah 1:16-20. Here's a brief description of the passage in my own words.
God's talking. He's like,
"Wash yourself, kid, for real, and stop being nasty and smelly. Change your clothes! Don't you know I'm God and you are my child...start acting like it! Get those sins out of my sight. Yes, I said "out of my sight" and, yes, I can see everywhere, child, so, seriouslly, stop it! Stop living crazy! Give up your evil messed up playing round half-stepping ways."
"Learn to do good.
"Seek justice.
"Help the oppressed.
"Defend the cause of orphans.
"Fight for the rights of widows.
"Child, let's take care of this right now..."
Look, without God, we are lost, right? And not "darkness, broken down on the road" lost. No. We're talking total absence of light darkness, and we're slammed into a phone post with car doors, seat belts, glass and engine entwined with our vital organs "messed up", our blood on the stones "messed up", and no one anywhere who can save us. Death coming down the pike for you and for me and, well, there's no way out. Wormfood all the way, in spite of the fact we know - we know, deep inside - that there must be more to this life than this.
And speaking for myself, the life I was living....was all about me. It was "the picture" of a life that rejected God's voice. It was not about justice, helping the oppressed, orphans and widows....it was all about me.
It led me nowhere. Worse.
Jesus met me on that road, used the Jaws of Life, lifted from the wreckage of that pile the mess that once was John and He saved my sorry life. Put me back together, vein by vein and bone by bone.
But the heart was brand new, yo.
Now, we're taking the church to the people. We're trying to find the sight of the accident where the wreckage stands steaming in the street lights and bring God's love and news about His Son....there. At the wrecking ball.
That's where we want to see Nomad go.
Where the wind is blowing. Where lives are changing.
And we don't want one Nomad. We want a network, ever growing, always engaging.
Always on the offense.
Yes, we've dropped the ball. You better know that I'm growing in all this. But week after week, I see a growing awareness and passion for those who need God, who are hurting, who have been neglected by their familes, their cultures, and, sadly, their churches. Some have destroyed themselves.
We want them. We want them because God wants them. And so just like Jesus did, we're going into their neighborhoods.
Check us out Friday in Westchester Park @ 6:20 pm. This is near LAX on the corner of Lincoln and Manchester. We are on the Lincoln side of the park, playing football around 6:20ish and eating over coals at a sorry little grill by 7:00. All are welcome!!! Please bring a bit of food to share, if you can! If not, come on and eat.
Peace.
I said, "What's your sum of church?"
He said, "Worshipping God."
I said, "An activity, cool." Then I hit him up with my one liner: "Doing what missionaries do internationally right here at home, on the domestic level."
That's a good line, I think. But it didn't "stick". So we kept talking. I hit him with some stuff about "ecclesia". Check out nomadjohn.blogspot.com for more on that, but it essentially means "the sent ones." It is a description of a people.
"Eccelsia" is the word Jesus used for "church."
"People who worship?" he asked.
"Of course," I said. "But we're more than that, I think, as a people."
That got him going, in a good way. And the conversation became very rich, very quickly because we got our focus off of Sundays at 10:30am when we sing songs and we put our focus on the ecclesia, the Kingdom of God, and once you land there you have to talk about Jesus.
Jesus says in Matthew 16 that his ecclesia will be at the gates of Hades - and it will prevail over those gates! This means that the ecclesia - the church - should never, ever be on the defense. We are always on the offense.
Now, when you think of "offensive church people"....wow, the mind boggles, doesn't it? Let's just pause there for a moment, please. A little clapboard chest banner action, anyone? Letters in blood red? Maybe a Q-Beam and a fog horn/megaphone?
Not what I mean by offensive. Isaiah puts it best, I think. Check out Isaiah 1:16-20. Here's a brief description of the passage in my own words.
God's talking. He's like,
"Wash yourself, kid, for real, and stop being nasty and smelly. Change your clothes! Don't you know I'm God and you are my child...start acting like it! Get those sins out of my sight. Yes, I said "out of my sight" and, yes, I can see everywhere, child, so, seriouslly, stop it! Stop living crazy! Give up your evil messed up playing round half-stepping ways."
"Learn to do good.
"Seek justice.
"Help the oppressed.
"Defend the cause of orphans.
"Fight for the rights of widows.
"Child, let's take care of this right now..."
Look, without God, we are lost, right? And not "darkness, broken down on the road" lost. No. We're talking total absence of light darkness, and we're slammed into a phone post with car doors, seat belts, glass and engine entwined with our vital organs "messed up", our blood on the stones "messed up", and no one anywhere who can save us. Death coming down the pike for you and for me and, well, there's no way out. Wormfood all the way, in spite of the fact we know - we know, deep inside - that there must be more to this life than this.
And speaking for myself, the life I was living....was all about me. It was "the picture" of a life that rejected God's voice. It was not about justice, helping the oppressed, orphans and widows....it was all about me.
It led me nowhere. Worse.
Jesus met me on that road, used the Jaws of Life, lifted from the wreckage of that pile the mess that once was John and He saved my sorry life. Put me back together, vein by vein and bone by bone.
But the heart was brand new, yo.
Now, we're taking the church to the people. We're trying to find the sight of the accident where the wreckage stands steaming in the street lights and bring God's love and news about His Son....there. At the wrecking ball.
That's where we want to see Nomad go.
Where the wind is blowing. Where lives are changing.
And we don't want one Nomad. We want a network, ever growing, always engaging.
Always on the offense.
Yes, we've dropped the ball. You better know that I'm growing in all this. But week after week, I see a growing awareness and passion for those who need God, who are hurting, who have been neglected by their familes, their cultures, and, sadly, their churches. Some have destroyed themselves.
We want them. We want them because God wants them. And so just like Jesus did, we're going into their neighborhoods.
Check us out Friday in Westchester Park @ 6:20 pm. This is near LAX on the corner of Lincoln and Manchester. We are on the Lincoln side of the park, playing football around 6:20ish and eating over coals at a sorry little grill by 7:00. All are welcome!!! Please bring a bit of food to share, if you can! If not, come on and eat.
Peace.
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