By Tim Zion 

I recently was at a friend’s church. As we left the parking lot there was a sign that read, “You are now entering the mission field.” My mind took that simple sign I had seen countless times and ran with it. Where is the mission field? Is it really only outside the church? If the mission field is only “out there”, what does that say about me? Well, I am the one driving by the sign so that must mean that I am not part of the mission field. It’s those other people I meet outside the church who REALLY need Jesus.

Even as I write this, I laugh at myself. Not because I am so funny, but because these thoughts are real. Somewhere in my sinful heart I actually believed this. I actually had those thoughts; poor sinners out there in the world who need Jesus. How ridiculous is that? I am sure as you are reading this blog you are thinking, man I’m glad I don’t think like that. But how often are we like that? How often do we think the sin outside of us is way worse then the sin inside of us? Most the time we are like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 thanking God we aren’t like everyone else.

Truth is we are. The difference is we don’t have to be. We are free in Christ. If every Sunday you hear the word, are convicted of sin, yet find yourself repeating the same sins over and over through out the week. You need help. We all need help. We need to be in a community of believers who love each other enough to call us on our sin, yet humble enough to know they are no better. That is what community groups are all about. It’s where you can give support to others and receive it yourself.

So, is the mission field only outside the church? Oh no! There is a whole different kind right here inside the body. My own heart is the biggest. I find that the hardest thing about being a Christian is actually having to care about others. I mean, really care. Phone calls late at night, uncomfortable conversations, disrupting “your” life care. That is what we are called to. That is what should be happening in our community groups. If you aren’t involved in a community group, get involved. If you are, welcome to ministry. It’s not for people who have it all together or those with all the answers. It’s for those who are willing to humbly come along side others, help them transform and be transformed. All by the grace of God, for his glory alone.

As a reminder, I think at every community group we should have a sign that says “You are now entering the mission field.” But, if no one else thinks that’s a good idea. I guess changed lives will work too.

I don’t speak Latin. I chickened out in high school and took Spanish when the high brows took Latin or French. But I do know that a lot of our English words have Latin roots and I want to share two of those words with you.

Humus
Hubris 

The words human and humble share a common Latin origin, the word humus.  The word literally means earth.  Can I stay down to earth; in touch with the ordinary, the every day.

The word hubris means pride. My old friend Merriam Webster calls it exaggerated pride.  Paul in Romans 12:3 warns us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.  It’s a matter of not being full of yourself; your ideas, your opinions, your preferences, your.whatever.  A person wrapped up in himself/herself makes a very small package. If there was one thing that inflamed Jesus it was the flagrant pride of religious people; especially religious leaders-self-righteous leaders.  The kind that pray, I thank you I’m not like other men, meaning I am better than other men; I am especially not like that bum of a tax collector over there who is asking You to be merciful to him.

Hubris is often the cause of a leader’s downfall.  It is not sexual sin or financial miss-appropriation of funds (two biggies) but hubris that leads to the sexual and financial decisions.

“God opposes the hubris and gives grace to the humus. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” 1st Peter 5:5-6 I am not saying that the Greek (another language I don’t speak) uses the word hubris and humus in these verses, but the concept is inherent in the language.

Since this is a blog, and not supposed to be a full blown dissertation on the subject, I’m not going to thoroughly research this  or blather on but just get the ball in the air and  hopefully kick off a discussion.  Here’s my conclusion: an abundance of Hubris and a lack of Humus is the Achilles heal of most leadership falls.  It’s what caused Lucifer to fall from heaven and has tripped up thousands, if not millions of leaders through the ages.

I have four things I pray for myself every single day and Pride is one the four. I’m asking Jesus to keep me humble and dependent, since everything I have, everything I know, everything I can do and everything I am by way of gifting and capacity are sheer gifts from God.

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. aFor in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 9:23-24 (ESV)

So, what do I have to be proud of? Nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ!

By Pam Shavey 

A year and a half ago we moved to a house in the Ballard area.  After having lived in the U-District, I wasn’t sure what to expect and how high to hope in regards to neighbors.  I have been pleasantly surprised. 
Now anyone who knows me, knows how much I love being outside but I have come to really enjoy being outside and looking for our neighbors and seeing which ones I will be able to talk with each day.  I am enjoying seeing whom the Lord brings across our path each day. 

For example, one day recently I was in the front yard gardening and 2 of the neighborhood kids stopped by to chat for about 15 minutes.  A 10-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl.  My 3 boys were napping so there wasn’t much exciting going on but they Hunter and Jenna - just wanted to talk.

Another day, I was outside with our 3 boys Luke (4), Chase (3), and Quinn (11 months) and our neighbor Chris, 13, and some other neighborhood kids stopped by to play in our driveway.  Seemingly out of the blue Chris said, “I decided to get baptized.  I am not sure what the priest will say though because I am an atheist.”  WHAT?  What was that I just heard?

Side bar - A few years back I read a book titled, “Finding Common Ground,” by Tim Downs.  The premise of the book is, “how to communicate with those outside the Christian community while we still can.”  At different points the past few years I have chewed and wrestled with different thoughts from this book. 

Now back to all the activity going on in our yard, as I have been chewing on an idea from the book about love and justice needing to be in proper balance, Tim Downs speaks of love asking the question, “what does this person most need from me right now.”  Then about justice he asks the question, “What does God expect of me in this situation?  What ought I do or say?”  So, how can I have love and justice in proper balance as I garden and watch my boys play?

I haven’t figured it all out but I feel I got a little glimpse of things a week ago.  I have been thinking about what is different at our house than at their houses what specific things.  It seems to me that the love aspect is showing them what is different in our house; to really love them, to listen to them, to be a sort of older sister I suppose.  The justice has come more from my husband as he has seen the kids speaking in inappropriate language or the boys not treating the girls respectfully; Gary has been able to speak kindly and address the issue while he is playing catch with the boys.

And then again the other day I found myself outside around 7pm with Gary, my boys and 6 other kids (riding bicycles, scooters, and roller blades).  We usually go inside by 7:30 to get ready for bed but I knew we had to make the most of the opportunity to love our neighbors! 

Zoe (7), Adler (10) and Chris (13) were all rollerblading so I pulled out my rollerblades (that I haven’t been on in 4 years!!) and started going in circles around our driveway with them.  It was awesome!!  They wanted me to keep going and going with them and Zoe wanted me to hold her hand the whole time.  Luke and Chase rode razors around that they had borrowed from Adler and all the kids stopped by to talk with Quinn.  Gary played catch with the boys.

I struggled with what to say to them but the Lord was gracious in helping me to think of conversations and to break out of my awkward feelings! We talked about ice cream flavors, what we like best about summer and band-aids (as I also ended up cleaning 2 cuts and put band-aids on them both!)

I want to share Christ with Zoe, Jenna, Adler, Chris and all the rest of them!  I want my boys to watch us interact with our neighbors and for them to love on our neighbors.  I don’t know all the answers but I pray that God would continue to help me chew on the principles from “Finding Common Ground” and on principles from His word.

I look forward to telling you more about this journey the Lord is taking me on next month.

By Mike O’Dea

Becoming practitioners of Galatians 6:10 can become a fun and godly habit for community groups.  We can get so caught up in our routines that we forget to “…do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

In the past year our group has tried to break the routine occasionally in order to “do good”.  There are needs all around us but we found it in our own group with a lady that lives in expensive Seattle and survives on just “Disability” income.  In the past 10 months we have had a garage sale, two Texas Hold’em tournaments, and a car wash.  We raised $420.00 to help pay some bills for her, and we raised $868.00 and we bought her a brand new Dell computer with lots of bells and whistles. We also participated in the “Adopt a Family” project last December. We teamed with two other community groups to raise over $1400.00 for a needy family.

Just monitoring our Member’s website can generate ideas to find ways to help folks.  We have several Mars Hill people serving in the military and names and addresses can be found on the site.  Frequently, people ask for help in moving, or fixing a plumbing leak, or a ride to the airport. Maybe a person from your group could be assigned to scan the Members site on a regular basis.  Maybe, just meeting together on a Saturday morning to pick up trash around your church campus.  Disabled member Randy Chrisman needs a few members to step up and help him with his work out routine a couple times per month.  And on, and on.  God will bless!

At the Transformation Series conference about three weeks ago Paul Trip did some work out Hebrews chapter 10 that I have been noodling on since that weekend.

[(nōōd'ling) to contemplate, meditate, think about.]

The concept is not new, and most of us are quick to pay it lip service.

The concept: Christianity is meant to be lived out in community.

Ground breaking I know. Probably not the first time you’ve heard this proposition, but have you ever noodled on it?

We are created in the image of the Trinitarian God who exist in community. “Yes, yes” we nod our heads in agreement. yet few of us willing seek out encouraging, rebuking, exciting, fun, painfully authentic community in our church. I am convinced that the majority of Christian hear this proposition say that you could, may, might benefit from, living out your faith in community. The reality however is that this is not a suggestion. There is an expectation in this text that we live in community (Heb. 10:22-25). In fact, verse 25 is a rebuke to those that think they don’t need to be apart of it. As Mr. Tripp indicated, this is not a call to attend a church service, but to live life together in a meaningful way that exposes our sins, encourages us in faith and draws us closer to Christ.

As I sat in my office this week I was posed the all too familiar question: Why do you think people avoid community? If I had a nickel .

Just to give you background, we currently have approximately 1/3 of our Sunday attendees in Community Groups including ½ of our members.* Respectable numbers by church statistical standards, but far from the expectation of Scripture and to what I believe God is calling us. *This does not include other legitimate forms of community.

So why DO people avoid community?

One reason, and I believe the most significant, is that in authentic community our sin is exposed. We can keep up appearances at work, a family function, or a barbecue. but if we are in a community of believers who take scriptures like Hebrews 3:13 seriously, we cannot hide for long. We all sin, and as John 3:20 outs us, we “will not come into the light for fear that [our] deeds will be exposed.” We fear light like a 32 year old actress fears HDTV. In reality, however, it is this exposure that gives us life. “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5-7)

Unfortunately too many of us have believed the lie that darkness is better then light. In the deepest parts of our regenerate hearts we want communion with God and fellowship with each other… but we have been deceived by the promise of comfort that does not bring peace. My challenge is to live in the light believing the promise of my faithful God that the shame of being exposed will be worth the joy of glorifying Jesus.

So let us live life together, willing to be pruned by God through His Word and His people for the purpose of glorifying Jesus… and don’t forget to bring your sunglasses.

By Mark Bergin

Maybe all those contemporary praise and worship songs calling for revival to rain down are onto something more than just catchy choruses. Maybe they’ve tapped into the next new rage in missional strategy. After all, sunshine is no friend to religion. Church attendance dips as summer temperatures rise and Mars Hill is not immune from that inescapable law of American ecclesiology.

Community groups feel the squeeze on a smaller scale. By June, family vacations, summer concerts and double-shot margaritas have often trumped Bible study, leaving some leaders to facilitate discussion in a group the size of a beach volleyball team though usually better dressed.

So it is that many leaders choose to cancel regular meetings for the summer, opting instead for the occasional community group barbeque or sending their people to one of Mars Hill’s weekly outdoor parties scattered throughout the city. That plan seems agreeable enough, but what about sin? People still do that when it’s warm, right? How are leaders to shepherd their mini-flocks apart from regular contact and group prayer?

Here’s a thought: Use that weeknight usually devoted to community group to invite one family or individual over for dinner. Then poke and prod into their lives until you find some junk, smack them in the face with the gospel a few times and send them home with a summer assignment all in humility and love, of course.

Just because community groups are taking the summer off doesn’t mean Christians get to. It’s grow time. And if you’re people resist, pray for rain.