inter(ACT)

I'm pretty stoked about the next teaching series coming up at NLC. (side note - pastor Robbie has everyone saying "stoked" now, which is slightly ironic because there are a few pastors on staff who have a history of surfing and as far as I know Robbie isn't one of them... Ha!) But anway, the series is called inter(ACT) and is all about how Jesus' community [the Church] is called to respond in action to what they hear and know to be true. Some people refer to this as a "social justice" component of the gospel, but I prefer to think of it in far less defined ways. Here is what I know:

In the Old Testament (think- first part of the Bible's story) when things on earth had gotten really out of hand especially with regard to the amount of violence in the world, God set in motion a plan to bring people, nations, and communities back to himself. This plan was to bless one specific nation, Israel, so that they could in turn be a blessing to the nations around them. God put it like this, "I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others." In this way people would be drawn back to God as he reached out to them through a chosen people.

Now, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to see some sort of parallel between Israel and the Church today. God blesses the church in order that we might bless others! When really, we have been guilty of throwing blessing parties and inviting only ourselves...

"Isn't this so great!?" we yell over Michael W. Smith to one another.
"More people should get in on this!" we exclaim as we bump into people carrying large leather bound Bibles.
"Pass me a Testamint! I have to go to my 'singles' group after this."
"Who invited Barry?" and on and on it goes.

And all the while I think God must wonder why we don't include others in it by reaching out to others the way he has so graciously reached out to us. One of our three core values at NLC is Connecting Disconnected People, and this is about connecting people to God. But the big idea of this series is simple: Love the people God loves, the way He loves them the best you can. This is what real faith looks like.

Check out inter(ACT) this March.