The Vegas Missional Outpost

November Newsletter/Updates

Here is a copy of the November newsletter for our ministry.

Download november_newsletter.doc

Things have been very exciting here at Grace Point the last few months. Here are a few things we've been doing that didn't make it into the newsletter:

- We are beginning to get many service oriented programs up and running.
- I am also in the works of creating an interesting volunteer partnership with the City of North Las Vegas.
- We were able to lead a young adults group for our PURPOSE series, and it went very well.
- Check out the PURE TUESDAYS post from a few days ago.
- Vicky got a job as a design consultant for Norwalk furniture. Please pray for one of her co-workers, whose niece just died after choking on a pretzel (she was two). Pray that we can be there for her and her husband, who recently stopped going to church after many years attending a Seventh-Day Adventist.
- Pray for Vicky's dad. He is in the hospital (about an hour away). Long story short is that he drank himself into a coma, and now we visit him once a week to read the bible to him and tell him about Jesus. I will write more about him this week.
- Pray for our families. They do not know Jesus, and we have shared the gospel with them many times. We feel like we are entering a different phase in regards to our families and the gospel. Long story short, we feel like with Vicky's parents and mine, we need to take different approaches in regards to living out the gospel with them. Please join us in praying for them.

Thank you so much for all of you who pray for us, and support us.

Love,

Matt and Vicky

PURE TUESDAYS

Every Tuesday my wife and I go clubbing. We get dressed up, leave the house around 9:30pm, and head to the PURE nightclub in Las Vegas. Why do we do this? A few reasons.

-Tuesday night is PURE's slowest night of the week, so the bartenders are required to have a certain amount of people show up on their guest list. Vicky's cousin and her boyfriend are both bartenders there, so we want to help her out and show her some love. This has given us a great chance to know her and her boyfriend better.
- Our vision is to reach all of those crazy young adults who go to PURE, and other clubs, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is incredibly refreshing, humbling, and sad to have the sin of a generation on stage before our eyes (some Tuesdays have even involved tears).
- We listen to Mark Driscoll on the way down, so its kinda like church, like PURE Church (not to be confused with Thabiti Anyabwile's Pure Church). I reiterate; kinda.
- We usually spend the ride home praying for our city, hoping that God will help us understand the best way to contextualize the gospel to this city.
- The upstairs of the club is outside, and it is phenomenal to be all dressed up, next to my beautiful wife who is dressed up, out on the town.

All but the last reason have done nothing but enlarge our hearts for reaching this crazy city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Last night Vicky and I were able to have dinner with her cousin and her boyfriend, and were able to pick their brain about all kinds of missiological information:

What time would a church service be best for someone like you?
"Probably between 2-4pm on Sunday. Right after we wake up, and it would be great. People could go to church, and then catch dinner after. That would help it become a routine for them."
- From Nick

Do you feel like church is relevant to you?
"Not really. It's too formal, and I feel dumb sitting in the back row with all these kids running around me"
- From Beth

So we are still prayerfully engaging this culture that we love, and still prayerfully considering how to best live out the gospel as a church one day. Please continue to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom, and keep me PURE, as we continue to love and serve this city. Also, if you live in Vegas and want to come out some time, shoot me an e-mail, and be a VIP for a night.

Mr. Eko and James 4:6

For those of you who are LOST fans, and saw last nights episode, may I join you in saying: WOW! I don't know what was more surprising: Mr. Eko deciding he was going to be unrepentant for being a killer and drug Lord, or the "Monster" beating him to death.

 

There were obvious clues that this was going to be Mr. Eko's farewell episode.

- The monster was following him all episode.
- Locke (who is repentant) saw the monster as a beautiful light (bringing life), while Mr. Eko saw it as dark (bringing death).
- And most importantly, Mr. Eko got a DUI was arrested for a traffic violation in real life a few months ago. Which, as we know, gets you kicked off the show. (side note: I wonder how many conspiracy theorists out there are now claiming that these suppossed DUI's traffic violations are really fabricated by the show. Not me.) [the charges against him were dropped]

So with these factors in consideration, I must say that I was absolutely floored when Eko said that he would not confess his sin, and made his claim that he was simply a victim of circumstance, and that all things considered, he did a fairly descent job considering the hand he was dealt. Really, so trying to sell the vaccines that the village needed, and then killing the competition, that makes you a good person? Not feeling remorse for taking another human's life, regardless of the circumstance, that makes you a good person?

Mr. Eko was right in saying he was a victim of circumstance. We live in a world filled with sinners, and since we all interact with each other, we all sin against one another. Therefore, we are all victims of everyone else. Basically, from a certain standpoint, our life is everyone else's fault. However, we have sinned against them, ourselves, and God as well. So it is our fault too. If we victimize ourself and refuse to acknowledge our sin like Mr. Eko did, then we will never know the freedom that comes from forgiveness. We will never experience the love that God gives us through Jesus bearing the penalty for our sin. No, we will become hard-hearted, remain separated from God, never know forgiveness, and like Mr. Eko we will die in our sins.

The head honcho of the Others, Ben, said that he believes in God because right after he discovered a tumor on his spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. Ben equated the idea of God existing with the reality that he was receiving mercy. While this is a wonderful reality of our Lord Jesus, it is incomplete, if we as viewers, do not also see Mr. Eko's story as further Island evidence that God exists. When we spit in the face our God's mercy and grace (that God doesn't give us what we deserve, and gives us what we don't deserve) we leave ourselves dead in our sins. And when we live dead in our sins, we die without knowing forgiveness (as Mr. Eko did) and we live separated from God forever.

"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

May we daily humble ourselves before our righteous God, that we may come to the cross of Christ drink from his fountain of grace and live. If we do not, we should not fool ourselves into thinking that we might go the way of Mr. Eko.

Blessings,
Matt

 

 

Preaching Jesus

Tomorrow I will preach on my favorite Bible verse 2 Corinthians 5:21. For me, this has been the hardest sermon to ever prepare for. See, I had the coin drop in regards to preaching the gospel this past week. I heard two different gospel presentations within 2 days of each other, and had the, "Oh, wow. I GET IT!!!" Tim Keller says we don't really get the gospel when we get saved, and we only perpetually grow in our understanding of it. Every athelete gets this. The marathon trainer who can't seem to get past 8 miles, then one day is able to do 13, and never looks back. The hitter who is having a hard time figuring out the difference between a two-seam and four-seam fastball, and then one day in a Ted Williams way, sees the difference, and never looks back. Or like my wife, who is now at a level of decorating that she would have never thought possible, yet she stills laughs at pictures of our first apartment (we had a construction themed bathroom!). Well, I had a moment like that this week while hearing the two gospel presentations.

The first presentation was a simple, and excellent exegesis of Romans 6:23. It went over the wages of sin, and the gift of eternal life. It was written out and plain to see, arrows were drawn connecting sin to death and life to God. No one could walk out of that meeting without a clear understanding of what the gospel was. This education on the gospel was great, and I nodded my head many times. I was glad that many young Christians, and non-Christians were there to hear that.

The second presentation was audio, was far from simple. It was long and drawn out, and carried many facets. One struck me like a 2x4. The pastor started in to my favorite Bible verse about Jesus becoming sin on the cross in our place. I have loved this verse for so long because it is the essence of the cross, and reminds me of the lengths Jesus went to to save me. The night I heard this presentation I was saved again. To explain it in the simplest way possible, the pastor made sin personal. Not just personal to me in a Bible thumping, finger pointing, guilt inducing way. Instead he was sitting there Bible thumping, finger pointing, guilt inducing my sin: onto Jesus.

Am I being clear? In this gospel presentation, all my sin was named by the pastor (he tried to name as many in the audience as he could gather), and was thrown not at me, but at Jesus. This made me not only aware of how personal my sin is and how guilty I am, but it made me aware of how my sin personally affects God. It made me aware of how my sin personally affected Jesus on the cross. I walked around in a daze that night. Actually, Vicky and I were visiting her cousin at the club PURE at Cesar's Palace that night. There were girls dressed pretty scandalously that night, and my wife repeatedly asked me if I was doing okay with that. Honestly, I couldn't get my mind off the fact that Jesus became a pervert to God in my place. That Jesus became an arrogant jerk who is mean to his wife, in my place.

He did this so that I might become, in him, the righteousness of God. So that I could be clean, and right with God. The implications of this have left the gospel much more that a theory that floats above my head all day. For a while now I have understood that the gospel needs to be central to my daily life. Now, when temptation comes I am reminded of Christ's willingness to become my sin, and become guilty in my place. It is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And at the end of the day, this gospel realization makes God's love much more personal to me. "Christ died for me" now produces emotion in me when I hear it. "God so loved the world" makes me more emotional and responsive than ever before.

This has made sermon preparation much harder becuase one doesn't just wake up and run 13 miles easily. In reality, I have been much more aware of my sin, and the battle of my flesh has seemed much more real in the past few weeks. I am only 25, and I want to preach like men who have walked with Jesus for 20-30 years. Men who have walked the darkside of their depravity, have learned to repent, and who are personally close to Jesus as a result. These men can preach Jesus personally becuase of the road they have walked. I have prepared my sermon this week in the midst of learning the gospel deeper, and deeper. I don't have 20 years of scars, I only have 7. Nevertheless, Jesus still became the sinner I am on the cross, and the tomb has been empty for 2000 years.

My prayer is that I would be able to preach the gospel tomorrow in a way that makes sin personal to my hearers. So that Jesus death on a cross in their place becomes more personal. So that God's love towards them becomes immensely personal. After all, Rick Warren says we are meant to be best friends with God. That's pretty personal.

Matt

Jack is Back

Season 6 of 24 promos have started running. Jack Bauer continues his role of Christ-likeness by having to sacrifice himself for his people (the United States). Check out the trailer.

If you think I'm crazy for calling Jack Bauer Christ-like, check out what Mark Driscoll has to say about it:

Is Jack Bauer a Type of Christ?

Blessings,

Matt

Praying With Mamie

I post this as a continuance to the discussion of schools, but also because it is freaking awesome. Here's what my co-worker Mamie at the latchkey program has to say about how kids act.

"What is that there calling it? A...D...ADD? I'll tell you what that kid really needs. He needs and old fashioned ass whuppin', and to be laid on the prayer alter. Pills? That boy needs prayer. It's like Jesus did to that man in the grave, cast the demons out."

To really understand how cool Mamie is, you must know that she is in African American, in her sixties, and a grandmother. I sure am glad Mamie's praying.

Matt

Schools in Vegas

Often times when growing up I would tell people that I lived in Las Vegas, and would often hear responses such as, "People actually live in Vegas?" or, "They have schools in Vegas?" Part of this is understandable. But mostly they are stupid questions. That's like me asking if people drink anything other than coffee in Seattle, or being amazed that a heterosexual Christian couple lives in San Fransisco. Actually, this year over 300,000 students will attend public schools in the Clark County Area. As one who has attended every level of public education in the Las Vegas area (kindergarten through college), the state of our schools is very important to me. Really, I am writing this so that you would pray.

This year Las Vegas has had eight recorded instances of handguns being brought to schools. These were only the ones who have been caught. For me this is nothing new. In second grade, one of my classmates was caught in the playground with a gun and ammo. A student was shot at my high school the year after I left. And if I knew better, I would suspect that I was a lot closer to guns than I realized during my time in High School. A girl two weeks ago found out how close she was when her boyfriend "accidentally" shot her in the leg while brandishing his gun to her and his friends. This occurred two blocks from where I live. (On a side note, the commentary of one of her teachers my wife knows was incredibly telling of the school situation. The teacher, who is African-American, was saddened because this girl came from a "two-parent" home, and had a chance to make it. The teacher was upset seemingly because she rarely sees this potential. Wow.)

Should this scare parents? Of course. Should this scare students? Of course. We are at the point now where we are not surprised by school shootings. I am not surprised that guns are being brought to school so often. My fear is that we have been inoculated to school violence. By this I mean, that is has become so normative, that instead of scaring us into change, it lulls us into sullen acceptance. Because it is normative, it doesn't surprise us. Because it doesn't surprise us, it doesn't cause us to fear. Because it doesn't cause us to fear, it leaves us vulnerable. (note: there is an obvious teaching point here about God. Since we are inoculated just enough with Christianity, we don't fear God. Because we don't fear God, we are vulnerable to living lives without him here and eternally in hell. Perhaps I will expand this, although Tim Keller did a great job at the DG Nat'l Conference talking about the inoculation of America to Christianity). Being vulnerable is no place we want our children to be.

As my fellow pastors and I talk and pray about how to find a common point of interest with the community of Las Vegas we keep coming back to children (our only other options are alcohol or sex, and well, those need some serious redemption first). Yet here too we are stuck in a bit of a quandary because it seems that are parents are all too willing to let themselves, their kids, and their community be vulnerable to violence at school. I am no sociologist, but I have spent over 5 years working with school children in various programs in the Vegas valley and one thing constantly amazes me: the amount of split homes children come from. Whether there is a correlation to parents lack of caring here, I cannot prove. And while my life is only one case study, my parents still comment on how my sixth grade teacher was so saddened that only 3 parents showed up on parent teacher conference day, that he quit. Vegas is a work hard, play hard town, where the individual is catered to at every opportunity. From my perspective, it seems that the kids are suffering immensely from this.

Would you join me in praying for the children and the schools of Las Vegas. That God would call fathers to lead, protect, and provide for all the needs of their families. That we, as a community, would not become inoculated to school violence, but would have a healthy fear for the safety of our kids. That God would send his Holy Spirit to convict the parents for their lack of protection and provision for their children, and that He would lead them to Jesus. That the Christian families would seek to restore the Shalom of the city by being an example of what godly parenting looks like. Pray also that the Lord would bless Vicky and I with children, we so would love God to grant us with that wonderful blessing.

Matt

Jesus is the Answer

Being back in Vegas my wife and I have had the opportunity to catch up with many friends. We have been burdened by how many have chosen to stop walking with Jesus. Now I want to make a distinction when I say walk away from Jesus. I do have some friends who have walked away from a church environment due to many different reasons. Some have walked away becuase they have been forced out by a pastor with an agenda. Some have simply found the church culture here irrelevant to their life. A small group of my friends have regulated themselves to meeting every Thursday (aside from some weeks when they cancel church due to a table that needs sanding) to talk about Jesus and drink beer. They call it: Beer Church. Now the big travesty here is that beer made in St. Louis is often the beer of choice. Choice of church name aside, I am more concerned with my friends who have looked at a irrelevant church culture as an excuse to not love Jesus.

"Christians are supposed to be loving. These people aren't loving, and they have the Holy Spirit!" This came out of the pious mouth of a good buddy of mine as we watched Monday Night Football the other night.  My friend uses the excuse of Christians "suppossedly" not loving him as a reason for him to not love Jesus anymore. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but if people sin against me, I am still a sinner. Right? And if people don't love me, I am still loved by God. Right? And God showed his love for me that while I was a sinner, that deserves to spend eternity away from him in hellfire, Christ died for me so that I could spend eternity with him in heaven. Right? So unless people not loving me produces a tomb with Jesus' decayed body, how does Christians not loving me justify my not loving Jesus?

You can get the sense of how I feel about my friend's decision. It deeply saddens me that many of my friends have simply waited for the first thing to go wrong in their life as an excuse to opt out of following Jesus. But, as I talked with my buddy I was deeply saddened by something else. My response to his many comments was simply this:

"Have you prayed for these people? Does it grieve you when people don't love you, becuase you realize that they haven't been touched by the love of God? Do you pray that God would reveal his love to them by the Holy Spirit that lives inside of them? Sure you get mad, people not being loving sucks. But has it made you sad? Due you love the world around you so much, that you realize that when people don't love it has a negative impact on the world? Or are you simply pissed that they have wronged you, and desire some sort of retribution? Have you been so deeply touched by the fact that while you were a sinner that Jesus died for you? Has this humbled you to realize that every bit of good about you is due to God's grace?"

My friend told me he was going to be firing these questions at me all night. Yet after being confronted with the gospel truth of the matter, he didn't ask me a single question the rest of the night. After being confronted with his lack of humility, and reception of the gospel for that matter, he couldn't muster the self-righteousness to put God in the dock anymore. After being confronted with the convicting, loving, and end-all mesage of the gospel as the answer and reason for his problem, he couldn't think of any more problems.

This makes me sad again becuase I wonder how much the gospel has been used as the central point of everything when my friend entered church. I wonder what his preacher said when talking about not sleeping with his girlfreind, or not getting drunk, or how to love. I wonder if his preacher made his and others sin the number one problem, and Jesus life and work on the cross the answer? I wonder if he even had ears to hear it.

The thing is that many people will come up with many reasons not to love Jesus. Even with as many reasons as you can find, YOU ARE STILL A SINNER, and as much as you may ignore it, JESUS DIED FOR SINNERS. So here's my plan for Vegas: keep telling people that they are sinners and this is their biggest problem in life. This is what hurts their relationships, their life, and keeps them from the best relationship of all: God. And keep telling people that Jesus died to destroy sin, and that this is the solution to their biggest problem. Through Jesus they get restored relationships, eternal life, and a relationship with God. that no matter what happens in life this is a truth they can hold as an anchor. When the world is against them, they can eb comforted that no one can separate them from the love of God in Jesus Christ. I'm hoping this catches on.

Matt

On Mission - Just Like Jesus

Let's talk about the Incarnation for a minute.

You know, the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The event in human history when God left heaven, was born to a virgin in a town where every loves Toby Keith and Skoal, lived for roughly thirty-three sinless (and righteous for that matter) years, to seek and save the lost. Let's talk about that.

Here in Jesus, whose mission was "to seek and save the lost" we have our prototype for incarnational mission work. We have the ultimate example of someone leaving a comfortable place for a tough place in order to see the gospel change a culture. Only in this case that someone is God, that comfortable place is where he dwells in sinless harmony of the Trinity, that tough place is our world (filled with ghastly people like liberals and right wingers), and that culture is the entire world. Really if our idea for incarnational ministry is founded in anything other than the person and work of Jesus Christ, it is at best incomplete, and at worst incredibly damaging for the sake of the gospel.

We can talk up and down about how Jesus did incarnational ministry. How he lived in an industrial town, so he swung a hammer for a few years. How he used common examples for the kingdom of God. Things such as seeds, plows, sand, vineyards, and so forth. How he ate and hung out with the marginalized and poor. How he taught in the religious institutions. How he used public speaking, small group, and one on one forms of teaching. How he chose to live in a specific culture (Jewish), and practice that cultures traditions (but never in a legalistic way), so that he could save a group of people in that community. In all of this Jesus is our great example of incarnational ministry.

There is a great aspect of Jesus' incarnational ministry that is often overlooked. A part that is so foundational, that if missed or marginalized, one's attempt to be incarnational to a specific culture with the gospel will fall short. Theologians have rightly asserted that Jesus was our example of what it means to be spirit-filled in sharing the gospel and interacting with the culture. What is often neglected when referring to how Jesus did incarnational ministry is his motive. What was his motive for seeking and saving the lost? What motivated Jesus to leave the fellowship of the Trinity, come to earth to seek and save a people who didn't want anything to do with him in the first place? If Jesus is our example in how we do ministry, and for being empowered for ministry, then he must also be our example in what motivates us to do ministry!

So what is the motive? The answer comes to us in the Gospel of John,

"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."

Quite simply, Jesus was sent by God to do a specific work. Accomplishing this was the food of Jesus. This was not simply a motive, but it was what he hungered for. The only thing that could satisfy Jesus is accomplishing what God has sent him to do. For those of us who seek to do incarnational ministry just like Jesus, this has serious implications:

1. Like Jesus, you must be called of by God.
Ministry is not a profession. Recently a pastor friend of mine laid out for me a great ten year plan for me to plant a church. He talked about me getting my feet wet in ministry, paying my dues, and working my way up the corporate church ladder. I have another friend who is getting his seminary degree so that he will have the most career options in the pastorate. Now don't get me wrong, paying your dues, and a good Bible education are absolutely vital for the man who wants to be incarnational like Jesus. Yet they are nothing more than extra pieces of flair on the 35 year old TGIFRIDAY'S worker, if God has not called you. Before jumping into ministry, like Jesus, you must have a clear sense of calling from God (usually a specific call to a specific place). If not, then what is your motive? What is your food?

2. Like Jesus, you must lift up the Scriptures
"My teaching is not mine, but is his who sent me." You must be a Bible guy who elevates the Scriptures. It is God's word that changes people. More than best practices, more than lofty speech, more than feel-good self-improvement talks, it is the word of God that changes people. Everyone wants to have the next cool theology. Be the next Andy Stanley, the next John Eldredge, or Mark Driscoll. How about just being a Bible guy. It was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for you. If you spend more time learning new ways to be incarnational, to be a good leader, or to do church in your culture, then you will ultimately fail in all of those areas. If you aren't, like Jesus, a Bible guy, then you are not going  to truly be incarnational, or effective.

3. Like Jesus, you must love the glory of God above all else
"The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood." When it comes down to the nitty gritty, the glory of God must be the chief motivating factor in all you do. This will ultimately be what motivates you to be a Bible guy. This will be what allows you to be close enough to Jesus to hear his call on your life. Those who know they are called by God have piles of verses that confirm that calling, and they are humbled by them. Their motivating factor is the glory of God, because they know that when it is, then God will use them to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you truly want to be incarnational, like Jesus, and the glory of God is not your bedrock of factors, then unlike Jesus, you will fail to be incarnational and save people.

Jesus is our great example of how to enter a culture and influence it with the gospel. My prayer is that for myself, and for you, that we would be motivated by the same things Jesus was motivated by.

Blessings,
Matt

HOW TO GIVE

Two Ways:

1. Direct Deposit
- This is the easiest and most painless way to give. Since Vicky and I are now our own administrative people, this is the easiest for us as well. Please consider direct deposit first and foremost.
- To give by direct deposit please e-mail me: matthew.hudgins@gmail.com. This will allow secure information to stay secure

2. Writing a Check Each Month
- WRITE ALL CHECKS OUT TO GRACE POINT CHURCH.
- DO NOT WRITE CHECKS TO MATT AND VICKY HUDGINS
- Statements will not be sent to you each month, a return envelope will be sent in the newsletter. If remembering to send it in will be hard for you without the statement given each month, please consider direct deposit.
- Send Checks to:
GRACE POINT CHURCH
6420 Birdcall St.
North Las Vegas, NV 89084

3. One Time Gifts
- We are in need of one-time support. If you cannot give monthly, please consider one-time.
- Send Checks to:
GRACE POINT CHURCH
6420 Birdcall St.
North Las Vegas, NV 89084

Thank you so much for your partnership in seeing people meet Jesus in Las Vegas!
Love,
Matt and Vicky