Community at Watermark

A Chronicles and Ezra Theology of Thanksgiving

Posted by rbarry on November 24, 2010 | Filed under: Authentic Sharing,Intimacy with Christ —

Just finished up reading through Chr0nicles yesterday and Ezra today, which by the way the two books are nicely dovetailed in the Last paragraph of Chronicles and the First chapter of Ezra…very fun. One passage that shows up several times in these two books is, “He is good; his love endures forever” (1 Chron. 16:34; 41;2 Chron. 5:13; 7:3, 6; 20:21; Ezra 3:11)

Here’s a great exercise for thanksgiving with family and friends and maybe even your next time meeting as a community, just unpack this one verse. How have you seen this love demonstrated?

“He is good; his love endures forever”

Here’s a way to up the ante…don’t make your answer about material things the Lord has given you to steward like money, house, wife, etc. (even though none of those are bad things), but make your answer about his character and his response to you.

If you want, you can define love by the Lord’s Patience, kindness, mercy, gentleness, truthfulness, peace with you, faithfulness, or goodness towards you (gal 5 and 1 Cor 13).

Here’s a two of mine:

The Lord has shown me his enduring love thorough his faithfulness when I have been unfaithful and rebelled and put myself in the center of my world.

The Lord has shown me truth, he has opened my eyes so that I can see Jesus for who He really is and He is continually showing me that everything outside of him and obedience to him is fleeting.

Give thanks for his Love endures forever. Happy Thanksgiving!

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The good kings that didn’t…

Posted by rbarry on November 19, 2010 | Filed under: Next Faith Steps —

What do the Kings, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoash, Amaziah, Azariah, and Jotham all have in common?

They were all men that were described as “good kings” who were committed to the Lord that didn’t…Remove the high places.

So, what are high places and why is it important for communal life? Let me take a stab at it.

High places show up in the book of Samuel twice and the represent legitimate worship of the Lord, a place approved by Samuel, and a place where 30 men shared and fellowship meal. In 1 Kings 9, the temple is finished and dedicated by Solomon and all corporate worship is now centralized at the temple. The high places are taken over and worship of idols takes place. You could be a Jew, living in the land worshiping the Living God at the temple and going to the high places to worship idols.

“Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.”

Back to the community implications… It’s not that these kings mentioned above worshiped at the high places, but the Israelites worshiped there that the Lord gave the kings to steward and serve . The kings took no action and never went after the false areas of worship.

Are you committed to the Lord, but ignoring people’s high places in your own community? Maybe because it’s too difficult to go there? It may not be worth the relational risk to address with that person? When you think about high places, think about a person’s drive for wealth, sex, power, or identity as “someone who made it”.

Hezekiah and Josiah smashed, removed, cut down, broke down, desecrated, and ground the high places into powder (2 Kings 18 & 23).

All that to say in light of how we are supposed to address sin and idols in the new testament,

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted (Gal. 6:1)

Do you know the high places in your own life?

Does your community?

Do you need to go address someone’s “high places”? Be strong and Courageous.

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Emergency Room

Posted by rbarry on September 21, 2010 | Filed under: Developing Relationships,Living the "One Anothers" —

So I spent the entire weekend (Friday night, Saturday, Sunday) in the hospital due to severe dehydration among other things. Not the way I typically roll. I had many great community moments besides the huge smoothie that was delivered by a friend or Laura’s cookies, but my favorite had to be the conversation between the doctor, my self and a friend in my community group.

The doctor is giving me the update on my lab work for my blood, and my friend starts asking the doctor all of these questions that i should know to ask, but I just don’t…..After answering the 3rd question from my friend, she looks at him and says, “excuse me, who are you”?

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

We both laughed, and i responded, “He’s a friend that going to help run my house financially if I end up dying”. She wasn’t really sure what to do with that….We got a good laugh by the whole conversation.

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Yes, Your Roommate Applies!

Posted by rbarry on September 10, 2010 | Filed under: Applying God's Word,Living the "One Anothers" —

So I’m not sure if your roommate is your spouse or not but I want to share something i have learned over the last month that my lack of application has caused destruction, division, and chaos.

²⁹ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. – Eph. 4:29 (ESV)

²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. – Eph. 4:29 (NIV)

This should be a guiding verse for groups and the way that we talk with one another. We are here to build people up so that they can be all that God has made them to be. Our group has done a great job applying this verse, and we are continuing to grow in our application of it. So, if your group applies this verse, well done. Your role is to sharpen people (Pr. 27) so that they can be effective in life and ministry through encouragement and helping our community see blind spots in their lives. Yes, that means that you should long for others to expose blind spots in your life…

Here’s a place i have failed. When I have disagreed with someone in my group, been misunderstood, or just a straight up conflict, I will bring my wife into it way too early. She’ll get a call on the way out of guys time, before i have examined myself, looked for the log in my eye, or asked the Lord to help me see my part in the disagreement. This is very bad! Typically, when I’m talking to my wife right after the disagreement/ conflict, I have not built the person up that I disagreed with. Which means, now my wife is on my side, she views the person in an unhealthy way, all because i did not work through the first step in the conflict: Examining myself and Looking for the “Log in my Eye” and I have not built the person up because they did not “agree” with me and my point-of-view.

It’s almost if i feel like Eph. 4:29 applies everywhere except for how I talk to my wife about others.

So yes, this verse does apply to what you say to your spouse/ roommate about others. Have you been been convicted of this yet? Happy weekend, Rb

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Gettin’ Afta’ It!

Posted by rbarry on September 3, 2010 | Filed under: Applying God's Word,Serving —

Here’s a great story of a community group getting after it! Way to go…You know who you are…

Just to re-cap our summer, our community group began serving at Exodus in June. We began on a Saturday morning and worked about 4 hours. The guys painted an apartments while the gals worked to organize the contributions closet. The ministry asked us to consider serving the children on Thursday nights while the moms attended a class on financial management. This began our journey into understanding the why behind the statistic that children of ex-offenders are seven times more likely to be incarcerated. Many of the children were in foster care while their mothers were in prison/county jail. We were shocked to learn that 75% of incarcerated women are mothers with kids under 5 years old.

Each Thursday evening, a team of women headed down to 4630 Munger Avenue. If we had more than two volunteers, the extras worked to organize the contributions closet or cleaned an apartment. We used the Watermark Starting Blocks curriculum to teach a Bible story each week. We began with “God is Love,” covered Noah, Jesus’ birth, Parable of the lost sheep, salvation message and finally, a farewell party, complete with balloons & rice krispie treats. As the summer progressed and the children saw faces they knew each week, they smiled and were delighted to see us.

The apartment we began painting in June has evolved into one we are personally invested in to prepare for a new resident in September. We coordinated with Roxann to use the $1600 allocated by Watermark for Exodus to purchase discounted vinyl flooring (looks like wood) for two apartments. Another Watermark member who works for a flooring company helped us find flooring for $1/sq. ft. We are so excited to watch this apartment be transformed. We’ve used furniture donations available through Exodus, along with many of our own touches to make it a space that a resident will proud to call “home.”

One of the best parts of the whole experience has been working together as a community group to use our skills and talents for God’s glory. One of the gals in our group is a professional interior designer. The men did a fabulous job painting and had some great guy time in the process. Another huge bonus of this ministry is that it is completely enclosed and safe for children to help. Each week, we took many of our kids there and they chose one of the younger children to shadow and encourage them to make wise choices. Our children would tell you it was THEIR ministry!

I’m going to continue at Exodus this fall as a mentor to a new resident. We walk with them 9-12 months, encouraging, exhorting and practicing the One Anothers of Scripture. I know the Lord will stretch me further through this process.

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FORCE MULTIPLIER

Posted by rbarry on August 20, 2010 | Filed under: Developing Relationships,Next Faith Steps —

I had a phone call with a long time friend 2 weeks ago who is a Green Beret. We talked for over an hour because there is always much to catch up on because he is typically embedded in enemy territory developing relationships with locals in order to train local military. The role of the Green Berets are FORCE MULTIPLIERS. They gain trust with locals in order to train, teach, model, medically help, and lead locals to develop a local military army who will suppress local or nationalized evil. They are evaluated based on their ability to multiply themselves, so others long term can do the work. I hope that definition does justice. My friend is an all-star: boyscout, west point grad, Army Ranger, husband, father, and follower of Christ. He is wise and has always modeled integrity, not to miss he is “skinny as a rail” and could crush me with his little finger. Anyway back to the community implications.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Community groups should produce a similar outcome: multiplying disciples so that the kingdom of God can advance increasingly through our lives and those in our groups. My wife and I were just talking that the result of our 3 year group experience so far has been life change. We have grown a ton, and as we look at the couples that we have locked arms with, they have grown just as much. We are way more able to lead and teach men and women as individulals.

and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. – 2 Tim. 2:2

Has your community been a force multiplier? A discipleship multiplier?

If not what’s the missing ingredient?

Commitment, modeling, pushing yourself and others to work towards “everything I have commanded you” (conforming/obedience to God’s word, gaining trust, time, clear mission, goals?

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The Line of Trust (pt. 1)

Posted by rbarry on August 6, 2010 | Filed under: Developing Relationships —

I’ve been chewing on this concept of the “line of trust” for a couple of weeks and forgive me if it is not original, but i can’t remember ever reading about it so we’ll say it’s something that’s at least rolling around in that head of mine. All relationships operate on trust or the lack of trust.

At the end of the day trust dictates everything relationally, both with the Lord and with humans. I’ll continue to use an example that I have used before with the Lord. If you trust that God knows what you need, and he loves you then it will directly affect you worrying about food, shelter, and clothing (Matt. 6; and one of my big personal applications in 2009). Humanly, if someone lies, cheats, steals from you and they are your friend it affects the core issue of trust. If your group has someone who won’t work through money issues in your group (like Moneywise), they don’t trust that you can handle their finances…It’s too exposing. On the other end, when someone loves you enough to tell you something you don’t want to hear for your own good, and you trust them…that’s relationship (Pr. 27:6)

So, here’s the line of trust as it’s relationship to community. The total length of time that a community group is together is like a football field. Yes, think football field. Lines running horizontally every 5 yards for 100 yards. Think about the faces of everyone in your community group. They all have stories, pasts, and all have had trust broken in the past on some level.

There’s a huge spectrum right? Some people are so scarred by their past that if you told them the sky was blue they wouldn’t believe you, others are on the other end of the spectrum. At the endzone on the far end of the football field is the “line of trust”. Imagine the people in your group being scattered all over the field, and the goal of the leader is to move them towards that goal line relationally. If we jump off of the playing field because it’s too hard or it’s “not a good fit” then we lose in the long run, because we will still need to learn to trust people relationally where we can be transparent, authentic, and truly be known.

At the end of the day, the goal of the community group leader (shepherd) is to keep all players on the field moving towards the line of trust, where true community happens.

The field involves blood, sweat, tears, and nights laying in bed thinking of resolving conflict with someone, yes countless nights. If you are involved in a group, you know that it’s extremely difficult the longer period of time you move forward. Why? Imagine someone who is back on the 5 yardline (we’ll call him Rob) and someone else is on the other 5 yard line about to reach the line of trust with others (we’ll call him Dan). How can that group function and be healthy….Stay on the field and hopefully over time Rob will move to the 10 or 15 yardline. Or to stick with the illustration, Rob could move all the way to the line of trust in a short period of time. We just don’t know how long it will take for others to trust. You don’t know if it will be a fast growing tree or an oak that takes decades to grow.

Here’s what I do know, relational growth takes a long time and if patience is a virtue and a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5) then it is celebrated in the world of community. My desire for you is that you would exercise extreme patience as you keep your community players on the field moving towards the line of trust. Thoughts?

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Be a friend’s provision

Posted by rbarry on July 19, 2010 | Filed under: Developing Relationships,Living the "One Anothers" —

So, I’ve spent the last 2 weeks remodeling and moving, and two weeks before that packing the old house. The last time Leslie and I bought a house and remodeled one was 6.5 years ago (let’s just round up to 7 because it sounds more epic). I was 6.5 years younger, working part-time at Starbucks, Leslie was the Sugar Momma, and we had no kids. All that to say, The second day into the remodel, I was beat. I’m talking straight-up-whipped….and if the Spirit is at WAR with the flesh (Gal. 5), the flesh was winning. My attitude, mouth, compassion, and love for anything sacred was in the dump as I inhaled Sheetrock dust deep into my lungs.

That’s when God’s underserving grace, mercy, and provision showed up through people. They painted, sheetrocked, wired, built a gate, moved, moved, moved, unpacked boxes, moved really heavy crates into the attic, etc. People were there until 12am at night with work looking over their shoulder the next morning.

Encouragement that we find in Hebrews 3:13 and 10:24-25 has a little different flavor than it did two weeks ago. Encouragement came through people just showing up and helping. It’s crazy how your whole attitude and outlook can change just by having someone next to you in a very hard time. They actually said nothing to encourage me, they were just there laboring beside me. I was thinking through all of the hours of labor that people saved me, and it was over a 40 hour work week. That’s bearing burdens. Thank you God for providing for me and my family through your people.

Who do you need to call today to encourage with words?

You may need to just show up and be there, not say anything, just to encourage…who’s the person?

God wants YOU to be the means through which HE provides for someone (see 2 Cor. 1, 8, 9).

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You Can Change

Posted by rbarry on June 2, 2010 | Filed under: Developing Relationships,Living the "One Anothers" —

I’ve been reading this awesome book over the last month with a few guys called You Can Change by Tim Chester. If I had to compare it with another book the closest book would be Search for Significance on our resource list. It’s all about pealing back the onion and asking/answering the why behind change. Here’s a great paragraph on community’s aspect of the change process, check it out…

Tim writes on page 155,

“One of the great things about living as part of a community is that in community people walk all over your idols. People press your buttons. That’s when we respond with bitterness, rage, and so on. And that gives us opportunities to spot our idolatrous desires.

God is using the different people, the contrasting personalities, in your church to change your heart. He’s using the difficult people, the annoying people, the sinful people. He’s placed you together so you can rub off each other’s rough edges. It’s as if God has put us like rocks , into a bag and is shaking us about so that we collide with one another. Sometimes sparks fly, but gradually we become beautiful, smooth gemstones. Remember the next time some is rubbing you the wrong way that God is smoothing you down! God has given you that person in his love as a gift to make you holy. Sinclair Ferguson comments, ‘the church is a community in which we receive spiritual help, but also one in which deep-seated problems will come to the surface and will require treatment…We often discover things about our own hearts which we never anticipated.’”

Back to Rob, if you’re living in community you know what he’s talking about..unless you really believe that the problem in your group is someone else…. Let me know your thoughts. Rb

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It just takes 20 seconds…

Posted by rbarry on May 28, 2010 | Filed under: Next Faith Steps —

Quick post: Our group went through Watermark’s Moneywise material about 1 year ago and it was an amazing time of growing together, being transparent and communication between spouses around money. We have been working through Hole in the Gospel by Richard Sterns which creates an awareness about the need to be about the things Jesus was about, namely, the poor, marginalized, and the down-and-out.

We typically think of other people as being rich, but not ourselves. I personally don’t even know where the “American Line” is officially drawn for the American Rich, 5 million net worth? I thought this would be a fun website to look at to help me understand that we are the rich. Check it out it only takes 20 seconds. http://www.globalrichlist.com/

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