Seminary Update

Hello friends,

I have not written an update for a while and it is time. We hope you are all doing well!
First off, we want to thank you for your prayers for us in these last few months. Last time I wrote, I mentioned how we had been looking for jobs since we arrived here and had not had any success. It was a very discouraging time for us. Shortly after I wrote that, within a period of two days, three different jobs became available to us. I began working two part-time jobs and Lisa began watching my friend’s toddler during the day. I am working a few hours a week in the Academic Services Dept. on campus and then I am washing windows for a company one day a week. This has been a great help to us in making ends meet and we thank God for this provision. Both jobs are flexible with my class schedules, which was a huge problem with other jobs I had looked at. So again, thank you for your prayers about that!

This school year is different because I am in what’s called the “Call to Ministry” process, which includes all kinds of extra work and expenses alongside my regular class schedule. So it is kind of exciting, as people are more intentionally walking alongside us to help discern calling and prepare for the future, but it’s also more stuff to take care of. The whole process is good in that it is shaping us in ways we didn’t expect, and God continues to work in us according to what he wants. We are excited as we continue to dream about what’s next and where God might be leading us.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the church, specifically the reputation that it has. Some people will always scoff at the church and find reasons to reject her. Whether it’s the notorious phrase, “It’s full of hypocrites,” to the many scandals that have surfaced over time, people can always find a reason to think they are above participating in the life of the church. And there are so many expressions of the church. I think that is a biblical and beautiful thing. It can also be messy. But just what is the church supposed to look like? Jesus prayed earnestly in John 17:20-23, as a sort of last request before his death, that his church would live in oneness together--even as he is in perfect oneness with his Father. And above all else, this is the thing that will cause the world to believe that Jesus is the real deal.

Stanley Haurwas once said, “The purpose of the church is not to prove that Christianity is true, but to demonstrate what the world is like if it is true.” Do you see the difference? This is why Jesus said in John 13:34-35 that we are to love one another as he has loved us, and that BY THIS people will know that we are his disciples—and this will in turn show that Christianity is, in fact, true. If the church does not live out its claim that it follows Jesus in this way specifically, nothing else we talk about matters because it comes from people who do not practice the most distinguishing mark of Jesus.

We easily grow dull to the command to “love one another” because it becomes too familiar to us. It is easy to reduce it to being nice to each other, even faking it to an extent. But Jesus wants his church to love each other sacrificially, in a way that draws them into “oneness.” Therefore, anything that gets in the way of this and causes unnecessary division is sinful, whether it is selfish preferences, conflicting ideas, prideful arrogance, self-righteousness, or whatever. God hates it (strong language!) when we sow discord among each other (Proverbs 6:19). There are a billion things that can divide God’s church but it is the self-sacrificing love of Christ expressed to each other that unites us. So the Apostle Peter said, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). One of the distinguishing marks of a mature congregation is the ability to live in unity amongst great diversity. This is the picture we are given in Revelation 21:24-26. It is a church that has learned to “bear with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). What could be a more beautiful expression of Christ to the world, and a more joyful community to participate with? It is not the “coolness factor” or how “relevant” it feels or any other side issue that will ultimately produce fruit for God’s kingdom. It is Spirit-driven love for one another that spills out into participation with God’s mission to the world. How awesome would it be if you heard someone describe the church as “those people who really love each other” or “those Christians who are willing to lay down their very lives for each other?” Wouldn’t you want to look into a community that was known for that?

There is a kind of smugness that is popular in the evangelical world these days. It can be incredibly satisfying to prove someone else wrong, or to appear more intelligent and less ignorant by our smug remarks and our superior doctrines. This kind of thing is rampant on social media and is the path the world gives us to make it to the top. It is all an attempt to save our own skin and the very opposite of what the church is called to. It is utterly unloving. May God help us to repent of self-centeredness and playing the one-up game with each other. May we lose that kind of life so that we may gain Christ, who is our very life. Amen!

Love in Christ,
Mark, Lisa, Samuel, & Judah