32: The Messy Middle

The Neighborhood Church

Like Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14, we're on mission in a messy middle-ground. Things were looking good in one city then churches were planted in another. But things got weird in the city of Lystra in between. It started off well enough with a powerful healing. But suddenly the two men are met with confusion, suppression, and opposition. Things can get messy in our cities and relationships, too, when we encounter people with their own assumptions and expectations. How do we navigate such a mission in the middle-ground? NOTES -- // SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Acts 14.8-20 // 1. You find confusion in the messy middle among people with assumptions, expectations, and needs // 2. We need to stay rooted in the kingdom message (the gospel), a kingdom community (church), and the kingdom way (the words, works, and way of Jesus) in the messy middle-ground. // The gospel in 1 word: "Jesus." The gospel in 3 words: "Jesus is Lord." The gospel in 38 words: "The Good News that Jesus--through his life, death, and resurrection--is the reigning Lord of heaven and earth and all people are invited to live in God's kingdom, filled with God's Spirit, free from sin and death." // 3. We continue the movement in the messy middle despite suppression and misrepresentation (it's unstoppable but at times uncomfortable). // “The best critique of the bad is the practice of the better.” (RICHARD ROHR, Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality)