Jesus gave us clear marching orders: Love God. Love your neighbor.

We know who God is, where most of us get stuck is on the “neighbor” part. Who is our neighbor? What does it mean to “love” them? How do I balance local with global? Which is more important? Before we answer these questions, I think we need to ask ourselves another one: Why are we asking?

"But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" – Luke 10:29

There is a rise in the church of socially minded Christians truly seeking to make a difference both locally and globally. This is a good thing. Yet, even with the right motive, we often get side tracked as to who and how far our service should reach.

“Awareness, access, and ability are no longer barriers even to the average Christian. They are no longer impediments in defining our neighbor. The gospel declares that everyone in need is our neighbor. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus asked the expert in the law which of the three was a “neighbor” to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers. His answer: “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus’ response: “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37).

Jesus did not define “neighbor” by proximity. He defined it by mercy. The whole world is our neighbor. Only after we move past the argument of who our neighbors are and what Jesus meant by loving them will we be moved to accomplish anything of significance. Until then, our questions remain excuses.” (Barefoot Church, pg. 37)

I met three unlikely people this Easter weekend...

(1) Meet Buck. Buck is a young man who just moved to Austin from Atlanta about a month ago. He came to the Dove Springs area in southeast Austin with his wife and six kids. And is currently staying with extended family until they can get on their feet. I met him as we were setting up for the Easter event we were volunteering at for the River City Youth Foundation.

He tapped me on the shoulder before the event even started. Buck needed a jump-start for his car. While helping him, he began to ask me about my tattoos and mentioned he needs to find a good artist in the area to cover up the ones he got in prison. He wants a new beginning. And Austin is his first attempt.

(2) Meet Stewart. He claims his last name is, "Little". Nevertheless, "Stewart" is a cross dressing homeless man with a beard (See above on the left). He’s a big ole’ stout dude… wearing makeup… a dress… and panty hose.

I first met Stewart during our Easter grill-out/communion service in downtown Austin. He stood out like a sore thumb, so I began to engage him in conversation. He turned out to be about as nice a person as he could be. But my new friend did not come without cost. Since I was the one engaging him in conversation, I was the obvious one to ask to help him zip up the back of his flipflop/flats/hybrids that didn’t fit right with pantyhose stretched between his toes. Awkward to say the least.

Finally, (3) meet Ed. Ed is a veteran. He too is homeless. He showed me pictures of himself as a youngster in Vietnam. His VA papers/cards to prove he’s a veteran. And since he's new to the streets and new to Austin, he shared how rough it's been at the Homeless shelter downtown. Every moment he looks the other way or falls asleep. In his own words they were, “Robbing him blind”.

Ed is a Christian and shared his boiling frustration with a church that was, in his words, “absolutely no help to him at all”. His story was pretty heartbreaking. He had only been in Austin for a week. And he needed help.

It’s easy to de-humanize each of these men. It’s easy to judge them and categorize them as a seemingly less important class of people. It’s easy to find enough fault in their journey to justify our ignoring them. It’s easy to think these things. But as a good friend of mine always says, “It doesn’t matter what you think. What matters, is what Jesus thinks. And these are your brothers in Christ.”

Why do I share these stories?

Every time I put another name and story to a face that I might normally just drive by, something changes in me. My arrogance revealed, my misconceptions exposed, and yet my fears and insecurities are erased. It somehow changes my spiritual scorecard. And I'm affirmed in this moment that God is most certainly at work (in me, inspite of me, and around me). This only increases as we engage need more deeply.

Jesus continues to shift, expand, confront, and grow my understanding of what it means to follow Him. And He was clear in Matthew 25 that when we serve the least, we ultimately serve Him. I used to think that was the sole focus of this scripture. Our goal, serve Jesus, but I can’t help but think there is an additional motive.

This weekend affirmed a developing belief I have:  Need is everywhere. If we can’t possibly find it, we are either looking in the wrong places, or we’re not really looking. And the goal can never be just the EVENT of serving the poor. The goal is the people we meet along the way. In that place we will find Jesus. He was clear that he’d be there among those on the margins.

Many of you are spiritually dry, some more than others. Some of you are fed up with a stagnant faith or with "church as usual". Some of you recognize that you are a major part of the problem (me too). And most of you have one thing in common; You’re simply looking for more of Jesus. There are many places where you might find Him... I know one place that you’ll find Him for sure.

I recently heard about a pastor who renounced his faith. Apparently, he’s decided that God does not exist and that what he’s taught for so many years is not true. This saddens me.

This saddens me. But it doesn’t surprise me.

In fact, if you were to go back and listen to his sermons, you can hear the doubt in his seemingly rhetorical questions. You can feel him lob out ideas and thoughts that mirrored his internal struggle. I don’t know how long he lived on this island of doubt, but he obviously reached his personal tipping point.

His concerns are shared with countless others who are critics of faith and the church. Their claims:

• There is a lack of power in most churches.
• There is a lack of radical transformation in most believers.
• There is a lack of unity in both.
• There is a lack of Kingdom-mindedness.
• There is a lack of love, peace, gentleness, kindness, and mercy.
• There is too much ignorance and apathy on issues of justice.

I certainly don’t want to cast stones at the church just for the sake of casting stones. She’s the Bride of Christ. There is always hope for the church. And I’m committed to fight for her.  But if we were to take an honest look, we’d find that these accusations are more often true than false. In fact many of us, if not most of us, have seen them at different points and in different forms in our own life.

There are those both inside and outside the church who simply look at the evidences (or lack thereof) and deduce that what we believe… must not be true.

But what if these things aren’t evidences of a lack of truth? What if they don’t disprove God (which btw, I don’t believe they do)? What if, instead, they were evidences that we are somehow missing the point or that our strategies simply aren’t working that well? What if we’re unknowingly serving a church structure and/or a Christian culture that no longer values, teaches, or holds to the example Jesus gave us? What if the lack of these kinds of fruit is the result of a misguided approach to tilling, planting, feeding, pruning, and harvesting?

I’m certain the problem isn’t with God or with truth. The problem is with us. And since God is sovereign, I think He’s definitely up to something. I just hope we don’t miss it.

How long are we going to put up with an empty faith? How long will we tolerate a seemingly powerless church? How many bible studies and worship services must we personally attend while staying the same day-after-day-after-day? How long? (Note: I'm a huge fan of worship and bible study... I just believe it should change us and how we view God).

We need to take this more seriously or eventually our powerless faith will turn to doubt. At bare minimum we’ll fall prey to self-condemnation, insecurity, and spiritual anxiety (ring a bell or two?). If we do not seek and find the real Jesus, filled with grace, truth, and power… it’s only a matter of time. We can no longer ride the fence. We can no longer settle and expect not to suffer the consequences. Our post-modern world and post-Christian culture is not set up to hold our spiritual hand anymore. We won’t hold the line just because someone else tells us we’re supposed to.

And neither will our “neighbors”.

The good news is that Jesus didn’t call us to a powerless faith. He called us to an incredibly full faith, which results in peace, joy, and purpose. And He gave us some direct insight as to how that happens. He redefined what it meant to be a disciple in Matthew 5 where He outlines what selflessness looks like. He literally challenged us to stop thinking about things that served us, and to start thinking about ways to serve others. He even promised some pretty awesome provision for each step along the way.

It’s time we owned this, people. Someone else cannot make the decision for us.

Church leaders, we need to take an honest look at what we value about the church, our selves, and other people. We are called to be and make disciples with the hope of building the Kingdom, not just make converts with the hope of building our churches and padding our stats. Jesus never gave us the keys to the church, He gave us the keys to the Kingdom (Mt.16). We need to daily submit ourselves to this vision. We need to repent and change the way we view success. We need care more about what God says, than we do what our peers or those who consume what we provide say. We cannot live and/or lead as if this is not a huge problem, temptation, and risk.

Christians, we were called to love God and our neighbor, not love our own agenda and serve our own appetites. Let’s stop blaming our pastors and/or our church and let’s start living it ourselves. Many of our church leaders would rather do this anyway, but they’re afraid we won’t let them. We need to live a faith that serves something besides us. We need to fight individualism and consumerism. They serve as direct barriers to the Kingdom. We need to constantly be asking God, “What do you want me to give up next?” both personally and collectively.

This is the tension we must live in. And Jesus calls us to head into it with both guns blazing.

God invites us to test His ways. He challenges us to taste and see. Try something different than serving yourself. Open up your definition of church to mean a way of life, not just a location or a timeslot on Sunday. Expand your understanding of discipleship. Seek to be Good News to someone in need. Give yourself permission to model grace and goodness. Don’t reduce it to form or function. Prayerfully offer your heart and soul. Let this be your sacrifice.

And if you don’t know where to start, start with the poor. Start with those who have absolutely nothing to offer you back. This exemplifies the genius of Jesus’ teaching. Bottom line, Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He challenged us to serve the least.

Wherever this leads us, I believe that it will be in that place, that we’ll experience God’s presence and provision. We’ll begin to understand and cherish the paradox. It’s there where we’ll finally find the Jesus we read about in scripture. We’ll see Him at work (in us). We’ll wonder how we ever had any fellowship with Him anywhere else. And then, my friends… we’ll feel the power, the confidence, and the affirmation that we’ve been searching for.

Austin New Church closes it's doors on Easter. It's one of the most powerful and certainly one of my favorite Sundays of the year. Instead of gathering inside, we gather outside for a time of fellowship, food, and communion with our homeless brothers & sisters in downtown Austin. As usual, we will be meeting at the corner of 7th & Neches from 4-6pm.

As most of you are aware, our Easter Downtown Grillout is different from our regular time with the homeless community. We bring our lawn chairs, enjoy a meal with them, share in communion together, and listen to some great live music. It's quite the event.

Since this includes all of us and not just a "team", your participation is needed to make this grill out happen.  There are two things we need you to do:

1) CLICK HERE to register for the April 8th event (4-6pm).

2) We need each Restore Group to bring 20-25 Gift Bags with the following items:

• shampoo (personal size)
• soap
• toothpaste/brush
• deodorant
• comb/brush
• chap-stick
• sun block
• short socks
• laundry detergent (optional)

The number of socially concerned Christians is on the rise. Likewise, so is the number of socially concerned Churches. This, in itself, is a good thing. But, can I be honest for a moment? We’ve got a fatal flaw that, if left unchecked, will undo any of the good we’re trying to do:

We pretty much make everything about us.

We’ve been charged with the biblical mandate to learn to do right (Isaiah 1:17), to love mercy (Micah 6:8), and to seek justice (Pretty much the whole Bible). And many of us are trying. Including me.

• I’m still learning how to “do right”.
• I’m still learning to increasingly “love mercy”.
• I’m still learning what it means to biblically “seek justice”.

And while I’ve seen indicators of our nature to “steal the fame” from the beginning, I’ve realized that it only has the potential to grow stronger the deeper you get. I’m thankful that as we try, we’re given the biblical permission to “Learn to do right”. This assumes one reality: God already knows we don’t know how.

Here's something I'm learning...

There’s a pattern among those we serve. I’ve observed it in pretty much every service environment, but its most profound among the homeless. And it tells us something about ourselves. Let me explain by sharing their questions:

They ask these questions, even those who never plan on coming.

Here’s what I’ve realized. The homeless have very little if anything to offer us. They know that, and although there are those who “play the game” there are many who are genuinely thankful for what we do. The only thing they have to offer back is what they think we want: The possibility that they’ll come to our church.

Why would they think that? Why can’t they just accept a hot cheeseburger or new pair of shoes without thinking we have an agenda? Why are they lining up looking at us weird waiting for us to hand them outreach tracts? Why are they talking in “King James” version and quoting bible verses to us all day?

Everyone knows this except us: We're self-centered and too often act with a self-serving agenda. This is why so many non-profits, schools, and city officials are afraid to partner with us. I wish I could say it wasn’t true, but we’re just as conditioned as the one’s we serve. Whether it’s the homeless or the working poor across the interstate, there are reasons we do what we do. And and honest look might reveal it’s not the reason we think or the Gospel proclaims.

We think if we could just get everyone to church we could fix them. It would validate our service. They could be like us. And we could do noble things for God. Get them to church and we wouldn’t have to walk with them hand-in-hand. We wouldn’t have to be friends. We wouldn’t have to open ourselves up and make personal sacrifices (By the way, we tend to treat our neighbors the same).

We think that since they’re now quoting scripture that we are obviously impacting their faith journey. And we feel good about ourselves. And we think God likes us more (we’re an insecure bunch). And they know it. So they gush over us… and give us what we want… and we go home feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Don’t think less of the homeless… It’s not a malicious or deceptive act to give us what we really want. We’re playing the game too.

I’d consider it more a success if I spent an hour with a homeless guy and he never mentioned church, what he does wrong, or what he doesn’t do right. I know, sounds weird. But, I’d rather him talk about his story, his family, what happened that landed him on the streets. That would be an indicator to me that he’s not performing for me. And that maybe, just maybe, I really cared about his story. And that just possibly, my God might care as well.

This might be a good time for a side note: I still think it’s worth it, right, helpful, and productive to serve the way we’re serving and to continuously seek out new and more effective ways to engage need.

I also have an agenda. But I think it’s a good one. I want everyone who is a part of our faith community to be face-to-face with people who are in need. I don’t want to run away from the tension it creates in us. As a pastor I’m making disciples. And I want everyone to be among the broken, marginalized, abandoned, homeless, and lonely because that’s where we’ll find Jesus (Matthew 25).

But we need to do so and lead others to do so with a prayerful posture. Seeking the Spirit. Evaluating our motives. Searching our hearts and minds. And come without agenda other than to be faithful to Gospel and Kingdom.

This is a really hard thing to do. It’s embedded so deeply both in our church culture and our sinful nature. And it reveals a fatal flaw that saturates much of what we do. Every area of our faith can be impacted by it. And I pray we take note.

We need to stop serving the poor just because it makes us feel good. We need to stop serving the poor because we like bragging about it. We need to stop serving the poor because it’s the hip thing to do right now. We need to stop serving the poor because we’re hoping God will be pleased with us. All those reasons are about us. They steal God’s glory and they will be exposed for what they are.

We need to learn to serve the poor for bigger reasons. We need to serve because we’re made new and find our identity in Christ. Because we understand mercy and have fallen in love with the concept of offering all we have to people who don’t deserve it (like us). Because we are seeking justice for those who cannot find it alone (like us). Because we believe the Gospel. Because we take serious the ministry of reconciliation. Because there is a plan of redemption, and because God invites us to be a part of that story.

FIRST, I’m excited about the focus: Not only will it be one of the best opportunities for church planters, church planting churches, and pastors to be equipped and gain practical help in increasing their missional posture… but also that this year’s theme (“Sifted“) is focusing on our spiritual and emotional well-being as well. I was proud to be able to preview and endorse Zondervan’s newest release in the Exponential Series “Sifted: Pursuing Growth Through Trials, Challenges, and Disappointments” by Wayne Cordeiro (with contributions by Francis Chan & Larry Osborne).

SECOND, I’m excited to announce that “The Barefoot Church Primer: An 8-wk Guide to Serving Through Community” is now IN STOCK and we’ll have them available at Exponential. This was a resource based on my book ‘Barefoot Church’, and is written with the Missional/Incarnational Community in mind. It offers a step-by-step process to begin to discover and engage need in your community while building a biblical understanding of mercy and justice as they relate to a holistic understanding of the gospel. While we think it’s a great resource to help form new communities and for existing communities to begin focusing their attention outward, we also believe it to be a helpful Spiritual Development tool as you seek to “make disciples” through empowering a missional posture. (For a little preview: CLICK HERE)

THIRD, I’m super-pumped to be leading three sessions that I think will be incredibly helpful for those of you seeking to add to your missional/incarnational efforts (in the area of mercy & justice) while giving some fresh thoughts on some stuff you might want to consider (in the area of gospel & discipleship). Hope you can join me. Here’s some more info:

1. Launching Service based missional Communities: 10 steps to building community through engaging need. (Launching Missional Communities Track: Lab 1)


2. Missional Saturation: 5 changes every church must make to gain & maintain missional momentum. (Nuts and Bolts Track – Lab 2)
3. Structuring to serve through Community: 8 critical steps to point small groups outward. (Creating Missional Centers Track – Lab 3)

“The stereotypical suburban community is becoming extinct in the United States. Today, a million and a half more poor people live in the suburbs of major metropolitan areas than in the center cities. It would be easy to blame the change on the recession, or to ignore the facts by proclaiming that the recession will soon be over, but that would be negligent. By 2005, when the economy was prospering, there were already more poor people living in suburbs than in U.S. cities. In 1970, only 20.5% of America’s poor were suburbanites, and by 2000, the number increased to 35.9%. Between 2000 and 2008, the poor population in the suburbs of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas grew by 25%, almost five times faster than in the cities they surround. At the same time, the suburbs are also becoming much more ethnically diverse. Why the change? Here are a few theories:

a. Employment decentralization. Major employers in every sector have moved their bases of operation to the suburbs. Population sprawl followed job sprawl.

b. Immigration. Some new immigrants now select suburbs as their primary points of entry into the country because the jobs for which they are most qualified exist in suburbs rather than in city centers.

c. Gentrification. The status of status is changing, and the upper middle class is choosing high-rise city living over suburbia. There is a values shift from ownership (automobiles, large homes) to accessibility (public transportation, proximity to work, arts). As cities become more attractive to them, housing costs rise, thrusting the poor down into the streets and out into the suburbs.

d. Perceived cost of living. Sometimes poor people move to suburbs because it seems more affordable. However, while housing costs are less, there are hidden expenses, such as car ownership and less access to human services.

e. High unemployment rates. Certainly the recession economy is a factor. It has not brought the poor to the suburbs, but it is the reason why many middle class people are suddenly poor and in need of assistance.

I read an interesting Blog this morning. The author shed light on some words from Henri Nouwen, concluding that, "Like every human organization the Church is constantly in danger of corruption. As soon as power and wealth come to the Church, manipulation, exploitation, misuse of influence, and outright corruption are not far away." His solution was simply to serve the poor.