Mpact Student Ministry's ONE BIG PARTY

I am proud to work alongside a great team of pastors. Joseph Kellogg, the student pastor at The Assembly at Broken Arrow, just had a huge event called ONE BIG PARTY. Illusionist Jim Munroe, aka MAZE, presented the gospel in one of the most innovative ways I have ever seen. Read Jim's own comments about the event below from his blog:

October 23, 2008
Broken Arrow, OK Outreach - 800 Students
I’ve just returned from Broken Arrow, OK…. a suburb of Tulsa. The Assembly Church invited us out to share our magic and the gospel at an annual event they call, “One Big Party.” Pastor Joe Kellogg, aka Big Phat Stud, coordinated an amazing event.
We started off, earlier in the day, at Broken Arrow High School, the largest senior high school in the state of Oklahoma. During three lunch periods, we performed crazy effects that gained a ton of publicity. Lots of jaws were dropping from the close-up magic, and several students made decisions to come to the event later that evening right there at the school.
At the event, later that evening, I was pumped to include Mr. Brad Fogarty on stage as the newest member of the MAZE troupe. He performed and shared the gospel powerfully. The result…. 60 students became Christians!
It was an amazing event. Next up…. ROUND ROCK TEXAS. Right near Austin, TX. HOME TO THE GREATEST SCHOOL IN THE UNIVERSE…. the LONGHORNS! Sorry Broken Arrow, OK… had to say that!2 hours ago

Love is being "Intentionally Unintentional"

While on vacation this week, I took advantage of not having timelines and pressures of the regular work-week-cycle. On one of those days, I sat and watched people going about their lives consuming products at a popluar outlet mall in the area. As I sat there I had no desire to consume anything, I was there to watch my baby girl as my wife visited with an old friend. It was refreshing to know that she was not going to spend money on low pirced items that we probably would never use anyway.

Nevertheless, as I observed people that day one couple caught my eye. This couple came out of a store smiling and laughing and I could tell that they were having a great time. You might say, so what I would be happy to if I was off vacationing somewhere with my family. But I am talking about the happiness that comes from really enjoying each other. Yet, the other thing that caught my eye was the way this twentysomethings couple was dressed. Why? Because clothing speaks volumes about who a person is or at least who they are trying to be...

The girl was dressed in the typical middle, to upper middle class, style. In other words, she was Hollister, Gap, or fill in any other hip (for now) clothing chain. Her hairsyle and dress code said that she was more than likely from a family that is doing well, lives in a suberb, more than likely she is in college or just graduated, and plans on having the American dream as her dream for life. So you are probably assuming already that the guy is dressed the same or maybe he is a jock that has won over the cheerleader. You would be dead wrong.

The twentysomething guy had long hair, part of which was hidden under a wornout beret. His shirt was one of those that has a hilarious, but tacky, phrase like, "Your village called and they are looking for their idiot." His shorts were tattered, fraid camouflage and his sandels dated back to the time of Jesus. He looked like a Bohemian who would fit right in at a local coffee dive quoting creative poetry.

And these two were walking hand-in-hand, laughing and simply enjoying life together. Two unlikely people from two different cultures living in community together. This made me think of the church and the major issues she faces today. Can our church welcome the Western-minded consumer and the emerging-postmodern person? I thought on that for a few days and decided that the church can do it, but the church must be "intentionally unintentional" in doing so.

Being intentionally unintentional means that we are intentional in reaching the sub-cultures in our communities and ministry contexts. But we do it in a way that is unintentional. That is to say that we do it out of love not duty. In his new book (Reverse Mentoring), Earl Creps explains that this generation can see right through someone doing something out of duty as opposed to doing it out of love. It is not our duty to save people; that's God place. God has to so saturate our lives with his love that we live out and speak out biblical truth through love.

Paul explains to the church that we need to, "speak the truth in love, being grown up in all aspects of Jesus Chirst." (Ephesians 4:15). He later explains in 1 Corinthians 13 that without love anyhting we do is like the clanging of symbols...its a bunch of noise! So we must ask ourselves continually, "Are we making Jesus Chirst known to people out of duty to our churches or pastors or are we doing it because the love of God is so rich and full in our lives that we are compelled out of the love God has for redeeming His beautiful creation?"

Love brought those two together, and love can bring people to the saving knowledge of a God who misses his prodigal children. Not programs, or lights, or videos. It takes a true love that only comes from those connected to God through Jesus Christ. Are you loving in a way that is intentionally unintentional?

I will post more of my thoughts on this througout the next week or so, but I am more curious about what those reading the blog think about this topic. Until then think on this:

"Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (Colossians 4:5-6)