Kingdom People Doing Kingdom Things

 If you’ve been around me much you no doubt have heard me say the phrase that is the title of this post, as in “we should be kingdom people doing kingdom things.” While the kingdom of God is bigger than the local church or even the church universal, the church is certainly a part of the kingdom. More than a few commentators on the kingdom of God and the church these days will observe that lots of kingdom work is happening outside of the church and without the church’s permission!

I’m personally confident that when we are willing to stand in the pagan world in which live, proclaim Jesus as Christ, and plant a flag for the kingdom of God – Jesus is true to His word and “builds His church.” That is precisely what I mean when I say “kingdom people doing kingdom things.”

One of the “kingdom outposts” I have invested in over my adult life is Woodland Christian Camp. Woodland is a place where one can “observe the heavens declaring the glory of God” and discover “the Law of the Lord is perfect . . .” and end up praying that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable to God. (Psalm 19) There is so much that Woodland does well. From summer camps to year-round retreat opportunities, thousands of people can experience the blessing described in Psalm 19. Facilities are well maintained – primarily because they belong to God. The grass is always mowed – because the camp belongs to the Lord. The staff – many of them Point graduates! – serve with excellence because that is what happens when kingdom people do kingdom things. (“Excel still more” (NASB) as Paul encouraged the Thessalonians in 1 Thess. 4:10,11.) Training for staff – full-time, summer-staff, and volunteers – is a priority, which is more important in the world we live in than ever. Sectarian, my way or the highway kinds of attitudes don’t do well at this kingdom outpost!

But I’m writing this to make sure you know about two unique, but straight from the heart of God, camp opportunities Woodland provides for a segment of our population that too often lives under the radar of many Christian para-church organizations and churches. I’m talking about Camp Cairn and Camp Discovery.  Let me explain.

Camp Cairn. For the third year, Woodland will offer a weekend church camp experience for children who have lost close family and/or friends to death. The mission for that weekend is that Woodland is “giving hope to children and students experiencing grief.” Woodland staff members have attended educational opportunities to make sure we do this weekend correctly. It is led by Dr. Greg Moffatt from Point University. For over 25 years he has specialized in working with children. The volunteer staff consists of many professionals in this area. It is a stunning weekend and stories that come out of Camp Cairn are truly reflective of kingdom people doing kingdom things. Statistics form the U.S. Census Bureau say that 1.5 million children under the age of 18 have lost an immediate family member. These children are at greater risk for depression, suicide, poverty, and substance abuse.

Woodland is a place where “kingdom people do kingdom things” in order to help meet a really important need in our culture.

Camp Discovery. Camp Discovery, which will meet for the second year this summer, is a weekend where children between the ages of 13-22 with intellectual disabilities that prevent them from attending a regular week of camp can experience Christian camping. Camp Discovery provides “children with disabilities to get to go and enjoy the traditional camp experience in a safe and fun environment.” Like Camp Cairn, this camp is led by well-trained and respected professionals – Mandy Anderson and Ashley Sutton. Volunteers with expertise in this area make up the staff. Again, amazing stories of kingdom people doing kingdom things have come out of this weekend of camp.

Woodland is a place where “kingdom people do kingdom things” in order to help meet a really important need in our culture. 

One more unique thing about both Camp Cairn and Camp Discovery. Woodland doesn’t charge any camper any thing to be a part of this weekend experience!

Our budget estimates that it costs about $500 per camper to make these two weekend experiences possible. But the Woodland staff and board believes that these two camps are important models of what it means to be Jesus to the world. The eternal kingdom impact of Camp Cairn and Camp Discovery is, as Paul might say, “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” (Eph. 3:20)

Here’s what I’d like to ask you to do.

• Visit Woodland’s website (www.woodlandcamp.org) and learn more about these two unique weekends.

•  If you know people whose lives could be blessed by these opportunities, connect them with Woodland. Both of these weekends are relatively small in terms of numbers – so if you’re interested, act now!

•  Consider helping Woodland fund them with a designated gift. Ask your church to do the same!

•   Pray that God would use Camp Cairn and Camp Discovery to let these campers and their families know that Woodland is a place that takes the Jesus story to heart – and want to model “kingdom people doing kingdom things.” We are planting a flag for the kingdom of God and when that happens – church breaks out!

By the way – I never ask people to do what I’m unwilling to do. I’m checking off that to-do list above right now!

Perfectly One

In Jesus’ great prayer in John 17, He says, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” (vs. 23, 24, ESV) 

In a conversation with a student recently I was helping him work through the mechanics of sermon writing – but not ignoring the “art of sermon writing” that gives life and breath to sermons. We were talking about the wonderful community described by Luke in Acts as “the earliest, early church.” (2:42-4:37) Luke is prone to talk about “they had all things in common” and “that there were no needy people among them.” I don’t read of any theological arguments, internal conflicts, or other behaviors that would get in the way of what Jesus prayed for.

We do read of some external threats where leaders in Jerusalem wanted to put them in jail and quiet their testimony about Jesus. But rather than harming the outbreaking of the kingdom of God in Jerusalem, that just seemed to spur it on. It is only when there is an internal problem (Acts 5 and the story of Ananias and Sapphira) that the internal life of the church is disrupted a bit.

Before we even get to the great missionary stories of Paul, Barnabas, and others like them, the kingdom people in Jerusalem have welcomed Samaritans, a government official from Ethiopia, and Gentiles to be a part of God’s effort to plant the flag of the kingdom of God all over that part of the world. If you take a moment to do a little research, you will quickly discover that those three categories represented huge cultural divides in the Greco-Roman world of first century. But apparently when the church manages to be on the same page about Jesus – stunning things can happen.

We ought to stop right now and join with Jesus in praying this prayer. Our religious world is anything but “perfectly one.”

If you vote one way and I vote another – how could we possibly be “perfectly one”? If you’re rich and I’m poor, how could we possibly be “perfectly one”? If you’re for gun control and I think it is unnecessary, how could we be “perfectly one”? If you think organizations like Focus on the Family are wonderful and I think they aren’t, how could we be “perfectly one”? If I’m letting an undocumented immigrant live in an empty bedroom in my house and you think I should call ICE, how could we be “perfectly one”?

That series of questions about various positions could go on and on. We live in such a fractious world that it seems we think around every corner in our journey, we will be face with a “my way or the highway” kind of call to make.  I’m confident that Paul, despite thinking slavery was wrong, thought the circumstances with Onesimus meant that he should be sent back to Philemon. I’m even more confident that Onesimus would have disagreed with Paul. I hope that Philemon eventually took the side of Onesimus!

But in Philemon, Paul argues that while “rule and authority” can sometimes make right decisions, he preferred to “appeal to the heart.” Just think of how many divisive culture issues we are bombarded with daily could be brought to resolution if we worked on hearts and not more rules.

We can’t possibly be so naive as to think that our issues are more demanding than were the issues of the first century believers! (If you want a quick and relatively easy read on this topic, check out Scot McKnight’s A Fellowship of Differents.)

But within hours of the most brutal ways to die, Jesus prayed desperately that we would find a way to be “perfectly one.”  It is interesting that in Ephesians 4:1-6, the text where Paul names a whole series of “ones” – he puts them all on the same grammatical level. You can’t look at the list and say “one God” is a bigger theological issue than “one Spirit” for example. Or that “one God” is a bigger issue than “one body” – just to name a few of the “ones” on the list.

Yet, if I were to say something like “it really doesn’t matter if you believe the God revealed in Scripture is the one and only God,” I’m pretty sure this would be my last EES devotional. But if I were to say – I wouldn’t, this is hypothetical – “It really doesn’t matter if the church is fractured . . .” there is a good chance that few would say that I’m a heretic.

“Perfectly one.” That’s Jesus’ prayer for the church. If I believe the truth about Jesus and you believe the truth about Jesus, then I’m thinking we can work out all that fractures the essence of what Christ prayed for His disciples to be.

We really could do well to start praying with Jesus – and acting like he did!!