SURGE in Review: 2/22/2012

Pre-SURGE:

Last night at SURGE we started off with some Pre-SURGE Tweets!!!  For most Surge stuff coming up you can get your thought on our scrolling Twitter board at CYM but using #CYMSURGE.  We ended up having around 8 tweets rotating.  You can tweet about #CYMSURGE anytime during the week and we will post it the following Wed. night.

GAME:

We played some awesome rounds of mini-dodgeball last night in the CYM Student Ministry Center.  

Worship:

Katie, Corrie, David, and Scott led us in some really awesome worship last night!  The songs were "All Because of Jesus", "I am Free", "Shout to the Lord", and a brand-new one to us called "One Desire".

Last night (after some of the smell cleared the room! LOL!) we discussed the feeling of completion.  We talked about how Paul and Barnabas completed their first missionary journey and how the church gathered to welcome them back after a 2 year journey.  We talked about how there were some believers who approached the church in Antioch stating that the Gentiles would in a sense have to abide by all the Jewish laws before they could become Christ followers.  This took us into a discussion about the differences between the backgrounds of the Jewish people and the Gentile people.  Both came from sacrificing cultures but the Gentiles were used to sacrificing to multiple gods to "make them happy" and the Jews were used to sacrificing to God to "make Him happy".  However, the Jews in Antioch couldn't sacrifice to God very often because they were only allowed to sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem.  So in order for the Jews to make God happy they would have to obey every command in the Old Testament.  This brought on a plethora of rules and regulations that went far beyond what God had intended.  So the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to seek out the wisdom of the Apostles and Elders.

How does this effect us?  Well, we still have a tension between two factions in our churches today.  The Saints and the Sinners...We sometimes have a hard time blending the new Christ followers that still have a ton of sin baggage with the long time Christ followers who have created a ton of rules.  The most important part that we need to remember is that living the Christian life isn't about rules and it isn't about making cookie-cutter Christians...It is about remembering that we are all on different stages of "The Journey"but we all have been called to take on spreading the Gospel of Jesus.  His love and grace still covers both groups and in fact, calls us all to be unified as the CHURCH.