#jesusjax

In my second year of bible college I started listening to a Pastor from Seattle by the name of Mark Driscoll. He was intellectually stimulating, funny and uncompromising in his teaching. I really enjoyed following along with the progress of the church he is a pastor at and often daydreamed of moving to Seattle just to be a part of it. I'm sure I over-romanticized the idea in my head but I believe there really was a reason I was drawn to it - God was doing something in the PNW that made me get excited about the local church like I had never been before.

Fast forward to the end of the school-year, about one year ago this last week (the 5th of May), I decided to move with my family to Florida. I was offered a job with the ministry of the school I went to, would have been able to stay where I was living and continued having awesome friendships with people I dearly love. However I began to feel anxious and uncomfortable about staying in the Springs. The "peace" that I had felt was gone overnight. I talked with my parents and decided to move to Jacksonville with them.

Two days after deciding to move and having no clue why I was doing such a thing, I was browsing Facebook when I came across a photo (above) that Pastor Mark from Seattle posted. The caption read, "Got to pray for Pastor Matt Jensen of MH U-District Sun. He's feeling called to plant in his home state of Florida. We are happy to support him in every way, but sad to see him go."

My first thought was, "I want to be a part of that church-plant." My second thought was, "No way will it be a plant in Jacksonville."

I added Pastor Matt on Facebook and periodically checked in on what was going on with the Jensens via Social Media. I found out they were staying in Jacksonville until they decided where to plant the church.

I started attending the Crossing Church near my house and met Pastor Matt there one Sunday. Matt invited me to coffee where he told me that he and his wife were heading down to Miami for the weekend to check things out and see if that was the spot to plant. I liked Matt and from what I could tell he sounded like he knew his stuff. A few weeks later Matt invited me to meet again.

"We're starting a church in Jacksonville - you in?"

Since September, The Image Church has grown from a dozen people eating dinner in the Jensen living room to dozens of people gathering on Sunday morning to open the Bible and talk about the Gospel of Jesus. We don't have music, the lighting is dim, sometimes the powerpoint doesn't work and there's this disco ball that hangs in the middle of the room where we meet - hear me when I say that on Sunday mornings there is no place on earth I would rather be than with my friends at The Image Church. There is something happening in Jacksonville and the North Florida area.

You know that line in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe? It's the one that every time I read it, it makes my heart jump just a little bit and a smile starts to spread across my face.

"Aslan is on the move."

It's the same feeling I have about JAX. The city has had a long winter.. but I'm beginning to see hints of Spring. Beneath blankets of white snow, the grass begins to thaw. The cold air is beginning to fill with birds that are singing new songs. Flowers long thought dead are waking from their sleep. It's not very pretty at this point but if you squint at it you might just see what it could be.

The Image Church is not the answer to Jacksonville's problems, but it's one of many messengers to the good news of the Gospel - that God's own Son has come as One of us to live perfectly, though tempted and to die the death we deserve for our rebellion against a loving Father.

How sweet the news it is we share - a better answer to our problems than I could ever think possible!

I'm Baptist. I'm Presbyterian. I'm Arminian. I'm Calvinist. We're reformed. We're liturgical. We're modern. We're spiritual. We have drums. We have art. We have pews. We have dinner. We're spirit-filled. We're mission-focused. We're planting churches. We're making disciples. We believe in love. We want justice. We meet in a basement. We meet in a cathedral. We're new-wave. We're old-school.

This is a list of things I've heard that Christians have used to describe themselves and their churches. When you look at this list you may identify with a few of these. I know I do. In fact, some of these should be how every church describes themselves. However it's in this list that you can see certain "party lines" drawn. It's there that things become a little sticky. It's in the midst of lists like this that you begin using "they" and "them" and not "us" and "we". I've honestly thought about this quite a bit and there has always been tension on my part about using such distinctive words to describe myself or beliefs. Should I be "drawing lines in the sand", so to speak? Should I even bother affiliating myself with some of these "distinctions"? Some of these party lines close doors immediately for opportunities I might have. People associate you with the wrong word and next thing you know you aren't welcome in certain circles. Why even bother? Yesterday I listened to a talk given by Tim Keller at a conference in London last year. He spoke on what it means to be Evangelical. I'm a total nerd so of course this topic sounded like a "fun" listen.

As Pastor Keller began unpacking the distinctive of the Evangelical movement, Keller noted that despite his Calvinistic understanding of Salvation, he could sit next to a Wesleyan brother who also identified as evangelical and feel a stronger kinship than those in his own Presbyterian denomination. Keller went on to say something along the lines of, "We might both believe in infant baptism but I'm much more likely to feel at home with someone whom embraces the fullness and inerrancy of the Scripture."

How true!

Keller broke down Evangelicalism as 3 major points: 1. Belief in the final, inerrant, full and clarifying Word of God. 2. Belief in the Gospel. That Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone and by the substitutionary work of Christ alone. 3. Belief that all of life is repentance. That as we become more fully aware of God's goodness, love and holiness in contrast to our rebellion, sin and self-sufficiency and in doing so we live lives of repentance - turning from self-worship and creation-worship to God-worship.

His breakdown, in my opinion, covers all the bases that must be covered and opens the door to further discussion of those foundational and common beliefs among the Evangelical community.

But it was after this that he said something so profound I have been thinking about it all day. Keller says that no matter what, we are going to draw lines in the sand. Even if you say, "I don't draw lines in the sand" you are in fact.. drawing a line in the sand - it's unavoidable. Keller goes on to say that it's not the unavoidable lines we should be worrying about but how we treat those on the other side of the lines. How do we treat those in opposition to our nice and neat little worldviews?

Too often I make a devil of those that don't agree with me theologically or even philosophically. It's rather easy to simply crawl back to my cherished little books that I read and blogs that I peruse and sooth myself with thinking that I'm right and they're wrong and that's that. But is that really the Christianity I've come to love?

It's much easier to simply wave away those that oppose you with a clenched fist. It's the humble outstretched hand of friendship that I have a hard time extending. Thankfully Jesus is changing that in me.

I hope you join me in praying that we all become a little bit more humble in how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ and especially those outside of the Church when the time comes for discussing hard topics and Biblical theology. That we seek to know God's truth's and show His love rather than seeking our own glory and rightness in these encounters - that we speak truth in love. I'll end with quote from a friend:

There's something terribly wrong with the world - and I'm starting to think it's me.