I wake up every single morning to the perfect example of mercy and justice and compassion in the person of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel.

The God who, though He was rich, for our sake became poor so that we might be rich in every way: The perfect example of generosity.

Who, though He was righteousness, for our sake became sin, so we could become the righteousness of God: The perfect example of sacrifice.

Who, though was by very nature God, for our sake became obedient even to death on a cross: The perfect example of obedience.

Who laid down His life for me: The perfect example of love.

Yeah, He’s the one. God with us, living in us! And every day I wake up to His loving challenge to meet the needs of the people He has created in His image and loves. The impoverished…the orphan…He is passionate about people like this, you know, so I really can’t help but be passionate too because He’s living in me. In fact, I’m really starting to obsess. I want my life to be a reflection of His and the world to see Him for who He is through me.

I know there are people out there who feel this way – who want to be a tangible, visible demonstration of Christ’s love and reflection of His character. Many are just waiting for the opportunity to be presented. I hear them talk about it, much like I do.

But no one ever left a legacy by talking about what they WANTED to do, or even what they were GOING to do. A legacy is left because you stopped talking and did something. So putting wheels to our words is what the Mercy Justice Compassion Campaign is about.

Our goal is quite simple, actually. 150 children sponsored with Compassion International, $5000 raised to support a village in Ethiopia through Compassion’s “Complementary Intervention Program,” and an additional $5000 raised to help support the adoption of our little boy there in Ethiopia. Sounds simple, right? Absolutely, because there are literally millions of people in the church across this nation who know that this is what Jesus has called them to be about. They just need the opportunity.

This is where you come in to play; here is how you can be a part. The MJC Campaign will consist of a series of concerts for the months of September, October, November and early December. We are willing to travel anywhere, but would like to focus on weeknights in the Midwest (Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Illinois) or basically anything 5-8 hours away from Saint Louis. We need churches and colleges that are passionate about this mission of rescuing children out of poverty in Jesus name to host and promote these concerts.

In these concerts, we will simply focus on the need, the example of Christ to meet the need, and the call we have to follow Christ’s example. Our hope is to not pressure people with statistics or guilt trips, but rather point to Jesus and the gospel as our motivation for generosity, obedience, sacrifice, love and worship.

Would you considering partnering with us on this mission? If you are interested, please email booking@stephen-miller.com

We have had our shirts available for pre-order for a couple of days now and the response has been so encouraging. From emails of encouragement, to people letting us know they’re praying for us, to the fact that we’ve sold 20 shirts in the last 6 days, it’s just been such a great week of confirmation for us.

However, we keep getting requests from people who are not on PayPal, nor do they desire to be on PayPal, as to how they can give to our Ethiopian adoption. We certainly want to make it as convenient as possible for you to give, and realize this isn’t always the most convenient for people.

So we have opened a bank account dedicated strictly to the funding of our Ethiopian adoption. You can now send in shirt orders, or even just donations in the form of check or money order to:

The Journey
C/O Stephen Miller
7701 Maryland Ave.
Clayton, Missouri 63105

Just make the checks out to Stephen Miller, and put “Ethiopian Adoption” in the subject line. Make sure if you’re ordering shirts to include your order (sizes, number of shirts, return address) in the envelope.

Thank you all so much!

Grace and peace,
The Millers

P.S. For more to the minute updates on the adoption, follow Stephen on Twitter, username @_stephen_miller.

This is an article on Biblical Worship I wrote that was recently posted in Lucid Magazine. Read more at www.lucidmagazine.com/Biblical-Worship

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Douglas and Marvin awoke today to the frantic shuffling of their mother and aunt dragging their bed across the dirt floor of their 8′X10′ home in the rain forest of El Salvador. As water cascaded across the floor, now mud, they desperately tried to push it out of the house before it washed away the mud walls. This is an every day occurrence for them.

Months ago, their uncle and mother’s boyfriend were building this home on abandoned property so that they could have a place of their own. In the process, the uncle was shot and murdered by members of the MS-13 gang. Soon after the boyfriend split, and Douglas and Marvin were left with an unfinished house and more desperation for someone to come through and fight on their behalf.

I know this because I stood in their home. I watched their mother weep. I watched the family’s reaction to the tragedy that is their reality. And yet, in the midst of all their sorrow and suffering, I watched them smile and laugh and beam with joy because there is a hope for them that they hadn’t known two years ago. The hope of Jesus Christ.

Two years ago, Compassion International adopted this family into a project that God would use to meet their physical, mental, spiritual and emotional needs. We’ve come to their home because we’ve heard that they have no food and we are called to meet the need. We’ve come to be Jesus to them. But I think they were more Jesus to us.

Months ago, I was reading Matthew 25:31-46 and was utterly undone. My entire understanding of the Gospel and Christianity was so backwards. I’m a worship pastor. I travel all over the country to teach people through song and hopefully bring them to a place where they engage in worship with a holy and mighty God who loved them and gave Himself up for them.

But it’s really easy to give your life for a ministry that will give you something in return. To love and teach and serve people who will love you back. To worship through songs. But I’ve come to realize that songs are our smallest expression of worship. What does Jesus say to his people in Amos 5 when they come around singing without having loved justice and mercy and taking care of the helpless people that Jesus loves? “Get away from me with your NOISE! I DON’T WANNA HEAR IT!”

God really started doing something in me about a year and a half ago in showing me that true worship IS a life of justice and mercy. A life spent for the glory of Christ in loving Him. And what is loving Him but obedience? Feeding the hungry and poor. Visiting the prisoner and clothing the naked. What really messed me up is the question, “If this is true worship and I’m a worship leader, what am I even doing here? Is God even pleased with the worship I bring Him?”

I am finding that God is a lot less concerned with our songs and a lot more concerned with our lives; a lot less concerned with what I do on stage and a lot more concerned with what I do off stage. God is concerned with the needs of His broken people across the Earth who He died to purchase. These needs should be met by our hands and our words and our wallets.

I would encourage the church to dig down deep into the dark hidden places of our soul and invite the Lord to shine the spotlight of His holiness on all the places He would do things differently. To really begin to ask Him if He is satisfied with our worship. Are we content to simply sing songs on Sunday when God is saying, “I desire that You would act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with Me!”?

How can we as a church begin to really effect change in the millions of lives across this planet who live in utter poverty and hopelessness? How can we tangibly meet the need so that the Gospel is more than words? How can we love Christ in the least of these?

Answer that question, and begin to live that answer and I believe we will recover biblical worship that pleases the heart of God.