Should community be a safe place?

I often hear it said that to have a healthy growing community groups ministry, the groups must be a safe place for believer and non-believer alike. And to this point I agree, that the community of God should be a place that is welcoming to all comers, hospitable and loving. and in that sense very safe.

But what are people really saying when they say they want their community to be safe?

I fear that many equate safety with comfort. Defining a safe group as one where I can be myself.not judged but excepted as I am, “judge not, lest ye be judged”.right?

Sounds great. but wait. what if “myself” is a gossip. or a liar, or ungrateful, or self worshiping. Should a Community Group be a place where I am free to be those things in a safe environment? Have we not been called to spur one another on to good deeds. to encourage and rebuke one another so that we glorify Jesus with this fleeting life? (Hebrews 3:12-14)

My wife and I experience this as we prepared to go through the HPC curriculum with another couple. We experience some trepidation as we prepared to expose ourselves in that community. Our fear was not because we did not trust or loving friends. It was because, in that community, we could guarantee discomfort from the exposure of our sin. Should we have dismissed this community because it was un-safe?

If safety is comfort then I pray our groups are never safe. To be comfortable with your sin is to be dead to the work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-9). In authentic community, I cannot hide my sin for long because, inevitably, pressure and time will expose it among a group of people who truly care and love me. In such a community, I am forced to confront, confess and repent of my sin. This is painful, unsettling, and certainly not safe by the standard of comfort. Safety is not in that I will not be challenged to live a life worthy of my calling to Christ, but it is in that it will be done in love from a brother or sister that is, or has, walked through that same fire. Ultimately, there is no safer place then in the arms of Christ, to whom this process points and draws us.

Considering the non-believer, it is unfathomable to me that we can believe it is safer to be left in a state of death and decay, dangling over the flames of hell, then to be confronted with the life-giving message of the Gospel. This is rarely a comfortable confrontation with the living the God, but how desperate is their need to be saved from the destruction they are hurtling toward. Yet we hold our tongue for comfort? Unfortunately we are often deceived that what would be safe (God) is dangerous (uncomfortable) and that which is dangerous (damnation) is safe (comfortable). (Isa. 5:20).

My encouragement to you is to embrace the danger of living in authentic community. Look forward to the work God is doing in you and through you as part of a community. Embraced discomfort for a greater joy, Sanctification.

My prayer is that groups will be a place where we encounter God, and challenge one another to glorify Him. That’s not safe. That’s community.

One of my great joys in life is thinking.  I love to think about possibilities, about problems, about people and about dreams.  I always have (close at hand) paper or a digital device to record my various thinking trips.

I was recently thinking about what it means to be content as a Christian leader.  Should I be content with where I am in the scheme of things, or should I be ambitious to do more and have greater responsibility?  Should I be content with the amount of fruit I am seeing in my work with, and for, Jesus, or should I be asking for more and higher quality fruit?

When does contentment spiral downward and become complacency, sloth or mediocrity? And when does the desire for greater responsibility degenerate into selfish ambition which Paul clearly warns against “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit (”Philippians 2:3 -NIV).  Paul seems to encourage “ambition” in I Timothy 3:1 where he says, “The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. (ESV) ”

I personally want to find a healthy balance between going for broke, experiencing everything Jesus wants for me, reaching my full potential in Jesus and doing it all for the right reasons.  I neither want to be lazy in the name of contentment or greedy in the name of aspiration.

I know that The Message Bible is not a translation but a combination of translation, paraphrase  and commentary all rolled into one.  Having said that I still very much enjoy reading it and find that it resonates with me in fresh and creative ways.

 I was recently impressed with I Timothy 6: 6-9 (The Message) “A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet that’s enough. But if it’s only money these leaders are after, they’ll self-destruct in no time.” I was captured by the phrase, “but if it’s only money these leaders are after.” I prayerfully asked myself some questions along the lines of contentment and greed. What am I really after? Is it money? Is it position? Is it popularity, respect or results?  Is it to build God’s kingdom or to build my own kingdom?  Is it to really care for other people, or to use people to care for myself? What are my true motives? What am I Really after.really?

As you see, I have lots of questions. Maybe you can furnish some answers for me and others by offering your comments.

By Pam Shavey 

You know, I love going to Starbucks for my favorite iced mocha!  I like to stroll on in and not make a scene and just get my mocha and go.

When I was pregnant with my 2nd son there was a gal Liz who worked at “my local Starbucks” (well, one of my local Starbucks) who introduced herself because she was also pregnant.  So we were both pregnant with our 2nd boys and both due within a week of each other!  Crazy, huh?  We started a friendship 3 ½ years ago and now I make a point to try to go into our local mocha shop when I know she will be working.

Conversations have not gone deep quickly but they are getting there.  I have been pondering the idea in a book, Finding Common Ground, about the lost art of sowing.  In the book, Tim Downs talks of the importance of finding common things to talk with people about - to sow into their lives.  That we need to sow before we can harvest.  That this is not a time of simple harvesting but of the hard labor of spring plowing, of backs bent from pruning, of calluses from hard work.

And so, my hard work is to go to Starbucks to get mochas :)  Yea, thanks Jesus for the treat in the midst of sowing.  The hard part is to talk with Liz in the moments we have and to keep the 3 kids occupied and to think of ways to open up possible spiritual conversations.  And, to pray she has a moment to talk.

In the last 6 months I have found out that she has been involved in Alcoholics Anonymous and that she goes to a small Lutheran church.  She has also asked for my phone number and has asked questions about Mars Hill. I feel that I am beginning to see the fruit of labor.  I pray that one day this summer we can go to a park together I have asked in the past and nothing has come to fruition.  I also pray that one day she will hear the whole gospel!

I was once told that evangelism is like a tennis game.  How?  Well, I hit the ball over to Liz with a question, idea, thought and then wait for her to hit the ball back over to me.  For instance, when I have hit the ball over to her about going to a park, she has not responded with an “oh yea, let’s go” so I have waited.  But, when she asked for my phone number I hit the ball back by giving her my number.  It causes me to check the soil, to see what God is doing in her heart and to not go out there like a hunter waiting for something to conquer.

So yesterday my husband Gary and I both had an opportunity to sow with a couple on our block.  Gary and the husband, Billy, went to the Phinney Neighborhood Summer Beer Fest; it was an opportunity to sow with Billy and to see other guys from the neighborhood.  When the guys left, Billy’s wife Jessica walked down to chat with me.  We talked for an hour on our porch!

Since then I have doubted my words, doubted most everything about our conversation but I pray the Lord would continue to build a friendship between our 2 families.  I want to ask her some more questions, begin thinking of the tennis match when I am talking with her and not just desire to talk about myself.

I pray that as I go to Starbucks and sit out on the porch that I would be able to “play tennis” in conversation with those God has put in my path.  I pray I would not give up in the hard long season of laboring in the fields.waiting for the harvest.

By Mike O’Dea, Mars Hill Theology Response Team

One of the first verses that I learned when I first became a Christian almost 30 years ago was Hebrews 10:25 which tells us not to “….forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some…..”  I always thought that meant to go to church on Sunday.  Maybe that is because I grew up as a Catholic and not going to church was a mortal sin and if I died with that sin on my soul I would go to Hell, according to the nuns.

When I became “born again” I soon realized that Jesus paid a torturous death on the cross for me and I am forgiven for all my sins, past, present, and future.  I also started going to church on Sunday because I wanted to, not because I had to.  So I did not give much more thought to the issue of assembling.

Praise God that He providentially sent me to Mars Hill in December of 2004. He also providentially sent me into a community group in a short time.  (I will share that experience of being 63 years old among 25 twenty to thirty year olds at a later date.)  Anyway, before long I saw the importance of the assembling of believers for more than just Sunday worship.  In two plus years of attending, leading and/or hosting community groups I have witnessed tremendous spiritual growth among God’s people.  No doubt conviction, confession, change and covenant can come from other than community groups, but I am convinced (another “c” word) that it is the most efficient and God directed way.

That has been confirmed recently as we have seen and heard from pastor Mark’s preaching through the book of Nehemiah.  Look how the Hebrews, when they came together in community to hear God’s Word; they proceeded to be convicted to the point of confessing, changing, and covenanting with God to (1) obey Scripture, (2) lead their families, (3) worship God and (4) to give generously.  

In those two years I have seen people draw close to Jesus and to one another.  I have seen people really buy into the mission of reaching Seattle for Jesus.  I have seen people get saved.  I have seen many changed lives.  I have even seen three of our people mature and grow to become full time employees at Mars Hill.  I have seen two pairs of godly people meet and become active members and get married.  And, I have seen almost all those community group folks become members and give of their time and money (most of them don’t have much) to the church or to the needy in our number. 

Since most of them are 1/2 my age or less, I consider them to be my kids.  Therefore my favorite verse applies:  “I have no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in the truth.”  (3 John 1:4)  Thank you Jesus for the Mars Hill Community Groups and our elders that minister to them.  Amen.

By Mark Bergin

For the past few years, several Mars Hill members namely Alex Kim, Kristian Ellefsen and me have made regular trips to Pioneer Square to fill the pulpit at the Bread of Life Mission’s nightly chapel service. We have opened the scriptures and preached the gospel to an audience of homeless and often substance-abusing men. Some of those men have since met Jesus and become members of our church and fixtures in our community.

But many others remain unchanged, some passionately resistant to repentance, others simply callous to a message they’ve heard hundreds of times before. Tragically, a third segment of this unregenerate contingent struggles to separate truth from the twisted theological perversions of misguided teachers and preachers. Frequently after delivering a sermon, I am approached with challenges to the plain reading of scripture. These alternate interpretations typically align with the prevailing evangelical heresies of our day self-esteem, health and wealth, open theism.

Where is Seattle’s most hope-starved population hearing this junk? From myriad pastors and church leaders more enamored with the man-centered cultural orthodoxy of our day than the timeless and God-centered word of life. The solution, of course, is more Bible-teaching, Jesus-exalting churches and by extension more Bible-teaching, Jesus-exalting preachers.

So I write this post as both an admonition and an invitation to any God-fearing man at Mars Hill who’s ever watched Pastor Mark on a given Sunday and secretly wondered, “Could I do that?” Here’s your chance: Both the Bread of Life Mission and the Union Gospel Mission open their pulpits daily for teams of industrious evangelical church folk to sign up and run a service. Between our 100-plus community group leaders and countless more apprentices and Bible-loving dudes, I figure we could flood those slots with gospel preachers and crowd out any pretenders.

I’m looking to coordinate a regular circuit of preachers who will learn from watching each other, read books together on preaching and ultimately see more hope-starved men redeemed by our great King. If you’re interested, shoot me an email at mjbergin52@msn.com. I’d also love to hear from any musicians willing and able to lead in song.

Who knows where this might lead, what gifts you might discover, what vision you might catch. I happen to know of a large and rapidly expanding Seattle church always on the lookout for future campus pastors and church planters. Maybe that’s you.