Acceptance & Validation

We all walk around this earth with the need to be embraced, loved and accepted for who we are. We seek to be included in some social circle or group that is like minded to us. Even those that feel they are outsiders find acceptance from others that have been rejected.

At some point in the Christian walk we are indoctrinated to this concept of acceptance. We embrace the power that lies in welcoming all that come into our circle with open arms. Now this is a vital part of how we treat others but we must go further than this.

What we seek from being part of a group does not end at acceptance. What we are truly seeking is validation. Acceptance is this "Hey we love you regardless how crappy you are". Validation is "we love you because we know that you are a vital part of what God has planned". What we want is to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Acceptance is hey grab a seat and enjoy the service. Validation is glad to you see you here can you go do this?

In the early days of a church plant we were part of there was a young man that showed up one night. He was hungry and anxious to serve God. We welcomed him with open arms and accepted him then asked him to light the candles before the service. Sounds silly right; let me tell you that it brought such joy to him and all of us around him. Every week it was something more that he wanted to do and to serve, he was part of something bigger than himself.

You see we get caught up sometimes in spending so much time worrying about accepting people that we neglect to take the extra effort to invest and pour into their lives. The relationships that Jesus had were all about validation. The apostles on the beach "Hey how's it goin" (acceptance) "come and be fishers of men" (validation). The women caught in Adultery "whoever is without cast the first stone" (acceptance) "go and sin no more, and come roll with me and my crew" (validation).

As ministers of God (which we all are) we must push ourselves to go beyond the first step of mere acceptance and pursue how we can validate those around us.

Why Unity?

1 Corinthians 1:10
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.

This is why we have a passion to unify and inspire the church universal and those disconnected from God. We value and support individual assemblies but reject the walls that unlearned Christians are building to divide the Christian community.
The Zion project is not trying to reinvent the wheel. We are merely taking the word of God and bringing it to His people. Who are His people? Any carbon based man, woman or child that inhabits the planet earth.
Our recipe is this to Love God and Love people it is that easy....

Do It!

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing....
Benjamin Franklin
It goes along well with what we read in James 1 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

So go out there and do something for God today!Do it!

The Blessing of God

After seeing God move in a big way at The Gathering we are left awestruck by the blessing of God. And it brings up the question: How does the magical process of blessing work?
Really it is not that complicated!
Step #1. We listen to Gods Voice
Step #2. We Obey God
Step #3. God pours out His Blessing

It might seem to simple but that is all it takes. God wants nothing but abundance and blessing in our lives and in our congregations. When we are obedient we produce good fruit. It is when we act on our own that we wither away and get pruned. God is not a stranger on the bus or some narsacistic freak that wants to punish us!
You see all to often when things do not go as we want them to we humanize the creator of the universe by rationalizing our circumstances away as a lesson from God or a trial of our faith. Now clearly God works all things for good and works through adversity but many times it is our own actions or lack thereof that puts us in the situation to begin with. Meanwhile God sits back and waits for us to pull our head out as we try to play a game of cosmic chicken with Him. Clearly we lose every time.

We must let God be God!
God wants nothing but blessings upon us. As the scriptures are written:For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.Jeremiah 29:11

Whether we are in a season of Blessing in the Promised Land or wandering in the desert; Loving God and Loving people will always maintain us on a course to the face of God.

Roots

We are resource for the church a network of pastors, servants and rebels. We stand in support of the church universal.
The church is where we have all come from and without it Christianity would not exist today.

Romans 11:16-18
16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

If we deny the church because of some things that we do not like about it then we are chopping down the entire tree on which we are grafted into. We can not throw away the church nor do we need to start over we merely need to harness the power of the Spirit of God to unify and inspire.
In doing that we empower believers to make their local assemblies better. By rejecting the status quo that tradition and religion have placed upon the church we strengthen the body of Christ and build it up for His glory.

Community

Community has become the new buzz word within modern Christianity. So what is community?
Community is defined as a group of people living in the same locality and under the same government: A group of people having common interests:A group viewed as forming a distinct segment of society:

Acts 2:42-47 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Even though countless fellowships have embraced the concept of community within their local assemblies and created wonderful subcultures of faith; The church universal has fallen short when it comes to living in community as the bride of Christ. "Community" is loving each other regardless of our personalities, theologies and human imperfections. "Community" is joining together to reach the world around us for the kingdom of God.

"Community" is not some buzz word or coined phrase it is simply this: to love God and to love people.
The Zion Project exists to unify and inspire those around us to live in true authentic "Community".

The Overflow

One can not give to a cause without first being filled up and empowered to do so. Likewise It is from the abundance of our soul that we serve and give our talents for the kingdom of God. Unfortunately today more and more volunteers,youth leaders and pastors are serving from an empty tank. The desire to serve often turns to a burden. Many of these players for the Kingdom have a hard time worshipping in thier own congregations. It is not that they do not enjoy where they serve it is that they end up doing something even on their day off.
Leaders end up trapped by their own place that is suppose to be home. Attending another church within the community is out of the question due to the appearance of a leader from another church "shopping" for another place to worship.

This is creating a group of servants that are serving with a half full chalice. God truly operates in the overflow in our lives not from the bottom of the glass. Even for leaders that are operating with a full tank finding a source of inspiration can be challenging.

The Zion Project has created a place that leaders can go to and get filled without the obligation of serving. This is accomplished because we are not a church. We are a group of believers that have a burden for unifying and inspiring our community. Church volunteers and leaders are a vital part of our community and we want to do all we can to support them and the churches they represent. We want to be a resource and a refuge for all that attend our gatherings.

John 7:38
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”