Following Jesus or Money?

Adam Gibson, the author of this post, is one of our vision team pastors and currently serves with our Two Notch church. For more information on our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

When a Job Requires a Move

Our very existence is about glorifying God. But how does that factor into how we pray through accepting a job that requires a move? What are the considerations you should make when deciding whether or not to move to a new place?

For most Americans, it’s simple. Is the move better for my career? Is there more money to be had with this move? Does the move make me more upwardly mobile? Is it a step up the career ladder? For many, the line of questioning seems to stop here.

Putting Career in its Place

For followers of Jesus, career aspirations are good things, but it becomes a problem when they become ultimate things. Far too many plan to uproot and move somewhere new in pursuit of career advancement without giving consideration to things that ought to carry even more weight.

A job is a job. A healthy church is family. Move wisely.

“As soon as we get there, our first priority will be to find a healthy church to plug into.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those words spoken by a well-meaning person on the brink of moving.

What's Most Important?

How do you know if any healthy churches exist in that area? When I say church, I don’t mean a Sunday service that you find decent enough to merit your attendance. I mean the community of people you will immerse yourself and your family into. I mean the group upon which you will rely for support, help, encouragement, and rebuke. I mean the people you will share countless meals with while raising kids together, the people your kids will befriend and be shaped by. I mean the community you will walk alongside in representing the kingdom of God in the city. Your partners in mission.

It might very well be that making a move is the wise, faithful, God-honoring thing for you to do. But if you have vetted your new job while just assuming the spiritual/church/community components will work themselves out, then your thought process is flawed. Even if you end up making the correct decision, you’ve arrived there incorrectly.

Counting the Cost

In moving somewhere new, you will be leaving behind your network of relationships you have worked to cultivate. The people you know and are known by. People who have labored alongside you. People who have gone to war with you in prayer. People you have celebrated with, wept with, mourned with. People who know the particular ways in which you need to be pointed back to Jesus and his finished work. Leaders and pastors who have earned your trust and proven worthy of retaining it.

What is the cost of leaving this behind? What is the cost for your family? Have you considered how much effort will be required to start over with a new group of people? These are things that money cannot buy. These are more valuable than money or promotion. These are the things that make life vibrant and beautiful and bearable.

By all means, if you are called by God to move somewhere to be a part of creating or strengthening a healthy community of believers, go. But if you are moving only for the financial and career benefits without giving consideration to spiritual matters, count the cost.

Because following Jesus means sometimes you don't follow the money.

Authenticity or Slothfulness?

The author of this post is Kent Bateman, who serves as one of our pastors overseeing our communication department. For more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

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A Good Thing to Hate

My generation absolutely loves authenticity. So much. We hate anything that feels fake, superficial, or phony. We love authenticity almost to the point that if we feel a hint of cheesiness or fakeness, we dismiss it immediately. We think “if it feels fake, it’s probably wrong."

Jesus would support a lot of this thinking. He calls out the Pharisees for caring more about appearances than the heart (Matthew 23:25-28). But what we probably don’t realize is where loving authenticity can go wrong.

Where Authenticity Goes Wrong

Slothfulness in the Bible is sort of a synonym for laziness (Proverbs 6:6-11, 12:24, 13:4, 19:15, 19:24, 24:30-34, 26:14-15; Ecclesiastes 10:18; etc.). It's when we simply don't care about how things are done or doing them well. I think a lot of times we wander into slothfulness in the name of being authentic.

But slothfulness is not the same thing as authenticity.

• Authenticity says “it’s not the end of the world if we mess up.” Slothfulness says “I don’t even care if we mess up." (Philippians 3:12-14)
• Authenticity says “substance matters more than style.” Slothfulness says “style doesn’t matter at all."
• Authenticity says “I can be honest about my weaknesses.” Slothfulness says “people better learn to deal with my weaknesses because I refuse to grow in them." (1 John 1:5-10)

In our relationship with Jesus:

• Authenticity says “my identity isn't in how often I read the Bible.” Slothfulness says “reading my Bible doesn’t matter at all." (John 15:7)
• Authenticity says "it's okay to not be okay." Slothfulness says "I have no interest in ever trying to be okay, because not being okay is easier." (Ephesians 4:20-24; 1 Peter 2:16)
• Authenticity says "even my weak prayer life is acceptable to God through Jesus." Slothfulness says "I will not put in effort to improve my prayer life."

Glorious, Authentic Non-Slothfulness

I love how Paul talks about authenticity and slothfulness. In Romans 12, he mentions both in the same breath:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Romans 12:9-11 ESV

What’s interesting is that in the same passage, Paul instructs us to love genuinely (or authentically), but also that we aren’t to be slothful in zeal, but instead fervent (passionate) in spirit as we serve. So there is a way to continue to be authentic without being slothful. We want to aim for authenticity in how we serve, but never for slothfulness.

Our world needs Christians that do things passionately and authentically. Professionally and genuinely. Fervently and truthfully. The gospel enables us to do both. Because Jesus gives us his righteousness, we have no need to act like someone we're not. And because the Spirit indwells us, we have no reason to stay stuck where we are. Through the cross, Jesus invites us to live a life of glorious, authentic, non-slothfulness.

Luke: The King Commissions

On Good Friday, as Jesus breathed His last and spoke the words “into Your hands I commit my spirit”, the Christian movement looked as good as dead. Jesus’ closest friends and disciples had betrayed and abandoned Him in His hour of darkest need. Most of them were hiding in cowardly fear, terrified of the possibility that they might undergo the same torture He endured. Jesus’ public ministry had gathered massive crowds with tens of thousands of adoring fans and interested spectators. Now the visionary leader was dead, the adoring fans had scattered and only a handful of terrified, confused followers were left.

And yet, two millennia later, Jesus is the most famous, loved, followed, worshipped man who has ever walked the planet.

This historical anomaly happened largely because without them fully comprehending it, Jesus was preparing His disciples for years in what they would do after He left. In Luke 8, we begin to see Jesus’ shift the focus of His time and effort on training His disciples instead of doing the work of ministry. We see Him equipping, sending out and coaching His closest, most bought-in disciples in how to spread the good news of His kingdom.

As we study these middle chapters of Luke (8-14) in the upcoming months, we will learn from Jesus Himself not only how He ministered, but how He trained regular humans like us to carry the torch when He left. In the process, we will receive invaluable encouragement and instruction in how to become the kind of people that God works through regularly.

Jesus desires to work in you.

And He desires to work through you…

…In the lives of those He’s placed you around.

Jesus equipped, trained and shaped some terrified, unskilled, unprepared disciples into the leaders of the greatest movement the world has ever seen.

And He’s still doing it.

He’s still using ordinary sinful humans who have been and are being radically changed by His grace to work in the lives of other ordinary sinful humans all around them.

We’re excited for you to join us as we study Luke 8-14 and look at how Jesus the King commissions His people.

Luke: Jesus & Suffering begins March 15

As we near the end of our What's Killing Me series Downtown and our Worthy series at Two Notch, we are preparing to resume our study of the book of Luke on March 15. Specifically, in the weeks leading up to Easter we'll be looking at the topic of suffering in Luke. We'll examine why suffering happens, the compassion of Jesus in our suffering, and the suffering in Jesus' own life.

Send us Your Questions

As always, we want this series to be as helpful as possible, and we know a lot of us have big questions when it comes to suffering. These questions may be intellectual (wrestling with the idea of why suffering happens), or personal (why specific suffering has occurred in your life and how to process it). Before and during the series, we'd love for you to send your questions about suffering to questions@midtowncolumbia.com. We'll take all these questions into consideration as we plan out the series, and maybe even have a week of live Q&A during the series.

Study with Your LifeGroup

We're also publishing pages to our Luke study binder to accompany the series. You can go ahead and grab the digital version of the pages now, and pick up the physical copy at our Gatherings beginning March 15.

Join us and Bring a Friend

This series has the potential to be immensely helpful for anyone wrestling with suffering or the idea of suffering. Don't miss a great opportunity to invite someone you're building relationship with to attend a Gathering with you from March 15-29.

Listen to Sermons

If you missed one of the sermons or want to send one to a friend, you can find the links below:

Downtown sermons

Two Notch sermons

Recommended Reading: Fiction Edition

In this series of posts, each of our pastors will be suggesting books that have been enjoyable to them on various topics. In this post, we hear from Brandon Clements, who oversees our pastoral care and Recovery. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

Reading good fiction has long been one of my most healthy outlets as a person, and there are particular books that have been incredible spiritual encouragements to me. I would argue that the books that follow fall into the category of character-driven, likely-spiritually-encouraging fiction for believers. They are not necessarily thrillers (so don't approach them looking for The Hunger Games), but rich stories that echo the heart of God in some fashion or another.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Robinson is probably my favorite novelist. Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2005 and is a moving story of an elderly preacher in rural Iowa going through his last years with his family. You probably won't read this book fast, but if you do finish it, I bet you'll enjoy it long after it is over. Robinson has a way of making words and characters sink into your bones that I am envious of.

Home by Marilynne Robinson I told you I loved her. This book is set in the same town and is a vague retelling of the prodigal son story. I think I like it even more than Gilead, if that's possible. Robinson also released another novel tied to the town of Gilead called Lila, but I haven't finished it yet.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger This book tore a whole through me when I first read it. It's a moving story of a father's love for his children, and it wraps up with one of the most beautiful and compelling metaphoric depictions of heaven I've ever seen outside of Scripture. I will never forget the end of this story.

Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor is known for dark Southern fiction with religious themes, and this novel by her certainly hits the mark. Here you will find a character (a traveling evangelist) whose reactions to his own brokenness will haunt you and challenge you to think about the ways in which you respond to the darkness inside of you. If you've never read Flannery O'Connor, be prepared for weird. But life is weird, amiright? I also have enjoyed many of her short stories that she is more widely known for.

I hope these get you started and if you check any of them out, I'd love to know what you think!

Recommended Reading: Adam Gibson

In this series of posts, each of our pastors will be suggesting two books that have been helpful to them on various topics. In this post, we hear from Adam Gibson, who is one of our lead pastors. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

Reason for God by Tim Keller Keller deals first with the main objections that Westerners have with Christianity, then builds a case for Christian belief. I have never read a more helpful book when it comes to dealing with my own doubt, as well as being helpful in answering the common questions of friends who do not know Jesus. I try to read it at least once a year to stay fresh on its content.

When the Church Was a Family by Joseph Hellerman This book gives excellent scriptural insight into how category-shifting it was for a first century person to be told that Jesus intended for his followers to operate like they were family. It changed the way I read the Bible and has been profoundly influential in our church's philosophy, operating practices, and teaching.

Recommended Reading: Kent Bateman

In this series of posts, each of our pastors will be suggesting two books that have been helpful to them on various topics. In this post, we hear from Kent Bateman, who oversees our communications. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges Often books that talk about living by grace say beautiful, theologically rich things, but fail to help us see what living by grace looks like on a day-to-day, rubber-hits-the-road basis. This book does a great job of doing both. If you're a new Christian and trying to figure out what in the world the Christian life looks like, or just always find yourself drifting towards works and legalism, this is a great book for you. It's been so helpful for me, I try to re-read it at least once a year.

Killjoys

by the Desiring God team

This one very much fits in with our

What's Killing Me

series. Each chapter tackles a different topic like pride, envy, anger, or lust. Each deadly sin is explained, helpfully diagnosed, analyzed, and then pointed back to the gospel for help fighting against it. I found the chapter on anger especially insightful. The guys at Desiring God do a great job with each one, and I think you'll find a lot of practical help fighting sin with this book. As if that weren't enough reason, it's also free in PDF, Mobi, and EPUB formats!

Recommended Reading: Brandon Clements

In this series of posts, each of our pastors will be suggesting two books that have been helpful to them on various topics. In this post, we hear from Brandon Clements, who oversees our pastoral care and Recovery. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

A Praying Life by Paul Miller I've never read a more practical, helpful, and encouraging book on prayer than Miller's A Praying Life. One of the most helpful parts for me was that he addressed a lot of the reasons we tend not to pray as Christians--one of them being the cynicism that builds up in us when our prayers aren't answered the way we hoped they would be. It is an aggressively honest and pull-no-punches kind of book that was deeply encouraging to me.

Ultimately, it is the gospel applied to our prayer lives. We don't have to perform in prayer--we are freed by the perfect righteousness of Christ to bring our messy, half-hearted, and cynical prayers to the throne of God. If you've ever struggled with prayer (which is probably all of you), you should check it out.

The Big Story

 by Justin Buzzard

One of the things that tends to get lost in the everyday humdrum of life is the fact that we are a part of the biggest and most compelling story that has ever been told--the story of God and His work to redeem all of creation. This book helps you zoom out and see your life as it is--part of this grand story of God. It helps you see everything--work, family, hobbies, church involvement--from a much bigger and more helpful perspective. Your life is not just a series of random events, but a part of this giant and redeeming tapestry of a story that God is telling.

Recommended Reading: Jay Hendricks

jay

In this series of posts, each of our pastors will be suggesting two books that have been helpful to them on various topics. In this post, we hear from Jay Hendricks, who oversees our music, Gatherings, and production. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

With by Skye Jethani

While this book may not be mind-blowing on the theological terms, it was extremely helpful for correcting my perspective on God's relationship with us. I was around Christianity my entire life, however, I had wrongly shaped my view of who God was, and my role in our relationship. Skye Jethani helps give examples of our missteps when applying the gospel to our lives, and how we view our relationship with the Lord. Specifically, Jethani presents the gospel in a what that helped me realize that my role in life is not to live life "for God" or to get life "from God" but that reality is that I get to live life "With God," and thats the prize–that's the gospel.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien Potentially my favorite fiction book to read. There is something about the characters and the storyline that connect deeply with me, and draw me in every time I pick it up again. While the author historically dislikes much of the allegory that the readers try to tie into the story, the fact remains that there are beautiful glimpses of, broken humanity, our need for salvation from evil, and the gospel story throughout. As you read, don't feel the need to tie it all in a perfect bow back to the bible. Instead join the characters on this addictive story, that I personal feel like I'm actually a character in each time.

What Makes LifeGroups Special?

adam

Adam Gibson, the author of this post, serves as one of our pastors and elders on the vision team along with Allen Tipping. For more information about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

Most church small groups and classes will have some similar elements. Things like bible study and prayer are usually central. Hopefully bible application, confession, encouragement, and loving correction will also be included. All of these are elements that we have taught and implemented since we planted our church. I would argue that Scripture explicitly instructs us to incorporate all of them into our lives as believers, and that our growth as Christians will always be stunted without them.

On top of these crucial elements there are some additional ideas that, in my experience, make our vision for LifeGroups distinct. We try to lead our groups to have a goal of cultivating a community that enjoys one another and has a view towards welcoming others into it.

The Hard Work of Enjoying Others

We want our groups to put in the hard work of learning to actually enjoy one another. Some might ask, "why not just let biblical community happen naturally? Why does there need to be a formalized system (like LifeGroups) to make it happen?" While biblical community certainly can form naturally, it's been my experience that often this leads to fairly homogenous groups. We naturally gravitate towards people who look like us, think like us, talk like us, and do life like us. If we're not careful, this can mean that we never learn to love people who differ from us at all.

It is very easy to love the idea of biblical community. It is quite another thing to love the real people who are actually around you. Every day our fragmented, individualized society teaches us that if someone is different from me then I cannot meaningfully connect with them. Many American Christians have imported this idea into their view of the church and want to only share life with people they easily get along with.

A More Difficult and More Beautiful Picture

The biblical vision for the church stands in contrast to this however, and calls us to love the unlovely, the weak, the immature, the difficult...because this is how Jesus has loved us in our weakness and immaturity. We are to bear with the failings of the weak, welcome the immature, and love the real people around us, not just love the idea of community. In Christ, we are “family-fied.” We are united by something more powerful than anything that could separate us.

A gospel community should always have a view for enjoying the flawed humans who make it up, all the while welcoming others into it. We think this is the mission of the church. And when, fueled by God's Spirit, these things begin to come together, neighborhoods and cities begin to change.

Because of this, it is our expectation that your LifeGroup will be difficult at times. Learning to love people who are different than you will feel counterintuitive, and that's because it is. After all, we serve a God who came to earth, put on human flesh, and extended grace towards people who hated him, gossiped about him and eventually conspired to kill him. This should be our standard and our inspiration for our efforts to love and pursue those different than us.

Are you new to our church family and ready to join a LifeGroup? Get signed up here.

Adam is Joining Two Notch

Adam Gibson, the author of this post, is one of our pastors and serves on our vision team together with Allen Tipping. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

From the beginning, our church has had a passion to love and serve the city of Columbia. From the suburbs to the inner city, upper class to lower class, students, professionals, and families. When we say we care about our city, we mean everyone in our city.

A few years ago we began to put the pieces in place to plant a church in the inner-city Two Notch area of downtown Columbia. In January 2014, our Two Notch church began gathering weekly on Sunday afternoons to study the bible together, pray and share what God is up to in their LifeGroups throughout the week. Two Notch's Gatherings are often followed by a neighborhood block party, as a way of getting to know people and building relationships.

No One Should Have to Pay for the Gospel

An unfortunate reality is that in church world ministry often follows money, leaving the inner-city to fend for itself. This is one of the many reasons why I am so proud of our Two Notch church. To be honest, planting a church in a low-income area of our city is a bad business decision, but it’s a beautiful kingdom decision.

To help with this process, Midtown Fellowship became "a family of churches." Two Notch and our Downtown church continue to share as many resources as possible (business operations, website, Recovery ministry, LifeGroup resources, etc.), while remaining united in our vision of being Jesus-centered family on mission. Our hope in doing this is to have a sustainable way of assisting a very under-resourced area of our city.

Why I'm Joining Two Notch

As we operate as a family of churches, we not only get to share organizational resources, but people resources as well.

With that in mind, for the next four months or so I plan to help the leadership of Two Notch in whatever ways I can. I want to assist with leadership development and getting some systems in place that will allow the church to continue its ministry even more effectively. I will still fulfill my “city-wide” responsibilities, and my family and I will remain in our current LifeGroup and attend Downtown Gatherings on Sunday mornings. However, any preaching that I do will be with Two Notch, at the request of Ant Frederick, lead pastor of our Two Notch church.

I've always been blown away at the pastors God has raised up in our church family. Because of that, I'm happy to say that I won’t be missed at all Downtown.

I'd love it if you could join with me in praying that Jesus would make this a fruitful season as I serve and lead with Two Notch, and that God would use it to help more people in inner-city communities hear the gospel.

Why We Take Time Off Over the Holidays

Kent Bateman, the author of this post, serves as one of our pastors and our communications director. For more information about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

During the holiday season, we do something that might seem strange to some people: we don't host Gatherings for two weeks (details here). This is something we've done pretty much since the beginning of our church, and since it's a little different, we thought we'd take some time to explain it in a blog post.

In the beginning, our church was mainly made up of young folks, many of whom scattered and traveled over the holidays. Because of this, taking two weeks off made a lot of sense. But as we grew as a church, the rhythm of taking off two weeks during Christmas became a really healthy rhythm for our staff and our church family. It gave all of our pastors and their families time to relax and enjoy the Christmas season, and helped people in our church not feel like they were missing out if they traveled over the holidays.

Church ≠ Sundays

In addition, we always like taking opportunities to symbolically remind people that the church is a family, not an event. Christmas and New Year's seems like a great opportunity to do just that. We also cancel Gatherings for Sundays like Super Bowl Sunday, in an effort to encourage people to go and be the church on a very easy day to be missionaries in our city.

While Sundays are important to what we do, they are not the whole of what we do. So although our churches will not gather corporately gather on December 28 and January 4, they continue to function as churches just the same.

What to Do the Next Two Sundays

Since there are no Gatherings the next two Sundays, here are a few ideas on what to do instead:

1. Host your own informal worship gathering.Christmas is a great time to lead your family in remembering Jesus together. Join with your LifeGroup or another family to craft your own Christmas-themed worship gathering. Get the kids together in a living room and talk together about who Jesus is and what he's done for us, and then sing a few Christmas songs together. If you'd like some resources to study Christmas and/or the Advent season together, there are great ones available from Verge Network, The Village Church, and Desiring God.
2. Be a missionary. Christmas is a great time to be hospitable. Almost everyone is in a partying mood, so invite some friends and/or coworkers for a Christmas party. Make it an event and play a game of White Elephant, or low key and just with some Christmas cookies in the oven and coffee on the pot. Our culture still generally slows down on Sundays, so Sundays end up being a great time to have people over without everyone feeling pressed for time.
3. Serve our city. Christmas is usually the hardest time of year for nonprofits in Columbia to find help, so contact somewhere like Transitions or Babcock Center about opportunities to serve. Usually, there's plenty of opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus by meeting practical needs alongside great organizations in our city. (Serving together as a family or LifeGroup is also a great thing to do!)

Whatever You Do, Do it Because of Jesus

No matter what you choose to do over the next two Sundays, I'd encourage you to not just do it mindlessly. If you host an informal worship gathering, remind yourself that it's because Jesus' incarnation is news worth remembering and celebrating. If you host a party for friends or co-workers, remember that the reason we welcome strangers is because Jesus welcomed us first through his humble birth and death on the cross. If you serve our city, remember that we serve others because Jesus first served us.

Every opportunity is an opportunity to remember the Jesus. So my prayer for you and your family is that you take these next two Sundays to celebrate him just as much as we would if we were all at a Gathering together. We'll see you in the new year!

We'll resume Gatherings at our Downtown and Two Notch church on Sunday, January 11. For more information about our Gathering schedule over the holidays, read this post.

Your Year-End Giving Statement

Ryan Rike, the author of this post, is one of our pastors-in-training, an alumni of our Residency Program, and currently serves as our Executive Director. To find out more about our leadership, visit our Leadership page.

We're approaching the end of the year, and we are beginning to finalize things for our end-of-year procedures. In January, pursuant to IRS rules, we will be sending out contribution reports listing each donor's tax-deductible giving records.

A Year to Celebrate

As an update, this year we have seen all-time highs with giving and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has been generous in supporting what Jesus is doing here. We have seen amazing things and Jesus has used our church family! So thank you if you have been obedient with trusting Jesus with finances and giving sacrificially.

Before we close the books on 2014, you may find it beneficial to go ahead and check your current giving statement for the year so far. Please review it and if there are any discrepancies we can look into it and clear it up. Also, it gives you the opportunity to check your records and make sure you have kept on pace with giving or if you need to catch up.

How to View Your Giving Statement

1. Go to CCB's log-in page.
2. Log in if you know this information (if you do not, click forgot password or sign up to register)
3. Once you log in: look at the right side of the screen. Your name and picture (if you have one) will be at the top. Click your name, and then click “Profile”
4. In your profile, click on the “Financial” tab
5. Under “Printable Statements” click “Giving Statement”
6. Select the date range "This Year," then underneath "Tax Deductible," select "Deductible Only."
7. Click “Create”

If you have any questions please email me at rrike@midtowncolumbia.com.

|giv| Money | Blue Skies Retreats

In April 2014, Allen and Courtney Tipping received news that their four year old daughter Zoe had a Wilms' tumor, diagnosed as Stage IV cancer. In the midst of a whirlwind of a emotions, Courtney heard about Blue Skies Retreats, a ministry serving families dealing with pediatric cancer. Allen and Courtney's experience at the camp was one of the most welcoming, hospitable, refreshing experiences they were a part of during Zoe's treatment. Blue Skies is a Jesus-centered camp that provides a hassle-free environment for families in the midst of treatment to get away and have fun together. Everything is taken care of while there, from meals to activities to laundry.

While they experienced Blue Skies Retreats, Allen and Courtney couldn't help but think of the countless families they know from the hospital clinic that would love to go to Blue Skies, but don't have the means to get there.

So as part of our |giv| series this year, we want to provide $10,000 to pay for 10+ families to travel to Blue Skies Retreats, where they can relax, be served and cared for, and hear about the good news of Jesus.

We'd love for you to partner with us as we respond to God's generosity with generosity of our own.

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Ready to |giv| with us?

[button label="Donate here" link="https://midtowncolumbia.ccbchurch.com/form_response.php?id=462" shape="default"]

|giv| Shoes | DSS Foster Care

In November 2014, Jon and Erica Ludovina adopted four kids through the Department of Social Services (DSS). Through the process, they heard about a number of needs DSS has in their efforts to care for and serve kids in and out of foster care through their organization. One of the most practical needs DSS has is properly fitting shoes for kids in DSS. Many of the kids don't have shoes, and many of them have shoes that don't fit and are painful to wear.

So this year for our |giv| series, we wanted to join together as a church family to buy 300 pairs of kid-sized shoes to donate through DSS.

givproject2

Feel free to bring shoes to any of our Gatherings on December 14 or our Christmas Gatherings at Downtown or Two Notch.

|giv| Time | Mentorship with Ezekiel Ministries

During our recent conversation about #Ferguson, Race and the Gospel, we mentioned that there is a huge need for mentorship for inner-city kids. A local ministry, Ezekiel Ministries, spends time with inner-city youth after school and has a tremendous need for volunteer mentors to spend time helping the kids with homework, and life in general. So as part of our |giv| project this year, we're wanting provide 20 mentors to commit to serving one hour per week for a minimum of one year with Ezekiel Ministries. Volunteers will be trained to spend time each week mentoring the kids and teaching them about Jesus.

givproject3

Ready to get involved?

[button label="Become a mentor" link="https://midtowncolumbia.ccbchurch.com/form_response.php?id=464" shape="default"]

Discussing Race & Racism

Adam Gibson, the author of this post, serves as one of the pastors on our vision team, as well as one of our primary teaching pastors. For more information on our leadership, visit our

Leadership page

.

Different Responses to Sunday

There might not be a more controversial topic in our country right now than racism and racial bias. Yesterday, I spent some time with Two Notch pastor Ant Frederick discussing the issues in Ferguson, race in general, and how the gospel informs our view of all those things.

Many have expressed gratitude simply for the topic being brought up and discussed. On the other hand, some in our church were offended by what was said, and I’ve already received feedback expressing such. Some are saying that we over-exaggerated the extent of racism in our country, while others said that we wimped out by not declaring the full extent of it. Ant and I knew that we would not please everyone with what we said, and with a topic like this I’m not even sure it’s possible to please everyone.

Things to Keep in Mind

As the conversation shifts into our LifeGroups now, I wanted to offer just a little bit of counsel:

• Let’s keep the conversation centered on Scripture. I’m not sure that it would be most beneficial to hash through your opinions on the media’s handling of race-based issues, what changes should be made to our police forces, etc. Below are some pertinent passages of scripture. Let’s focus our conversation on God’s word.
• Make it personal. What role does racism or racial bias play in your life? Do you have sin that needs to be repented of in this area? Don’t be quicker to point out others' sin than you are of your own. (Matthew 7:1-5) Before this is a political issue, it is a sin issue and a human issue. Don’t miss that.
• Be quicker to listen than to speak, especially if you have racial diversity in your group. Ask others about their personal experiences. Don’t assume that the America you know is the same as the one everyone else has experienced.
• If someone says something offensive, lovingly correct him or her by explaining why what they said was offensive. Don’t passively let it slide and don’t angrily attack back. Let’s learn to extend the grace extended to us by Jesus.
• Never lose sight of the fact that Jesus has made us a family. We are a new race, a new humanity, the kingdom of God on the earth. The power of the gospel to unite us is more powerful that anything that might otherwise separate us. The gospel has been overcoming racism for centuries, there is no reason to think that can’t happen still today. So whether white, black, Hispanic, Asian, police officer, activist, liberal or conservative, Jesus has made us one big crazy family. Speak and live as such.

Some Helpful Scripture

As you look to process these subjects with your LifeGroup, church family, family, and friends, please consider the following Scripture:

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick  to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger (James 1:19)

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion. (Proverbs 18:2)

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace,who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22)

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28)

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. (Psalm 10:17-18)

For this passage, just replace "sojourner" with "minority":

“You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:17-22)

“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers.  I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless,  plead the widow's cause. “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet,  they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. (Isaiah 1:12b-18)

A Seminar for the Ladies

A couple weeks ago, we hosted our Ladies Only Saturday Seminar for our Downtown and Two Notch churches. Ladies from our church family got together to celebrate Jesus and hear practical teaching on how to live a life devoted to Jesus in today's world. We had an incredible turnout, as well over 100 women came to spend time with us for our seminar. We've posted some photos of the event below:

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Our Holiday Gathering Schedule

With Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly approaching, we wanted to update you on what our Gathering schedule will look like over the next couple months:

• November 23: Baptism at the Music Farm. Both Downtown and Two Notch will join together for one city-wide Baptism Gathering at the Music Farm in the Vista. Get all the details here.
• November 30-December 14: 9:00am, 11:15am and 5:00pm Gatherings for our Downtown church (no 7:00pm Gatherings), normal 3:30pm Gatherings for our Two Notch church. Details on each church's Gatherings here.
• December 21: Downtown's Christmas Gathering at 10:00am & 5:00pm, Two Notch's Christmas Gathering at 10:30am together with CCF.
• December 28 & January 4: No Gatherings. On the weeks surrounding Christmas & New Year's, we close down our offices and don't host Gatherings to allow our staff time off to spend with their families.
• January 11: First Gatherings of the new year. Downtown at 9:00am, 11:15am and 5:00pm, Two Notch at 3:30pm. For the new year, Downtown will take a break from Luke and begin a series titled What's Killing Me, where we study things like envy, anger, and anxiety and how the gospel frees us from them. Two Notch will begin a series on worship titled Worthy. Be looking for more details on each series soon.
• January 18: All Gatherings resume. Downtown at 9:00am, 11:15am, 5:00pm and 7:00pm, Two Notch at 3:30pm. All Gathering times can be found here.

Live Q&A, Ouija Boards, & Better Answers

This post is authored by Adam Gibson. Adam serves as one of our primary teaching pastors along with Jon Ludovina and also is a part of our vision team, overseeing the overall direction of our church. For more information on our leadership, visit our

leadership page.

Live Q&A sessions are always dangerous. Especially when the topic is Satan and Demons and the answers are being recorded! Yet, like gluttons for punishment, that’s exactly what Jon and I did during four Downtown church Gatherings a couple Sundays ago. The questions were thoughtful and overall it went pretty well I think. There was one answer that I gave, however, that I would like to request a “do-over.”

During one Gathering (maybe two?) we were asked about ouija boards and how Christians should think about them. Up until that point, to be honest, that’s a question that I had not given much thought to. I know that ouija boards “work” by having felt pads that glide easily on top of a very smooth surface, giving the appearance of moving without human effort. Because of this, I stated that it would be dangerous to use a ouija as a way to connect with the spiritual realm, but that it comes down to the motivation of the user.

I was not aware, however, that the very premise of using a ouija board is to ask spirits present in the room to present themselves and make contact. After receiving some helpful feedback from people who were concerned with my answer, I now want to answer a bit differently in the hopes that no one is misled by what I previously said. To do so, I thought I would just copy and paste a very helpful email I received from a woman in our church in regards to using ouija boards:

Hi guys--

First off, I want to express how grateful I am to be a member of a church body that appropriately addresses the issue of heaven, hell, and the spiritual realm. Seeing as the Bible is explicit in acknowledging the truth of a spiritual battle, both seen and unseen, it is crucial that we, as believers, be aware of its existence and influence on our lives, and cling heartily to the truth that we can trust in Christ's victory over sin, death, and spiritual evil.

While I felt that both the sermon and written materials did a great job of illustrating both subtle and explicit spiritual warfare, I did have a serious objection to one of the topics addressed during the Q&A discussion. While you all acknowledged that ouija boards are a controversial topic, I do not agree that their admissibility lies in the motivation of the user. You both said that as long as you are appropriately in tune with the Holy Spirit that playing with a ouija board purely for entertainment purposes could be okay. I feel like this is in major conflict with how we as believers are called to interact with the spiritual realm.

The very premise of using a ouija board (even if you don't believe in its merit as a medium) is that you are asking spirits present in the room to reveal themselves and make contact. Though you were clear that their is no "grey area" in spirituality--that spirits are either holy and angelic, or evil and demonic (though they may mascaraed otherwise--2 Corinthians 11:14), any contact made could only be spiritually dark in nature.

If a message/revelation is heaven sent, God chooses the messenger and the means; it is not contingent upon our seeking it out via a medium to know God's will. As believers, we all are filled with his Holy Spirit through which he communicates, therefore any attempt to contact the spiritual realm, though it may by appearances seem as trivial as a board game, is equal to rejecting God's chosen means of revelation in exchange for some secret truth that is not of him. Because angels are obedient to God, they go where they are sent--they do not answer when we summon them. Any appearances of communication with an angel through a medium should be held in suspect, and is probably only a means of diverting the rightful worship of Jesus (i.e.--Joseph Smith's revelation by an "angel" following time spent dabbling in the occult).

Because Satan's purpose is to rob God of the glory that is rightly his, this "open invitation" allows demons to present themselves in whatever way they see most fit in order to frighten, possess or deceive. While my personal stumbling block didn't come directly from ouija boards, my seemingly benign (or at the very least neutral) contact with spirits/energies led me to begin to doubt that the Bible was telling the whole truth about the spiritual world. Because the energies I encountered very rarely showed themselves in their true form--as demons bent on thwarting God's plan, I began to believe that there must be something other than just angels and demons. For me, this led to a systematic investigation of other religions and apocryphal/gnostic gospels that in turn led me to reject Christ as the only means to gain salvation. After all--if the Bible failed to speak to something spiritual that I very clearly experienced, then how could I trust it in full?

Luckily, God reached into my life and removed the veil from my eyes, but it troubles my heart to think that we may be permitting a medium that the enemy uses as a foothold, even if we do so under innocent pretenses. Satan is a deceiver. Expecting anything good to come out of an interaction that invites his forces to speak freely is to doubt their nature as being true evil.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my concerns. Sorry it was so lengthy. Thanks for being a pastoral staff that I feel comfortable reaching out to, and for having the guts to tackle a difficult topic that is easier to just ignore.

Yep, that’s how I should’ve answered.