Highlights: A Compendium on “Mission”
Looking backward over the past five years, as a church, we have put a ton of stuff out on “mission.” To give you an idea, as of now, the word “mission” itself appears in 204 posts (either sermons or blog entries). Mission has been coming up a lot recently in our study through the book of Matthew. So I thought I draw together some of the best resources on mission we have put out and make them easily accessible for everyone. Below are categorized sermons and blog entries on various aspects of mission.
How the Gospel Speaks to Financial Crisis
Nationally approximately 14.5 million people are now jobless, with 2.1 million of those people living in California alone. In the last few months I have sat down with families who have gone bankrupt, husbands who have lost their jobs, and talked with dozens of people who are struggling just to get by. The fear, pressure, humiliation, and stress of it all can be almost overwhelming. Alcohol sales are up and morale is down. How are people supposed to cope and where are they to turn for hope? What if anything does the gospel have to say about financial crisis? Read more
Sheep Not Shepherds Are For Slaughter
Sheep and shepherds are pretty foreign to our urban context here in San Diego. As far as I know there are none, too much steel and concrete instead of grazing pastures. The simple fact about sheep is that they are shepherded in order to shear their wool, extract their milk and ultimately be slaughtered. Is that why the Bible calls Christians sheep? And if so how is that good news?
You Can’t Compartmentalize the Gospel
In biology compartmentalization is the formation of cellular compartments, like the nucleus, intercisternal space, and cytosol. In computer science compartmentalization is taking abstract behavior and narrowing it down into containers of data classified according to structure. In engineering compartmentalization is the technique of separating two or more parts of a system in order to prevent malfunctions. In firefighting compartmentalization is confining smoke or fire to a single or multiple rooms for the purpose of limiting its spreading. In Psychology compartmentalization is a symptom or skill of a person who can split their personality into two different consciousnesses.
In each one of these disciplines we discover that compartmentalization has to do with identifying one particular function and confining it’s relevant boundaries. That sort of sounds mumbo jumbo, but what I’m getting at is that very few things effect everything. Most things only effect a few things and can be properly seen as having a very individual and unique function. The gospel is something different because it effects all of life.
We Are Missionaries
This is a special sermon on the vision and mission of The Resolved Church from Pastor Duane Smets. It goes through our core values as a church with John 20:21 as the guide. This sermon was originally preached May 10th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
Religion and the Good News
This topical sermon considers the nature of religion and the nature of the gospel in comparison. It looks at ancient and current religions, what the word “gospel” itself means, the similarity or universal principle of religion, the need for salvation, and the difference and suprermacy of the gospel to meet that need. This sermon was originally preached April 19th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
What is the Gospel?
Last Sunday, one of our virtual elders, Ted McCann was with us and preached a sermon titled “What is the Gospel? Ted has been an immense blessing to our church, you will be blessed to listen to him preach on this important subject. February 8th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA
The Gospel of Rock
So the cover story of Rolling Stone this week is about the band AC/DC and it titled, “The Gospel of Rock & Roll.” The article basically is about how awesome AC/DC is, how they’ve been cranking it out for 35 years and how everyone should go buy their latest album, “Black Ice.” What interested me most about the article was the use of the word “gospel” and the use of it as an adjective. What does that mean and why is it significant?
Gospel Driven Everything
Everything in the Christian life has to do with the gospel. Everything flows out of the gospel. If this is not our perspective we will lapse either into a prizing our moral achievements or pledging that anything goes. And both roads dead end with “yourself” being the all determined center and conclusion. Consider what the gospel is and how it relates to Christian behavior, whose perspiscuity shines in Romans 12:9-21.
The Gospel in an Elevator
In last Sundays sermon I talked about an elevator pitch of the gospel. The term elevator pitch comes from business entrepeneurs and the idea is you happen to be in an elevator alone with you and someone like Donald Trump, you got about sixty seconds to saw who and what you are about in hopes to win him over at least to have some sort of interest in your company. Could you do that with the gospel? Can you take someone from creation to the cross to the culmination of all things? Maybe, that’s a big task.
