OK, strange subject line and you're probably asking some questions. 
Why put Jesus and Hitler on the same line? Well, between 12:30am last 
night and 11:30am this Palm Sunday morning, I was shook up by a movie 
and a message that contrasted the final week of these two opposite 
historical figures. It's odd how much truth and insight can come out 
of paradox, irony, and contrast.

First about the movie, Downfall which documents the final days and 
hours of Hitler's hideous last stand in his hideout under the streets 
of Berlin. Months ago I ran across this title and put it on our 
Netflix queue list. It came this week and I finally watched it late 
last night. At the depressing end I was so bothered by it, I couldn't 
get to sleep. I was astonished how so many millions could blindly 
follow this modern day devil literally into the pits of evil and hell. 
I was overwhelmed by the senseless killing, death, murder, executions, 
and unknown atrocities committed in the name of nationalism and nazi 
socialism. So many lessons to learn and never repeat, "never again".

Then this morning our Pastor opened up to continue a series on "The 
Week: the last week of Jesus' life".  I've been thinking alot about 
that subject having preached the past two Sundays in an urban Philly 
and suburban Phoenix church on "Weeping Over the City" as Jesus 
started to cry in his final week for what he saw taking place in 
Jerusalem. Immediately as Steve was describing in amazing details 
Jesus' final hours on the cross and the parallels between that and 
Psalm 22, I was comparing and contrasting the passion of Christ to the 
poison of Hitler I had seen just hours earlier.

Both men gathered many followers and much acclaim. Both men had 
parades of praise in their honor, one riding in a black limousine, 
another on the back of a donkey. Both had big dreams, one to establish 
a 1,000 year reign, the other God's kingdom on earth as it is in 
heaven. Both men's closest comrades fled in fear. Both chose to stay 
in the city, one to fight to the death, one to give up his life in 
order to conquer death. Both died horrible deaths. One by his own 
will, the other because of His own will.

One committed suicide, the other was crucified.
One hunkered down in a bunker, the other rose up out of one.
One ordered millions to their execution, the other ordered up eternal 
resurrection.
One became the personification of evil, one represented the face of 
God and good.
Hitler's last official act was to hand out German Iron Cross medals to 
Hitler's Youth Squad
Jesus' last act was to hang on a Roman cross in order to seek and save 
those youth for God.
Hitler's last words were "The end has come, all is lost"
Jesus' last words were "It is finished" which translated means "The 
debt is paid in full"

At the end of the movie my soul was distressed
At the end of the message my spirit soared
We took communion as an act of worship and defiance against evil of 
all kinds.
One body, one Lord, one faith, one spirit.

And we sang a hymn I haven't heard for I don't know how many years and 
it brought me to my knees with holy tears.

"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be,
How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me!

He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them his very own,
He bore the burden to Calvary, and suffered and died alone.
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be,
How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me!

When with the ransomed in glory, His face I at last shall see,
Twill be my joy thro the ages, to sing of his love for me.
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be,
How marvelous! How wonderful! Is my Savior's love for me!"

President Obama signed an executive order Thursday establishing a

revamped White House Office on Faith-Based and Neighborhood

Partnerships.

The move fulfills Obama's campaign promise to expand and tweak a

faith-based office founded by former President Bush.

The office will be led by Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal

minister, who headed religious outreach for Obama's Senate office and

later his campaign.

Obama is also expected to name 25 religious and secular leaders to an

advisory board, including the Rev. Joel Hunter, senior pastor of

Northland Church, a megachurch in Flordia; Rabbi David Saperstein,

director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Before the signing, the president attended the National Prayer

Breakfast in Washington, D.C. where he assured religious groups that

his administration will help them, but said his expansion of the

faith-based White House office will strive to keep secular and

religious groups on a level playing field.

"The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over

another -- or even religious groups over secular groups," Obama said.

"It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want

to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring

the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state."

The most contentious issue surrounding the updated office, potential

restrictions on the hiring practices of religious groups that receive

taxpayer dollars, will undergo a thorough legal review before Obama

makes a decision on hiring guidelines.

The order would also direct White House officials and lawyers to work

with the Justice Department to develop a hiring policy, according to a

religious leader with knowledge of the plans. The official spoke on

condition of anonymity because the details have not been released.

The deliberate approach is unlikely to please either conservative

religious leaders, who worry they'll need to compromise their

religious beliefs to participate, or liberal religious and secular

leaders, who want to quickly undo Bush administration hiring

practices.

"Neither side is going to get exactly what they want," the religious

leader said.

Obama on Thursday warned that "far too often," faith is used as a

"tool to divide us from one another."

But, he said, "there is no religion whose central tenet is hate" and

all religions teach people to love and care for one another. That is

the common ground underlying his faith-based office, he said.

To secular and religious groups that want to contribute to their

communities, he said: "People trust them. Communities rely on them.

And we will help them."

During his presidential campaign, Obama said he wanted to expand the

White House faith-based efforts Bush began. But while he endorsed

Bush's initiative to give religious groups more access to federal

funding, he also promised to tweak the program.

"Now, make no mistake, as someone who used to teach constitutional

law, I believe deeply in the separation of church and state, but I

don't believe this partnership will endanger that idea -- so long as

we follow a few basic principles," Obama said during a campaign speech

in Zanesville, Ohio.

Obama's advisers want to be certain tax dollars sent to the

faith-based social service groups are being used for secular purposes,

such as to feeding the hungry or housing the homeless -- not for

religious evangelism. The administration doesn't want to be perceived

as managing the groups yet does want transparency and accountability.

Obama pledged during the campaign to allow religious institutions

funded through his revamped faith-based office to hire and fire based

on religion -- but only for their activities that are privately

funded.

One question is whether the faith-based office will continue to hand

out grants under the Bush rules while the hiring issue is under legal

review.

Jim Wallis, a member of the new advisory council, downplayed the

significance of the hiring issue. He said it came up only once in

transition meetings, and that poverty, human trafficking and the

Middle East were discussed in much more detail.

"I'm sure it will come up, but it's not the dominant issue," said

Wallis, founder of the liberal Christian social-justice network

Sojourners.

The council is also expected to weigh in on the hiring issue, with no

timeframe set for resolution.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Reaching beyond the walls of the traditional church to become a compassionate congregation is the hallmark of our faith. In Acts, the early church "shared all things in common" which caused those looking from the outside to be "in awe of them." John Wesley started a reading program for urban poor children living in London. They worked six days in the mines so he taught and tutored them on Sunday. Thus, we now have “Sunday School”. Jesus had his own after-school tutoring program. It was called “Fishers of Men” He invited a bunch of poor, uneducated, smelly guys to join him for teaching lessons and discipleship down by the seashore.

So, if your church wants to reach “down, out, and beyond” here’s a few tips and things to think about before you open your doors and get out of the pews.

·      Start from the same page. Make sure everyone is on board to reach out to your community with Christ’s love and compassion. We call this “agenda harmony”. If not, trouble will stew and brew. On my first Sunday in the City, I tried to invite folks we had helped all week but the long-time pastor said, “We don’t want those kind coming in”

·      Form a “Compassionate Ministry Council” to begin to scope out what needs in you area that aren’t being met. I visited with other churches to find out no one had a food pantry open on Wednesday so that’s the day we covered.

·      Start Simple – No need to reinvent the wheel. See what others are doing, find out what works best and then take baby steps to get started. It doesn’t have to be flashy or expensive. Check out www.cityconnexx.org.

·      Recruit volunteers and community folks to help dream, design, and serve. Your best supporters and potential donors will come from this group. Don’t be afraid to ask folks outside the church to join you. They will open new doors and contacts you don’t have.

·      Build on your Strengths – do what you do best. If you have the gifts of hospitality and cooking, start with a Thanksgiving or Christmas outreach. Shepherd Community started as a Thanksgiving meal. When we saw the great response we hosted a Children’s Christmas Party the next month and were overwhelmed. From there we knew we couldn’t stop and Shepherd has been serving meals, clothing, compassion, tutoring, teaching, and much more since 1985. They have over 40 staff now with a $3 million budget and three congregations with tremendous impact on their city.

·      Use what you have – If you’ve got a gym open it up to the community for recreation programs. If you’ve got classrooms, start a reading, tutoring program. If you have a kitchen, offer breakfast for children going to school.

·      Start a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to begin collecting outside donations, grants, funding to increase your programs and staff. Local agencies should be able to help you get started. We offer a two-day seminar called “Building Your Boat & Keeping It Afloat” to help you in this process as well as proven fundraising and organizational management workshops and manuals. If you would like to host one, the registration is free and every ministry that attends gets a $300 grant from International Bible Society. 

·      Seek out key leaders to serve as a Board of Directors. The best ministries have great Boards. Be open to bring on key committed leaders from outside your church. We offer everal workshops on Board Development in our seminar. This is a critical piece. Bad boards will kill your dreams. Great board will make sure they grow and prosper.

·      Bring Your team on an Urban Missions Trip – before you get your feet wet, see what others are doing. We have short-term missions trips through www.CityConnexx.org so you can experience best practices.

·      Last but never least – PRAY, PRAY, PRAY. If God has given you a great vision, it must be backed up with great pray. Start an intercessory prayer team today and see where God leads you. It will be the ride of your life. It has been for me, my wife, and our family.

Each month our Denver Ministry Partners gather for a lunch provided by YPN. It's a chance to fellowship together, network, and hear practical tips and ways to improve our ministries. In December our Guest Speaker was Suzanne Dubois with Mission Increase Foundation  www.missionincrease.org  sdubois@missionincrease.org. MIF has been a great partner and support to many of our ministries providing free monthly workshops. Here's Suzanne's timely seminar during these unsettled and difficult days for funding ministries.

The Biblical approach to fundraising and development: 

Suzanne recommends we evaluate how faith-based organizations should be responding to the current economic crisis and compare to how our ministry is responding. She shared examples of appeal letters she has recently received that focused on the crisis, shortfall, people will die, lose jobs, need help etc.  This approach may create a one time guilt gift but it’s a huge burden put on donors when they are already saturated with bad news and possibly struggling themselves. 

However, she did receive a great example of an organization doing it right!  In this letter the ministry recognized the situation and how it is impacting everyone.  The letter did not even include an “ask” but focused on the donor and asked if they could pray for the donor during this difficult time. 

Another good letter thanked the donor for standing by them through these difficult times and laid out their plan for 2009. 

I took a call this week from a college youth pastor in Oklahoma who wanted to join us on a CityConnexx urban missions trip to Denver over spring break and had an interesting request. He asked, "Dean do you think it would be possible for my group to ski while we'll be serving in Colorado?"

Immediately a light bulb went off in my head for these custom designed unique service projects. "Yea, I responded, I like that idea. We always have some free time built into our missions trips to see local attractions and the mountains are certainly one of those in Denver. It fact let's call it a "Serve & Ski" spring break missions trip."

He loved the idea and so they're bringing a group for a different kind of spring break. Wouldn't it be nice if more college groups came to See, Serve, and Ski over spring break rather than the typical college spring break venues?

We also have a college group from the Chicago area coming back again this spring break to serve. Last year we took them up to Rocky Mountain National Park on their day off to do some hiking, snowshoeing, and cross country skiing, many for the first time.

Register your group by December 15th and save $40 per person. Go to www.cityconnexx.org.