Hello and welcome to Mike Patterson's official web site. Mike is a campus minister currently training to lead as an evangelist in God's kingdom. He attended Cascade College graduating in May with a degree in Biblical Studies in the Spring of 08. This site's aim is to inspire, encourage, challenge and inform disciples of Jesus Christ.
JESUS’ FELLOWSHIP 05/10/08
Note: New Audio Sermons here
READ: 1 John 1:5-10. This is a challenging passage on what defines true fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is clear that each one of our personal relationship with God bought by the blood of Christ is what unifies disciples. You may be singing at church with us, eating with us, talking with us, but if you’re not walking in the light, your not truly a part of Jesus’ fellowship. Fellowship is an essential part of being a Christian that we see throughout the scriptures. In fact, the disciples were devoted to fellowship (Acts 2:42). Recently, many brothers have been marked or disfellowshiped by other Christians for disagreements over many issues coming out of our former fellowship. Let is look at what the scriptures say and not be confused by Satan’s schemes:
Fellowship of Light
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14
Only those who are walking in the light share true fellowship with God and the church universal since God can have no part of darkness. In fact 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 shows us that in order to have God receive you as a child you must come out from “yoked” relationships in the world. It is exciting to me to be part of a fellowship/ministry that is serious about dealing with sin and confessing our sins to one another (James 5:17; 1 John 1:9). If the Bible commands this, and we have sin everyday should it not be true that we are daily confessing our sins? Some have been confused as to why we have planted a new church in the Phoenix Valley area since there are already groups teaching the truth. It is our conviction that we must be imitators of God (Eph. 5:1).
Universal Fellowship
When God looks down on earth to His church, He simply sees those who are in the light, the disciples of Jesus Christ. They are the only ones that compose Jesus’ church. The USD21 Campus Ministry is building Jesus’ church, by building a group of “only disciples” not meaning we are the only disciples in the city, but that every member is called to live as the scriptures teach. There must be a radical call from the pulpit to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in order for God to move in His fellowship. Sadly, many churches in the area have only a few “fired up” or “sold-out” members and with no call from the pulpit to build churches of 'only sold-out disciples' the bad yeast of lukewarmness destroys the church from accomplishing what God intends. In order to be a campus ministry movement that evangelizes the world in this generation, we must be a fellowship of light.
Opposing Fellowship
Interestingly, many have opposed our efforts and even warned church members to not share fellowship with Christians/disciples in our ministry. Biblically speaking, no man can ever draw the borders of Israel so to speak or lines of fellowship that the Bible doesn’t draw. The church leadership can put out of fellowship un-repented sexual immoral people or divisive people who draw men AWAY from Jesus (1 Cor. 5:2, etc.). Yet, no where do we find an entire fellowship or church being dis-fellowshipped, marked, or disregarded as brothers/sisters. Starting a new church or parting ways is not a sin in the Bible, if viewed as sin it implies that a group believes they are the only disciples in the borders of their church membership. Either I’m a brother or I am not. I want to challenge brothers and sisters who have not been devoted to sharing fellowship with us to repent as we all pray for unity. Scripturally speaking no one is dividing the body of Christ if they are drawing men/women to God. Who is really being divisive if someone warns disciples not to have fellowship with other disciples? Let’s take heed to Acts 5:38-39, “Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” The Spirit is clear, if you oppose any movement of God, you are fighting the Lord. Mark 9:38-39 is another great verse to show how one should approach another group making disciples. Jesus said if they are not against us, they are for us. Go after fellowship wholeheartedly with any disciple of Jesus from any group, and allow God to work out the issues of opinion as we make every effort to see as many won as possible. Amen.
NEW ARTICLE: "JESUS' FELLOWSHIP"
02/08/08 - Visit the Campus Ministries web site I lead and read it there: http://www.upsidedown21.wordpress.com
NEW AUDIO SERMON: "The Power of God" 01/01/08
"DANGEROUS DREAMERS!" 12/24/07
(Taken from the new ASU Campus Ministry blog: http://www.upsidedown21.wordpress.com)
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”T.E. Lawrence of Arabia
There are really two types of people in the world today. There are those who chase after fantasies and ultimately end up not accomplishing anything (Proverbs 28:19). Yet, T.E. SparkyLawrence said there is another type of dreamer who is dangerous, because they act out their dreams with eyes wide open and make them reality! Jesus was a dangerous dreamer of the day. He came into a world void of dreams when the Pharisees dominated the religious order of that day tying heavy burdens on people that they themselves could not keep. His dream was a message of freedom that all men Jews and Gentiles might be saved. One man…with one dream…gave that dream to 12 others, than those 12 gave the dream to 72 others, than those 72 gave the dream to 3000, until eventually the world had been evangelized in their time (Col. 1:23- all had a chance to hear the gospel). The ASU Campus Ministry (’Upsidedown21′) came together Friday night at our devotional and talked about dreams. Interestingly, Psalm 123 says that the exiles coming back from Babylon to Zion were like men who dreamed. Laughter, songs of joy, and a harvest were all signs of people with a dream, yet also tears of sacrifice are the water to make the harvest grow. In fact, for Jesus’ dream to become a reality he had to sacrifice his own life. What price are you willing to pay to see God’s dream of an evangelized world happen in our generation (Matthew 28:18-20)? Abraham was given God’s dream that he would become a nation as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 12). We read in Romans 4 that “against all hope” he was “fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.” Our God is a powerful God who can do more than we can “ask or imagine” for His glory (Ephesians 3:20-21)! What we “ask”, that is our prayers, what we can “imagine”, that is our dreams! Do you believe that God will blow out your faith goals in 2008? Ephesians 4:1 says, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” If you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you have been called by God to go take His word to the nations. Are you living a life that is worthy of such a call? You see it is going to take hard work to evangelize all of ASU and the surrounding colleges. Tears of sacrifice, time, energy, money and yet that is the price we must pay to see our dream as a ministry and personal dreams come to fulfillment. It is God who wants to give us the desires of our heart when we delight in Him. It was awesome to go through all the dreams that everyone wrote down at the end of devotional and see the great faith God has blessed our ministry with. In one semester, God has brought a campus ministry of 3 disciples too 10 sold out disciples! Our new sister Danielle was baptized Sunday, and prayerfully next Sunday we will haveDanielle’s baptism a new brother in Christ Logan as well. The month of January is also exciting as God’s Spirit is moving in the souls of 4 campus disciples who will join us in our call. Many are studying the Bible and God is gathering together a group of dangerous dreamers who are beginning to change the world.
In Christ,
Mike Patterson
MY BLOG: "Moving to Phoenix..." 10/10/07
"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8
This past weekend was an incredible time of inspiration as my faith was re-ignited in many ways being with the saints of the Phoenix International Christian Church. I grew up in Phoenix Arizona, being raised there (not born) until I was around nine years old. It was amazing to go back and see the elementary school I went too and also the old house I was raised in. So many forgotten memories flooded my mind; hard times (divorce, mom's poverty, fights with my brother, etc.) and good times (first crush, recess, Castles and Coasters, etc.). I thought of David, and how at a young age he was a shepherd boy who would have to defend the sheep at times from the lions and bears that would try to attack his flock. As he wrote the Psalms looking out into the night sky wondering what his destiny and purpose might be. It is probably during these times he honed his sling shot skills against those animals that threatened his flock. David must have looked back when reminiscing these child hood memories and saw how God was simply preparing him for something greater than he could imagine. You see, it dawned on me that all the trials I went through growing up were preparing me for something greater than I could ever imagine...the full time ministry.
Friday night was awesome to gather with the sold out disciples of the campus ministry. I preached a lesson recalling a popular event that happened in Phoenix called the, "Phoenix Lights" and related it to my lesson entitled, "Alien Invasion." It called us to be separate from the world and than to invade it. Amazingly, ASU has 60,000 students with a projected 100,000 in the ensuing years. The international diversity struck me, as you could literally evangelize the world from this campus! 7,000 people move into Phoenix every year. My most grateful memory of the weekend though would be our time with the Sulivens. Matt has grown so much since he was in Portland. The church has doubled in size and continues to have baptisms. My girlfriend Skylinn also was inspired by Helen's lifestyle and family as well. We both shared for the communion on Sunday about Jesus' love for us, and how the Bible is a love story to each and every one of us. My amazing girlfriend shared how Jesus had changed her life from one of insecurity; trust in men, fear, to one of security in God and courageousness. The PICC has world evangelism in their hearts; every single sold-out disciple we met with has such a vision for the church.
Recently, I have been praying about my role here in the Portland church and how God could most effectively use me. Praise be to God, I will finally be done at Cascade College in December (although I have one online class to take next semester, but I don't have to be on campus and will receive my Biblical Studies degree in May). It has been incredible leading the teen ministry as well as half the campus ministry. This past week at 180 (my house churches name!) we had nine visitors at our bible talk and so many are studying to become disciples. Yet, as the Spirit blows like the wind the need for a full-time campus minister in Phoenix is there. After much advice from Kip, Matt, Steve, and professors at my college; I have officially decided to move to Phoenix Arizona and take a job offering to be the full-time campus minister starting in December.
Portland Oregon will always be a special place to me. It is here my faith was renewed and that many of my friends from Kansas were renewed as well. I will always be grateful for the many lessons learned in Portland as well as many of the victories. God has allowed me to baptize some of my best friends here and to receive an education in Biblical Studies. It is here that my girlfriend from Kansas and I got back together. I will always be indebted to DJ Comisford, Victor Gonzalas Jr, Kip McKean, and Steve Johnson for training me to do the ministry. These men are the closest to Jesus and on the front battle line, and I will be loyal to wherever the Spirit blows me. Please be praying for God to prepare to ignite a campus movement out of ASU, I will be moving down there along with three disciples from here God willing which will put our campus ministry in Phoenix at eleven sold-out disciples. Already the guys have five bible studies going on as of last night, and I know the girls have a bunch as well, so hopefully it will be more than that when we arrive. I have been training my whole life for this. Marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit, I am ready to go into the "desert" to preach God's word. To Him always be glory and honor. Amen.
PS: Two new updates: BIBLE TALK OUTLINE: Masks (Halloween Bible Talk); AUDIO Lesson: “Rated R” (sadly, the recorder did not get the third point of the lesson so it stops abruptly)
COMING SOON: My library of Bible Talk Outlines to help you lead Bible discussions, and a new blog on what I have learned in Portland.
BLOG ARCHIVE
MY BLOG 08/31/07
Rated R- Christianity
I can remember being a Christian in high school and someone challenging me that Christianity is a crutch to the emotionally needy. His point was that some how, Christianity is a “woman’s” activity for those who are weak. Interestingly, this view of following Jesus runs rampant as I share my faith with athletes on campus and other males. Looking at this kid who was trying to insult me for my faith, I remember challenging him to live one day as a disciple of Jesus, to live one day striving to stay pure, to live one day striving to deny himself of the worldly pleasures, to live one day being in the spiritual battle! Christianity is radical and it takes courage to take up the cross of Jesus and follow him!
John the Baptist, literally John “the baptizer” was one of the most fruitful men in God’s kingdom. In fact Jesus said he was the greatest prophet of all time. Matthew 11:12 reads,
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”
Micah 2:12-13 sheds more light on this passage:
“I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.”
The prophecy was about John the Baptist breaking open the gate to prepare the way for King Jesus to come and call out the remnant of Israel. The Kingdom was suffering violence and persecution, Herod couldn’t stand John’s preaching! In fact even at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry they tried to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:29). The movers of the kingdom were what I like to call “Rated R Christians!” In my lesson given to the campus and teen ministry I made the point that Christianity isn’t rated G, or PG, it is extreme and violent at times.
Christianity is rated R for “violence”. Literally in the Greek from Matthew 11:12 for this word (NIV “forceful”) this denotes the energetically forceful; the definition being “swift and intense force. You see when John came, the Kingdom was suffering attacks from the outside, but you see it took John being violent or energetically forceful to push his way through all the persecution into the Kingdom and move it! So many study the Bible and have to break through the attacks of Satan to enter God’s Kingdom. Obviously this doesn’t mean a physical violence or not showing the compassion of Christ. Yet it is interesting that Jesus chose such strong language to describe how the Kingdom of God would be moved, is by the forceful or violent men! Are we violently and aggressively proclaiming God’s message?
For me personally, these scriptures come as a source of encouragement. God’s word is so true when it says that it is living and active as the scriptures continue to show us the times today. I have received many emails of encouragement about this web site and also many emails questioning what the “Sold-Out Discipling Movment” (I personally don’t like that name but amen, terminology doesn’t mean anything as long as the job gets done.) is all about. We want to take up the scriptures and violently and forcefully advance the kingdom. So many have had to “break through” the lines of attack and have the “violent” convictions that the world needs to be shared with in this generation and to give their whole self to the Lordship of Jesus. To be part of the movement means you are moving for God, and we have to make a decision to move for God or move out of the way. The fact is, many churches have stopped moving and have even dis-fellowshiped brothers and sisters who want to make disciples and forcefully advance the kingdom. I thought people were only disfellowshiped for drawing men from Christ or unrepented sin? One preacher in our movement said something to me that made a lot of sense. We talk about a “new” movement, but in reality it’s just an old one restored. We are doing the same thing that Jesus did 2000 years ago, calling out the remnant and making disciples. We are also doing the same thing that was done in the seventies. In a real way the ICOC started a new “fellowship” if anything, and in my mind we are just trying to continue the work that was started by God. I myself, will never draw lines of fellowship. Times of division came in God’s people when he wanted to refine their hearts and I believe one day complete unity will come, but we will always be part of an imperfect church since you and I are a part of it. Recently there has been some tension once again between my former church and myself, my next blog will address the details of that, but please pray for unity and discipleship in Wichita KS. Continue to pray for us here, that the gospel advances. I am now doing both campus ministry and still leading the youth ministry as well as going to school full-time so I will need all the prayer I can. Love you guys, please email me your thoughts.
Love,
Mike Patterson
MY BLOG 08/13/07
Jubilee Response
What an amazing weekend! I just got done participating in the 2007 World Missions Jubilee entitled "King of Kings". To think that it was only three years ago in 2004 that the Jubilee "Lord of the Fellowship" challenged the lukewarm ness that was in my heart and inspired me to move to Portland. This year’s jubilee was different than most in a very good way. I see how God's hand is molding and shaping our movement to be a Christ centered one.
"As for Me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to Myself." John 12:32 HCSB
When Jesus is the center of any group of disciples, men will be drawn to them. Jesus is the embodiment of love. It is by our Christ centered focus and love that all men will know we are disciples. Friday night was especially encouraging as Kip preached, "Behold the Lamb of God". I was personally convicted as he challenged us to not be an "anti-ICOC" movement. For me I guess it is just easy to allow seeds of bitterness from my past experience to want to go there in my heart. We are all to be a people devoted to Jesus, yet at the same time be un-apologetic about calling those to come join us in our crusade to evangelize the world who may be in bad situations spiritually. Fellowship is determined by the blood of Jesus, and we can never stoop low enough to draw lines of fellowship where Jesus doesn't draw lines. One of my professors Ron Clark who leads the Agape Church of Christ here in Portland which God is blessing attended the Jubilee as well. It was great to see Kip introduce Ron as a brother in Christ and have him pray for our Saturday morning events. Ron has always been an amazing brother and I will never forget the time he prayed with me when I was going through many persecutions on campus. Here are some other highlights from the Jubilee that fired me up:
- Santiago Chile is back in the movement.
- DJ Comisford preached his first Jubilee speech!
site.- The teen lunch devotional brought a new found unity among the teens in this
young movement. Thank you Mike Underhill for your inspiring words.
- Sky and myself doubled on like three different dates with good friends.
"But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." 1 John 1:7 HCSB
True fellowship is based on walking in the light and blood of Jesus. I am fired up to be part of a Jesus movement and continue to hear the good news around the world of what God is doing. Thanks be to the King of Kings Jesus Christ! Amen.
~Mike
