Minnesota Teen Challenge presented music, testimonies, and needs during its visit to Hope on Sunday, July 12, 2009.

You can hear their presentation on our podcast or on our Worship pages.

Please consider making a donation.

http://www.mntc.org/

During ONE Sunday there was a video presentation about three ministries in addition to the work of ONE itself. Here are links to their web sites:

http://www.one.org

http://www.daystarus.org

http://www.kenyachildrensfund.org

http://www.waterforlife.org

The Sent Ones: The Mission of the Disciples
4 November 2007
Questions for reflection and discussion.

How did Jesus spend time with his disciples? How does Jesus spend time with us? How can we allow Jesus to pour himself into us?

Jesus sent out the 12 to preach and to have authority over demons. What does that mean to us in today’s culture?

“I will go. I will take the ring. But I do not know the way.” Fodo

What’s your ring?

The Sent Ones: The Mission of the Disciples
Pastor David Lenz
4 November 2007

Text: Mark 3: 13-19

“He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons.”

The Sent Series
The God Who Sends
Reluctant to be Sent: The Missionary without the Missionary’s Heart
The Sent One: The Mission of Jesus

Ordinary people
2 sets of brothers
Rocky and the Son’s of Thunder
After the first four names none are mentioned again in Mark.
Not like the cabinet of JFK…..regarded as the best and the brightest.

What does it mean to be 1 of the 12? What is discipleship?
Being with Jesus
Being sent by Jesus

Being with Jesus
Jesus initiates the relationship. He appoints the 12.
Meals, conversation, fishing.
“Spent a day fishing with John Quincy. Day wasted.” Quote from John Adams journal.,
Allow Jesus to pour himself into us. Solid devotional time is good but……….

Being Sent by Jesus
Two purposes vs. 14-15
Preach
Authority to drive out demons

Before I go I need to:
Finish the book on…….
Attend a seminar on……
Down load this sermon and listen to it 3 or 4 times…….
Go to this prayer meeting……..
Their training was not complete but Jesus sends them anyway.

Lord of the Rings
“I will go. I will take the ring. But I do not know the way.”
Frodo

We can do it because Jesus is pouring himself into us to:
Proclaim the good news
Do mighty deeds.

The Sent One: The Mission of Jesus
7 October 2007

Questions for reflection and discussion.

1. Have you done ministry to the poor, the captives, the blind or the oppressed? Explain? How did it affect you?

2. Shut down the tapes and open your ears. What is the “good news?” No Christian clichés or exact Biblical quotes allowed.

The Sent One: The Mission of Jesus
Pastor David Lenz
7 October 2007

Text: Luke 4: 14-30
“Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone……..and the scroll of the profit Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. Has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of th sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down.”

First Sermons
Jesus first sermon:
Immediately follows 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.
Jesus returned with the power of the Spirit.
Jesus was already famous. Great expectations.
The Sermon: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because has anointed me to bring good news to the poor...release to the captives….recovery of sight to the blind…..”
David’s first sermon:
David’s friend Mike’s first sermon:

What do the critics say of evangelicals?
Evangelicals make their faith too private.
Too privatistic and too individualistic.
“Me and my God! Me and my God! Me and my God! And miss the social implications.
Only questions that matter:
Am I saved?
Will I get to heaven?

“Please don’t hear what I am not saying.”
Not saying a personal relationship with Jesus is not important.
David stated that he is an evangelical.
Shut down the old tapes and open your ears.

The Depth of the Good News:
Preach Good News to the poor.
Proclaim freedom to the prisoner.
Recovery of sight to the blind.
Gospel of “release from sin” is not contradictory to “good news to the poor.”

How does the Gospel best get a hearing?
By words or by actions?
Not only proclaimed but enacted.

Statement from a co-worker to a parishioner:
“I am looking for a church where they don’t just think about themselves.”
Call to Action : Are the concerns of Jesus our concerns?

Reluctant to be Sent: The Missionary without the Missionary’s Heart
23 September 2007

Questions for reflection and discussion.

1. Who have you been sent to? Or, where are you being sent?

2. What makes us reluctant to go?

3. From a corporate perspective…..Where is Hope Church’s Nineveh?

EXTRA CREDIT

4. Have you had a “stinky fish” experience that put you back on track?

Reluctant to be Sent: The Missionary without the Missionary’s Heart
Pastor David Lenz
23 September 2007

Text: Jonah 1:1-3, 3:1 – 4:11
Chapter 1: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah son saying, “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”

We are a sent people. The problem is that we don’t enjoy being sent.
We are reluctant because:
We are afraid. We don’t want to look like fanatics. We are not prepared.
We are apathetic and pre-occupied
We don’t love the people to whom we are sent.

Nineveh: A bit of background:
Located in Iraq near modern day Mosul.
Capital of Assyria. In 772BC wiped away the Northern Kingdom of Israel
City of violence, wickedness, and unceasing evil as described in Nahum 3.
Chapter 2 and 3: “But the Lord provided a large fish…..” I called out to the Lord out of my distress”……“ The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh.”

Jonah Goes
Jonah’s msg: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be overturned.” Jonah 3:4
Not the greatest sermon of all time. The prophet’s heart was not in it.
Nineveh repents. God is stirred by their repentance and spares them.
Jonah is not happy.
Chapter 4: “ But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry....” for I knew you were a gracious God and merciful....... Please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah’s Problem
Problem is not that he doesn’t understand God’s mercy.
Problem is that he does understand God’s mercy.
Real problem is that he doesn’t love the Ninevites and wanted them destroyed.

Our Problem
Hard to love lost people because they do lost things.
Ministry to lost people is messy.
Lost people disappoint us, hurt us, and wound us.

Chariots of Fire:
“You can’t get out what God has not put in.” Sam Mussabini

Call to Action :
Ask God to put in what is missing. A love for the people to whom God has sent you.
Where is Nineveh for you?

Summary: God loves Nineveh and God loves Jonah.

The God Who Sends
9 September 2007
Questions for reflection and discussion.

What ministry have you been sent to? Why? Re-trace how you got involved?

To what are you being sent? – now and future

Who has God sent to you and altered your course in life?

EXTRA CREDIT
When have you felt like the lost lady in the adult daycare?

Who rescued you?

The God Who Sends
Pastor David Lenz
9 September 2007

Text: John 3:16-17
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

SENT: The one word theme of the fall series
What does it mean that we are sent?
What does it mean that we are a missional church?
Where are we being sent?

The God who loves. The God who gives. The God who sends.

The God who loves: God does not give up on us.
Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Genesis 3:9 “Where are you?”

The God who sends:
Moses- to the children of Israel in Egypt
Isaiah and Jeremiah - to the tribe of Judah
Amos – to Israel during their prosperity
Ezekial – the exiles in Babylon
Haggai – to the Jews rebuilding the temple
Jesus – not to condemn the world but to save the world.

Missio Dei: The Mission of God and the Missional Church
“Theologians speak of mission using the Latin phrase missio dei. They refer at times to
the mission of God, or in another sense, the God of mission. You may have heard the saying,
“Mission is not a program of the church.” Rather, mission is fundamental to our identity as the
church. The church does not have a mission per se. Instead, the God of mission, the God Who is
love (1 John 4:16) and Who is on a mission of love, has a/the church with which to accomplish
God’s mission. As Christians, each of us is called to be a missionary in our respective cultural
contexts. In a very real sense, mission is who we are. It is who we were created, designed, and who we are called to be and become more and more…..God is a sending/missionary God.”
Stephen Hayner – Columbia Theological
The stained glass windows
They shut us in
Sanctuary
Retreat and Refuge
But the action is not in here…..it is out there.

The Hope staff takes it to the streets
Story of the missing adult day care student
Great picture of the Missional Church taking it to the streets looking for the lost.

Call to Action : Every one is sent to their sphere of influence.