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Over 10 years ago, as my wife and I were dating, I had the privilege of traveling as lead vocalist in a worship band.  We were pretty cheesy, looking back, but had some great times.  Because we were sponsored by the University, we had financial backing and all the “right” connections.  I had the chance to lead thousands of people in worship, and we had recorded alive album.  Things were looking great for the future of however God might use me in ministry.

In a moment of honesty, my wife(fiancée at the time) took a step of faith, by asking me through tears, “Would you give it all up?”

I asked what she meant.  She shared with me that God had been saying something to her about Africa.  wasn’t sure what it was yet, but wanted to know…if God eventually called us to Africa together….would I be willing to “give up”any status I’d gained in ministry?  My response was…of course…ifGod was calling us somewhere, we would follow.

As time went on, we were prepared to follow Him anywhere together.  God’s direction took an ironic turn…  (Click HERE to read the rest!  Today I’m a “guest poster” over at “To Show Them Jesus”, a great blog by my friend Christina about how we disciple our children as we raise them.  Head on over and check it out!!!)

It began as a great idea.  “Urban Chickens” that we could raise as our very own, house in a small coop built behind the garage.  We’d get 3 or 4 hens, feed and care for them, and in return they would give us 4 eggs a day eventually.  We even fought the city a bit for the right to keep them.  Only a few days after moving baby chicks into our backyard, we had animal control show up. Through laughter, the man complimented our “Taj Mahal” of chicken coops, and reassured us we had nothing to worry about.

“I get calls like this often, and usually it’s someone who’s thrown together some chicken wire and scrap wood, with lots of smelly chickens.  It’s obvious you guys aren’t going to let this ruin the neighborhood.   I can’t tell you who called, but don’t worry about it.”

We breathed a sigh of relief.  Then a few days later, the police showed up.  With measuring tape.  Apparently the person had called back to complain, and accused our coop of not being within city code.  The code states that any chicken housing should not be within 70 feet of any home not occupied by the owner.  So they measured just to make sure.  It was true.  We were only 63 feet away.

Our baby chicks seemed to look at us with tear-filled eyes….”why do they hate us?”, they clucked.  Okay, so maybe that’s melodramatic, but we couldn’t understand it.  The police told us we had a few days to find the chickens a new home, or we could be given fines, taken to jail, and/or the chickens forcibly removed.  Even as he said all of this, he confessed he felt like a jerk…and it shouldn’t be that way.  Still, the law is the law.

So we decided to go on the offensive.  I wrote a letter introducing my family, and explained why we had chickens.  Both from the perspective of faith, teaching our daughters to care for God’s creation, and animals giving food to us…and from the angle of home-school, teaching our girls animal-care, science, etc.  In the letter I confessed that we really wanted to chickens, but that our relationships with humans took priority…please let us know if we need to repair a relationship.  I took 2 of my daughters and hand-delivered these letters up and down our street and one block over.  We knew it wasn’t our immediate neighbors, but had no idea beyond that.  We had great short conversations, and actually educated several people who thought we needed a rooster to get eggs from a hen.  No sir, only if we want baby chicks….which we do not want. 🙂  Our neighbors smiled, enjoyed meeting our kids, and there were no calls to the police after this.

Not wanting to rely on this, and afraid of being arrested for illegal-chicken-keeping, I went a step further.  The city code wanted the coop 70 feet away from anyone who wasn’t an owner.  I wrote up an affidavit for my neighbors to sign, declaring they agreed to be considered “owners” as defined by the city (anyone who shares in some sort of care for, or allows the animals on their property, etc.).  Once they signed this, and I filed it with the city’s legal team, I received a call a week later that it’d been approved.

“But Mr. Anderson, you must let your neighbors know…if your chickens were to escape and harm anyone, they would be liable with you.”

Yes…I shall let them know.  🙂  I still remember that moment, coming back to my wife and children to tell them the good news….daddy had saved the day.  We could now legally keep a few chickens on our property.  Such a small victory for city code….such a large one for our kids.  And finally, months later, we begin to collect the “fruit” of our labor…

What is the gospel we want our children to know?  Is it “good” only because we know it means they’ve got “fire insurance”?  Or is there something more we want for our children…and our families?

I was recently listening to one of my favorite speakers, and he brought up a good point about the Gospel.  The word “gospel”, literally means “good news”.  When a Christian talks about the “Gospels”, they generally mean the books of the Bible that tell the story of the life of Jesus Christ (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).  But when a Christian talks about the “good news” of Christianity, they’re usually referring to the types of things Paul tells us in Romans, Corinthians, and so on.  The “good news” that Paul often talks about is that through Christ we are “justified” by faith, being offered salvation and eternal life in a renewed creation, saving us from the suffering of separation from God.  That even when life brings suffering we can have Hope for what is yet to come.  This is the good news, or the “gospel” of Paul.  It is GREAT news, of course.   But it cannot be the complete foundation of our faith.

He pointed out how even our creeds are missing something.  In the “Apostles Creed”, for example, we see the words:

“..And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;….

The words go right from “born of the Virgin Mary”, to “suffered under Pontius Pilate”.  The disciples, and those who followed Jesus from town to town seeing Him literally live out the good news…may challenge the fact that we skip right over all of those years in our statement of belief.  This kind of approach to the “good news” of Jesus looks very much like the pamphlet I received last week while at the Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan.

We were standing outside the porta-potties, with an odd mixture of urinal wafers and cherry juice hanging in the thick humidity of July…when a man with long pants, long sleeves, and sweating painfully through a neck-tie smiled and handed me this flier:

I’m sure the man has a great heart.  He’s obviously dedicated to his task.  But the chocolate bunny he’s offering is hollow.  Sure it’s still a chocolate bunny, but when you bite into it…you notice something is missing.  This is the “gospel” so many young people are walking away from.

The good news we want for our children to grow up knowing and experiencing, is found in the very life and words of Jesus Christ.  It’s found in the fact that God establishes Himself as King in Jesus.  That God becomes ruler, and calls His followers to live in a way that proclaims and ushers in His Lordship “on earth, as it is in Heaven.”  As NT Wright says, it’s not about “how to have your sins forgiven’ or ‘how to go to heaven’ but … an agenda in which the forgiven people are put to work, addressing the evils of the world in the light of the victory of Calvary.”

This is the story we want to shape our children, and our families around.  Not simply that we’re “saved for Heaven someday”, but that we’re living out the Lordship of Jesus Christ even now.  Declaring to any other power or system that attempts to establish itself as foundational or “Lord” of our lives – that no matter how things appear to be, or happen, Jesus is Lord.  His ways are sacrificial love, healing grace, undeserved mercy, and responding to an invitation to come before God as His child.  And that is very, very good news…

For more on this topic, check out him talking about his book….or read the book itself!!!