I'm reading a book right now entitled The Volunteer Revolution.  The author is the founding pastor of one of the most influential churches in North America and has seen first-hand what happens when people find a place of service.  

"The satisfaction most people are looking for comes from being in the middle of life's action, not on the sidelines.  Following Jesus is something people do, something that takes time and burns calories and stretches capacities as individuals and entire churches roll up their sleeves and activate their faith by serving others.  It takes commitment and perseverance.  Intentionality and selflessness.  But nothing can match the rewards for those who find their place to serve and jump in!"

I believe God has given us a unique opportunity to pour ourselves out in service.  Meeting at TES puts us at the very center of the greatest needs in Temecula.  As you've heard us say on Sunday morning, TES is the lowest socio-economic school in the district.  The need is great!  We're going to be loving on and serving the teachers, working around the campus to improve the overall look of the school, and meeting the needs of the children and families of TES as God leads.  

Yesterday morning I went up to the campus early to take some pictures and think through what we'll be doing.  I got pretty fired up!  There's faded paint peeling off the fences and parts of the building itself.  There's grass and weeds growing up through the cracks in the pavement and sidewalks. Bushes and trees are overgrown, flowerbeds and planter boxes neglected. There's trash all around the campus. I began imagining what it will be like to see small groups of Ridgers working off and on throughout the summer...making a difference!  I imagined the connection and relational growth that happens as we serve together.  I imagined the look on the teacher's faces when they come back in August and see all that has been done.  I imagined the renewed sense of pride we could give the teachers, children, and parents as we transform their campus.

Let's make a difference!!!  It's going to take all of us.  When Jesus mobilizes his local church, not even the power of hell itself can stand in the way of God's people!  I look forward to sweating with you all as we pour ourselves into TES this summer and in the coming year.  Let's do this!

We're also going to have the opportunity to see God change lives as we place door-hangers on 15,000 homes a week for four weeks in a row. We're going to need people who are willing to walk for a few hours a week and help get this done.  We'll have some mission teams coming in to help but will still need a lot of Ridgers to get it done! More on this next week...

Love All, Serve All-

Matt

As I watch people come and go, it dawns on me that the Promenade is a crossroads of culture here in the valley.  Everyone comes here.  You've got teens, senior adults, young families, singles, etc.  You see what people wear, what they do with "free time," where they shop, what kinds of food they like. And as you hear segments of conversations, you learn what's on peoples minds.  You learn what people are talking about, what they're worried about, what's going on in the culture around us.

I wonder what Jesus would say to us in our day, in our culture.  Who would he hang out with?  Who would he confront?  What would he think of his church today?  How much of himself would he see in those who claim to be his followers?  What would he observe about our heart for the people around us?  What would he observe about my heart for people?  How much of himself would he see in me?  

Our mission, the reason Ridgeline exists, is to help people "outside" the church come to know and love God in a way that transforms their lives.  And as I watch all of these people come and go in the mall...I wonder what it would look like to actually show them the love of God.  I wonder what it would be like to show them the grace of God.  I think we live in a culture that has been "talked to death" by the church!  No one wants to "hear" anything else from the church.  They want to "see" something from the church.  So let's show them something.  

Let's LOVE without conditions.  Let's extend GRACE (undeserved favor) to people around us in reckless degrees.  Let's start examining our own hearts, our own lives, and our own relationships.  I hope when people in our valley come into contact with Ridgers they experience a kind of radical inclusiveness that draws them toward God.  

So many people...   

I started thinking about the younger generations (and I include everyone from their mid-forties down here) in America and how our lives are characterized by pathways to poverty.  Let me explain.  We feel the need to buy a cup of coffee (even in economic times like these) at a place like Starbucks and pay $3-5 for what would cost us .30 cents at home.  And we don't just buy high-priced coffee once in awhile...we'll do it 2, 3, and maybe even 4 or 5 times a week.  Our parents & grandparents who love coffee have spent years drinking coffee they made at home (including the sugar, cream, and flavoring that some like) for a tiny fraction of what younger generations are blowing at high-priced coffee houses.  And what did they lose?  Now...I buy things from time to time that I don't need.  We all do.  But what I'm talking about are the "habits" that seem to create pathways to poverty.  We buy vehicles we can't afford because we're trying to "look" a certain way.  We buy house we can't afford.  We buy designer clothes we can't afford.  We want to acquire in 3 years what took our parents 30 to get.  For some reason, we feel entitled.  

You're probably thinking what's the point?  Why the the spending rant Jeffreys?  Here's why.  The same habits that create pathways to economic poverty, I believe also create pathways to spiritual poverty.  The habits of instant gratification, chronic hurry, and obsession with image instead of reality keep us from living in a way that allows the LIFE that God offers to flow through us.  Jesus once asked a startling question.  He asked "what it profits a person to gain the whole world, and lose his or her soul?"  The point Jesus was making is that there's a reality beyond just what we see. There's more to the life we know than just the accumulation of material & financial things.  The life of meaning, peace, abundant joy, rest, significance, and fullness that we crave as human beings comes only to those who are willing to slow down, create room for God to work in our lives, and trust Jesus to do what he promised he would.        

So here's what I'm thinking now.  Why don't I want to know my neighbors??? That's jacked up.  I grew up in America...a great country but one which supremely values individuals & not community.  I grew up in Texas...the most individualistic state in America.  And, I grew up in the country...where we liked our land and wanted others to stay off it.  In short, I'm "wired" to not want to know my neighbors.  I'm wired to see them as an inconvenience that must be tolerated because we live in a neighborhood.  

I realized, even though there's still an internal battle, that I DO WANT to know my neighbors.  As a Christ-follower I should want to know and love those that live around me, as Christ himself would do if he lived in my house.  I want to throw the best parties on the street.  I want the people that live on my street to know they are welcomed.  Eventually & ultimately I want them to know the God I know.  I want my dream to be God's dream, not the American dream.  It's awesome that we live in an area where people from every corner of the world can be found!!!  I want to know them, to listen to them, to dialogue with them.  I want then to know the radically inclusive love of God.

I'm learning (though slowly) that my "privacy" isn't high on God's list of priorities.  Nor is "the American dream."  God has a global heart that beats passionately for all people.  I want to be apart of a community (church) of committed Christ-followers that consistently invites anyone & everyone to join us!  That's my passion.  So...let the fence stay low.  And maybe one day my heart will be transformed enough that my first thought won't be "I wish the fence was higher so my neighbors don't have to see me and I don't have to see them..." 

But........yesterday I realized that it's nuts to believe the state of California in 2009 is in worse shape than the world around which the church in the first century was born!  Let me put it another way.  Do we really believe that the early church faced less obstacles and smaller ones than we face today???  That's crazy!  The early church faced tremendous social, political, and fiancial opposition~yet it gained momentum & influence!  The believers we see in the book of Acts (a book in the Bible that's basically church history) had a faith that gave them the courage & hope to overcome the circumstances around them.

In the second chapter of Acts we see that among the early church, "all the believers were together and had everything in common...selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as they had need..."  Part of the power of the early church was its ability to provide an alternative culture where there was oneness, generosity, and hope!  We have the chance to do the same thing in unique ways today.  We have the opportunity to be a community where the over-resourced gladly share with the under-resourced and neither take advantage of the other.  Our faith is not in the government but in Jesus!  The church offers (at least it should) the kind of "life" and relational connection that nothing else in the world can.

In short, we don't have to be afraid of the economic challenges around us.  This is where the church can really thrive!!!  Where else in these crappy times can people turn for hope, help, and true community???  Non-Christian historians in the 2nd & 3rd centuries remarked at the churches ability to provide and care for its members and the larger community.  They marveled at the reckless generosity of the early church.  One historian remarked that "among the Christian church, there are no poor...everyone with need is taken care of..." 

This is when God can shine!!!  This is where he can demonstrate what his church can be!  When investments dry up, jobs are lost, and the future seams uncertain and bleak...this is where God does some of his greatest work!  I'm fired up to see what he will do.  Let's dare to be continually generous and care for those around us.  God will give us enough resources to meet the needs around us...trust that.  Together, we can see God do incredible things!  Who can you help this week?