Category: Worship Ministry
The Road Less Traveled By: A SOAP Study on John 4
Written 2/15/14; revised 6/1/20
Back when I was a young buck studying the Word, I had a bad habit of downplaying settings. Geography, time, historical backdrops…I figured by skimming the peripherals, I’d discern the passage more quickly without distraction.
However, as I now know, when we consider the Scriptures, we find every word, pronoun, and article carrying strategic purpose and placement.
Take John 4 for instance…
In this chapter, not only do we find Jesus ministering to a woman at a well but [literally] going the extra yard in finding her.
Yet, before the encounter takes place, we’re given important context retroactive to John 3:22-23:
“After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized.”
This in mind, let’s flash-forward to John 4:1-5:
“Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.”
In these two passages, we’re given three regions as backstory to John 4: Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. With Galilee and Samaria, we’re given specifics; with Judea, the reference is less clear. Still, we have enough detail to discern the relationship between the communities.
Note the maps below as they will come in handy in a minute…
Going back to v. 2, we find Jesus leaving Judea for Galilee from a somewhat debatable departure point. Assuming Jesus started where John was baptizing, we can deduce Sychar not only as a sensible midpoint but a contrast to how Jews traveled given the cultural climate between them and the Samaritans (see black/white graphic above). While traveling through Sychar made sense in terms of mileage, it’s only fair to wonder:
Why Jesus did go there in the first place?
To answer this, we’ll need to examine two more components…
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Relational dynamics
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The timeline
Relational Dynamics: Back in Jesus’ time, it was culturally unacceptable for a Jew to enter a Samaritan town. As we see in the Good Samaritan parable, Samaritans were widely considered half-breeds (half-Gentile, half-Jew). If a Jew was departing Jerusalem on route to Galilee, he likely would have traveled east of the Jordan to avert Samaria (a difference of a marathon give or take); however, in Jesus’ case, he took the road less traveled by for two reasons:
1) To shatter the mold of social norms through his message of unity.
2) To share the Good News and preview the Spirit as part of an emerging worship culture (more on this in a future post).
The Timeline: Additionally, we must consider the timing of this passage as v. 6 indicates:
“Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.”
Again, it’s worth wondering why John would emphasize a topical detail like the “sixth hour”. At first glance, one would think the “sixth hour” to be 6:00 am; however, according to the Jewish clock, the “sixth hour” would have, in fact, been 12:00 pm. Like the location, the ramifications of this observation is significant. If Jesus arrived at noon, then he would have appeared during ‘peak heat’ – a time when many were indoors. With well activity peaking during dawn hours, had Jesus wanted to preach, he would have needed to arrive in the morning or evening. Accordingly, one must wonder: Did Jesus arrive at random or did he time his journey to Sychar?
In short, ‘yes’, Jesus had every intention of meeting the woman exactly when he did; however, the longer answer integrates the ‘why‘, specifically why Jesus came to inspire this particular woman at this particular time in light of her history (v. 16-19).
Based on these verses, I submit the ‘why‘ is as follows…
Jesus came to change a woman’s life through the revelation of his divinity so she could inspire a town through the revelation of his compassion.
As the Spoken Word attests, Christ so loved this woman at the well, he couldn’t help but transform her from an ostracized outcast to a victorious vessel. From the very beginning, this woman had been tapped to speak life into a cultural revolution. And now here she was – once an adulteress, now a mouthpiece with testimony and a message to share. If that’s not the Kingdom, I don’t know what is.
Bottom line 1: When we consider Christ’s intentionality, his strategy to free this woman from bondage and ignite her hope through his identity, how can we not get excited? Like Jesus, we should want to restore life amidst the broken hearts and dreams we encounter. We should want to ignite change in those who doubt their worth. But above all, we should want to accept the call to lead others to a greater understanding of who God is. Because at the end of the day, God’s love is contagious and captures why we’re here: To encourage the discouraged, to be salt and light, to be unity in community, and stir love as the root of faith.
As the story concludes, the woman accepts Christ, his prophetic declaration (v. 21-24), and fearlessly saves many Samaritans as a result:
“Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.‘ After the two days he departed for Galilee.” ~ John 4:39-43 (ESV)
Not bad for an ex-social leper who wasted years trying to find her identity in relationships and social status.
Bottom line 2: Scenic and demographic details are valuable in studying the ministry of Christ. As this chapter reminds us, God can use the lowliest of men to sow the highest good for His glory and in bringing communities closer to Jesus. As for being that catalyst of change in your arenas of influence/expertise, dare to seek God like no one else so you can live intentionally like no one else. By believing God has established your steps, you can trust him to help you get to where you need to be even if it’s mean a few extra minutes or miles along the way.
Selah.
Looking ahead, I will look to build upon this post by examining the worship culture aspect of John 4. I’ll also break down what the ‘radical middle’ (i.e. living in Spirit and in Truth) looks like as present-day Kingdom agents in the marketplace.
‘Til then, you got this.
~ Cameron
Cover photo creds: Million-Wallspaper.com
Work as Worship: Our Story for God’s Glory
Work and worship.
Two words with great power, but for some reason are hardly used in the same sentence.
Of course, we all know what they mean.
With work, you have what you put your hands to, your vocation, where skill meets a living; with worship, you have what (or rather whom) you lift your hands to, the reason for vocation, where purpose meets living.
However, if you think these terms are easily compartmentalized, I get it. After all, as long as the church teaches the principles behind them, we should automatically know how they apply in each setting of life, right? (*Sarcasm*)
Whatever the case, when we talk about how work works as worship, when we consider the origin of work and its modern-day application, there’s fresh freedom and joy to be found.
So for today, I want to discuss what it means to be a worship-thinker as opposed to a work-thinker – what working to the fullest looks like when function becomes a part of our daily abiding in Christ.
For instance…
- Do we treat work as a source of identity?
- Do we treat work as a tool of personal fulfillment?
- Do we treat work as a necessary evil in order to get a paycheck or other “benefits”?
If ‘yes’, then chances are our work has become a place of pressure, performance-based thinking or worse…a means to an end1.
Accordingly, we must ask ourselves: How then do we treat work if we’re to elevate it as a selfless sacrifice of praise?
For starters, it doesn’t hurt to bridge work and worship with ‘mission’…
…however, to truly answer this, we must flash back to the Garden of Eden as captured in Genesis 2:15-20…
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.”
First off, before we discuss Adam’s work, note how God gave Adam a task before sin entered the world. This has huge implications as to how we’re to understand work. Often times, we see our job as a consequence or choice rather than a gift. We think what we do is a product of what we have done good or bad. But from the very beginning, we find God designating responsibility in the form of delegated authority. Specifically, God entrusted Adam to be an extension of His hand in cultivating the greatest garden ever and be an extension of voice in naming what He’d already cultivated!
Going back to the garden timeline, it’s interesting to see how God appointed man a task, but didn’t define it right away. While God would ultimately bring the animals to Adam2 (v. 19), He knew before this could happen, parameters were required to ensure intimacy and authority had boundaries to flourish.
Similarly, God also knew before He could delegate a particular assignment to Adam, he needed to not only learn dependence on Him in and out of work, but also his identity detached from the helper (Eve) who was to come. Again, this narrative order carries powerful implication given it underscores God’s desire for us to learn spiritual reliance without assurance of task and/or relational affirmation. Yes, God intended a helpmate for Adam before he was created, but more importantly, God intended Adam to learn his identity (and purpose as overflow) before work or wife existed.
Thus, the existence of work evidenced by the Garden is proof God desires to establish intimacy with us outside of work so he can build upon that intimacy as we work.
Not to mention it also confirms…
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Work plays a certain role in how we interact with God.
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The only way to understand the purpose of work, enjoy our work and the fruit of our labor is by also enjoying God as we work (Psalm 16:11).
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For Adam, tending the garden wasn’t his purpose; worship was his purpose.
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Accordingly, we can perceive our work has both a necessity and an overflow.
With Genesis 2 set as our backdrop, let’s look at Colossians 3:12-17, 23-24…
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
In this passage, Paul captures ‘work as worship’ once it’s an overflow locked in rhythm. Combined with Genesis, an applicative breakdown of these verses reveals the following benefits (Note: Due to word count, we’ll wrap things up after this list):
Being a ‘worship thinker’…
- Frees you to enjoy the moment of the work
- Provides a sense of closure at every juncture of every task even if the project as a whole is not done!
- Frees you from becoming unnecessarily offended at other teammates since punctuality or accuracy isn’t your first priority
- Frees you to be honest without agenda/unbiased with your teammates because you know that how you handle yourself is a ‘fragrant offering’ of worship to God
- Motivates you to work over longer periods because you are no longer experiencing emotional drains that come from the…
- Fear that your voice won’t be heard
- Fear that another’s performance will jeopardize project completion
- Fear of failure, since your definition of success has changed
- Motivates you to give God your best and embrace accountability
- Helps you be more open to input/critique from team-members and supervisors
- Reminds you the work is not your identity, but working unto the Lord is
- Helps you to see work experiences as learning opportunities
- Minimizes anxiety during a project/carrying out his responsibilities because you can better compartmentalize (i.e. prioritize at each juncture) the job
- Minimizes fear on what your boss can do to you
- Empowers us to not be controlled by the attitudes/behaviors of our co-workers
- Helps you see business culture as more freeing when bottom lines go beyond profit or position
- Refreshes the way you perceive success in your organization
- Protects you from deriving identity from profits and/or positions
- Protects you from taking on damaging behaviors like over-control and over-accommodation (people or employee-pleasing)
- Allows you to be more patient in your work because each work moment is treated as a worship moment
Bottom line: When we see work as an overflow of worship, we find intimacy at the core of success: Bringing pleasure to God through the gifts He’s given us so we can make His name known to the world.
Selah.
Footnotes
- Or rather, a means as opposed to an end
- Note: The fact God brings the animals to Adam is significant as it emphasizes God’s sovereignty to reveal how our calling merges with our purpose (more on this in a future post)
Cover photo creds: Abstract Wallpapers; Col. 3 content collaborated on with Steve Fry as part of our ‘Commission U’ series at The Gate Community Church
Nothin’ ‘Bout The Blood
So last week I’m on a Messenger Zoom call discussing Triune worldviews when a chilling question is raised:
Are we, as rising, maturing believers valuing the blood1 and living in light of that ‘precious flow [making us] white as snow’?
Certainly, it’s easy to think we are given Christ’s death and resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity.
But what if I told you to the extent we detach God’s communal nature as a foundation of love from our corporate theological foundation, to that extent we reduce the blood as nothing more than a sacrament. Would you agree?
If not, permit me to connect some dots after laying some groundwork…
1. To construct a worldview from the core of God’s nature, we must accept the fact God is a Communion of Three Persons in perfect love.
2. From there, we can establish and grow Biblical community in the same way God does His work: by multiplying what He is as a communion of love.
3. Only then can we value the Gospel and consequentially, understand the destructiveness of sin.
Unfortunately, as we progress in this post-Millennial age, the more young believers are distancing themselves from the saviorhood of Jesus2. As a former student pastor, I can attest to this. For many youth, believing the universal lordship of Jesus having once saved is far less challenging than accepting their current need for a sovereign Redeemer who continues to save.
Granted, our culture’s emphasis of reason over revelation and self-autonomy allots sense to the trend. That said, one must wonder how a world system based on deficiency is affecting the church’s thirst for relevancy.
Take ‘mission’ for example. For most, mission is seen as a journey, an assignment or a means to an end; however, when we note the Godhead, we find ‘mission’ to be an overflow of an established nature.
You see, before love could be extended, there had to be an identity with the ability to love; hence, why so many feel the weight of performance given they’re trying to abide in love not knowing who they really are and as such, forget the key to anything starts and ends with being loved by God.
The question is…
Are we abiding in love…or are we searching in love to find ourselves? Are we trusting God to fill our needs or filling our needs to trust in God? Are we forgiving having received grace or seeking grace in order to forgive?
Either way, it’s worth reminding ourselves…
- There’s no depravity God can’t redeem.
- Abiding in who we are in Christ is the blueprint to Holy Spirit dependence.
- The bedrock of truth, especially as revealed in revelation, is cemented when we allow God to reveal Himself in all circumstances.
As for the blood’s depreciation among ‘next gen’ believers, it’s important we, as the body, perceive the issue as a conflict between identity and performance. For as long as Western individualism exists, so will the temptation to approach mission as drive, fellowship as metric, sin as shame…and thus, the blood as obsolete.
Yet, when we remember we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20), when we accept Christ’s atonement as the security of our freedom, only then will we understand the blood’s purpose in all things.
For instance…
The blood is central to our community:
“Take care and be on guard for yourselves and for the whole flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd (tend, feed, guide) the church of God which He bought with His own blood.” ~ Acts 20:28 (AMP)
The blood is central to reconciliation:
“…and through [the intervention of] the Son to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, [I say,] whether things on earth or things in heaven.” ~ Colossians 1:20 (AMP)
The blood is central to redemption:
“In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace.” ~ Ephesians 1:7 (AMP)
The blood is central to cleansing:
“But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the good things to come…He went once for all into the Holy Place [the Holy of Holies of heaven, into the presence of God], not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, having obtained and secured eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer is sufficient for the cleansing of the body, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal [Holy] Spirit willingly offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the ever living God?”~ Hebrews 9:11-14 (AMP)
“Let us approach [God] with a true and sincere heart in unqualified assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” ~ Hebrews 10:22 (AMP)
Get the picture?
My final thoughts are:
1. To minimize the blood is to minimize our freedom in Christ as it stresses our fear of deficiency over God’s sufficiency (2 Corinthians 12:9).
2. Instead of wanting to be relevant, why make the Good News3 prevalent? After all, the presence of goodwill4 is a testament to the Good News of the Gospel – the fact Jesus continues to heal the oppressed and set captives free having reconciled us to God through…(wait for it)… His shed blood.
3. Accordingly, by downplaying Christ’s sacrifice, we risk performance systems bridging the gap not only between identity and sin, but also church and mission (more on this in a future post).
I don’t know about you, but give me Jesus and the power of the cross as the divide between those medians.
Looking ahead, stay tuned for a sequel post where I’ll dive into more detail on how we can better educate young people on how to live in God’s present ministry of reconciliation5.
‘Til then, peace be the journey…
~ Cameron
Selah.
Footnotes
- Of Jesus
- This coming an observation from multiple pastoral colleagues across the country
- Which can’t be separated from Christ’s ultimate sacrifice
- And our call to extend it
- An active reality, not a past occurrence
Cover photo creds: Mudpreacher.org
Dear Church: Get Real, Not Relevant.
I got something to say…
…and gotta get it straight before the sun goes down.
If the church wants to be a city on a hill, then why is it trying so hard to be relevant?
Not to suggest the church should be indifferent towards evangelism or complacent in discipling; I’m just sayin’ since when did the church become ashamed of the Gospel? Since when did she start making it about you…and your receptivity to truth?
‘Cause truth is: the church was never meant to be culturally relevant or well-received, but contextually real and eagerly given.¹
“For what we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know and understand the wonderful things God has given us.” ~ 1 Corinthians 2:12 (AMP)
“[So I have intended] to come to you, in order that I may reap harvest among you…both to the wise and to the foolish. I am eager to preach the gospel to you…for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” ~ Romans 1:13-16 (ESV)
Granted, most of you agree; however, in a time when church gets commission, but not Gospel…where truth is seen as content only worth its reach, it shouldn’t surprise us why many struggle to get God since what’s being modeled to them is more marketable than relatable.
Thus, it’s worth asking: How do we conquer the divide (be it deception, segregation, warped ecclesiology, etc.) in a way that gets us back to fishing for men without the bait?
To answer this, we must accept…
- Relatability and relevancy are two completely different thing (more on this in a future post; ’til then, note Jesus’ interaction with outcasts (Luke 15, 1 Corinthians 5, Matthew 21, Mark 5, John 4).
- The world isn’t looking for church to be relevant; it’s desperate for something real, radical and revolutionary.
- When we’re reaching out, embracing in, and loving like Jesus, we never have to attract people to the Kingdom because it’s already there in front of them.
Remember the church’s call is to draw near to the lost like God, not draw the lost to find God.
Sure, our church may be in the midst of a powerful sermon series with catchy taglines to promote. But at the end of the day, what the world really wants is the reality of grace abounding as people love the way they know how.
‘Til then, I charge the church to get real about her entitled expectations. ‘Cause honestly, whether or not we’re in favor of a church’s peripherals (worship style, tech incorporation, service flow) or demographics (diversity), shouldn’t distract us from what ultimately matters – people fearlessly living and loving like Jesus…who are willing to resonate truth rather than make it relevant.
Remember Jesus didn’t die for you so you could be you; He died so we could be of same mind and heart so those lost and afflicted could join in. He didn’t die so you could be convinced how special you are; He died so you could tell others why they are. He didn’t die so you could be served; He died so you wouldn’t have to worry whether or not you are.
And that, my friends, is what the Gospel is all about: serving those deserving, giving to the living, bringing unity to community, telling not selling…I could go on.
Maybe you’re sitting there discouraged wishing things could turn around. If so, I want to encourage you tonight: while it may seem you gotta get your life in order to make a difference, you can make a difference in order to make a life.
Yeah, you may think you have nothing to offer, you make think your faith isn’t ‘attractable’, but given the Word says it’s who you are over what you have (1 Peter 2:9, Galatians 3:27-28), you never have to worry about having something to lose and nothing to give.
As for the church, I also encourage you: whether you’re pitching a product, promoting a series, or marketing a vision, never forget…
- The ‘me’ in ‘follow me’ (Matthew 4:19, Mark 1:17) is not about you.
- We’re called to make disciple-makers, not gain followers.
- Millennials don’t want your relevancy; they want your authenticity.
After all, when we “present a ravishing vision of a loving and holy God”, we not only capture their attention, but their hearts as well.²
Selah.
Footnotes
- Vaters, Karl (2016, March 30). “Forget Being Culturally Relevant.” Christianity Today.
- Dyck, Drew. (2017). “Millennials Don’t Need a Hipper Pastor, They Need a Bigger God”). The Aquila Report.
Cover photo creds: Pinterest
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