All Things New

Jesus plus Nothing equals Everything That's the title of the sermon series we are embarking on at Redeemer as we study through the book of Galatians. (If you're in town on Sunday mornings at 10:30, you should come check it out for yourself. And yes, that was a shameless plug.)  At first glance, I want to cheer at the title: Yeah! Jesus is everything we need! Of course! Woooohoooo! But then I look at passages like Luke 15:11-32, & I have to come face to face with what I really think about that equation.  Luke tells the parable of the prodigal son. My pastor, being the Tim Keller fanboy that he is, suggested that I read Keller's book The Prodigal God . (Kind of a cruel suggestion of reading material for someone who struggles with the grace concept...but that's another story...) Basically, the book expounds on the story of the prodigal son and makes the suggestion that there are, in fact, two  prodigal sons in the story. Everyone knows about the younger son. ...

This summer, I had the opportunity to serve at my church ( Redeemer Church ) as a summer missionary along with three other students. We spent the summer working to expand Redeemer’s ministry into Norman and to get to know the community better. We began the summer by partnering with a church in the city ( Christ Community ) and learning in their context. Throughout the summer, we hosted adventure clubs and block parties in apartment complexes & neighborhoods with the intent of building relationships and meeting needs. We also hosted a free soccer camp for kids.   Aside from our weekly training, our group finished out the summer with a trip to the SEND Conference in Atlanta, a church planting conference hosted by the North American Mission Board. Though a lot of our time was spent working with children, this was not an easy summer . Not by a long shot. Rewarding, yes. Challenging – certainly. But definitely not easy. Here are three things I learned this summer. 1) Peop...