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Maybe Saint Francis was right...

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:11:29 GMT

1 Peter 3:15-16

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

I remember these words haunting me. Always have an answer. My answer? What do I say: it looks good on a transcript, chicks dig the salvation hope?!?!? What answer would I give?!? For a long time it was solely because I get to go to heaven when I die. However, at that point someone would ask “are you sure your going to heaven” and I would say “I guess so”. Honestly, these verses scared me. I would sit at summer “church” camp and think about this: what’s my answer…. Saying that I was a Christian was a scary thing cause I didn’t have an “answer” to the hope (or so I thought).

But these verses of horror have become something beautiful.

When was the last time somebody asked you to do give an answer for the hope you have?

If we think about Peter writing, you can see that he is assuming that the way of Jesus would be so different, so “not of this world”, so counter-cultural, so against the grain.

He assumes that the people that live “The Way” would be constantly asking questions by people in the world like: Why do you care? Why do you serve me? Why are you listening to me when you could be doing something else?

Rob Bell asks this question: If your mouth was duct tape shut; would we still know you’re a Christian? If our church was duct taped from being able to say anything; would the community still say these people are an unquestionable force of good in the world. Would the community still be asking “Why do you live like this”?

“Always be ready…”

Without saying a word; people would know clearly who you are and what you’re about.

Maybe we need to just shut up and do what Jesus says instead of saying what Jesus says so that people who are burned out and tired and miserable about the same things about church that the next person is burned out and tired and miserable about could look at Christianity and look at following Jesus and say “man, that is something unbelievable” or say “oh that’s what He meant”!

If your mouth was duct taped would you still be able to give an answer to the hope that you have?

The Garden Resurrection Revolution

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:46:39 GMT

John 20:11-18 (click on the scripture reference to see the passage)

I love how John’s Gospel comes full circle. John doesn’t begin with a simple nativity scene but goes even farther back: “In the beginning…”. Back to the creation of the “all things”. It’s almost like John is saying that these accounts you are about to read are a big deal. Something bigger is about to happen then just a story about a good moral man. But then we quickly move through John’s stories of Jesus and we come to a scene of a woman near a tomb. Rob Bell brought this to light for me this week and have read it before but never really found the beauty of it. When Jesus appears to Mary what does she think he is? A gardener. The story comes full circle to a garden (the beginning). The fall of mankind begins in a garden and the beginning of the new way of life begins again in a garden (even if we move into the accounts of Revelation we see when God makes all things new that we see the garden image again). So I see in this God reconciling his creation back to the way it was suppose to be. With this happening comes a new way. Tom (or N.T.) Wright talks about it this way:

“It’s a moment when it becomes clear, to the careful reader of John’s Gospel, that something extraordinary has taken place, not only to Jesus- though that’s extraordinary enough – but to the way the world is, the way God is, the way God and the disciples now are. Up to this point Jesus has spoken about God as ‘the father’, or ‘the father who sent me’ or ‘my father’. He has called his followers ‘disciples’, ‘servants’, and ‘friends’. Now all that has changed. Fell the force of verse 17: ‘Go and say to my brothers, I am going up to my father and your father, to my God and your God.’ Something has altered, decisively. A new relationship has sprung to life like a sudden spring flower. The disciples are welcomed into a new world: a world where they can know God the way Jesus knew God, where they can be intimate children with their father” (John for Everyone Part Two 144-145).

So as we celebrate Easter may we see that this event wasn’t just the saving humans from hell but that the Easter day was apart of something much bigger. May we walk away from the garden tomb knowing that we have a new way of living that is different from what the world thinks. May we walk away from the garden tomb changed and into a new relationship, a new way of life, a new revolution.

Emerging Ministry to Students

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:29:42 GMT

Adam Ellis and I are teaching a class called Emerging ministry to Students: Engaging Teenagers in the Story of God at the Ohio Valley University Bible lectures this week. We will be teaching till Wednesday each day. A recording of our sessions are available on the link below and will be updated each day. Please give us feedback on our sessions.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE RECORDING!

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:46:53 GMT

so I have found some new "online" sites to play with:

I have a My Space: http://www.myspace.com/matthewjameswilson

and now I have a Facebook...

No idea what I'm doing with them but hey that's how I roll

I still update regularly my blog www.matthewjameswilson.blogspot.com

Post Restoration Youth Ministry

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 01:35:54 GMT

My friend Adam Ellis invited me to come and join in a conversation on Youth Ministry in a Post-Restorationist context on Post Restoration Radio. Adam and I will be presenting some of these thoughts at the Ohio Valley University Lectureship in April. Please take a few minutes and listen to the broadcast and please leave some of your thoughts and ideas on this blog, on my other blog (www.matthewjameswilson.blogspot.com) and/or also on the Post Restoration Radio site. We (I) would love to hear your feedback.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 19:46:52 GMT

Click here for pictures of the Movie/Bowling Night and Fast 4 Relief weekend!

There is a informational meeting if you are interested in going to the Gulf Coast this summer. Here is the flyer:

Also click on this link for JUST ADDED pictures from the Gulf Coast Trip!!

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:33:25 GMT

The doorbell rang this afternoon. It was one of my neighbors—an older woman a few houses down. She pushed her way into our foyer and threw a petition in my face.

"I'm going around the neighborhood getting signatures for a petition against low-income housing going in. Will you sign this?"

I was startled. What was this pressing issue? I glanced at the sheet. Yes, she was right, all the surrounding homes had signed on.

"What is this about?" I asked innocently.

She sighed in a huff. "You know what those people are like." She then ripped into people—people—who are low income, calling them an expletive (maybe I should have mentioned that I'm a pastor and that she was standing in the entrance to our church office!), saying "they" would lower our property values.

Does that really matter to me? Do dollar signs dictate my actions over concern for the poor? Didn't Jesus say something about what you do unto the least of these?

All these thoughts flashed through my mind in a moment. Until she shattered it with her intensity: "Sign this!"

"I don't know enough about this issue."

"What do you need to know? Look, it's coming up at the City Council tomorrow night. Unless you're going to the meeting to voice your opinion, you need to sign this."

"But I don't know what ..."

(Interrupting) "How much did you pay for your house?"
Her rapid-fire, passionate zeal was more than my little mind could handle. How much did my house cost? I honestly couldn't remember in the moment. And even if I did, why did I have to tell her? And why did it matter? This home is temporary—I'm truly more interested in advancing the Kingdom.

All I could do was stutter and apologize over and over again. I think my wife, who was in the next room listening, was snickering at me. (Later I found out she too was deeply troubled by both this woman's demeanor and message—"What kind of people?" my wife hypothetically questioned to me later. "People who may need God!".)

Finally, realizing I wasn't about to sign the petition, she left abruptly. No "Thank you for your time." No apology for interrupting. Nothing. I think she was mad at me.

It's been a few days since this happened. But I keep replaying the moment in my head. I wish I had lovingly and calmly explained to her that I love people more than I do my property value. Call me naive by the world's standards, but I truly don't care "what kind" of people move into the neighborhood.

My role in the Kingdom message of Jesus is to love people. Period.

Telling someone "Not In My Backyard" just doesn't seem to jive with Jesus' message. I wish I would have said, "I hear what you're saying, but as a follower of Jesus I have to embrace His message: Love Wins."

But then again, she probably would have thought I was arrogant.

by Jon Herron

Friday, January 27, 2006

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:22:24 GMT

NEW AND UPDATED PICTURES FROM OUR GULF COAST TRIP!!! CLICK HERE!!

I received this email today and thought everyone would be interested in this!

Wanted to let you know, we visited your friend Charles Whitley at the
Chalmette Church of Christ last week. He said your team cleared out the
building. We nailed down the plywood siding on their building, wrapped it
in tar paper (the auditorium part they are keeping) and framed out some of
the classroom area inside. Thought your team would like to see the
continuation of their efforts cleaning out their building. I took a few
pictures starting at img_3622 at this link:
http://www.therenos.com/katrinapictures/Team%207/JohnTeam7/index.htmland Bill took some as well at this link:
http://www.therenos.com/katrinapictures/Team%207/Bill/index.htmlstarting with picture dscn0338

I put most of our blog entries from servantsunite.blogspot.com on the
whereisawjesus blog as well last week, but you can find links to more
pictures of our trip on the servantsunite blog if you are interested.

We can see some progress from the work we have God. To God be the glory!

Love Wins! -Matt-

Friday, January 13, 2006

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 18:29:01 GMT

check out my first review of The Secret Message of Jesus at www.matthewjameswilson.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 00:44:36 GMT

I have received from W Publishing Group an Advanced Copy of Brian McLaren's new book The Secret Message of Jesus (it is on sale sometime probably in March) and have been asked to blog about it. So I am currently reading it and be checking back for my review of the book.