a drop of water

Series: Building a Community that Loves the World
Multi-generational Church - A Message from 2 Kings 2
Sermon by Joe Lee @ Coast Vineyard on November 2nd, 2008

The multi-generational church MUST be a place of mutual blessing (deep love and respect)
1. It blesses the next generation to lead. (2 Kings 2:7-14)
Q: Do you feel released to follow Jesus without reservation?
2. It restores the lost dreams of the past.
Q: What are the dreams that you need to be restored? (1 Kings 19:1-5)
3. It brings healing into the world.
Q: What are the places of healing that God wants to lead us into? (2 Kings 2:19-22)

Joe Lee, an IV staffer at UCSD, delivered a beautiful and life giving sermon this past week on the aspects of a multi-generational church.  He gave three points and paired them each with a response question.  His first point was an encouragement for the older generation use their authority and bless the next generation to lead.  His question asked if we feel released to follow Jesus without reservation [by an older generation or authority in our lives -- parents, mentors, leaders].  This touched my heart in two ways: 1. I lack a direct spiritual authority / mentor in my life.  I have my father, my pastors, maybe a staff worker or two, and a number of friends who I look up to, all of whom which I am thankful for and contribute much to how I think and what I do, yet there is little expectation from them.  But! — the world is not centered around me and so the second way this touched my heart is: 2. There are people all around me who I feel I can be available to pour into.  This is super life giving because as I make myself available for people, and ask guys if they have time to meet up and talk, I end up being encouraged by them as well.  The more I try to give, the more I end up receiving!

Joe’s second point was that the multi-generational church restores the lost dreams of the past.  For me this point really encourages the joining of the dreams of the past and the present.  As I walk through life it is easy for me to over complicate dreams and become pessimistic towards the dreams I once had, labeling them as impractical to the point where they get scratched off the list.  Maybe its the multi-generational church that restores the prayers of the past and the heart of the past and in doing so chisels out new dreams for the multi-generations to work towards.  Joe’s paired question was, what are the dreams that you need to be restored.  I’m realizing that I don’t really remember my dreams, or maybe that I just need “all” of my dreams restored.  It is easier for me to focus and visualize what is a few tangible steps in front of me instead of spending time visioning the impossible.  I suppose that the multi-generational church is better equipped to take the far off, creative, seemingly impractical and impossible vision and determine the steps that need to happen in between.

Joe’s final point was that the multi-generational church brings healing into the world through the working out of differences, view points, and understandings.  The biggest issue that I’ve personally lived through is the split in the generations in styles of worship.  I know there has been a lot of hurt on both sides, and I wish there was not, but working throug these differences allows God the ground for healing on both sides.  I wish that people could take a step back from their trenches and open their hearts and minds to the diversity of worship and what the different styles have to offer.  I suppose that is the common theme of the multi-generational church — that each generation has much to offer and contribute to the church.  The paired question with this point was, what are the places of healing that God wants to lead us into?  As I am sort of inbetween the young generation and the older generation, I feel like I need to be a bridge or a translator.   But we are always in between generations, so maybe we need to purposefully live as translators of culture.  We are to be in the world, speak the world’s language, but not be of the world.  We are to be able to translate generations languages, culture languages, and spiritual languages so that the church can efficiently do its work.

Andy Crouch in his book, Culture Making, discusses a relational model where creativity creates.  Many successful companies and other sources of things created are led by a group of three, that is to say a small small, tight knit group of like minded creators, working together for a common goal.  Often I try to create things on my own, but that only goes so far.  When I involve too many people, the vision gets construed and pulled in so many directions, theres nothing left after everyones had their say.  Crouch goes on to say beyond that intimate group where creativity creates, are two, farther removed layers of input.  A group of 12 and a group of 120, similar to a board of directors and a group of team managers if this model is to be liked to a business model.  The group of 12 has more input and authority than the group of 120, but less than the group of 3, yet each tier plays an important role and contributes towards the end result.

“The essential insight of 3 : 12 : 120 is that every cultural innovation, no matter how far-reaching its consequences, is based on personal relationships and personal commitment.  Culture making is hard.  It simply doesn’t happen without the investment of absolutely and relatively small groups of people.  In culture making, size matters–in reverse.  Only a small group can sustain the attention, energy and perseverance to create something that genuinely moves the horizons of possibility–because to create that good requires an ability to suspend, at least for a time, the very horizons within which everyone else is operating.  Such “suspension of impossibility” is tiring and taxing.  The only thing strong enough to sustain it is a community of people.  To create a new cultural good, a small group is essential.”  p. 243

Prayerfully I will find that small group of people that I can make culture with and together we can cross the obstacles that stand in the way of personal relationships and personal commitment that sustains the energy and perseverance required to create something that “genuinely moves the horizons of possibility.”  I want to find significance in what I do with my friends.  When I was in grade school, I always had a dream of starting a company with my friends.  Each of us had different skills and talents and it made sense to bring our relationships into the sphere of work for efficiency and productivity.  There is something refreshingly redeeming about Crouch’s advocacy of “measuring our significane not by our access to power, people and institutions, but by how faithful we remain [in our small groups], to the cultural goods we seek to cultivate and create!”

Part 2 of 5 in Tips for Budgeting

Tracking Numbers - Knowledge is Power

1. Category Pools aka the Envelope Method - Discipline is required here.  If you put $25 into the restaurant envelope then you must hold yourself to spending only $25 in restaurants that week.  When the week (or whatever time period you’ve set) is over, the money left over can be moved to a savings account or kept in the envelope as a rollover amount for those weeks where more than $25 might be justified.

2. Automatic Disbursements - If your employer offers direct deposit, you can automatically disburse a percentage of your paycheck to a savings account so that amount of money is never really considered as part of your daily living expenses.  If our paycheck is $1000, we live in a way that uses up that $1000.  If we make our paycheck $850 dollars, we will live a lifestyle that uses up that $850.  Lets say you are paid every two weeks and put $150 of each paycheck into that savings account which you do not have regular access to.  After just one year you would have accrued a savings of $3900.  Congratulations, you have more saved than the typical American family.

3. Electronic Monitoring - Credit cards (lots of incentives–cashback, points, miles–for responsible use) combined with programs like www.mint.com or quicken make monitoring your spending almost automatic.  Seeing the relative percentage of how much money goes into different categories in graphs and summaries can be a sobering and challenging experience, but its helpful to know what we are investing in.  Spending really is investing.  Half the battle of being generous with our resources is knowing where we spend already.

Part 3 of 5 in Tips for Budgeting

Planning Ahead - There is always a Sale

1. Research - Amazon (and other websites) are brimming with user reviews on almost everything.  Generic brands are often cheaper for the similar quality (though not always, so read reviews!).  Sometimes paying more for the non-generic will be a better-longer lasting choice than the generic too.  Price compare with online, outlet and retail stores.  Ask friends and family for advice and past experiences with brands and products. There is always a sale, so you need to do the research to know at what price point an item is truly “on sale.”

2. Questions - “Do you really need this?”  Try waiting 30 days from the point of deciding to purchase something to actually purchasing it.  This practice helps avoid buyers remorse and also allows you the opportunity to be creative in using something you already have to meet the need the new purchase is suppose to meet. “What will this enable me to do and what will this disable me from doing.”  The typical example is, “what will paying for cable enable me to do”: sit in front of my tv at night while “what will paying for cable disable me from doing”:  deter me from having real conversations with people.

3. Buying tips - Consider supply and demand - try not to pay for items that are marked up just because there is short supply (i.e. Nintendo Wii’s).  Admittedly my friends and I bought Wii’s for MSRP and sold at 60% markup for almost a year so if everyone were to follow my advice, I would have no customers :).  Consider buying  Used-Like-New.  Jenn and I found the bedroom set that we had listed on our Crate and Barrel Wedding Registry on www.craigslist.com in like-new condition at a fraction of the cost!  Use shopping lists and stick to them, especially when going into warehouse stores like Costco.  These stores are designed to feature items on the aisle ends that you were not intending to buy, didn’t even know existed, and now suddenly think you need.  Just don’t do it (!Nike).  Some thing you should do is use coupons and search for online deals (www.retailmenot.com).  Some say coupons are a waste of time, but I would say being aware of coupons and refusing to buy items that are not on sale is more worthwhile for its perspective-habit building than its qualitative benefits.

Part 4 of 5 in Tips for Budgeting

Involving Community - You are not alone

1. Accountability - Budgeting sucks when you have no more money in your restaurant envelope and everyone else is going out to eat.  Budgeting can feel lonely and overwhelming, so involve your community.  When we share about our financial decisions and are open about where we are investing (spending) our money and include others in the decisioning process, it becomes a lifestyle for a group of people instead of just a loan dingy on a stormy sea.  This helps expand our perspectives and exposes us to others research, questions and buying tips.

2. Sharing - We seem to have a collection of household items that get used once and then sit on the shelf for the rest of their lives till they are donated or given away.  Consider buying these type of items with the purpose of sharing their cost and their use among your friends and family.  When did restaurants become all about quantity instead of quality?  Jenn and I like to eat out on our date nights, but it can easily get expensive.  We’ve been trying to share dishes instead because often times one dish is enough for both of us.  When we do order two, we tend to regret the stuffed feeling in our stomachs as we exit.

3. Be relational - Ultimately, the things we buy really don’t provide us with lasting satisfaction.  It is more about how those things we buy bring us into relationship with others.  Relationships, memories, friendships, and the like are what is lasting, beyond the latest and greatest, shiniest and fastest electronic device, shoe, bag, car, and tv.  Books have a great power here.  I find myself often buying books to own them, read them once and then display them on a bookshelf as proof of my worth, but this renders books to mere dust collectors. If we buy a book, read it, then give it away it opens up opportunity for dialog and discussion between people.