The Unexpected, Expected King

As I write this, it is less than 20 hours from the start of February’s SixSixteen Friday Night.  After last month’s gathering, I spent a few days prayerfully considering whether February’s gathering should be structured around another theme.  As I prayed, I became persuaded that we should devote February’s gathering to celebrating the kingship of Christ.

I am now putting the final touches on the message.  Lord willing, after a few songs to prepare our hearts, tomorrow evening I will take us on a sweeping survey through the Gospel of Matthew, the most “Jesus is King” book in the Bible.  Matthew wrote to tell his readers that Jesus is the long expected King foretold in the Old Testament.  But in another way, Jesus is also an unexpected King. We’ll explore this tension and then I hope to show that though he is the unexpected, expected King, he is exactly the King we’ve always wanted.

I invite you to come join us at 6:30 p.m. at the downtown campus.  As you prepare to come, pray expectantly and with eagerness to meet King Jesus in word and song.

Pray especially that God’s kingdom would come: (1) that Jesus would come back soon (even while we worship?); (2) that God’s saving reign would visit an unbeliever in our midst and that he/she would yield to the Lordship of Christ; and (3) that we would be spurred on as believers to increasingly yield “all I know of me, to all I know of Him.”

I look forward to worshipping the King of kings with you tomorrow evening.

~Boyd

What is the Purpose of SixSixteen Friday Night?

The vision for SixSixteen Friday Night is intentionally narrow and simple.  We want to create a gathering for singles across Bethlehem to worship through song and teaching.  The question that drives us in crafting each month’s gathering is this, “What would it look like if singles of all ages got together on Friday night and got vertical in worship?”

Because of our narrow and simple purpose, and that we want to maximize our verticality, there are a lot of things we don’t do.  For example:

We don’t do announcements (too horizontal, though you’ll receive a handout as you walk in)

We don’t do after-parties (though we hope singles feel safe and welcome at SixSixteen and are able to plug-in with other singles)

We don’t do rallies for social justice causes (though the needs are great)

This of course means that there will be lots of gaps in ministry opportunities for singles.  But SixSixteen is not the only thing going for singles at Bethlehem, it is just a thing going for singles at Bethlehem.  It wouldn’t be healthy (for singles or for the rest of the church body) if singles at Bethlehem only did singles ministry things.  For example, striving to bring justice for the unborn should not be done with married people doing their thing and singles doing their thing.  It should be done together.

So we just try to do one thing and try to do it with “undistracting excellence.”

Sometimes the question has arisen, “Isn’t ‘worship through song and teaching’ what Bethlehem does in its Saturday and Sunday services?  Why another worship gathering?”

That’s a good question.  There are two answers: (1) It is helpful to occasionally gather in smaller, similarly-situated groups in order to worship; and (2) No one at Bethlehem has the problem of worshipping too much.  So another worship gathering to start your weekend once a month isn’t excessive.

We hope you come this Friday night ready to “seek the face of God.”  We are praying expectantly that God would use the songs and teaching about King Jesus to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask.  We hope you can join us.

1 Year-Old

Today marks the one year birthday of SixSixteen.  February 25, 2007 was the first SixSixteen Sunday Morning.  At that time, there was no Friday night worship gathering.  Over the last year we have studied Colossians verse-by-verse (over the course of 22 weeks), nearly studied our way through 1 Peter 1 and 2 (it will take us to mid-June to finish 1 Peter), and launched SixSixteen Friday Night.

Since the beginning, our vision hasn’t changed: to unite singles in worship through Word and song.

We pause not to congratulate ourselves but to celebrate what God has done.  The words of Isaiah 55:10-11 are true:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Line by line, as we study the Word and sing songs of faith, lives are being transformed (mostly mine).  More often than a spontaneous radical change, God chooses to shape us more like his Son by the continuous application of the Word.

We eagery anticipate the story God will write in the coming year.  Lord willing, we will complete 1 Peter by mid-June, break for the summer, and resume with a verse-by-verse study of Revelation in September.

Slaves

At SixSixteen Sunday Morning we are beginning a two week series on 1 Peter 2:18-25.  First up, Peter gives instructions to household slaves.  But does this have any relevance to free-born, U.S. citizens who never experience slavery?  Is it legitimate to see a parallel between master-slave relationships and employer-employee relationships?  We will sort through these issues this week.

February’s Friday Night Theme Announced

In January, we celebrated the amazing love of God towards sinners at SixSixteen Friday Night. For February’s worship gathering, we look forward to celebrating the mightiness of Christ as we sing about Jesus’ kingship and survey the reign of the King through the Gospel of Matthew and Revelation.

The February gathering of SixSixteen Friday Night will be February 29th at 6:30 p.m.

Selfhood

How should you think of “self” as a Christian and how does it match with God’s purposes?  We’ll explore these issues this week (2/3) at SixSixteen Sunday Morning by studying 1 Peter 2:9-10.