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Matthew 25:31-46 are probably the most terrifying verses in the Bible. There is only one thing that separates those who “go away to eternal punishment” and “the righteous [that go] to eternal life”… And that one thing is not what you believe, your church attendance, or how much you read your bible or pray. The only thing that matters in this scripture are your actions. Maybe what you do in life really does echo in eternity.
This Wednesday at MiniChurch, we joined with my friend, Sean, and his house church, and made sandwiches for the homeless. Everyone pitched in and we made about 80 sandwiches. Later, they were delivered to a man named John who has been feeding and preaching to the homeless in Denver for over 20 years. What a blessing to put our faith into action and bless those in need!
We hope to do this and other service projects more often in the future. If you have any ideas or know someone in need in our area, please post a comment.
My (Jaclyn’s) dad and stepmom, Rhonda, arrived in town last week for a visit. Their trip overlapped with Jamie’s, so we had a really fun time all together. We were able to go boating (thanks Bonnie & Lawrence!), hiking, and to the zoo. We also spent a lot of time playing games together–a Cox family tradition. My advice: don’t challenge Rhonda to Speed Scrabble.
We were so excited for these guys to get to see our church on Wednesday evening. It’s one thing to hear about it; but it’s another to match faces to names, to make sandwich lunches for Denver’s homeless with your own hands, and to hear firsthand the story of someone who is in the midst of joy-sapping circumstances give praise to God and receive comfort from the Body of Christ–all right there in our living room.
These guest appearances aren’t limited to family. Anytime you’re in our neck of the woods, we’d love to have you!
It seems that everyone has a favorite aunt or uncle. At the risk of offending all their other wonderful, loving aunts and uncles, I think Jamie has earned that title. Maybe it’s because she lived with us for a summer or maybe it’s because she’s got the nickname “Mimi”. But it’s probably because she is one of the most fun-loving, carefree people I know. She isn’t afraid to get down on their level and act silly or play whatever they want. She’s only been here a couple days, and they’ve already jumped on the trampoline in the sprinkler and discovered that chalk doubles as body paint.
Sorry to get all pastoral on you, but I think there’s a missionary lesson to learn from Jamie. Jesus wasn’t afraid to get down on our level and experience life in our world. In the same way, a good missionary will go out of their way to get into someone else’s life and world… simply to bless them.
What if we all did an experiment together? Try getting into someone’s life this week and blessing them… talk only about their interests, offer to help when they complain of a difficulty… get creative. Then comment about it.
This short video of Ed Stetzer hits the nail on the head. Don’t engage in ministry pornography… Do the ministry God has called YOU to where YOU are right now.
In our church plant, we’re trying to find a good balance between the normal, brick-and-mortar style of church and the “let’s have a coke and talk about football and call it church” style of church. By the way, Frank Viola just wrote a very good article about that second type, he calls it Postchurch. I have to admit, I was really leaning toward calling anything where two or more people talk about Jesus a church when I wrote this article. One of the more balanced models of church is called organic or simple church. Here’s an interesting video about it. Fair warning: it’s 45 minutes. Pray for us as we navigate these important days of forming this church plant.
(I’ll be straight with you… this post has nothing to do with our church plant or Jesus or anything else of real significance. It’s just something I think will help you in your everyday life. Enjoy the freebie!)
The other day we needed to send our tax info to a mortgage broker, so I scanned them and tried to email it. Oh no! The file is too large! Guess we’ll have to pay to fax or mail them (I hate fax machines, so I don’t have one). Then the revelation hit me… oh yeah, I have Dropbox!
Dropbox is the easiest tool I’ve seen for storing and sharing files online. It is so simple that it’s hard to believe. Once installed, you have a Dropbox folder on your computer, just like any other folder. When you place something in that folder, though, it’s not saved on your computer, it’s saved on their secure computers. You are given a Public folder that is accessible by everyone on the internet (don’t put your tax forms in there!) so you can give anyone a file of any kind. But where did we share our tax docs? In a Shared folder where only me and the person/people invited can get them. Since I already had Dropbox installed, I simply created a new Shared folder, dragged and dropped our files in there, and sent an invitation to join the Shared folder. You can watch the tour to really understand.
Dropbox is simple, easy, and a great way to share files… and it’s FREE up to 2GB! Of course you can upgrade to larger amounts of storage space, but that’s not required.
That’s all for today’s helpful tips. Please comment if you liked this tip and want more. And feel free to forward this post or link to it in your facebook or blog if you think others would benefit from Dropbox.
No, Jaclyn and I are NOT pregnant… but our MiniChurch is! (Okay, that was mean, but it did the trick. Please keep reading.)
If all our group showed up Wednesday night, cops would be called. We have so many people coming that any time the group is less than 20, it’s “small”. One of our core values is intimate relationships, and with that many folks, it’s becoming difficult to be intimately connected and encouraging to one another. In addition to that, a core strategy of ours is eating. That might sound silly to you, but we’ve noticed that Jesus spent time eating with people and that special connections are made over a meal. Dwight Robertson says, “If you like to eat, you have great ministry potential!” It’s getting increasingly difficult to manage feeding everyone… even though everyone pitches in. So… We’re pregnant.
Our church was started as a small group. It’s tough to call it a small group, because it was really just a double-date each week with our friends, Chris and Crystal. Though others would come and go, we would continue to meet faithfully each week to spur one another on toward love and good deeds and pray with one another. During those 18 months, our hearts were molded together and the Lord gave us a shared vision. That vision was amplified by reading Organic Church and realizing that everyone has pockets of people that need Jesus.
Induced labor is scheduled for Sep 13. In just a few weeks, Chris and Crystal will be opening up their home on Sunday mornings at 10am to invite their friends and neighbors to join them for church, food, and football. Now that’s a religious experience! Several of our Wednesday night folks will make the jump to their house and Jaclyn and I will be joining them as often as we can. We’re planning to have about a 6 week weening period (Okay, enough with the pregnancy analogy!) where they still come to our house Wednesday nights and we go to theirs Sunday mornings.
Next up… Greeley!?
Almost five years ago, Ryan and Sarah started dating. They were also key students in our youth group. Today, they are here visiting Colorado and hanging out with us. We’ve gone to a Rockies game, driven the tallest road in North America to the summit of Mt. Evans, hiked Mt. Bierstadt, and sent them to Beau Jo’s Pizza (unbeatable).
The main reason they’re here isn’t the mountains, though. Ryan and Sarah are here to improve their relationship for the future. Not that anything is wrong – in fact, quite the opposite – but they are committed to having a happy, healthy marriage someday. It’s been an honor and a joy to pass on what we’ve learned from 8 years of marriage. It’s been a bonus for me… I’ve been reminded that I don’t deserve the woman I have.
If you have any nuggets of relationship advice, help out Ryan and Sarah and post a comment.
Nine little girls in one place for two hours, juiced on cake and ice cream, with not one tantrum or meltdown: now that is magic!
Maybe it was the golden unicorn horn the girls searched the yard for (congratulations to Tessa for finding it). Maybe it was the pretty decorations that Ryan and Sarah put up. Maybe it was the chaotic game of “Horse, Horse, Unicorn.” Or when Marty tied on a pretty pony tail like the girls.
All of the girls seemed to really enjoy watching Raya open presents.
Wherever the magic came from, we’re glad it did, and glad that Raya had such a fun time with her friends. Check out our Flickr stream to see more photos!
Today was a big deal in the journey toward the dream God put in our hearts a year ago. A dream of a living, moving organism made up of God’s people doing God’s will. Today, we celebrated another milestone.
I sat in Starbucks tonight with a good friend. He encouraged me by pointing at all the ways God is really bringing this thing to life. We’ve got a VERY good number of people involved in our MiniChurch every Wednesday, there is intentional discipleship meetings happening each week, we’re birthing our first new MiniChurch in September, and we held our first baptism today. My friend called those “significant signs of growth” and I would agree. He said, “It feels like a grass roots thing… and that’s cool.” It’s indescribable to be a part of something that is coming to life!
