Dan Kimball I - They Are Worth It!

Finals = Done!
Seminary = Done!
I have a Masters of Divinity (or will officially have one when I get that little sheet of paper called a diploma on May 25). Whoa! Therefore, I finally have some extra time on my hands and here are some more thoughts from the conference.

Dan Kimball turned out to be one of my favorite speakers during the conference. He did a keynote speech and I went to a breakout session with him and was very impressed. His keynote address for the day was titled: They Are Worth It! "They" meaning the people out there that don't know God and Christ. "They" meaning the young adults that are missing in the church. "They" meaning the people we need to try and minister to and with.

Dan started out with the story from Mark 2 about four friends who took their paralyzed friend to Jesus. When they got to the home where Jesus was teaching it was too crowded to get anywhere near the door. They could either give up or come up with a Plan B. They took Plan B and climbed onto the roof of the house and tore up the roof in order to lower their friend to Jesus. They took a huge risks of climbing up on the roof, wrecking private property, and presenting their friend before Jesus not quite knowing what the outcome would be. And the outcome was Jesus both forgiving the man's sins and healing him. This is a story about risk and Dan pointed out that we in the church have become risk adverse. We're afraid to take chances. We're afraid to change. We're afraid to come up with a Plan B. We're afraid to climb that proverbial roof. But you know, we need to take those risks anyway because our friends, like the friend of those four men, are worth it!

Why are they worth it other than their our friends and we love them? Here's what Dan said about that:

1. They are worth it because God felt they are worth it and sent His Son into the world for them!

2. They are worth it because Jesus said they are worth it and prayed for His followers to be missionally among them.

3. They are worth it because eternity is a long time and as much as we don't like to think about it, there is a reality about heaven and hell that we cannot forget. There is an urgency with this. We are not eternal and invincible as much as we would like to believe it ourselves and neither are our friends and everyone else. Now whatever it is that you believe about heaven and hell is not really the issue here. The issue instead is that we're resting on our laurels and we're wasting precious time.

Taking risks can be a scary thing, especially at a place like seminary or at a church. But we have to in order to make sure others hear about what God is doing in their lives. And, like Jeremy talked about in his blog on "The Third Place," Erwin McManus' speech sometimes these risks call us out of the ordinary and the usual and it can be scary, it can bring us to our knees, and it can alienate us from the church. But, these people are worth it! In good Lutheran terms, we are doing all of this for the sake of our neighbors who haven't hear about what God is up to in the world.

What risks can you take for the sake of Christ and sake of your friends? What is God calling you to risk? How much are you willing to risk for the sake of sharing the Gospel? Scary questions right? But I think they are the right ones.