Absolute Surrender by David Achata

“I say it again, God will bless you. You have been praying for blessing. But do remember, there must be absolute surrender. At every tea-table you see it. Why is tea poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and given up for the tea. But put ink, or vinegar, or wine into it, and will they pour the tea into the vessel? And can God fill you, can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. Let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God, and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart: ‘O God, I accept Thy demands. I am thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace.’”

I read this the other day in Andrew Murray's book, Absolute Surrender. This quote is behind the journey my family and I are embarking on very soon.

Many of you know that Amy and I have sensed the Lord guiding us over the past few months to make a huge move out west. We've seen many confirmations that we're moving in the right direction. But ultimately, it's all about absolute surrender. I can understand why Paul says in Phil. 3:13. "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead . . ." I question if people can be "absolutely surrendered" to Jesus – but that's what believers are moving toward. I know I want to move toward that.

When a person considers the cost of following Jesus (Luke 14:25-34), one has to ask, "How is this possible?" How can one attain what Jesus wants: absolute surrender? It's in the quote. I think it has to do with recognition of what we were made for. Murray would say that a pen is made for writing. It can't write correctly if two hands are on it. It can only be given up for writing if a single hand is guiding it.

This past year has been a process of me taking an honest assessment of my motives, my passions and how they line up with what God wants for my life. The result: I saw there were other "hands" on the pen of my life. The hand of job security, the hand of health insurance, the hand of a great church and the hand of a great neighborhood. Those things aren't bad, but when they become ultimate and end up standing in the way of the call of God, they need to be demoted to their proper place.

I haven't attained absolute surrender, but I'm on the way. What kinds of things do you need to surrender? Give yourself up to the master. Let him be the hand that guides your life, and you'll find yourself on a journey, and if you ever come back, you'll be transformed so much that it's like you never really came back. Like Murray says, "Let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God, and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart: 'O God, I accept Thy demands. I am thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace.'"

It's been a wonderful experience working at Florida Hospital Church. Thanks for a great journey!

David Achata

Follow the Achata’s adventures: http://gowithoutknowing.tumblr.com

Going, Not Knowing by David Achata

Four weeks from today we pack the U-Haul and head west. I can’t believe it’s been almost eight years since we moved to Florida. We’ve had such a great time here and have learned so much. We’re entering into what we have started calling “a season of learning.” This is pretty silly though, because isn’t everything we do a learning experience anyway?

I’m learning that faith is kind of like this. We think we can label certain times of our lives as “faith journeys” when truly, isn’t every day a faith journey?

A few weeks ago Pastor Andy preached a sermon called Faith That Walks Away. At one point he quoted Paul in Acts 20:22 where Paul says, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.” Andy’s point: Christians are people who are always “Going, not knowing.” This, he said, is what it means to live by faith.

But isn’t everyone living this way? After all, who really knows what’s going to happen to them during the course of their day? We all make plans, but none of us really know what’s going to happen by the time the sun goes down tonight. We are “going, not knowing” whether we recognize it or not. EVERYTHING that’s done is a matter of faith. EVERYONE is always “going, not knowing.”

In Acts 20, the Apostle Paul says that he doesn’t know all the details about what’s going to happen to him. He did, however, reveal the few details he did know: “that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.” (20:23)

Paul didn’t know what was going to happen to him. He just knew it wasn’t going to be easy. So why did he do it? He did it because his own life wasn’t worth anything to him. He didn’t live for his own interests. Instead, he had one all-consuming passion: to “finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (20:24)

What if we all lived “going, not knowing” lives? We all do anyway. But what if we did it on purpose? What if, like Paul, we embrace it instead of being afraid of it?

Imagine you woke up tomorrow and 20 years of your life had passed. Take a moment and wander around the results of your “going, not knowing” life. What do you think it’s going to look like?

David Achata

How to Choke Out the Kingdom by David Achata

I’m currently trying to save money to move across the country. The result is the constant struggle deciding what’s a necessity and what’s a luxury. The whole process is teaching me that I’ve lived for a long time getting used to having materialistic comforts.

In light of this, I’ve been thinking on Matthew 13 and the parable of the sower. The parable is about the Kingdom of God (or the reign of God), suggesting it is like a farmer who “went out to sow his seed.” Jesus then proceeds to list all the places the seed fell:

1. along the path (birds ate it)

2. in rocky places (died because of shallow soil, no root)

3. among thorns (got choked)

As the disciples are trying to figure all this out, Jesus tells them, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” (13:11) In other words, the disciples got something that the crowds didn’t.

Jesus goes on to explain that when people hear the good news about the Kingdom (ie. A new way of life is available to humanity through Jesus Christ), a few problems can occur:

1. They don’t understand it, so “the evil one” snatches it away (vs. 19).

2. Trouble or persecution comes, so they lose hope (vs. 20-21).

3. They get sidetracked with the “worries of this life” and the “deceitfulness of wealth” (vs. 22).

The more I talk with people, the more I see that most of us fit into one of those categories. When God puts a dream in our hearts and a vision of the way things should be, it either grows in us or it’s choked out. Jesus was gracious enough to give us a clear picture of how that can happen.

As I continue to decide what things in my life need to go and what needs to remain, my continual prayer is that I will have: wisdom to understand what God wants to do in me and in my world, toughness to handle hard times, and clear focus so I don’t get sidetracked.

David Achata

Have You Decided Who Jesus Is? by David Achata

Have you decided who Jesus is?



That was the question I asked repeatedly to the students at the school where I was doing a week of spiritual emphasis a few weeks ago. I asked them the same question every day for five days. On the last day I spent some time with them in Mark 4 and 5. We looked at how the Pharisees labeled Jesus "The Prince of Demons" because he was casting out demons. Then we looked at how Jesus’ family came to take him away because, they said, "He is out of his mind." In other words, they thought he was crazy. Last, we looked at the bleeding, demon-possessed man living in the tombs who cried out, "I know who you are; you are the son of God! Have you come to torture us before the appointed time?"

My point was simple: Either Jesus is a demon, or he is crazy, or he is who he says he is. Have you decided who he is? Many of the students came forward and wept, confessing sins and testifying that they had never decided who Jesus is.

The more time I spend with people, the more I see that this is the heart of the issue. 

People's issues about heaven or hell, or suffering or injustice, or homosexuality or heterosexuality, or whatever all become secondary issues when one asks the question, "Have you decided who He is?"



The other day I was reading a quote by Lesslie Newbegin where he said that people like to have conversations about the idea of truth, but when truth walks into the room, all other conversations have to stop. I think this is how it is with a lot of the conversations I hear happening. While so much airtime is taken up debating this or that issue – I just wonder, if Jesus were to walk into the room, would that conversation even continue? I think that most of my conversations would cease, my jaw would drop to the floor, and I'd worship.



Today is Easter, the day we remember who Jesus is. He’s the one who passes through walls (John 20:19-31) yet can still eat food (Luke 24:41-43). He’s the one who appeared to over 500 people after his resurrection (1 Cor. 15:6) and let people touch him so they’d have no doubts (John 20:27, 1 John 1:1). He’s either got to be who he says he is (John 14:6) or else we have no hope (1 Cor. 15:17).

The next time you get into a debate with someone about some sort of subject pertaining to Christianity, just ask, "Have you decided who Jesus is?" I bet it will change everything.

David Achata

Someone Is Watching You by David Achata

“If you’re going to date my daughter, you need to learn what it means to be a man of prayer.”

That’s what my girlfriend’s father told me when I was 18 years old. The next thing I knew, I was at a Promise Keepers conference. It was the most awkward, fascinating, inspiring event I’d ever attended up to that point in my life. For the first time ever, I saw grown men crying, praying and at the same time bashing chests together screaming victory chants about how they were going to be great men of God in this generation. I left that experience with a vision to be a man of God and a spiritual leader. Why? It wasn’t so much because of the conference, but what I saw in the man who invited me.

Jim was his name, and he was (and still is) a man of prayer. At that time, I remember him talking about a particular fascination he’d developed with early morning prayer. He’d observed that interesting things always seemed to happen at the wee hours of the morning in scripture. So he was up every morning by 4 a.m., walking and praying – sometimes for hours. I didn’t understand it then, but now I do. The example he lived seared an idea in my mind of what it looks like to live a life devoted to Jesus. I don’t know if he thought about it, but I was watching.

Whether you’re young or old, tall or short, fat or skinny, black or white—someone is watching you. Whether you’re married or single, parent or not—someone is watching you. What are they seeing?

Statistics show that most Christians have lulled themselves into spiritual complacency. The Barna group reports that fewer than 10% of Christian families spend any time during a typical week engaging in any spiritual conversation or activity. Yet, 72% of Christian parents believe they are doing well when it comes to providing regular spiritual experiences and instruction to their children. (p. 125, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions) Do you see a contradiction here?

According to a survey by America's Research Group, 95% of kids from Christian families attended church regularly up until middle school. Then at High School, that number fell to 55%. But by the time they reached college, only 11% of those same kids were attending any church on a regular basis. That’s right—11%. And that’s just the Christian kids. That’s not even taking into account that today 15% of Americans claim no religion. Yet, when the same survey was done on 18 to 34-year-olds, the number of young adults who claim no religion shot up to 46%. (American Religious Identification Survey) Yikes! The younger a person gets today, the more likely they are to not attend church.

Why? It’s because they are watching us. These stats don’t mean these people have no faith. Sixty two percent of that same group claim to be spiritual. Simply put, many are leaving church to find faith. Why? I think it’s because they are seeing the time (or lack of it) those who claim to be Christian spend in study and prayer. They’re watching how we treat one another. They are seeing how we spend our leisure time and how we act when we work.

In 2 Kings 2:7-10, Elijah is about to be taken away. He asks Elisha (his protégé), “What can I do for you, before I am taken from you; ask anything.” Elisha said, “Your life repeated in my life. I want to be a holy man, just like you.” (The Message) That’s the cry of my heart. As I look to Jesus, I see a holy man I want to know and be like, and it’s my hope that others see my life and say the same about me. What about you?

I attribute much of what I’ve become to a handful of people I’ve watched through the years. Would you make a commitment with me? Spend 30 minutes each day looking at the life of Jesus in the Gospels for 7 days this week. See how it affects you, and notice if it affects others around you. I’d love to hear what happens.

The world is watching.

David Achata

Holy Ground

Through the years, numerous people have asked why we use the “sanctuary” for so many different activities. We’ve used it for Vacation Bible School, banquets, graduations, movies, parties, and numerous other events. Why? Because it’s a great room!

In the Old Testament, the sanctuary (i.e., Temple, holy place, etc.) was the place where God resided, where his people went to meet him (Psalm 122:1).

In the New Testament, the sanctuary (i.e., Church) is defined as the people of God, individually and corporately. The New Testament tells us that God does not live in temples built by human hands (Acts 17:24), but that individuals who come to Jesus are joined with other believers and become a “spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). How is this possible?

The separation caused by the fall meant that man could not come back into the presence of God without death. This was why an angel was placed at the gate of the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24). This separation was seen even further in the Old Testament with the Tabernacle and the sacrificial system. Priests could only enter into God’s presence by the blood of a lamb (Heb. 9:22). The point: to enter into the presence of God required death; there was no other way.

Yet when Jesus, the perfect lamb (1 Pet. 1:18-19), died for our sins—the separation between God and man was done away with. Why? Because only the blood of one who was perfect could free us from our sins and make it possible for us to enter into God’s presence (Rev. 1:5, Heb. 9:11-28). What’s the result? The result is that we don’t go to a place to be with God anymore; he resides in people individually and corporately.

How does this affect how we do life? It means ordinary things become ways we can live our lives before God. Whether it’s eating or drinking (1 Cor. 10:31) or whatever we do—God wants to be able to accept our lives as an act of worship (Romans 12:1-2). This frees us to use whatever means necessary to reach people and develop relationships with humanity (1 Cor. 9:22).

The beauty of it all is that God has always been using ordinary things like idols (Dan. 2), stars (Matt. 2:7), and culture (Acts 17:16-32) to communicate with humanity. If God is like this wherever He is; we are like this wherever we are. The result: life is restored, and things once used for the glory of man become used for the glory of God (even Superbowl parties).

So why use our worship center for so many things? Because it’s a great place to bring glory to Jesus.

Andy McDonald, Jeff Cinquemani & David Achata

From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by David Achata

Most people have a big dream. However, as time passes, that dream can seem unattainable. Imagine this: Tonight you go to sleep. Tomorrow when you wake up, everything is going to be exactly how you want it to be. What does your life look like? Think it over. Well, that’s your dream. How do you feel now?

Now, it’s fine to dream, but the next question to ask is: What’s it going to take to get you from where you’re at to the dream you just dreamed? How you wrestle with that question will determine what becomes of your dream.

In Luke 18 we have the story of a rich young man. He had a dream. He wanted eternal life. So he got up his courage and approached Jesus and asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18:18) The two of them then engaged in a little conversation about what the young man had done to move toward his dream. Turns out he’d tried pretty hard, but Jesus said it wasn’t enough. Yet still, Jesus saw the greatest obstacle keeping the man from his dream. Jesus said, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (18:22) The story ends with the young man going away sad because he wasn’t willing to give it all for the sake of the dream.

Here’s an interesting thing I noticed about this story—the young man comes wanting to know how to get eternal life (his dream), yet Jesus tells him that he needs to be a disciple (God’s dream), which would eventually get him eternal life.

What’s the point? To get that dream requires a big, uncomfortable step of some sort.

Are you willing to take that step? Are you willing to give everything for the dream?

Take courage today, my friend: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (18:27)

David Achata

Christmas Means the End of Religion As We Know It by David Achata

With only a few days to go until Christmas, my kids are getting amped up to see family, open presents and eat sugar. My daughter has even designed a calendar (pictured above) that looks like a Christmas tree. On it she’s put numbers that count down how many days are left till the big day. I’m excited too.

This year, however, I’m excited less about gifts (although I’m anxiously awaiting what my wife will unveil this year) and excited more about what Christmas represents. Christmas represents something I want to be a part of. Simply put, Christmas represents the end of religion. What do I mean?

John 1:14 says that the Word “became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is John’s nativity scene. Literally, this says the Word “tabernacled” among us. This is meant to refer us to the Exodus narrative where Moses wants to see God, but God says—“You can’t look at me or you’ll die.” (Exodus 33) So God comes up with a plan that was a foreshadow of the real plan: “Build a Tabernacle, and I’ll reside there. This way we can be together.”

Thousands of years later, Jesus shows up in the real “Tabernacle” of his body so that we could see His Glory, God’s Glory. (See John 2:19-22) This means the end of religion as we know it. Why? Because, unlike many other world religions, Christians have no temple – we have Jesus. We have no priest; we have Jesus. We have no sacrifices to make; Jesus was our sacrifice. All these religious methods are gone because we don’t get a religion. Christmas means we get a person!

In his book, The Barbarian Way, Erwin McManus writes, “Two thousand years ago God started a revolt against the religion he started. So don’t ever put it past God to cause a groundswell movement against churches and Christian institutions that bear his name. If he was willing to turn Judaism upside down, don’t think for a moment our institutions are safe from a divine revolt.” (p.114)

Isn’t this wild? God causes a revolt against the religion he started? How confusing, exciting, ground shaking – how threatening! Like C.S. Lewis said “He is not a tame lion.”

I’ve recently been enjoying a TV show on hulu.com called “Bully Beatdown.” Basically what happens is people write in and tell Jason “Mayhem” Miller (Mixed Martial Arts Fighting Champion) about the people who are bullying them. Miller then invites them to be on his show where he challenges them to a fight. If they win, they get a bunch of money. If they lose, their victims get a bunch of money, and they have to apologize at the end. The bully always loses.

Watching this show has taught me one thing. When a bully gets beat by an MMA fighter, he is always humbled. Why? Because the MMA fighter could kill him but he isn’t allowed to. It’s humbling when salvation comes from the place least expected.

Welcome to Christmas. How humbling: the all-powerful, almighty God humbling himself, making himself vulnerable (Phil. 2). What does this all mean? It means the end of religion as we know it. In Jesus we don’t only get a teaching to follow, we get a person to know. Even more humbling, in that person, salvation comes from a most unexpected place – a baby.

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33)

Merry Christmas everyone!

David Achata

The Word of God is Looking for a Church to Join by David Achata

Every few years I re-read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book The Cost of Discipleship because it serves as a good reminder of what life in Christ is about.

Today I was reading his chapter about the Church called “The Visible Community.” Bonhoeffer writes: “The word of God seeks a Church to take unto itself. It has its being in the Church. It enters the Church by its own self-initiated movement.” (p. 250)

I learned a little song at summer camp when I was a kid that totally contradicts this statement. It went like this:

If I had a little box to put my Jesus in

I’d take him out and hug him and put him back in

And if I had a little box to put the devil in

I’d take him out and SMASH HIS FACE! and put him back in.

It’s kind of cute, but it serves to illustrate the point. We can’t put Jesus (The Living Word, ie. John 1:1) into parameters. We don’t have Him—He has us! We can’t give Him our list of expectations and expect he’ll deliver. What happens more often is that he gives us the list of expectations and then we philosophize about how he really meant something different. Here are some examples:

• Mark 9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

• Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

• Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple.

• John 12:24 "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

• Matthew 19:29-30 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

• Luke 6:27-35 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked."

• Mark 8:36 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"

I guess I'm just at a place where I'm tired of rationalizing away what Jesus said so I can do what I think will be more comfortable. Sometimes I feel like a crazy man. Bonehoffer was crazy, too, though. He, however, understood the nature of the call when he said:

"The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity (that is, in truth, into the absolute security and safety of the fellowship of Jesus), from a life which is observable and calculable (it is, in fact, quite incalculable) into a life where everything is unobservable and fortuitous (that is, into one which is necessary and calculable), out of the realm of the finite (which is in truth the infinite) into the realm of infinite possibilities (which is the one liberating reality). The Cost of Discipleship p.58

So what's the point? I think the point is that the Word of God is looking for a church to join, and when it finds that church—those people will learn about infinite possiblities of God's liberating reality.

David Achata

Looking for Faithful Slaves by David Achata

On the plane returning from vacation I found myself reading Matthew, Chapter 24. The disciples have just asked Jesus, “When is the end of the world coming?” The answer they get is more than they bargained for. Jesus prophesies about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 (Mt. 24:4-28) and then, in the second part of his answer, he tells the story of a household of simple slaves.

The Master has gone away and puts his slaves in charge of his household. The slaves have two options: they can be faithful and serve, or they can forget about their master. Jesus adds that the slave who is working when his Master returns will get rewarded, while the slave who gets lazy and begins to serve himself will be destroyed. Yikes! As the disciples are wondering what they can do to prepare for the coming final crisis at the end of the age, Jesus gives them a simple message: serve.

While I was on vacation, I spent some time with friends who are planting a church. What struck me the most about them was that they were simply trying to find the best way to serve their city. They are a small group, but they meet faithfully twice a week for prayer and to strategize how to best reach their city for the cause of Christ—and it’s working! In about two years time they’ve grown to a worshipping community of about 175 from a small group meeting in someone’s living room. As I saw their meeting place covered with flipcharts, a pizza box and some donuts, I had one thought: faithful slaves.

About two months ago, I received the temporary responsibility of overseeing the ministry areas from birth through college at the Hospital Church. I’ve had a great time meeting with the Children’s Ministry leaders. In our meetings we’ve talked about where Children’s Ministry needs to go. Our first goal: find some faithful slaves. What do I mean by this? I mean we are looking for a group of people who want to work on behalf of the kingdom, even when no one is looking.

I’ve started affectionately calling our leaders “Pastoral Leaders.” I’m doing this because they are leaders who are more than organizers. They are leaders who see themselves as having a pastoral calling to care for their little flock. Although I call them Pastoral Leaders, they are really just faithful slaves who need more faithful slaves to do the awesome work of caring for our little ones.

Are you a faithful slave? In your family, work or church—are you faithful, or are you living as if the master isn’t going to return? Given the times in which we live, how are we to respond? Serve. Don’t wait and watch the sky—wash feet.

David Achata

Diversity = Unity by David Achata

Last weekend we had some Christian friends over who belong to another denomination. As we were talking, the issue came up of differing doctrinal views. One friend asked me what the Adventist position was on hell. With a great philosophical argument, I presented the position of hell as annihilation (vs. eternal burning). Then she asked me a question—“What texts could you use to support that biblically?”

Uhhh….

I stuttered through some texts with their contexts. I threw out some Greek and Hebrew words and their meanings. But the truth is…I was caught off guard.

As we ate dinner together, I admitted freely that it had been a long time since someone had challenged me about my view on hell. Then it hit me. The reason I’ve not been challenged is because most people I'm around either view it the same as me or don't care.

When our friends left that night, I got out my books and my bible, and I went right to work. It was great! I refreshed myself on the reasons why I believe what I believe, and I went to bed that night feeling good, yet still slightly disturbed.

Aside from the Authority of Christ and the Supremacy of the Word, some people think having differing Theological views is dangerous. They might argue that it creates an atmosphere of disunity. I would argue, however, that unity couldn’t be real without diversity. If everyone looks/acts/believes the same, then unity isn’t unity—it’s uniformity. Genuine unity comes from bringing together differing viewpoints/people/personalities and not dividing. In short, unity becomes more beautiful as diversity increases and people still stay together. (Rev. 7:9)

In Jesus’ prayer to His Father in John 17, He prayed “that they would be one as we are one.” Surprisingly enough, He said this unity would cause the world to know that “you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (vs. 23)

Is this wonderful or scary? What do you think? Is this what our church should be striving for?

David Achata

Healthy Relationships by David Achata

Two and a half years ago, Pastor Andy and I attended a conference where we were able to eat lunch with Jason Jaggard and Marcus Goodloe, two pastors on staff at Mosaic [Church], Los Angeles.

We were anxious to find out how they do their small group program and so we asked. Jason’s response—“we don’t push small groups; rather, we promote the value of healthy relationships.”

It makes perfect sense. Have you ever been to a small group? Most involve sitting around with people you don’t know very well, listening to each other talk about something, praying together and then doing it all over again the next week. In a few weeks the group slowly shrinks because one group finds something better to do while the other group feels slightly hurt/frustrated, yet superior because they stuck it out and “committed.”

Doesn’t this sound wonderful?

Many of these ideas came from an article Jason wrote called The End of Small Groups. In it he writes, “I'm calling an end to small groups and crying out for a shift towards friendship. Healthy people don't need small groups- they need to bring people into their social network. People don't need groups, they need friends. Somehow the whole world has survived without the strange concoction of the 'small group' that churches readily and sincerely embraced in the 90s.”

In other words, it’s not about getting into a small group. It’s about getting some significant relationships in your life.

I had a college student tell me once that he met someone who seemed lonely, so he invited him to church. “That’s great!” I told him. “But I think you took the easy way out.” When he asked what I meant, I told him what people need isn’t solely a church service. People need each other. They need to hook up for lunch and talk.

So, “Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.” Galatians 6:2, The Message Remix

Here’s a Resource:

This weekend when the church service is over, grab the “Take Away” questions, and talk about them with some friends. Better yet—buy someone a burrito this week and be a friend.

David Achata

Why People Are Afraid to Come to Jesus (and the Church) by David Achata

This year I’ve been examining the claims of the Gospel with my High School students on Wednesdays (we have a podcast now!) and my College students on Thursdays. It’s been a process that has taught me one thing about people: they are scared out of their minds about committing to Jesus Christ.

What I’m about to say is very important. The Florida Hospital Church has defined its mission as “Loving people into a lifelong friendship with God”, and we ought to understand what we’re getting into.

Imagine this: You’re walking down the street one day and a man approaches you and says, “My, you have an attractive face.” You respond by saying, “Thank you,” to which he replies, “I want it.”

You’re next thought is—“What! This guy is crazy!” You’re thinking this because, if you give him your face, you will not have one (and you will look really odd without one). You are identified by your face. When your face is gone, you have nothing by which to be recognized.

This is why coming to Jesus is scary. When we identify ourselves with our “face” (i.e., good works or evil works, superiority or inferiority, religion or irreligion), “it” becomes our identity. Jesus is the one saying, “I want your face.” He says this because he wants to give you a new one. He can say this because he knows that, apart from Him, we identify ourselves with sin.

In Tim Keller’s book, The Reason for God, he says, “We are all living for something and we are controlled by that, the true lord of our lives. If it is not God, it will endlessly oppress us.” Michael Card says in his book A Better Freedom that “the world seduces us with a slavery it calls ‘freedom.’”

Here’s what this all means: as we are seeking to Love people into a lifelong friendship with God, we ought to examine what we identify ourselves with. When people see you, would they sense they were being invited into a community of people who have received wonderful new identities in Christ or just another reason to be scared?

David Achata

What the Gospel Is and Isn't by David Achata & Doug Foley

This blog will be posted on Easter Sunday – the day we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, conquering sin and death forever. As I listened to Pastor Andy’s sermon yesterday about how the resurrection makes us a dangerous people, it made me think about what makes a church dangerous vs. ineffective.

What makes a church dangerous? The Gospel. What makes a church ineffective? Secondary gospels (i.e., ways to be justified before God other than Christ).

Here’s the problem: The church can become so caught up in arguments over what we are supposed to believe (or do) that, at some point, we stop being the church and become some kind of intellectual forum. It seems to me that the voices that are the loudest within Adventism veer sometimes toward the right, while not much is heard from the left or the middle.

I heard someone say that the Gospel makes the liberals think you are too conservative while it makes the conservatives think you are too liberal. This, I think, is what it means to be in the middle.

Here’s what I’m trying to say: I love my church, and I want it to be effective.

So this week I sat with my friend Doug, and we spent two and a half hours trying to hammer out a simple list of what the Gospel is and isn’t. This list is not complete, but it is our attempt to offer clarity beyond the conservative and liberal arguments. It’s our hope that on this day, by re-focusing on the Gospel, we can all be brought back toward the middle to put our main focus on Jesus rather than on the secondary issues.

The Gospel:

1. Makes us righteous first (2 Cor. 5:21 )
2. Helps us do good works second (Eph. 2:8-10)
3. Places a high value on confession and repentance (James 5:16, 2 Cor. 7:10)
4. Humbles us and does away with all notions of superiority (Luke 18:14)
5. Is simple and complex – i.e., simple enough for a child to understand, complex enough to exhaust the most seasoned theologian (Rom. 11:33)
6. Liberates us from sin (Gal. 5:1)
7. Breaks us (Mt. 21:44)
8. Unites us (John 17:21, Eph. 2:11-13)

The Gospel isn’t:

1. A permission slip to spiritual snobbery which leads to sin (James 4:6, Rom. 2:17-24)
2. The cart before the horse – i.e., we do good works so we can be righteous (Gal. 2:16)
3. Private (read: better) knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1, 2 Peter 1:20)
4. A license to remain the same (Gal. 5:13)
5. Secondary (i.e., One bible study guide amidst 30)

So there you have it. As we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, let’s live as dangerous people and hold up the flag of the Gospel. Let’s love our Lord and serve with our church to speak and live the Gospel in the world.

David Achata and Doug Foley

Church 101: All the Things Many of Us Skipped - David Achata

Recently I’ve been thinking about what a real “church” is. You know the rhyme: “Here’s the church, and here’s the steeple. Open the doors, and there’s the people!” Our Senior Pastor, Andy, and I were talking the other day about painting another rhyme on our walls: “Here’s the building, and when you search, open the doors, and there’s the church!” I think we’re onto something.

There’s a natural default mode most of us go to when we think about church. We think of church as a place we “go” instead of something we “are”. We think of church as a gathering based around a service where someone preaches and we sing songs. Honestly, if this is all church is about, count me out because I’m not interested. I think there’s a better way.

About a month ago I took some of my High School kids to North Port Florida, a retirement community close to Port Charlotte. I have a friend there who was placed in a church there that just wasn’t a good fit. So he started making friends at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Wendy’s and the list goes on. He simply wanted to create a place he could bring those friends.

He’d find someone who looked under 50 and say, “Hey, you’re young; there’s not a lot of young people in this town—want to hang out?” That was five years ago, and he had his first worship gathering a month ago with about 50 of those people who have come to faith. Oh, by the way, they don’t have a regularly scheduled worship service AND they don’t have a building. They meet weekly in each other’s houses and eat a lot together.

Two weeks ago I was speaking at a Youth Rally in Pennsylvania. Saturday night when I was done, I made my way to North Philadelphia to an area called Germantown. There, another friend of mine is an associate pastor at a church in a poor neighborhood where they’ve purchased a house they now use as a central location. Here’s the interesting thing: when they have their small groups or their Sunday schools, or their meals, it’s all in people’s houses or apartments in the neighborhood. We had worship the next morning, and I was moved by the diversity in the house. People there seemed like a family even though they were from different economic backgrounds and cultures.

These two places have six things in common. First, they meet regularly in each others houses. Second, they eat together weekly. Third, there’s a huge diversity. Fourth, they reach out to their neighborhoods. Fifth, “church” is not based around a worship service or a sermon. Sixth, Jesus.

Here’s what I’m trying to say—when the bulk of our Christian experience revolves around a weekly sermon and songs, we skip over what church is about. Church is about life together. It’s about sharing with our neighbors, and it’s about celebrating what God’s been doing (hence, weekly cooperate worship).

Maybe you’re wondering, “OK, if I’m the church, what does this look like for me on a daily basis?” Church is the community that happens in the triad of me, my God and my neighbors. It’s about my growing dynamic relationship with Jesus, and it’s about inviting everyone around me to experience what he’s doing.

If “church” is more than what happens one day every weekend, then how are you doing?

“Here’s the building, and when you search, open the doors, and there’s the church.”

David Achata

To The Thieves Who Stole My Car by David Achata

Saturday, January 16th, I walked outside to get into my car, and it wasn’t there. I thought for a moment that someone must have borrowed it, or maybe I forgot where I parked it – then I realized it had been stolen.

I called the cops. As we were filling out paperwork, my car was found, but it had been stripped to the bone. I guess a freshly painted Black 1997 Honda Civic EX with 205,000 miles is a hot commodity in Orlando! As I learned this new information, I thought to myself, “I can’t believe someone would steal a little Honda Civic . . . how low can you go?” I mean, why not steal a Lexus or an Audi or something with little more cash value?

As the thieves drove my car away and stripped it, no doubt they had to toss my bible from the driver’s seat into the passenger’s seat. Had they opened it, they would have seen “Pastor David Achata’s Bible” written in the front cover. Next to it they would have seen the notes from the sermon I had just preached to our Florida Hospital College students at Sonset Café’ that night. On the front page they would have seen written these words in bold:

“Our actions on the surface aren’t most significant; it’s what takes place in our secret lives, below the surface, that God is concerned about . . . ” How ironic.

I just finished studying through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. If you’ll read it through you’ll see that God is very concerned about what’s done in secret (Mt. 5:22, 28, 6:3-4, 6, 18, 28, 7:1 etc.). This is interesting because we are mostly concerned about what happens in public.

I was talking on the phone recently with my friend Ron. He told me that “spirituality is like an iceberg. What’s above the surface isn’t as significant as what’s below the surface.” Think about that for a moment.

Here’s my question: Are we more concerned about what goes on in public or in private? Jesus is more concerned about the secret life, and it’s not just the car thieves who have secret lives—everybody’s got their secret lives. What does your secret life tell you about the state of your heart? The same question goes out to the guys who stole my car.

While we look at the outward appearances of things, God is looking at the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7) This is why Jesus is so significant. While we spend so much time piddling around with surface issues, Jesus wants to go to the heart, because that’s where he can heal and change the whole organism. So let Jesus go there. Sometimes it takes time, but it’s so worth it.

In Matthew 7:24-25, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” A person secure in the solid foundation of Jesus has no need of a secret life . . . or someone else’s ’97 Honda Civic.

David Achata

A Barrier to Revival . . . Me? by David Achata

I’ve been out of town this week, and I’ve had a chance to visit a number of church gatherings. This has caused me to think about what makes the difference between a church that is alive with the spirit of God and a church that is merely alive?

So, the day after Thanksgiving, I woke up early and listened to a sermon by Tim Keller called A Blueprint for Revival. I learned that, in the book of Acts, there’s a pattern for what happened when the early church experienced a revival:

1. The Church faced a great crisis
2. There was extraordinary seeking after God in prayer
3. A visitation by God happened
4. A community would be transformed

What I also learned was that there are four kinds of barriers found in scripture that can prevent revival from taking place:

1. Heterodoxy—people do not uphold the basic doctrines of the Bible
2. Orthodoxy—straight doctrine which has led to pride
3. Dead Orthodoxy—people have correct doctrine but have no grasp of how to live the Gospel
4. Defective Orthodoxy—over-concern for programs, too much talk about the gospel, and not enough doing or un-mortified sin

What struck me the most was the fourth barrier that prevents God from showing up among his people and transforming that community—Defective Orthodoxy. Tim Keller made a statement about Defective Orthodoxy that, “One man can sink the whole ship.” That really got me thinking—is it me? Am I the one man?

There’s a place in scripture where that same question was asked. If you’ll study the last supper, Jesus said, “One of you is going to betray me.” Yet, if you’ll notice NONE of the disciples said, “It’s Judas!—he’s always been shady . . . ” or, “It’s Thomas—he’s a doubter.” Rather, they ALL said, “IS IT ME?” Everyone questioned themselves. There was no finger pointing, no advice giving – only deep questioning of one’s own heart.

As I sat there on Black Friday morning watching the sun come up, I really searched my life. I don’t want to be the one man who sinks the ship. Do any of us really want to be that one person? I doubt it. Maybe it would be a good idea for each of us to spend some time praying, “Is it me?”

Imagine what our world would be like if everyone looked inward first before pointing the finger at someone else. How would your marriage, your family, or your church be different?

For more on this subject, download Tim Keller’s sermons A Blueprint for Revival, Parts 1 and 2 (http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/sermonlist/11). Also, study Matthew 26 and Mark 14.

David Achata