The Missions of New Life

Since last week at this time, the New Life body has been busy in the realm of mission. I will give you a brief overview:

Last Saturday several of us were able to assist HAKC and Chouteau Courts install sod and clean up the neighborhood. Our Sunday morning service was great (the sermon may have been a little weak :-) ), the afternoon Fam Jam recorded 90+ participants and The Dwelling had a high attendance as well. Monday we unveiled a new webpage for “The Stewardship of Life” which can be seen here.

On Wednesday, in addition to the regular small groups, the teens began to plan an overseas mission trip for next summer that will involve many projects along the way to help prepare them spiritually and financially for this challenge.

Last night, we were able to provide a meal and spend time with the folks at the Ronald McDonald house. It is certainly a challenge to hear stories of those who have children in the hospital. We were also able to host a “Human Trafficking” forum at the Union Hill location with representatives from Defenders USA and Veronica’s Voice.

In the next few days we will be participating in more individual work projects and the monthly downtown business luncheon.

In addition to the group events this past week, I have heard a growing number of stories from individuals about times spent with the homeless, people who have accepted Christ and more ideas for mission in the near future.

To every one of you who have been living out your faith I send you a “Cyber pat on the back” and a LOUD “Keep living the way Life is meant to be!” For those of you waiting for the right opportunity to “jump in”, it will be the best decision you ever made…. If you have questions, ideas or just need to talk, feel free to email me.

I close with a challenge from my reading this morning, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” –James, the Brother of Jesus

A Personal Call to Stewardship

by Tony Totta

If you are reading this, you posses a call to life and have been entrusted with breath, time, resources, skills, opportunities and relationships. You’re probably very familiar with the ‘American Dream’ that generally refers to the idea that one's prosperity depends upon one's own abilities and hard work. This ideal has granted mankind the ‘right’ to pursue happiness…a happiness that we seek through successful careers, skilled sports, community status and possessions. Through it all we have become drunken in pursuit and have lost sight of the happiness we seek.

At New Life, we are learning that happiness, joy and true peace come from letting it all go. This is a figurative letting go in our heart and mind of everything that is ‘ours’ and opening our hands in a spirit of absolute trust, total dependence and complete obedience to God. Along the continuum of eternity, we walk this earth for a very short period of time and the things that we hold in our trust, are just that, held in our possession as managers. I Corinthians 4:7 says, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”

So where does that leave us? I repeat that in this life we’ve been entrusted with breath, time, resources, skills, opportunities and relationships. As such, we have a call greater than the American Dream…we have a call to the very stewardship of life! The title of steward, doesn’t necessarily conjure up the greatest associations of status and success, but as I Corinthians says, we don’t have anything that hasn’t been given to us anyway; therefore, it’s up to you and I to accept our role as entrusted managers of the time, sight, breath and energy it’s taken to read this page. Even more, we have time, resources, skills, opportunities and relationship in our trust to be used as God leads for His glory.

What does this mean?

Time – There are 60 seconds in every minute, 60 minutes in every hour, 24 hours in every day, 365 days in every year and an average of 80 years for every human. You and I are not guaranteed any of them and can never get any of them back. Spend your time wisely on what matters most.

Resources – Money, materials, stocks and land are just a few of the different resources at our disposal. This area, possibly more than any other, can cloud our mind and life pursuits as we achieve what is ‘ours’. Manage wisely and hold your hand open…what has been entrusted to you is not yours.

Skills – Each of us have talents, training, strengths and experience that don’t belong to us. We should be about the business of using them to follow God’s call, “love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself”.

Opportunities – As we journey through life, we will encounter opportunities to impact or impress people. Whether this is a position at work, an act of service, a place of leadership in sports or others functions, we all too often get caught in the endless cycle of trying to impress people and make little or no lasting difference. We’ve been called to teach people what God has taught us as we go through our life, and as we follow this call, we will leave an eternal impact on mankind.

Relationships – Marriage, co-workers, friends and family are relationships that most would place great value on for support, livelihood and training. In addition to these, is the gas attendant, the airlines stewardess, grocery store checkers, etc. We are called to care for each relationship with highest regard, because we will one day return them to God.

In the book, In His Steps, Charles Sheldon writes, “Are we ready to make and live a new discipleship? Are we ready to reconsider our definition of a Christian? What is it to be a Christian? It is to imitate Jesus. It is to do as He would do. It is to walk in His steps.” “What would be the result if all the church members of this city tried to do as Jesus would do? It is not possible to say in detail what the effect would be. But it is easy to say, and it is true, that instantly the human problem would begin to find an adequate answer.”

Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” So, we have a new journey before us, to follow in Christ’s steps on a faith journey. The journey will take us to places we have never been and stretch our faith. Throughout the journey he is making us into his image, by transforming, strengthening and regenerating us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In this way, we live as stewards of life and live life the way it was meant to be!

In conclusion, I would like to reflect on the feeding of the five thousand. God used a boy with a five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men and their families. He used something that the boy had in his possession. Something that would have, at best, limited use in addressing the appetite of the enormous crowd, but at the right time he obeyed the call to give all he had to Christ. The result was incredible, because not only did the entire crowd get fed, but they were filled and collected over twelve baskets of left-overs. So it is with you and I. We are not asked to give anything that we do not have. We are asked only to be ready to return what has been entrusted to us and He will use you to do supernatural things.

I invite you to join the many who have made a commitment to the Stewardship of life as a manager of the time, resources, skills, opportunities and relationships that have been set before you. I look forward to hearing the stories from you journey.