Welcome to Tennant Across the Pond

Thanks for coming by--and welcome to Tennant Across the Pond, my online journal which will serve to update friends and family about my upcoming trips to Formby, U.K.

I will be in Formby twice in the next six months, serving with Formby Baptist Church. The dates for the trip are:

March 5-22 and May 16-July 12.

For updates, info, and reflections, read on.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Counting the Days on My Hands

I've spent a lot of the last week or so preparing sermons and talks that I will be giving over the next few weeks. In fact, most of the day today has been devoted to writing the sermon I give just one week from tomorrow, "Jesus Christ: The Pattern for Our Mission."

The sermon is on John 17:17-19, a little nugget within the High Priestly prayer Jesus offers shortly before the crucifixion. The theme for our trip is "Get Out, Speak Out: The Church Has Left the Building," and I am trying to start out our time in Formby with a Christ-centered understanding of mission.

'Mission' is a buzzword that is tossed around a lot these days, but I like it. It refers to the preaching and living of the gospel and the forward-motion the church should have in regard to preaching and teaching the gospel to the word.

So, I will be focusing a lot of my sermon on Christ's example and pattern for mission. As I study, here is what I am finding:

We become sanctified (set-apart for mission) by and with the word and truth (which is ultimately a Person, not a body of ideas). This means that we are increasingly set-apart for service as we become increasingly more like Jesus; our holiness should overflow into missional activity. A measure for Christ-likeness, then, is discerned by who you spend your time with (sinners) and what you do with that time (share the gospel through word and action). Jesus sent us out the same way he was sent out; so we do the mission he has already started and continues to do.

I am doing what Jesus did--because I am continuing what Jesus began to do and continues to do. I am part of the divine plan to reconcile all things back to God.

This has been a profound day of study (and I feel like the meager words I just wrote do not do the riches of this passage justice) but I will post more of the sermon after I preach it. It won't be a perfect manuscript, but it will be close.

I can count the days on my hands until we get on a plane and leave for Formby. Excitement nearly overwhelms me when I think about this, but there is still much to do. Please pray that I am disciplined with my time and that I am sensitive to His leading.

"Sanctify them with the truth; your word is the truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake I am sanctifying myself,
in order that they also might be sanctified with truth."
--John 17:17-19

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Expecting the Expected

Tonight, we shared a significant, heart-uniting time of prayer as a team--the Spirit of God showed up in a fresh way that was a great encouragement to all of us.

One of the new team members shared with us that God had been dealing with him a great deal regarding expecting the expected. Because we have a good grip on everything that will (read: is supposed to happen) this March, it's easy to feel pretty secure. It's easy to feel like we can do this on our own strength. It's easy to expect on the expected, and to shortchange God and His ability to do something fantastic this spring.

This resonated with me in a deep way, and I was forced to ask myself how much room I'm giving God to move in. Because we can, indeed, have our expectations so low that we forget what great things the Spirit could do when we show up bright and early on March 6.

So, tonight, I must confess and repent that my view of God is too safe, too clean, too bland. I've forced the God of the Rainbow to become the God of the Beige Drywall. I've decided to expect little, hope for less, and stay in control as much as I can.

How quickly we are to forget, to abandon, to go after half-gods, half-truths, and bold lies. How often I have reminded others that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, and how often I forget the very words I speak to others!

I ask that you pray for not only my heart, but also the heart of every team member, that He would revive our hearts and prepare us for what is to come. We are, after all, less than 4 weeks away from adventure.

A Prayer:

My Father,

Give me eyes to see and ears to hear your spectacular plans for this trip.

Forgive me for a hard heart and a stiff neck that relegates you to impotent action and bland personality. Forgive me for seeing you like I see myself and other men, when your ways are not my ways and your thoughts above my thoughts.

I ask that you be your good, powerful, mighty self again. Bare your holy right arm and rob me of self-sufficiency; rip the scales from my eyes, and allow me to see my desperate need for your power in my service.

In the Name of Christ, the Strong and Victorious,

Amen.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

That I Would Hold Them in My Heart

I recently had the great joy to read through the book of Philippians, for the first time in a long while. It may have been one of the most joyful and encouraging times of Bible study I've ever had. Philippians is a letter Paul wrote while under intense suffering, while imprisoned for proclaiming the Gospel. Despite his great adversity, Paul is just dripping with joy and love for the Philippian church.

Here are a few ways Paul describes his love for the Philippians:

"It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart..." (1:7)

"For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus..." (1:8)

"Therefore, my beloved..." (2:12)

"Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." (4:1)

These verses are quick snapshots that show us Paul's deep love for the Philippian church, love that only a shepherd can have for his flock. This is a kind of love that comes from living for the benefit of others, living for the joy and honor of Christ.

What I would ask is that you would pray that my love and care for the church in Formby would grow to look like this kind of love. Would you pray with me that the Holy Spirit would work in my heart so that I would be filled with this kind of care and compassion for the saints there?