As The Redemption Church gets started, we are a lot like the garden at my old house-a ton of potential but a lot of work to do and a lot of seeds to lay down. Part of laying down the seeds in this church plant has been coming up with the CORE VALUES of the church. We understand that this list will go through multiple revisions, but this is what we have for now. These are the seeds and ultimately the roots we want to lay down. The flowers may not show yet but we know if the seed is right and the soil is tilled and watered, it’s just a matter of time before we see beauty above the ground.

The Redemption Church (TRC) Core Values

By God’s grace, we hope to be a church that is…

1. CHRISTOCENTRIC. Colossians 1 states in no uncertain terms that Jesus is supreme over all things and that all things were created by him and for him. By God’s grace, TRC will always ask the question, “What does Jesus want to see in our church?” We will stress the need to revolve everything around Jesus Christ for we believe He alone holds the distinction of being fully God and fully man, who came to bring redemption for a fallen humanity.

2. REPENTANT. The pathway to redemption is through the doorway of repentance. TRC will not cut corners in owning up to our sins. We want to be fully aware of God’s holiness and our shortcomings but doubly amazed at God’s love through Jesus Christ and our redemption.

3. DEEP. We don’t want to measure success at TRC by numeric growth alone. The evidence of success is sometimes not revealed through quantifiable measurements of numbers and statistics. We understand that Jesus’ call for his church is to raise up disciples who will subsequently raise up more disciples and so on (Matthew 28). Maturity as evinced by Christ-likeness is our ultimate aim (Philippians 3).

There are three major areas we want to see depth in.

a) Deep in Word via expository preaching, small group studying and sharing, special class learning.

b) Deep in Prayer or more generally depth in spirituality. By God’s grace, we want to develop a culture of prayer.

c) Deep Community. We live in an internet generation where connectivity is easier than community. We want to work hard to be a community of integrity, transparency, and accountability. We will strive to be a community that has a comprehensive lifestyle of worship that can win the favor of all people (Acts 2:47).

4. MISSIONAL. TRC will seek to make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ through missions and evangelism. We hope to engage the world we live in through a missional mindset where our love, hope, and godly living will attract others to the person and work of Jesus Christ.We don’t want to have a plethora of programs as much as we want to be a church with a mission burning in our hearts.

I wanted to share part of that story here.

A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AGO after speaking at a retreat in Chicago I was driving south on I-57, a drive I’ve made a hundred times. As my car sped down the highway the cornfields took on a Gaussian blur effect around me. It was fitting since there was only one thought consuming me at that moment. Could it really be time for me to move on from Champaign? Is church planting the best option at this point? Where should I go? What about my family? These weren’t impulse thoughts triggered by a passing itch for a little variety in my life. These questions had started taking root long before that afternoon, although I don’t know if I can put a time and date to it. So that evening when I arrived home, I put away my stuff, and made a call to my senior pastor telling him of my desire to plant a church.

I VISITED 4 MIDWESTERN CAMPUSES to check out their potential for a church plant. Given that I experienced my first love through a college church plant, served as the college pastor at UPenn during seminary, and returned to the U of I to serve as an associate pastor at CFC, it seemed overwhelmingly natural that my next move should be to plant a college church. However, although college ministry will always be in my blood, I had this nagging feeling that was not to be my next move.

CONFUSED, I PRAYED. In the flow of redemptive history, where did I fit? I was ready to go for it but where was I supposed to go? I felt like a man who’d gulped a can of Red Bull but was stuck in an inescapable labyrinth. Momentum without a clear direction could be a lot of wasted energy and I didn’t want that to be me.

ONE SUNDAY NIGHT I HAD A BREAKTHROUGH of sorts. At a prayer meeting I found myself praying for the many alums from UPenn and U of I who I had the privilege of shepherding over the past two decades. Those from the early years of my ministry are now thirty-somethings. Many are moms and dads with multiple children. I thought about that generation and the faith journey they’ve been on. There are many happy stories to be sure but I also thought of people who’ve told me of their disinterest and disgust at the church. In some of their minds, Christianity is an irrelevant ancient religion and to others there is a severe negativity connected to the institution of church. There are no shortage of cynics who refer to their youthful experience with Christ a “childish phase” referring perhaps to the over-the-top radicalism and emotionalism they displayed. I agree, we should become wiser in our approach to life and a bit more tempered emotionally as we get older. But that still does not negate the authenticity of those earlier experiences. I think a better approach is, even though the Gospel may be manifested differently depending on the context, the heart of the Gospel and our heart for the Gospel should never change. I mean, listen, I get it. It’s easy to get jaded. More than I’d like to admit, it’s a personal struggle for me too. Life happens. You get married, have kids, or don’t get married and get bitter, go through various kinds and levels of struggles. The idealistic vision of what you thought could be turns into bitter ashes of what life may never be. Life steps on your with its big, ugly, unsympathetic foot.

On the heels of such a gloomy picture, almost randomly, I started thinking about the 1857 Fulton Street revival in New York (which I read about during seminary). It is referred to as a laymen’s prayer revival as men and women working in NYC gave up their lunch hour to pray. It is estimated one million people were converted through this prayer movement. One million!

Through my memory of the revival, God was assuring me that He has not abandoned my or any generation. As I look at the landscape of young adults, God has not forsaken nor forgotten about the secularist, the humanist, the atheist, the moralist, the cynic, the critic, the addict. He is the God who sees us and loves us and wants to redeem us. Also, He was assuring me that the way His redemptive story will move forward is through His body, the church. As flawed as she may be, the church is  God’s chosen instrument to bring hope and redemption to the world as it displays the glory of Jesus. Simply put, a gospel-centered, Jesus-exalting, community-loving, kingdom-praying church can bring a heavenly touch to its city. A city can live if its churches are alive. Conversely, if its churches are stale, the city begins to die. I stood up from that prayer meeting asking God to help me plant a church that will help my city live. The more I thought and prayed about it became clear my next destination might not be a campus setting. I was increasingly becoming excited about planting a church where the laypeople and the clergy alike will be excited to live out their faith in their families and work places. I envisioned a church where teachers, stay at home moms, lawyers, graphic designers, doctors, students, people of all ages and backgrounds bound together in Word and prayer would hunger to spread His glory in our generation.

FAST FORWARD to now. Here I sit at my desk in Naperville, IL, totally on the other side of where I grew up. Chicagoland is my mission field now and I am so excited to see what God will do through weak, fallen, but loved-by-God people like us. He will do it. He has to do it. If He doesn’t, it won’t get done. Solli Deo Gloria.

A little background. I had become a Christian in my late high school years, and even in my rudimentary understanding of the Bible, I knew prayer was mega-important. I read passages like Matthew 26 where you can almost hear Jesus sighing in frustration as he says to his disciples, “Are you still sleeping? Can you not keep watch with me for one hour?” So that became the golden goose I was after –one hour of prayer. If I could pray an hour, I thought, that would make me a spiritual giant! (Or at least on my way to one.) Determined, I would lock my bedroom door and pray for what seemed like ages. To my dismay, when I opened my eyes in sweaty intercession, I found I had prayed a whole ten minutes. I would endure the rest of the 50 minutes in my room alone, determined to wait it out. Beep beep. Yes! The sound of the alarm on my Timex meant that I had prayed an hour. Or had I?

In college, I met some people genuinely committed to prayer. The problem was I still couldn’t last very long in prayer. I would either fall asleep or just become very bored after some time. I could probably go an extra five minutes if the preacher had a really killer illustration. But overall, it seemed like an impossible feat to go too long in prayer. At one prayer meeting, I just died, or almost died, because I was trying to push myself to pray longer than what was comfortable and it wiped me out. I seriously thought the next day’s newspaper would have this headline screaming across the front page: “Asian Boy Dies at Church!” with a black and white photo of me slumped over a pew.

So what changed?  It started with a deeper understanding of God’s Word. I heard expository preaching for the first time and I started to understand the Bible in a redemptive historical framework. I learned about the meta-narrative of God’s pursuit and rescue of lost humanity through the person of Jesus Christ. I learned that prayer and more largely my life fit into that meta-narrative, the grand story of God. Prayer became a means to relate deeper with God of holiness and love as well as to received His strength to live out my calling in the redemptive history of God. This deeper understanding of prayer along with examples of prayer warriors as well as the love and support of prayer partners all worked like a perfect storm to teach me how to pray.

And then something wonderful happened to me along the way.

“I’m gonna die from praying too much” changed to “How am I going to live if I pray this little?” How will I survive against the tide of worldliness if I don’t push back with all my might in prayer? How will I live, truly live, if I pray this little?

I used to be deathly afraid prayer exhaustion.

No more. Those days are over.

Now, I am deathly afraid of prayer negligence.

Lord, teach us to pray!

Vulnerability time. Just like the “wimpy kid” I will expose my ineptitude to the multitude (or at least the few who read this). This is my 8 Mile finale moment. No, I am not going to drop a profanity-laced rhyme on you. Like Rabbit, I just want to be real and say it like it is. I am a wimpy church planter. Since coming up to Chicagoland to plant a church, I’ve had this lesson drilled into me. I am not smart enough, strong enough, skilled enough, brave enough, caring enough, sacrificial enough… basically I am not God.

So here’s a little snippet from the Diary of a Wimpy Church Planter. It’s just one story of how God has been working and reminding me that it’s His church and He has to plant it. I am just along for the ride.

Since coming to Naperville from Champaign, I’ve done two main things: start a prayer meeting and network with people, especially other pastors in the area. When people would ask me when the church is going to launch, I’ve always answered in ambiguous “As the Lord leads” sort of statements. One reason is that for now, we are fine meeting for prayer with a handful of people at my home. To look into renting a public location is a huge financial commitment. I figured we’ll just wait and pray and see what place opens up for us in due time. Plus, I have to admit, there was a side of me where I was enjoying a little “free” time from pastoral ministry to read, breathe, and visit other churches.

Then I met Pastor Chris. Walking into his church for a mid-morning meeting, I couldn’t help but notice their excellent facilities. I made a mental note to ask him after our appointment if he would consider letting us rent a room… for cheap . I was greeted by a tall, clean-cut, friendly looking gentleman. When we exchanged pleasantries, I could tell he was from the south. South Carolina to be exact. At his invitation, I shared a little about myself and CFC (my past ministry) and then I plunged passionately into what I hoped the church plant would look like and why I came to Chicagoland.

When we stood up, I was surprised how much time had gone by. I was slightly embarrassed at myself, ‘You talked the whole time.’ As he walked me out of his office, he called his office staff over and introduced me to his whole team. Then, he turned me around and pointed to an office adjacent to his. “You see this office with the empty name plate? If you want it, it’s yours.” I was shocked. He continued, “God gave us this building to be good stewards and if it’s not being used, we are not being good stewards. You want to help us be good stewards?” Uh, YEAH. So just like that I had an office space where I can go in and study. No more using the corner desk at Starbucks for my office.

He wanted to give me a tour of their large 3 story church building as well. In the middle of the tour I said to him, “Chris, actually, more than the office space (which I am totally grateful for), I wanted to speak with you about possibly renting a room for our church plant Sunday service.” He looked at me like I drank stupid juice and had the stains on my collar to prove it. “JP, why do you think I am giving you a tour of the church? And listen, don’t worry about paying rent either. Everything’s free. There are no strings attached.” Wow.

God provides!

A week later, Janet and I had dinner with Chris and his wife in downtown Naperville. After dinner, in between my coffee sips, I said to him, “Chris, I have to be honest with you. I was not expecting you to offer a place, and definitely not for free.” He smiled and said, “When we met, I felt an instant connection to you and your vision, and the Holy Spirit moved my heart to help the church plant in any way possible. Don’t thank me. I’m just doing what I feel God wants me to do. The elders are excited about your ministry too.”

So it looks like God is moving us along (a little faster than I thought) and this is just one of the many stories of grace. One day, I hope to share about the small core team of people who are praying with me. I can’t believe the quality of people he’s brought alongside me. When I see them, I want to be a better pastor and Christian. I feel like the eight of us are in a foxhole together dreaming about building an army one day. But as I said, that’s for another blog entry.

This is the diary of a wimpy church planter. But that’s ok because my story is being written in the diary of a Mighty God otherwise known as His Redemption Story. No matter how hard I flex, my muscles will never be big enough for the task ahead. Only His arm is strong enough for me (Psalm 89:13).

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. (2 Cor 11:30)

On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. (2 Cor 12:5)

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Cor 12:9)

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. (2 Cor 13:4)

I’ve been meaning to write something since returning home from J-Gen. I’ve attended J-Gen since its inception when it went under a more plain title of “Chicago Youth Retreat”. Now eleven years and hundreds of people later it’s become a movement of sorts, offering not only the killer retreat in August, but leadership training, gatherings throughout the year, networking of churches not only in the Chicagoland area, but in the midwest and beyond, etc. Soli Deo gloria.

After prayer meeting last night, a few of us had a humorous talk about our high school/college days. We were chuckling about old hair styles, musical preferences, fashion sense (or lack of!), etc. It reminded me of the happy and hard times of high school. Trying to find myself and fit in, struggling to make good grades, learning about loyalty and friendship, really just a smorgasbord of stuff that makes up one’s teen years. The reminiscing further fueled my desire to write some things that might be helpful especially for, but not isolated to, young people during these post-JGen days.

I’ve chosen to approach this with ACTS 2. The onset of the early church should be a good place for us to look as we strive to start anew after J-Gen.

UNITY IN THE SPIRIT

[Acts 2:1] When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. [2] And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. [3] And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. [4] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 2 opens with the Holy Spirit bum rushing folks at a prayer meeting. Those who were gathered were “from every nation” indicating a rich ethnic diversity. But on that afternoon, it didn’t matter what race you were. The Holy Spirit came on the basis of grace not race. Different ethnic groups were able to understand one another as the Spirit poured himself out on the followers of Christ. Genesis 11 paints an antithetical picture of the Pentecost. The sinful inhabitants of earth went from one language to many because they were motivated by sinful human autonomy. Sin divides (Babel) whereas the Spirit unites (Pentecost).

This means that as we receive the filling of the Spirit, we should speak one language, the Gospel, and sing one song, the tune of redemption story. We may come from different places and have different backgrounds, but we have the Spirit of God. One Spirit. We should pray for the many different churches represented at J-Gen (from Kansas, Colorado, Indiana, Chicago, etc.). We should rejoice when we hear other youth groups doing well and grieve when they are struggling. Also when you go to your own youth group, grab a friend and share what God has been doing in your life. If you’ve failed, share that too. Just like you did at J-Gen. And then pray for each other because you have the same Spirit of God living in both of you. That’s unity. And it’s powerful.

You can even pray with each other via g-chat, even if they live in Korea! Hey Bernie!

WORD & PRAYER. Keep Reading. Keep Praying.

[14] But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.

[16] But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel

[36] Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”  [37] Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart

Peter often ended up with the proverbial foot in the mouth when Jesus was alive. But here we have a different, more powerful Peter. A wiser, more intelligent Peter. How did this transformation occur? He was praying for the coming of the Spirit as Jesus commanded in Acts 1. Through the empowerment of the Spirit he was able to interpret the OT from a redemptive historical perspective. Peter sees the Bible with Spirit empowered understanding. He sees that everything is pointing to Jesus Christ as the Messiah. This is expository Christ-centered preaching.

This means at bare minimum, we need an objective knowledge of the Bible. Peter had to know what was in the book of Joel, the Psalms, the Prophets. He had to read it, think about it, study it, maybe even memorize it. Then, there had to be Spirit’s enablement to wisely grasp the meaning of the words. There’s both study and prayer. They go hand in hand. It’s said of the modern day mystic A. W. Tozer that he read the Bible on his knees. That’s a powerful picture of how we should engage the Bible. The ultimate goal of Bible reading is not mere knowledge accumulation but life transformation. As we read the words of the Bible, we get to meet the Author of those words. Then, as we pray, we align ourselves to the heart of the Author and become like him.

There are no shortcuts in this journey. Like the noble Bereans (Acts 17), we must keep our noses in the Word and like the church in Acts 1 pray and wait for his empowerment. When in doubt, run back to the Word and prayer for sustenance and growth because the electric atmosphere of a retreat will pass, but His voice will come to us like a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19) and it will last forever (Isaiah 40:8)

Get some Rev. Charlie on your ipod!

If you are having a hard time reading the Bible, one alternative is to listen to online sermons. I have a friend whose son is a high school freshman. They had a conversation one day that went like this. “Dad, I am having a problem with lust. (What teen shares like that w/ his dad?) What did you do when you were younger?” “Son, what’s really helped me to is to listen to some good sermons of people I trust.” So he introduced Tim Keller to his son and that’s  what he does every night before going to sleep. He listens to Tim Keller on his ipod and it’s really helped him to draw closer to God as he gets the Word in him. A big reason why you feel blessed at retreats is because you are constantly being fed the Word of God. During these post-retreat days, how will you feed yourself? What will you do to get the Word in you?

TURN MOCKERS INTO ADMIRERS INTO WORSHIPERS

[13] But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

[37] Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart

[47] praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

If you are ever going to be a laughingstock as a Christian, it should be because you are so filled with the Spirit people don’t know what to make of it. It doesn’t fit in the paradigm of what they consider normal. What do you do with a guy like Matt Chandler who wants to “suffer well” with cancer? It’s odd and it produces a nervous chuckle or a cynical mockery. Rather than being discouraged at the mockery, Peter preached with conviction, which led to their conversion. Then the converted lived out their faith which led to acquiring a favor of all people and subsequently more conversions.

That was some worship!

Many times, we make the mistake of halting our witness when people mock. We must look at people’s negative reaction as a doorway to future witness. Peter preached. The church lived it out. Word and deed. It was powerful enough to change mockers into admirers into worshipers. This is a good formula to keep in mind as we go back into the world we live in: Word (Mind) + Love (Heart) + Deed (Action).

We must move from the cul-de-sac of overly personalized faith and become missional in the world we live in. I’ve been trying to apply this in my own life by engaging the people in line at the grocery store, the cashier at IKEA, wherever, whoever. Of course, it’s not merely talking to them but loving and praying for them in the process. When I became a Christian in high school, some of my friends had a hard time with my “change”. Some went as far as to make fun of me repeatedly. However, I stood my ground (with some mistakes along the way) and it paid off. This is the goal: change the atmosphere of the realm you live in, study in, play in. Influence the world rather than being influenced by the world.

RESOURCES ON THE NET FOR YOUTH:

I know you might call me T-Rex but I had no internet during high school. No cell phones either. The pros and cons of the internet is for another blog entry but let’s look at how we can redeem the electronic information highway. Resources are more readily available than ever on the net. Here’s a short list: The Rebelution, Don’t Waste Your Life, Plugged in, I Am Second, mytruthproject, Desiring God, ESV Online, Bible Gateway, Covenant Fellowship Church, Rev. Charlie Dates, Boundless magazine, World Magazine. This is a disjointed list of blogs, magazines, sermon links, and general Bible resources. I am sure there’s more awesome stuff I missed so feel free to add to the list. The point is, don’t waste time googling inane stuff that has no eternal value. Redeem the internet for Christ!

All images courtesy of Dowoo Lee.