the mission of work

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, art, books, church, community, culture, education, family, mission, missional, missional church, missional living, parenting, technology, theology, urban, work
• Date: Feb 8,2010

Last week, I posted on Bob Roberts’ new book, Realtime Connections: Linking Your Job With God’s Global Work and said:

I can’t think of a more helpful book when many are preaching, writing, talking about what a theology of work looks like. Connecting our work to God’s glocal agenda is a must and this book will no doubt help us to that end.

Recently, Jonathan Dodson, lead pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, TX, also wrote on the issue of the mission of work:

We can’t plant a missional churches that don’t address work. Most people spend the lion’s share of their time in their field of work. That field of work is not only a mission field, but it is a city field. It is an urban domain.

Cities are comprised of anywhere from 5-10 city domains: Government, Arts, Education, Social Services, Health Services, Technology, Family, etc. Missional Churches must do the hard work of helping their people see their vocation in urban domains in terms of missional calling, not merely for evangelism but for whole gospel living.

Here are a list of resources that Dodson recommends to help in this endeavor:

Websites

* Redeemer’s Faith & Work Center
* Mockler Center for Work and Faith

Books

* R. Paul Stevens: The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry from a Biblical Perspective
* Tetsunao Yamamori and Kenneth A. Eldred: On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions Through Entrepreneurial Strategies
* Tim Chester: Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness
* Robert Banks: Redeeming the Routines: Bringing Theology to Life

I would add one more to the mix:

Wayne Grudem: Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business

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extract’d

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: culture, family, fatherhood, parenting, relationships
• Date: Sep 9,2009

Children come into the world in a condition of complete dependence. They cannot operate as self-sufficient, independent agents unless their parents give up much of their own independence and freedom for years. If you don’t allow your children to hinder your freedom in work and play at all, and if you only get to your children when it doesn’t inconvenience you, your children will group up physically only. In all sorts of other ways they will remain emotionally needy, troubled, and overdependent.

The choice is clear. You can either sacrifice your freedom or theirs. It’s them or you. To love your children well, you must decrease that they may increase. You must be willing to enter into the dependency they have so eventually they can experience the freedom and independence you have.

-Tim Keller, from his book The Reason for God (p. 194)

[HT: Timmy Brister + Grace Baptist's graceblog]

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come to me like little children

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, New Testament, authenticity, communion, evangelism, family, fatherhood, missional living, parenting, prayer, sacraments, the art of...
• Date: May 19,2009

Parents often forget that their most important mission field is the home. Living missionally as parents means that God’s goodness should infect our homes as we humbly live out the power of the Gospel in our own lives. And as this happens, we pray God will woo our children to his saving grace.

I am so excited to share that last night, I had the privilege to lead my daughter Margo in a prayer of faith and trust in God’s grace for her salvation. What an unbelievable opportunity! Since Cooper trusted in Christ back in January 2008, Margo has been asking a lot of questions. There have been many moments over the last year of her life where I thought I saw the “lightbulb” come on for her, only to be convinced that she needed some more time.

Last night, we were reading the story of Jesus and the children from Matthew 19 from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (an amazing Gospel-centered children’s Bible) and I could tell that something clicked in Margo’s spirit. She got it. The part of the story that she resonated with said this:

…no matter how clever you are, or how good you are, or how rich you are, or how nice you are, or how important you are – none of it makes any difference. Because God’s love is a gift and, as anyone will tell you, the whole thing about a gift is, it’s free. All you have to do is reach out your hand and take it.

…You see, children loved Jesus, and they knew they didn’t need to do anything special for Jesus to love them. All they needed to do was to run into his arms…

After I read this, Cooper said, “That’s what I did, Dad,” and Margo said, “That’s all I have to do, Dad?” I told her yes. It knew it was time. It had all been leading to this moment. We went upstairs and we talked for a bit and prayed together. Wow…

What is beautiful about this is that Cooper was drawn to the saving knowledge of Christ through the Word by the same Bible almost a year and a half ago. God’s word is alive!

She is so excited to get baptized, especially to show her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about her decision, but she is almost more excited to take communion as a family. At The Journey, we come forward to take communion and Holly, Cooper, and I have been doing this together for the past year and a half. Margo has been joining us as we go forward but not partaking. She has been asking more questions lately about what the elements represent.

I think this has been another big part of her journey to Christ. It reflects what can happen when, as an ordinary family, as Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say, you do ordinary things with Gospel intentionality. Just having Margo around the sacraments made an impact on her. It drew her into wanting to be a part of God’s family.

I thank the Lord for the professions of faith of Cooper and Margo and continue to pray for my two youngest, Sloan and Everett. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…

For further reading, the following post was written in January 2008 and captures my heart on bringing the Gospel to your children, highlighting what is most important and exposing some misconceptions. I would encourage you to read: Bringing the Gospel to your Children: What I’ve Learned So Far

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going guiltless

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Bible, Christian season, New Testament, culture, family, missional living, parenting, social justice
• Date: Jan 8,2009

Photo by hickory hardscrabble

I thought I’d wait until we had a little space from Christmas to re-post something here on the blog so your visceral reaction would not so closely connected to the present tense.

Just before Christmas, my friend Shaun Groves wrote a four-part series on the idea of “going giftless.” (And yes, I’m using the word “guiltless” in my blog title on purpose; a little turn of the phrase)

It’s challenging. You may not agree with everything in the series but I think it will be good for your soul to wrestle with this. Holly and I took a big step in this direction with our family this Christmas. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow…

Here is the series:

Going Giftless Part 1
Going Giftless Part 2
Going Giftless Part 3
Going Giftless Part 4

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extract’d

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family, fatherhood, parenting
• Date: Jan 8,2009

Photo by Wrote

When you have small children, you can simply never realize what it is going to be like to one day face them, as adults, with the realization that YOU have shaped them into the persons they will be for all of their lives. If we realized what it really means to create, nurture and shape another person in the deepest of human ways, we’d be frozen with fear. So much of what they are comes from us in ways that were unintended, or unknown or unplanned. Your children are truly a legacy of the kind of person you really are, and of how you’ve lived, how you’ve loved and what you’ve considered most important.

-from “Reflections on Being a Parent of Adult Children” by Michael Spencer on his blog, internetmonk.com

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dusting off: fireworks in a ghost town

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family, fatherhood, parenting, reflections
• Date: Jul 3,2008

One of my favorite pieces to appear on relevintage. From last year’s Fourth of July:

Tonight, my family and I – my wife and our 3 children who are all under 5 – went down the road to an interesting spot to view some 4th of July fireworks. A spot that has an intriguing history.

Back in the late 90’s, St. Louis’ Lambert Airport was promised a lucrative contract with a major airline. And with this deal, Lambert would need to expand – extra runways and concourses, etc. So they bought out some land southwest of their facility which in turn meant that neighborhoods, churches, businesses, etc. in that area would need to be demolished and folks would have to relocate.

Well, the contract didn’t meet it desired expectations. Lambert did a partial expansion [although in February of this year, the city announced plans to continue the expansion]. And acres and acres of land now sit empty as thousands of people had to leave.

The Riverfront Times stated in 2002 that over 1925 homes were demolished and in January of this year, the USA Today reported that ,” … the runway displaced 6,000 residents of suburban Bridgeton from their homes. And John Krekeler, one of 16 Lambert airport commissioners, estimates that only 5% of flights at Lambert use the new runway.”

So today, only a few empty houses and a church remain. A veritable ‘ghost town’ in the middle of a major metropolitan city. But in the very back of this ‘ghost town’ sits a park that is a part of the Bridgeton park system. The park still has a certain level of maintenance. And even though there is virtually nothing around it, I think it was made for a night like tonight.

I saw – no joke – probably 20-25 major fireworks displays west down the I-40 corridor – St. Charles, St. Peters, O’Fallon, Lake St. Louis, Wentzville, etc. – north up the I-270 corridor – Bridgeton, Florrisant, Ferguson, etc. – and northwest into Elsberry, Louisiana, etc. Our kids were mesmerized. And so were their parents.

And there were other families there. Ones that I’m sure remember when this community was a fledgling neighborhood. Now all that’s left are empty lots and the occasional home whose windows are broken and shrubs are overgrown.

As we drove out of the ‘ghost town,’ I couldn’t help but think of all the people who were uprooted from these neighborhoods for nothing. They are now scattered all over St. Louis and St. Charles counties. The band director at my church and his family used to live in one of the neighborhoods. They now live in St. Charles.

But I was also reminded as my family and I left the park that home isn’t a structure. Home truly is where the heart resides. And as I looked at my exhausted kids in the rear view mirror and my pregnant wife to the right of me, I realized no one can take your home from you.

Even if they take your house from you.

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take me out to the ballgame

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family, fatherhood, parenting, relevintage, sports
• Date: Apr 12,2008

These last few months have been filled with ‘firsts’ for Cooper: losing his first tooth, getting baptized, going to a Cards game, and last Wednesday, playing in his first baseball game [it's called Pal Ball and they use a pitching machine]. Here are some snapshots from the friendly confines of Bridgeton Municipal Athletic Complex:

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coop’s first cardinals game

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: family, fatherhood, parenting, sports
• Date: Apr 11,2008

As I mentioned last week, three generations of Andrews’ – myself, my six-year old son, and my dad – went to see the Cards play the Nats. Well, we had a great time. Frankly, at times, it was a bit emotional. Here are some shots from Cooper’s first Cardinals game…

In all, the Cards beat the Nats. Rick Ankiel hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first – his story still blows me away, btw. It was a cold night – a far cry from the sweltering games in mid-July. They still were serving frozen lemonade and Ben and Jerry’s. Go figure. Look at it this way. Your soda stayed cold the entire game. But so did your face.

Here was my favorite quote from Cooper:

“I want some cotton candy. It is my job to eat it. But it melts so fast I can’t enjoy it.”

Classic.

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cooper’s baptism in pictures

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: New Testament, family, fatherhood, parenting, sacraments
• Date: Mar 11,2008

My son Cooper, following in obedience to His Lord’s command to be baptized this past Sunday night at The Journey – Hanley Rd….

We are so proud of you Coop!

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volcanoes, check

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: education, family, parenting
• Date: Mar 6,2008

My daughter informed my wife of something during their study of rocks during homeschooling today:

“I know everything about volcano’s because when I was a baby God told me in my heart.”

Volcanoes, check.

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