Crazy Love  

Posted by Jordan Jones in

I already referenced the bald Chinese man that has literally revolutionized my thoughts on this faith I embrace. But- I wanted to share a few quotes from his book Crazy Love that still resound in my being a year after reading them...


  • “Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy.  Something is wrong when our lives make sense to other believers.”
  • “His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words cannot contain Him.  Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?”  (Umm...yes!)
  • “I quickly found that the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live out New Testament Christianity.  The goals of American Christianity are often a nice marriage, children who don’t swear, and good church attendance.  Taking the words of Christ literally and seriously is rarely considered.”
  • “Jesus’ call to commitment is clear:  He wants all or nothing.  The thought of a person calling himself a “Christian” without being a devoted follower of Christ is absurd.”
  • “But we need to realize that how we spend our time, what our money goes towards, and where we will invest our energy is equivalent to choosing God or rejecting Him.
  • “We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide.”
  • “If a guy were dating my daughter but didn’t want to spend the gas money to come and pick her up or refused to buy her dinner because it cost too much, I would question whether he were really in love with her.  In the same way, I question whether many American churchgoers are really in love with God because they are so hesitant to do anything for Him.” (Crap- I've used the gas money excuse on Courtney numerous times...and yes I know that it isn't his point...but it still convicted me!)

This just scrapes the surface. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet- do it. Like now. And let me know how it interacted with your spirit. 

Disclaimer: Francis Chan is not my savior. I actually hear he is a pretty awkward guy in person- he just boldly lays out truth and this I can get into. I love Jesus- the risen Son of God. May we never trade Creator for created. May my passion for Francis' teaching not be misconstrued. 


Impact Summer Camp 2009  

Posted by Jordan Jones in ,

Shocking as it may sound...we are a little over two months away until Impact Summer Camp '09. 


So that means...it's time to sign-up. Everything we have seen has told us that we will be out of available registration spots weeks before the official registration deadline. So stop wavering...doubting whether you will know enough friends that are going, whether it will be better than the other options you are weighing, whether you want to be away from home that long (ya right!). 

Check out more details about camp here (including a preview video). You can also sign-up for camp at this site as well. 

We are excited that Marvin Williams will be ripping open the Scriptures, proclaiming a dangerous message of rebellion, all week long at camp. You can check out a few of his teachings here at his home church or here when he spoke at Trinity in April. 

Also, we are still in need for counselors to join us for a week at camp in order to support our mission of seeing students fall madly in love with God and be challenged to do crazy things with that love in the world! It is only $25 to be a counselor now (thanks to an anonymous donation)! Please fill out the application found here and get that into the Student Offices by the end of June (but the earlier the better)!

Battle Time  

Posted by Jordan Jones in ,

People say that I am unpredictable. Well people who don't know me very well at least. The people closest to me would probably say the opposite- I'm pretty sure they would assert that I am predictably, well, unpredictable.


But there is one situation that I will respond the same way to every time I experience or see it: disgust and disappointment when I witness someone fuse their preferences with the Gospel.

What do I mean by preferences? Here are a few examples (all statements I have heard):

  • "It's about time they lowered the volume...I was thinking about trying ______ Church. It's closer to my house anyway"
  • "God must be so disappointed in us for not getting deeper as a church."
  • "Why does Pastor ______ always wear suits...he must be legalistic."
  • "I sure wish we would ______ at youth group (more)." (I could fill that blank in with about 20 things that I have heard- I've even heard drinking games!)

Even if those things have some semblance of truth...what is the focus? What lens or paradigm are they looking through (well at least 9 times out of ten)?

Preferences.

The way it was.
The way it should be.
The way I would do it if I was in charge.
The way that is comfortable for me.

Preferences.

But what do your preferences have to do with anything?

If the music is loud, but people are being restored...it's time to check our preferences at the door.

If we are screaming for going deeper, my question is how are we doing with loving our neighbor, loving our wives like Christ has loved the Church, forgiving others because Christ loved us, caring for the poor and oppressed? I could go on. The deepest thing you can do spiritually is simply obey friend.

If the pastor is wearing a stinkin' 20 piece suit, but the Gospel is being proclaimed with boldness, beauty, messiness, a call to freedom and transformation is occurring...who cares what the dude is wearing?

Why are you asking for more music at Impact? Or more games at Crosswalk? If it's because you desire restoration to occur in our community- then right on. But is that the case?

One day I will begin to decay. My music will fade into a reject Oldies station. I will be begging them to bring back the full drum set, the bass guitar, the Gibson and the Taylor into the church, which has been replaced by one guy playing all of the instruments on his Mac.

But if the true Gospel is going out and people's lives are changing- I beg God that my personal preferences will never come up, never receive any attention.

Final thought: This is fleshed out in other areas as well. Take our volunteers at Impact & Crosswalk. If you were to join our volunteer staff at Trinity, I would ask you to agree with the purpose of the ministry (the why of our existence as a community).

For those of you who don't know what our mission statement is: Impact & Crosswalk exist to develop & deploy families students who, by serving, will captivate their peers to discover a full-life in Christ. Or you could just call it making disciples. Whatever. It's seeing students fall in love with Jesus- while they realize (and embrace) the reality that you can't say you love God without an action-based love for others and then begin to bring others into this truth they have wrapped their own lives around.

Without buy-in from volunteer staff there is too much potential for personal preferences, agendas and ultimately, conflict. Why would I spend my time fighting and battling other believers about the vision we have already received from God (not man) when my battle time should be devoted to the Enemy?

Don't let mere preferences be a part of the battle...the evil one would love that too much.

Mystery Trip Clue #1  

Posted by Jordan Jones in ,

In the next three months I will be giving a few clues to what we will be doing on our HS Mystery Trip in August.

Here goes for the first one: We will spending at least one moment on the trip where the state of Michigan will no longer be visible to the naked eye.


You will be able to sign-up for the Trip at http://trinitywired.com/event/crosswalk-mystery-trip by the end of the week! If not, you can turn in forms and money to the Student Drop-box at the Registration Desk whenever your little heart desires.

Crazy Friendship  

Posted by Jordan Jones in

If you talk to me for more than 30 minutes, you will most likely hear me reference a short, shiny-headed Chinese man named Francis. God has used Francis to awaken me from a comfortable slumber of apathy in my faith the last 5 years (and continues to remind me of the journey I have taken away from a faith void from risks and suffering).


A word that Francis constantly uses is crazy. How there should be nothing normal about this interaction we have with Jesus, this faith that we embrace- there's no such thing as a "lukewarm" Christian. It's as much as an oxymoron as country music or Microsoft Works. We are called to take risks, live a crazy life filled with loving enemies, rejoicing in the crap of life, repaying evil with good, turning our cheek- selfless love.

But what if we applied this craziness to our friendships? What if we ventured away from friendships based on selfishness and the personal benefits involved and transitioned to ones built on the true nature of love: a deep yearning for what's best for the other person.

Check out the story of Nathan and David in 2 Samuel 12 today. Pay special attention to the focus Nathan has in his interaction with David- not merely on the sin, but more importantly on the God who lives in unapproachable light who is infinitely more fulfilling than the darkness. He also stresses the immense call on David's life.

But also think about the situation for a second here: Homeboy had to tell his friend that he knew about his secrets, the darkness of sex and murder that David had embraced. Had to call out a king. Not the easiest of conversations. Umm...actually David could have had Nathan killed for even bringing the conversation up if he wanted. But here's the thing about following this God-man, Immanuel, Jesus...it's not meant to be easy. It's meant to be revolutionary. You could even say crazy.

So what friends are God calling you to pull a Nathan with? To shed off some selfishness and embrace some craziness?



Summer is close...  

Posted by Jordan Jones in , ,

The Summer Calendar (June-August) is up on the website. You can find it here.


Some notable dates:

  • CommonPoint meets every week until the 23rd of August
  • Pool Parties on June 17, July 15 and August 26
  • Milwaukee Mission Trip from June 21-26
  • SEMP Chicago Trip from July 6-11
  • Serving at the Blast and VBS the week of July 20-24
  • Middle School Camp from August 2-6
  • HS Mystery Trip from August 14-16
  • I Love Lansing Day August 19

So here we go...  

Posted by Jordan Jones

So I'm giving this blog thing a shot. And for those of you who know me- you know this could get ugly. My pursuit of truth, beauty and love has gotten messy in the past and continues to, but I know Jesus is busy restoring me and things start happening when this is the case. You just can't encounter Jesus and stay the same. You may try to resist it, but you will be pushing back with extreme force. This blog will serve as personal thoughts, opinions, convictions, conversations I am having. I will also include information about upcoming events, teaching series, etc. for the Student Ministries at Trinity Church. But know- when I do share all that God is stirring up in me, it doesn't necessarily reflect the sentiments of Trinity Church (or if I am still wrestling through it myself- it may not even reflect my sentiments).

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