I recently received a pre-release copy of Francis Chan’s new book, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit. I had really enjoyed his earlier work, Crazy Love, and had reviewed it on my blog, and, as a result, his publisher graciously sent me his latest book to review before its release date, September 1st.  I was blessed to have this book sent right before our fall kick-off, where things are busy, and I’m especially in my “getting things done” mode.  Chan really challenged me to be a man who leads a church dependent upon God the Spirit.  It’s easy to sinfully throw stones at churches I see as pragmatic or not built on God’s word.  It’s hard to read a book that reminds me of my tendency to rely on my own strength, as well.  Chan’s book does give a helpful introduction to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  But the main thrust of the book is a challenge to trust in Him.  Similar to Crazy Love, the author challenges us to do difficult things that force us to lean on the Spirit of God.  The book was a timely, much needed challenge to me and my ministry.  I’m now pouring through the book of Acts, praying that God will give me the same trust and boldness characterized by the early church.  Francis Chan’s Forgotten God is great.  I think Chan is the Tozer of our generation, saying hard things that must be heard.  I thank God for him and pray God uses this book greatly.

We had our first Gathering in the Tiger Hotel this past Sunday.  It went terrific.  Luke and band led the liturgy below.  I preached the message from “Prodigal God.”  It was great to be in the Tiger!

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 10:00 am

The Call
1 Kings 8:27 - Luke Daugherty
Call to Worship 1.2.26 (The Worship Sourcebook)

The Praises
Indescribable (Laura Story, Jesse Reeves)

The Gospel
Exodus 34:6b-7
We Have Not Known Thee (Lyrics: Thomas Benson Pollack; Music and Arrangement: Krista Wheeler and Tim Smith)
Private Confession of Sin
Lamentations 3:21-26 - Bobby Schembre
Gloria (Taylor Sorenson)
That We Might Live (Words: Joel Lindsey, Music: Joel Lindsey, Allen Schwamb, Jon Mesh)

The Peace
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Rob Gaskin

The Word
Prodigal God: The God of Reckless Grace - Kevin Larson (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)

The Supper
Here is Love (William Rees, Robert Lowry)
Romans 5:8; 1 John 3:16a
The Bread and the Cup

The Prayer
Prayers of the Church - Lynn Bruning

The Offering
Wholly Yours (David Crowder)
Receiving the Offering

The Sending
Benediction (Ephesians 3:18-21) - Luke Daugherty

The Prodigal God: The God of Reckless Grace (Luke 15:1-32)

Four Waves of Grace in Luke 15

1. This Amazing Grace
2. First Wave: blessings as sons of the father
3. Second Wave: inheritance given to younger son
4. Third Wave: restoration extended to younger son
5. Fourth Wave: compassion extended to older son
6. Our Prodigal God

Six Aspects of Grace in Luke 15

1. A welcome that’s wide
2. A relationship that’s attractive
3. A forgiveness that’s free
4. A compassion that’s costly
5. A celebration that’s lavish
6. A pursuit that’s transformative

Sometime ago Mars Hill Church of Seattle, a sponsoring church of Karis, launched a web community-building application called The City.  Beginning this Sunday, we’ll use this great tool at Karis.  We’ll have a Q and A training session following the Sunday Gathering.  Here is a bit of information about it:

What is The City?
The City is web-based software designed to help our whole church build deeper community.  The City will help us connect people into our community, build and enhance real relationships, and multiply ministry and service activity inside and outside the church. In addition, The City streamlines many of our administrative tasks and processes, and gives our pastors and leaders some great tools to lead effectively.

What Will The City Do?

• Facilitate communication. No more email lists, scattered google docs spreadsheets with email information, etc.
• Build community amongst members of the church. Fills in the gaps between Sundays and C-Groups.
• Make connections with guests and new attendees faster than ever.
• Operate more efficiently.  The City has some great tools that all seamlessly integrate together.

Beginning this Sunday, August 23rd, Karis will meet in the Tiger Hotel in downtown Columbia.  We’ll meet at our regular time, 10 a.m., for our corporate worship Gathering.  The Tiger is a familiar place for Karis, a home that has been very good to us.  Join us this Sunday for the next chapter in the life of Karis!

Beginning this fall, Karis Community Groups will gather weekly, along with regular meals and times of prayer, to discuss “Doubting Our Doubts.”  Here is Karis deacon Jeremy Linneman’s great introduction:

A DIVIDED CULTURE

The world is polarizing over religion. In a sense, it is getting more religious and less religious at the same time. On one hand, skepticism, fear, and anger toward religion are growing in both power and influence. In the United States, the non-churchgoing population and those claiming “no religious preference” have increased, and “culture making” centers—universities, media companies, and other elite institutions—shifted from a Christian perspective to a secular worldview in the twentieth century.

But as this shift has occurred, religious faith is growing in almost every culture across the world. Christian churches are growing and reproducing in Africa, Latin America, and Asia at a rate unmatched in human history. Both Christianity and Islam are increasing in the United States and Europe, where even secular universities now find religion to be the center of intellectual activity.

So which is it? Is skepticism on the rise, or is religious faith increasing? Dr. Tim Keller, author of the New York Times nonfiction bestseller The Reason for God, argues that the cultures of our world are at a unique crossroads.

We have come to a cultural moment in which both skeptics and believers feel their existence is threatened because both secular skepticism and religious faith are on the rise in significant, powerful ways. We have neither the Western Christendom of the past nor the secular, religionless society that was predicted for the future. We have something else entirely.

We live in a divided culture. How can we move forward in a culture that is paradoxically becoming more religious and less religious at the same time?

THE LEAP OF DOUBT

At Karis, we’re challenging each other to take a second look at our beliefs and our doubts. First, we’re asking believers to seriously acknowledge their own doubts, as well as the doubts of their culture. Keller says,

A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

Similarly, we’re asking skeptics to examine the reasons behind their beliefs to see an amount of faith within their perspective. Even if you believe you have no need for God or faith, you doubtless hold to a system of beliefs and doubts that govern your values and decisions.

The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it. How do you know that your belief is true? It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is what frequently happens. In fairness you must doubt your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs—you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared.

If believers and skeptics can agree to evaluate each other’s beliefs and investigate their own doubts in a civil manner, the conversation can move to a new level. For the next several months, we’ll evaluate seven of the most common objections to the religious belief and discuss the central claims of robust, orthodox Christian faith. Will you join us on this journey? Email Jeremy to be a part of a Karis C-Group.

Karis is throwing, on Sept. 19th, an Arts Camp in Douglass Park in Columbia.  We’ll teach kids musical and visual arts and tie it to the gospel of our Lord.  We’ll need lots of volunteers, but right now, we are in desperate need of funding.  Would you consider donating toward this?  Some small gifts of $100 to $500 would go a long way.  Email Bobby if you can help.

Here is Sunday’s liturgy, along with Kevin’s sermon points.

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, August 9th, 2009 10:00 am
The Call
Call to Worship 1.2.29 - Bobby Schembre (The Worship Sourcebook)

Opening Song
At Your Feet (Tim Smith)

The Gospel
Confession of Sin 2.2.41 (modified) (The Worship Sourcebook)
I Boast No More (Isaac Watts, Sandra McCracken)
Micah 7:18-19 - Bobby Schembre
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us (Stuart Townend)
Satisfied (Lyrics: Clara T. Williams; Music: Karl Digirness)

Welcome
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Luke Daugherty

The Word Preached
Jesus, Our Compassionate Missionary - Kevin Larson (Luke 15:1-10)

The Supper
There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood (William Cowper, William Horsley)
The Bread and the Cup

Community Life
Sending Our Members - Kevin Larson
Prayers of the Church - Kate Chute

Closing Song
Amazing Grace (John Newton)
Receiving the Offering

The Blessing
Sending 9.1.7 - Bobby Schembre (The Worship Sourcebook)
Fellowship Offering

Sermon: Jesus, Our Compassionate Missionary (Luke 15:1-10)
1. Do we see those around us in the margins?

2. How do we respond to those in the margins? (ignore, condemn)

3. Do we share God’s heart for the margins? (5 glimpses into the heart of God)
a) God’s pursuit - He seeks with much commitment (vv. 4-8)
b) God’s purpose - He initiates so He will get glory (vv. 4-5, 8-9)
c) God’s target - He pursues those far removed from Him (vv. 4, 6, 8-9)
d) God’s plan - He refuses to leave them unchanged (vv. 7-10)
e) God’s delight - He rejoices over those He saves (vv. 6-7, 9-10)

The Karis Story
a) From the Tiger to the Theatre
b) From the Theatre to the Tiger

Four Reasons Why Good for Us
a) Forces us to remember we’re a people, not a building
b) Shows us we’re dependent upon His provision and His will
c) Causes us to get back on mission, sharing the heart of God
d) Reminds us we are the marginalized, not the privileged

4. How do we have this heart for the margins?
a) Gospel conversion - salvation
b) Gospel transformation - sanctification
c) Large part of growth - circumstances
–The Two Trees (Tripp/Lane) - heat produces fruit
–The Four Stages of Corporate Renewal (Lovelace) - prayer, power, prosperity, persecution
d) Phil. 1:29

5. Will we embrace those around us in the margins?

This past weekend, we gathered at the Theatre as a body together.  Intern Bobby Schembre preached from Luke 14:25-35, reprising our “Jesus in the Margins” series.  Luke was back in the saddle, leading the worship Gathering.  Below is the liturgy, followed by Bobby’s sermon points.

Karis Community Church - The Gathering - Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 10:00 am
The Call
Psalm 73:25-28

Opening Songs
The Glory of God (Joe Day; arr. The Parsons)
You Created (Joshua Moore)

The Gospel
Jeremiah 2:12-13 - Luke Daugherty
Private Confession of Sin
Isaiah 44:21-22 - Ann Daugherty
That We Might Live (Words: Joel Lindsey, Music: Joel Lindsey, Allen Schwamb, Jon Mesh)
We Are Listening (Jeremy Quillo)

Welcome
Passing the Peace
Welcome - Kevin Larson
The Word Preached - Jesus in the Margins: Jesus, Our Everything Bobby Schembre (Luke 14:25-35)

The Supper
Come, Ye Sinners (Lyrics: Joseph Hart; Music, alt. Lyrics: Dan Hamilton, Robbie Seay, Ryan Owens, Taylor Johnson)
The Bread and the Cup

The Prayer
Prayers of the Church - Jeremy Linneman

Closing Song
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken (Henry Lyte, Bill Moore)
Receiving the Offering

The Blessing
Benediction 9.2.4 - Luke Daugherty (The Worship Sourcebook)

Sermon: Jesus: Our Everything (Luke 14:25-35) - Bobby Schembre
1. Jesus demands Everything
a) We must hate our families
b) We must die
c) We must renounce our possessions
d) Therefore, do not make a hasty decision for Christ
2. Jesus demands we glorify Him
a) …by reflecting his infinite value
b) …by suffering for Him
c) …with joy
d) …thus winning true disciples for Him
“The blood of Martyrs is the seed of the church” - Tertullian
3. True discipleship
a) A life of repentance (This he gives you)
b) A life of sanctification (This he gives you)
c) A life at the foot of the cross (This he gives you)
d) A life of Holiness (This he gives you)
4. How will you respond?