Chi Rho Misfits

God is awesome. I am loving life and learning so much. I am excited for this blog post even though it is 1:15am and I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in a few weeks. God is doing too many awesome things for me to not be sharing it!

Firstly, what I am learning most: We are all works in progress. Wow, I need sleep; it took way too long for me to remember that phrase. Forgive me for messing up idioms or standard English in this post. I’ll do my best. Anyways, duh, yes we all know that. But sanctification is GOD’S work, not ours. So I am starting to look at Christians as God’s workmanship in a new way. Instead of being frustrated by sin, I’m learning to be at peace because in a couple years God will have transformed that part of a person’s life. I don’t need to get bothered by things. For example, today we heard a group of Christians all ganging up and gossiping about a brother and adults and kids were joining in this. That’s a grotesque picture of the church, but God got me excited that he is going to touch the hearts of that group and they will be cured of this. How cool is that! God is the potter and we are the clay. We can’t expect each other to start out as anything but formless ugly lumps. God is not in a rush to sanctify us-we shouldn’t be quite so much in a rush to sanctify each other. That’s not to say that sin should be permitted; I am all for church discipline and trust that to the leadership of the local church especially. But I know that I do not possess the wisdom or maturity to be able to deal with a fellow believer’s sin in any way that is edifying to the Body. I too am a work in progress. I am excited for God to teach me temperance and purity and the other things he has for me. I’m an ugly mass but I’m in the hands of the Master Craftsman. J

Now, what I am loving most: Chi Rho is awesome. I don’t think anyone who has been coming around even knows that name or anything about what the sign represents. But that doesn’t matter at all. There is nothing institutional about this group but God is carrying out the vision he gave us for the ministry. There is a bunch of total misfits that have been coming around the Blue House to hang out and do whatever we have for them. It’s insane. I’ll try to begin to describe the people. We have had two bonfires, a movie night, a hike and some other hang out things and activities in Salt Lake. Basically all that’s happened is that people have been brought together. It’s the greatest. 

Band of misfits: Hmm….I’m not sure how to not be gossipy here. I would like to describe the people coming to these events but I am having trouble. I love, love, love that the people craving community now have one. Basically there are a couple missionaries with no friends. There are a couple Christian girls who grew up in such LDS cultures that they seem Mormon and are craving Christian friendships. There’s a Christian who went to BYU and is goofy and obnoxious but loves Mormons like you wouldn’t believe. Two kids (18 and 20) just got married and left everything and everyone they know in Arkansas to move here a couple days ago. There is a guy with a rough background and his two daughters who love God but have trouble making friends. Two or three guys from my ward have been coming around. Three girls from Intervarsity love to come because it’s the only time someone will listen to them. The crazy LDS lady that I hang out with regularly enjoys the only social interaction she’s ever had outside of family and LDS events. We pulled two Mormon married from their evening walks and hung out with them. My ward missionary has been trying to pursue me, so she’s been hanging out with us more. An LDS guy was walking by tonight so we invited him to join us for s’mores and he hung out for about four hours and told us about how much he hates his life and has no friends. Monday is his birthday and we are going to celebrate it for the first time in his life. My friend Shannon and her fiancé who are ex-Mormons hung out and answered questions and showed us what God is doing in their lives. A couple from England is here for a few weeks ministering to Mormons. We have a team from Arkansas here for the week form Adventures in Missions. An older couple from our neighborhood has been helping us with gardening tools and hung out with us one evening. We went to an Ex-Mormon Meet-up and got to talk with fellow Christians from LDS and non-LDS backgrounds who have a love of sharing the gospel. We met a couple Christians discussing Spurgeon at a restaurant in Salt Lake who were ex-Mormons and completely covered in tats. Um…I have no idea who else….a girl from my ward that I think has AS wants to hang out. Two girls from my old ward that split came by today because they have been thinking about me and wanted to talk with me, so I’ll be hanging out with them.

Basically, God has just started relationships among people that would never have met without this particular ministry. I really do not think that I am doing a very good job of sharing the gospel with my Mormon friends in general. But God didn’t mean for me to do everything on my own. He had me gather together people that all have one thing in common: they have been unwanted in some way by the Utah culture. But Jesus wants them and that’s what we get to be a part of. We’ll offer hang-out time for them several nights a week and I don’t have any doubt that they will keep showing up. I am really having fun, and not just ministry fun, the regular time. God is creating something precious amongst us. Please pray for miracles. He keeps doing it. It’s a miracle that these people were brought together by a few texts and shouts to passersby.

One comment on how great God’s design is for the Body of Christ: I have had trouble being able to talk with my Mormon guy friends. A lot. I didn’t know how to broach the subjects of school, sarcasm and girls. But Colleen’s boyfriend is awesome at it and tonight he was able to really get them to open up about what’s on their hearts and share the gospel to those open hearts. It was great to think about as I was watering and watching them talk. They would not have met if God had not been having me try to hang out with them for months. But all that time I felt like I was failing, God had someone better to share with them than me. I had been obedient with what he called me to all along. There is comfort that God’s plans are way better than ours.