Paul Stewart

Salt & Light

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5v13-16

On Sunday we continued our series on the Sermon on the Mount by exploring Jesus’ words about salt & light (you can listen to the entire message HERE). Jesus uses these metaphors to teach about the responsibility of Christians in the world. By saying we are to be salt and light, He is saying there is darkness in the world and we are to be the light; there is decay in the culture and we are to be a preservative. There are four characteristics about salt and light that help us understand what this means.

1. Salt & Light are distinct and influential

Jesus says the salt must retain its saltiness, it must not become contaminated. And the light must retain its brightness; it must not be smothered by the darkness. Christians are to be holy, set-apart and distinct from the world. But unfortunately too many Christians stop there. They are content to cloister themselves away from the world for fear of being contaminated. But at that point what good are they? 

Salt and light are not just different from their environment, they are to have a powerful influence on their environment. Salt must be rubbed into the meat in order to stop the rot and the light is to shine into the darkness. It is to be set upon a lamp stand, and it is to give light to the environment. 

2. Salt & Light expose decay and darkness

If you are light, that means that your life should be so beautiful, that when your life comes into contact with its surrounding environment it reveals it for what it really is.

So for example, if you are a Christian, then just by your very presence your life reveals the dishonesty in your business, the gossip in your office, the racism in your neighborhood, the corruption in your political caucus or the promiscuity at the party. 

Just simply by being a Christian, just by showing up, you reveal things for what they are. It makes the racism look like racism. It makes the gossip look like gossip. It makes the corruption look like corruption. 

If you live like Jesus Christ, the beauty of that is going to reveal the reality of the environment. If you are a Christian, living like Jesus Christ then the beauty of your life is going to expose the decay and darkness around you. It is going to reveal to people what is good and bad.

Is your life so remarkable that it shows the contrast between the beauty of Christ and the world around you... or do you just blend in?

3. Salt & Light bring joy

Jesus says, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds.” There are two Greek words that can be used for “good” - agothos and kalos. Agothos means good in quality. Kalos means beautiful. Jesus uses Kalos. Your deeds ought to be beautiful.

Salt is, after all, not just a preservative. It’s a seasoning. It brings out the taste. It makes things taste better. And light shows the beauty of all things. In other words, salt and light bring joy to people.

Now, I just said that salt and light can expose racism, promiscuity and corruption. That of course that can get you some persecution. But at the same time you bring joy to your neighbors. You are the stability in your office. You bring beauty into your home.

Because a Christian never looks at a situation and asks, “What can I get out of it?” A Christian acts like salt and asks, "How can I bring the best out of this organization, out of this group, out of these people?"

This is extremely difficult because we live in a consumer driven culture. What started out as just an economic system has radically affected every area of our lives. People go to work, go to school, go to church asking “What can I get out of it?” “What can I take from this job to help me move up the corporate ladder?” “How will this group or these people help enhance my position?”

But a Christian goes into a job or a school or a neighborhood and asks “How can I make this the best possible place?”John Stott says, “Like salt in putrefying meat, Christians help to prevent social decay. Like light in the prevailing darkness, Christians to illumine society and show it a better way.” A Christian brings joy.

4. Salt & Light work together

Salt has to work together - one grain isn’t going to season anything. We have to be a unit. A city is a corporate place - and we are to be a city on a hill. 

In fact, that is what this whole sermon is about. The Sermon on the Mount is not primarily addressed to individuals - because it is precisely as individuals that we are most likely to fail as Christians. These are words for the colonists.

This sermon is not about how to be better individual Christians - it is a picture of what the church should look like. It is an invitation to become citizens of a New Kingdom.

The church is not a club. It is supposed to be a colony. A city. A new humanity. A people who are faithful to their promises, love their enemies, tell the truth, honor the poor, suffer for righteousness, and visibly testify to the amazing community-creating power of God. A place where people can tangibly see what the Kingdom of God looks like.

We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Together the local church is the most concrete expression we can give to the world of the reality of God’s kingdom.

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled;
When the kings and the princes are home;
When the shepherds are back with their flocks;
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost;
To feed the hungry;
To release the prisoner;
To rebuild the nations;
To bring peace among the family;
To make music in the heart.

- Howard Thurman

Threads: A Worship Project from The Gateway Church

Our dream at The Gateway Church has always been to gather a diverse community of people with just one thing in common; Christ. We've had lawyers and construction workers, students and teachers, artists and financial planners, wealthy and homeless all come to call Gateway home. With nothing in common except Christ, we have the opportunity to impact every part of our city - from the banks to the streets. 

We wanted to communicate this in the way that we worship. We want diversity in styles, but unity in purpose. Varying technique, but focused passion. Ultimately we believe our worship should represent our community to God and God to our community.

As our community grows and continues to become more diverse, so should our worship. Our people don't all fit into one mold, but we believe this is part of God's design. When we all come together with one purpose, when we're woven together, we create this beautiful tapestry that's made up of thousands of individual threads. 

This is where the foundation for our first worship album "Threads" came from. When you take a selection of original songs written by different artists in our community and compile them into one project, you end up with a beautiful piece of work that more clearly represents our community and our creator than any single song, or songwriter, or any single thread could. 

The album will be available on iTunes starting November 22nd... Or you can click HERE to hear the first single "Faithful" and to pre-order the Limited Edition physical copy.

Come & Listen

Last weekend at Gateway we successfully launched our second worship service. On top of that we rolled out a brand new stage design, child check-in process, connection table and newcomer assimilation process. Needless to say, it was a busy week. In fact this week I felt a lot like I did two years ago after our very first worship service. Tired and happy. But all of our hard work paid off. We had over 230 people in attendance with dozens of first-time visitors. I am so proud of our staff, our ministry teams and our entire church. God is really doing something remarkable in downtown Des Moines.

This Sunday we are beginning a new sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Nowhere does Jesus talk more clearly about what it looks like to follow him than in the Sermon on the Mount. It's a provocative and counter-intuitive announcement about what happens when God shows up: The poor, the meek, and those who mourn are called blessed. Enemies are loved, the poor are cared for God's will is done on earth.

Jesus is announcing that God is showing up! That the life of heaven, which had seemed so distant and unreal, is in the process of coming true on earth. These are not rules that need to be obeyed in order to be rewarded. Things to avoid if you want to make it to heaven. This is an announcement about an entirely new state of affairs, a new reality which is in the process of bursting into the world. 

The sermon is a radical call to action. It sets forth a revolutionary new way of life. We are told to 'turn the other cheek' to 'love our enemies' and to 'invest our treasure in heaven.' But all of these demands are ultimately a summons - beckoning us to experience His kingdom, to live under its values, right now in the present. Come and listen! The kingdom of God is here.

Convoy of Hope is Coming to Des Moines

On November 12th Gateway will be partnering with a number of other churches in our city along with corporations, schools, non-profit agencies and thousands of volunteers in  one of the largest community outreaches our city has ever seen. 

The event will be held on Saturday, November 12th from 10am - 2pm at Wells Fargo Arena downtown Des Moines. We'll provide thousands of free groceries, job and health fairs, haircuts and makeovers as well as inflatables and activities for children.

Volunteers will be given an opportunity to connect with thousands of people in our city and display Christ’s love and mercy to all - regardless of age, race, physical appearance, or spiritual condition.

If you attend Gateway you can sign up to volunteer by clicking HERE.
If you don't attend Gateway but you, your church or your organization would like to get involved go HERE. 

Evangelism is Just Temporary Work

"God made the created world by his Spirit (Gen. 1:1-3) and continues to care for and sustain it by his Spirit (Ps. 104:30), watering and enriching it (Ps. 65:9–13) and feeding and meeting the needs of every living thing (Pss. 145:15–16 and 147:15–20). Indeed, the very purpose of redemption is to massively and finally restore the material creation (Rev. 21–22). God loves this created world so much that he sent his Son to redeem it. This world is a good in and of itself; it is not just a temporary theater for individual salvation.

If the Holy Spirit is not only a preacher that convicts people of sin and grace (John 16:8–11; 1 Thess. 1:5) but also a gardener, an artist, and an investor in creation who renews the material world, it cannot be more spiritual and God-honoring to be a preacher than to be a farmer, artist, or banker.

Evangelism is temporary work, while musicianship is permanent work. In the new heavens and new earth, preachers will be out of a job! Ultimately the purpose of evangelism is to bring about a world in which musicians will be able to do their work perfectly."

- Tim Keller

Steve Jobs and the Meaning of Life

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
                                                                         - Steve Jobs

The consciousness of death is the beginning of all philosophy. It causes you to stop and question - what really matters? What does it all mean? What am I doing that will last? I was struck when I picked up the newspaper this morning and learned of Steve Jobs death. He had such an impact on my life through the films he helped create at Pixar to the technology he designed at Apple. Our world will never be the same. Or will it?

The quote above is from Jobs' commencement address at Stanford in 2005 and has been making the rounds across the internet over the past 24 hours. The words are inspiring and especially poignant on a day like today, however, I’m not sure I agree.

At Gateway we’ve been in a sermon series on Ecclesiastes. This book is unlike any other book in the Bible. Most of the books of the Bible we go to to find answers. But Ecclesiastes is a book of questions, not answers. It was written to draw something out of you. It asks life’s tough questions and pushes you to the follow the logical conclusion of your assumptions and beliefs. It asks, “Why do you believe that? And if you believe that, do you see where that belief ultimately leads?”

It begins like this: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?”

The word “meaningless” and the phrase “under the sun” are repeated again and again throughout the book and are the keys to understanding the approach of the Teacher.

The Hebrew word for “meaningless” is hevel which translates vapor, mist, or breath. Life is vapor. It’s all a mist. Success, invention, money, fame, wisdom, education, power - it’s all hevel. It is here today and gone tomorrow.

The phrase “under the sun” refers to the realm of the created, which exists in time. Namely the time between the day you were born and the day you die. It is everything we can touch, see and observe. The Teacher is saying, “Let’s assume that nature is all there is. Let’s assume that the only life is the life under the sun. There is no heaven or hell. There is no God. If that is the case, what does it all mean?”

This book was written thousands of years ago, but this is actually a very modern approach. Every scientist will tell you that one day our sun will burn up and die. Which means that absolutely everything you do will be utterly forgotten. Nothing you do will make any lasting difference. There is no gain! There is no profit! It is all meaningless!

If this life is all there is then death trumps every card you can play.

No amount of strategic planning.
No amount of due-diligence.
No amount of risk management.
No amount of hard work will stop it!

So in the face of death what does really matter? What can we do that will last? What does it all mean?

Like Jobs, the Teacher tries “following his heart.” He pursues a variety of different paths. Pleasure and frivolity (2v10); wisdom and education (2v15); work and philanthropy (2v4). Like Jobs he did it all. Accomplished it all. He got the BMW. Solved the equation. Finished the book. Invented the iPod. Then he looks all that he had done and has the guts to ask - what does it all mean? “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” (2v11)

If our origin is insignificant and our destiny is insignificant then our lives must be insignificant. Following your heart is just vague sentimentality. 

So what is the answer? The book of Ecclesiastes only hints at it. In the end the Teacher concludes, “A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (2v24). Here, for the first time in this book, we see God begin to invade life under the sun. God the uncreated entering into the realm of the created. 

What is the Teacher saying? 

Either there is life above the sun - a God who created you, sustains you, and will ultimately judge you - or else everything is ultimately meaningless. Either there is life above the sun and there is meaning or there is only life under the sun and nothing means anything. And there is no middle ground.

So how do we know?

John chapter 1 says, “In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God... The logos became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Logos is a Greek philosophical term that essentially meant the reason for life. In the time before Christ the Greek philosophers used to get together and say, “if we could just discover the logos of life, then things will be fine.” So they would argue about what the logos could be. Confucius said we should honor our parents and ancestors. Others said our logos is to make the world a better place. Others said we should just follow our heart. But everyone found that when they brought their lives into accord with it, it didn’t transform them.

By the time Jesus arrived many were saying there is no logos. There is no meaning in life.

And into that, John steps in and says there is logos. But the logos is not a truth brought by a person, it is a truth that is a person. It is not an abstract principle or theorem. The logos is a human being. God come to earth. Invading life under the sun. Dwelling among us. Showing us how much we matter. How much creation matters. How much every moment of our lives matter!

And when you know this logos you find your reason for life and now instead of nothing meaning anything, everything means everything.

To be a Christian means to follow Christ and reflect his nature - and when you do you begin to realize that everything in this life matters. Every moment. Every child’s hug. Every midnight conversation. Every walk in nature. Everything is a reflection of the truth of God’s nature.

I know the reason that Winter turns into Spring and that a seed becomes flower is because God brings life out of death.

I know that when I talk to someone in the airport, I could have the opportunity to turn them toward God and that conversation could be something that 3 billion years from now we look back on with laughter and tears in our eyes because right now counts forever. 

I know that when my baby is crying at 4am and I go to help her out that this child is not just the result of a random collision of molecules and that nothing she ever does will ultimately matter. No. I know this child is created in the image of God. Created with an immortal soul. If this child turns toward the Lord than someday we will sit together around the throne of God laughing and loving and rejoicing in eternity.

When I clean my house, wash my car, cook a meal - this is not just an electro-chemical need in my brain for order. It’s because I was made in the image of a God who brings order out of chaos.

Everything means everything or nothing means anything. If Jesus becomes your logos - than every moment matters.

2 Years. 2 Services.

In the past two years Gateway has grown from a handful of people meeting in a living room to nearly 200 gathering weekly to discover the way of Jesus, to connect with community, and to explore together ways we can serve one another and our world.

On October 16th, in an effort to accomodate continued growth and impact on our city, we will be launching a second service. The new service times will be 9am & 10:45am and will be identical.

Our gatherings are a great opportunity to express our faith together through song, Scripture reading and teaching. To meditate together on the truths of the gospel: God’s beauty and holiness, our brokenness and need for humility, grace, and healing, and the glory of Christ in uniting us to God and to one another in love. If you're in Des Moines, we would love for you to join us!

Creating a Discipleship Culture

Mike Breen believes the missional movement will fail. Why? Because we don’t have a missional problem or a leadership problem in the Western church. We have a discipleship problem.

In his new book Building a Discipling Culture he argues that most American pastors have been educated and trained to build, serve and lead the organization of the church. But most have never actually been trained on how to make disciples. So we can grow our volunteer base, form systems and organizational structures and preach sermons on Sunday mornings but never actually create disciples.

Many of us serve in or lead churches where we have hundreds or even thousands of people showing up on Sunday. But we have to honestly answer this question: Do their lives look like the lives of the people we see in Scripture? Are we just good at getting people together once a week and maybe into a small group, or are we actually good at producing the types of people we read about in the New Testament? Have we shifted our criteria for a good disciple as someone who shows up to our stuff, gives money and occasionally feeds poor people? 

Here is the problem: You don’t build churches in order to make disciples; you make disciples and get the church.

In fact, Jesus never called us to build his church. Jesus said, “I will build my church.”  Our job, and the last instructions he gave us, was to make disciples. It is out of this we will get the church. If you make disciples, you always get the church. But if you make a church, you rarely get disciples.

But no one accidentally creates disciples. Discipleship is an intentional pursuit. Dallas Willard says every church should be able to answer two questions: First, what is our plan for making disciples? Second, does our plan work? 

Disciples are people who learn to be like Jesus and learn to do what Jesus could do. Breen argues that this involves both Character and Competency. We need the character that Jesus has and we need to be able to do the things that Jesus could do. Discipleship is learning, over the course of our lives, to become people who have both. If we produce disciples who have one without the other they will either have limited impact or cause unlimited harm.

Character: Are their lives characterized by grace? Peace? Love? Transformation? Patience? Humility? A deep relationship with the Father? A love of the scriptures? Can they submit?  Do they see the world through the eyes of the Kingdom and not the prevailing culture? 

Competency: Can they disciple people well who can then disciple others? Can they do mission well? Can they hear the voice of their Father and respond with action, with His authority and power? When they pray, do things happen as they did for Jesus? Can they read and teach scripture well? 

But here is the deal: In order for this kind of learning to take place discipleship must be more than just a plan or a strategy or a system. Disciple making must become a part of the church’s culture. People who are not only learning about the reality of the Kingdom of God (competency) but who are being shown how to live in that new reality (character) by immersing themselves in the culture of the church.

The sermons might be great.
The music could be incredible.
The website is beautiful.
The newcomer assimilation system is second-to-none.
But if the culture, language and rhythms of the church do not reflect the life and ministry of Jesus, the church will fail to produce disciples.

Discipleship is creating a new culture.

A week in El Salvador

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to travel to El Salvador with some leaders from Gateway to explore some potential partnerships there. We spent the week with Ron Bueno who is the executive director and founder of ENLACE. 

ENLACE is a truly remarkable organization. Since 1993, ENLACE has been strategically equipping churches in El Salvador to alleviate poverty by becoming servant-leaders in their communities. Churches are given the tools they need to identify, design and manage sustainable initiatives in their communities - including clean water systems, micro-loans, community gardens, health clinics, improved roads and sanitization.

ENLACE believes that the local church is the key to solving poverty in El Salvador - but it wasn’t always that way. Ron group up as a missionary-kid in El Salvador and when he returned to the country in 1993 he had little interest in working with the church. At first, ENLACE focused all of their training and coaching on community leaders. But very early on they realized that the church would be the best agent of change for their community. Ron writes...

“In the first few years, we worked hard to include the community in the design and management of projects so that they would have ownership and participation; however, we realized that no matter how well we helped the community design their projects to be just and efficient we could not change people’s relationships to each other. For example, people would work together to build a water system they all needed, but as soon as there was a problem with someone’s spigot, they would not necessarily work together to help that person resolve their problem. 

The project could not restore relationships, which is the first and most important step in community transformation; only an ongoing, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ can truly change someone’s heart to think of others before themselves.

Community leaders and associations with whom we first worked, ultimately had their own interests in mind and so were influenced by quick solutions or political forces. In contrast, the church’s leadership, seen as body and not as individuals, was a continuous and steady presence in the community which did not act, at least when done well, upon political or personal interest. Rather, the church body committed to a long-term process because it believed in a biblical mandate that led them to commit to their communities.”

Ron came to see that the local church - no matter what it’s size or budget - is a continuous reservoir of resources.  

“ENLACE has worked primarily with churches of less than 100 members located in impoverished, rural areas of El Salvador. Many of the church leaders believed they did not have the financial or human resources to become effective agents of change in their community. As soon as they looked at their church more closely and began to partner with their community, they discovered a wealth of skills and resources within their congregations. Churches already had, or could develop quickly, great fundraising skills and could pool resources together effectively. They also had a deep commitment to stewardship and compassion which made them an endless reservoir of resources to transform their communities.”

During our time there we met Pastor Miguel - who has worked for over 20 years to get clean water to the thousands living in his community. 

In 2005, they successfully drilled three wells hitting enough water for the next 30 to 50 years. Today the work continues to get the water from its source to the people who need it.

We met Pastor Santiago who worked for over three years with his community to construct a road suitable for vehicles and sanitation. 

ENLACE’s micro-finance office down the street from Santiago’s church has helped to provide over 300 micro-loans for small business. 

We met Pastor Walter who is working to provide revenue streams and improve nutrition through community gardens.

Finally, we met Pastor Santos, whose church has helped build 25 homes, repair and rebuild roads, planted dozens of community and home-based gardens and provided programs and aid for the mentally handicapped of their community.

All of these churches have 150 members or less and the majority of the congregation lives on less than $5/ day. Needless to say, as an American pastor this is incredibly inspiring, humbling and convicting all at the same time. How is our church doing at restoring relationships within our community? Have we really embraced the biblical mandate to commit to our neighborhood? Are we directing the wealth of skills and resources within our congregation towards the deepest needs in our city? 

ENLACE understands the integral relationship between the local church and the development of the community better than any organization I have ever seen. I am so excited about this partnership between Gateway and ENLACE and I know that this is going to have as much of an impact on our church as it does in El Salvador.

---

“When a church, as a group of people who love and serve God, begin to lift up their eyes to see each other and their neighbors as God does, they become the salt and light to their community; they become the leaven with spiritual authority to become effective agents of change in their community. It is as a mysterious, amazing, dynamic process where the body is formed and strengthened as its serves effectively its community.” - Ron Bueno

Ecclesiastes: Finding Meaning in a Meaningless World

"When I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless,
a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun."
- Ecclesiastes 2v11

Have you ever put a ton of work or effort into something only to have it fall apart? You find yourself wondering, “What’s it all for? Why did I try so hard?” At some point, all of us are confronted with the tension of living meaningfully in a world that often feels meaningless.

This fall at Gateway we will be exploring the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s essentially the findings of man who devoted his whole life to pursuing wealth, wisdom and understanding in a world that often feels meaningless. 

Most of the books of the Bible we go to to find answers. Ecclesiastes is a book of questions. The book is meant to push you to the logical conclusion of your assumptions. To lay bare the foundations of your life. To push you to the boundaries of your thought. To ask, “Why do you believe that?”And "If you believe that, do you see where that ultimately leads?"

• September 11th | The Question of Meaning
  Is There Any Reason for Existence? | Ecclesiastes 1:1-18

• September 18th | The Question of Psychology
  Why Are We So Unhappy? | Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

• September 25th | The Question of Pain
  Does the Harshness of Life Make Sense? | Ecc. 3:9-4:11

• October 2nd | The Question of Ethics
  How Do We Know Right from Wrong? | Ecc. 6:12, 12:13,14

• October 9th | The Question of Labor
  Why Are We Working So Hard? | Ecc. 2:17-23; 4:4-11

• October 16th | The Question of God
  How Do We Know Him? | Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:8

These are the questions that philosophers have been wrestling with for centuries and these are the questions that we should be bringing to the rest of Scripture so that we can see the true beauty and the power of the gospel.

More Fully Alive

C.S. Lewis once faced the question: Won't pursuing Christian holiness make me naive, less worldly-wise, less experienced? If I follow the principles of the gospel won't I become sheltered, unaware and irrelevant? In other words, won't following Christ make me a sissy? To this objection, Lewis wrote:

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simpbly does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in... Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means - the only complete realist." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity p. 142

Christian theology insists that Jesus Christ is the truest, most perfect, most glorious human being who has ever lived - and that those who want to experience true, full, rich humanness must become like him, must pattern their lives after Jesus' humanity. 

In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 - 7) Jesus announces that the life of heaven, which had seemed so distant and unreal, is in the process of coming true on earth. These are not rules that need to be obeyed in order to be rewarded. Things to avoid if you want to make it to heaven. Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion. He came proclaiming a new kingdom, and he has invited us to participate in it.

This Sermon is a radical call to action. A revolutionary new way of life. Jesus' follower are told to 'turn the other cheek' to 'love their enemies' and to 'invest their treasure in heaven.' But all of these demands are ultimately summons, calls, invitations - beckoning us to experience real, true, beautiful and good humanness.

It is by imitating Christ - conforming my thoughts, beliefs and desires to his - that I become more fully alive, not less. 

Machine Gun Preacher

“Narrative is our culture’s currency; he who tells the best story wins.” - Bobette Buster

Rev. Sam Childers is a former drug dealing, outlaw biker who now risks his life to rescue children in Southern Sudan from one of the world’s most vicious terrorists.

After giving his life to Christ, Sam went on a missions trip to help repair damaged huts in Sudan. During this trip Sam stumbled across the body of a child torn apart by a landmine. He fell to his knees and made a pledge to God to do whatever it took to help the people of Southern Sudan.

For the last 13 years Sam has been battling to rescue children from horrific violence in Southern Sudan where Joseph Kony and his rebel army known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have been relentlessly terrorizing thousands of innocent people. Over 100,000 children have been captured and enslaved into Kony’s rebel army. These children are often forced to kill their parents or be killed themselves. 

Sam is on a mission to rescue as many children as he can and put an end to Kony’s reign of terror. He fights on the front line of the war zone, at times sleeping in the bush with an AK-47 on one side and a bible on the other. The people of Sudan call him the “Machine Gun Preacher”

To date he’s rescued over 1000 children and reunited 700 of them with their families. The other 300 children live in an orphanage that Sam built, where they are protected and rehabilitated to reclaim some semblance of their childhood.

This is a truly remarkable story and Sam’s biography, Another Man’s War, is currently being made into a Hollywood feature film starring Gerard Butler. The film is due for release in September 2011.

Interdependent

"All people are interdependent... Whether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally 'in the red.' We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific Islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world... All of life is interrelated... Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

First Grade!

Can not believe my little girl is in first grade!