Conduit April 27 - Faith That Works

American Churches have spent literally hundreds of millions of dollars in the past 20 years in a sort of “culture war” to save our kids. We’ve created amazing facilities with video games, basketball courts, multi media, etc. It was almost as if mega church pastors got into a sort of contest to see who could build the biggest most expensive facility to “reach” the youth culture. I believe that this comes from a good place in the hearts of our elders and don’t pretend to know whether or not it’s proper. I’ve been at this long enough to learn that God will work all that out.

(In fairness I just left Willowcreek and their “youth room” was the former main auditorium for the church. The youth room was a 2500ish capacity state of the art facility that most mega church pastors would give an appendage for. They spent the week on a rice and beans diet at Willowcreek working up to an offering from the money they would’ve spent on normal food for building fresh water wells in Africa. I don't intend to lump everyone into one bucket with generalizations)

I just think it’s worth asking; how’s that working out for you? A few decades of event driven ministry, how’s that working out? If Barna is right and over 80% of our kids are walking away from the Lord after graduating High School, I might suggest we have a hole in the boat. The biggest brightest facilities in the country are of no use if we’re not utilizing them for biblically based works. What do I mean?

In James 2 we're told that if we don’t have works to go along with our faith then our faith is dead. He says in verse 14 if someone claims to have faith and has no deeds can such a faith save him? He then goes on to give an example of seeing a brother or sister with no food or clothes and what our response is to that person. He then gives that quintessential statement, that “faith without works is dead”.
Theologians will debate whether it’s faith or works.

I think the best answer is: it’s faith that works.

Right there in James is an emphasis on works, and works defined by serving a brother or sister without food or clothing. When I cross reference those works with the works that I spent most of my life engaged in I find myself seriously lacking. It’s a great lesson for you and me personally as well as a great basis for how to raise our children in this culture defined by indulgence and self.

Does building a multimillion dollar facility to “compete with the world” (a literal quote from a pastor who built a facility like this) actually just validate the system that we’re trying to rescue them from? In America it takes a multi million dollar facility with the latest and best in multi media technology to get a students attention. In Haiti (where I’m going in 5 days) it takes a bowl of rice.

I wonder if those resources could be better diverted to resourcing an army of students to the “works” that James writes about. I dare say that if we were gathering students together for the purpose of serving others instead of them selves it might cause a monumental shift in the youth culture; and thus the culture as a whole.

I’m part of a movement like this in my home church. (www.journeyfranklin.com)
When we recently figured out that we were completely packed out in attendance we had the normal questions of whether or not we should do multiple services. An email sent from someone in the church suggested we might be asking the wrong question. The subject line said: “more services or more service?”

For the past 5 months, every Sunday there is a gathering of 5-10 of our small groups who gather together and head out into the community to serve our brothers and sisters. We have painted schools, repaired homes for single mothers, cleaned up the garbage at a local housing project, and gather food for a local food ministry called Grace Works. We do this on a Sunday morning. We’re literally asking 50-100 folks to NOT come to church each week.

We don’t have a multi million dollar facility for the students, heck we don’t have any facility for the teens but we’re doing the “works” that James writes about under the influence of the Holy Spirit. It’s not a spectator type atmosphere, but then again, was it ever meant to be?

So far my kids have stood side by side with Shannon and I as we’ve picked up unmentionable (even by me) garbage from the back of a public housing project where a single mom was raising her children. We’ve gone door to door inviting folks to donate food to Grace Works. We’ve sorted that food. To put it simply we’ve done “works”.

I knew that it was connecting this morning when the kids asked me on the way to church; “daddy do we get to serve today?” They were genuinely bummed when the answer was no. Not today. It occurred to me that we invite folks into the Kingdom by saying “all you gotta do” in reference to a prayer that doesn’t even exist in scripture. Maybe the invitation instead is “all you get to do”.

lemonAID

I strongly believe that faith that works has to start at home; in our personal lives, in our families. I must not outsource my personal responsibilities to church leadership. Pastors and youth pastors are integral parts of our lives but as the priest of my home, it is absolutely my responsibility to lead in these areas. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord kind of thing.

One idea to join this movement is the lemonAID coming up in May. We’re planning to do ours on Memorial day, but it’s perfectly OK if you feel like you should do yours on another day due to travel plans or other conflicts in the schedule.

The idea is simple. Set up a lemonade stand in your neighborhood and donate all the proceeds to Conduit Mission. We’ll put the money to immediate use in Haiti, Africa and right here in Middle Tennessee at Place of Hope (www.placeofhope.us) I know I say this all the time but we give away over 96% of the money that comes in. The majority of that 4% that we spend is actually credit card/ paypal fees that we pay on donations that come in.

If you’re looking for a teachable moment with your kids, something to do with your youth group, something for you and the roommates, the band, or whatever I think this is a perfectly simple way to make an impact immediately.

For every .50 glass of lemonade it could feed a kid in Haiti for a day. Not a bad way to spend a few hours. I’ve had a few responses from folks who plan to join us, if you are for sure wanting to do this, please contact me at dtyler@platformmanagement.com or on my facebook. We’re going to put together a list of everyone participating.

We’ve got some collateral materials being put together for you to use at your stand. If anyone has any killer recipes for lemonade send those on too. Madi has suggested adding cookies to the stand and we’re planning on doing that as well.
All money raised will go immediately to work clothing and feeding our brothers and sisters in need. Conduit Mission is a 501C3 and all donations are 100% tax deductible. I hope you’ll pray about it, and hope you’ll join us.

See you tomorrow.

Darren
www.darrentyler.com
www.conduitmission.org

We’re back for Conduit tomorrow night at Journey Church in Building 8 in the Factory. We’ll be meeting at 7:30pm. We’ll start our conversation about the law. Could you recite the 10 commandments? Do you think you even should? Have you tried to go for a period of time and not break any of them? How’d that work out? I’m good on the not murdering or adulterating. I’m sucking on coveting, the Sabbath, and idolatry.