Core Community Church of Omaha

This past Sunday we announced a historic change and transition for our church: on September 25, 2011, our church will be merging with Coram Deo Church Community.  After months of prayer and years of God’s providence, our elder team affirms that this is God’s work and we give praise to God for this.

So what happens next?  Here is a brief calendar look at the next month as we prepare for this historic marriage of two churches becoming one.

• Sunday, August 28: We publicly shared the announcement.  Beginning this week, those committed to Core and Coram Deo can log on to The City, learn more about Missional Communities, and begin exploring Coram Deo’s social networking tool.  Furthermore, Core HCs will be spending time together this week and the coming few weeks to thank God for all he has done and prepare to make the transition into Coram Deo Missional Communities.
• Sunday, September 4: Pastor Ethan will teach out of Nehemiah, giving further direction and preparation for being a part of the movement of the gospel in our city with Coram Deo.  During the week, keep pursuing a Missional Community!
• Sunday, September 11: Core turns 11 years old!  This is the perfect time to praise God for all He has done.  We will gather as a church to sing, give thanks, tell stories, and glorify God for his faithfulness.  During the week, keep pursuing a Missional Community!
• Sunday, September 18: Pastor Ethan will be preaching at Coram Deo’s morning gatherings, while Pastor Bob Thune will be preaching at Core’s morning gathering.  Make sure you DO NOT go to Coram Deo’s gathering; come to the Playhouse and listen as Bob Thune shares with us before the official merging.  Oh, and keep pursuing a Missional Community!
• Sunday, September 25: We worship Jesus together, 2 churches becoming 1! There will be 2 gathering times: 9 and 11am.  And we will be meeting at Westside Middle School.  Come, bring your friends, and be a part of this historic time.  Just make sure you are radically pursuing getting in a Missional Community!

This past Sunday we announced (video) a historic change and transition for our church: on September 25, 2011, our church will be merging with Coram Deo Church Community.  Two churches becoming one.  In other words, Core is getting married.  After months of prayer and years of God’s providence, our elder team affirms that this is God’s work and we give praise to God for this.  From the very beginning of our church, we have sought to renew all of Omaha through a movement of the gospel.  Many times we have said that we aren’t about becoming just one great church, but we want to be a part of a movement.  Many times we have said that no one church could bring this about, but it would take the unity of many churches coming together to glorify Jesus in our city.  This merger with Coram Deo Church Community is a good step towards that direction.

The vision is moving forward.  The mission is making progress.  And we want to call all of you to join us in this movement of the gospel.  We challenge you to begin preparing now for the coming changes, the new emerging missional communities, and the expansion of the gospel through this unification.  How can you step into this?

If you are a regular part of Core, we challenge you in these ways:

1. Thank and praise God for all He has done in your life and your friends’ lives through the ministry of Core.  We will be doing this together as a church on Sunday, September 11, as well.  We give glory and honor to God for all of his goodness.
2. Read through the frequently asked questions, find out more details, and learn all the story of God’s work in bringing this about.  You can easily download it online or read it on our website.
3. Prepare to radically pursue a Missional Community in Coram Deo.  There are many opportunities for you.  You can learn about them by logging in and creating a profile on The City, an online social networking tool for Coram Deo.
4. Grow as a disciple of Jesus on mission with his people in your Missional Community.  Then, when the time is right, consider a one-time DNA Class to learn more about growing in commitment and membership with Coram Deo.  There will be a unique DNA Class on Sunday, November 13, where you can learn more and ask questions.
5. Serve and give sacrificially.  For this marriage of two churches to thrive, your service and financial giving is absolutely crucial.  We can’t do it without you.  We call you to give above and beyond your normal giving.  We call you to serve in ministry with this new church.  Don’t be passive; be active in God’s kingdom for God’s glory.

If you are a friend of Core who keeps us with us from afar, we welcome your prayers and encouragement during this time.  This is a movement of God, and He loves to be glorified in our praying.  Thank you!

Justin Taylor points to an excellent resource for marrieds and singles to consider.  If you are single and wondering how you might live out the gospel in a church that is booming with young families, I encourage you to read this work.  If you are a young family who wonders how you can live out the gospel with singles, I encourage you to read this work.  Enough from me; here is Justin’s post:

It’s worth noting that [singleness] is a subject where biblical theology can be enormously helpful, and no one has done more insightful work on the issue from this angle than Barry Danylak in Redeeming Singleness: How the Storyline of Scripture Affirms the Single Life (Crossway, 2010). It may be worth reprinting again John Piper’s foreword, which provides a helpful summary:

The greatest, wisest, most fully human person who has ever lived, never married. Jesus Christ. His greatest apostle never married, and was thankful for his singleness. Jesus himself said, that in the age to come we do not marry. And he added that the age to come had already broken into this world.

Therefore, the presence of single people in the church not only “attests the sufficiency of Christ for the reception of God’s covenantal blessings in the new covenant,” but also reminds us “that the spiritual age has already been inaugurated in Christ and awaits imminent consummation.”

When I met Barry Danylak at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, in the summer of 2006, I was amazed at the research he was doing on a biblical theology of singleness. Not only was the scope of it unprecedented, but the theological and practical insights struck me as biblically compelling and practically urgent. I don’t know of anyone else who has ever provided the extent of biblical reflection on singleness that Barry has provided for us here.

Both marriage and singleness demand the most serious and solid biblical insight. These are realities that affect every area of our life and thought. We cannot settle for superficial pep talks. Our lives cry out for significance. And significance comes from seeing ourselves the way God sees us. Including our singleness. My guess is that virtually every single who reads this book will finish with a sense of wonder at who they are, and how little they knew about this gift and calling.

Barry is keenly aware of the progress of redemptive history and its stunning implications for the single life. Early in that history, marriage and physical children were fundamental to the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant. But they are not fundamental to the New Covenant the way they were then. And what is beautiful about the way Barry develops this historical flow is that the glory of Jesus Christ is exalted above all things.

Barry elevates but does not absolutize the calling of the single life. It’s greatness lies in this: “It is a visible reminder that the kingdom of God points to a reality which stands beyond worldly preoccupations of marriage, family and career.” Indeed. And that greater reality is the all-satisfying, everlasting friendship of Jesus himself in the new heavens and the new earth. Marriage and singleness will be transcended, and Christ himself will make those categories obsolete in the joy of his presence. A life of joyful singleness witnesses to this.

Jesus said that others will know we are Christians by our love for one another (John 13:34-35).  But he didn’t charge us to merely love one another, but to also love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-44).  Whether we are loving other Christians or our enemies, one thing is sure to happen: conflict. Surprisingly, this might be a powerful way to display the gospel in friendships.

In loving our enemies, consider the example of my friend, Tom (name changed), who is having ongoing discussions with a group of people who want to discredit what he believes about God and science.  They want to relate to smart people – not ignorant Christians who can’t handle science.  There are two ways Tom can respond:

1. Run from the conflict that is approaching by not talking about science or the Lord of science, Jesus.  I would argue that this might be both unloving and untrue.
2. Engage in the conflict in a wise, patient, and loving way.  I would argue that this might be loving and true in such a way that they are exposed to the gospel.

Tom can show them their error in thinking, but this doesn’t ultimately reveal the gospel to them.  What will reveal the gospel is Tom’s love for his friends especially when they feel like they are in conflict with Tom.  Historically, these friends have run from conflict, but if Tom continues to love them, serve them, and remain loyal to them in the midst of conflict, it would be an entirely new kind of love they are experiencing – the same kind of love that led Jesus to die for his enemies before they became his friends.  This is gospel exposure.

In loving our friends who are already Christians, consider the example of a Home Community in Core.  As we have experienced conflict, our tendency is to first run from it or jump over it.  But God has pursued these Home Communities with conflict until we actually acknowledged it.  By God’s grace this has led to two powerful experiences among the people in these Home Communities:

1. A deeper awareness of our sin. Our attitude toward a conflict surfaces sin in our hearts.  Suddenly, the planks in our eyes can be seen, and the specks in our brother’s eye seem like little bits of dust.  Our sin has been revealed.
2. A deeper experience of God’s grace. As we ask for forgiveness of one another, we experience grace that reminds us of the Great Forgiveness, the forgiveness that Jesus gave to us.

Before these communities had merely known hard work and effort so that we might avoid conflict, but now we know rest and grace because Jesus empowered confession and forgiveness right in the middle of conflict.  This, again, is gospel exposure.

There are more and more Home Communities in Core which include both married couples and singles (and children among both!).  We are excited about these integrating dynamics because it gives us an opportunity to build unity around the gospel and not merely around a stage of life.  Yet, at the same time, it begs the question: how can married couples relate to singles?  And how can singles relate to married couples?  What was this like in the early churches?

The pattern in the New Testament letters references many commands related to community that make no mention of married people or single people.  For example, consider…

• bearing with and forgiving one another (Colossians 3:13),
• teaching and admonishing one another (Colossians 3:16),
• being kind to one another (Ephesians 4:32), and
• bearing one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).

In so many ways, both singles and married persons share a common family and a common deepest covenantal union with Jesus.  Yet, the pattern in the New Testament letters also points to the uniqueness of the marriage covenant.  Married persons are distinct enough from singles to receive specifically targeted portions of letters from the apostles (Colossians 3:18-25; Ephesians 5:22-33; 1 Peter 3:1-7).

A particularly helpful distinction can be seen in Paul’s letter to Ephesus when he addresses submission.

1. He gives all Christians – both single and married – the command to submit to one another.  Therefore, in living this out, singles could quite possibly help married couples understand gospel-centered submission.
2. Yet, Paul goes on to speak specifically of how wives and husbands submit to and lead one another.  Clearly, there is a distinct submission within the bounds of the covenant of marriage.  For a single person who has never married, they have not experienced this in an earthly manner.  Marriage is unique, and just might require experienced counsel.
3. Yet still further, Paul points the church to the higher reality of marriage, which is Christ as the husband to the church.  So, oddly enough, singles have experienced (and maybe even more profoundly!) the unique submission that is required in marriage.  It is just that they have experienced it in the deepest covenantal union with Christ.

The answer lies in which covenantal relationship bears supremacy.  Is it this earthly marriage (which is truly beautiful and profound so much so that two persons become one), or is it the divine marriage between Christ and his church?  My sense is that when Christ’s divine marriage is seen in its supremacy it actually retains the uniqueness of earthly marriage, gives earthly marriage value, and empowers singles to counsel couples and couples to counsel singles.

Uniquely, singles can help married persons understand…

• Our deepest identity is in Jesus – not our spouse (1 Corinthians 7:17).
• The return of Jesus is imminent and life-altering (1 Corinthians 7:29-31).
• That Christ is better than sex (1 Corinthians 7:2).  Paul admits that the temptation to sex is so strong it might merit getting married.  Singles who practice self-control are reminders to married persons that union with Christ is even better than sexual union with a spouse.

Uniquely, married persons can help singles understand…

• Their covenantal union with Christ by giving a tangible, visible expression of Christ’s relation to his church (Ephesians 5:32).
• A greater appreciation for Christ’s incarnation and willingness to marry the church.  Strangely, Paul says a married man takes on worldly troubles (1 Corinthians 7:33-34).  If this is true for a sinful man, how much more so for Jesus Christ.  He did not count equality with God something to be held on to, but he came to win his church taking on trouble after trouble after trouble.  Therefore, when Christian couples are graciously honest about the added burdens of marriage, they can actually be pointing singles to the enduring love of Jesus who chose to take on the greatest of burdens in his marriage – to singles and to married persons.

“Anytime I offer them something other than the cross, they take it and won’t give it back.” That’s what Pastor James Noriega (twitter) said when I asked him about being helpful in counseling.  I had prided myself on trying to combine cool tips, previously-unknown knowledge, and the gospel when I would sit across from people to talk about sin and struggles in life.  So, obviously, James’ response messed with me.  And I knew it was true.  “Anytime I offer them something other than the cross, they take it and won’t give it back.”

This past weekend, many leaders in Core spent 6 hours being trained under the cross-centered teaching of Pastor James Noriega from Mars Hill Church.  One of the things I appreciated most about Pastor James was his unswerving commitment to the cross of Jesus.  But the appreciation grew over time while Jesus transformed my heart.  Honestly, I was confused and frustrated at first, especially if this meant I wasn’t quite as brilliant as I had thought.  But, by the grace of God, I ended up being challenged and called to repentance.  I trust that many of our leaders are left wrestling with the same thing.  Do we trust the cross of Jesus to really be enough?

I figured since so many of us we challenged, we might as well share some of Pastor James’ teaching on redemption with our blog readers as well.  Below are 3 videos that are well worth your time.

On the centrality of the cross, part 1.

On the centrality of the cross, part 2.

On Jesus being our redemption

John’s Gospel has often been accused of being a product of embellished stories, with much of the attack focusing on the time of its writing.  If skeptics can “prove” it was written too long after the events of the time, they can conclude that (1) John did not write it, and (2) the events of Jesus’ ministry had the opportunity for embellishment through the years.  With this in mind, a well-grounded knowledge of the discussion can be useful for our knowledge and answers for the skeptical.

The actual writing of John is generally accepted to be in the range of 80–100AD, all being within the Apostle’s lifetime.  Several factors narrow the possibilities to these years:

1. Starting within the Gospel of John, it’s fairly safe to eliminate any time period before 65AD.  The Apostle Peter is known to have been martyred at this time.  This is important in light of John 21:18-19, where John writes that Jesus spoke of Peter’s future death and the kind of death he would suffer.  It seems clear that this event already occurred.
2. Through the Gospel, John is silent regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.  This was a massive, world-changing tragedy for the Jewish people.  For John to not mention it leads some to estimate a year pre-70AD, but is this the conclusion to draw?  John uses the present Greek tense in various descriptions, but he uses them with ‘historic’ force, referring to things in the past, and he does this more than any New Testament writer.  Also, logically, we can assume a post-70AD date from John’s silence.  As disheartening as it must have been for the Jewish people, if John wrote the Gospel some time later (say, at least several years), the fall of Jerusalem would be considered old news, so to speak.  For these reasons, plus what we’ve observed from Irenaeus, that John wrote the Gospel in Ephesus and not Jerusalem, we can reasonably estimate around 80AD as the earliest of possibilities.
3. At the same time, we can eliminate most of the second century, answering the objections of critics.  We’ve already seen the estimate of John’s age upon his death, and the conclusiveness of himself being the author.  Yet even beyond this, recent evidence has impacted our ability to pull back from the years from the second century.  This came in the form of an archeological discovery in Egypt along the Nile River.  A 2½-by-3½-inch manuscript was found, containing five verses from John chapter 18.  The estimated date from the style of the script is 125AD.  For an original document in Ephesus to reach the heart of Egypt via copied manuscripts would require many years, if not decades, in ancient times.

As for the idea of faded memories creating legend, John’s writing can’t be reduced to exaggerated memories, as if he forgot of Jesus for decades only to recall of him as an old man.  We have noted John’s lifelong ministry of the Gospel, confirmed by Paul and Luke, being a pillar of the Jerusalem church for decades.  John preached his whole life of his experiences and deep friendship with Jesus, ingrained into memory as he preached, and would have continually reflected upon them internally and with other witnesses of the Resurrection.  As we shall see now, his Gospel was a continuation of his life’s work for the Kingdom of God.

NOTE: Jeremy Solomon, a member of Core, graciously wrote these posts for us.  If you want the study guide as a whole, you can download it.

NOTE: This is a guest post from Jeremy Solomon, a member of Core. We hope his work is as beneficial to you as it is to us.  In particular, this book, CrossTalk has already influenced a handful of leaders in Core.  An extended review is available.

We’ve all been there: A loved one, friend, or stranger bravely opens up to share their trials and sins.  For you, maybe it just happened at a Home Community meeting or a one-on-one over coffee.  Any of a thousand issues can be shared: a sin of idols, a troubled marriage, or an unforgiving heart, to name a few.  With a loss of how to go forward, they may even wonder where God is. (Heck, maybe you do, too.)  Or maybe the road is simply weary as trouble and confusion surround their life.  Helplessness can set in as we grow compassion for their plight, yet struggle for words of impact.  You know the Bible is God’s Word, able to direct us in all things, but you feel unequipped to wield this sword in bringing them to a right path.  While trying to avoid simple Christian clichés (e.g. “Don’t worry, God has a plan.”), your mind races through what you know of the Scriptures, while awkwardness may fill the still air of silence in the conversation.

CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet can be a solid starting point in our growth to be of benefit to the open.  Michael R. Emlet, a practicing Christian counselor of many years, intentionally does not dive so deep as to give us a degree in counseling.  Instead, he instructs us in basic tools to dig deeper into both the Bible and the confessor’s life, with the hope of bridging the two to speak into the lives of others.  Recognizing that these skills are a life-long development within ourselves, Emlet provides a firm foundation from which we can go forward in guiding others to repentance and healing.

Now think back to the person who recently revealed their sins or problems.  Emlet stresses that the saint who opened up to you did not appear from thin air.  Since birth he/she has had a life-long story, with past chapters leading to what is now.  Every trial, success, and circumstance brings them to today, and the author’s hope is for us to understand their story, revealing critical themes.

• “What is he really looking for?”
• “How have the sins of others brought her to now?”
• “Where does their pain come from?”

Through such questions, pivotal roots can be discovered, and just as a life is one story of interconnected events, so is the Bible.  Emlet aims to bridge the two, paralleling our stories with Scripture in a Spirit-moving fashion.  In this we contextualize seemingly hackneyed verses, while wielding the less used ones, bringing even the most of obscure of passages to their true identity as God’s living, active Word.  In the latter half of his book, Emlet powerfully illustrates this in using the Bible’s book of Haggai to speak into the lives of two individuals seeking counsel (and we can’t get much more “obscure” than Haggai!).  Each person has very different stories and concerns, but Haggai, in light of the context of God’s Redemption, speaks to both, being a guide of direction and hope.

Emlet recognizes that his approaches may feel overwhelming or mechanical.  You may envision yourself needing countless hours of study and prodding into someone’s life before any progress is made.  But Emlet puts us at ease as he charts a productive, gradual course in our learning, recognizing that even the smallest of efforts can bring fruit in what may be critical times for the one who shares.  Also, his instruction is steadfast in the belief that God will guide us all forward in using His Word; that whether by spiritual gift or connecting verses to their story, He will be bigger than our shortfalls, and work through our submission.

If you want to learn more, but don’t have time to read the whole thing, check out Jeremy’s brief synopsis of the book.  The 6 pages are well worth your time.

Summer time can be a strange season for Home Communities, but this video blog will give you some clarity on what the goals for your group should be.  Mainly, having lots of fun.

So you’ve completed a Redemption Group and are headed back to your Home Community, but now it’s different.  Here are some thoughts on how to think through the transition.