One of those mind blowing days.

Wednesdays are the busy days for me. I have class from 9:30 - 12:30, then an hour for lunch, then class from 1:30 - 4:30, then supper, then over to Concordia for 3 hours of class starting at 6:00. I have started to disregard this fact because my best classes are on Wednesdays. Today I learned some things I will not forget.

First of all, in Principles of Urban Ministry with Rev. Dr. Paul Mueller, we are visiting different non-profit organizations to observe their facilities and learn about their work. Today we visited RS Eden House, an addiction treatment center located a few blocks from my house. 45 guys who have addictions come to the building to change their lives. That may not be their intention when they move in, but as 10 guys told us, they are grateful for the change they have experienced at Eden House. They are all responsible for running the place (cleaning, food, look out for the other brothers) and they can be in for a couple months. When we sat in the circle, all of these guys spoke with genuine excitement and hope about how the program has changed their lives. They have come from broken homes and they struggle with addictions to alcohol, heroin, crack, marijuana, and other drugs. One guy said that he isn't going to be the kind of father that his dad was to him. That was the thing I remember most about listening to those guys. And they all seemed to express high interest in learning about God. It seems like many of them sense a higher power in life, but don't know much about who He is. Those 10 guys probably aren't the only ones that think about that.

I'll maybe write about what I learned in Demographics and Research Method later. I really want to talk about the class discussion in Cross-Cultural Outreach, my night class at Concordia.

On the discussion board online, we responded to a question about the book we just read, Eternity in Their Hearts, by Don Richardson. He writes about his experience in observing how folk religions have had a concept of the Creator God and have often waited hundreds of generations to hear the fulfillment of God's Word, the Gospel of Christ. He says that God prepares the Gospel of Christ for people and He prepares people for the Gospel of Christ. So we responded to this and Justin Downs brought up a good point that folk cultures are different than Western culture. In the midst of this elementary difference, he did agree that everyone has in them, the "imprint" of God. Anyways, when we were talking about how to properly demonstrate Law and Gospel to people, Justin declared that Christians have forgotten how to "BE" the Gospel. We can do a good job of preaching and evangelizing, but we limit the Gospel from being in every part of our lives. Justin pointed out that people in cults do wacko things because they are drawn to participate in close community. It reminds me of Jesus' command, "Love one another. By doing this, people will see that you are my disciples if you love one another."

We don't truly know how to live in community with other Christians. If we did, church wouldn't be a once a week event for many Christians. We do a poor job of communicating the Christian life to unreached people if we are allowed to do our own thing. I think the Church in the West has backed down from facing the threat of individualism. Being the Christian community would be highly uncomfortable and unthinkable for most Christians, but it is something that would radically change the witness of the Church in the world because people would see Christians have joy in gathering together in Jesus' name. Not only does it strengthen the brotherhood, but through it God draws hurting people into a body of believers who care for them.

The eight of us in the classroom had the light bulbs turned on as we tied together the necessity of community in sharing the Good News of Jesus. When I was asked if I sense this kind of community in the U4C house, I had to be honest. I said that I wish that I could say yes, but I have been desiring this Christian community where I could be deeply strengthened and challenged in my faith. In the house here, I do not feel that I can trust the others. I'm not being real with them, and they are not being real with me. Little things annoy me, but I don't know if people would care if I said how I feel. I admitted to my classmates outloud that I don't have that sense of Christian community in my house. It feels weird. Now, I can't write my housemates as being stone cold, because to some extent we are living in community. But to me, it doesn't satisfy me. Tomorrow morning I meet with the other two guys for the weekly accountability meeting. You know, it takes much more than one question a week to help you to overcome a habit. As Justin said, if he were living all the time with a bunch of people who didn't smoke, it would probably influence him to finally quit smoking. So, something is missing here. I am thankful that God has shown me this.

Now the question is, how do we recapture it? How do we "BE" the Gospel with each other? I'm not sure. I am kind of nervous about BEING the Gospel in this house because it seems to be a non-issue. But you know what, it is a non-issue in families, churches, and denominations all across the globe. If the Church ponders this question it will challenge the strong hold that Satan has had on the body of Christ in this nation. I think the answer is found in Scripture in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I will ask of the Lord, not only in this trial but in others, lead me to the next step.

In Jesus' Name,
Carl