On March 6th we are going to start a spiritual journey as a church. It will be 35 days of reading devotionals, praying, fasting, and encouraging one another to press into Jesus. It is going to be awesome!
Author Archives: Michael Dennis
Teaching Scripture
I didn’t grow up going to church. Not even close. In fact I made fun of people who went to church. I didn’t know anything about the Bible so it is a little funny to me sometimes that I teach Bible today. Early on when I started learning Scripture and teaching Scripture the focus was on finding the timeless principle. It was really helpful. It was grounded in truth. It wasn’t a personal opinion of the day. It was communicating God’s world. However, I have found teaching timeless principles ultimately leads people moral and behavioral modification. It was a timeless principle, but it ultimately fostered legalistic patterns and neglected to exalt and elevate the righteousness we have been given through faith in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross.
For example, when I would study to teach Old Testament Scriptures I would look for timeless principles so that we could have the life of that Old Testament character. When I would study New Testament Scriptures I would look for principles of how we could live with that same dedication or commitment. It wasn’t bad, it was biblical, but it also didn’t seem to lead to life change. It would lead to behavioral modification, but it would never seem to last. It never seemed to result in lasting courage of Joshua or lasting passion of Paul. As a result it would leave you with one or two responses: Either exhausted because you are trying so hard to have courage or passion, or angry because you can never seem to have encourage courage or passion.
In addition, it reduced Christ’s work on the cross to a closing comment at the end of a lesson. There might be moments where there was a powerful illustration that would be used to call people to transformation, but for the Christ-follower it often seemed like the truth of Christ’s work on the cross was repetitive and something that was for other people.
As I examined this pattern in my life it led me to look at the Scripture differently. It led me to study and teach Scripture with the focus of looking for Christ’s work on the cross being exalted. It led me to not settle for teaching moral principles. It led me to a place of seeing the gospel throughout life and not just in a call of transformation. It doesn’t mean the biblical principles are overlooked, but that the biblical principles aren’t the destination either.
Marathon Tailgate
On February 20th, 9:30am we are going to tailgate for the Austin Marathon. The races creates police barricades around the building we meet in so we decided instead of fighting the marathon we would cheer on the runners. It should be a blast! We will meet at the corner of North Cross Dr. and Burnet Rd.
Austin Dog Fair
On March 20th, 2-5pm we will host our 3rd Austin Dog Fair as a church. It is a lot of fun. We invite local vets, shops, trainers out to the Brentwood Park so that dogs and their owners can have a party in the park. It is really helping dogs make new friends!
There will also be games and contests like trickiest dog, ugliest dog, fastest dog, bobbing for hot dogs, and an agility course. See you there!
How Does Jesus Have Spiritual Conversations? (Ashamed)
Most Christ-followers want to have spiritual conversations with other people because we believe in what Jesus has done in our life and we want others to experience that same transformation, but we don’t know how it happens. We don’t want to be the crazy guy on the corner with a bullhorn. We don’t want to be the angry guy that writes letters to the editor. We don’t want to be the creepy guy that starts telling people what to do, and we aren’t really sure what it is suppose to look like. How does it happen?
When we look at Jesus’ conversations in the gospels there are some similar themes captured below:
OBSERVATION: John 4:5-9
In verses 5-9 we see Jesus is having a conversation with a Samaritan woman and with a little observation we can have a great deal of insight into the conversation. She is a woman and it was unusual for men to have a conversation with women. She is a Samaritan which creates some ethnic division between Jesus (Jewish) and her being a Samaritan. In addition, she is drawing water from the well at the sixth hour, which was about noon and it is the hottest part of the day. Typically women would come in the morning to socialize, but as we read the story we see this woman has been through multiple marriages.
Can you imagine the shame of being married and divorced multiple times? Multiple times telling your friends, “This is the one! This time its going to work. This time it is going to last.” Multiple times of hearing someone say, “I will love you forever” and not seeing them follow through on their word. With just a little bit of observation we see a woman carrying a lot of guilt and shame.
Why Does God Make Us Feel So Ashamed?
I think shame and guilt might be the most common experience people have in their relationship with God. There is a conclusion that God is up in heaven with a giant clipboard keeping track of everything we do wrong and and the few things we do right. I don’t know if it is from parents, Santa Clause, coaches, but it is easy to feel like we have disappointed God and He is shaking his head at us and thinking, “I expected better.”
I have been meeting with people for over 12 years and have found that everyone has deep rooted layers of shame and guilt that drive our relationship with God and others. It looks different for everyone. Some of us are covered with so much shame and guilt we are trying really hard to make God happy. As if there was a giant scale up in heaven and every time we do something “right” we feel like it tips the scales of God’s favor in our direction. Some of us are covered with so much guilt and shame we end up hating God. We resent Him for making us feel this way so we deny Him, block Him out, ignore, overlook, and ultimately end up hating Him.
How Does Jesus Have Spiritual Conversations? (Religious)
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Most Christ-followers want to have spiritual conversations with other people because we believe in what Jesus has done in our life and we want others to experience that same transformation, but we don’t know how it happens. We don’t want to be the crazy guy on the corner with a bullhorn. We don’t want to be the angry guy that writes letters to the editor. We don’t want to be the creepy guy that starts telling people what to do, and we aren’t really sure what it is suppose to look like. How does it happen?
When we look at Jesus’ conversations in the gospels there are some similar themes captured blow:
OBSERVATION: John 3:1-2
In verses 1-2 we see Jesus is having a conversation with someone who is a man named Nicodemus who is described as a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. Nicodemus was someone with a religious background. It is easy to find people with a religious background today. We turn everything into religion, however, Jesus continually spoke against religion because religion is about what we do to put ourselves in a relationship with God. Religion is about being good people and doing good things, however, Jesus never calls us to be good people and do good things. He actually calls us to be perfect people, yet that perfection was never to come from ourselves but through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross.
How to study the Bible?
Going through Scripture can be a lot of fun, but it can easily turn into simply learning information and seeing who can win the bible trivia championship. It could also turn into religious habits of talking about Scripture, but never really experiencing life transformation. Last night we started reading through Philippians 1:1-11 in the New Testament. It was a lot of fun. We read through the passage, talked about the passage, talked about what it would look like today, but in the last 15 minutes we went through these questions and it was really helpful:
What is the big idea of the passage?
Finding the big idea is just looking at the 11 verses and summing it up to 2-3 of your own words. There really isn’t a wrong answer unless someone says something like “circus and peanuts.” That would be wrong. Scripture is interactive and the Spirit of God will teach us His truth so individually we could come up with “big ideas” and ideally we would all have similar big ideas. For our group, we fumbled through some attempts and generally came up with big ideas about joy. Now, some bibles will have subtitles so try not to cheat and short change the experience 🙂
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How much money is enough?
When you work in business there is this constant pull to make more money. Why not? Money is a lot of fun. Our culture will constantly pull us to make more money. We will buy nicer cars, bigger houses, more gadgets, better vacations, better schools and we constantly feel like we need more money.
I remember someone telling me once the question isn’t, “How much money is enough, but how many hours a week is enough.” We can always work more hours and make more money, but instead we need to define the amount of hours. For most of us it is 40-50 hours a week. Work really hard during those hours and then be content with the amount of money those hours bring in for income. For some, it will be $30K and for others it will be $100K, but either way that will answer how much money is enough.
God knows our needs, He gave us our abilities and instead of working 10 more hours for $10K we would do better to work really hard during those hours and trust God to provide us with the money we need.
Trusting in Jesus
“Tis’ so sweet to trust in Jesus” are the words of the great hymn and although those words are true it is scary to trust in Jesus. There is a fear that we will look stupid, manipulated, deceived, or get hurt and it can be scary.
This last week Tucker (3 year old of awesomeness) would stand up on the arm of the couch and jump on to the floor and giggle. He thought it was the best. As I was walking pass the couch he stood up on the arm of the couch and he was almost as tall me so I stopped to give him a hug. I couldn’t resist. I hugged him really tight and then said, “Tucker, fall backwards on the couch.” He simply said, “Okay!” and he leaned back into my arms until I let him go and he fell straight back. After his body bounced off the couch he giggled and said, “That was scary.”
When we place our faith in Jesus’ work on the cross it can feel a little scary because we can analyze it over and over, but just like Tucker was sure he would land on the couch we can be sure of Jesus’ work on the cross. It is sufficient. It is why, moments before His death, He says “It is finished.” It is why 1 Peter teaches us “Christ died for sins once and for all.” It is why He resurrected from the dead to overcome death. It is why the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us as a deposit that He will complete what He has started. It is why He gives us one another.
We often fear what we don’t know and the greatest thing we can do is get to know Jesus. Tucker knew the couch. He knew it would hold him. He knew what he was standing on. He was sure of the couch. Perhaps as we begin a new year we can take one step closer to getting to know Jesus and see that He is trustworthy.
2011 Family Budget
Each year my wife and I sit down to work on our finances as a family. In the past we would consider the additional income from salary increases based on job performance, however, over the last two years of starting a new church we have taken a $15K deduction in salary, no increase, and taken on more expenses. Our property tax has increased $150 a month alone in the last two years so needless to say it makes finances a challenge.
Don’t get me wrong it has been worth it. God has provided for all our needs and beyond as we have stepped out in faith, but it has been a challenge. Things break down, you always want more, credit cards make it easy to overspend, and each year it seems like children bring on new expenses. As you step out in faith to start a new church be sure to count the cost of the financial sacrifices it will take on the front end.
Recently, a friend of mine in California started a company to help with some of these challenges. It seemed like every financial quarter the credit card companies would reward us for going into debt and he started dreaming that perhaps we could be rewarded for getting out of debt. It is called Payoff.com. It is still in the beginning stages, but it is something I am excited about. It is going to create an online community to be around other people who are excited about paying off debt. That is pretty awesome!
As you begin to dream about starting a new church I would do everything possible to pay off as much debt as possible. God was so good to us to lead us to a place to pay off school loans, credit cards, car loans, so that we could enter into the church planting stages without any debt, but our house. I wish payoff.com would have been around when we paid off that debt so we could have been around other people as we pressed toward our goals.
How do you stop lying?
It’s a new year and always a good time of the year to create new habits and behaviors. One character flaw I have noticed in my life is how easy it is to lie. We all lie. Sometimes we lie about some of the weirdest things. I will even find myself wondering, “Why did I just lie about that?”
Sometimes we will lie to get out of things like when our wife asks if the baby has a dirty diaper and we will say no. Then a few minutes later she will see that the baby does have a dirty diaper and we will say something like, “Oh really, I didn’t smell anything. Really? It must be my allergies. Well, let me know next time and I will change it.”
When the cop pulls us over about speeding we will say, “Oh really, I didn’t know I was going that fast even though I tapped on the brakes when I saw you. Thank you officer I want to be safe.”
North Village Church 2011
We are in our second year as a church and slowly articulating the vision and purpose of our church with a bit more clarity. When we started the church it was a goal to not to push a vision and purpose onto a church, but instead allow it to come out of the church. Over the last year this is what we have been able to articulate:
Vision: To see every man, woman, and child experience the life transforming power of Jesus Christ in Greater Austin.
This is a huge vision and we want to see it happen in our life time. To help this vision become a reality we have partnered with 19 other churches in greater Austin as well as planting new churches. For 2011 we are planning on starting 3 churches.
Mission: To see every block in every neighborhood in North Central Austin have someone praying and caring for the spiritual needs of that block.
Again, a huge challenge, however, instead of asking the Christ-follower to pray for all of Asia or even greater Austin our hope is that they would pray for the 20 houses on their block. In addition, we hope to partner with other churches in our immediate context who are like minded.
Purpose: To become a family family of Christ-followers who are committed to connecting the people of North Central Austin with the life transforming power of Jesus Christ.
We are family working together toward our vision and this means full participation from everyone. It isn’t 100 people watching professionals do the ministry and applauding their effort, but all of us stepping out in faith to experience God doing the miraculous in us. We have defined a Christ-follower as:
- Connecting with Jesus
- Connecting with North Village Church
- Connecting with the community
- Connecting others with Jesus
Just a recap of the last year with the family
We had a great year. Got to go to Disney World, celebrate our first year of North Village Church, 10 year anniversary in Miami, Kennedy started kindergarten, Tucker turning into a little boy, and even though there were some painful moments over the last year God’s grace continues to pour out on to our lives.
Christmas 2010
In a few days we will celebrate the greatest gift ever given to humanity. The gift is described as a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Considering most of our gifts to each other will be gift cards we have a God who goes to the trouble of giving Himself. Take a moment to reflect on the description:
Savior: This is why Jesus came. Jesus came to be our Savior. All of humanity has sinned against God and we need to be saved. Sin is anything that doesn’t line up with the perfection of God and there are sins of omission and commission. Sins of commission are the ones we know like lying, stealing, and killing, but there are also sins of omission related to our mind and emotions and at times we are not even aware. It is all sin and it separates us from the holiness of God.
Our culture doesn’t believe in sin. Our culture tells us we are just fine, and we just need to look within to find our inner firework to shoot across the sky, sky, sky. The only problem is that the firework doesn’t last forever and instead of looking within we need to look out and see that Jesus has come to save us.
Serving North Central Austin 